Cisco IoT Control Center ‒ On-Demand Network Slicing and Assurance Solution Overview
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Are you a communication service provider looking to empower enterprise customers with dedicated network slices and predefined quality of service for new services? Or a connected car OEM seeking visibility into the underlying network for SLA compliance? Cisco’s market-leading IoT Control Center provides the right functionalities, technology stack, and consumption model to accelerate mobility-based service creation.
Enterprises, especially connected vehicle OEMs, are looking to leverage connectivity to regain control of the end-customer experience and monetize advanced onboard features. They are investing heavily in conceptualizing a brand new immersive in-car user experience with infotainment applications, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), and other marketplace solutions such as in-car purchasing. These applications will be offered as subscription services, pivotal to their revenue diversification strategy. Major automotive OEMs like GM and VW have signaled their intent to phase out smartphone mirroring in newer models, aiming to take back control.
To succeed in this strategy and deliver a delightful end-customer experience, OEMs need full visibility and control over the network services that provide the underlying connectivity.
Historically, Communication Service Providers (CSPs) have struggled to support this control due to monolithic network functions, fragmented operations and assurance vendors, and limited-service segregation capabilities. However, with 5G, software-defined networks, and network slicing, CSPs can now meet these requirements through their deployments.
Cisco’s Mobility Services Platform with its market-leading IoT Control Center solution offers CSPs network automation, orchestration capabilities, a fully cloud-native packet core, and a unified user experience to support self-serve service creation (network slicing and dedicated data networks) tailored to enterprise needs. This empowers CSPs to enable the revenue diversification strategies of connected vehicle OEMs through immersive in-car experiences and subscription services.
Cisco’s solution offers a range of compelling benefits:
● Rapid service deployment: Deploy a network slice-based service with a dedicated Data Network Name (DNN) from end to end in minutes, enabling swift time to market for new enterprise services.
● Unified enterprise experience: Use a single portal for network management, subscriber lifecycle management, and connectivity management, providing a seamless and unified experience for enterprises.
● Accelerated service innovation: Expedite prototyping and enablement of subscription services and driving revenue diversification strategies for enterprises.
● Value-added services: Empower CSPs to move up the value chain, offer value-added digital services, and unlock new monetization opportunities
● Self-healing networks: Establish a foundation for self-healing networks with predictive intelligence and automated service assurance, helping ensure resilient and reliable connectivity.
● Granular traffic classification: Augment network slices and DNNs with Cisco’s self-serve traffic classification, enabling precise classification of data streams based on commercial constructs with application content providers.
● Seamless automation: REST API-based automation simplifies the enterprise user experience and enables scalable operations, with extensibility to TM Forum standards.
● Optimized service inventory: Optimize service inventory with dedicated slices tailored to specific industries and enterprises, enabling customized solutions.
Unlocking revenue streams with connected car subscription services
According to ABI Research, the growing Enterprise IoT market segment will account for over 50% of Service Providers' 5G revenues in the next decade. The connected car industry is a prime example of this trend. The global connected car subscription business is expected to reach about $65 billion, with each connected car OEM striving to diversify its revenue streams through software-enabled subscription services as part of its growth strategy.
For instance, General Motors, a major global OEM headquartered in the United States, plans to generate $135 million in incremental revenue per month with new connected, onboard services – Super Cruise (an ADAS application), Maps+, OnStar Insurance, OnStar Vehicle Insights, Marketplace, and Connected Dash Camera – as highlighted during its Investor Day 2021 event. Software-defined vehicles are also enabling personalized collaboration applications (likely with stringent Quality-of- Service [QoS] expectations) for consumers to stay connected while on the go. Ford’s recent partnership with Cisco to enable Webex conferencing paves the path for mainstream adoption by other OEMs.
Each of these applications will have its own dedicated QoS and Service-Level Agreement (SLA) requirements. Enterprises will require the ability to drive rapid prototyping by creating new mobility services to aid with device and application certification. Service providers have a unique opportunity to capitalize on this market by empowering enterprises with full visibility and control, enabling them to launch and monetize new subscription services using Cisco® IoT Control Center. Figure 1 represents a broad spectrum of use cases for a connected car with its unique service requirements.
Use cases for connected car 5G mobility
Enabling secure and reliable enterprise connectivity with on-premises network slices
Enterprises that require physical and logical isolation of network services, but do not need a fully private network, are considering network slices to obtain secure and reliable connectivity for their cellular-enabled devices and select applications. For instance, large airports (for passenger terminals) and connected vehicle OEMs with smart manufacturing facilities are exploring seamless interoperability with a CSP’s macro network.
CSPs have a significant opportunity to serve these enterprises by leveraging their macro spectrum and deploying localized edge (User Plane Function) and packet core components as a network slice on a Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) host closer to or inside the enterprise premises. This approach opens the possibility of procuring mm Wave spectrum and strategically deploying small cells or repeaters to leverage this spectrum for Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) type applications, such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), new traffic control systems, and high-speed robotics used in manufacturing.
This framework also empowers enterprises to procure SD-WAN devices (using a CSP’s digital buy flow) with embedded connectivity and serve them with the same network slice, interoperating with the underlying business applications. Additionally, it presents a future possibility for CSPs to optimize their overall spectrum inventory with carrier aggregation to boost network performance. Figure 2 presents an overview of private-macro interoperability with 5G – and each of these could be network slices.
Private-macro interoperability with 5G
Empowering the developer ecosystem with network programmability
The broader application developer community (enterprise, consumer, gaming, etc.) and enterprises are looking at optimizing business outcomes by leveraging API-based network programmability. For example, a connected car enterprise using a private network slice could drive slice-based traffic prioritization to reposition manufacturing-assisting robots using hyper-accurate positioning technology in an indoor scenario. The same technology can also be used by the same enterprise to assist their ADAS applications, which could be served by dedicated low-latency, high-data-throughput network slices. Device OEMs like Apple1,2 are also enabling this slice-based selection to serve on-device applications in a macro and private context. CSPs like T-Mobile3 are empowering the developer community to test video calling applications that require steady uplink and downlink speeds, lower latency, and increased reliability. We’re at the cusp of a transformative opportunity for CSPs to empower enterprises to get full visibility and control and, in the process, drive monetization up through the value chain.
CSP partners can choose to get Dynamic Network Slicing as an optional feature of the Cisco IoT Control Center Advanced Network/ premium services offer. They can choose from one of two integration options: Cisco APIs integrated with a CSP network orchestration stack and the underlying core network, or enabled through Cisco’s full-stack Io TaaS solution (preintegrated with our homegrown network orchestration stack), which is easy to consume.
For each enterprise application or service that requires network slicing, Cisco will enable CSPs with a self-serve option to model commercial SLAs for these services with supporting slice templates and onboard these slice templates into IoT Control Center to help drive network provisioning of a slice. A slice instance post-network provisioning will be added to the Control Center Slice Catalog/service inventory. Control Center users can activate this slice-based service and assign the slice to a subscriber to help with Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session establishment. Users can manage the lifecycle of network slices and subscribers and have the checks and balances to ensure that a subscriber is served by an active slice on the network.
Figure 3 illustrates a conceptual overview of how CSPs can empower enterprises to configure the service parameters and drive deployment of a network slice. The actual network provisioning of a slice is orchestrated by a tight-knit handshake between IoT Control Center and the orchestration stack that controls outcomes on the end-to-end network (including the Radio Access Network [RAN], transport, and core).
On-demand network slicing
The process of enabling a slice-based service and assigning it to a subscriber consists of three key steps:
1. A CSP or enterprise user can leverage the interactive UI with a drop-down or import from a prepopulated Excel template the configuration parameters that describe the network service SLAs. This process of provisioning an end-to-end slice on the network typically takes several minutes to a few hours and depends on the complexity of the underlying deployment and sophistication of the technology stack.
2. Once a slice is provisioned on the network, it will be added to the Slice Catalog in IoT Control Center. The Slice Catalog is typically an inventory of all network slices that are live on the network, whether dedicated or shared among enterprises and applications. CSP users can also manage the lifecycle of these slices on their network using the Slice Catalog. For example, they can terminate a service to release network resources or deactivate a slice temporarily to help with operational enhancements.
3. On activation, a CSP or enterprise user could typically assign a slice to a subscriber using a slice identifier as part of the services that are allowed during session establishment.
Figure 4 shows network slicing-based use cases across industries. Table 1 also articulates different types of connectivity-enabled services.
Use cases based on network slicing
| Use case description |
|
| Connected vehicle |
● Predictive maintenance and fleet management with telematics and diagnostics
● Retail consumer subscription services with Wi-Fi hotspots and infotainment applications
● Cellular vehicle to everything (C-V2X) and high-definition mapping applications for autonomous driving assistant systems
● Emergency services with firmware and software updates over the air (FOTA/SOTA)
|
| Utilities, retail, travel, and infrastructure |
● Wireless hotspots for smart offices, smart grids, retail, and smart travel service
|
| Public safety |
● Wireless-enabled high-definition cameras for public safety and smart grids
|
| Smart manufacturing |
● AR- and VR-enabled headsets, new traffic control systems, or high-speed robotics used in manufacturing
● Slice-based traffic prioritization to reposition manufacturing-assisting robots using hyper-accurate positioning technology
|
| Healthcare |
● Secure private on-premises network slices for wearables, AR/VR headsets, and other connected assets
● Remote healthcare and telemedicine to transfer tomography files securely
|
| FinTech |
● Smart branch office connectivity with 5G leased lines to serve smart point-of-sale terminals, ATMs, etc.
|
| Entertainment and broadcasting |
● High data throughput, reliable, secure, and transitory network slices to support broadcasting use cases
|
(1) Mythbuster: Slice up 5G outcomes
“We reached a huge milestone, pulling off the country’s first use of 5G network slicing for remote video production on a commercial network. This customized slice gave the broadcast team supercharged wireless uplink speeds so they could easily and quickly transfer high-resolution content from cameras and a video drone circling the event to the Red Bull production team in near real time over T-Mobile 5G. And when I say supercharged uplink speeds, I’m talking up to 276 Mbps!”
John Saw
EVP & Chief Technology Officer, T-Mobile
(2) Secure the enterprise
“T-Mobile SASE with T-SIMsecure and Security Slice is yet another example of innovation being delivered to our business and government customers. Not only does this complement and expand our security portfolio to offer protection for corporate networks, applications, and data — it also reinforces our commitment to leverage our 5G leadership for good.”
Callie Field
President, T-Mobile Business Group
As the foundational component of Cisco’s Mobility Services Platform, IoT Control Center stands as the industry’s leading connectivity management platform, serving over 250 million subscribers today. Dynamic Network Slicing, an optional premium feature, provides CSPs with a robust technology stack and intuitive consumption model (UI/API) to rapidly bring innovative, mobility-based enterprise solutions to market.
Cisco’s comprehensive enterprise networking portfolio demonstrates our deep understanding of unique enterprise needs. We closely monitor the LTE to 5G transition, helping ensure seamless migration while enabling tailored outcomes across industries through various offerings (Cisco Private 5G, mobile IoT, consumer broadband, etc).
Moreover, Cisco provides connectivity services for over 50% of these subscribers, built on a robust foundation – an industry-leading converged 5G standalone packet core. Our efforts are centered around driving monetization up the connectivity value chain, creating new revenue opportunities for our customers. With Dynamic Network Slicing, CSPs can leverage Cisco’s technology leadership, industry expertise, and comprehensive portfolio to unlock the full potential of 5G and drive innovation in enterprise mobility solutions. Gain a competitive edge and accelerate revenue growth with Cisco’s cutting-edge offerings.
Our goal is to build innovative features that can deliver tailored outcomes across industries, connecting people, places, and things through various offerings.
Leverage Cisco to launch and monetize advanced network services
Connected vehicle OEMs: Are you seeking to regain control and launch seamless, brand-new subscription services tailored to your consumers?
CSPs: Are you aiming to leverage your 5G (and underutilized LTE) spectrum to launch secure, slice-based fixed wireless access services with a digital buying experience? Or kickstart an enterprise developer ecosystem with slice-based network programmability?
Unleash the full potential of your offerings with Cisco’s Dynamic Network Slicing. Our cutting-edge solution empowers you to deliver innovative, tailored services, unlock new revenue streams, and gain a competitive edge in rapidly evolving markets. Take the leap and prepare your business for the future with Cisco’s industry-leading technology and expertise.
To learn more about Cisco IoT Control Center, visit: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/internet-of-things/iot-control-center.html.
To learn more about Cisco Mobility Services for IoT, visit: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/iot-mobility-services/index.html.
To learn more about Cisco’s Mobility Services Platform, visit: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/internet-of-things/mobility-services-platform-so.html.
To learn more about the broader 5G IoT market landscape and how to unleash the power of 5G, visit: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/iot-mobility-services/5g-iot-services-wp.html.
For a demo of IoT Control Center, contact your local Cisco sales representative.