June 2013
| Business World Magazine | 191
their finite capacity. But to do this, it takes
a tremendous amount real time computing
horsepower and sophisticated software algo-
rithms to analyze what every customer is do-
ing at every moment, and not that many car-
riers have the wherewithal to deploy such a
system. Cloud delivery once again becomes
the solution. ClearSky came to market with
a comprehensive traffic management and
policy enforcement “platform in the cloud”
that can not only enforce fair usage, but also
provide many new ways to bill for usage in a
fair and equitable way.
ClearSky calls their solution Total Traffic
Manager, or TTM for short. TTM moni-
tors and analyzes data traffic in real time as
it flows through a carrier’s network. It pro-
vides real-time traffic visibility and generates
actions based on a pre-configured set of rules
and policies. With insight as to why, and
how, traffic is impacting the performance
of their network, a carrier can enact and en-
force network policies, satisfy subscribers
with fair allocation of resources, and ensure
traffic flow continues unaffected–even if ca-
pacity is at its limit. Even though much of
the service is in the cloud, ClearSky can actu-
ally tailor TTM to fulfill the specific policy
requirements of each and every carrier.
BIG PROBLEMS SOLVED
WITH SMALL CELLS
The wireless industry is tackling many of its
coverage and capacity issues by adding small
cells to the networks. Small cells are minia-
ture cell sites that divide and reuse the same
wireless spectrum over and over. Adding
small cells improves signal strength and can
bring coverage into homes, offices, stores and
public spaces where traditional outdoor tow-
ers are unable to reach. However, small cells
require a complex arrangement to connect
back into a wireless carrier’s switching cen-
ter because they are so numerous and use the
public Internet. ClearSky is the first compa-
ny inNorth America to use cloud computing
to offer a rapid small cell deployment option
called Femtocell as a Service (FaaS). To ex-
plain this, Fresonke says that a femtocell is a
type of small cell,v about the size of a dinner
plate, which can be easily placed in a home
or mounted in a commercial building. Once
powered up and connected to the Internet,
it connects to the ClearSky FaaS cloud, ana-
lyzes its surroundings, configures itself, and
begins providing voice and data services for
