Fast Data Use Cases for Telecommunications

Big data is data at rest. Fast data is data in motion: a relentless stream of events generated by humans and machines that must be analyzed and acted upon in real time. Data is fast before it becomes big through export to a long-term data store.

Fast data applications must ingest vast amounts of streaming data while maintaining real-time analytics and making instant decisions on the live data stream. A fast data application in a telco might enforce policies, make personalized real-time offers to subscribers, allocate network resources, or order predictive maintenance based on Internet of Things (IoT) sensor data.

This ebook covers not only why telcos need fast data but also the technical characteristics of several telco-specific fast data use cases and examples of real-life deployments. VoltDB is an in-memory, NewSQL database that became popular with telcos for its ability to handle the speed and scale of fast data. This ebook reflects the experiences of VoltDB engineers and customers who have deployed multiple telco fast data use cases.

“Telecom is really hard,” says Michael Pogany, head of business development in VoltDB’s Telecom Solutions Group. “Telecom is unique. Our telecom clients are the most demanding and the most visionary of our customers.”

Why Telcos Need Fast Data

Telco networks have always generated fast data at line speed. In telco use cases like policy management, decisions are already made on that data in near real-time. ...