There's no question that US consumers are vastly increasing their mobile data usage with the rise of smartphones and netbooks.
Growing mobile data traffic is great for operators until it chokes 3G wireless network capacity -- and that doesn't even get us to 4G. The question is: How are wireless operators going to handle the demand?
“With the proliferation of smartphones and more people using the data, the idea [in the short term] is to find a way to either scale and build up your network so you can handle that amount of traffic or find other ways to offload the [mobile data] traffic,” said Bill Rubino, principal analyst at ACG Research.
One “other way” could be deploying Netsnapper, a software solution from Switzerland's Sunbay, a mobility infrastructure software company that focused on dial-up and DSL acceleration until two years ago. Netsnapper is designed to ease wireless network congestion through a multifaceted approach to managing traffic.
Netsnapper is a client/server architecture that is compatible with multiple operating systems, including Windows, Mac and Linux, as well as Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile phones.
The software uses a number of techniques to optimize backhaul by either compressing data or offloading data, according to Ed Kress, Netsnapper's vice president of North American operations.
Carriers load the Netsnapper client onto user devices and add dedicated servers to their infrastructure. The connection enables operators to either compress or offload mobile data traffic onto Wi-Fi hotspots where available, easing wireless network congestion.