User Services Platform TR-369

What is User Services Platform?

The User Services Platform (USP) is an evolution of the Broadband Forum's CPE WAN Management Protocol (CWMP), commonly known as TR-069, with critical new functionality supporting real-time monitoring, telemetry, and bulk statistics collection for big data processing, as well as enhance remote management, service provisioning, and configuration of end-user connected devices.

USP provides the platform to support the introduction of next-generation TR-369 devices and related IP services such as wireless meshes, smart-home automation, customer self-care, and IoT.

What USP offers global service providers

In today's competitive market, service providers are facing mounting pressure to improve quality of experience in the home Wi-Fi network and find ways to deliver new value-added services to customers.

The new TR-369 USP standard offers a faster, scalable, and more secure way of managing the lifecycle of connected devices to ensure a quality user experience, regardless of protocol or device type. USP is more efficient in reducing complexity and increasing performance for multi-vendor, IoT-ready connected home environments, as well as supporting virtualized technologies to enable new service offerings.

The connected home has become an integral part of the broadband network, and effectively managing it has become key to delivering a quality end-to-end experience to subscribers. Establishing reliable broadband performance and innovating service offerings around the connected home ecosystem will be key factors in operators' differentiation and revenue generation strategies. The Broadband Forum’s User Services Platform (USP) standard is vital to this success as it was designed to help deploy, implement, and manage all aspects of the in-home Wi-Fi network.

A new report commissioned by the Broadband Forum and sponsored by Incognito provides a comprehensive view of the latest trends and developments surrounding the connected home and USP. With the home network now so vital to supporting the high-quality broadband services and applications we use every day, the report seeks to shed light on how operators are managing complexity within the connected home, new business opportunities enabled by USP, and how open standards can enable a better-connected world.

Improving quality of experience

The report revealed that service providers are now actively investing more in the home network to address consumer dissatisfaction surrounding home Wi-Fi-related issues, which now accounts for up to 60% of all inbound customer service calls and is the leading driver behind customer churn.

By improving control over the home network, service providers have been able to boost their Net Promotor Scores (NPS) by as much as 40 points, reduce service calls by up to 60%, reduce truck rolls by up to 30%, and increase the number of customers subscribed to premium broadband tiers by 45%.

Premium value-added services

While it’s imperative to develop a highly efficient Wi-Fi network, service providers also need to invest and innovate around broadband services to improve the customer experience and drive ARPU.

When it comes to delivering new value-added services to customers, the top priorities are applications that deliver online protection and parental controls, while remote technical support and application prioritization controls follow closely behind. Given people's increasingly remote lifestyle, applications that provide more control over the in-home Wi-Fi network have become crucial.

Top use cases around USP

The report highlighted that for service providers to overcome industry fragmentation and take advantage of new revenue-generating opportunities, new open standards are a must. The advent of User Services Platform (USP) stands to be a game-changer for the broadband industry.

According to service providers, the top use cases that will be enabled by USP technology are managed Wi-Fi services and Wi-Fi optimization, virtualized services running on CPE devices, and smart home/IoT managed services. Over 75% of service providers surveyed said they plan to implement USP into their networks within the next 12 months.

Problem: Between IoT applications and Wi-Fi mesh solutions, the number of connected devices in the home network is rapidly increasing, amplifying the need for real-time and scalable remote device management.

USP Solution: USP implements always-on communication which significantly reduces the number of messages sent across a network. Binary data encoding using protocol buffers and relative path usage significantly decreases the size of messages that are sent across the network.

Problem: There is increasing pressure on service providers to improve the quality of experience in the home Wi-Fi network. This requires proactive tools and performance analytics to keep subscribers happy.

USP Solution: Once home Wi-Fi network data has been collected, service providers have the opportunity to analyze and act on real-time deep edge intelligence to deliver personalized services to subscribers and improve customer care applications.

Problem: With the volume of inbound support calls to customer care related to technical issues happening in the home Wi-Fi network on the rise, the pressure is on service providers to improve the home user experience while reducing operational costs.

USP Solution: USP provides both end-users and service providers with the ability to view, manage, and troubleshoot connected devices for standards-based Wi-Fi optimization, improving the in-home network experience.

Incognito Insights on USP

What is TR-369 User Services Platform (USP) and what's in it for global service providers?

The Future of the Connected Home

Access the Incognito summary of the 2021 report

Improving quality of experience

Premium value-added services

Top use cases around USP

What Are the Top Use Cases Around USP?

Benefits of USP

For Product & Innovation Teams

For Network Operations Teams

Register for a free USP consultation with Incognito