As TMC’s (News - Alert) Andrew Litz previously brought to light, market reports from around the world agree that mobile broadband usage is growing faster than wireline. The latest smartphones, connected to fast 3G and 4G networks, provide compelling applications and are stimulating a dramatic uptake in the use of mobile broadband technology. The mass-market adoption of wireless data is driven by network operators, as they introduce innovative data services. Many subscribers are now opting for fixed mobile substitution and are switching to mobile as their only form of connectivity.

Advantech’s (News - Alert) Paul Stevens and 6Winds’ Charlie Ashton, recently confirmed this in a collaborative piece, “Multicore Plus Optimized Packet Processing Software”, saying, “The myriad wireless technologies are no longer just a voice medium, and, since the advent of usable data capabilities, the demand and associated growth of the wireless data infrastructure has been unprecedented, with no end in sight. Fueled by the introduction and accelerated adoption of Internet capable, wireless enabled devices such as smartphones, tablets, eBook readers etc., the demands for network capacity translate directly into a need for increased performance within the infrastructure and the elements that must carry and manage the traffic.”

A major problem faced by network operators is that there may not be sufficient wireless network capacity to address increasing demand. The amount of spectrum available for broadband services is limited, and wireless networks inherently have far lower capacity than wireline networks. As a result, many users are beginning to see the effects of network congestion, leading to frequent complaints of slow network operation. If this situation is not corrected soon, a finite number of mobile users with bandwidth-intensive applications could consume all the available wireless network capacity.

Trying to conquer this feat, 6WIND, provider of software for communication systems design for defense and electronics networking, expanded its 6WINDGate packet processing software so that it can be deployed to a broader range of Advantech systems. Advantech, a manufacturer of telecom computing blades and multicore network processor platforms, explained that its FWA Network Application Platform range based on multicore x86 processors will be the new solutions to be supported by 6WINDGate software. The company’s multicore MIPS-based Packetarium platforms are already supported.

Stevens and Ashton explained the multicore advantage, “The first key step in optimizing overall system performance while remaining conscious of platform power consumption is in the choice of processing hardware. Traditional processors gained performance improvements through the continual up-rating of the clock frequency. The laws of physics became a major challenge as power consumption increased in proportion to the square of the clock frequency. For use in high performance networking systems, the ever-increasing power draw and associated heatsink and cooling requirements became impractical. Developers of high-end processors have since migrated to multicore architectures in order to meet the need for increased performance while maintaining manageable levels of power consumption.”

Multicore processors help multitask, executing multiple tasks simultaneously and independently. Your overall system throughput performance and power management will experience significant gains, as applications are logically divided into independently manageable instances. To read more on the multicore advantage click here.