The ‘App Store’ for broadband services – what is it, and is it deliverable?

The ‘App Store’ for broadband services – what is it, and is it deliverable?

By Alex Braginskii, Director of Product Management at Friendly Technologies

There are approximately 26,000 ISP businesses globally. For service providers to get ahead of their competition in competitive markets, they must be able to ensure customer satisfaction, monitor trends proactively, and differentiate their services. The good news for ISPs is that, although competition is always challenging, there are significant opportunities here.

With technologies like 5G, Wi-Fi 6/6e, Wi-Fi 7, and Matter-enabled devices driving investment in more powerful gateways, service providers can leverage the potential of the CPE as a platform for serving internal needs and the needs of end-users.

An app app-like service layer right at the edge of the network that hosts a range of third-party applications could be the solution. The exploitable functionality of an app store – that is properly managed and integrated – offers an “à la carte” and differentiated and value-added service offering at the touch of a button, allowing operators to secure new revenue opportunities and reverse declining average revenue per user (ARPU).

To be realized, industry collaboration is key to overcoming challenges.

The obstacles

One of the biggest challenges that service providers face is the time taken to integrate third-party applications and software into their CPEs. Typical firmware upgrade cycles range from 9 to 18 months if we consider the various steps such as gathering requirements, upgrading the monolithic firmware image, developing, integrating management applications, internal testing, customer testing, and phased roll-out to production. And by the time the software has been integrated, it needs an update, which requires even more time and disruption.

Another obstacle to integrating external software is that multiple applications must run without the risk of interfering with each other. For example, if a third-party software provider is to make a change to its software that then can have a snowball effect on the rest of the gateway.

What is needed is an infrastructure that allows those pieces to move relatively easily over the broadband gateway during the integration of the software.

Containing the challenges

Creating a containerized environment and standardizing the implementation and management of third-party software within a container will allow these much-needed abilities to be accomplished. The path of widespread containerization also opens the door to rapid innovation and cost efficiency. By using a containerized framework, new services can be unlocked by adding software anytime to a CPE without the need to upgrade any firmware.

Containerization makes it easier to maintain smaller code sets instead of large monolithic code sets inherent to firmware, by separating applications from the CPEs operating system and managing them dynamically within secure and trusted software containers. As each container lives in its own ‘sandbox’ with a pre-allocated set of resources (such as CPU, RAM, etc.) that it’s allowed to use, it cannot interfere with the other parts of the firmware.

A new report by OMDIA in conjunction with Broadband Forum revealed that more than a quarter of 111 global broadband service providers are moving to a more standards-based, containerized approach. This stance can enable service providers to efficiently deliver new home applications and features over the Wi-Fi platform. For example, the end-user can switch on Working from Home prioritization for the duration of an important video conference call or enable additional security applications for their smart home services.

Adopting an open standards model at the lower and higher layers can ensure that software and hardware can be seamlessly replaced. Currently, the integration time with devices or platforms that use different vendors or proprietary technologies can slow the time to market for new services. For the best chance of differentiation in the market, a ‘best of breed’ strategy for service providers to develop their own customized in-home platforms is worth considering. This presents the perfect opportunity to take full control of the ecosystem they create.

All the service providers interviewed agreed that reduced fragmentation and proprietary technology at the chipset, CPE, and software platform level would significantly help drive greater innovation and lead to faster onboarding of value-added services.

Standardizing the implementation and management

For seamless integration of third-party software, an interoperable broadband ecosystem is vital. This is being driven by standards. Broadband Forum’s USP and TR-181 Device Data Model standards have established a standardized, interoperable method for deploying and supporting value-added applications in a containerized framework.

The standards – which have recently been upgraded – create opportunities for operators to increase revenue and transform the broadband experience for the subscriber as they can move beyond simply delivering fast speeds and easily and securely deploy new services on subscribers’ equipment with application intelligence built in. The publications also allow for the comprehensive management of the software lifecycle of these applications, further streamlining the process for service providers to offer new and differentiated value-added services, including Wi-Fi management, cybersecurity, gaming, remote working, smart home, energy management, and more.

These standards have laid the foundations for the realization of a standardized, app-enabled services gateway. Broadband Forum’s WT-492 ‘Software-Based Architecture for the App-Enabled Services Gateway – Design Principles’ standard promises service providers app-store-like functionality for their subscriber edge platforms. The main goal behind this revolutionary project is to standardize software containerization on the residential gateway within the home so that the app stores and the third-party application providers do not have to do a lot of R&D work.

App-ily ever after?

By offering an integrated smart home experience, service providers can demonstrate significant value attached to their brand and overall customer relationship. And being able to manage and integrate new services into the network seamlessly, service providers can also capitalize on new revenue opportunities and easily introduce new services as the customer looks to upgrade its network into a smart home network. This, in turn, through greater customer satisfaction, can help to reduce churn rates and be the gateway to future incremental revenue.

You can discover more about the topic in Broadband Forum’s vBASe webinar, ‘Connected User – Is a Service Provider “App Store” deliverable?’, here: https://www.broadband-forum.org/event/connected-user-is-a-service-provider-app-store-deliverable-vbase-webinar

To find out more about Friendly Technologies visit: https://friendly-tech.com/