In order to provide its operator faster, more efficient mobile Internet services, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has unveiled an upgrade to its core mobile network technology. The upgrade allows operators to offload Internet traffic at an optimal point in the network typically close to an Internet peering point in order to minimize the distance it is transmitted. This saves transport and traffic processing costs.

According to Matti Palomaki, Head of Packet Core Product Management at NS, operators typically need to deploy relatively costly servers to process mobile data traffic. The new approach of the company allows a high volume of Internet traffic, or any operator-specified traffic, to bypass these processing servers and legacy packet core gateway nodes (GGSNs).

In her opinion, in the era of Smartphone-induced data growth, such offloading” of traffic can deliver significant savings in next-generation HSPA and LTE networks.

Traffic offload can be deployed across Nokia Siemens Networks’ Flexi Network Gateway (NG) and as a simple software upgrade to the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN). The Flexi NG and SGSN are key elements of Nokia Siemens Networks’ evolved packet core (EPC). Traffic offload can be deployed in both distributed and centralized gateways in 2G, 3G or LTE networks. The first phase of traffic offload is already available.