Cisco Touts New Service Provider Framework At MWC

Cisco on Monday debuted a new framework for helping service providers manage increasingly higher volumes of mobile video and data traffic. Dubbed Cisco MOVE, it includes products and services from Cisco, organized into the categories of Mobile Videoscape, Service Provider Wi-Fi and Adaptive Intelligent Routing (AIR).

Cisco debuted MOVE, which stands for Monetization, Optimization, Videoscape Experience, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

In the Mobile Videoscape area, Cisco made updates to its Cisco ASR 5000 and Unified Computing System (UCS) that let service providers link a mobile network to a Cisco-led video distribution network using Cisco Videoscape, its video content management platform.

On the Wi-Fi side, Cisco's Service Provider Wi-Fi Solution lets service providers perform mobile data offload using Wi-Fi, and also drive security authentication and roaming using Cisco's Next Generation Hotspot technology. The Hotspot uses 802.11u and 802.1x standards to securely offload data, and can extend EAP-based authentication to Wi-Fi as well. It supports the Wi-Fi Alliance's forthcoming Hotspot 2.0 standard, according to Cisco.

New from a product perspective are Cisco's Aironet 1550 Series Outdoor Wireless access points, which like other Cisco wireless APs uses Cisco's CleanAir wireless interference management software. The Aironet 1550s will be available starting in April, priced at $4,500 to $5,500.

Finally, there's Cisco Adaptive Intelligent Routing (AIR), network intelligence software that extends across Cisco's ASR 1000, ASR 5000 and ASR 9000 router platforms.

All three MOVE solutions are intended to help service providers grapple with exploding demand for mobile data and mobile video traffic, said Andy Capener, director of worldwide service provider marketing for mobility at Cisco.

"The big aspect of MOVE announcement is looking at how we're going to address that, and address it through ways to increase revenues, and technologies and solutions that allow operators to inject more value into the network," Capener told CRN. "We also need to consider how we enhance and improve the subscriber experience."

Capener joined Cisco in December 2009 following Cisco's acquisition of Starent Networks, where he was vice president of marketing.

There's a big opening for Cisco, he said, by injecting "more intelligence" into networks to help service providers handle traffic more effectively. For example, Cisco claims that based on a 17 million-subscriber network, the Mobile Videoscape's optimization capabilities could save service providers $800 million a year, and based on its flexibility, it can help them realize $250 million in potential new services revenues. It can also reduce Radio Access Network (RAN) costs as much as 30 percent, Capener explained.

The three introduced solutions under the MOVE framework are the beginning, he explained, and there will be more to come.