Explicit contractual mobility for user roaming

Transcription

1 Explicit contractual mobility for user roaming Gabriele Corliano BT Networks Research Centre Wednesday, 01 February 2006

2 Agenda Introduction An architecture for explicit contractual mobility Implications Role functions Conclusions Slide 2

3 Agenda Introduction An architecture for explicit contractual mobility Implications Role functions Conclusions Slide 3

4 Introduction Rustling project Run for 2 years ( ) 2 published papers Economic tussles of the market for public wireless access Explicit contractual mobility for user roaming Proof-of-concept testbed Origin Criticism of roaming model based on long-term agreements Market decomposition in role functions and business relationships Re-synthesis of new market and business scenarios What new role functions are required to enable alternative roaming models? End Project stopped in 2003 Not had enough time to finalise ongoing work Now my part-time PhD Slide 4

5 Agenda Introduction An architecture for explicit contractual mobility Implications Role functions Conclusions Slide 5

6 Roaming The ability for users to use any one of many service providers, while maintaining a formal business relationship with just one the home provider Asking your competitors to provide your services when your customers are on their networks Encapsulate a roaming model The notion of roaming agreement The forced reliance on roaming agreements Slide 6

7 Roaming limitations Roaming agreements the only roaming model Users must rely on home providers having a business relationship with visited providers Users must use existing roaming agreements Roaming agreements a circumstantial model Now encoded in protocols and standards What if we wanted to change this model? Roaming exchanges Solve combinatorial explosion of business relationships Do not remove the necessity of roaming agreements Slide 7

8 Roaming limitations To roam, users must be served by competitors of home provider Home providers must deploy control functions in adjacent providers systems AAA, metering, charging For example, home provider applies a new tariff adjacent providers must support appropriate accounting and metering Cross deployment of control functions reduces competitiveness Create mutual dependencies between different providers, forcing innovation sharing Break the novelty of innovations, as well as the competitive advantage they create Pricing scheme innovation bound by user awareness and knowledgeability of offers Inability and unwillingness of users to manually assess offers Lack of automated systems to assess offers on behalf of users Novel offers can better match the dynamic and subjective user requirements Slide 8

9 Explicit contractual mobility Roaming functionality must be agnostic to specific roaming models To allow many roaming models, through a more open and flexible roaming definition Users establish ad hoc business relationships with visited providers On a per-session basis Roaming systems support relationship establishment at the finest granularity, the session On a one-to-one basis No 3 rd party dependencies limiting users roaming ability and scope In an automated fashion Simplify complex tasks for users and overcome their inertia to undertake changes Slide 9

10 A common policy interface Intermediary role to mediate user provider business relationships Change traditional perception users have of business relationships with providers Any model Ad hoc model To open a communication session, users make per-session requests to the CPI CPI decides how to purchase the session Depending on available offers and existing business relationships CPI automatically selects a provider Depending on user preferences and application requirements Might already have a business relationship with the selected provider Have to establish a new 1-to-1 relationship (at least) for the session duration Slide 10

11 A common policy interface architecture Offer dissemination Communicate offers to users Offer selection Compare and select, on user s behalf, available offers Ad hoc establishment of business relationships Gain network connectivity and initiate sessions Deal with identity, charging, trust, billing Re-configurable metering systems Transparent and remote meter configuration Reachability Incoming sessions without prior relationship Slide 11

12 A common policy interface basic operation Slide 12

13 Agenda Introduction An architecture for explicit contractual mobility Implications Role functions Conclusions Slide 13

14 Implications Break business relationship establishment in two parts Users no longer wedded to particular offers, only to what they get and what they pay for Providers can choose their preferred commercial model to provide roaming Capability to re-synthesise many models from simple components From traditional roaming agreements to unconstrained roaming and rustling of users Receiver selects & pays models Increase small business investment & enable local competition Reduce entry barriers for new entrants Increase choice of networks (e.g. local networks) Push global market growth Increase flexibility in the possible business models Increase number of players, available services and level of competition Providers can react quickly to users changing preferences Change offers faster to better fit market demand Remove barriers created by user awareness and knowledgeability of offers Minimum user involvement Default boot-strap preferences Involvement only in variations Slide 14

15 Implications market decomposition Approach Taxonomise and decompose basic elements of a market model Role functions and business relationships Re-synthesise new market scenarios Role functions Customer profile & location Charging, billing & clearing Trust AAA Offer dissemination Offer selection Metering Ad hoc establishment of business relationships Business relationships Slide 15

16 Implications market scenarios Unconstrained roaming (highly decentralised scenario) location EP1 EP2 Broker Broker profile billing Broker clearing offers payment assessment trust Broker Re-synthesis of international roaming (highly centralised scenario) Spectrum of alternatives F-EP1 F-EP2 offers offers decision billing C-EP clearing assessment Slide 16 payment $

17 Implications market scenarios Pricing Decision Trust Billing Payment No service bundling Centralised VP profile location clearing P 1 P 2 Pricing Virtual provider selection trust payment U Slide 17

18 Implications market scenarios Pricing Decision Trust Billing Payment charging profile location P 1 P 3 clearing P 2 Pricing No service bundling Decentralised scenario Virtual provider selection U payment trust Broker billing Slide 18

19 Implications market scenarios Pricing Decision Trust Billing Payment With service bundling No offer selection profile location clearing P 1 Pricing P 2 Virtual provider flat charging billing P 3 trust payment U Slide 19

20 Implications market scenarios payment Called selection Pricing Decision Trust Billing Pricing MNO MNO Broker Payment trust Remote end selects & pays Slide 20 Decision clearing Virtual operator U

21 Agenda Introduction An architecture for explicit contractual mobility Implications Role functions Conclusions Slide 21

22 Offer dissemination Users periodically and automatically receive service offers from retail service providers in range Push vs. pull vs. hybrid model Push models IP multicast (Watchcast, TDP- Darmstadt), application layer multicast Pull models Distributed (UDDI) and nondistributed directory services Slide 22

23 Offer selection Service offers Explicit statement of a set of expectations + a set of obligations Describe the service a customer is buying, what customers are going to be charged for (the tariff) + the way this is achieved User (buying) policies Describe the utility the customer get from the consumption of a service (i.e. the willingness to pay for that service) User policies are chosen depending on a set of parameters we call task Session description, the service offer, the application, personal constraints or needs User policies are used to maximise the customer s utility (for a certain task) against a certain tariff Selection algorithm User input might be required when the system Does not find a unique user policy Does not find a unique offer Slide 23

24 Offer selection overall architecture task description user input session description user policy environmental constraints user policy evaluation engine user policy policy repository service offer user policy user policy user input Slide 24 service offer service offer service offer evaluation engine offer description knowledge & memory generate use patterns previous sessions characterisation values

25 Offer selection service offers access service network service application service service description service parameters tariff description metering criteria price coefficients pricing algorithm Slide 25

26 Offer selection service offers Structured collection of chargeable service items with an associated pricing function Service description Set of parameters describing the service Tariff description Set of rules for predicting and calculating service charges Charging criteria Set of criteria which can be measure of the consumption of a service. Each criterion consists of a set of parameters (e.g. volume is a criterion, packets and bytes are params). Price coefficients Set of coefficients which can be weights of a charging criterion Pricing algorithm Laws according to which chargeable parameters are combined together to calculate the charge Slide 26

27 Offer selection service offers Slide 27 service parameters charging criteria price coefficients (examples) pricing algorithm Access service Network service Application service type/technology quality space of apps duration, (it s t.p., but it can be specif. in the serv.desc.) duration distance type/technology quality space of apps duration bandwidth burstiness responsiveness jitter delivery probability duration distance direction volume network state number of ends bandwidth burstiness duration distance direction volume type e2e transfer technology content scope duration distance direction e2e transfer technology type e2e transfer technology content scope

28 Offer selection user policies Structured collection of preference attributes with an associated utility function Tasks Record of user preferences 2 parts Description of the task environment (e.g. applications, ends of the communication) List of available profiles Task profiles Budget Attribute records and utility functions List of previously selected offers when this task profile was active Slide 28

29 Offer selection algorithm Automatically and intelligently select best service offer Selection algorithm Multi-attribute net utility maximisation (overall price overall utility) Intelligent, with a learning model Slide 29

30 Re-configurable metering systems Offers drive re-configuration of metering systems Accepted offer transformed into configuration rules relevant to lower levels Allow providers to share tariffs without sharing the details of the tariff Used in scenario with roaming agreements Examples Metering rules Accounting system configuration virtual provider 4 Offer disseminator providers population 2 virtual provider 5 Offer disseminator virtual provider 6 Offer disseminator Slide 30

31 Ad hoc establishment of business relationships Ad hoc access and session initiation protocol SIP extensions? Extend a session initiation protocol To gain network connectivity To negotiate the service for a session To establish business relationships Charging, Billing, Payment Dynamic business relationship establishment Per-session Without the need for any prior agreement Involves trust, charging, billing and payment USIM domain Mobile termination Terminal equipment Mobile equipment domain User equipment domain home stratum Home network domain Access Serving application network stratum network domain domain Core network domain Infrastructure domain Transit network domain Remote party Slide 31

32 Agenda Introduction An architecture for explicit contractual mobility Implications Role functions Conclusions Slide 32

33 Conclusions In technical terms Requirement for future Internet Nothing intractable, although complex Feasible to implement for a generic provider In business terms Strong business implications Main issues are commercial acceptance by incumbents In its wild application, disruptive for incumbents, opportunity for new entrants Slide 33

34 Thanks! & Questions?

35 Implications market decomposition Slide 35

36 A common policy interface Slide 36

37 Implications market scenarios Pricing Decision Trust Billing location Payment P 1 P 2 Broker Broker profile billing Broker clearing Pricing selection U U payment trust Broker Slide 37

38 Implications market scenarios Pricing Decision Trust P 2 Billing Payment private network private network P 1 VP 1 VP 2 Pricing Slide 38 Broker profile location U payment Decision selection trust Broker clearing billing

39 Prototype system Goals Proof of concept Emulate marketplace environment Dissemination of service offers Offer selection Roaming from one provider to another Assumptions WLAN Offerselector on Smartcard in Javacard One type of service Only business interface Slide 39

40 Prototype system provider1 provider2 provider3 provider1 provider2 Offer disseminator Offer disseminator Offer disseminator Offer disseminator Offer disseminator Offer handler roamer selector 3 repository Slide 40