Allot Ltd (NASDAQ:ALLT), the security and smart network intelligence solutions company, released findings Wednesday from the latest edition of its Telco Smart Trends Report.
The report outlined a consensus in the attitudes of communication service providers (CSPs) in improving quality of experience (QoE) and the evident need for intelligent network congestion management solutions to ensure customer experience, even as the industry transitions to high-capacity 5G.
Allot’s research contains results and analysis from a recently conducted survey conducted among senior engineering managers from 106 CSPs worldwide.
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In the survey, more CSPs picked QoE (26%) as their top business objective, more than competitive pricing (25%), reduction of capital expenditures (17%) and market share (14%).
Additionally, 48% of CSPs reported that distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) — malicious attempts to disrupt normal traffic — accounts for 3% to 5% of their traffic, and an additional 11% reported that it accounts for 6% to 10% of traffic.
That contributes significantly to congestion, and there is concern that DDoS will increase as development of Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G networks continues. Two-thirds of CSPs are very concerned that IoT will generate outbound DDoS, and 51% fear that 5G is going to further increase DDoS traffic, according to the report.
“CSPs are keenly aware of the need to become more customer-centric and are prioritizing quality of experience for end-users,” VP of Product Management Mark Shteiman said in a statement. “However, growing network congestion, the launching of new services and the transition to 5G, coupled with the increasing number of unwanted DDoS traffic – itself fueled by IoT and 5G – requires advanced technology solutions that use machine learning and artificial intelligence to detect encrypted traffic, evaluate end user QoE and manage congestion in real-time. Once CSPs have these tools, they not only improve QoE, but can also save a lot of CAPEX.”
Effective congestion management, Allot said, can deliver customer satisfaction while reducing costs. Survey respondents noted they need to expand capacity of 20% of cells annually, the company noted, and at an approximate cost of $30,000 per cell.
However, according to Allot benchmarks, by optimizing congestion management, CSPs can gain back up to 20% of inefficiently utilized bandwidth
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