Wireless Services Gateway

Overview

Compiled Networkʼs Wireless Services Gateway (WSG) enables low cost, high bandwidth 3G offload through Micro-Mobility and LTE-Transition. Service Providers are currently faced with meeting an exponential growth of bandwidth demand from mobile broadband devices. A strategy that uses existing 3G technology to handle this explosive growth is costly and only yields incremental gains in bandwidth. The WSG augments traditional IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) technology to support 3G integration, micro-mobility, and LTE transition gateway functionality. Using these features, the WSG provides Service Providers with a low cost strategy for offloading their excessive mobile broadband traffic.

Problem

Demand for wireless broadband has exceeded all growth expectations since the introduction of the iPhone and continues to be a drain on existing 3G network deployments. This high rate of growth shows no signs of relenting, or relaxing pressure on mobile broadband providers. The strain has taken a toll across the major Service Providers, causing data network outages and reduced overall bandwidth for voice applications. These outages have gained such notoriety that reporting on these issues has graduated from trade journals to main stream press.

Service Providers are continuing to add smartphone subscribers at a blistering pace; IDC reported 54.4 million smartphones shipped in Q4 2009 worldwide, a 39% increase over Q4 2008. Additionally, new types of devices (eReaders) are now starting to hit the network in significant quantities. AT&T reported one million eReaders on their network as of Q4 2009. According to Cisco, this trend of exponential growth of mobile broadband demand shows no signs of letting up in the near future and will be fueled by rich video applications.

Providers are currently meeting this challenge through a combination of deploying additional capacity through augmentation and messaging “LTE is on the way”. This may be the proper solution for sparse areas, but there are cheaper and simpler methods of resolving bandwidth scarcity in highly trafficked, dense environments. Inexpensive, unlicensed Wi-Fi access can be used to provide high demand bandwidth and micro-mobility within high-traffic environments, while integrating with existing 3G cellular networks, and providing a seamless transition to LTE architecture.

Solution

The Compiled Networks Wireless Services Gateway (WSG) is a service provider mobility gateway that enables Wireless Service Providers to augment and extend their mobile data presence and capacity. Additionally, the WSG enables greenfield operators to deploy low cost broadband wireless networks with mobility. Wi-Fi technology currently meets bandwidth demands of mobile users, but does not integrate with existing wireless service provider infrastructure or support mobility. Existing UMTS/GSM and CDMA2000 networks support roaming and mobility of subscribers, but do not meet their existing bandwidth demands. The WSG offers an intelligent marriage of these disparate technologies, which allows a wireless service provider to integrate existing and new Wi-Fi networks while preserving the mobility, scale, and privacy of existing mobile architectures. Service Providers can use the WSG as bandwidth augmentation strategy for 3GPP and 3GPP2 data offload.