The Affirmed Virtual Slice Selection Function (vSSF)

A More Profitable Network, Any Way You Slice It

The Challenge
Mobile data traffic. It’s a growing challenge for mobile network operators (MNOs), and not just in terms of volume. The variety of mobile data traffic entering networks today is unprecedented: voice, video, social media, smart meters, connected cars, online gaming, etc. In that variety, MNOs also have an unprecedented opportunity to monetize data traffic in their networks—provided they create new services around those opportunities and optimize their networks to deliver those services profitably.

MNOs are competing with the over-the-top (OTT) providers to make money from the new wave of mobile data traffic. For the most part, MNOs are constrained by cumbersome networks that lack the flexibility to capitalize on this opportunity. If they want to implement network slicing in their networks today, MNOs are largely limited to allocating network resources by APN (Access Point Name). That’s like having an option of A, B, or C to handle a whole alphabet of possibilities. This approach is both time consuming and highly-inefficient, requiring configuration across multiple network elements and does not offer fine-grained control of network resources.

The Solution: Network Slicing… Now
Much of the 5G revolution is built around the idea of network slicing enabling operators to configure virtual network instances that are optimized to the specific functional requirements of a customer or application. This can be done more quickly and at lower cost than building traditional dedicated networks, which basically opens up the network to handling all kinds of use cases. But here’s the thing: MNOs don’t need to wait for 5G to monetize and optimize differentiated mobile services. They can begin doing it right now with their existing network—legacy, virtualized, multi-vendor, using Affirmed’s Virtual Slice Selection Function (vSSF). Read More...