For network operators, streamlining the complexity of managing and maintaining a multi-vendor network is both daunting and full of opportunity with the mobile data explosion of 3G and long term evolution coming to fruition.

As TMCnet reported, Alcatel-Lucent this week unveiled a variety of solutions aimed at addressing that mobile data explosion on both 3G and LTE networks.

New is 2G and 3G Gateway GPRS Support Node functionality on Alcatel-Lucent's 7750 Service Router-based mobile packet core gateways. That means this gear can now be used in GPRS/EDGE, HSPA, HSPA+ and LTE networks. The 7750 SR has been in global LTE trials since 2009 and becomes generally available in the second half of 2010.

Alcatel-Lucent also introduced the Wireless Mobility Manager this week, which enables service provider packet cores to support HSPA and HSPA+ as well as LTE.

Lindsay Newell, vice president of marketing for Alcatel-Lucent's IP activities, tells TMCnet that the WMM delivers high performance signaling.

As Paula Bernier reported,  smartphones generate a lot more signaling load on the network than do traditional cellular handsets because "they're a lot more chatty with the network," according to Newell.

Also, where today mobile subscribers usually have one connection to the network - either using the phone or Internet capability, in the future people will have multiple sessions per device, so that will increase the signaling load as well, adds Newell of Alcatel-Lucent, a key supplier of next-generation wireless gear to industry leaders AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

For organizations throughout the global infrastructure, the network is constantly evolving to keep up with the progress of innovative technologies. At the same time, subscriber user patterns are changing and wireless operators are searching for effective strategies for evolving LTE networks. The opportunities in harnessing the right solution are abundant.