2. APPLICATION NOTE
Abstract
Today’s mobile network is akin to high speed highway. And so is the speed
of consumer consuming bandwidth as if it was unlimited. Every capacity
that carriers create is being utilized quickly. Facing limited bandwidth and
increasing demands, carriers have responded in ways that are not
consumer friendly for some parts with shockingly excessive bills and
attempts for forced throttling.
Smartphone owners use their device primarily for surfing the web, checking
email, and using apps; with the least time spent actually making phone
calls. This smart device is somehow indispensible and has become a
lifestyle necessity without absence of use. It is the first thing we check every
morning. The last thing we check at the end of the day, closely guarding our
most important information and point of connection to work, business and
leisure activities.
As a result of the data wave, there are opportunities that are being created,
one that takes advantage of the data being generated in a way that
enhances the user experience and provides value. On the flip side, the data
traffic will continue to grow rapidly where carriers are struggling to off-set
their revenue leakage with network investments. Topping the list of carrier
concerns; enabling customers to access content and services from every
device that they use seamlessly whilst having a sense of control over the
level of deployment economically and rapidly.
Given the increase in the number of permutations of device and content
available out there, a move towards web-based cloud solutions will
inevitably form the need for more mobility and efficiency in delivery.
This paper will discuss the implications of the emergence of multifunction,
multi-radio systems and multiplatform application and services that are
driving forward seamless mobility in the pretext of “now” that allows users
to transparently access network connections and ensure session
persistence across varied connections for consistent experience together
with issues of seamless mobility including services that support the full
range of applications voice, data, video, and messaging via smart device
that is able to interface to 3G, 4G, LTE and Wi-Fi networks in a seamless
offload environment.
3. APPLICATION NOTE
Contents
Overview 01
Marrying Content and Experience with Mobility 03
Smarter Data Meet Smarter Networks
Ready to Automate, Inter-Work and Mobilize
Springboard to Global Connectedness
Is Your Network Mobility Enabled? 06
Making Seamless Mobility Real with Greenpacket 07
Engaging Next Generation Services
Matching Seamless Connectivity with Mobility
Conclusion 10
Take Your Network on the Road to Mobility 11
4. APPLICATION NOTE Overview - 01
Overview
The drive for smartphone sales can be contributed to the addiction to
information. The consumer’s relationship with their smartphones is so
strong that it may be more important than the personal computer (PC)
once was. The volume of smartphones purchased by consumers,
in addition to the demand for rich content proficiencies is putting a
tremendous burden on operators who are forced to meet the demand.
Moreover, the values of the information that are downloaded, shared, or
used are largely driven in the ability to make it consumable in the present
moment. Some examples of which; Can I re-schedule my business trip?
What is the weather forecast today? When is that meeting? Can I
telecommute and work on the presentation? Where’s the nearest
Starbucks? How do I get there? Who’s listening to music on Spotify?
It will come as no surprise, as smartphones shipment will eclipse the
combined total of PCs and laptops for the first time in 2013, according to
IDC1. The iPhone had tremendously changed user behaviors. Prior to
that, users were contented with call quality and the cost of the device.
Those are no longer determinants. It is more about easy access to data,
price plans and value-added service today. But, it is also these factors
that are squeezing the pockets of carriers. Taking a different approach,
carriers can leverage on their strengths that prioritize the user experience
to turn the challenge into opportunity.
Taking a phased approach to enhance the existing macro network and
plan the integration of Wi-Fi or small cells can deliver greater capacity and
enhance the user experience as well as help reduce total cost of
ownership by up to 20 percent, as reported in some Wi-Fi success
stories. Over and above, the increasing talk of seamless roaming and
global mobility is already on the road to reality with Wi-Fi Alliance’s
Hotspot 2.0 and Wireless Broadband Alliance in championing the Next
Generation Hotspot (NGH) initiative. What’s needed is an end-to-end and
customized solutions that ensure a stronger bottom line and greater
efficiency to market.
1Source : IDC Mobile Phone
Technology and Trends
5. APPLICATION NOTE Overview - 02
As more and more consumers choose the time and place to read, watch
and buy services across various wireless networks, the value of content is
king. But who manages those data-centric experiences? Carriers are best
positioned to take on the opportunity while it is steam-rolling. Seamless
mobility for success in data offload is not too far-fetched in terms of the
available technology and the ability to maintain relevance rather than
succumb to rapid replacement by competition.
6. APPLICATION NOTE Marrying Content and Experience with Mobility - 03
Marrying Content and
Experience with Mobility
Mobility further opens-up avenue for real-time technology designed in today’s
networks. With the multitude of applications and social media interactions that
are location or presence-based, mobility can help augment the business case for
integration of cellular infrastructure with Wi-Fi in the scope of offload and
managed services to better accommodate smooth LTE interactions.
The goal is to give Wi-Fi or other WLAN type networks a cellular-like experience
in terms of seamless handover while ensuring session continuity. What’s
important in terms of user experience is to automate the authentication and allow
users to do it transparently, without changing the look and feel of the device
interface. Also, allowing the user to take that experience everywhere they go
without disruption. The early concept of communication is limited to one single
task at a time, be it making a voice call or messaging via SMS. But new
smartphones have dramatically influenced user behaviors. Today, users can
perform multiple tasks like watching a video while posting to social forums, blogs
and exchanging or sharing pictures concurrently and instantaneously.
Smarter Data Meet Smarter Networks
How carriers maximize the use of data and optimize planning with better
proficiency in handling the device, network and environment states in their
networks could prove success for their business. Managing subscriber
usage is growing increasingly complex as devices become “smarter,”
networks become faster, and data usage skyrockets.
Suffice to say, services are fundamentally more complex to deliver, manage
and process. The irony of smartphone is it isn’t smart enough to maintain
session persistence when switching between different networks. Although
mobile IP technology has been around for decades since its inception,
it has stayed relatively unnoticed in the adoption onto mobile wireless
space. Not until rich multimedia content became mainstream and the need
for consumers to be on the move, that made carriers recognize the
importance of incorporating mobility to propel the delivery service reach.
7. APPLICATION NOTE Marrying Content and Experience with Mobility - 04
Mobility is only as strong as its weakest link. By which rich multimedia
content requires just as robust and plentiful of bandwidth to allow seamless
service. The marrying of Wi-Fi into heterogeneous networks gives added
capacity boost. There is no single solution that can claim superior, but there
is no shortage of best practices. The inclusion of Wi-Fi strategies helps
escalate roaming markets outside of cellular. Recent developments in the
industry is making positive progress for Wi-Fi to look and deliver a more
cellular experience where users can roam across other carrier’s networks
and automatically associate with carrier networks regardless of 2G, 3G, 4G,
LTE or WLAN connections. And all that should happen seamlessly.
Ready to Automate,
Inter-Work and Mobilize
Most operators are eager to leverage on using data to study demographics
and the flow of large groups of people. An area in which large volume of
data might have obvious uses including the onset of cloud-based
applications and provision of location-based services. This is a largely
untapped market, and expected to grow in tandem with multiple service
offerings including mobile marketing, online storage, and cloud services as
such. Networks in situations like these rely on mobility and embedded
intelligence to maximize use of the data to broker with tourist organizations,
hotel chains and retailers all into one place and speedy delivery of services.
The combined ease of mobility and location-based services such as maps
and navigational properties with promotion tie-ups are perfect ingredients
to promote the user interest and present strong opportunities for
companies to benefit. As smarphone ownership increases, mobile Internet
usage grows in proportionate volume and significantly drives the necessary
mobility capability within the service provider business models.
8. APPLICATION NOTE Marrying Content and Experience with Mobility - 05
Springboard to Global Connectedness
The multi-directional data stream and multiple touch points over the
carrier’s network give rise to implications on how carriers can improve their
interaction not only with customers, but also with businesses and major
organizations looking to harness the capabilities of mobile devices. The
ecosystem of infrastructure vendors, device vendors, content providers and
technology innovators come together to offer a rich source of business
intelligence that can be used in many ways. These are valuable in helping
carrier’s monetize their assets – particularly as LTE takes prominence and is
expected to generate significant returns on their investment in network
infrastructure in the prevailing years.
The onset of cloud technology and web-sphere movement along with
mobility has put the carriers on the path to capitalize on cloud capabilities
both as providers as well as adopters of the technology, which will become
instrumental to make success of ubiquitous broadband. Like many ICT
advances, cloud technology is deeply driven by the power of mobility. The
supposed efficiencies and conveniences of not having to restrict access
on-the-go make it attractive to consumers and businesses alike. It may not
seem obvious at first, that applications from email to online music, social
networking and file sharing are indeed cloud-based services. Businesses
on the other hand delight in outsourced platforms such as CRM systems,
hosted storage and managing massive data centers in a much leaner
operational mode.
It makes sense that carriers are eager to exploit this next wave of
opportunity by positioning their ubiquitous network connectivity to manage
cloud connectivity, as a vehicle to open-up emerging M2M platforms as well
as enhancing cloud offerings from OTT to hosted infrastructure.
9. APPLICATION NOTE Is Your Network Mobility Enabled? - 06
Is Your Network Mobility Enabled?
Mobility as we know it is a driving factor to the delight of users. Future of
Internet bandwidth will have to come from various sources like 4G,
LTE including public Wi-Fi hotspots. With the ability to bring mass scale
Wi-Fi deployment down to the consumer level is good news for carrier
service providers, equipment vendors, content providers and regulators
championing net neutrality as the industry prepares to go beyond 4G in
meeting consumer demand and growth when the next generation of mobile
broadband is introduced.
Consumers can have the option of accessing fixed-line Internet previously
reserved on their home network on their mobile devices hassle-free,
seamless as if it was one single network and with true mobility. Multi-screen
experience is now easily made available with carriers, cable companies and
operators extending their bundled packages across multiple networks in
the form of data, voice, high speed broadband and content. It is not difficult
to see why the need for mobility enabled.
On top of that, the emerging trends of M2M applications are adding multiple
dimensions to the importance of mobility. M2M had already been in the
market a while ago functioning discreetly behind operator networks, but the
resurgence of M2M into mainstream services are making the appreciation
of smart connectivity contextually interesting, benefit from cloud models
and vice-versa. Soon, connected devices will be enabling better healthcare
access, ensuring safer motoring, bringing smart grids together, improving
financial institutions, enhancing public security and safety and industrial
automation for navigation and control systems. Due to the near ubiquitous
wireless networks today, it won’t be long before the next generation of
networks and LTE dominates the connected world, further putting pressure
on the need of networks in relevance of data growth, mobility as well as to
draw value from that relationship.
All this data depends on the network. With the introduction of the
connected car, mobile retail to the connected house, the growth in mobile
payment technologies with the mobile device as a wallet is intensifying.
Consumers will check the status of their home appliances whilst away from
the house; for example turning on the heating before they return. The data
for all these innovations depend on the network and mobility to support.
10. APPLICATION NOTE Making Sense of Technology - 07
Making Sense of Technology
Need for a phased out offload roll-out and get started quickly and
economically? A client-based solution is suggestive as the implementation
is befitting for carriers looking for a feasible and fairly quick time-to-market
strategy of including a wider range of Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G service
competitiveness. The changing mobile industry landscape that is
dominated by rich content is a constant reminder for carriers to stay ahead
in times of cost cutting, and marginally keeping profits sustainable with
continual expansion.
Engaging Next Generation Services
Today, most of the services targeted at consumers are offered by OTT
providers which exploit the ubiquitous connectivity as provided by the
carrier service providers. As such, carriers are quick to react with bundling
of basic connectivity (fixed and/or mobile) and communications thrown in
including voice, data, messaging and broadband Internet with elements of
cloud-based applications. The ability to offer secure and reliable
connectivity with varying degrees of quality-of-service (QoS) puts them in a
uniquely solid position to have trusted customer relationship. This new
generation of services inevitably puts competitive pressure to invest in
faster, more advanced network and extend the lifecycle of their networks.
Intouch Data Offload is a suite of device-based solution that is capable of
incorporating Mobile IP2 technology in its core functionality which allows the
preservation of IP session persistence. On top of enabling seamless
mobility, the solution can also serve the wider context of mobile data offload
strategies across wireless networks.
By means of better traffic management and coupling with the offload
method to allow paying customers to pay for only the bandwidth they need,
while freeing-up the bandwidth that would otherwise be used for other
signaling traffic is a good trade-off in times of network congestion. Chatty
applications such as Facebook and Twitter constantly send updates and
2Note : Greenpacket Mobile IP client is
requires synchronization of network resources, resulting in unnecessary
the world’s 1st patented
congestion or at worst cause network outages if in large volumes. Mobile IP client solution
11. APPLICATION NOTE Making Sense of Technology - 08
Various policy management strategies in the aim to help create innovative
pricing and bring operational efficiencies have found its way into both
wireless networks and wireline networks, to address congestion and traffic
management. But this alone is not enough to handle the unpredictability of
applications, complexities between the network and device states. The
combined end to end approach of device-centric client complementing the
network centric solutions can help fill the gaps. And all these need to
happen seamlessly and offer automation as part of a holistic end to end
approach.
Essentially, the client resides in the device and is governed by the
embedded intelligence and algorithms that are responsive to
connection-aware triggers like detection of mobility, access network
discovery and selection that in turn signals the onset of seamless handover
with the correct radio parameters achieved. The complexity of the algorithm
related to the front-end and back-end processing of functions is beyond the
breadth of this paper.
A client solution provides advanced functionality to existing cellular devices,
while providing a solid migration path to full IP-based multimedia services.
The solution relies on network-based interfaces and systems, providing a
multi network-capable, scalable solution with a unified service experience
for the user from a single device without altering the user’s familiarity with
their devices. Additionally, the path to full IP network convergence as
defined within the 3GPP standards can be easily achieved without
complexity. Operators are in a unique position to provide managed
connectivity between various 3rd party providers and its network, offering
flexibility of network resources in real-time and on-demand.
12. APPLICATION NOTE Making Sense of Technology - 09
Matching Seamless Connectivity
with Mobility
Ideally, seamless mobility in the context of accomplishing mobile data
offload solution should provide users with a seamless experience while they
use various applications on their devices. It should also make intelligent
decisions about keeping data flow on preferred networks (e.g., retain
certain traffic such as VoIP, on 3G/LTE even when Wi-Fi is available). Unique
to the Intouch Data Offload solution suite are the following attributes that
make seamless both connectivity and mobility support:
• Inter-working client enabled through Inter-WLAN technology
• Mobile IP variant support of IPv4 and IPv6
• Inter system roaming (3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, LTE)
• Full IP convergence (EPC)
The device-client fundamentally improves device and user management by
converging multiple network access and executes data offloading
transparently through operator defined rules and operator defined access
priorities. Incorporating customizable features and capabilities through the
support of inter-WLAN, ANDSF technology further improves security,
mobility and user experience through optimized handovers typical in
deployment of high growth real-time data services. A seamless handover
be it intra or inter handover, is required by strict QoS and can vary only
within a minimal measure, so that changes are not noticeable to the user.
Also in the midst of emerging Hotspot 2.0 and Next Generation Hotspot
(NGH) initiative and framework, the underpinning importance of mobility is
taking center stage vital to the support of interoperability across network
technologies and devices.
13. APPLICATION NOTE Conclusion - 10
Conclusion
Looking beyond, current developments have barely scratched the surface
when it comes to realizing untapped opportunities and innovations
throughout the wireless network ecosystem. We can look forward to seeing
new business models and services delivered when the network performs in
ways previously unknown. Growth of new technologies will be spurred and
applications will be invented as new devices come to market. Next
generation networks together with advanced LTE technology will continue to
create tremendous opportunities for the entire ecosystem that transcends
super high speed broadband, M2M and cloud-based offerings alongside
3G, 4G, Wi-Fi and fixed communications.
A major shift in user experience is taking place, where mobility is the driving
force to a new level of experiences. Operators investing in the capability to
provide integrated mobility are opening doors to a synergistic platform ready
to embrace value added service including network analytic & reporting and
extending core capability of cloud-based service spread. Together with the
data offload movement, the efficiencies of integrated connectivity cross-over
could make an important source of revenue expansion in the midst of
slowing revenue growth in traditional services.
By leveraging the power of mobility and making available roaming services
outside of cellular markets into multi-access network, it provides streamline
access to 3rd party cloud services and 3rd party content to proliferate and
optimize the servicing and business models. Amongst the benefits include
outsourced applications, on-demand CRM platforms as well as hosted
solutions for infrastructure, software and storage. All this can be achieved
without the complexities of building independent systems, but leveraging
existing network assets. In the future, the operations of carriers will come to
expect some degree of network functionality and service intelligence to be
managed independently of geographical boundaries, but closely tied to a
linkage of interoperable and seamless connectivity relationship.
14. APPLICATION NOTE Take Your Network on the Road to Mobility - 11
Take Your Network on the Road
to Mobility
Change the rules of networking. Service reach should not be delimited by
which network and device the subscriber is subscribed to. Broaden the
user experience and enable a wide range of personal services for which
mobility serves to hold the connections as we introduce a phased approach
for data offload that incorporates mobility.
Embark on a journey with Greenpacket to discover the meaning of
seamless offloading and true mobility. Start realizing the possibilities for
enhancing your network and delight your customers.
With Greenpacket, you bring value to your subscribers and become their
partner of communication needs.
Free Consultation
If you would like a free consultation on how you can leverage data offload
solutions for enhanced user experience, feel free to contact us at
marketing.gp@greenpacket.com. Kindly quote the reference code,
SWP1112-P5 when you contact us.