Joan Raventós, CEO of Zhilabs (Left), and Claudia Park, Vice President and Head of Marketing Group, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics

With many countries prompted to mandate lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders, the concept of ‘business as usual’ has changed and we have adapted to a new norm. This has required employees to work from home and students to take classes online for their safety, transforming daily lives into something we have never experienced before. With consumers across all segments spending more time at home, a reliable network has become increasingly important, serving a critical function in assisting those working remotely, communicating with families and friends or obtaining health-related information online.

We will explore how network traffic patterns in some countries have changed since social distancing and stay-at-home orders were implemented, and how communication service providers (CSPs) can respond.

So, what changes did the lockdown bring to our communication networks?

Traffic Changes¹

Samsung and Zhilabs, a Samsung subsidiary specializing in networks analytics, analyzed data traffic changes using CustomAIr, Zhilabs’ network management solution. The results identified several variations in network data traffic before and after the lockdown in some countries.

Our network sampling revealed that data traffic on both fixed broadband networks and mobile networks increased by 48% and 24% respectively since the lockdown.

Using Zhilabs CustomAIr solution, we also took a closer look into consumer app usage. The traffic of virtual business meeting apps increased by 218%, likely due to work-at-home policies at many companies. Also, with students, the traffic of online class apps rose by 437%. These figures are average numbers taken from the apps monitored. Based on our monitoring tool, certain apps even showed a sharp upsurge in data traffic up to 1,917%, which is an extreme amount of growth in this segment.

Shelter-in-place orders have also caused a significant impact on how we spend time daily. More people accessed online networks in order to stay connected with others and to socialize while staying home. This has led to a traffic increase of 38% in social networking apps and 60% in video call apps.

Moreover, restrictions on outdoor activities have resulted in increased demand for leisure activities that can be enjoyed in the comfort of the living room. The traffic for video streaming apps has increased by 32%, and some gaming apps have recorded an explosive growth of up to 2,065%.

Online supermarket apps for grocery purchases and other necessities have experienced a 35% traffic increase, while healthcare apps that allow users to make doctor’s appointments and to get various medical and pharmaceutical information have also experienced a growth of 234%.

Since the onset of ‘the new normal’, we have been faced with an entirely different network consumption pattern. A large increase in network demand has led to a rise in traffic while users still expect the same network quality as before.

Samsung’s Recommendations for Service Providers

At a time when connectivity has become a lifeline for many, maintaining a reliable network is crucial. As shown in the analysis, the upsurge in data traffic may be a burden on the existing network, since it is difficult to foresee sudden changes and immediately address the increased demands. One of the best ways for CSPs to respond is to analyze data traffic patterns and make improvements in specific areas of the network as necessary. Solutions that generate real-time, end-to-end visibility of their network services at the subscriber level can enable more dynamic service level adjustments and enhance user experience. With these kinds of approaches, CSPs can accurately assess subscribers’ data usage patterns and identify the specific areas where optimization or capacity reinforcement is required.

It is difficult to predict how long current uncertainties will last, but one thing is clear—maintaining connectivity is vital for society. CSPs should have the ability to accurately monitor data traffic usage and manage their networks accordingly.

¹ According to European and Southeast Asian web traffic numbers taken from the same period (Mar 8 ~ Apr 6) in 2019 and 2020 respectively

The new partnership brings together two best-in-class solutions, merging Samsung’s carrier network and HPE’s IT telecommunications expertise. Together, the solutions will help carriers accelerate their transformation from networks built on monolithic, proprietary appliances to more agile cloud-based networks enabled by NFV.

“Samsung is confident in maintaining its stance as a pioneer in delivering advanced technologies required to lead the next generation market, like open ecosystem based NFV,” said Woojune Kim, Vice President and Head of Strategy Group in Next Generation communication Team at Samsung Electronics. “We see profound potential in HPE OpenNFV Partner Program to ensure a variety of choices for carriers in selecting NFV providers, along with the commercially-proven NFV solution we developed in 2015.”

In making this announcement, Samsung joins the HPE OpenNFV Partnership Program as a carrier-grade network equipment provider. The Program is a broad ecosystem of NFV technology, application and service partners that have tested on ETSI-compliant HPE OpenNFV infrastructure. This approach to NFV is built around adherence to openness and standards, allowing other telco ecosystem partners to introduce new innovations on top of the HPE OpenNFV platform.

“HPE and Samsung have already collaborated successfully behind the scenes on NFV projects that are transforming communications service providers and their legacy networks to agile telco cloud environments ready to satisfy the ever increasing demands of their customers while reducing cost,” said Werner Schaefer, vice president & general manager, NFV, HPE. “By formalizing our partnership with Samsung, we further expand our work we’re doing to bring NFV benefits to the CSP ecosystem.”

With the partnership, Samsung will take the lead in providing carrier-grade VNFs for mobile networks, such as virtualized EPC (vMME, vGW), virtualized IMS (vCSCF, vTAS, vPTT-AS, etc.), including VNF manager. HPE will allow carriers to bridge from their current infrastructure to NFV by providing the HPE OpenNFV platform and NFV management and orchestration (MANO) solutions.

The partnership also includes a joint go-to-market strategy with ready-to-install third party solutions. CSPs can choose from various third party offerings, verified by the HPE OpenNFV Partner Program, such as virtual private-LTE network service, vCPE and SD-WAN.

Samsung and HPE will also provide CSPs with NFV systems integration services to help ensure new technologies are implemented fast, cost-effectively and reliably.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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