24 WEDNESDAY 14th NOVEMBER 2012 FEATURE | COMVIVA By Mayank Sharma, Vice President, Africa Region, Comviva
Mobile Data – A Smarter Approach to Traffic Management ‘M
obile Data’ is one of the most widely discussed topics globally, especially among telecom and Broadband
service providers in African markets. The fact is that the mobile broadband market in Africa is moving from its nascent stage of development to a high growth trajec- tory. Currently, demand for mobile data services exceed supply, and Service provid- ers are struggling to cope up with the rapid evolution from a voice-centric market to one that relies on the provision of 3G and mobile broadband services. Catalysts for this burgeoning growth
include a relative lack of fixed Internet infrastructure, the growing highly avail- able 3G, Wi-Fi and Wi-MAX networks, accelerated adoption of smart phones, tablets, laptops (dongles) and the influx of applications, Video traffic, P2P file sharing traffic, gaming and social net- working sites. Owing to this explosive data traffic,
service providers in Africa are striving to provide high-performance networks to deliver rewarding user experience, faster access to content, encourage long-term customer loyalty, and support market differentiating service offerings. Sustained growth in traffic volumes has the potential to overwhelm network resources, intro- duce higher latency on the network and negatively impact the overall quality of service delivered to subscribers. The sheer rise in data volumes has also been due to the varied mix of traffic transiting through the network, which has altered the current approach that service providers have taken to manage this growth. Wireless networks must scale even further to support delay- sensitive, real-time multi-play services such as interactive gaming, Mobile TV and streaming video which are bandwidth intensive applications. The profitability of service provider’s
data operations depends on how they respond to the explosive growth in mobile data traffic. Simply augmenting the net- work infrastructure is a capital intensive proposition. As competition is fierce and there are limits to consumer data service charges, operators are faced with a trade-
off between the capex-to-revenue ratio and the quality of experience on offer — unless they handle traffic more intelli- gently and smartly. So far, service providers have depended
on niche vendors offering point products addressing individual problems, which make their task extremely complex and difficult to manage. The onus to envision a compre- hensive blueprint at the forefront and then orchestrate the implementation of the com- plete infrastructure to manage the growth, falls on the service provider. Such a complex network requires deeper engagement from the service providers in handling end to end service delivery. It also limits the innova- tion in service offerings, as multiple vendors cannot function in a cohesive manner. This in turn has a direct impact and leads to delay in marketing activities such as launching new plans, bundles, promotions, since there is increased dependency on multiple vendors and requires a long testing cycle. Given this fact, today operators are
looking at solutions that can seriously address their end-to-end needs to address the growth challenges that are centred on managing, optimizing and monetizing date traffic from a single vendor. They are now looking at an integrated, consistent, unified, robust solution for data pipe management that delivers a hassle free and smooth experi- ence to the subscribers and service providers. Acknowledging that data pipes will need to be controlled and shaped, service providers have increasingly begun to understand the need for data plans that are scaled to suit their market demands. Adopting effective traffic management
techniques and suitable data plans will en- able operators to control their data pipe ef- fectively and offer differentiated service and charging offering. The Manage, Optimize and Monetize (MOM) strategy will address user expectations for an enhanced Internet experience, provide the flexibility to quickly launch new service plans, simplify charging and increase penetration, thereby having an overall impact on the increased ARPU. To address this MOM strategy, mobile data platforms - can offer a point solution to overcome the prime concerns of the service providers.
Mayank Sharma, VP, Africa Region
• Service Management: Granular, real-time control and alloca- tion of bandwidth resources by defining and enforcing a broad set of policies at subscriber, service, device and protocol levels based on network status to manage and optimize use of existent capacity more effectively. Largely termed in the industry as “PCRF solution”
• Service Optimization: Optimizes diverse traffic streams us- ing tools such as caching, transcoding and adaptation. Largely termed in the industry as “Caching and Optimization solution”
• Service Monetization: Supports differentiated, tiered monetiza- tion models based on multiple param- eters - time of day (peak vs off-peak) destination, quota consumption and application type to monetize the value delivered to subscribers with a variety of new revenue models. Largely termed in the industry as “PCEF solution” With this MOM strategy, more and
more service providers are now convinced with the thought that a single integrated solution such as this is needed to address the upcoming challenge in managing the mobile data boom. The key is to drive bet- ter and consistent user experience through effective and smarter traffic management.
Thus, it is imperative for the solution
offerings to optimize operators’ spend on often exorbitant network infrastruc- ture and thereby result in faster ROI. An integrated solution that incorporates the MOM strategy would positively result in reducing the operator capex and opex and at the same time offer flexibility to create differentiators in their competitive markets, in a timely manner. Furthermore, given the exponential growth already being experienced in mobile data and expected momentum in future, the solu- tion offering should be scalable over time, capacity and functional dimensions with minimal disruption to service. The expansion of 3G, Wi-Max, Wi-Fi
networks in Africa will push the mobile broadband market into a new phase of development. This phase will be character- ized by an increase in network capacity, the development of local content and applica- tions, and the increasing adoption of low- cost smartphones, handheld devices such as tablets, laptops. Service providers must now prepare
for the coming surge in data traffic, as there are number of distinct opportuni- ties for them to deliver greater operational efficiency, commercial agility and a better customer experience by choosing the most effective strategy.
AFRICACOM DAILY 2012 I
http://africa.comworldseries.com/
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