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The rapid adoption of sophisticated mobile data devices – such as those powered by Google Inc.’s Android operating system and Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPad – are powering an explosion of traffic volume on wireless networks around the world. Users are increasingly consuming video and other data-intensive applications that generate a magnitude of traffic far greater than that produced by web browsing.
As a majority of network operators have already seen, the growth of mobile data traffic has resulted in significant network congestion and therefore a diminished user experience. At the same time, consumers are using mobile devices to perform tasks that they had previously performed on desktop computers over high-speed broadband connections. They expect the same level of experience on their high-end mobile devices, further exacerbating the quality of service issue. The gap between user expectations and congestion-impacted service is not only frustrating to consumers, but also creates new challenges for operators.
Many network operators are looking toward the next generation of wireless technology – Long Term Evolution (LTE) – to provide a solution to the problem. LTE introduces the most sweeping changes for mobile networks in years. This next-generation technology promises to offer an all-IP network, lower power requirements and a quadrupling of capacity. However, while LTE represents major improvements over third-generation network infrastructure, it does not overcome some of the inherent limitations of wireless networks.
Generally, wireless networks have significantly lower capacity thresholds than wireline networks. Despite the progressive migration to the next generations of wireless technology, spectral efficiency has doubled only once every five years. This pales in comparison with the current growth of data demand – which is doubling every year. As a result, LTE alone will not be sufficient for operators to meet the mobile data traffic requirements of the future.
The history of wireless network evolution has taught us that an improved user experience, enabled by higher network speeds, increases demand for more capable devices – and, consequently, traffic volumes. With smart phone penetration at around 20% worldwide and tablet adoption already in the single digits, there is clearly an acceleration of growth to come.
Multiple options
Technologies such as LTE lower the cost of data service delivery for operators, which are then able to pass the cost savings on to their customers and remain competitive. Lower pricing also drives increased adoption of high-end data devices, which in turn results in additional data consumption. The all-IP architecture of LTE technology also opens the door for a much wider range of data devices on the mobile network – such as security video cameras – which will likely accelerate consumer demand for data even further. Far from being a solution to mobile data traffic growth, LTE may actually drive it.
Luckily, operators have a number of options available to help them address this challenge. They can offload traffic from wireless networks using femtocells and Wi-Fi. Offloading bypasses the operator’s network through a personal network and therefore alleviates congestion. This is particularly useful in high-density urban areas where each cell is highly loaded. Operators are increasingly experimenting with both femtocells and Wi-Fi base stations in chronically congested locations such as New York City. However, such technologies do not provide blanket coverage as cell towers do and can offload only a small portion of traffic.
Another option available to operators is data traffic optimization. Optimization removes inefficiencies in the way content is transmitted to users, with techniques that prevent unused data from being transmitted and reduce connection overhead. Optimization positively impacts the most popular mobile applications, such as web browsing and video, to reduce network data traffic by up to half. As a result, operators are able to manage congestion and improve the user experience. With traffic growing over 100% each year, the performance impact of 50% data reduction can further benefit from efficient traffic management.
Traffic management is a versatile tool that helps operators address the data surge in multiple ways. It allows operators to enforce policies in their network that help them alleviate congestion and manage traffic growth. Operators can apply rules that impose upper limits on the amount of bandwidth that users can consume during peak hours, which eases network congestion. Traffic management can prioritize delay-sensitive traffic such as voice and video, which improves the overall user experience. It can also be used to influence subscriber behavior by enforcing plans that charge according to data consumption patterns.
Traffic management will play a critical role in all-IP networks like LTE as well as future generations to come. Since IP is a best-effort delivery protocol, ensuring QoS is vital for voice and other delay-sensitive mobile traffic. Traffic management is one of the key technologies that will help enforce end-to-end QoS in the LTE environment.
No single solution
Each of the solutions described above approaches the mobile bandwidth issue from a different angle. Operators will need to deploy a combination of these technologies to ensure maximum impact. LTE and offloading will help to create additional network capacity. However, as we have seen from previous generations of wireless technology, consumer demand inevitably exceeds bandwidth.
Optimization and traffic management not only reduce the amount of traffic on mobile networks, but also help to improve the overall user experience. These technologies provide device – and application – aware intelligence in the network and allow operators to achieve the best utilization of their existing network assets, including spectrum. Together with LTE, they can help operators meet explosive traffic demand and high user expectations.
Joel Brand is VP of Product Management at Bytemobile, where he is responsible for managing and marketing the company’s portfolio of mobile internet infrastructure solutions.
