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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Tracy Ford of RCR Wireless News recently interviewed Joel Brand, vice president of Product Management at Bytemobile, at 4G World in Chicago, IL. In this video clip from the show floor, Brand discusses the addition of new media caching capabilities to its mobile video optimization solution.

Designed to balance on-the-fly video optimization with offline optimization of cached video content, Bytemobile’s market-leading Video Optimization solution, enables operators to achieve the highest level of bandwidth management across their networks while serving the best possible mobile video experience to their customers.

See the entire interview below.

-Stacey Infantino

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On September 28, Mobile Minute and Informa Telecoms & Media collaborated with Vodafone D2 in Germany to present “The Impact of Video Traffic Growth on Mobile Networks”. The webinar attracted a mix of network operators, analysts and media, with over 400 registrants from around the world. To access a full replay, please visit us at Mobile Minute.

Contributors to the webinar included Dr. Volker Sebastian, head of Multimedia Application Engineering at Vodafone D2; Mike Hibberd, editorial director of Telecoms.com; and Jeff Sanderson, head of Pre-Sales for EMEA and Latin America at Bytemobile.

Mike Hibberd began the discussion by summarizing the key growth trends driving the wireless market today. Most strikingly, he noted a projected 76% CAGR in global mobile data traffic from 2008 to 2013. This is due to a combination of factors, including flat-rate tariffs used by operators to stimulate adoption, improvements in network infrastructure, and the spread of high-end, data-hungry devices.

Volker Sebastian expanded on the challenge created by these growth trends, noting the role that various technological solutions will play in helping operators manage traffic. Vodafone D2, like many carriers in developed markets, is looking for ways to meet consumer demand within its capital budget constraints – specifically, demand for data that is skewed by the enormous popularity of streaming video content. With optimization techniques implemented by Bytemobile, Vodafone D2 has been able to realize a total data savings of approximately 25% of HTTP traffic (85% of its video traffic is streamed via HTTP).

Jeff Sanderson rounded out the session with an overview of the various media optimization and policy enforcement solutions that Bytemobile offers operators to realign revenue generation with bandwidth consumption. Through optimization techniques such as Just in Time video downloading, Quality-Aware Transcoding, Dynamic Bandwidth Shaping, and Media Caching, operators are able to enhance the efficiency of their networks and increase their ROI in network infrastructure. Most importantly, consumers enjoy an improved user experience, which supports retention and growth of the operator’s subscriber base.

Additional Mobile Minute events are planned for the coming months. We will cover these events on our website and blog as part of our ongoing efforts to provide thought leadership and consultative education to the rapidly evolving mobile internet space.

- Peter Turner

Image courtesy of Hector Milla via the Creative Commons attribution license.

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