{"id":1554,"date":"2018-09-12T15:14:17","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T15:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-infoblox-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=1554"},"modified":"2020-12-05T17:29:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-06T01:29:15","slug":"5g-the-perfect-storm-endangering-dpi-approaches-to-subscriber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infoblox.com\/blog\/community\/5g-the-perfect-storm-endangering-dpi-approaches-to-subscriber\/","title":{"rendered":"5G \u2013 The Perfect Storm Endangering DPI Approaches to Subscriber Services"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past decade, many service providers have used Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) or proxy-based approaches to deliver subscriber services such as content filtering\/parental control and end-user security services.\u00a0 It\u2019s a relatively simple concept to understand \u2013 all user traffic flows through the DPI tool, and pre-defined filtering and security policies are applied.<\/p>\n

Simple right \u2013 so what\u2019s the issue?<\/p>\n

The biggest issue is the simple statement of \u201call user traffic flows through the DPI tool.\u201d\u00a0 Before we had billions of mobile devices using latency-sensitive applications consuming massive amounts of bandwidth, the DPI or proxy approach was viable and relatively cost-effective.<\/p>\n

However, over the past several years, the explosion in the number of mobile and IP-enabled devices and the bandwidth they consume have put extreme pressure on DPI solutions.\u00a0 Most service providers cannot afford to simply keep throwing more capacity at the problem (and this doesn\u2019t even include the management challenge and cost of dealing with growing number of DPI appliances spread across the SP core).<\/p>\n

And just when you thought it couldn\u2019t get worse, here comes 5G.\u00a0 If you thought the growth of the past several years has been challenging, you haven\u2019t seen anything yet.\u00a0 A recent\u00a0McKinsey & Company report<\/a>\u00a0predicts that the growing demand driving an upgrade to 5G will increase network-related capital expenditures by approximately 60 percent from 2020 through 2025.<\/p>\n

The strain 5G deployments will put on service providers will be tantamount to an ever-growing tornado of pain; enhanced mobile broadband will increase the growth of the Internet of Thing (IoT) devices, which will, in turn, drive new applications that increase bandwidth consumption.\u00a0 So the simple approach of \u201csniff all traffic\u201d cannot keep up without extreme investments of DPI capacity.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a simple look at the economics with some rudimentary calculations.\u00a0 If the service provider has close to a 100% adoption rate for value-added parental control or security subscriber services, the fact that all traffic is analyzed regardless of whether the traffic stems from a paid subscriber is less important.\u00a0 The reality, however, is that no provider is close to that penetration rate.<\/p>\n

Assume a European provider has an \u201copt-out\u201d approach and an atypically high 35% of its customers are paying for content filtering.\u00a0 In the DPI approach, for every million dollars in DPI investment, $650,000 is wasted analyzing traffic for non-paying customers.\u00a0 And if you look at other markets such as North America where \u201copt-in\u201d is more prevalent, and penetration rates hover around 10%, 90 cents of every dollar is spent monitoring traffic where the SP gets no incremental compensation.<\/p>\n

If you are a service provider today using a DPI or proxies approach for subscriber services, there are a few areas of consideration for you to address:<\/p>\n