Policy Enforcement Manager™ and Carrier Grade NAT Solutions
Carrier Grade NAT
The worldwide proliferation of wireless and Internet-enabled devices has led to the rapid depletion of IPv4 addresses. One of the five RIRs (Regional Internet Registries) has exhausted its IPv4 allocations, and the rest are expected to deplete their pools within a few years; meanwhile, IPv6 adoption has been slower than predicted. Service providers need a solution that will help them manage IPv4 address depletion and increase network optimization by seamlessly migrating to IPv6.
F5® BIG-IP® Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT) offers a broad set of tools that enables service providers to successfully migrate to IPv6 while continuing to support and interoperate with existing IPv4 devices and content. BIG-IP® CGNAT offers service providers tunneling solutions with Dual-Stack Lite capabilities as well as native network address translation solutions, such as NAT44 and NAT64. It provides carrier-grade scalability by offering a very high number of IP address translations, very fast NAT translation setup rates, high throughput, and high-speed logging.
Policy Enforcement Manager
The growth in device usage and the explosion of data traffic from resource-intensive content like streaming video and high-bandwidth, over-the-top applications is forcing fixed-line and mobile service providers to push their networks to the limit. The challenge is to find ways to efficiently deliver customized services with best-in-class customer experience, while also optimizing network utilization and managing radio access network congestion.
F5® BIG-IP® Policy Enforcement Manager™ (PEM™) delivers the insight you need to understand subscriber behavior and effectively manage network traffic with a wide range of policy enforcement capabilities. BIG-IP PEM provides intelligent layer 4–7 traffic steering, network intelligence, and dynamic control of network resources through subscriber- and context-aware solutions. It also provides deep reporting, which you can capitalize on to build tailored services and packages based on subscribers’ app usage and traffic classification and patterns to increase ARPU.
What Can BIG-IP PEM Do for You?
Optimize video traffic
By 2025 video traffic in mobile networks is forecast to grow to 75% of mobile data traffic, up from 63% in 2019. Using machine learning, BIG-IP PEM can detect and classify traffic flows and then create and apply granular policies based on different characteristics such as per subscriber, per application, device type, and location. This allows service providers to create differentiated policies and services for customers.
Detect and Classify Traffic – Classify major OTT video content whether the flow is encrypted or not. Machine learning enhances a powerful classification engine, which can identify more than 4000 applications.
Manage Bandwidth – Most video is UDP/QUIC-based encrypted Adaptive Bit Rate video. With BIG-IP PEM, service providers can manage these and other video types, including resolution, to help control high-bandwidth streams and reduce bandwidth consumption.
Offer Differentiated Services – With subscriber and application type awareness, such as Zoom for business versus Netflix for entertainment, performance tiers can be created for different subscriber plans.
Drive revenue with new services
Implement services based on subscriber level according to plan, location, and device. In addition to recognizing who should access what and when, BIG-IP PEM provides network visibility that can help create relevant plan tiers and new over-the-top services based on user behavior patterns.
Improve subscriber experience
Through smarter traffic steering, more sophisticated policy management, and improvements in network functions, BIG-IP PEM helps service providers improve network performance and deliver a better subscriber experience.
Increase network efficiency
BIG-IP PEM allows service providers to detect Adaptive Bit Rate video and control the network resources it consumes, especially premium RAN resources. This helps optimize network utilization while maintaining subscriber quality of experience.
Product Overview
BIG-IP PEM performs subscriber identification via RADIUS and DHCP, discovering information such as IP address, IMSI, and username. When correlated with application flow information, this allows for deeper understanding of the types of applications and services subscribers are using and how they are being used.
Core Capabilities
Use before you buy
Simplify purchases and reduce the need for overprovisioning with the use-before-you-buy option.
Broad portfolio of services
Choose from physical, VNFs, or CNFs.
Reduce costs
Switch to lower OpEx and CapEx cost software.
Increase service velocity
Provision new services in hours, not weeks.
Increase scalability and flexibility
Provision new services as you need them and scale up or down as required.
Deliver best-of-breed functionality
F5 VNFs easily integrate into your environment.
Optimize management and orchestration
F5 VNF Manager allows you to manage the lifecycle and orchestration of your VNFs.
