Assuring end to end performance

Accedian Networks has announced the deployment of its market leading performance monitoring solution across the SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) mobile network -- encompassing 12,000 locations across the six largest cities in South Korea, with plans to extend coverage to all sites serving over 28 million subscribers nationwide. The deployment is key to SK Telecom's commitment to optimizing performance using standards-based performance monitoring indicators as they migrate towards the intelligent, SDN-controlled networks that will deliver 5G mobile technology.

Accedian's virtualized solutions collect precise network performance indicators in real time from SK Telecom's existing network infrastructure, as well as from Accedian's NFV-based (network function virtualization) performance assurance modules. The solution is also in use by over 100 Accedian customers in 35 countries, with a well-established history of delivering the most granular, open network metrics in real-time.

SK Telecom operates a sophisticated multi-vendor network, ensuring each supports the RFC-5357 two way active measurement protocol (TWAMP), a vendor-independent, global performance monitoring standard. Accedian's centralized monitoring solution acts as a uniform instrumentation layer, centralizing a real-time view of network performance throughout the network. Where access equipment lacks TWAMP standards support, SK Telecom installs Accedian's Nano smart SFP modules to ensure ubiquitous network coverage from end-to-end.

With the Accedian solution, SK Telecom improves network performance by:

Ensuring service performance standards using key KPIs that can proactively mitigate risks to customer experience proactively
Detecting traffic bursts and optimizing their LTE network to reduce Quality of Service (QoS) impact
Locating bottlenecks for improved overall capacity
Identifying and correcting any network mis-configurations immediately
Optimizing fault failover to eliminate service downtime and improve network quality

Having this real-time stream of Quality of Experience (QoE) metrics integrated with SK Telecom's own performance assurance network management system (NMS) and SDN controllers allows them to optimize end-to-end user experience with performance trending and proactive fault management. Direct reporting to operational and business support systems (OSS/BSS) allows all regions in the SK Telecom network to monitor performance, 24/7.

"At SK Telecom, best-possible quality of customer service and experience is at the heart of our reputation and our business," stated Choi, Seung-won, Senior Vice President and Head of Network Solution Office, SK Telecom. "Partnering with Accedian helps us ensure the highest levels of QoS and QoE, which is particularly important as we continue to extend our network towards 5G, and to expand coverage with small cells, making the need for 24x7 end to end network visibility critical. Accedian's performance monitoring solutions make this possible. SK Telecom selected Accedian's TWAMP performance assurance solution specifically as the quality indicator and standard for LTE business-to-business networks."

"SK Telecom is a premier example of a mobile service provider pushing network performance and technology to the limit," stated Accedian Founder, President, and CEO, Patrick Ostiguy. "They are early adopters and innovators, and their efforts result in the extremely high levels of service and experience quality their customers have come to expect. Accedian is honored to help support their performance assurance objectives through our comprehensive solutions, built with providers like SK Telecom in mind."