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The Next-Generation Consumer Broadband
Broadband Today
The current broadband products available for consumers are typically bandwidth-limited, and have a pricing based mostly on the rate of bandwidth restriction, the best-effort top connection rate.Most users can't see a significant improvement when upgrading a 1 Mbit/s connection to 4 Mbit/s. This fact leads consumers to buy the cheapest available broadband connection. Together with bandwidth-based flat-rate pricing, this cuts the broadband operators' profits to the minimum.
Consumer Broadband for Tomorrow
The emerging killer applications for consumer broadband will be telephony and chat services augmented with live video, and other bandwidth-hungry applications, like replacing video rental by downloaded movies. Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology enables both fast and reliable data transfers. The most compelling reason to buy broadband will be these new applications. Thus, limiting or blocking P2P traffic is not a viable business option.Problems for the Operators
New, bandwidth-hungry P2P applications will pose problems to broadband providers. A flat-rate pricing model enables users to increase network load and hence the operator's costs, while billing remains the same.The operator can improve the situation by refining its product from a raw data transport to a more application-oriented connectivity service. The product pricing need not be flat-rate alone, but it can also depend on the volume and types of traffic.
The Next-Generation Consumer Broadband
The the next-generation broadband connection the consumer will get the following features:- Full-Rate Connection to Operator's Network
- Up to 20 Mb/s for ADSL2+
- 100 Mb/s for Ethernet
- Guaranteed Bandwidth
- Enables reliable VoIP calls of high quality
- More guaranteed bandwidth for ordered services
- Extra Features Available for Additional Charge
- Extra-small latency for e.g. real-time games
- Prioritized traffic in case of congestion
- Bandwidth-on-Demand (Extra bandwidth for a short period)
- High bandwidth to designated destinations (e.g. workplace)
- Low Entry-Level Pricing
- Additional charge for additional features
- Operator may use volume-based or flat-rate pricing
Enabling Technology: Continuous, Dynamic Bandwidth Management
The key enabling technology for tomorrow's broadband solutions is centralized bandwidth management, realizable by the Staselog Network Equalizer product line.The Network Equalizer devices allow the operator to allocate bandwidth to the individual subscribers with fine granularity. The bandwidth management can be fully automated to minimize operating costs.
The adjustment is continuous and dynamic, unlike in other bandwidth management products. The bandwidth is controlled packet by packet, allowing very sharp control. The bandwidth guaranteed to a user but not fully used will be reallocated in real time. This doubles the bandwidth yield. The average delay is reduced by 50% and the jitter is virtually eliminated. This process is applied to all traffic in the whole network at each time instance, thus enabling the best possible quality by means of statistical optimization.
By means of this technology, the P2P traffic needs no special treatment. Its high transfer ability and quality can by fully used without causing problems to other users or applications.
There is no longer need to reduce P2P traffic in order to solve congestion problems. The network can be driven to saturation and the congestion problems solved by granting bandwidth instead of limiting it. Thus, the operator can genuinely offer different service levels and charge accordingly.
Staselog Network Equalizer can be integrated to operator's system, such as billing or customer database, when implementing customer specific services.