Mobile operators’ network capacity woes have garnered much public attention, and according to mobile networks practice director Aditya Kaul, they will get worse before they get better. “Brute force won’t solve this problem,” he says. “If you double the number of smartphone users, you can’t just spend $10 billion to double the capacity of your infrastructure.”
The answer lies in making existing networks more efficient. A growing arsenal of equipment and techniques from a variety of vendors aim to optimize different parts of the network and base station.
(Some OEMs are starting to build these tools right into the network’s central processing functions, but they are outside the scope of this report.)
“These solutions are relatively inexpensive and cost-effective,” notes Kaul.
Each operator may have a different set of needs. AT&T, the most publicized example, has two problems: too much data traffic (iPhone video, for example) and also too much signaling traffic – the mechanics of running the network. So, says Kaul, they would need DPI, routing/transport optimization, and maybe some UE client software installed on the smartphone. Other operators may have very different challenges.
To meet those needs, solutions are arriving from a variety of vendors including Tektronix Communications, Anritsu, Agilent, EXFO, Astellia, and a large “other” group of vendors that collectively command a 28% share of the market. It is from that “other” group that much of this segment’s innovation will flow. Says Kaul: “This is a wide-open market. It’s anybody’s game at the moment. There are a lot of small companies with new ideas and a lot of ‘crosstalk’ between them.”
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