Web response times need to be less than 250ms.  Download times for a web page on cellular networks today is somewhere between 7 – 20 seconds.  End-users expect more responsive networks and higher quality for media streaming.  Through the use of intelligent network management and the strategic reduction of backhaul traffic to cater for the inevitable surge in video traffic, it is possible to manage network peak rate, deliver user profiled content and a higher QoE for multimedia content, whilst also increasing subscriber usage levels.

Network “on-loading” is an enabler and accelerator.  It is designed to improve network monetization.  It is achieved through additional revenue opportunities gained through improved latency and QoS/QoE for the content delivery network, combined with lower operating costs through transparent caching and intelligent learning.  These gains are achieved through a number of different means:

Location of the cache

There are two options for the location of the cache engine:

1. At the edge of the network is the optimal location as it minimizes the distance to the end-user, thereby providing the greatest benefit.  However, this can be a more expensive deployment option due to the number of individual site locations
2. Centralized caching at the core can be more cost-effective to deploy but it does not deliver any of the backhaul savings that can be achieved through caching at the network edge.

Either way, mobile network caching delivers several distinctive benefits:

Next: Monetising Data Content