Solving Network Congestion with Smarter Optimization

by Vikki Herrera, Director, Corporate Marketing

Six months ago we launched a new video optimization solution that included several innovative features. One of those features was an intelligent caching capability that recognizes popular videos and stores them closer to the end user for more immediate playback. Since our product’s arrival on the scene, many other vendors have followed suit, trying to make their products smarter so operators can maximize bandwidth without sacrificing the user experience.

We’re currently in the midst of a global trial program to showcase firsthand the unique capabilities of our solution. With more than 20 trials executed to date, the feedback we’ve received has been invaluable in driving continued innovation. Yesterday we announced the latest version of Media Optimizer, which now includes the ability to automatically trigger optimization when the network reaches pre-determined thresholds. The benefit for the operator is clear – it will significantly lower their total cost of ownership by reducing transmission requirements up to 40% when required by network conditions. It also offers a clear advantage to subscribers in improving the overall mobile video viewing experience during peak hours of congestion, leading to another key operator benefit: higher average revenue per user (ARPU).

As we highlighted in our latest Mobile Insights report (.pdf) released earlier this week, the majority of traffic comes from a small minority of users who access specific types of content across a very small number of sites. In fact, 70 percent of data traffic follows the usage pattern of the Extreme User segment. This group accounts for just 2.5 per cent of all mobile users who can be characterized by their consumption of bandwidth-intensive content that fall into three basic categories: status updates (from social networking sites), mobile search, and of course, video streaming and downloads.

With Openwave Analytics, operators can proactively plan for high traffic periods and optimize network resources for high bandwidth traffic such as video. Media Optimizer can then bring additional value to the network with intelligent, device- and policy-aware delivery of online video content, reducing costs while increasing effective bandwidth.