As audio and video traffic over wireless networks has grown exponentially, operators around the world have struggled to deal with managing the challenge. Enter Vantrix who focuses on bandwidth management and more specifically media optimization according to company execs execs at Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona.
The company showed off its solution running on the QuickFire Networks T-Video line – an offering which deals with ever-more complex video by attacking the problem with a combination of hardware and software. Using Intel 2.3GHz Core i7 processors the T-Video V1100 reduces the footprint of video transcoding solutions by a factor of five using 44 cores per rack unit. As H.265 video becomes prevalent, Mark Hopper, the VP of Product Line Management (pictured) for the company says video systems will have to increase their footprint size by 20-30x to keep up with video which has ten times the complexity factor – referring to the differences between H.265 and H.264 video.
The company’s modular software architecture allows transcoding and coding to be put on specific components on a hardware platform such as the GPU.
Dealing with bandwidth constraints often has to do with looking at the worst offenders which means of course dealing more specifically with applications. This is where the company’s high performance scripting engine comes in. Part of the Vantrix All-Content Bandwidth Optimizer 3.0 solution, the engine is able to do DPI on packets and further take rapid actions based on a preset list of rules. For example in four lines of script an operator was able to optimize Pandora traffic to minimize the amount of packets it consumed. Other case studies include determining/setting Netflix bitrates as opposed to allowing the service to make this determination for itself. Finally OS upgrades were targeted by a carrier who wanted to reduce users downloading them via peak times. By slowing the downloads, they were able to encourage users to acquire these updates at a later time or on WiFi.
The one constant in the world of wireless bandwidth is there never seems to be enough of it. Targeting media and applications which tend to take up the majority of bits on the network and grow at an ever-expanding rate is an effective way for carriers to attack this burgeoning problem.
