BroadHop teams up with in-network probe provider

The radio access network (RAN) is a major point of congestion in mobile networks, especially during special events such as holidays or sporting events. Identifying congestion and responding in real time can be challenging, but a partnership with CommProve was announced today by BroadHop, making it the first time a policy vendor is demonstrating interoperability with an in-network probe provider. “The purpose of the partnership is real-time monitoring of devices and collection of data from networks—as opposed to the traditional way of collecting data over time and then making predictions about what will happen based on historical data,” explained Dan Geiger, BroadHop vice president of marketing.

By combining BroadHop’s Quantum Network Suite and CommProve’s RAN Insight, Geiger says service providers will be able to apply radio policies according to subscriber service level and applications under use. “We consider this the first end-to-end application and subscriber RAN congestion management solution that helps operators target the RAN devices that get inundated at certain times, thus helping them to disseminate or smooth the traffic before performance issues impact customers,” said Geiger.

He notes that CommProve was selected as a partner because “they are highly qualified with a good set of operator customers using their technology for radio optimization to stay ahead of spikes in network usage, which threaten subscriber Quality of Experience (QoE) and application Quality of Service (QoS).

Carrier capital expenditures, or capex, can also be affected if operators continually add radio capacity to address the volatile nature of data traffic. “With this solution, we believe operators will apply targeted policies to manage traffic based on many parameters,” said Geiger, noting that understanding congestion’s impact on subscriber, application, and bandwidth usage will help operators better manage traffic, as well as ensure fair access for all subscribers during periods of network congestion. For example, being able to track subscriber cell location helps enforce policies only for devices active in a congested area without the need for additional location updates to be provided from the network.

The solution can also help operators identify their most-valued customers so they can make policy decisions about how to manage cell congestion, and, after a congestion event, to enable event reporting and conduct analytics for real-time, proactive notifications and actions through customer care.