For years, mobile operators have wracked their brains trying to figure out how to make some money off the numerous high-bandwidth data services that cross their networks.

 

Not only do services like video over IP eat up valuable bandwidth and constrain networks for subscribers, but often the operator doesn’t make much money beyond the flat-rate data plans they offer.

 

Fortunately, RadiSys (News - Alert) has come up with a way to help them rack up revenues. Enter the Integrated Mobile Media Server (IMMS), a service delivery system that empowers service providers with the technology to generate new money streams.

 

“With the explosion in data traffic over 3G networks, in particular one-way streaming content originating from the Internet, Mobile Service Providers are increasingly relegated to the role of mobile broadband access providers between devices and Internet-based content providers,” said Godfrey Chua, research manager, Wireless and Mobile Infrastructure, IDC (News - Alert). “RadiSys’ IMMS holds the promise of helping Mobile Service Providers enhance their business models by enabling them to sell additional differentiated services, such as video ringback tones, multimedia conferencing, or video advertising, over and above flat-rate mobile data plan revenues. As the mobile network continues to move towards data-based applications and services, these efforts will be key for mobile service providers wanting to remain relevant to their customers.”  

 

While packet-based data services are great for one-way video streaming, they often are insufficient for reliable two-way conversational video services. Hence, many mobile service operators are still looking to circuit-based mobile video based on 3G-324M standards to offer these kinds of mobile video services. The challenge is that 3G-324M video gateways are expensive – as much as ten times the price per port of VoIP voice gateway products. The result is an economic barrier that limits broad adoption of differentiated conversational video services.    

 

“In the first release of IMMS, we’ve come up with a strategy where a mobile network operator will no longer need dedicated 3G-324M video gateway equipment,” Ray Adensamer (News - Alert), senior product marketing manager for RadiSys, told TMCnet. “Our architectural approach facilitates the termination of 3G-324M video circuits on conventional VoIP voice gateway products, which converts the video circuit bit-stream into bi-directional IP-based packet streams for the RadiSys IMMS, where 3G-324M protocol processing is now performed side-by-side with video media processing.”

RadiSys’ IMMS with integrated 3G-324M support reduces the overall price per port by 50 percent compared t mobile service architectures using dedicated 3G-324M video gateways. The result is a packet-based service delivery system that offers scale economies to enhance mobile service providers’ ability to generate profitable mobile service revenues beyond flat-rate data plans. The IMMS delivers two-way and N-way conversational video services, while also enhancing one-way streaming services, thereby shifting the point of service monetization back into the Mobile Service Providers’ domain.

 

In addition, by consolidating disparate service processing equipment into a single, cost-efficient carrier-class network element, the IMMS will reduce the overall costs for mass-market deployment of 3G and 4G/LTE (News - Alert) mobile services.