Mobile data optimization is coming to the handset — and just in time. Cingular and Sprint are expected to launch their consumer 3G services in the next two quarters. High-speed capacity data services have been tripled by Verizon's new Vcast service, and the industry is about to make a major push for more of those services — and for that they'll want clean pipes.

Both ByteMobile and Venturi Wireless have built their names supplying optimization technology for data cards, the first scoring big wins with the likes of Sprint and Vodafone and the latter with Verizon Wireless. But data card technologies are limited to the laptops and PDAs that dominate enterprise services, a market of limited size. So both companies have a larger prize in their sights and are now in the process of releasing their handset-optimization platforms.

ByteMobile announced trials of its new Monaco handset platform earlier this year, and Venturi is planning the new release of its Venturi Server in the fourth quarter.

Not only will 3G handsets be far more numerous than data cards, the potential revenue per bit of data will be much higher in a consumer 3G service as opposed to a data card service acting mainly as a dumb pipe. Carriers have every reason to ensure they can pack as many subscribers onto that suddenly smarter pipe and give them as much perceived capacity as possible, said John Bartlett, vice president of marketing for Venturi.

Optimization technology takes a different approach to the network than the traditional vendor and standards community. Optimization technologies work within the constraints of the air link focusing on how the data is transmitted.

“The approach, historically, to improve capacity, has always focused on compression, but compression can only go so far before it becomes limited,” Bartlett said. “At some point, you have to start focusing on protocols.”

The protocol Bartlett refers to is transmission control protocol/IP (TCP/IP), the standard protocol used on most data networks today. But TCP/IP was designed for a wired world where capacity can be increased by adding lines and fiber and where multiple rerouting paths are possible.

“TCP just doesn't function well under variable conditions such as poor radio frequency conditions,” Bartlett said. “Its approach is to slow down and make sure all of the packets get through.”

Venturi's client-server platform effectively replaces TCP/IP with its own proprietary protocol called Venturi Transport Protocol. While EV-DO networks are traditionally seeing real-world capacities of 250 kb/s to 500 kb/s, the effective throughput on the airlink is much lower.

Venturi claims that from the users' perspective, a two to five times boost in performance will be apparent. “Because we're more efficiently using the network, we can get more users on the network,” Bartlett said.

VTP versus TCP

TCP INEFFICIENCIES OVER WIRELESS NETWORKS

• High latency
• Inefficient bandwidth utilization — slow starts
• Extraneous retransmissions

VTP OVERCOMES TCP LIMITATION

• Adaptive, rate-based flow control
• Quicker transaction completions — more capacity
• Fewer and more efficient retransmissions
• More efficient bandwidth utilization

Source: Venturi Wireless