It is undeniable that the primary source of revenue growth for mobile operators in today's mobile wireless market is data services. 3G has finally arrived and is the fastest- growing provider of broadband data services of all time, with roughly 70 million High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) subscribers at the close of 2008. This growth is being driven by a combination of elements.

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First, new devices are greatly enriching the mobile data experience. Devices such as Apple's iPhone, RIM's family of BlackBerries, and the ultra-mobile netbooks with embedded 3G access cards make the mobile Internet easy to use. They also provide platforms for applications that leverage HSPA connectivity and data speeds as well as a rich media environment.

Second, a new generation of subscribers is hitting the market, as the coveted 18-to-24 demographic is the "always on, always connected" generation. Finally, we live in the era of the "all-you-can-eat" flat-rate data plan, which is unquestionably facilitating unfettered utilization. How many automatic e-mail downloads a day does your smart phone make? Would you let this happen if you paid per byte?

While driving greater adoption and utilization, flat-rate plans have effectively capped the opportunity to increase average revenue per user (ARPU) via data services‹that is, unless operators find a way to do something different. Next-generation networks provide the basis for driving down the cost-per-bit while delivering vastly increased data rates. Specifically, Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is receiving broad commitment from the global operator community, though its cost to deploy is pushing timelines years out. Operators need solutions for existing 3G infrastructure that allow them to increase ARPU today.

DPI Facilitates New Services
Today's solutions need to leverage deep packet inspection (DPI) to provide new services to the consumer. DPI offers the ability to examine the contents of a packet all the way up to Layer 7 in the OSI model and to subsequently take action on those packets. DPI is valuable for security and traffic management^1,2, which are necessary for fixed-line and mobile networks alike. But the real hidden value lies in the new services that DPI can be leveraged to provide.

The first service opportunity is the tiered-Service Level Agreement (SLA). Sometimes called the "bronze, silver, and gold plans" approach, the tiered-SLA enables the operator to deliver a guaranteed premium quality-of-service (QoS) to a user who demands and is willing to pay for it. Not all data users are alike, yet mobile networks currently treat us all the same.

Top-tier SLA plans may be bundled with top-tier devices such as the iPhone. For example, the iPhone data plan may be slightly more expensive per month, and the iPhone may be slightly cheaper for those who elect this plan. But the subscriber receives a much better QoS than the casual e-mail browser.

The second service opportunity is further optimization of the general tiered-SLA, providing service packages based on either a specific application-type (i.e., gaming, mobile TV), time of day (i.e., priority during daytime), location (i.e., priority in travel locations like airports, train stations, etc.), or any combination of the above.

Additionally, the operator has the opportunity to deliver priority service to the content providers themselves. Recent deals struck between mobile search providers (Yahoo³, Google, and MSN) and operators for priority status represent a new paradigm so operators can increase revenue from data services by exploiting DPI technology.

Mobile DPI: A Different Animal
Where there is operator opportunity, equipment vendors subsequently stand to benefit. Yet doing so requires a combined strong understanding of mobile networks as well as DPI technology. Unfortunately, very few organizations have expertise in both. One cannot simply toss the fixed-line DPI approach at the mobile network and expect to meet this need optimally. The mobile network has a few distinct differences from fixed-line networks, providing both the opportunity for differentiation as well as a challenge to leverage DPI technology.

The first of these challenges to mobile operators is mobility itself. This is a fairly obvious but critical aspect to delivering ARPU-increasing services. Location-based QoS requires a real-time and specific understanding of which cell-sector a user is being serviced by as well as the loading at that specific cell-sector. (Fig. 1). Obtaining this level of specificity requires pulling information from the radio access network (RAN), including signaling information, to have a consistently accurate depiction of user and cell-site combinations.

The second challenge is the type of "pipe" provided. In fixed-line DSL networks, for example, users are provided with their own dedicated pipe from the home or enterprise to the first aggregation point in the network. The aggregate data speed that each fixed-line broadband user realizes is most influenced by the overall traffic traversing the operator's edge and core networks. Conversely, the mobile "last-mile" is the air interface, which is shared access.