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Adaptive Content Optimization in the RAN

Smoothing Mobile Broadband Peaks
The Mobile Broadband Dilemma Driven by the popularity of smart mobile devices, a plethora of compelling applications and attractive unlimited data plans, consumer demand for rich media content such as Internet video is pushing most wireless broadband networks to unprecedented levels of congestion. By successfully encouraging their subscribers to use their smart devices more often and stay connected longer, operators have become unwitting victims of their broadband marketing campaigns. Illustrating this point, in the UK in July alone, nearly 5.3 million BBC shows were streamed to iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads. Across Europe, account for close to 20% of all broadband connections. And globally, mobile broadband adoption rates are expected to remain strong for years to come. Behind this cheery growth picture is an unsustainable economic dilemma for operators: service and impose increasing bandwidth and performance demands on the network, costs are escalating much faster than revenues. As if that were not enough, mobile users have carried over heightened expectations about network performance from their DSL, Operators essentially have no choice: continue to meet customer experience expectations; or, pay dearly later to combat high customer churn and market share erosion. So they must do the hard work of adjusting their rate structures to match usage, and gains. Flashpoint in the RAN Nowhere is the mobile broadband dilemma more challenging, or congestion more acute, than in the cost-sensitive Radio Access Network (RAN).
Maintenance, 18%

Cost of network - Split of opex (%)

IT/Services, 30%

RAN, 55%

Core, 15%

Cost of RAN - Split of opex (%)

Electricity, 13% Rental, 26%

Source: Barclays Capital, Neu Mobile

Backhaul, 43%

A primary target for cost containment is the backhaul network, which can consume over 20% of total operational expense for network operators relying on a mix of self-built and leased line access.

Video Audio Image Text P2P

Node B

RNC

Video Audio Image Text P2P Mobile Core High Bandwidth Multimedia Internet Content

Powerful End-User Devices

RAN Congestion

Mobile operators face the impacts service quality and drives up network costs faster than revenues.

As Internet video drives exponential traffic growth and rapidly changing traffic patterns complicate network dimensioning rules, mobile operators face a number of critical network issues in the RAN that impact both capital and operational expenses. These include:
The need to rapidly upgrade backhaul connection speeds to avoid traffic bottlenecks
% of Cumulative Bytes

Active Node B: Cumulative Usage over 1 Week

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10%

The timing of network equipment upgrades and investment The fact that capacity planning is becoming increasingly reactive The impact of poor network performance on customer satisfaction and churn

Air interface and mobile core capacity no longer pose restrictions for most operators due to ongoing upgrade cycles in those areas of their network. The backhaul, on the other hand, is still a capacity-limited flashpoint for many and a frequent cause of the congestion. It also represents the highest relative service delivery cost per megabyte in the network, so any improvements in data plane capacity and performance here while technically more challenging can have disproportionate customer satisfaction and financial benefits. Spikes and Bursts: The New Busy Hour The increase in smartphone usage and compelling content (especially video and rich media) has triggered a dramatic rise in the number and length of wireless data sessions. Smartphones can consume 30 times the byte volume of a feature phone and generate more than 10 times the number of sessions. Dongle-equipped users can consume 10-20 times the byte volume of a smartphone, which has major implications for operators. While these usage patterns and evolving content mix have increased baseline traffic and impacted average busy hour assumptions, often overlooked is the network impact of short duration, high demand traffic peaks in the data plane. These transitory flash events, often driven by streaming video and bandwidth-intensive downloads including software updates, are becoming much more common and can easily spike traffic to four to five times the baseline, adversely affecting the quality of experience for all active users. Considering that smartphone penetration in Europe a mature mobile broadband market is still below 25% overall, and that resource-hogging data cards, netbooks, personal 3G routers and tablets still only represent a small fraction of total mobile broadband subscribers, data plane congestion and volatility are only expected to increase. Unfortunately for operators, sizing their network (adding capacity) to accommodate this type of peak traffic is expensive, not to mention problematic, since it is difficult to predict where and when those peaks will occur. And while operators will continue to utilize bandwidth expansion options to address points of congestion in their network, this alone wont solve the quality of service issues that these consumption peaks can cause. Backhaul Reality Check The obvious approach to congestion is to add backhaul capacity, but given the heterogeneous nature of most operators access networks, this may not be feasible to deploy in a reasonable timeline or in sufficient bandwidth increments, and quickly can become prohibitively expensive. Unfortunately, the much faster air interface speeds achievable with Evolved HSPA (HSPA+) and Long-Term Evolution (LTE) will only aggravate the backhaul congestion problem. And ripping out the network and starting over is simply not an option in most cases either, especially in the current economic climate, so operators must sweat their existing assets as efficiently as possible.

0% 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5%

% of Total Users

The mobile broadband traffic studies we conducted include results that consistently demonstrate power law popularity distribution (i.e., the 80:20 rule) characteristics. Most network planners are familiar with the concept of Elephant and Mice user behavior that goes back to the early days of the Internet: a very small percentage of users (the elephants) generate the vast majority of network traffic by volume relative to all other users (the mice). Because elephant behavior can have a significant impact on network performance and service quality during peak periods, optimizing these elephant sessions can provide significant value to the operator.

Operators can choose to upgrade to packet-based backhaul (e.g., migrate from E1s to fiber-fed carrier Ethernet or from TDM to packet microwave) or offload and divert their data plane traffic from the macro network onto lower-cost transport alternatives (e.g., xDSL in lieu of E1 access, femtocells and Wi-Fi hotspots). These approaches pursued individually or in concert can provide a significant leap in capacity while lowering the recurring cost per Mbps of incremental bandwidth. However, they also require significant planning, time and capital, and can introduce additional operational complexity. Pursuing one or more of these approaches can be effective, yet they are ultimately reactive and may not adequately address the underlying challenges: exploding data volumes; the cost and time to deploy new capacity in any form; and the unpredictable nature of when and where congestion will occur. Taking a Fresh Approach So where can we go from here? Operators will continue to deploy various bandwidth expansion strategies to address points of congestion in their networks, but this alone wont solve the quality of service issues that high consumption periods generate. The ideal solution for this high-cost portion of the network must address the service delivery economics while adapting to location, network loads, and the traffic mix. Clearly there is no silver bullet. However, a combination of smart and adaptive approaches that complement existing network infrastructure and capabilities, and operate in real-time, can make a dramatic impact. This is why there is growing interest in new technology that enables operators to regain control over the data traffic traversing their backhaul by smoothing the peaks and absorbing the bursts inherent to broadband traffic. Optimize Broadband Content Where it Counts and When it Matters Most IQstream Adaptive Content Optimization (ACO) from Sycamore Networks is a unique approach that leverages content awareness of RAN user flows (and of all RAN traffic types including video, images, text, P2P) to compute the optimal way to reduce data traffic loads across cost-sensitive backhaul links. This technique reduces congestion in real-time, improving the customer experience during peak traffic periods and lowering transmission costs in the process. Sycamores critical innovation is enabling IQstream to operate directly in the backhaul network and optimize data plane traffic as it is transported across the encrypted RAN; the process is performed in real-time and with full transparency to the network and users. This is a critical distinction from existing optimization schemes that must operate from deeper in the mobile core where they can only have a marginal impact on actual backhaul traffic volumes.

IQstream Performance Node B Busy Hour

15M

12M

9M

MB
6M 3M 0M 07-05 16:00 07-05 16:05 07-05 16:10 07-05 16:15 07-05 16:20 07-05 16:25 07-05 16:30 07-05 16:35 07-05 16:40 07-05 16:45 07-05 16:50 07-05 16:55 07-05 17:00 07-05 17:05 07-05 17:10 07-05 17:15 07-05 17:20

Time MB Un-Optimized MB Optimized

Figure 2 IQstream Performance Node B Busy Hour: An example of the dramatic RAN bandwidth savings achieved with Adaptive Content Optimization of all data traffic during a typical busy hour

The main advantage of ACO is its ability to dynamically adapt and scale to maximize performance as mobile broadband traffic patterns, applications, and devices change over time. ACO acts as a network shock absorber, buffering users from the adverse effects of short duration spikes and busy hour congestion while reducing traffic loads in a completely lossless manner so the fidelity of the original content is preserved. The net result is the ability to deliver a higher-quality mobile broadband experience, under congested traffic conditions or over constrained backhaul links, than would otherwise be possible.

IQstream Performance Node B Busy Hour

30M 90%

18M

54%

12M

36%

6M

18%

0M 06-23 15:25 06-23 15:30 06-23 15:35 06-23 15:40 06-23 15:45 06-23 15:50 06-23 15:55 06-23 16:00 06-23 16:05 06-23 16:10 06-23 16:15 06-23 16:20 06-23 16:25 06-23 16:30 06-23 16:35 06-23 16:40 06-23 16:45

0%

Time Average MB Saved Average Data Reduction Ratio

Figure 3 IQstream Performance Node B Busy Hour: Another example of the backhaul capacity savings and data reduction achieved with Adaptive Content Optimization during a typical busy hour

Adaptive Content Optimization effectively extends the life of existing infrastructure by freeing up and increasing the virtual capacity available on a given backhaul link. This slows the impact of data growth in the RAN by lowering overall transmission costs and deferring costly network upgrades. As a result, network capacity planning becomes less reactive and more predictable, and investment becomes more manageable. From a marketing perspective, it also improves the odds of meeting key service assurance objectives: leverage existing network assets to improve overall service quality and expand the number of subscribers who can access broadband content simultaneously. And unlike mobile core-based optimization schemes, proxy web caches, and content delivery networks, which primarily address upstream and interconnection bandwidth to the Internet, IQstream dramatically lowers capacity requirements between the Node B and Radio Network Controller. In this part of the network, even modest bandwidth (cost) savings can have a disproportionately positive impact on profitability.

RNC Node B

SGSN

GGSN

Backhaul

Filtering Billing Policy

Figure 4 Flexible, Non-Disruptive and Transparent: IQstream seamlessly integrates with existing 3GPP network and transport infrastructure.

Data Reduction Ratio

24M

72%

MB

Internet

Maximize Effectiveness and Minimize Operational Impact IQstream is designed to be a practical, non-disruptive and transparent answer to backhaul congestion for maximum operational gain with minimal pain. The solution consists of two 3GPP-compliant, industry-standard network elements located on either side of the backhaul. Once the central element is deployed, remote elements can be quickly, selectively and incrementally turned up at Node B hot spots to deliver immediate capacity relief and performance improvements when and where they are most needed in the network. IQstream operates completely transparent to the connection between the user device and the origin server, so all content flows are optimized without any disruption to users or sessions. And unlike client-server data optimization schemes that require special mobile device software in order to provide any benefit, IQstream is clientless so this significant technical support burden can be avoided. Equally important, IQstream is fully transparent to operators existing upstream systems such as billing, policy control, content filtering, mobile core-based QoS and traffic shaping, and lawful intercept, so existing business processes are not impacted.

Node B

Node B

Mobile Core (GGSN, SGSN, Billing, Policy, Filtering)

Mobile Broadband Hot Spot

RNC

Node B

Figure 5 IQstream Architecture: Immediate Relief & Rapid ROI: IQstream can be selectively deployed at cell site hot spots to deliver rapid performance improvements and allow operators to defer costly network upgrades.

Long-Term Compatibility Backhaul performance and costs will continue to be pressure points in LTE networks and arguably become more acute as the number of connected devices and the sheer volume of data continue to increase. Tools like IQstream will be essential to control long-term backhaul growth and costs, and can provide a practical, logical migration path from HSPA to HSPA+ to LTE during what are likely to be protracted and capital intensive upgrade/overlay cycles for operators. IQstream provides operators with three important ways to optimize current network investments while easing the transition to the next generation of infrastructure. First, it addresses the main drivers of mobile broadband: IP video and Internet content including P2P. Second, it is architected for all-IP HSPA radio networks, so it complements the flat architectures of Evolved HSPA and LTE. Third, IQstreams underlying Adaptive Content Optimization technology can be scaled to support LTE as a network overlay (the way most HSPA operators are expected to deploy LTE).

Conclusion Mobile operators are experiencing unprecedented uptake for mobile broadband services and struggling with the resulting network congestion and increasing costs that come with this success. Their challenge is to continue delivering a good user experience while improving profitability and managing costs per megabyte in line with revenue growth rather than traffic volume growth. Sycamores IQstream Adaptive Content Optimization solution can help operators relieve data plane congestion in the backhaul and thereby improve the user experience, delay infrastructure growth and improve their service delivery economics in a key part of the network.

Sycamore provides mobile broadbandyour busiest backhaul links without waiting for economics and To cut congestion in optimization solutions that enable mobile operators to improve service delivery link subscriber satisfaction. Sycamores solution provides dramatic improvements in access network utilization and cost per GB for operators. As a upgrades, can addressto MLL demand for mobile data and extend the life of today or visit: result, operators speak the surging Telecom on 0870 241 7315 their mobile network infrastructure. For more information, please contact the Sycamore Mobile Broadband Optimization team at: MBB@sycamorenet.com.

www.mlltelecom.com/iqstream

Sycamore Networks, Inc. 220 Mill Road Chelmsford, MA 01824-4144, USA Phone: 978-250-2900 Fax: 978-256-3434 www.sycamorenet.com www.iqstream.net
Sycamore Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCMR) develops and markets bandwidth management and mobile broadband optimization solutions for network operators worldwide. Our products enable operators to lower overall network costs, increase operational efficiencies, and improve the delivery of rich media services. Sycamores global customer base includes Tier 1 fixed line and mobile network operators, government agencies, and utility companies. Sycamore assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of the information presented, which is subject to change without notice. IQstream, IQstream Adaptive Content Optimization, IQstream InSight, IQstream InTune, Sycamore, and Sycamore Networks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sycamore Networks, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Copyright 2010 Sycamore Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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