Alcatel-Lucent Launches 9900 Wireless Network Guardian for Mobile Broadband Network Management

By Jeff Orr, Editor
Mobile Broadband News

Alcatel-Lucent today announced the Alcatel-Lucent 9900 Wireless Network Guardian (WNG), the industry’s first mobile broadband network management solution. Alcatel-Lucent’s research found that all IP traffic should not be treated equally. Instead, the patterns and the consumption are analyzed enabling smarter decisions about application and network optimization.

The 9900 WNG looks at a wireless IP network differently than a wired IP network or even a wireless network that is not based on IP. “The increased use of mobile broadband applications and devices is impacting resources of operators now – creating a blind spot,” said Mike Schabel, General Manager for the 9900 WNG. The product addresses a gap in current mobile operator networks that could lead to network disruption as wireless network operators increasingly support new data services, devices, and applications based on Internet protocol.

Transmitting IP packet data and IP applications place significantly different load types on wireless networks than voice traffic due to differences between voice and IP. Common applications such as VPN, e-mail, Web-surfing and peer-to-peer can use up to 1,000 times more wireless network resources (airtime, signaling, etc.) per byte of data than others – potentially creating substantial network congestion if left unaddressed. This challenge is increasing with the growing adoption of more sophisticated, high-bandwidth services and the trend toward “open” wireless networks.

The product makes it possible for carriers to engineer wireless data flow with the level of granularity needed to understand each flow’s impact on every layer and choke point in the wireless network, specifically the radio access network. With this capacity carriers are now able to efficiently and optimally accommodate demanding data applications through traffic optimization and/or strategic network expansion.

Canada’s Bell Mobility is the first carrier to trial the Alcatel-Lucent 9900 WNG in a live commercial network. “Technologies like the Wireless Network Guardian can help us continue to deliver the best-in-class mobile data services that differentiate us in the Canadian wireless marketplace,” said Stephen Howe, Chief Technology Officer for Bell.

An interesting side effect of optimizing mobile broadband devices and application is longer device battery life. A device that is alert and actively receiving or transmitting data consumes significantly more power than one that is performing functions locally. Using less airtime and more efficient use of airtime with a solution such as the 9900 WNG could also lead to extended device life between charges.

The Alcatel-Lucent 9900 WNG is composed of two network elements: a wireless network detector, for deployment in the data center, and a wireless network central, for deployment in a network or security operations center. The Alcatel-Lucent 9900 WNG monitors network traffic at a granular level, identifies anomalous wireless behaviors which could degrade network performance and impact subscriber’s experience, and enables carriers to strategically use Alcatel-Lucent and 3rd party products to mitigate disruption and optimize networks. The product runs “out of band” to wireless network traffic and is not considered a high risk for interfering with overall network performance.

The Alcatel-Lucent 9900 Wireless Network Guardian also enables carriers to detect and protect their networks from a new class of wireless-specific denial of service (DOS) attacks targeted at the signaling layer and exhausting RF channels.

The 9900 WNG product will be publicly unveiled at the CTIA Wireless 2008 trade show on April 1.