Always-on smartphones are hurting the way mobile networks operate, and it is not just they demand for data capacity, says chip developer picoChip.
“Everyone knows that mobile networks are filling up with data traffic generated by devices like BlackBerrys, iPhones or the iPad,” said Rupert Baines, v-p of marketing at Bath-based picoChip.
What is less apparent is that smartphones create problems even when they are not receiving or transmitting data.
“Their ‘always on’ signaling systems hurt the network more than just the extra data traffic, and can by themselves be enough to push a network to the point of collapse,” said Baines.
With this in mind picoChip has added features to its picoXcell silicon platform to address the need to support large numbers of smartphones on a femtocell.
The company claimed that a smartSignaling feature within its PC3x3 devices enable up to 400 ‘always on’ users on a femtocell.
The new chip supports special handset ‘sleep’ modes. Handsets using these modes, specifically Cell_PCH, require many fewer signaling messages to ‘wake up’ and transition to a fully active state in which data can be transferred, reducing the effective demand on the network.
The PC3x3 devices also provide additional specialized channels for signaling information via Common E-DCH and Enhanced Cell_FACH functionality.
This allows many devices to efficiently share the basestation and therefore picoChip-based femtocells support more ‘always on’ connections, particularly push-email systems.
A recent report by Signals Research Group (SRG), “The Trouble with Twitters,” claimed that signalling traffic is actually outgrowing data traffic by up to 50%, largely due to the chattiness of typical smartphone applications such as social networking.