NSN: How can MNOs Deal w/OTT Resource Consumption and Lost Revenues?

A post by Andrew Burell [pictured], Nokia Solutions and Networks, to the company blog says that "OTT is certainly not a lost cause to MNOs".

" .. [MNOs] see OTT applications such as Skype, WhatsApp and NetFlix piggy-backing on their network investments, clogging up resources and stealing their revenues. The figures themselves are certainly frightening. Every day 2,371 new applications are born, and a single ‘rogue’ app can generate 2,422 signaling messages per hour. By 2017, there will be 32 trillion messages sent by OTT messaging applications, and by 2020, operators stand to lose a cumulative total of $479 billion to OTT players.

.. With the right tariff structure for data-services in place, there are a number of different strategies that operators can successfully adopt to turn threat into opportunity. For example:

• Partnering with OTTs: ‘3’ offers subscribers a ‘Roaming Pass’ that allows them to use Whatsapp abroad with an inclusive data allowance
   
• Operators can launch proprietary services of their own: Verizon has followed this approach with its ‘Viewdini’ service – a mobile video aggregation portal that delivers mobile content from Netflix, Hulu and others.
   
• .. [NSN] Smart Labs and NPO (Network Planning and Optimization) expertise with performance proof points such as:
    
• Smart Labs research has shown that activation of WCDMA software suite features like Fast Dormancy Profiling can reduce signaling loads by 40%  [see "NSN: New Radio Software Reduces WCDMA Network Signaling" - here]
   
• Our NPO video optimization service was able to reduce content buffering by 30% for a major European operator

See "OTT – Horror movie or romantic comedy?" - here.

NSN: New Radio Software Reduces WCDMA Network Signaling

 
Nokia Siemens Networks launched "..new software applications for the Liquid Radio WCDMA Software Suite to help mobile broadband manage the smartphone boom and substantially reduce the network signaling overload .. 

• Fast Dormancy Profiling is a new Nokia Siemens Networks technology that identifies the legacy smartphones connecting to the network and eliminates the unnecessary signaling they often create. This application significantly reduces the air interface load on the Radio Network Controller (RNC). [see also "[NSN]: Chatty Android Phones should Move on to Network Controlled Fast Dormancy" - here]

• With Fast Cell PCH Switching, also a Nokia Siemens Networks technology, the network learns how specific smartphones are using the network services and shortcuts the signaling process for rapid call set-up, faster response from mobile broadband services and reduced signaling.

• High Speed Cell FACH enables networks to support more smartphones and provide faster services for subscribers using lower data volumes. It also significantly decreases signaling load between the RNC, base station and smartphone.

See "Liquid Radio WCDMA Software Suite helps operators reduce signaling, manage the smartphone traffic boom" - here.

[NSN]: Chatty Android Phones should Move on to Network Controlled Fast Dormancy

Nokia Siemens Networks continues to provide valuable information on traffic loads caused by signaling (see a related recent post - "VoIP Signaling Crashed NTT DoCoMo; Asks Google to help" - here).

This time, an article by Gerald Reddig (pictured) from Mobile Broadband Marketing, looks at ".. existing 3G smartphones that have been tested in our Nokia Siemens Networks Smart Labs using OTT Voice over IP applications Nimbuzz, GoogleTalk and Skype, the issue seems to be more about different smartphone behavior. This includes the signaling load during a Skype voice call on Samsung´s Android phones compared to Nokia phones and iPhones".

"The Android phones generated 600% more signaling traffic during VoIP calls .. These impressive results have recently convinced a number of device manufacturers using an Android operating system (OS) or a Blackberry OS to step back from proprietary device driven Fast Dormancy and move on to standardized Network Controlled Fast Dormancy .. As always-on OTT applications proliferate, developers and handset manufacturers will increasingly have to look at new ways to reduce signaling load".

Source: Nokia Siemens Networks

NSN: "VoIP Applications Create Huge Signaling Load"

 
Nokia Siemens Networks educates the market and pushes its solution for the mobile signaling problem for long time now, as many operators say it is a major problem both in terms of performance (traffic and long-living sessions) and well as battery draining issue for subscribers. This becomes even more relevant to NSN now, as mobile broadband becomes its main business focus (here).

A new post to the vendors' blog by Gerald Reddig (pictured), Global Marketing Manager, shows how "A European 3G network is benefiting from a 30% signaling traffic reduction, three months after Network Controlled Fast Dormancy (NCFD) was implemented by Nokia Siemens Networks ..  Nokia and Apple decided early on to support NCFD on their smartphones [here], with Blackberry [here] and Android OS device [here] manufacturers like Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson following suit"

",, Standardized in 3GPP Release 8 [see below], Nokia Siemens Networks’ Network Controlled Fast Dormancy or NCFD aids by acting as a more intermediate state: one with less signaling and faster reconnections"

"Nokia Siemens Networks’ Smart Labs [here] tested popular over-the-top (OTT) VoIP applications running on different smartphone operation systems. One of the results was the huge signaling load caused by VoIP applications in non-NCFD enabled smartphones – 600% more signaling traffic"

See "Faster connections, longer-lasting batteries: A fifth of all smartphones now benefit from Network Controlled Fast Dormancy" - here.

See also - "T-Mobile Netherlands Reduces Data Signaling by 30% with NSN Cell_PCH" - here and "SFR Deploys NSN Cell_PCH Optimization Technology" (here)

GSMA: Fast Dormancy Best Practices

NSN: Will 3G Signaling Problems Repeat in LTE? Maybe

 

I had a number of posts regarding the signaling problems and solutions in 3G networks (here) - an issue that Nokia Siemens Networks (here, here, here) and Huawei (here) are actively promoting.

A post by Vijay Sankaran (pictured), NSN, discusses whether we will face this problems in LTE as well:

"Will signaling require as much resources and attention in LTE as it has in 3G? The short answer is:  Definitely not!  . . . .maybe. The “Definitely not!” part of the answer comes from the point that LTE is structured quite differently from HSPA, and so LTE signaling is handled differently ..  However (and this is the “maybe”), it’s important for us to emphasize that we don’t have the end to end LTE smartphone environment in place yet, since by and large, the end device is still missing" : The good news is that through the Nokia Siemens Networks Smart Labs, we’re working with handset manufacturers to ensure that they understand the issues around the generation of excessive signaling now"

See "Will Signaling be a Problem in LTE?" - here

NSN: Android and Blackberry Phones Overload Networks with Signaling

     

Nokia Siemens Networks'  "Smart Lab" published a new whitepaper analyzing the problem of signaling traffic generated by smartphone in mobile networks. This keep-alive/chatty/heavy signaling problem is a real issue to both mobile operators (sometime even more than bandwidth usage) and to the customers.

The extensive use of signaling overloads network resources (beyond just bandwidth), drains batteries (both sides do not like that), resulting charges for traffic the subscriber is not aware off (see "Metering and Billing Wireless Data for 20M Subscribers is not Trivial" - here) and more. See more - "T-Mobile Netherlands Reduces Data Signaling by 30% with NSN Cell_PCH" (here) and "StarHub Uses Huawei to Reduce Network Signaling by 83%" (here)

See "Understanding Smartphone Behavior in the Network" - here.

NSN says that while total traffic in Western Europe grew by 65% between December 2009 and July 2010, signaling traffic grew by 177% (without signaling optimization).

   

Nevertheless, while Apple iOS devices (here) are compatible with the 3GPP Fast Dormancy feature, used to solve the problem (and implemented by NSN's Cell_PCH feature), NSN finds that both Google's Android and RIM's Blackberry phones are generating much more signaling than the share of the total traffic, while laptop dongles (generating 60% of traffic) only generate 1% of signaling traffic (see charts) and are not supporting Fast Dormancy correctly.

SFR Deploys NSN Cell_PCH Optimization Technology

  

Nokia Siemens Networks announced today it "has already provided Radio Network Controllers along with Cell_PCH technology that helps conserve smartphone battery life by handling signaling traffic more intelligently and decreasing signaling load on the network" to SFR, the 2nd largest mobile operator in France with over 20M mobile customers.

See "Nokia Siemens Networks upgrades SFR 3G network, showcases double-speed mobile broadband" - here.

See "NSN: New iPhone OS Saves Network Resources" - here for more details on the technology and its importance to mobile operators.

NSN: New iPhone OS Saves Network Resources

 

Leslie Shannon, from NSN's Network Systems’ Mobile Broadband team reports in the NSN blog that "With its latest iPhone iOs 4.2 software, it looks like Apple is joining efforts to cut smartphone signalling down to size. Tests by Nokia Siemens Networks have shown that iPhone iOs 4.2  supports a technology called Network Controlled Fast Dormancy, which we have already introduced into our networks".

See "New iPhone OS supports our network technology to boost smartphone performance" - here.

See background - "NSN and Qualcomm Show 50% More Efficient Signaling" - here and "StarHub Uses Huawei to Reduce Network Signaling by 83%"- here.

"One Middle Eastern operator, for instance, found that smartphones on a NSN network had a battery life of 11 hours compared to six hours on a competing network. Meanwhile, testing in North America found that our smart networks generate up to 50% less smartphone signalling".

NSN and Qualcomm Show 50% More Efficient Signaling

   

Nokia Siemens announced that a "test was conducted .. [with] Flexi Multiradio Base Station and Radio Network Controller and Qualcomm's QSC7230 smartphone optimized chipset .. showed that operators with multivendor networks can benefit from Nokia Siemens Networks’ uniquely deployed Cell_PCH functionality that prolongs mobile device battery life and handles signaling up to 50% more efficiently. Nearly 100 operators worldwide have already deployed Nokia Siemens Networks’ Cell_PCH functionality."

See "Nokia Siemens Networks collaborates with Qualcomm to optimize smartphone performance" - here.

This kind of a follow-up to a previous announcement - "NSN CEO: “Finding ways to support the 10,000% increase in smartphone generated data traffic by 2015 is vital for operators worldwide” - here), although the test was conducted at Nokia Siemens Networks’ Smart Lab in Dallas rather the new facility in Madrid.

"The new Release 8 Fast Dormancy feature is designed to optimize the performance of both the wireless terminal and network," said Alex Katouzian, vice president of product management at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "It enables a consistent improvement in battery life and signaling efficiency on multivendor networks for a wide range of mobile broadband devices, such as smartphones, netbook/tablet PCs and laptops. The test clearly demonstrates the benefit of leading network vendors and terminal platform providers working together.

Related post - "Optimization Deployments (30): StarHub Uses Huawei to Reduce Network Signaling by 83%"- here.