Offloading smartphones-generated data traffic from 3G to WiFi
It is common industry knowledge by now that smart phones are typically causing an order of magnitude more data traffic on cellular networks, thus straining network capacity and the quality of user experience (QoE).
SNRLabs' focus on QoE based connectivity and mobility in multi-radio devices has this additional advantage from the point of view of operators, which is, "smartly" moving traffic from cellular to WiFi (or femto cells). At MWC 2010, it was interesting to see the same problem addressed via infrastructure based and operators driven solution by technology power house Qualcomm and FMC experts Kineto Wireless.
Kineto's solution requires the installation of the Kineto Multi-Service Access Gateway (MSAG) in the network side while the Qualcomm technology demo mentioned an addition to the core network. Both of course also require client side software on the device. Both technologies talk about service/flow based offload of data traffic from 3G to WiFi e.g. best-effort traffic like browsing data goes thru WiFi whereas QoS sensitive traffic goes via 3G.
SNRLabs’ device based convergence management products complements the above solutions by letting the device drive or co-operate with the network regarding best radio choices based on quality of user experience.
More importantly, in the absence of the infrastructure additions required by both solutions above, SNRLabs technology still provides a device driven offload of certain classes of 3G data traffic, thus giving operators the benefit of 3G/WiFi offload even if they choose not to make any changes to their infrastructure. SNRLabs’ Mobility Manager (part of CMS) uses algorithms for seamless mobility decisions that have been proven to maximize the use of WiFi whenever WiFi exists and meets the user’s QoE needs, as compared to the more typical RSSI-comparison based mobility decisions.
References:
3G/Wi-Fi Seamless Offload: A live demonstration of seamless offloading of operator-defined data services from 3G to Wi-Fi.
Kineto Smart Wi-Fi Offload Solution Addresses Network Challenges Created by Smartphones.