Cost analysis of the service migration problem between communication platforms

Abstract

Increased competition in the telecommunications industry pushes network operators to rationalize their total costs. Models and simulations appear as major tools aiming at better understanding the expenditures and to allow a more realistic network planning. However, their focus was, in the past, mostly limited to infrastructure investments. Because emerging services pose special requirements towards the networks, operators have not only to extend the capacity of their transport networks, but also need to optimize the architecture for differentiated services with advanced packet switching technologies, referred to as Next Generation Networks (NGN). During network evolution with disruptive technology changes, a general problem faced by network operators is the service migration of active services from an existing platform into a newly setup platform. This work investigates strategies for service migration at minimized overall operational costs. A novel service migration cost model based on queueing theory and hill climbing optimization is provided in order to tackle the employee allocation optimization problem. Based on this framework, a thorough techno-economic analysis of costs and benefits is presented.