Stoke launched a mobile broadband gateway solution that selectively diverts traffic streams off of the legacy mobile network -- bypassing the data core infrastructure -- and routing it directly to the Internet. Stoke Mobile Data Offload (SMDO) aims to change the economic landscape of 3G data delivery, in the process delivering many of the technical objectives of LTE, including reduced system latency, lower cost, and improved service delivery. 
SMDO leverages the company's Session Exchange (SSX) mobile broadband gateway. The data offload function is performed without impacting untargeted traffic flows, without interfering with subscriber mobility, and without requiring any configuration changes to the mobile network elements. The result is a dramatic reduction in traffic loads for three costly network elements -- the SGSN, GGSN and service grooming servers.
Each SMDO Gateway can offload up to 8 Gbps of Internet traffic. Situated between the RAN and data core, the MDO Gateway can connect to multiple RNCs and multiple SGSNs -- without requiring any configuration changes to these mobile network elements. The MDO Gateway is transparent to all traffic except operator specified traffic, mobile devices, or sessions.
With the proliferation of social media apps and flat rate data plans, Stoke estimates 80% to more than 90% of mobile data traffic is headed for the Internet instead of operators' own applications. The network strain is manifest in the radio network, the traffic backhaul network, and the core network. SMDO promises savings of tens of millions of dollars of reduced network core capacity expansion and operational costs.
"The combination of the inherent rigidity in 3G network architecture standards and the massive uptake of smartphones and netbooks is the chief culprit in today's mobile data overload," said Vikash Varma. "The rigid, hierarchical structure of the infrastructure has left operators ill-prepared for the volume of data, and unable to escape from the economic disadvantages of flat rate data plans. Stoke Mobile Data Offload is standards-based, but breaks through current preconceptions about the infrastructure, offering a relief valve through which the increasing volumes of mobile data can be seamlessly channeled."
Stoke MDO will be available for trials in carrier networks in April of 2010.
http://www.stoke.com
http://www.stoke.com/video/mobile_data_offload.html
- Earlier this month, Stoke announced that NTT DOCOMO has selected its mobile broadband gateway for its upcoming LTE service. Specifically, DOCOMO will deploy the SSX-3000 in this LTE network to aggregate eNodeB radio transmission base stations that support various mobile data such as voice, data, and video.
- Stokes' SSX-3000 is a high density gateway ATCA-based platform designed to provide stateful management of tens of thousands of secure subscriber sessions over multiple access types. It scales to deliver 16 Gbps throughput and up to 240k active IPSec sessions. It performs L4-L7 traffic classification, encryption & decryption, policy enforcement, QoS and accounting at line rates.
- Stoke is based in Santa Clara, California.
