With the expectation of increased mobile Internet traffic worldwide, going up by nearly 18 times between 2011 and 2016, Cisco announced the basis for a new generation of mobile Internet networks – the Cisco ASR 5500 platform.

The ASR 5500 platform, apparently the first elastic packet core solution capable of integrating signaling, data, in-line services, and policy and charging control, is designed to capitalize on software architecture to optimize new purpose-built hardware.  Cisco is really addressing the BYOD movement, explosive growth in next-generation applications,  and the rise of the Internet and mobile ecosystems.

The Cisco ASR 5500 range provides the flexibility and scalability that service providers need in order to meet the ever-evolving demands of their mobile customers. As a first in mobile market networks, ASR 5500 is based on a completely new design that optimizes the software, reduces cost, meets processing requirements and adapts to multiple conditions and network usage patterns.

“Change in the use of mobile networks is challenging network architects to build flexibility and elasticity into the mobile multimedia core in order to control its cost,” said Michael Kennedy, principal analyst at ACG Research. “Our analysis of the Cisco ASR 5500 multimedia core solution compared to a leading competitor’s solution finds that TCO savings are up to 47 percent lower than the competitor. The savings are attributable to the Cisco ASR 5500’s scale and integrated functionality that requires up to 65 percent fewer installed units.”

To facilitate the development of next generation mobile services 3G, 4G, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi, Cisco has deployed the Cisco ASR 5000 Series with several global service providers, including Bharti Airtel, Verizon Wireless and Telekom Austria Group.

“By 2016, more people will access the Internet from mobile devices than from desktops,” Kelly Ahuja, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s mobile Internet technology group, said in a press statement. “Through the leading technology and services of the ASR 5000 Series and its newest member, the ASR 5500, Cisco uniquely offers service providers the opportunity to not only keep up with surging demands from their customers in the ‘new normal,’ but also to enable their ability to grow profitability, to provide new differentiated services and to maximize the return on their existing investments so that they can thrive in the ever-evolving mobile landscape.”

Cisco ASR 5500 can also automatically resize the existing network resources to meet the drastic changes in network behavior in terms of access user sessions, transactions, signaling and data transfer rate data. Operators and service providers can adjust resources, reduce the total cost of ownership up to 47 percent and adapt to multiple conditions and usage patterns of the networks.

Capitalizing on a connected world of things

With the increase in Internet use from mobile devices, users are buying sophisticated Internet-enabled devices to use at home and at work. Secondly, there is an increase in the use of next-generation applications, which is related to the explosive growth in mobile applications and rising demand for always-on connectivity.

According to the annual Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2011-2016), there will be about 18,900 million-networked devices worldwide by 2016. The report predicts that there will be 3,400 million Internet users, equivalent to 45 percent of the projected world population within next four years.

Global mobile internet traffic is expected to reach 10.8 exabytes per second, an increase of 18 times from 2011 to 2016.  Tablets will account for more than 10 percent of global mobile data traffic, while global mobile data traffic through fixed networks would reach 20 percent.  Companies like Cisco not only anticipate the Internet of connected things, but are addressing these new consumer and enterprise expectations head on.