Network Video Optimization 101

There is a generally accepted term in mobile networks called optimization.  In this sense it usually involves tweaking the radio base station antennas in terms of down tilt, messing around with the power settings and figuring out the best combination of cell-sites that provide the best results for handover and handoff.  This and dozens of other techniques make it possible for the best sound quality and power and to make sure calls are not dropped when you’re driving at 70 mph down the highway.

For delivering video services over 3G and LTE networks a number of other considerations come into view.  Besides having to deliver high quality multimedia to a variety of devices over radio frequencies, there is the need to optimize the video to minimize the amount of bandwidth that these services take up.  This is especially needed as more and more people use video (driven by iPhone for example) and use up all the available bandwidth in a given cell site, requiring operators to deploy more radio base stations and transceivers, all of which are incredibly expensive.

Using services such as Video Network Optimization, operators can reduce the rate from say 140kbps to 110kbps while insuring no decline in perceivable video quality to end customers.  The technology behind this takes a lot of experience from companies that are experts in mobile video but can deliver great cost savings which are going to be needed as video explodes in the mobile network.

What do you think are the biggest challenges in optimizing mobile video networks?  How will the coming rollouts of LTE (as with Verizon in the US) make the need for this even more important?  What are the key technologies and techniques that can be utilized?

Video Network Optimization

What if you could squeeze 20-40% more bandwidth from the network while delivering quality services to subscribers at a lower cost?  Sound too good to be true?  People forget that MP3 technology allowed for the advent (eventually) of the iPod and other audio and video compression techniques enabled much of the services we take for granted today on our various devices.

The whole area of video network optimization requires an understanding of how multimedia is squeezed through the radio, core, and service layer networks. We will be expanding on this topic much more in coming posts.

Right now though, there are products available that take a lot of what our company has pioneered around transcoding to enable a huge amount of more video traffic at any given cell-site or radio network.

For instance (sales pitch ahead!):  Leveraging the transcoding and transrating capabilities of the Dilithium Content Adapter (DCA) allows existing network deployment to serve greater numbers of customers when serving video content over mobile broadband networks. Thus, our DVO solution reduces network build-out costs and provides quality video services with less radio, core and service layer components.

So how important will network video optimization be for service providers?  Will the end-customer be able to see a difference?  What are the true cost savings and benefits?