Affirmed Virtual Probe

The Challenge

If the future of mobile network operators (MNOs) could be summed up in one word, it would be this: More. More traffic. More devices. More competition. To meet the demands of more, MNOs need less complexity and cost in their networks, fueling the migration to network virtualization. As the mobile industry moves to network functions virtualization (NFV) and a virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC), traditional network measurement and monitoring tools are left behind. Virtualized elements are dynamic in nature and require network probes that can be added, moved and deleted in an equally dynamic fashion, creating the need for a virtual probe.

The Native Solution: Affirmed Active Intelligent vProbe

Affirmed vProbe is the industry’s first native virtual probe, co-located with the Affirmed’s Mobile Content Cloud vEPC and WiFi Solutions rather than delivered as a separate network appliance. With the vProbe, MNOs can dramatically reduce hardware costs, network complexity and the performance issues typically associated with probe solutions while providing real-time network intelligence.

» Network Efficiency
Co-locating the vProbe with the vEPC and WiFi solutions reduces network hardware requirements and eliminates the need to duplicate network functions such as
user/control plane packet correlation and deep packet inspection (DPI). As a result, performance impacts on the network are minimized and total cost of ownership is
lowered by 50% or more.

» Intelligent Visibility
vProbe puts “intelligence first” by creating Intelligent Event Data Records (iEDRs) in real time from flow and transactional data. The iEDRs provide 100% network and subscriber visibility in correlated data record sets. Operators can use these data records to identify target areas in the network that require packet mirroring for a deeper analysis. This means that only a subset of traffic data needs to be mirrored—a significant upgrade from the “mirror first, ask questions later” approach that other probe solutions take and which can add sizable cost and complexity to the network. Read more...