By
Allan Benchetrit*, President & CEO,
Vantrix
Short and long-term options for mobile operator network capacity to ensure stable video experiences for their subscribers
Over the last several years we’ve seen the mobile landscape headed further and further down a video-centric path; unfortunately most mobile operator networks are challenged to handle the demand with consumer demand for mobile video. Cisco’s latest
Visual Network Index Report indicates that 50% of worldwide mobile data traffic this year alone will be video and that over the next five years, video traffic will grow 26-fold, reaching 6.3 exabytes per month by 2015. In addition Yankee Group estimates the number of global mobile video and TV users will grow to approximately 450 million by 2014 – a jump from 250 million estimated users in 2010.
Device Evolution, Fueling Network Capacity Crunch
These spikes are, in large part, driven by media-enabled devices such as the iPhone and iPad that feed users’ hunger for mobile video and data. According to Cisco, in 2010 three million tablets connected to mobile networks, generating five times more traffic than the average smartphone. Combined with the steady growth of smartphone sales–
Android sales reached nearly 33 million in Q4 2010 alone – these numbers underscore what experts have known for some time: today’s mobile subscribers are motivated by media-enabled devices , and they are fueling record bandwidth consumption; this presents a serious threat to mobile networks.
Mechanisms for Change
The mobile industry is at a tipping point, and the way network operators and technology innovators respond will determine both the short and long-term health of the world’s mobile networks. The industry has offered several, many of which are complimentary, solutions to curb data usage and alleviate networks at maximum capacity. Here are some of the options, timeframe for deployment/impact and associated costs:
Mechanism | Time to Impact | Cost |
Metered Usage and capped data plans | This can be introduced in a 1-2 years with most operators requiring sophisticated tools for charging differentially per service, subscriber, and content. | $$ |
Intelligent Traffic Management such as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), Policy and Charging Rule Function (PCRF), Flexible Billing Systems | Currently available and being deployed. Network impact in 1 to 2 years.
| $$ |
Network Infrastructure upgrades such as LTE, 4G, additional spectrum, increase number of cell sites | 5-10 year operator strategy | $$$ |
Offload traffic to femtocells or mobile CDN | Mid-term solution. Network impact in 3-5 years | $$$ |
Bandwidth Optimization including transcoding, adaptive bit rate and adaptive streaming | Network impact in less than one year | $ |
Cost legend:
$ = Millions of dollars
$$= Tens of millions of dollars
$$$= Hundreds of millions of dollars
The evolution of mobile networks and devices that are spurring consumer creativity and usage in the last few years is certainly exciting for operators, handset manufacturers, vendors and subscribers. Yet to ensure that the mobile evolution, and in some cases revolution continues, the industry must address bandwidth challenges that are currently and will continue to pose challenges to growth, ARPU and customer satisfaction. With Bandwidth Optimization, or the ability to maximize the network capacity providers currently have, they are able to make adjustments to the way in which mobile operators deliver content to end-users on-the-fly. Bandwidth Optimization can stop the network “waste” incurred by delivering videos “just in time” to smartphones, tablets and laptops. In doing so, and by overlaying other important lossy and lossless techniques, Bandwidth Optimization can effectively free up a significant amount of network capacity, thereby reducing the OPEX and CAPEX investments necessary to run converged multimedia.
With every day the bandwidth crunch is left ignored, operators are losing customers to the competition. Our industry needs to address the video growth now, in a holistic fashion. It has to become a core competency of network operators, just like voice or messaging have been until now.
*
Allan Benchetrit has over 20 years of experience in the Information, Communication and Technology industry. He began his career in 1987 as an account manager for Dun & Bradstreet before receiving a graduate degree in business. He went on to hold sales, marketing, and executive management positions at HP, Oracle, and Wysdom, and is co-founder of Vantrix.
Allan holds a BA in Political Science from Concordia University and an MBA from the John Molson School of Business in Montreal.
ABI Research announced it has evaluated the "..leading vendors for Video, Audio, Web and Data Optimization the Gi-LAN space, and finds Citrix ByteMobile with the most compelling total value proposition, followed by Openwave Mobility and Ericsson. ABI Research finds web and video optimization performance as mainly determined by the x86 architecture, and the vendors differentiate along the lines of packaging and the depth of value adding features such as monetization, big data analytics and traffic management bundles.
Joe Hoffman [pictured], Practice Director, ABI Research said: “Nobody buys just video optimization, and now that the fundamental technologies are commoditized table stakes, we enrich the evaluation to consider the total value proposition including analytics and monetization, When an operator buys into one of these solutions, it is economically efficient to consider the big picture bundle.” 
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