Intelligent Congestion Management Can Reduce Mobile Broadband Costs

Camiant, which offers mobile data policy control software has commissioned a report which finds that active management of mobile broadband congestion can result in cost savings of upwards of 20% for network operators. The report, written by Omnitele, concludes that controlling the bandwidth consumption of certain users solely during peak hours allows maximum usage of the network by all subscribers when capacity is available while constraining the need for additional network capacity.

Omnitele tailored their network cost modeling framework to gauge the cost savings of Camiant's Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)-based approach indicating a substantial reduction in core and radio-access network capacity related capital and operating expenses.

The cost model factors in market segments, data packages and subscriber counts, as well as the target QoS performance. Other modeling inputs include:

• Average monthly data volume for each service offered and the share of this data volume falls into the network's busy hours
• Dimensions for spreading of the total traffic across the sites and cells of the network including scaling as appropriate for network busy hours
• The nature of the bandwidth controls and which subscribers the controls are applied to

"Mobile broadband is the single most promising growth engine in the entire telecommunications industry," said Randy Fuller, vice president of Business Development for Camiant. "However, it is critical for mobile operators to intelligently manage bandwidth consumption since the cost per bit to deliver traffic is so high relative to fixed broadband networks. The cost model shines a strong light on this fact, and Camiant is working with the mobile industry to pave a successful way forward."

"Omnitele has been working with operators on business case development for mobile broadband networks for a number of years," said Pal Zarandy, principle consultant at Omnitele. "There is clear demand for mobile broadband, but there is a serious risk that costs of future capacity upgrades will outweigh incremental service revenues unless the future network costs are revealed in time and kept under control. Introducing intelligent congestion management is one of the key steps that mobile broadband operators need to take in order to secure their sustainable profitability while providing subscribers with best possible service."

Posted to the site on 17th April 2009