@CTIA: Vendors aim to address carriers' needs as network traffic increases

As carriers adjust to increased stress on the network from increased data usage, wireless vendors are introducing a variety of products and services designed to manage that increased traffic. Following is a roundup of some of the vendor announcements at the show around advanced generation networks:
–Alcatel Lucent demonstrated how LTE will impact society with its Connected Home interactive display. “We’re finally going to get to one network,” said Basil Alwan, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP business. The hard boundaries between the radio access network and the core network are blurring, he said. Nevertheless, “LTE will stress the IP infrastructure even more.” Connected gaming over the Internet in the home, a connected camera that can allow a journalist to quickly send photos back to the office, doctors who can check a patient’s blood pressure remotely, and augmented reality displays that can help drivers find a parking spot more quickly are just some of the applications that 4G technology will enable. The infrastructure provider’s ng Connect program will move beyond wireless carriers to include a variety of partners, including media, retailers, advertisers, device manufacturers, applications developers and more.
–Huawei showcased its plans to help carriers’ manage their network with its ABC initiative—Increase average revenue per user, manage bandwidth more efficiently and control costs. Charlie Chen, U.S. VP of marketing at the company, noted the network vendor has developed single RAN and single core products, and now offers an end-to-end solution including a backhaul solution. The company demonstrated the fastest LTE connection to date at 1.2 Gigabits per second, twice the speed it showcased just a month ago at Mobile World Congress.
Huawei’s solution includes carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO, Coordinated MultiPoint Transmission and Relay. The solution will help carriers reduce operating costs, especially as they transition from 3G to 4G services. Huawei just won a contract to build an HSPA+ network for Canadian operator SaskTel as it transitions from 2G to 3G to 4G services. The company’s Smart Core network means carriers can manage their traffic based on location, level of usage and other items.
–Powerwave unveiled its 700 MHz Nexus FT single- and dual-band repeaters as well as its RapidFlex Mobile Deployment Unit. The site can be deployed in a half-hour by one person. The unit is designed for occasional use when carriers need extra capacity. Carriers are moving the fastest they ever have, and are concerned with data traffic impacting the network, said Khurram Sheikh, Powerwave’s chief product and development officer. Powerwave has an inside-out philosophy regarding data usage in that coverage needs to be strong indoors as people consume content at home as well as on the go. The company is expanding its traditional business to include more direct sales to carriers as well as OEMS and to public safety and homeland security as those first responders also need wireless products.
–Genband recently acquired Nortel Networks’ Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions Business, which complements its G9 media gateway product as well as its session and security gateway technologies, giving the company a huge switching portfolio. “This is a very bold move for us,” said Mehmet Balos, CMO at the company. Genband said the new assets, combined with its existing product line, will help telecom operators more easily migrate their networks to new technology through open standards and interoperability across Nortel legacy products. As part of that deal, Genband is growing from a workforce of about 500 to one slightly under 3,000, and will do business with 80 of the world’s top 100 service providers. Genband, which also is developing femtocell solutions, wants to be the No. 1 or No. 2 supplier across all of its business lines.
–Interop Technologies introduced its Short Message Service Center (SMSC) Series 4 solution, which can now deliver throughput levels of 100,000 message delivery attempts per second. The company also announced a partnership with Redbend Software. The partnership gives carriers and end-to-end solution for mobile device management, said Damian Sazama, VP of marketing and public relations at Interop. The company can now address older handsets already in the marketplace.