Mobile data network analysis platform

In this paper we present a platform installed inside a French mobile operator's network. This platform is able to capture around 20Gb/s per network probe in the operator's Points Of Presence (POPs), capable of extracting useful information at wire speed, and storing it for offline analysis. We detail how efficient network probes can be built using off-the-shelf hardware and software. We describe preliminary experiments which demonstrate that our system can easily extract and process the signaling traffic generated by the connections of a large number of mobile devices (on the order of 50 million signaling messages per hour). This platform is designed to exploit the user traffic as well as the signaling flows and thus to produce performance indicators of Quality of Service (QoS), detecting suspicious traffic or even studying mobility. Moreover, since mobile operators are gradually switching their networks toward full IP, the data mobile network will become the place where everything transits, voice and data.