Cyber crime is a growing threat. In the UK alone, according to Government estimates, the total cost of Cyber Crime to the economy could be as much as £26.9bn a year – equivalent to nearly 2% of GDP.

While many sectors are threatened by cyber crime, telecoms networks are thought to be particularly vulnerable, facing a wide range of risks. Globally, the problem continues to grow: according to data cited by Basset Telecom, the ITU estimates that as much as 6% of total operator turnover is lost each year. That’s a significant number – perhaps as much as $50 billion a year just in the telecoms industry.

That’s why operators need to deploy solutions to combat cyber crime and fraud. They need to be able to manage their networks and identify fraudulent behaviour, denial of service attacks and so on, and take action before they have an impact.

Operators recognise that Deep Packet Inspection technologies have a clear role to play in this arena, helping identify legitimate and suspicious traffic alike. Once identified, action can be taken to analyse and then isolate suspect traffic, before problems result.

The trouble is that with traffic volumes increasing, operators need to be able to deploy solutions that can not only cope with the different traffic streams but can do so at speeds of 10Gb/s, 40Gb/s or even 100Gb/s. They need to be able to intelligently manage traffic, creating optimised performance for legitimate users, but ensuring that malicious traffic is eliminated.

Software-only implementations of DPI and packet processing solutions cannot keep pace with this data explosion. We offer a hybrid approach that combines intelligent, high-speed packet processing cards with on-board filtering to ensure that no information is lost.

Our ultra reliable packet processing solutions deliver zero-packet loss and can connect to today’s high-speed networks with transmission rates from 10 to 100Gb/s. With Telesoft Technologies, operators can deploy solutions that combat cyber crime and fraud with:

• Zero packet loss
• Hybrid hardware/software approach
• Pre-filtering and processing
• 10, 40 and 100Gb/s on scalable network interface cards
• Reduce host CPU load and build systems that scale

Our solutions help OEMs, Operators and Government Agencies protect against Cyber Crime and reduce potential losses, yielding dramatic return on investment.

Our proven technology is trusted by hundreds of network operators, OEMs and Government Agencies around the world. Our packet processing solutions can help combat cyber crime.

Why not find out how we can help? Visit our website or call us on +44 1258 480880

As operators seek to optimise their networks to ensure delivery of the best user experience, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Deep Packet Inspection has a vital role to play. A recent survey has identified a number of use cases driving deployment of Deep Packet solutions and found that the most pressing cases are:

1. Traffic monitoring
2. The implementation of data plan caps, and
3. QoS enforcement.

This isn’t surprising. To achieve the best network performance, operators need to be constantly vigilant. They need to monitor their networks in real-time to ensure that adverse conditions are identified and avoided before they cause significant disruption. This means that they have to inspect all traffic flows simultaneously in order to capture all information and take appropriate action. All packets in the network need to be visible to management and optimisation solutions. This demands advanced technology capable of inspecting packets at NGN speeds.

What’s more, as more and more operators shift aware from “all you can eat” data plans towards tiered or per session billing, they must monitor data consumption to ensure fair usage for all and that the correct charges are applied.

Both goals assist with the delivery of optimal QoS for users. The aversion of network problems and issues helps maintain overall QoS levels and ensure acceptable network performance; ensuring fair usage means that users obtain the data plan for which they have paid and that data “hogs” don’t consume a disproportionate amount of the available bandwidth.

This means that operators need a new generation of high-performance Deep Packet Inspection technology, capable of operating at bandwidths of 40Gb/s or even 100Gb/s. They need solutions that can ease the burden of packet inspection and intelligently identify potential issues so that action can be taken.

Software-based solutions aren’t sufficient for this task. The next generation of Deep Packet equipment needs a combination of specialised hardware acceleration technology allied with intelligent filtering to ensure that the host application can keep pace with traffic flows.

As operators consider the deployment of Deep Packet solutions to meet the next set of challenges, they should think about an architecture that will scale to meet evolving network demands – and a growing range of policy applications and user-optimised offers.

Telesoft Technologies offers a range of high-performance solutions for the next generation of Deep Packet equipment. Why not find out how we can help? Visit our website or call us on +44 1258 480880

With the unprecedented growth in smartphone penetration unleashing massive data demand, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that there is a similar surge in network signaling traffic.

Network signaling is required to support session management, authentication, charging, billing, roaming, network registration and so on – all activities necessary for the smooth delivery, activation and consumption of data services. Such signaling messages are vital to enabling users to access data services over wireless networks.

But the rapid growth in both the numbers of data subscribers and the amount of data they consume has also generated parallel growth in the essential transmission of signaling data to support these data services. Operators have to contend not only with vast growth in data traffic per se, but also with the associated rise of signaling data that enables service delivery. Indeed, it’s been reported that growth in signaling traffic is actually exceeding that of user data.

Network operators are deploying policy management solutions to co-ordinate service access and consumption by customers, but these solutions have to cope with an unprecedented increase in both user and signaling data. This trend is set to accelerate as more and more users adopt smartphone and pad devices, and with the deployment of LTE networks.

This means that operators need to be able to process significant and growing volumes of both user and signaling data in real time in order to deliver the desired levels of service and user quality of experience. They need to be able to manage signaling updates and ensure that service performance is maintained. What’s more, while much of this data will be transported using GTP, inter-node data within the network for administration purposes is likely to be transported using Diameter signaling, adding a further layer of complexity.

Network operators have to consider how to meet this challenge. Software-based solutions have been adopted for a number of years, but it’s becoming increasingly apparent that they cannot scale sufficiently to cope with the demands of 10, 40 or 100Gb/s networks. An alternative approach that combines both hardware and software enables packet processing and filtering to take place in real-time with zero packet loss, allowing policy management systems to cope with the data traffic boom.

Such a solution can scale more effectively to cope with the anticipated future growth of signaling and user traffic. Telesoft Technologies offers the industry’s leading solution for high-speed, real-time packet processing with zero packet loss and extremely low latency. By delegating processing and filtering of signaling and user traffic data to specialized hardware, operators can deploy more scalable solutions that can meet current and future needs.

The signaling storm has started, but while the focus has been on user data traffic, this topic has been somewhat overlooked. It’s time to consider how to cope with the flood of data associated with session control and authentication. The storm is only just gathering pace.

Revenue loss is a serious issue in the mobile network business. According to recent research, if losses continue to grow at their current rate and nothing is done to prevent them, the total will exceed new revenue generated by customer acquisitions and new VAS offers.

That’s a scary thought: new network and service investment, considered vital to future operator growth and success will be wiped out by losses due to fraud. Fraud is a pressing problem.

Of course, fraud comes in many forms – and the losses that result can be recoverable in some cases and not in others. Mobile operators need to take steps to limit fraud and reduce losses incurred. To do this requires the deployment of robust cyber-security solutions. Such solutions must include sophisticated equipment to monitor network activity and capture data that can be analysed to determine fraudulent or criminal activities.

But with the rapid growth in network traffic – signaling and data – this task is proving increasingly difficult. The current generation of software-based solutions are inadequate to the task of capturing the volume of data that passes through the network and needs to be inspected in order to detect and limit fraudulent activities. What’s needed is specialised hardware solutions that are capable of processing the high volume of packets that traverse the network, filtering them in real-time so that effective action can be taken.

A clear ROI can be offered by such solutions, based on forecast losses to network operators. Investment in preventative and proactive solutions now will lead to significant reductions revenue loss, more than justifying the investment.

Telesoft Technologies has years of experience in helping operators and OEMs develop and deploy fraud management solutions. Our high-speed packet processing hardware provides reliable, secure and scalable solutions to perform the packet analysis essential to detecting and reducing fraudulent activities. Why not talk to us to see how we can help protect your network?

There have been many advances in CPU performance in the last few years, following the inexorable progress of Moore’s Law, with the result that many applications that used to require specialist hardware can now be performed in software. But what’s possible isn’t necessarily correct. There are cases in which it makes sense to adopt a hybrid approach to application performance, leveraging the best of software and hardware to ensure delivery of optimum performance.

One example of this is packet processing for applications that must determine the integrity of packets that are traversing the network. Such applications require that every packet must be inspected, resulting in a deluge of packets for processing. Here, rather than flooding the CPU with a huge volume of data, it is preferable to perform pre-processing and filtering on hardware before routing appropriate packets to the CPU for inspection.

If instead of simply pumping data to a CPU at what might be highly variable rates, the hardware can be used to intelligently filter packets, more efficient and scalable solutions can be built and deployed. Specialized packet interface and processing cards can perform Layer 2, 3 and 4 filtering and classification; ensure load-balancing of flows to multiple processing engines to avoid system overload and to accommodate peaks and troughs of traffic; and perform pre-filtering on other layers within IP packets.

This hybrid approach leverages the best of both worlds to reduce costs and increase system performance and scale. On its own, software can achieve much, but there will continue to be a case for supplementing software capabilities with specialized hardware that can support the complex applications required to protect today’s networks. Why not find out how Telesoft’s hardware expertise can boost the performance of your packet processing solutions?

Learn more about our high-performance packet processing solutions or get in touch with our experts to see how we can help? Or, come and see us at booth 4354 at CTIA Wireless!

Packet loss is a common problem of data transmission in IP networks. Sometimes, packets of data fail to reach the required destination. Whatever the cause – and there are many – if packets don’t arrive at their destination, then problems can result. For some applications, this doesn’t matter too much, provided the rate of packet loss doesn’t exceed a certain threshold. But other, more critical applications, depend on the receipt of all transmitted packets in order to function correctly.

 This doesn’t just apply to end-to-end applications, such as conversational voice or video conferencing, but can also affect those applications that are designed to monitor the performance of the network. The impact of packet loss on such systems is also variable. For example, solutions that are deployed to gather network analytic data may not need to gather all packets that are transmitted. It can be sufficient to sample packets and to extrapolate from averages or samples in terms of packet use and demand.

 However, applications that are designed to protect the network from invasive attack must be able to reliably collect all packets transmitted in order not to miss those that might reveal signs of attack or performance degradation. Worse, some forms of network incursion may effect a rapid escalation of packet loss, so the early signs of such attacks need to be caught before real harm results.

 That’s why its essential to ensure that the solutions that protect our networks from harm are able to effectively capture all packets, with zero loss – and to ensure the resulting data can be screened by the intelligent applications that are designed to ensure optimal and secure network performance.

 It’s possible to develop such solutions using off-the-shelf network interface cards and high-performance CPU hosts. But as network transmission rates increase from 1Gb/s to 10Gb/s and beyond, it’s difficult for such solutions to deliver the performance guarantees required to ensure network protection. The cost of deploying such systems also escalates dramatically, both in terms of CAPEX and OPEX through power consumption and real-estate demands. And, such investments may be at risk through performance degradation.

 What’s needed are specialized solutions that enable network security applications to collect all required packets in real-time and at wire-speed without placing additional demands on CPU performance. By sharing the filtering and processing demands between specialized line interface cards and the CPU, overall system CAPEX can be reduced. Moreover, such solutions can also be deployed in small-footprint chassis units with lower power demands, reducing OPEX and providing the scale required to enable network-wide security solutions.

 There are a number of applications that have strict requirements in terms of packet loss, those associated with the emerging field of cyber security among them. By deploying hybrid solutions consisting of high-performance packet-processing interface cards and CPU hosts, not only will you not lose a packet, you won’t spend one either.

Why not find out more about our high-performance packet processing solutions or get in touch with our experts to see how we can help? Or, come and see us at booth 4354 at CTIA Wireless!

Telesoft Technologies is pleased to announce our involvement in the CTIA Wireless event in New Orleans from May 8^th – May 10^th where we will be demonstrating our industry-leading range of 10, 40 and 100Gb capture cards.

CTIA Wireless is the main event for the global wireless marketplace, attracting more than 40,000 attendees every year with top-level speakers from across the industry. It’s a valuable opportunity for Telesoft to meet with our partners, discuss their requirements and demonstrate our latest technology developments.

This year, Telesoft will be exhibiting at booth 4354 in the Emerging Technologies zone where we will be showcasing the very latest developments in high performance packet capture technology.

Intelligent 10, 40 and 100Gb capture cards for monitoring and analysis 

Designed for high-speed packet capture, analysis and reporting, our high-performance platforms enable 100% accurate packet capture at all line-rates up to and including 100Gb/s.

Our latest hardware platforms use hardware acceleration to deliver zero packet loss and “apply on the fly” real-time configurable filters to ensure that DPI applications can effortlessly connect to 1, 10, 40 and 100Gb networks in scalable, compact platforms.

Contact us today to book a meeting with one of our consultants. We can discuss your needs and apply our expertise to solving your network challenges.

MWC this year was crowded. Judging by the activity in and around the event, those attending had an excellent experience. We certainly did!

It’s always good to reflect on what’s new at MWC and, for the benefit of our readers, we thought we would share some of our own observations.

1. Network monitoring is something that’s fundamental. Full stop. You need to be able to monitor your network in real-time and at wire-speeds. It enables a wide range of applications, but without the basic capability to see what’s happening on your network, you can’t be sure it’s working properly.
2. So much flows from network monitoring that it’s worth expanding on this. One of the major themes of MWC was the delivery of a rich customer experience and the emerging topic of CEM (customer experience management). If you can’t see what’s happening on your network, you can’t deliver CEM. To manage your customers more effectively, you need to be able to perform packet processing at Gb/s rates, which requires specialist hardware.
3. Customers are demanding better and more predictable performance. They are using increasingly demanding applications on their mobile devices. MNOs need to be able to think about delivering Quality of Service to meet these expectations. But QoS demands the ability to process packets and determine if there are any issues or problems  - and that means monitoring your network.
4. MNOs want to exploit an over-arching framework to manage and co-ordinate customer experience. Policy control is the answer to this and it’s big. But network policies need the equipment that can implement them, which takes us back to monitoring and packet processing.
5. Finally, network visualisation and self-discovery is a topic we think is going to develop in the coming months. The ability to create pictures of data routing, data sources and performance will supplement the need to monitor network traffic and help ensure complex MVNO and roaming agreements are consistently and fairly applied. With the dramatic growth in data demand, this is sure to be an interesting area.

So that’s it for another year. Network monitoring is going to be huge, although that might not be apparent when discussing high-level applications. But these applications depend on certain key capabilities and monitoring is fundamental to this process.

We’ll be reporting on new developments and themes in our regular news, but for those who attended MWC, we hope you are able to capitalize on the experience.

If you didn’t attend, or if you want to chat about any of the themes we have identified, why not give us a call? We would be happy to share our expert perspective and show you how you can meet the challenges ahead!

The rise of cloud computing and cloud applications has grabbed a significant share of media attention of late. But while many focus on storage or shared computing applications, less attention has been paid to the need to support cloud services with traditional capabilities, such as voice.

As analysts Opus Research point out, voice is increasingly required in many applications that are moving to the cloud, particularly those that require interaction with agents or deliver commerce services. A number of independent voice providers have taken an early lead in this domain, but perhaps it’s time to think again about the role that telcos and network operators can play.

Telcos and network operators have been deploying what are effectively cloud-based media processing solutions for years. They have experience and a proven track record of delivering media processing for large-scale applications. The move towards IMS core network infrastructure and session control has included a critical component, the Media Resource Function (MRF), which provides cloud-based robust voice and video processing capabilities for a range of services. Importantly, the MRF comes with standardised interfaces that simplify application development and ensure that multiple applications can share the same resources, such as VoiceXML and CCXML. In other words, it’s media processing as a shared resource for the cloud.

The MRF is ideally placed to support the voice and video processing requirements of cloud-based service providers, accessible as a service from the telco network and via well-understood interfaces. What’s more, voice and video need real-time transport and latency functionality – the ability to deliver the QoS demanded for a  conversational experience. Telcos can leverage MRF deployments to create a proposition, both for their own cloud services and for those offered by non-traditional OTT players.

What’s needed is the kind of scalable, flexible MRF that can support interaction with third party application as well with service in the operator network. Why not talk to us to see how we can help open up the world of cloud-based voice?

One of the key topics to emerge from last month’s Mobile World Congress is that of Customer Experience Management. Operators and vendors alike were united in identifying the importance of delivering an optimised customer experience. With mobile data demand continuing to soar, the challenge of delivering services effectively to all users is going to increase.

In fact, mobile data growth seems to have outpaced forecasts. Operators now face the challenge of ensuring that they are able to deliver complex services across mobile networks to ever-more demanding users.

And, with smartphone use accelerating – and accounting for more than 82% of total global mobile data traffic – this problem is going to get worse. The volume of data is going to grow. Dramatically. In order to keep pace with this growth, operators need to deploy solutions that can scale with traffic flows and process data in real-time.

Deep Packet Inspection is key to this. Operators need to be able to track data usage, not just for the purposes of billing, but also to ensure that the network functions smoothly. More data means more information to process. The question is, how can operators adapt and avoid being swamped by the data from hungry smartphone users?

It’s not enough to rely on today’s systems. DPI solutions are largely based on software-powered engines. That’s fine – up to a point. As network transmission accelerates beyond 10Gb/s, software solutions will become overloaded and struggle to keep pace with the volume of data being transmitted. That means networks may be vulnerable to failures and individual user experience could suffer. What’s needed is a way to deliver DPI and guarantee no packet loss – missed packets could point to errors that need to be corrected. If too many are missed, errors can be compounded, leading to catastrophic results.

The only way to achieve reliable, continuous DPI with no packet loss is to leverage specialised hardware. The most demanding aspects of DPI can be performed on hardware acceleration platforms, ensuring that only data of interest is passed to the DPI control application. By alleviating the burden on host processors, DPI solutions can scale more effectively to meet the challenges of mobile data demand.

If you would like to find out more about how we can help accelerate DPI for a range of applications, including enhancing Customer Experience Management, why not get in touch? Telesoft Technologies is a Gold sponsor of the forthcoming “Future of Cyber Security” event, to be held in London at Canary Wharf on the 19^th of March – If you would like to book a meeting with Telesoft during the conference or learn more about how we can help, please call Callum Rasmussen on +44 1258 486518.