Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reader Forum section. In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers we have created this forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but maintain some editorial control so as to keep it free of commercials or attacks. Please send along submissions for this section to our editors at: dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
“A small coffee, please.” – As the barista uses a tablet to take your order, you check the balance of your bank account and look at the weather forecast on your smartphone. When your coffee arrives, you sit down and scroll through the latest news headlines on your smartphone. Convenient and easy, right?
Yet what if none of these applications transmitted quickly or accurately to the barista’s tablet or your smartphone? In today’s connected world, this idea is unthinkable. With millions of devices in use every day, operator traditional approaches to managing networks are no longer practical. As mobile devices and services become more diverse and prevalent, data traffic floods the network. Simply deploying more bandwidth is not enough. Operators want highly-adaptable networks that can keep up with rapidly-evolving devices, while also providing the best possible experience and service for their customers. Equally important, they want networking solutions that can support new business models, as well as help them reduce costs, boost revenues and strengthen profitability. But what solution can operators use to meet all these needs? The answer is the smart mobile Internet.
What is the smart mobile Internet?
The smart mobile Internet gives operators visibility into the network. Visibility gives operators control over the network, enabling them to optimize it for their own needs and for the needs of their customers. Network intelligence also allows operators to create new revenue streams from the applications and services riding on it.
Using its intelligence, the smart mobile Internet transforms the network from “big dumb pipes” into a dynamic, adaptable infrastructure that:
–enables operators to develop new business models;
–positions them to profit from the content moving across the network;
–uses spectrum and backhaul capacity more efficiently and cost-effectively to reduce costs and strengthen margins;
–delivers high capacity, when and where it is needed;
–provides scalability, security and quality of service;
–enhances each user’s quality of experience;
–handles one off events without bringing down the network or QoE.
The challenges facing operators
The rapid evolution of the mobile ecosystem requires networks to keep pace with ever-more-powerful devices, applications and services. It’s not possible to predict which new devices and services will emerge, or how they will affect users’ lives. But one prediction is certain – the rate of change and the volume of traffic will accelerate. This increased volume of traffic threatens to overwhelm network capacity and hinder its performance. If operators want to remain competitive, their networks must evolve into highly adaptable infrastructures which provide the highest-possible user QoE. Operators’ business models must evolve beyond simply charging customers for bandwidth use. A recent study warns that the current business model, the increase in data traffic, and declining revenues per bit could eliminate operators’ profits within three years.
Making the traditional business model even more vulnerable is the emergence of over-the-top content and service providers. Competitors such as Netflix, Skype, Facebook, Twitter and Apple’s iTunes deliver vast amounts of both paid and advertising-supported content directly to users’ smart mobile devices. In addition to straining network capacity, that content generates little or no revenue for operators. The growing subscriber demand for OTT content forces network operators to supply bigger and fatter pipes adding more cost and lowering their competitive edge. Operators have their hands full with business model challenges. And just as operators struggle with these issues, they are also making the transition from TDM- to IP-based infrastructures and from 2G/3G to 4G technologies.
A new approach to solving these challenges
These complex challenges are forcing operators to re-think how they build and manage their mobile networks. In voice-centric 2G networks, operators engineered the network by optimizing hardware and software components to deliver the best-possible performance. For today’s 2G/2.5G/3G networks – with their voice and data services – most operators engineer traffic to improve network performance. They use the network’s awareness of the data packets traversing it to identify different traffic types and apply appropriate policy rules to each one. The awareness also enables operators to allocate bandwidth dynamically and improve latency and throughput through load-balancing.
But the 4G world changes the demands. For 4G, operators must engineer not only their networks and the traffic, but applications as well. Application engineering depends on the network’s ability to gather deeper, more accurate and broader real-time information about user sessions. The network’s ability depends on intelligence distributed from the network core to the edge and from Layer 3 (the network layer) all the way up to the Layer 7 (the application layer).
The smart mobile Internet uses distributed intelligence to provide information on user content and context, such as what application is being used, where the user is located and the class of service that needs to be delivered, as spelled out by tariff and contract. Armed with that knowledge, operators – and sometimes the network itself – can optimize the network to manage traffic and dynamically provision resources to ensure all applications deliver the best-possible performance.
This content- and context-awareness also enables operators to create and bill for smart personalized services. Individually and through partnerships with third parties, users can monitor their children’s Internet activities, watch a lot of video on their devices or play online games. These personalized experiences from the smart mobile Internet enhance the users QoE, while also helping operators create new, additional revenue streams and reduce costs.
Building the smart mobile Internet
The smart mobile Internet’s foundation requires a platform designed to accommodate the huge traffic volumes originating from a wide variety of devices. Built for 4G, WiMAX, LTE and 3G compatibility, an advanced platform functions as:
–a distributed LTE gateway in front of the core in 3G networks;
–a packet data network gateway, a gateway GPRS support node, a serving gateway, a femto gateway and a mobility management entity in HSPA and LTE networks;
–an access service network gateway, home agent, mobile Internet gateway and pico and femto gateways in WiMAX networks;
–as a data and signaling gateway in fully evolved LTE networks;
–as a PCRF/PCEF interface for validating and enforcing rules and policies.
Smart enough to keep customers happy
The smart mobile Internet moves operators from the unsustainable dumb-pipe business to a highly-adaptable and smart infrastructure. By engineering and optimizing the user experience, operators become stronger competitors. And customers do not need to worry about service but can enjoy their coffee while scrolling through the latest news headlines.
