International IP Transit Provider Uses Network Visibility to Increase Revenue via Capacity Planning
Contact Us
The Opportunity
An international IP transit provider, which sells internet connectivity to other ISPs globally by connecting to one or more of their PoPs (Points of Presence), has employed NETSCOUT® Visibility Solutions to execute network analysis for capacity planning and revenue generation.
The key to managing this type of complex and fluid network plus optimize each customer’s experience is network planning. Visibility into the network’s traffic can provide a variety and a multitude of details about their customers’ and prospective customers’ traffic. This will help to drive new investments, such as additional capacity in existing PoPs, or by adding new ones. From the NetOps Team standpoint, when pressed for economics, it came down to “avoiding waste“ or increased efficiencies plus network optimization.
The Details
General network planning without traffic visibility is mostly based on peering negotiations with other IP transit and Tier 1 providers. The lack of detailed visibility into the large amounts of traffic driven by CDNs and OTT providers make those negotiations more challenging, as the parties argue about who’s behind those large flows of content and who should pay for transiting it.
A DNS-probe solution would not be feasible and would not scale in their environment due to higher costs.
This provider currently employs the Sightline and TMS for the purpose of traffic analysis and DDoS Mitigation. The primary focus of this organization’s strategy is based on bandwidth and capacity provisioning, or more precisely, standing up PoPs, and traffic analysis for Service Assurance.
The TMS capacity is for infrastructure protection and Managed DDoS Protection Services that are now seen as an indispensable part of the company portfolio.
NETSCOUT Visibility solutions help inform the decision to open a new PoP by providing traffic flow matrices between existing and prospect customers and partners to uncover new market opportunities within existing regions or by expanding in new geographies.
They also used the capabilities of our solution to offer customers the ability to capture visibility on their specific network traffic as well as mitigating DDoS attacks. This has become a revenue opportunity for them.
The Results
The benefits were realized in network design and capacity analysis, driven by network visibility and analysis. For example, when they open new PoPs, they can identify potential partners and content providers on this PoP based on traffic.
Other benefits are recognized in customer satisfaction due to fewer support tickets and a decrease in ticket resolution time. In addition, their customers also enjoy add-on services that show them what is happening on their networks, if they are moving a lot of traffic, plus how to avoid service problems and close customer complaints faster