Bytemobile was featured in Mobile Europe yesterday. With the largest distribution of any wireless magazine in Europe, Mobile Europe is the leading publication for the European mobile industry. The article includes details and images from a ‘2010 Mobile Year in Review’ snapshot from Bytemobile’s quarterly Mobile Minute Metrics reports and focuses on the premise that video is going to have a significant impact on the overall data load of wireless networks in 2011.

Download Bytemobile’s 2010 quarterly Mobile Minute Metrics reports at http://www.bytemobile.com/news-events/thought_leadership.html.

The death of the busy hour – how mobile data works
Mobile Europe
December 22, 2010

We have received some nice stats and graphs in from Byte Mobile, providing an insight into the network activity it observed during 2010. Some of the highlights Byte observed might be well known by now, but they reveal some good insight all the same - and particularly into how video is impacting the overall data load of the network.

1. The death of the busy hour
Network capacity is under a constant strain throughout the day and evening. With traffic peaks lasting up to 12 hours, so called “busy hours” are a thing of the past.

2. The data hog does exist
10% of all mobile data users generate approximately 85% of overall traffic in the network. Touch smartphone subscribers access and view video five times more than non-touch smartphone subscribers.

3 Video is the driver, and higher resolutions are set to take that further
Video accounts for 48% of total network traffic, with user-generated content such as YouTube dominating the consumption of network capacity. Today, higher-resolution video is requested a third less often than lower-resolution video yet generates a similar amount of the total data traffic in the network – 31% to 39%. This trend indicates that even a small increase in the number of users consuming higher-quality video will generate a significantly greater network traffic load.

4 Data offload is an option - as is optimisation
Mobile network operators are quickly evolving their networks in order to manage the strain on the radio access network (RAN), backhaul and core. They are employing data offload strategies using small cells and Wi-Fi, upgrading their backhaul, and adding smart capacity utilisation products to improve network efficiency and the delivery of multimedia content and video services.

Byte Mobile’s 2010 Mobile Minute Metrics Highlights
User Behavior
●The peak hours for data traffic in wireless networks are consistent throughout the day and evening.

●The most prevalent type of video on wireless networks worldwide continues to be user-generated content available on YouTube and Google Videos. On average, this content currently accounts for 48% of the total network video traffic.

●Today, higher-resolution video is requested a third less often than lower-resolution video yet generates a similar amount of the total data traffic in the network – 31% to 39%. This trend indicates that even a small increase in the number of users consuming higher-quality video will generate a significantly greater network traffic load.

●10% of all mobile data users generate approximately 85% of overall traffic in the network.

New Class of Mobile Devices

●A new generation of touchscreen mobile devices is driving increased video consumption, and the operators servicing these devices are experiencing significant network changes. This trend indicates that as mobile devices get smarter and the user experience improves, video consumption will continue to rapidly accelerate.

Multimedia Applications are Consuming Wireless Networks
●The mobile applications that consumed the highest amount of network bandwidth in 2010 were Media Player (mobile video), Web Browser (a significant portion being mobile video), iTunes, and Facebook. Media Player, Web Browser and iTunes generate approximately 87% of total data volume in the network. This trend confirms the shift to entertainment-based usage and demonstrates the impact of multimedia applications on wireless networks.

-Stacey Infantino

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A Bytemobile contributed article appeared in this month’s print edition of Connect-World, the information and communication technology (ICT) decision makers' magazine. In this piece, Constantine Polychronopoulos, founder and chief technology officer at Bytemobile, discusses the explosive growth of data traffic on wireless networks and the need for policy-driven optimization in the 4G environment.

The full article can be found on pages 36-37 of the November edition, http://www.connect-world.com/PDFs/magazines/2010/NA_2010.pdf.

-Stacey Infantino

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On August 11, we looked at In-Stat’s data on the global migration of mobile users to 3G networks and beyond. As of 2010, only 17% of the world’s subscribers can access bandwidth enabling them to play video and use other rich applications – leaving 83% of the current base yet to generate untold volumes of data traffic.

Carriers’ migration from one generation of network technology to the next is a complex, long-term process with many moving parts and interdependencies. First, wireless spectrum is acquired and activated. Next-generation radio networks are rolled out. Backhaul is upgraded. The core network is upgraded. Next-generation mobile devices are launched. Finally, after years and hundreds of millions of dollars, the new network is ready for subscriber adoption.

Clearly, different regions of the world are on different trajectories toward 3G and 4G migration and adoption.

Today, Western Europe has nearly twice the global percentage of 3G subscribers. 3G adoption in North America is pushing toward 50%, while Asia is comparable to the global average. The outlook for 4G penetration in all three regions over the next few years is incremental but measurable.
   
By contrast, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Caribbean and Latin America each have less than 5% 3G penetration and no forecast for 4G. The potential for growth of data subscribers and traffic in these emerging markets is vast.

The net net? The mobile data tsunami – which has increasingly commanded news headlines, frustrated consumers, and caused carriers to adapt their business models and technology adoption curves over the last couple of years – is still a wavelet. In developed and developing markets alike, albeit at different stages and paces, the real sea change is yet to come.

-Tod Bottari 
 

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Wireless packet data networks were built on voice networks and provided the basic connectivity between mobile consumers and the Internet.

For years, operators struggled to drive adoption of mobile data. The key barriers were the speed of the network, the cost of data delivery, the capabilities of mobile devices, and the availability of internet content. Bytemobile technology connected wireless laptops to the Internet and helped operators address network speed and data delivery costs. WAP phones provided access to walled-garden content on the operators’ portals.

Next, operators launched 3G networks and the first generation of smartphones, while connecting feature phones to the Internet. Bytemobile enabled this trend with the adaptation of web, Flash and media content for smartphones and feature phones, and the insertion of advertising in adapted content for the monetization of web traffic.

The commercial implementation of HSPA network technology supported compelling new devices such as high-end smartphones and rich new applications such as video. This confluence of factors caused mobile internet usage to grow exponentially, as data revenue and traffic volume accelerated far beyond operators’ expectations.

Operators now had to expand their network capacity quickly in order to capitalize on the revenue opportunity and manage the traffic challenge. They increased infrastructure investments in radio access, backhaul, and core network technologies. Bytemobile supported this requirement with a mobile internet gateway enabling operators to optimize and deliver web and video content on all Internet-connected mobile devices.

Today, operators are building and launching 4G networks with policy controls to ensure both full monetization and fair use of next-generation data services. The intelligent application of policies enables operators to differentiate services by subscriber usage profile and enforce limits on excessive consumption of data.

In this environment, Bytemobile’s mobile internet gateway produces a cumulative network multiplier effect across the operator’s investments in wireless spectrum and multiple generations of radio, backhaul and core technologies. This multiplier effect serves to enhance the performance of all network elements by increasing efficiency and control.

The Unison™ Mobile Internet Platform provides operators with a comprehensive solution for managing mobile data services which combines web and media optimization with traffic analysis and policy enforcement. The result is a next-generation policy control and traffic delivery system for 4G networks.

-Tod Bottari         
 

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