Juniper Networks is bringing its open-network architecture model to the 4G sector with a framework for what it calls behavior-centric services.
The mobility framework –unveiled Sunday in Barcelona ahead of the Mobile World Congress – offers new solutions on Juniper’s MX series routers and SRX service gateways, including three spawned from its Project Falcon initiative announced at the end of October 2009.
The first big Falcon-based solution for mobile networks is Traffic Direct, which combines intelligent subscriber and application policies with Juniper’s MX 3D Series routers to offload bulk data traffic directly to the internet to reduce congestion.
Other Falcon-based solutions include Media Flow, which uses specialized software and a Juniper VXA Series content delivery engine to enable broadcast-quality video streaming to smartphones at up to 10 Gbps per engine, and Mobile Core Evolution, which leverages Juniper’s Junos SDK to enable cellcos to run 3G and 4G services on the same network.
The crux of Juniper’s mobile push is the proposition that cellcos can’t stick to the old voice/SMS business model forever if they’re serious about migrating to 4G. The current disconnect between data traffic and revenues – which is being driven by user behavior, not killer apps or cellco service offerings – is ample evidence of that, says Brendan Leitch, Juniper’s director of service provider marketing in Asia-Pacific.
“By 2015 about 37% of revenue will be voice, 11% SMS, and the rest mobile broadband behavior-based services. And all of the bandwidth used by voice and SMS will be a drop in the mobile broadband bucket,” Leitch says. “That proves that just generating traffic doesn’t generate revenue – you need to control the service behaviors that match the human behaviors because that’s what make services important to users, and thus worth paying for.”
The same strategy is also necessary to creating a mobile content ecosystem that benefits both cellcos and apps/content creators, he adds. “An ecosystem demands that the members cooperate, not pass each other like ships in the night. There’s no mechanism for cooperation between service and network today, so there’s no ecosystem.”
And because mobile user behavior is ultimately the market force driving service and application uptake, cellcos need to design their network architecture to empower users, and do it in a flexible and scalable enough way to keep TCO low.
Juniper cites an IDC study claiming that its Traffic Direct and Media Flow solutions (combined with MX 3D routers) can help cellcos lower their TCO by up to 70% over five years.