Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Rhonda Wickham: The Problems with Data

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 19:41:53 -0500

The Problems With Data 
 
By Rhonda Wickham

January 1, 2003
Wireless Week
 
Last weekend, I finally joined the broadband ranks. Having conducted Internet business via
a telephone line, I was eager to upgrade to fast connects and breathtaking download
speeds. In the sales pitch, the rep bragged that the speeds were 100 times faster than my
telephone connection. "Oh c'mon," I challenged. "How's that possible?" "OK, maybe only 50
times faster," she recanted. 

Speed, or at least perceived speed, is a key benchmark data customers use to evaluate
their sessions. Unfortunately, the problem with data is it doesn't stop at speed. Speed
means nothing if the applications and services don't work efficiently. 

This holds true also for wireless data, where a dropped transmission is no longer a simple
matter of a lost minute of billable airtime revenue. Being a pipeline for what could
represent billions of dollars in potential transactions, wireless operators know they have
greater responsibility for the quality of overall service. 

However, their previous go-to "purveyor and assessor," the OSS system, needs help.
Wireless OSS systems originally were designed for circuit-switched voice networks. Service
performance used to be about call completions. In the more complex IP-network world,
operators know they have to move beyond dropped calls to monitoring network operations
based on applications, devices and service. They need to be able to "see" all the way down
through the switches, routers, ATMs and PDSNs into the WAP, BREW and other data transports
to the customer experience, all the while assessing the performance of each point.

That brings us to the second problem with data. There are mountain ranges of it. Operators
have to be able to analyze thousands of points of network data to understand how
individuals or groups are using their services, devices and applications, and which are
providing the best return. Operators must be able not only to determine that a service is
working and how it is performing for each customer but also how many network resources it
is using. Only then will they be able to optimize network performance and control their
expenditures.

Years ago, operators teamed with vendors to develop hardware and software systems to
measure unique components of what was then a wireless version of the old telco network. It
started as a Band-Aid here and there until it evolved to a holistic, streamlined network
approach. Today, operators are going back to, in many cases, a new group of vendors to
develop software that will measure network health, connectivity at various points and http
and STP throughputs.

Many vendors from different camps– switch, IP, software–are rising to meet the challenge
of providing this type of insight in targeted areas. What ultimately needs to evolve,
though, is a more holistic approach that can view both the radio and data networks and all
of their links and test and measure the health of the network and the customer experience.
But this will take time. 

Meanwhile, operators need to exercise caution in what they promise and promote. Waving
speed flags and multiple capability banners add up to a fat zero if the operator can't see
and control what the customer experiences. 
-------------------------------------------------

Author Information 
Veteran wireless industry journalist Rhonda Wickham is with the consulting company Wickham
Ink and be reached at [email-masked] or by phone at 913-209-8080. 

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=story&articleid=CA268294&spacedesc=Departments&stt=000

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