Mobile Virtual Network Operator Systems on Cloud: An Architectural and Cost-benefit Study

Cloud computing technology is growing rapidly in the market providing elasticity, virtualization and most importantly cost savings to the computing industry. Today, telecom operators especially MVNOs face challenges such as reduction of ARPU, need of differentiations and competition from all fronts of software industry. Cloud provides major opportunities to telecom operators to reduce their operational costs, drive new differentiations and be active in cloud ecosystem. Telecom operators can take advantages of cloud by selling the cloud offerings to their customers by using already established infrastructure as well as by using cloud to deploy their own software systems to reduce operational costs. In this research, the techno-economic analysis has been carried out to analyse implementation of telecom systems on cloud in Business Support Systems domain. The research focuses on application mapping strategy required and financial cost benefits gained for MVNOs if their systems are implemented on cloud. The thesis research involves Delphi method based study in which expert interviews are conducted in two rounds to get expert views on the subject. The responses and related analyses are drawn while introducing a proof-of-concept hybrid cloud architecture to implement MVNO systems. An innovative solution of billing-as a-service on cloud is discussed in the thesis as well. The implications and future prospects are presented evaluating the thesis results. In the end, conclusion is derived to summarize the thesis research. In summary, most of the MVNO systems are viable candidates for cloud implementation and significant benefits can be achieved. Cloud will help MVNOs to make transition from CAPEX to OPEX based model while reducing OPEX and gaining other advantages like economy of scale, SaaS based solutions, lower time to-market, enhanced performance etc. There are certain implications related to data security, availability and government regulations which can impose difficulties on MVNO systems while moving them to the cloud. However, the future of cloud in telecom industry seems bright with emergence of everything-as-a-service model