Trending Now: Mobile Video

BELLEVUE, WA--(Marketwired - Apr 10, 2013) - 4G Americas announced today the publication of Supporting Wireless Video Growth and Trends, a report that uncovers the challenges and solutions to deliver video over mobile networks today and in the future. The report, a joint project of members of 4G Americas, a wireless industry trade association representing the 3GPP family of technologies, does a deep dive into the wireless end-to-end network and offers a multipronged approach to deliver Quality of Experience (QoE) and address the various challenges unique to mobile video.

"One of the largest growth areas for mobile data traffic is mobile video and it is also the greatest user of network capacity," stated Chris Pearson, President of 4G Americas. "Mobile video traffic is already more than 50 percent of mobile data traffic for some service providers, and further growth could soon strain the wireless network resources due to finite and limited spectrum availability."

In the report, particular emphasis is given to the technology features that will enable successful delivery of mobile video to the masses, including:

• Optimizing the radio and core networks (HTTP Adaptive Streaming, etc.)
• Support of multiple network architectures (Het-Nets, LTE broadcast, content delivery networks)
• Support of client optimizations, and
• Enhanced codecs (HEVC)

Kamakshi Sridhar, Director Wireless CTO organization at Alcatel-Lucent, and 4G Americas project co-leader of the white paper, noted that, "delivery of wireless video poses particular challenges for the network because a video stream requires a sustained high bandwidth session lasting several minutes. Limited spectrum availability can result in air interface congestion restricting bandwidth to only a few active users in a cell."

Sridhar continued, "To compound the congestion problem, cell handovers due to user mobility, and interference from neighboring cell users affect packet throughput, delay, loss and jitter, all of which adversely affect video delivery. Fortunately, the industry is working on solutions to overcome many of these hurdles."

Other issues also arise, as noted by co-leader Gautam Talagery, Director, Mobile Broadband Solutions at Ericsson, "Throughput to individual users varies with time and location, based upon cell load and proximity to the cell. The broad range of emerging devices requires flexibility in video delivery to address variations in screen sizes, screen resolution of end user devices, and impact of video usage on battery life. It is therefore critical to minimize wireless congestion due to video traffic, by tailoring the video application to the underlying network resources and device types, while still maximizing end user experience."

Supporting Wireless Video Growth and Trends addresses the various aspects of mobile video delivery from operator, vendor and device perspectives and is recommended reading as well for application developers and industry analysts.

"The growth of video is both a great opportunity to transform lives and industries, and a challenge as it will pose considerable capacity stress on HSPA+ and LTE mobile broadband networks," Pearson added. "Technology will continue to evolve to meet the mobile video challenge, but without more licensed mobile wireless spectrum allocations from governments throughout the Americas region, video streaming over mobile broadband will continue to be a challenge."

The report, Supporting Wireless Video Growth and Trends, was written collaboratively by members of 4G Americas and is available for free download at: www.4gamericas.org.

About 4G Americas: Unifying the Americas through Mobile Broadband Technology
4G Americas is an industry trade organization composed of leading telecommunications service providers and manufacturers. The organization's mission is to promote, facilitate and advocate for the deployment and adoption of the 3GPP family of technologies throughout the Americas. 4G Americas contributes to the successful commercial rollout of 3GPP mobile broadband technologies across the Americas and their place as the No. 1 technology family in the region. The organization aims to develop the expansive wireless ecosystem of networks, devices, and applications enabled by GSM and its evolution to LTE. 4G Americas is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., with an office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Dallas. More information is available at www.4gamericas.org.

4G Americas' Board of Governors members include: Alcatel-Lucent, América Móvil, AT&T, BlackBerry, Cable & Wireless, CommScope, Entel, Ericsson, Gemalto, HP, Mavenir, Nokia Siemens Networks, Openwave Mobility, Powerwave, Qualcomm, Rogers, T-Mobile USA and Telefónica.