Bridgewater Systems - Mobile Data Growth

The rapid and widespread success of mobile broadband services has sparked exponential growth in mobile data traffic. This traffic boom is being driven by the popularity of smartphones and laptop data cards, a dramatic increase in the use of advanced applications such as mobile Internet browsing and video, and unlimited and flat-rate data plans.

Bridgewater Systems understands the complexity and performance challenges of managing mobile data growth. Our solutions help service providers predict and manage data growth, while ensuring a high level of service through the implementation of network, application, and subscriber policies that respect and adapt to subscriber behaviors.

Challenges for Service Providers

Managing mobile data traffic growth, while delivering a superior subscriber experience presents complex business, performance, and scalability challenges including:

Managing bandwidth consumption and network resources – identification of heavy users and implementation of fair use policies and metered services that respect subscriber behavior.

Ensuring a satisfying subscriber experience by providing a fast and reliable network, the ability to access services according to service plans, meeting demand for new and differentiated services, and integrating third-party applications.

Giving subscribers greater control over their mobile data usage.

Centralizing subscriber data from multiple sources in order to provision new services quickly and reduce revenue leakage due to multiple provisioning points.

Effectively managing network performance, scalability and capacity growth.

Bridgewater Solution and Benefits

Our subscriber, service and policy control solutions have been proven in demanding Tier 1 service provider networks that handle billions of mobile data transactions per month. They solve the network performance and subscriber experience challenges associated with high growth mobile data services.

Bridgewater's WideSpan® system is an integrated portfolio offering that enables personalization in a high mobile transaction environment. Anchored by Bridgewater's Subscriber Data Broker™ - a sophisticated subscriber data management solution - it integrates the Bridgewater® Service Controller and the Bridgewater® Policy Controller products in a highly-scalable, carrier-class blade server environment. It enables service providers to:

Manage network resources based on a unified view of subscribers, including their profile, usage, and dynamic state information in real time.

Rapidly scale mobile data transactions by adding additional blades as required.

Predict when hardware needs to be upgraded based on the number of mobile transactions being conducted by subscribers, resulting in improved forecasting and management of subscriber growth.

Reduce costs by implementing a pre-integrated and pre-configured system with certified transaction throughput.

The Bridgewater® Policy Controller provides real-time network, application, and subscriber policies that allow service providers to manage mobile data growth and deliver personalized services. It is unique in the industry in leveraging multiple types of policy that work together to deliver a superior mobile experience. Network policies are performed by the Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) in the Policy Controller. These policies enable service providers to manage mobile data traffic by applying real-time fair usage controls that adapt to changing network conditions and subscriber content. The Policy Controller also supports application policies that allow service providers to rapidly provision new applications and apply policies to determine what, where, and under which circumstances subscribers can access applications. Bridgewater's myPolicy™ solution for the Apple iPhone® and Research in Motion's Blackberry® enables service providers to give subscribers direct policy control over their own mobile usage including: tracking real-time data, SMS, and applications usage; setting personalized limits and notifications; and receiving special offers.

Benefits at a Glance

Service Providers	Subscribers
Faster time-to-market for new services by deploying an integrated system for subscriber, service, and policy control. Improved management of mobile data growth - deploy an integrated system that rapidly scales as mobile data transactions grow and applies network, application and subscriber policies to improve performance and subscriber services. Reduce costs – eliminate onsite hardware/software integration, lower hardware footprint and power consumption. Prevent mobile bill shock, retain subscribers, and reduce customer service costs.	Access to the latest applications like mobile video, mobile Internet and social networking. A personalized mobile experience with appropriate prioritization of bandwidth based on the subscriber’s service plan, preferences, and fair usage principles. Fast and efficient network access regardless of network or device type. Manage mobile data usage, set personalized limits and notifications, receive special offers such as a roaming day pass.