MWC: Cicso integrating new mobile core into content delivery framework

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) has begun to fully integrate the mobile packet core technology it acquired from Starent Networks into its IP services portfolio, announcing today at Mobile World Congress several enhancements to the ASR 5000, the gateway off which all of Cisco’s 3G and long-term evolution (LTE) core elements are built.

The host of solutions fall under a new category of mobile IP capabilities Cisco is calling MOVE (Monetization, Optimization, Videoscape Experience). Specifically, Cisco is integrating the ASR 5000 with its video distribution network and creating a new adaptive intelligent routing platform that extends through the mobile and IP cores. Cisco also announced a new carrier WiFi service targeted specifically at mobile data offload.

Cisco Service Provider Mobility Solutions marketing director Andy Capener said that the Videoscape integration turns the mobile core into a full-fledged content delivery network (CDN). The gateway recognizes requests for specific types of content from specific devices, but it doesn’t necessarily deliver that video stream in the format or from the location requested. If it’s a popular video request, the ASR 5000 can pull it from Videoscape’s cache, rather than route it to some far flung server. The gateway can tell Videoscape to transcode video into formats more optimal for the phone or network. And bringing in the ASR 5000’s policy management capabilities, when the network is congested the gateway can request video be transrated into a less bandwidth intensive stream, Capener said.

Cisco became the latest vendor to tap into the growing trend of WiFi offload, driven by the increasing number of smartphones with embedded WiFi. Other access point vendors like Ruckus Wireless and traditional telecom vendors like Nokia Siemens Networks (NYSE:NOK, NYSE:SI) have been quick to jump into the market, creating intelligent routers and gateways that allow operators to authenticate their customers and route traffic back to their core networks, rather than just dump them on to the public Internet.

Cisco’s services offers many of those same features, but it has gone as far as to build subscriber identity module (SIM) identification authentication into its access points. The carrier WiFi platform also supports ‘concierge’ services that would allow operators to offer location-and context-specific content, such as coupons and alerts through a device client.