Wireless infrastructure: Can our current system handle bandwidth demands?

The world is going wireless and that means an ever-increasing demand on wireless bandwidth. Cisco Systems reported in its Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update that mobile data traffic tripled for the third year in a row in 2010. By 2015 the average smartphone will use 16 times more bandwidth and tablet devices will be creating as much traffic as the entire 2010 global mobile network.

Bandwidth basics

Bandwidth refers to the data transmission rate over a given channel and is largely responsible for the user experience of the Internet. Higher bandwidth means that Web pages load faster, video streams quicker and audio happens without those annoying gaps in sound or delays in voice communications. For mobile phones, it also means fewer dropped calls.

There is a distinction between wireless bandwidth and Internet bandwidth because they are really two separate systems that are tied together. So it is possible to have unlimited wireless bandwidth on a given connection with limited Internet bandwidth. The net result for the user when either bandwidth is limited is essentially the same, but since they are two separate systems, it’s important to make the distinction when discussing their bandwidth capacities.

The wireless infrastructure that delivers the bandwidth today is constantly being hybridized and modified to accommodate the increasing demand for bandwidth. Wireless carriers are buying equipment and software that optimize wireless networks from manufacturers that are busily creating solutions to the bandwidth challenges. According to Andrew M. Seybold, an expert in the field of network infrastructure, all of this is happening because the wireless carriers are most interested in the wireless portion of the bandwidth, since that is where the immediate revenue is. Because of that, Seybold says, the backbone of the Internet is being neglected and not being built out to deliver the necessary bandwidth to take the data the last mile. He predicts that both wired and wireless infrastructures will soon begin limiting user experience.

So while the bandwidth might be adequate over the wireless haul, the user may still experience all the negative effects of too little bandwidth because the Internet portion can’t keep up. There are, however, signs that even the wireless infrastructure build-out has limitations in capacity.

Wireless bandwidth limitations

For example, wireless carriers are already beginning to replace unlimited calling plans with those that limit the amount of bandwidth used each month. Users also regularly complain about their smartphones slowing to a crawl when they are in places where many others are using the same network, such as at trade shows and sporting events.

With the wireless carriers constantly investing more money and resources into the wireless infrastructure while users simultaneously experience slowdowns and dropped calls, it is apparent the current infrastructure is not up to the task. So then the question becomes how will it fare when traffic triples again year over year well into the future? According to Seybold, the seeds of the answer to that are already planted.

Wireless carriers and Internet service providers will gradually move users to a pay-as-you-go model. Those plans will charge based upon the amount of bandwidth used, similar to how people pay for electricity based on the number of kilowatt-hours used. But that, no doubt, won’t be the only change.

Internet and wireless providers are sensitive to price points passed on to customers that might excessively curtail the growth in use. According to Miles Weston, a 30-year veteran of the storage, software and video industries, advertising will then step in to fund the constant improvements necessary to keep up with new bandwidth demands.