PREFACE

Mobile devices have transformed the way we conduct business and lead our lives. Not only are we able to have a phone conversation with others using a Smartphone, we are able to check our e-mail, read a book, make a purchase, book airline tickets, snap a picture, connect with old friends, and play games using a device that we can carry with us anytime anywhere. The resulting transformations in society and our personal lives are apparent to all.

Despite all the wonderful capabilities offered by mobile devices, there is a significant hurdle that can easily turn into a showstopper preventing us from fully attaining the benefits possible from them. The amount of bandwidth available for communication using mobile devices is limited. In one part of the network, namely, the air interface, the bandwidth limitations are due to physical laws and government regulations. In other portions of the network, for example, the cellular backhaul, the bandwidth limitations are due to business reasons and the complex ecosystem of mobile data and applications. As mobile applications continue to become more popular, approaches to deal with the resulting mobile data growth will be needed by operators of mobile networks, developers of mobile applications, and enterprises, who are all increasingly relying on mobile applications.

Mobile data growth is a problem that many people are aware of, but it is hard to find many solutions that address that problem. The problem is especially hard to solve because it spans three complex and sophisticated technical fields, the field of cellular networks, the field of TCP/IP-based data networks, and the field of mobile application development. Addressing the challenges of mobile data growth requires looking across all three fields, which is not always easy for experts in one individual area. This book tries to span these three fields and provides sufficient details for an expert in one field to address the challenges involved in the other two fields.

This book is about the different approaches that can be used to address the challenges of limited bandwidth available to mobile applications by different members of the mobile data ecosystem. The mobile data ecosystem consists of many different constituencies, including the mobile network operators, the developer of mobile applications, and the enterprises that deploy mobile applications for their employees. This book takes the perspectives of each of the different constituencies in the mobile data ecosystem, examines the challenges they will encounter due to the growth of mobile data, and enumerates the various approaches that are available to them to address those challenges.

WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THIS BOOK?

This book is intended for executives, technology leaders, graduate students, network practitioners, application developers, and system architects who are interested in mobile data or mobile applications. If you are an executive or technology leader for a mobile network operator, a company that develops a mobile application, or an enterprise that uses mobile applications, this book will be useful for you to get an understanding of the challenges associated with mobile data communications. This book provides a holistic overview of the challenges associated with mobile data communication. The description is technical yet generic enough to provide a good summary of the different options available for dealing with mobile data explosion.

If you are a network engineer, network architect, or network strategist working for a mobile network operator, you will find this book to be of interest. It will provide you a summary of the issues involved when Internet technology intersects with cellular network technology and outline the approaches that are available to address them. The book discusses various approaches that can be used to maximize the amount of bandwidth that can be put through an existing network infrastructure, methods that reduce the cost of operation of the network infrastructure, and some new ways in which the data flowing through the network can be monetized.

If you are a software architect or software developer involved in writing mobile applications, you will find this book to be of interest. You will find an overview of techniques you can use to make your application run better in the presence of constrained resources on the mobile device, including approaches to minimize power consumption and approaches to reduce network bandwidth consumption. You will also find a set of best practices that are compiled from a variety of sources in the technical community.

If you work for a company that makes equipment for mobile network operators, you will find this book to be of interest. This book will provide you with an overview of Internet-based data communications and issues involved in mobile application development. This will also give you a broad overview of techniques you can implement in your products to obtain better bandwidth efficiency and create new services for your customers.

If you are a systems architect or software architect working for an enterprise that is using mobile applications, you will find this book to be of interest. In addition to learning about the ways in which you can make mobile applications power-efficient and bandwidth-efficient, you will find a discussion of the various issues associated with the use of mobile applications in the enterprise. You will also find a summary of various approaches to deal with mobile data growth in networks, a subset of which may be beneficial for you within the enterprise network infrastructure.

If you are a graduate student or academic working in the field of mobile computing or mobile networking, you will find the overview of various techniques that lie at the intersection of cellular networks, IP networks, and mobile applications to be of relevance and interest.

Finally, if you are a practitioner in one of the three technical fields of cellular networks, TCP/IP-based data networks, or mobile application development and are interested in learning about the other two technical fields, you will find this book to be of interest. This book will give you a broad overview of the other two areas and discuss how approaches that cut across all the three different areas can help in addressing the challenge of mobile data growth.

WHO IS THIS BOOK NOT FOR?

This book covers a broad overview of three distinct technical fields, which also means it does not go very deep into any single technical field. If you are looking for a detailed overview of one of the technical fields, this book is not for you. The book covers only a broad perspective of each field, which is just sufficient to understand the challenges of mobile data growth and approaches to address them.

If you are looking for techniques to develop mobile applications using a specific operating system or specific device, this book is not for you. This book provides an overview of approaches to write efficient applications in a general way and helps you understand the technical foundations behind efficient application development. However, it will not provide you a detailed recipe for applications in any specific environment.

If you are looking for bandwidth optimization products or technology offerings from a specific network equipment manufacturer or any other company, you will not find this book of interest. This book will help you understand the general technical principles that drive various bandwidth optimization products, but it does not examine the products of any specific company.

ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK

The material in this book is organized into 14 chapters, which can be roughly divided into three sections. The first section consisting of the first four chapters provides an overview of the three different technical fields that are involved in the challenge of mobile data growth, an overview of the mobile data ecosystem, and a general overview of the techniques for bandwidth optimization and cost reduction. The second section can be viewed as a section geared towards mobile network operators and consists of the next five chapters. It examines different aspects related to bandwidth optimization and services that can help a mobile network operator monetize mobile data. The third section consisting of the next four chapters can be viewed as a section for mobile application developers and enterprise users. These chapters consider approaches to write efficient applications and address issues with mobile application deployment in the enterprise. The final chapter in this book discusses some topics that are relevant to, but not directly related to, the main subject of this book.

Chapter 1 provides a summary of the three technical fields that need to be considered to understand mobile data growth. These three fields are cellular networks, TCP/IP data networks, and mobile application development. This chapter provides a high-level overview of the three technical areas with a brief explanation of their salient features.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the mobile data ecosystem, describes the different constituencies in the mobile data ecosystem, and discusses the nature of mobile data growth and the impact of that growth on each of the constituents of the ecosystem.

Chapter 3 examines the various approaches that can be used within the network to manage the bandwidth overload problem. The problem is presented in the context of an idealized network environment, and different solutions are presented in the context of that environment. This chapter discusses a variety of network optimization methods, which will reduce the amount of data that needs to be sent over a bottleneck link.

Chapter 4 provides an overview of approaches that can be used within a network to...