Faced with an unprecedented increase in bandwidth demand, SLTMOBITEL needed a network platform for the smooth functioning of its existing services. The NCINGA designed platform has enabled SLTMOBITEL to address evolving customer needs while providing them with the agility to respond to future needs.

Industry: Telecommunications
Location: APAC

SLTMOBITEL is the oldest and one of the leading information and communications technology (ICT) solutions providers in Sri Lanka. SLTMOBITEL’s portfolio of offerings include mobile, broadband, data, cloud computing and hosting, and networking solutions for individuals and businesses throughout the country. The company operates a sophisticated Value Added Service (VAS) platform to provide advanced and enhanced features for their customer base of over 9 million who use SLTMOBITEL’s many solutions. SLTMOBITEL also offers other services through its subsidiaries. These include a healthcare channeling platform, tertiary educational services, HR solutions, submarine cable maintenance, infrastructure and systems integration solutions, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services and content creation facilities, directory services, and software solutions.

SLTMOBITEL is looking to the future. The company is in the process of expanding their VAR platform to improve services and experiences for their broadband customers. When bandwidth demand surged during the onset of the pandemic and there was a shift to hybrid working models, providing faster, more reliable connectivity for their customers became even more important for SLTMOBITEL.

Yet, the existing legacy Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) platform at SLTMOBITEL was proving to be problematic. It caused many limitations:

• Inability to support the exponential increase in bandwidth demand and online activities.
• High operational complexity due to the complexities that existed within the platform itself.
• Lack of support for the latest 100G interfaces.
• The vendor warranty period for the existing platform hardware was also ending.

Telecommunications is an industry that requires flexibility and adaptability to stay abreast with emerging trends. Upgrading the legacy PCEF platform was absolutely necessary if SLTMOBITEL were to remain competitive in the long term. Moreover, given the size of its customer base - along with the scale and breadth of their offerings - there was no room for error. A simple mistake would have affected millions of people and businesses plus led to a substantial loss of revenue. SLTMOBITEL approached NCINGA to help them realize their goals and requirements.

To upgrade the PCEF platform, SLTMOBITEL and NCINGA first identified software and hardware changes required:

• Eliminate complexities within the platform, simplify the infrastructure design, and upgrade data traffic interfaces for operational efficiency.
• Migrate all broadband customers and data into the new platform seamlessly with no inconvenience to the customers, no loss of data and revenue, and minimal interruptions to services.
• Replace all proprietary hardware based appliances and bare metal servers with a virtual platform plus upgrade the required hardware.

NCINGA’s team, with its decade-long experience in the telecommunications industry, performed a comprehensive analysis of the challenges. We created a network design and migration plan that divided this exhaustive process into multiple phases. This ensured that customers and revenue were not adversely affected at any point during the migration process - and that no data was lost too.

NCINGA replaced all 7-node PCEF clusters with 2-node ones that are capable of handling more than 1.5 times of bandwidth demand, replaced the inter-site dark fiber cluster with simpler dark fiber cluster links, and used the latest 100G interfaces to integrate data traffic interfaces with aggregation and core routers. All of these contributed towards the elimination of complexity and improved operational efficiency within the PCEF platform. The NCINGA team also successfully migrated all proprietary hardware-based appliances and bare metal servers to a fully virtual environment. Moreover, we replaced the hardware and software components that were no longer covered under their warranty agreements with the latest Sandvine technology.

• SLTMOBITEL now has an upgraded Sandvine PCEF platform. It enables the IT team to integrate new PCEF nodes into existing clusters and support over 3 times the current bandwidth demand without undertaking any major changes to the network infrastructure.
• An improved platform means that SLTMOBITEL can expand their services to individuals and businesses at a faster pace. The entire process is more efficient. SLTMOBITEL need not worry about sudden surges in demand as the upgraded platform can manage such instances.
• SLTMOBITEL has introduced new service plans that specifically addresses increased bandwidth use (such as plans for remote working and online learning), leading to increased revenues in the process as well.