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Feb. 9, 2010

The FCC is increasingly concerned of the looming network congestion that could be caused by the iPad.

In an effort to better respond to those valid concerns, Juniper Networks will soon unveil three mobility solutions under its Project Falcon initiative designed to allow wireless carriers to better optimize network traffic on their current infrastructure and to provide a smoother path for efficiently migrating from 3G to 4G technology.

Juniper's new solutions are called Traffic Direct™, Media Flow™ and Mobile Core Evolution™ and they've already caught the attention of more than a few observers in the wireless industry.

The network infrastructure provider added that a study by research firm IDC validated its claims that the solution would lower a mobile carrier’s total cost of ownership by up to 70 percent in some cases.

Juniper's Media Flow solution leverages software from the company’s partner Ankeena Networks that Juniper said optimizes network transmission of video content and works in conjunction with Traffic Direct to offload network traffic and content delivery “closer to end users.”

Both Traffic Direct and Media Flow are scheduled to be available near the end of April or early May.

In its latest tests, Juniper says that its Traffic Direct offering successfully managed to optimize wireless data traffic by “combining intelligent subscriber and application policies” with its MX 3D series routers “scaling to offload bulk data traffic directly to the Internet.”

The last in the company's offering is its Mobile Core Evolution solution that Juniper said will leverage its MX 3D routers and embedded software from Junos “to deliver 3G and 4G gateway capabilities while accelerating wireless service innovation and time to market with uncompromised scaling across bandwidth, subscribers and services.”

Juniper's Mobile Core Evolution solution is scheduled to be available to select customers in beta form by the end of 2010.

Juniper said that pricing for the services will be announced closer to availability.

Just this morning, FCC officials Phil Bellaria and John Leibovitz, director of scenario planning for the FCC's Omnibus Broadband Initiative and deputy chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, respectively, say the increased traffic that could be generated by the iPad is probably reminiscent of the huge congestion that first-generation Internet dialup users experienced following AOL's 1996 decision to allow unlimited Web access.

Yes, the FCC has many reasons to be worried. But wait, there's more...

For many months now, wireless users had trouble connecting and, once they did connect, they experienced frequent service outages, network sluggishness, etc."

Although Leibovitz and Bellaria didn't name AT&T specifically, the iPad's 3G connectivity is currently only available on AT&T's network. So-- that's pretty easy to figure out...

"With the iPad pointing to even greater and increased demand for mobile broadband on the near horizon, we must ensure that network congestion doesn't choke off a vital service that wireless consumers clearly find appealing or frustrate mobile broadband's ability to keep us competitive in the global broadband economy," said Bellaria and Leibovitz."

Recently, AT&T has come under heavy criticism for its slow and sluggish network performance, which appears to have been severely hampered by massive network traffic linked to the data-intensive iPhone.

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Source: Juniper Networks.