The long predicted explosion of mobile data has now shifted from theory to reality. With an ever increasing range of media-centric smartphone and tablet devices, mobile operators  are faced with an exponential growth in mobile data, in particular mobile video traffic on their 3G networks. This increase in mobile data consumption has now started to negatively impacted the quality of service that consumers are receiving. Operators must find a technology which can offload these bandwidth hungry applications from their data networks whilst also providing them with the opportunity to increase ARPU through the creation of innovative new services. 

 

Freeing up unicast capacity for bandwidth intensive traffic is just part of the issue however The exponential rate, at which 3G traffic is growing, especially for data-intensive applications like mobile video, will spell clogged networks for service providers and forebodes slow multimedia content delivery for the average user. It has been predicted that the total wireless network traffic generated from all voice and data services will increase 39 times by 2014 while LTE will only give a two to four times increase in spectral efficiency. Operators must plan for this surge in traffic prior to LTE rollouts or risk network performance degradation. By adding IMB to existing 3G networks in their TDD spectrum operators get infinite capacity for popular content, making it a highly cost-effective option.

 

The unused TDD bands support multiple 5MHz carriers, each of which may be dedicated solely to the delivery of broadcast services. It is expected that IMB will support up to 30 broadcast channels in 10 MHZ at 300 kbps.  By taking advantage of unused TDD spectrum, IMB can be used to deliver the most popular content and provide capacity relief to the crowded FDD channels.

 

IMB also opens up a wide range of other applications and new service possibilities for the operator community. These can be delivered to all devices attached to the network without impacting the performance of the unicast voice and data network, a key requirement for operators.  These include live event mobile TV streaming, homepage or widget updates, OTA software updates, public safety alerts and, perhaps most interestingly, predictive mobile broadcast.