| | july 20149CIOReviewdistribution of customer mobile data traffic. They manage and route signaling to network element clients and servers, detect and prevent element congestion, re-route around outages and enable virtually seamless interconnection with third parties. This supports today's digital lifestyle services in ways that are transparent to customers and satisfying to their mobile data experiences.Phases Two and Three: A Virtual and Social WorldThe next stage in the SDN evolution will see multiple network functions move toward a virtualized and intelligently orchestrated state. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) will allow CSPs to create flexible, policy-driven network streams for different network activities, as user demand dictates. In addition, NFV will enable operators to develop more agile network architectures that offer a greater variety of deployment options, which can, in turn, help them reduce operating costs associated with running some of their current network resources.Again, Diameter signaling will play a key role in the orchestration of connections between both physical and virtual network elements. As customer activity changes demand for a given function, the Diameter network will respond by detecting congestion or outages and can re-direct traffic to available peer elements while advising the orchestrator functions of these actions and conditions.Once CSPs achieve new standards of flexibility, capacity, and control with virtualized networks, they will continue the virtualization process while simultaneously extending the scope of their business models beyond traditional access services. With this new level of service agility, CSPs will begin to monetize their integrated network resources and improve subscriber intelligence by offering third-party application and content providers with valuable opt-in and mobile advertising opportunities, and begin developing a range of personalized offers for potential partners.The role of CSPs will evolve yet again in this "mobile social" era, as they move beyond passively facilitating the flow of services between subscribers and third-party providers and begin to actively determine what, when, where, and how they offer services to individual subscribers. These decisions will be based on dynamic subscriber and network data and a whole new range of considerations, including subscribers' individual usage behavior and preferences, as well as the conditions of their service agreements. Phase Four: Thinking NetworksThe evolution of software-defined networks will ultimately result in the establishment of highly evolved, "thinking networks". Beyond the technology that separates network control from content forwarding in the data center, these networks will be able to process subscriber and network information in light of the data they have already stored, adapting and becoming more intelligent with each transaction. Both subscriber intelligence and network configuration will inform a robust policy infrastructure that works in concert with application and network function orchestration to ensure optimal resource employment.The end game for these thinking networks will be to automatically organize and optimize themselves to respond to unpredictable network events--such as spikes in traffic--more efficiently and intelligently. These networks will also be able to anticipate customer behavior and predict their preferences to instinctively present them with relevant offer options as well as the bandwidth to enjoy the offers in a high-quality manner. The Evolution ContinuesWhile the evolution of software-defined thinking networks will be a gradual one, each phase of the process will present new opportunities for CSPs to increase service agility while becoming more technologically and economically efficient.To meet the demands of the digitally connected world, networks must do more than merely provide static connections between devices; they must learn to think for themselves and adapt automatically to rapidly shifting user demands. SDN will be a key technology means to that end. The next stage in the SDN evolution will see multiple network functions move toward a virtualized and intelligently orchestrated state
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