Most operators need to manage a huge estate of CPEs, both consumer and business oriented. So, how can you assure that continuous upgrades, updates, new services, and security patches operate effectively and according to compliance regulations across the entire environment?

Many operators have deployed significant numbers of CPE devices – the vital link to service delivery into homes and businesses alike. They include consumer devices, like home routers and modems, as well as set top boxes, as well as business-grade routers and other, more specialised kit sold to enterprises.

This CPE footprint can run to many millions of devices – all of which need to be managed remotely through their lifecycles. They are essential for connecting to services – both those provided by the operator and those that may be accessed via your networks. And, typically, performance expectations and requirements are set by regulators – who enforce SLAs that cover upload and download performance, within the terms of user agreements and packages, as well as service obligations that are generally applicable.

But not only do CPE devices provide access to these services, but they also support regulated services, like emergency calling.

All of which means that your CPE footprint is an integral part of the overall and huge asset base and infrastructure of operators – and part of the critical core network that operators need to protect at a significant scale.

CPE represents a huge vulnerability to operator networks

Keeping and managing control of CPE is therefore a huge task, but it also represents a significant threat landscape for operators, providing potential access to security threats. The CPE footprint is not static, either – there are frequent updates and patches that need to be rolled out remotely to ensure that they perform as expected and are safeguarded.

At the same time, any update to CPEs must be completely aligned with compliance and regulation rules, such as NIS-2, the Telecoms Security Act (TSA).

For example, the CRA (Cyber Resilience Act), enacted into EU law on 11 December 2024, is aimed at boosting awareness around the security of consumer devices and educating end users about how to configure the settings of their devices correctly to ensure security resilience.

The CRA explicitly calls out different kinds of remote equipment that it covers – using the term PDE, or Products with Digital Elements. This list includes, but is not limited to:

• Smartphones and laptops
• Sensors and cameras
• Smart cards
• Network switches
• Security control systems
• Routers
• Set-top boxes
• Device components, such as chips, video processing units, hard drives, and so on.
• Connected home appliances
• Firmware, operating systems, mobile and desktop apps, video games, and more.

As can be seen from the perspective of operator-supplied CPE, this includes those key routers and set-top boxes that are deployed in such numbers. It also, by the by, includes any IoT devices that you may be supplying or intend to supply, so it’s clearly a wide-ranging law.

The net result, though, is that your CPE estate must be managed accurately, securely, and with vigilance. Before rolling out an automated update or security patch, these need to be validated and tested – which means you need a rolling cycle of assurance that covers your planned release activities - and which offers the flexibility for unplanned events. You can’t push something out to millions of homes without ensuring that it delivers according to requirements and that it presents no risk. Equally, you need to be able to reliably and accurately replicate your procedures, so that you can make upgrades according to your schedules.

This includes pre-launch validation and testing of all software and security patches, and ongoing active monitoring of their performance to ensure there are no unexpected problems to QoE or QoS, once they are in service.

The practice of ensuring consistent, reliable performance (and minimising those costly support calls and customer service interactions) gets even more complex when one considers that most operators will also supply CPE from different vendors. These will have the same stated functionality ,but they may also react differently to updates or upgrades and security patches.

Moreover, many operators are also seeking to deliver more solutions into homes and businesses, supporting other services they wish to deliver. It’s difficult to know how each CPE, new or old, will react to any update. It means that CPEs are a vulnerable access point into the network.

Emergency services and CPE

Another important consideration is that CPE may also be involved in the support of a crucial, regulated service: emergency calling.

The provision of emergency service calls and services are set down in legislation. Pre-testing and validation, and on-going continuous monitoring, is therefore mandatory. The support for vital emergency service access is also a must. Then, and not least, we must also consider the introduction of new, previously unknown, AI-enabled devices and services. What effect will they have?

How can operators meet all these challenges over such a vast and expanding CPE estate that spans consumers, as well as businesses of all sizes?

You can find out in our new case study – which also explores how we’ve helped one leading European operator with millions of CPE devices to deliver a rolling test and validation programme that covers the full lifecycle of each device it offers, through ongoing update and maintenance cycles.

Emblasoft Evolver enables automated functional and performance testing, as well as active monitoring, of CPE devices. It supports large-scale validation and repeatable automated test cycles, helping you to ensure reliable performance, service continuity, and security across your entire CPE environments.

How Emblasoft Evolver can solve the problem

Read our new case study to find out how we help – from batch testing all new releases and updates across different CPE types before deployment in live networks, to validating functionality and performance.

We help you to ensure multi-vendor compliance across all compliance requirements, with complete audit trail reports, while ensuring security reporting requirements for the entire partnership supply chain.

Evolver ensures that key assets are validated as part of cyber defence and resilience programmes. In addition, it assures compliance with emergency call obligations. It also enables continuous post-deployment active monitoring to measure the ongoing performance of all updates, new launches, and security patches.

To read more, and explore our operator case study, click here to find out about Emblasoft Evolver’s exceptional capabilities and functionality that can assure your CPE estate.