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NTT DoCoMo has added its loud voice to the wave of operator criticism of how smartphones overload carrier networks with their 'signalling storm'. The Japanese cellco recently suffered a major outage in its network, which it is attributing specifically to an Android VoIP application, and more generally to the way Android constantly polls the network, even when users are inactive, generating huge levels of signalling traffic.

Verizon Wireless blamed similar factors for several outages on its LTE network last year and operators have become increasingly aware that the signalling behaviour of modern smartphones, not just their data volumes, can pressurize wireless networks. This has led suppliers to put greater effort into the signalling efficiency of their equipment, and into emerging technologies designed to help, like Diameter routers, as offered by firms like Tekelec and Traffix.

The signalling issue has also intensified operators' general criticism of smartphone majors, and particularly of Google and Apple, for creating platforms which are reckless with wireless network resources. The two companies have come from the world of PCs and massive broadband availability, and have not paid enough attention to understanding the constraints of a radio network, argue many critics, pointing to the way the early iPhones caused disastrous performance problems on the AT&T network.

DoCoMo, according to the Nikkei news agency, has demanded that Google rein in the signalling and data loads imposed by Android, particularly the habit of handsets transmitting control signals to the network, and pinging the servers, automatically rather than as-needed. These behaviors support constantly updated apps such as social networks, as well as the rising tide of cloud-based software, in which data and apps are held on the server and constantly sync with the device.

DoCoMo reported a 29% decline in its net profit for its fiscal third quarter and lowered its full-year outlook due to tax adjustments and a decline in revenue from voice calls. It also said it would increase investment in infrastructure to expand its LTE services and to support rising data loads more effectively.

Its outage affected about 2.5m subscribers in Tokyo earlier this month, and was the fifth such incident in six months, shadowing the cellco's usually strong reputation for reliability. "We are doing everything we can to regain our customers' trust," said DoCoMo president Ryuji Yamada at a press conference last week, promising about ¥50bn in additional investment over the next three years to fix any problems and strengthen its mobile infrastructure. Within that, ¥4bn will be spent in the coming year to fix weak spots in the networks, while the rest will be added to the previous capex budget of ¥115bn for upgrading the whole 3G and 4G infrastructure to be capable of supporting 50m smartphones effectively. That makes a total sum of ¥160bn for that project.

Although Japanese consumers are famed for their advanced use of mobile broadband, until recently this has mainly been on proprietary devices tightly controlled, and co-designed, by the carriers, with the behaviour of their networks in mind. By contrast, Japanese users are now moving to general smartphones. Yamada expects data traffic to expand by about 12 times between 2012 and 2016, mainly because of smartphones.

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COMMENTS

Posted by emanuelfleishman on Monday 30th January, 2012

DoCoMo should know better. There is a great leading article at

[ http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/networking/47823-angry-birds-android-ads-network-overload ]

which further points at NSN Smart Labs white paper "Understanding Smartphone Behaviour in the Network." It reports on another demonstration of the signalling storm that smartphone applications can create and how it can be reduced 3 times by using standard techniques

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/sites/default/files/document/Smart_Lab_WhitePaper_27012011_low-res.pdf

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