Alcatel-Lucent tackles mobile network overload

Alcatel-Lucent has announced a range of new capabilities to help service providers open their networks to application developers and content providers.

The company, which provides the network communication systems for broadband and IP transfers, said that it has introduced the new systems in response to growing web traffic, particularly on mobile networks.

The new Application Exposure Suite (AES), Open API service (PDF) and a series of transformation services have been developed in an effort to bridge the gap between the demands of developers and the capabilities of the networks.

Alcatel-Lucent said that the suite is designed to provide a greater level of control over the performance of applications on the network, allowing operators to make more efficient use of their resources.

Kenneth Frank, president of solutions and marketing at Alcatel-Lucent, explained in a webcast yesterday that applications are driving the capability of the networks, but that the problem is making sure that the networks can keep up.

"Netbooks and smartphones are using far more bandwidth than ever before. We're seeing a tenfold increase in traffic requirements from iPhones to normal smartphones, and this is creating pressure on the networks," he said.

Frank added that the AES allows service providers to make assets available to application and content providers via a secure exposure layer. This means that providers can offer key services such as secure access to network assets, subscriber privacy, and end-to-end visibility into the performance of applications on the network to help make the most efficient use of resources.

The Open API provides customers with access to the AES, but through a cloud system for service providers that want to improve time-to-market, or require more seamless communications. Frank claimed that the API will be attractive to the developer community, and is already being used by companies such as Gamma and Agent 511 for a variety of different applications.

Finally, a series of transformation services will represent a big shift for carriers in the broadband market, according to Frank.

"It's not like deploying the next feature on a broadband access line. This is about reaching out to new customers, perhaps even companies that would have been competitors in the past, to make a system that works for all of us," he said.

"It's about creating an environment that ties the world of the network provider, the developer community and the end user in such a way that it creates a growth trajectory of a network's capabilities that goes far beyond what it can currently do."