Global Mobile Service Providers Optimize Performance of IP Services with F5 Solution

Mobile service providers face an enormous challenge from the exponential growth in the data, video, and voice over IP (VoIP) traffic being consumed by users with smartphones, tablets, netbooks, and laptops. As data rates increase with each successive generation of IP-based services —from 2G and 3G, and ultimately to 4G— this challenge will only worsen. Fierce competition limits how much service providers can charge for these services, and maintaining satisfactory performance levels for the growing number of users and applications threatens to force some major and costly upgrades throughout service providers’ infrastructures. Furthermore, service providers want to offer a wide variety of plans to subscribers that range from basic to unlimited access, potentially with tiered performance levels. Subscriber plans that charge based on actual usage require detailed accounting, and unlimited plans often lead to excessive utilization that can degrade overall performance and limit the scalability of the existing network infrastructure.

The customer in this case study is a group of global mobile service providers. These service providers are facing a significant challenge due to the exponential growth in data, video, and voice over IP (VoIP) traffic being consumed by users with various devices such as smartphones, tablets, netbooks, and laptops. As data rates increase with each successive generation of IP-based services, from 2G and 3G to 4G, this challenge is expected to worsen. The service providers are in a fiercely competitive market, which limits how much they can charge for these services. They are also facing the threat of major and costly upgrades throughout their infrastructures to maintain satisfactory performance levels for the growing number of users and applications. Furthermore, they want to offer a wide variety of plans to subscribers, ranging from basic to unlimited access, potentially with tiered performance levels.