Stay in Touch

To deliver the right data plan at the right time, users and the network need to stay in touch. Real time, interactive messages from the core network billing system keeps the user in control.

Global Coverage

As users move around, so do their data needs. Roaming assistance and the ability to change the user’s tariff whilst abroad prevents bill shock (the right experience in the right location).

A Refreshing Change

To deliver the right connectivity at the right time, users and the network need to work together. Policy driven offload provides the best experience for the user’s application, location and time of day.

Money Matters

Users and networks both want cost effective data services with no nasty surprises. Combining the desires for offload and more effective plans delivers a better user experience.

There is a recognised need to better manage and monetise data usage on mobile networks. SmartSwitch™ is an app which reduces network congestion, reduces costs for everyone and delivers a leading user experience… all within the existing network infrastructure.

smartswitch-benefits

FAQ
Use Case: Billing Awareness
Use Case: Mobile Offload
Use Case: RAN Awareness

What exactly is SmartSwitch?

SmartSwitch is an application that improves the value of mobile data for device users and mobile networks. It allows a mobile network operator to better monetize data services through segmentation of its customers, to which it can deliver more personalised and hence valuable data plans.

Through linking billing and charging with policy control and offload management, the network operator can rapidly deliver new services while the device users benefit from a simplified and personalised service.

Can you explain how it works?

SmartSwitch is a data and network manager. By managing when a network is utilised and ensuring the right network is used at the right time, large benefits can be made to battery life and network impact. This is done through:

Intelligent WiFi management
The ability to select defined WiFi access points and authenticate to them based on conditional information about the device status (such as active application, location, time of day, signal strength)
Network Signalling Reduction
The ability to limit traffic from particular applications that are causing congestion on the network. Supports complete device application blocking or scheduled access to limit signalling.
Billing Awareness and real-time interaction with the data plan
The ability to receive real-time information about data usage over the top of any activity on the device, and with that manage the data plan to receive the best service (such as buy an add on to watch HD video content for the rest of the day)

Who should be interested in SmartSwitch

SmartSwitch has been created to work with existing network infrastructure and user devices (Android & M2M).

Network Operators will get an instant capability in combining billing and charging with offload and user messaging. SmartSwitch also provides instant benefits in RAN signalling congestion by either offloading content onto other networks (such as WiFi) or limiting the application’s access to the network (preventing undesirable applications).

M2M deployments are a special case where significant benefits can be seen if the non-urgent data is aggregated. Policy to control the delivery of data from the M2M device can ensure that the load on the network from M2M devices is managed to deliver a minimum impact from signalling congestion. This would also improve battery life of the M2M device.

Policy Equipment Vendors can instantly enhance their offering to include a mobile client. The ability to send over-the-top interactive billing notifications will simplify the personalisation of a data plan. With SmartSwitch the capability to integrate simplified offload control with a need to better manage congestion becomes an instant reality.

WiFi operators can benefit from a better integration between the mobile network and the handset for the purposes of WiFi offload. With ANDSF compatible functionality, offload can be associated to location, signal power, time of day, cell congestion level and many other parameters. The user’s experience can be simplified through a number of authentication techniques.

Mobile Device Manufacturer can benefit from a tighter integration between the mobile network and the device. The device is often blamed for poor performance if data connectivity is slow. If the user is kept aware of their data plan and the network’s management of applications then this will not happen.

What is unique about SmartSwitch?

Designed for cost effective integration into the mobile network. SmartSwitch is designed to integrate with the policy control function within the mobile network. It has been designed using feedback and support from policy vendors and so continuously reflects the network operator’s needs.

The Challenge Posed by Rich Billing Options

Offering rich and personalised billing options is a great idea, but of course it requires the user to become more interactive with the billing system. Specifically, to address user awareness when a data plan may have restrictions will become important for successful user adoption and satisfaction.

Interactive billing offers the ability for users to change their plan on-the-fly as well as get more out of roaming. The benefit to network operators is the ability to up-sell data plans and keep customers satisfied.

SmartSwitch™ Complements Traffic Management

The biggest advantage of SmartSwitchTM is in providing the ability to launch policy driven data plans with full and complete transparency to the user. This keeps users aware and will also manage Bill Shock.

If an application or traffic type is not allowed within a data plan, SmartSwitchTM can put a notification up to the user on attempt to use the application. The message can inform the user that this is limited within their plan but also provide a redirection to a data plan management portal. This makes it easy for users to manage their data plans, and has significant benefit in supporting roaming. SmartSwitch™ detects a roaming condition and can interact with the traffic management system in the core to guide the user into a roaming data plan of their choice.

Simultaneous Benefits to all Stakeholders

SmartSwitch™ simultaneously provides benefits to multiple stakeholders. Using on-device policy benefits the device user through battery and cost management as well as providing traffic management transparency. The network sees the benefit of improved congestion management in the RAN as there is no access attempted to services that are not going to be permitted through the core network.

SmartSwitch™ offers a competitive advantage to the policy equipment vendors who integrate with the solution as only these systems can deliver simultaneous congestion reduction in the RAN and a complete customer awareness of the data plan.

SmartSwitch™ is leading the way in pushing policy off the edge and into the device.

M2M Benefits

SmartSwitchTM offers a truly unique benefit in billing management for M2M. Using policy to direct non-essential data to off-peak times or alternative networks introduces a concept for the most competitive data plans which are also higher value (revenue per MB) to the network operator.

smartswitch-example-billing

The Challenge of Offload

A number of mobile network stakeholders have an interest in offload; the network operator may want to ease the load on a congested cell whereas a device user may want to save cost and battery life. The problem is that current solutions prove very difficult to combine the needs of all stakeholders into satisfactory and expected behaviour. One example might be that a mobile network operator has commercial WiFi operators with signal at a customer’s home. A customer may be unhappy to see the operator automatically connect that customer’s Smartphone to their commercial partner, disconnecting it from their own home ADSL-backed WiFi connection, both for cost and QoS reasons.

SmartSwitch™ offers simple intelligent offload

SmartSwitch™ is an on-device traffic management solution that uses a local policy engine to define its offload behaviour. Specifically, the policies allow offload to be associated with conditions of the mobile device such as: “Current Application”, “Device Location”, “Time of Day” and “Signal Strength”. With this, SmartSwitch™ offers intelligent offload that responds to policy defined requirements delivered from the core that take into account particular user requirements too.

Policies for offload can be included in those delivered from the core network and delivered by a real-time push mechanism. If the push servers are reachable from any network (such as Google’s C2DM service) the device becomes reachable even when outside of the mobile network. This gives the operator the ability to push policies to the device all the time, bringing a temporarily offloaded device back into the cellular network.

The offload configuration can now be brought into the billing / self-care portals so that the user experience and operator desires (from billing or congestion) become integrated. When selecting a data plan, a user can select their preferences for offload.

SmartSwitch™ is designed from the ground up to ensure an excellent user experience. Solutions such as ANDSF are well placed to push offload policies to the device and may be adopted by some networks. The SmartSwitch™ solution is designed to cover the needs of ANDSF, but gives the network operator even more flexibility in deciding how ANDSF integrates with the user experience and a wider range of device conditions.

An Example

Considering application specific data plans: If a device user selects a data plan that limits YouTube traffic, SmartSwitch™ can be sent a policy to enable WiFi connectivity on the launch of YouTube. SmartSwitch™ user messaging can keep the user informed of what is happening, offering the potential to remind users that access is limited on the cellular connection and that WiFi is enabled and available. The device can return to the mobile network when the YouTube application stops or the WiFi signal drops – this is defined in the policy (and an example of a more flexible addition to ANDSF capability).

There are a number of solutions for WiFi authentication, SmartSwitch™ works to complement these. SmartSwitch™ is mainly concerned with providing a gentle touch; enabling a disabled WiFi state to provide a better user experience by using information from the core (such as cell congestion or information that a particular application is not included within the subscriber’s data plan).

M2M Benefits

SmartSwitch™ offers a truly unique benefit through the on-device policy system, in supporting offload of consumer M2M devices onto customer’s home WiFi networks. This is particularly beneficial in helping configure M2M devices (such as health monitors) during installation. SmartSwitch™ supports pushing policies from a user portal or device management system, where a simple online guide instructs a home user to enter their WiFi details (WEP or WPA), which can then be pushed to the device and enable location dependant offload on home networks.

smartswitch-example-offload

The Challenge with Core Policies

Policy management equipment has many roles; one of them is in the reduction of data traffic congestion within the core network. This is a positive effect but does not help alleviate congestion problems in the RAN. It is wasteful on RAN signalling and data to allow a mobile device to create a data connection which will then be shaped in the core. Awareness of RAN congestion and the ability to set policies that can reduce it will offer significant advantages in dealing with data growth.

The SmartSwitch™ Solution

A mobile device has one of the best insights into both the RAN and the device conditions and Roke have turned this into a traffic management benefit. SmartSwitch™ responds to the need to create true end-to-end congestion reduction by implementing a policy engine directly on the device. Pushing supporting policies to a mobile device that complement the core policies provide a safe but effective way of reducing unnecessary RAN congestion. Mobile data that will be shaped in the core can be suppressed directly at the mobile device while keeping the user informed of the traffic management policy in place, and offer the ability to dynamically adjust their plan in real time.

With SmartSwitch™ in place it is possible to update policies at any time and push updates to the mobile device. This could be in response to a device user changing a data plan.

Smartphone App Example

A specific example relates to the management of application specific content. If a data plan limits a particular data type through the core, SmartSwitch™ can augment the policy to prevent the application ever generating data. This is particularly useful in the case where applications may successfully gain access to advertisement content or authentication servers, costing in RAN usage, user data charges and device battery, only to find the core service limit onward content access. With SmartSwitch™, as soon as the application is launched, all content from the application can be blocked on the device and the user advised why via a user friendly advisory. The user advisory mechanism also provides an opportunity to upsell access for that particular application.

M2M Example

In the case of M2M deployment, large numbers of devices could be deployed in a localised region. The SmartSwitch™ introduction of policy on the device allows the policy management system to become involved in load balancing the RAN. Rather than allow a large number of M2M devices to contact the network at the same time (midnight for instance), policies can be pushed to individual devices to advise them of the specific off-peak period for that device. This, in conjunction with SmartSwitch™ application programming interfaces to assist applications in specifying whether data is real-time or non-real-time introduces a unique benefit. The network can, for the first time, stagger the RAN load while offering the customer the advantage of off-peak tariffs – a true win-win scenario.