1. Future platform technologies and architectures
ITU Workshop on “Service Delivery Platforms (SDP) for Telecommunication Ecosystems: from today’s realities to requirements and challenges of the future” (Geneva, Switzerland, 17 October 2011 )
Future platform technologies and architectures
Roberto Minerva,
Manager of IC Scenarios
Telecom Italia – Future Centre

2. Agenda A New Context for Telecomms The Rising Importance of Data
Many paradoxes …
The Rising Importance of Data
IoT and Data
Personal Data = Data + Identity
Deriving some requirements for Operators’ Platforms
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

3. A New Context for Telecomms
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

4. Towards 2020: the future of networks
Fiber reaches a large part of homes and enterprises, it guarantees:
Unlimited bandwidth
Low cost per bit
Everywhere connectivity
flat rate also for mobile
User is ABC (Always Best Connected)
Transparent Connectivity (user always connected at the lower prices and best bandwidth)
Strong Integration (at the terminal level) between mobile and fixed networks
Cognitive Radio (terminals adapt to the available networks)
Rapid change of Providers
Dynamic Business Models
Users connected to smaller, more efficient and cheaper cell
Importance of Data
Seamless access to personal data
Capability to dynamically create, aggregate and update personal data
New data type and data sets
Integration between real and virtual related data
User controlled access to data
Services strongly related to users and their social relationships
Identity Management and their association to Biometric techniques
Different roles and identities per user
Diminishing role of SIMs
Fundamental Role of Terminals
Abundance of Storage (1TB in the terminal, toward infinite in the network?)
High processing Capabilities in the terminals (context controlled locally by the terminal)
Capability to interoperate will be embedded in terminals and will be downloadable OTA
Software embedded in the terminal makes the device more a personal service platform than a product. They will be personalized according to the specific user needs
Pervasive Communication
Ubiquitous connectivity
Broad classes of communicating objects (smart object, beacons, smart materials, sensors, micromachinery, ...)
Explosion of Augmented Reality and Internet of Things applications
Connectivity is a commodity
Terminals are flexible and personal service platforms
Data center larger and larger
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre 4

5. Difference on Services
WebCos work on DATA
Telecoms work on BITS
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

6. Two Operators Problems€
New Services
New Revenue Streams
SMART OPERATOR
Revenue
Cut Costs
Optimize
LEAN OPERATOR
Bit Pipe t
2015
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

7. a Network Operating System
Two approaches
Lean Operator
Smart Operator
Networks will become highly dynamic Complex Systems made out of many heterogeneous networks, systems and intelligent endpoints
Complexity will result in:
Costly infrastructure difficult to install, manage and integrate
Lack of optimization of usage of resources
Lack of knowledge of the “network" as a whole and how it is globally and locally behaving in supporting customers requests
Decoupling Services from the Network
Global reach independent of the access network;
mashup of local and global resources (Net of Nets)
Provide Global Services
the long tail is much bigger
because the marginal costs of a global solution are smaller (Skype: the costs for building a global software are marginal)
0-Touch Networks
De-perimeterization of
Services 
a Network Operating System
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

8. New Classes of Services
Internet of Things
Extended Reality
Social Media
e-Government
Data … (what’ s this?)
Always Best Connected (ABC)
Evolution of VPNs
Smart
Operator
Lean
Operator
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

9. Building a Data Path for Operators
Exploit data related opportunities
Move from Bits to Management of Information
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

10. The network itself is a source of Information

11. Mining the Operators Gold Mines
Personal Data allow for Profiling the User
CDR data
Location Related info
Usage of Internet Connectivity
IPTV usage
...
Statistical Data (related to more than one user)
Usage of Network Resources
Location Information and mobs movement
Technologies
Data Mining
Reasoning
Derive Data from Uncertainty
Neutralization

12. Internet of Things
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

13. Objects, Terminals, Networks as Personal Info Producers
Intelligent Terminals
Smart Objects
NFC,
Wifi,
UWB,
BT, …
3G, 4G,
other public nets, …
Servers
Servers
Servers
Servers
Servers
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

14. How Many Nodes, How Many Messages, How Much Bandwidth ?
Issue: low average traffic, but highly impulsive traffic
(e.g., SPIKES: all objects wake up at 3 a.m. and send high priority messages)
Likely the communications between nodes will be framed into B2B2C relationships
Many objects/nodes will come with communications already paid for (I.e., embedded communications)
Millions GB/Year
Message / Day
10 M Aggregators
Message size: 10 kB 3 10
100
600
1000
1440
Operators should try to be Aggregators by providing real-time messaging engines (e.g., based on PubSub), by creating communities, and by supporting the deployment of the infrastructure (at home and in the public domain)
Equivalent Volume as the one generated by 20 M users (3 min phone call per day) 14

15. Where is the Value then ? Relationships Inference Aggregation
Knowledge
Information
Data
Relationships
Inference
Aggregation
Personalization
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

16. Some Issues with networked data
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

17. A First Issue: proper Management of Personal Data
Excerpt form: “Personal Data - The Emergence of a New Asset Class” (WEF)
Source: Bain & Company
A “user-centric personal data eco-system” (WEForum)
Volunteered data: created and explicitly shared by individuals
Observed data: captured by recording the actions of individuals
Inferred data: based on analysis of volunteered or observed information;
Personal Data should be properly managed
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre 17

18. But what is the Value of Personal Data?
The value of the single datum depends on the usage context:
The kind of collected datum: V(CreditCard) > V(SocialSecurityNumber)
Time reference: V(CreditCard, today)>> V(CreditCard, 4years ago)
The value of the Person in the usage context:
Importance of the person V(CreditCard, SB) >> V(CreditCard, RM)
The linkage of the datum
The connection of the datum and the person:
How many data can be connected to the datum (es.: FoaF)
Is the datum owner well connected (a Hub kind of person) V(a) > V(b)
How much data (derived from
Metcalfe’s Law: n(n-1)/2
Reed’s Law: 2n – n-1
Briscoe, Odlyzko, and Tilly Law: n log (n)
Beckstrom Law: V = ΣB – ΣC

19. Identity of Things Things can collect user related actions and data
Each Resource is addressable
Each resource is CONNECTED
Connectivity must be guaranteed in a variety of environments
Secure Links have to be guaranteed
Each Resource can be associated to a User (Identity)
Who owns these relations :UserId - Location - ResourceId - data used/generated ?
Things can collect user related actions and data
Each Thing can be used for tracking Users
Owners of Things can collect a lot of data

20. Dealing with Data: Data Anonimization, Contracts and Contextualization
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

21. Nodes will connect each other in unpredictable ways
Many Objects scattered in the env (with local communication)
Some Aggregators gathering and dispatching information
Networks to cross
Aggregation 2 1 2
Aggregation 1
Increasing richness and complexity at the edge of (Operators’) networks
Aggregation 3 3
Node Aggregation at time t1
Network 1 3
Aggregation 2
Aggregation 1 2
Node Aggregation at time t2

22. A Second Issue: Complexity is moving to the edge
Functionalities and data generation/consumption and storage in the edge
Networks will comprise smart objects and processing, storage, communication resources
Data and Info will be the user target and not mere connectivity
Complexity coalesces at the edges (more nodes and more capabilities)
While big networks are flattening and becoming simpler (less nodes)
Local aggregation vs. average coverage
Aggregation of intelligent points will be mainly unpredictable and even if high average connectivity capabilities will be provided, such a dynamic concentration will challenge the networks capabilities
Competition for scarce resources for a limited period of time
Terminals will have a key role
Terminals as an integral part of the communication environment
Mobility will be assumed for the majority of terminals
Need to control new complex systems without human intervention
The Operator's network needs to support and help in this new context
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

23. Dealing with Complexity at the edge: Self-Organization of Networks
Management of complex and dynamic “Network s of Networks” will be critical
No human intervention possible
Competition on resources
Require
Self-organization
Game theory techniques for highly distributed systems
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

24. A Tussle: Future Internet and Identity
There is a need for an Identity Layer in the Future Internet
For identify people
For identify things
To relate things, people and places
For freeing people from Identity Providers
People have the right to exist independently from a provider
People are the owners of their identity (and names), homonymies should be managed in a far way (way just one Mario Rossi when there are plenty …)
Open framework
Many options, and, in certain circumstances, support for Certification by a provider (a bank), the government, others
Need for a lot of standardization and discussion
Need to safeguard and protect the ownership of data
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

25. A Bit of Technology
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

26. Current Paradigms are not future proof
Control Layer
Network Intelligence (e.g., IMS) is a hierarchical model based on the assumption that control has to be exerted by a few specialized control nodes
Resources
Physical Layer
Client – Server model totally disregards the network aspects and can easily lead to a tragedy of commons (misuse of common networking resources)
Server
Client
network
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

27. Ossification of Internet and Perspective for the Future Internet
Security. Currently it is tackled as an issue at the edge, while the network(s) could contribute to relieve some issues (e.g., DDOS)
Mobility, the current Internet has not been designed for an optimal management of mobility, the Future Internet has to deal with a multitude of highly mobile objects (mobility built in)
Network Identity, Users are not recognized and managed in the network, they are managed only at the edges (specific servers or applications)
Integration of Applications and Transport/Control Layers. Currently there are not consolidated interfaces that allow for a better cooperation between the Network and the Apps. Many applications do not use resources properly (e.g., p2p applications do retrieve data from far away hosts)
Edges are becoming themselves Networks. There is the need to understand and manage the dynamics around Networks of Networks: i.e., complex systems that impulsively request resources and use them while these resources have been designed to support statistically determined needs
Focus on data and info and not on transport of bits

28. Enabling technologies
autonomic capabilities and bio-inspired algorithms (e.g., gossiping, self-organization algorithms), to deal with complexity;
(self-organized) P2P overlays for clustering components, to guarantee scalability, reliability, and abstraction from underlying network;
resources virtualization, based on abstraction for coping with heterogeneity and on the definition of dynamic slices for multiple allocations;
programmable “intelligent” mechanisms, e.g., based on auctions, game theory, etc., for optimized resource allocation and use;
cognitive cross layering, to allow the network to perceive conditions, decide and act autonomically to reach local/global/end-to-end goals in an optimal way, in cooperation with autonomic and self-organizing behavior of resources;
grid Computing to better integrate different resources (computing storage and network and to integrate new ones (sensors., actuators, micromachinery, ...)
Information centric networking to better collect and use the needed wanted data information
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

29. New Control Patterns: Publish – Subscribe Model
New Control Patterns that exceed the client-server and the “network intelligence” models
Transaction oriented processing
PubSub
Google code: PubSUb Hubbub
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre 29

30. Information Centric Networking
4ward project: in this paradigm, the communication abstraction presented to applications is based on transfer of application data objects instead of the end-to-end reliable byte-stream used by the majority of applications today.
Content Centric Networking A Self-Organizing Network That Meets Information Needs
What Is It? A new approach to networking that enables networks to self-organize and push relevant content where needed. Content-centric networking enables communication to happen anywhere, anytime, and with any device - using any available means.
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

31. What Role and Architecture for Operators ?
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

32. Resources Pooling from several Ownership Domains
A New Layering
TELECOM ITALIA
Intelligence:
Customer & Context Awareness
Service Platforms
Overlay Networks
Autonomic Behavior
Resources Virtualization
Infrastructure:
Fibre everywhere
Wireless Drop termination
MultiTera in the Core
Gbps in wired access, 10Mbps wireless
Flat Architecture, IPv6 on the core optical layer
Resources Pooling from several Ownership Domains
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

33. Operator’s Strategies
TELECOM ITALIA
Service Provider
Service Enabler
BIT Carrier
The Network Architecture is influenced by the Operator’s Strategy

34. Choose Your Role and Your Network
Bit Carrier
Transport the data
in the better way for the customer
Helping Customer in retrieving INFORMATION
Ease the work of finding data and information, linking them into something meaningful and manage them
Be good to transport lots of bits
Platform Provider
Build a Data oriented Platform (new networking + data handling) for others to use
Service Provider
Transform Data into Information and create plenty of services by means of meaningful interfaces
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

35. Generalized Control Plane
A Bit Carrier Network
TELECOM ITALIA
Fiber
Metro DWDM
Core DWDM
Subscriber
Mngmt
AAA
Access
Aggregation
Core
Business
Residential
Switch
Edge
IP Carrier IX
Content
Provider
eNB
Addressing
Mobility
Identity
Monitoring
QoS / Policy
Billing
Functions
Layer 2 Carrier Transport
Layer 3 / IP
Generalized Control Plane
Focus on TRANSPORT
Few basic SERVICES
Control Platf. BASIC
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

36. Service Enabler’s Network (a Network Operating System)
TELECOM ITALIA
Platform APIs
High Value Funct. by the NETWORK
Information Centric NETWORK
Beyond the CLIENT-SERVER model
Customised levels of API
Control functions in the NETWORK
New Communic. Models PUB-SUBSCRIBE
Integration with other NETWORKS and TERMINALS
Abstraction
System APIs
Virtualized Resource Control Plane (Network OS)
AAA
Addressing
Storage
...
MOBILITY
...
processing
Meta dati
Negotiation/Bid
Allocation/ Integration
Existing functions
New functions
Layer 3 / IP
Data Center IT/BSS/OSS
Legacy
Fast Switching Core
Information-centric Edge
New Networking Models beyond IP towards Information Centric Networking
External
Clouds
eNB
Switch
IP Carrier IX
Content
Provider
Layer 2 Carrier Transport
Fiber
Metro DWDM
Core DWDM
Subscriber
Access
Aggregation
Edge
Core
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

37. How The Network Could Look Like
Fixed (Fiber)
Wireless
ACCESS
IP Platform
Optical Platform
Aggregation
Edge
Core
Customer
owned:
Networks/
NASes /
Routers / …
Data Centers/
Servers /
IT Resources /
Complex Devices/Networks
Owned and
Shared:
Terminals/
PCs/gateways/
sensors/
Wifi /
General Control and Management (Zero Touch)
Overlays of autonomic virtualized components and Data
Virtualization Layer
Simple Devices/Networks
Telecom Services
Ecosystem of Services
Third Party Servics
Future Learning
Retail Evolution
Enterprise
Processes
Virtual
Env.ss
Future of
Energy
Provider
Service
Enabler
Bit Carrier
Other
Resources
(not shared)
Plarforms
EcoSystems
Shared and virtualized device/reource
Other resources
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre 37

38. My 2 ¢ suggestions What T.I. is doing What should be done
Working on alternative models for dealing with personal data
Working on a Network OS with open APIs
Working on zero-touch networks (e.g., AFI)
Working on ICN (European projects)
Working on a new view of Identity
Future Internet will be dominated by Tussles: looking at networks and architecture with more user flavor (involving more user associations ?)
Propose an open framework for Identity and related issues (profiling, data ownership,…)
Push for a shift from bits to data and ICN
A Great Initiative for User Controlled Network of Networks and Data ?
R. Minerva, Telecom Italia / Future Centre

39. Thank you! Roberto Minerva TORINO - Italy Phone: +39 011 228 7027
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