SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--While excitement over upcoming 5G applications increases at a rapid rate week-over-week, Opanga Networks is preparing for data demands to outpace spectrum availability. With the success of 5G riding on service revenue increases from new applications focused in virtual-augmented reality, ultra-high-resolution video, fixed wireless, and connected car, technology experts and innovators at OTT companies around the world are busy building applications for mobile revenue growth, with no consideration to the associated data demands.
In 4G networks roughly 3-percent of data sessions can account for as much as 70-percent of data traffic because rich streaming video services use 20,000 times more bandwidth than text-based services. New applications and services on 5G networks will further skew this ratio as 4G Elephant Flows transform into 5G Mega Elephant Flows.
"When these new applications and services are unleashed onto mobile 5G networks there will be a massive increase in data volume,” says Dave Gibbons, CEO, Opanga Networks. "On 4G networks streaming video applications such as YouTube consume between 1 and 3Mbps and they have been a real handful for operators to grapple with. These new 5G applications will consume 10 to 50Mbps or more and we call them Mega Elephant Flows. Optimizing these applications over the radio infrastructure will be essential and not a ‘nice to have’.”
Spectrum for 5G is being auctioned around the world, and many countries, including Finland, have begun issuing mid-tier spectrum licenses to network operators. Some markets remain in their 5G infancy, still identifying spectrum for future auctions to allow 5G build plans to begin.
"In most markets around the world mid-tier spectrum will double an operator’s holdings, or maybe triple it," said Gibbons. “But these new applications will increase traffic demand by 10- or 20-fold easily. It is vital that operators have software intelligence in the core of their network to optimize how services are delivered over 5G cell sites. The good news is that the Elephant Flow challenge is a digital communications challenge, and pairing network intelligence with a ‘big software’ mentality can go a long way to resolving Mega Elephant issues.”
Opanga has proven its 4G machine learning software with 25 operators around the world. The company has designed its solutions with 5G networks in mind, and industry leaders in core networks, such as Cisco, are leading the way in developing the underlying 5G mobile core to allow technologies like Opanga to enable mass-scale, software-based densification.
About Opanga Networks
Opanga Networks is a software solutions company conquering network densification leveraging the mobile core through innovative machine learning techniques to create virtual capacity and decrease CAPEX. Opanga is the first company to introduce solutions that mitigate the negative impact of Elephant Flows on network performance without decreasing video experience, and to deploy network upgrades in the mobile core that do not require additional hardware capacity. Opanga offers the only RAN densification solution that can be deployed network-wide in a matter of hours.
