Mobile data from smart devices to increase 10,000 percent by 2015

BARCELONA, SPAIN: Nokia Siemens Networks’ chief executive, Rajeev Suri, has outlined the changes required by mobile operators to cope with the huge rise in mobile traffic caused by smart devices.

Addressing press and industry analysts attending this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Suri cautioned that if the blunt “just add capacity” approach used by other vendors goes on, this will be enough to bring most networks to a painful, grinding halt.

Nokia Siemens Networks predicts that by 2015, annual mobile data traffic will reach 23 Exabytes - equivalent to 6.3 billion people each downloading a digital book every day. Pure capacity is just one issue, however, as the unique properties of mobility, such as intermittent connectivity and shifting location, coupled with the increasing range of smart devices, require mobile broadband networks to be far more intelligent in their handling of traffic growth.

As an example, having predicted the current surge in smarter mobile devices, Nokia Siemens Networks is the only vendor to have built into its networks an industry standard* – already common in smart phones – that allows it to reduce unprofitable, congestion-causing signaling by three times while increasing smart device battery life.

The company’s overall activities at Mobile World Congress highlight its comprehensive approach to meeting the needs of people who use smart devices. Nokia Siemens Networks’ Experience Center in Hall 8 is centered on three themes aimed squarely at its customers: “Relationships built around insight,” “Solutions built around your business” and “A network built around individuals. The Network of One.”

Highlights among its demonstrations, launches and announcements in Barcelona include:

LTE
• Enabling Telefónica to present a live demonstration of LTE (4G mobile broadband) with applications running in a real-network operating across the Congress site, providing a taste of what the future holds.
• Demonstrating its support for 4G mobile broadband in China, by showcasing its Femtocell for TD-LTE, at its Experience Center.

WCDMA/HSPA
• With over half the world’s 3G (WCDMA/HSPA) subscribers supported by its radio networks, there is a particular emphasis on improving the experience for these users.
• Demonstrating HSPA+, a 3.5G mobile broadband technology, at speeds of 112Mbps using Qualcomm terminals.
• Last week the company was the first to conduct a call using a network technology known as “continuous packet connectivity” (CPC). Once incorporated into HSPA+ networks, via a simple software upgrade, CPC can double device battery life.

End-to-end IP
• Demonstrating its Flexi Network Gateway (NG), part of its evolved packet core that leads the industry in four key dimensions: subscriber sessions, data throughput, intelligent service support and signaling.
• Launching two new Microwave backhaul products at the Congress that are needed to transmit the increasing amounts of smart device data between base stations and the core network. The FlexiPacket FirstMile aggregates traffic from mobile base stations and the FlexiPacket Hub 1200, a certified Carrier Ethernet access switch, can provide up to 10 Gbps switching capacity in a single unit.
• Launching its Open Multimedia Gateway, the first in the market based on ATCA* off-the-shelf hardware to handle data and voice traffic for IP-based and legacy networks.

Customer experience
• Coupled with technological breakthroughs, the company is also providing operators with more intelligence to better serve their customers. It today launched an Insight & Experience Framework that combines the company’s consulting and systems integration expertise with software that can process data related to subscriptions, charging and billing, services and applications, devices, and subscribers’ perception and satisfaction.
• An example of its focus on new services for subscribers is the deal also announced today with Movistar in Argentina where Nokia Siemens Networks is linking network authentication via the SIM cards in smart phones with web single sign-on to automate logging on to third-party sites online such as Flickr or Facebook.