Next Generation Communications Blog

October 2011

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HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) 'Well-Suited' for Mobile When Client Parameters are Optimized

By Beecher Tuttle

A recent blog post by Bell Labs’ Harish Viswanathan and Mark Clougherty, "Optimizing HAS for Mobile Wireless," looked at technical issues surrounding the delivery of quality video over mobile networks. There they discussed in detail why HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS) is capable of doing so but not at its default settings. 

This is an important finding since HAS currently is used for delivering acceptable video quality over a wide range of typical network conditions,  and thus is a strong option for wireless networks where data rates can vary substantially.

Entrance of Millennials to Today's Workforce Creating Unique Demand for Cloud Services


By Beecher Tuttle

Believe it or not, Generation Y is all grown up and hard at work. As was highlighted in a recent artile on the entrance of Millennials into the workforce by Cassidy Shield, head of global solutions marketing for content, cloud, and communications at Alcatel-Lucent, these new employees are bringing about a drastic change in IT departments across the globe. As baby boomers retire and Millennials take their place, chief information officers are being forced to radically alter the manner in which they set up and manage their organizations.

While previous generations have become comfortable with static infrastructures, Millennials – who have grown up with constant connectivity – expect much more. The same teenagers who chose mobile, social and multimedia lifestyles are now ready to bring those habits and expectations into the workforce.

The Challenges of Evaluating Services as Individual or Collective Customer Experiences

By Oliver Krahn, Guest Contributor, Customer Experience Transformation Lead, Alcatel-Lucent

Customer experience management (CEM) focuses on the relationship between service providers and their subscribers, and has become a critical priority in the industry.  However, the management solution chosen by service providers to meet the needs of their diverse customer bases can differ widely.

There are two ways of looking at the options:

  • Considering the subscribers as a collective group and evaluating a statistical average of experience.
  • Accepting and appreciating each individual as (s)he uses the services provided.

Network Operators Need to Prepare for Booming M2M Traffic

By Erin Harrison

The so-called “Internet of Things” is expected to connect 15 billion devices by 2015, demanding a new approach to communications business models, operations and technologies.  As a result, driven in no small measure by the dramatic projected increase in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, wireless network operators are in a position where they need to prepare for an explosion of signaling traffic, according to a recent Alcatel-Lucent TechZine item, "Getting Ready for M2M Traffic Growth."

A New Approach to Operational Excellence for MSPs

By Erin Harrison


In today’s ever-changing telecom market, operational excellence is more important than ever for managed service providers.

In a recent whitepaper, "On The Road To Operational Excellence, Alcatel-Lucent describes a model that managed service providers can use to improve operations in support of customers’ needs for enhancing quality of experience (QoE).

Leveraging the Network to Successfully Deliver Cloud Services


By Erin Harrison

Networks are crucial assets, which service providers can leverage to build data centers that deliver cloud services successfully.

According to a recent Alcatel-Lucent article, "The Network-Enabled Service Provider Cloud," services provided through the cloud are a natural extension of the virtual private network (VPN) and hosting capabilities offered by service providers today – they’re also a significant business opportunity.

How Service Providers Can Take On Customer Experience Challenges


By Erin Harrison

It's indisputable that improving the customer experience, the way end users interface with a company's support people and business processes, will improve the service provider's bottom line.

According to Alcatel-Lucent, customer experience challenges that service providers face include: the cost of acquiring new customers; technical support and customer support/help desk.

“For many service providers, the new path to profitability is a holistic approach focused on anticipating customers’ needs and improving their Quality of Experience (QoE),” according to an Alcatel-Lucent article that points out the customer experience has not always been a priority for service providers.

Wireless Service Providers Rely on lightRadio to Optimize MIMO Gains on LTE Networks



By Susan J. Campbell

As a service provider, what potential opportunities emerge if you were able to improve capacity, coverage and performance? With lightRadio technologies, you can gain support for current and anticipated wireless technologies that will address quality and growth changes; combine advancements in radios, antennas and baseband processing to support cloud principles, virtualization and architectural flexibility; and enable easy reprogramming and reconfiguration of network elements.

In this Alcatel-Lucent
lightRadio Technology Overview, the innovations to address service provider challenges is explored. These challenges easily include adding more radios, antennas, towers and processing capacity; increasing spectral bandwidth; supporting new technologies; and making better use of cell site capacity. The development of lightRadio by Alcatel-Lucent focuses on optimizing total network costs over time so each wireless provider can make the most of their existing assets and capabilities.

Future Scenarios of Small Cells Technology Market Opportunities

By Erin Harrison

Last week we focused on the consumer market opportunities being realized by small cells technology.  For operators, capital expenses (CAPEX) and operation expenses (OPEX) savings can be achieved by using small cells networks to deliver mobile broadband services, rather than the current macro network, according to the experts at Alcatel-Lucent.

In addition, new incremental service revenue can be generated from pre-qualified 3G and broadband subscribers. In some countries, the savings are substantial and actually outstrip potential revenue.

By increasing service quality and connection speeds indoors, small cells can improve voice calls and provide faster, more reliable data connections and coverage. Small cells are low-powered radio access points that improve indoor and outdoor coverage to increase capacity and offload traffic – as much as 80 percent during peak times.

In the whitepaper, “Small Cells Technology Fuels New Consumer Market Opportunities,” Alcatel-Lucent developed forecasts for five national markets, and analyzed results from the survey and market penetration simulations. The results found that Asia will lead, while the United States and Europe will follow in capturing the new market opportunities found in small cells technology.

Delivering a Better Mobile Broadband Customer Experience Influences the Bottom Line

By Erin Harrison

In today’s highly competitive mobile broadband market, it’s all about the customer. We all know that poor customer service not only gives a company a bad rap, but it ultimately eats away from their bottom line.

To keep customers on board and generate long-term success, service providers need to put more focus on the overall customer experience, according to the experts at Alcatel-Lucent. For many service providers, they say, the new path to profitability is a “holistic” approach focused on anticipating customers’ needs and improving their quality of experience (QoE).

A Cost-Effective, Bluetooth-Focused Approach to Traffic Monitoring

By Beecher Tuttle

The exponential growth of the world's population – coupled with the ever-increasing reliance on automobiles and the deterioration of roads and highways – has turned traffic congestion into a major concern.

In fact, the Urban Mobility Report estimated in 2009 that the ramifications of traffic congestion cost Americans around $80 billion a year, not to mention the negative consequences for the environment. This number is expected to reach $150 billion by 2033, and the problem is even worse in more crowded countries like India and China.

Unfortunately, the sluggish economy has only worsened the issue, as many communities no longer have the resources to fix their infrastructure or modernize their public transit systems.

So what are communities to do?

Optimizing LTE Network Performance with SON and Extended SON

By Beecher Tuttle

The widespread use of smartphones, tablet computers and other Web-enabled mobile devices has caused wireless data services to explode. While this is good news for application developers and mobile device manufacturers, it presents several challenges for service providers whose networks see more bandwidth-hungry traffic each day.

This concern is compounded by the fact that the increase in traffic is surpassing the growth rate for wireless revenue. To survive, service providers need to decrease their cost per bit while simultaneously optimizing their LTE network to handle more traffic....

Bell Labs Helps Mobile Service Providers to Understand and Meet Video Calling Quality of Experience (QoE) Challenges

By Michelle Amodio

The explosive growth of smart mobile devices capable of making video calls is placing intense pressures on service providers to configure their networks to assure users have experiences that meet or exceed their expectations. However, providing a superior quality of experience (QoE) is a complex challenge.

As part of its support of mobile service providers around the world, Alcatel Lucent’s Bell Labs recently looked at the factors that influence QoE) to help service providers full understand all of the issues and what needs to be done to resolve them.

The questions the Bell Labs researchers explored were:

  • What are the key factors that influence QoE for mobile video calls?
  • Are residential broadband networks ready for them?

There was good news on both fronts. The challenges could be identified and categorized in terms of importance, and viable solutions can help operators meet consumer expectations in a timely and cost effective manner, as well as lay the foundation for new profitable services.

The main finding of the researchers was that service providers require not bigger (more bandwidth) networks but faster ones (in terms of response time). They validated that speed, combined with the proper provision of a consistent quality of service (QoS), are the critical determinants in mobile video calling QoE.

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