Wireless carriers focus on DNS

Nominum sees uptick in the number of wireless carriers supporting wireless data apps

Nominum is seeing an uptick in the number of wireless carriers purchasing its software to support wireless data applications, company officials say.

Nominum sells carrier-class software that supports DNS naming and caching transactions and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) device configuration services. Nominum also offers software for Enum, which maps telephone numbers to various Internet services including VoIP.

Until recently, Nominum’s customers were traditional ISPs such as Verio and Verizon. However, Nominum is seeing a rise in the need for high-end naming and addressing services as wireless carriers expand their mobile messaging and multimedia services.

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Nominum is seeing an uptick in the number of wireless carriers purchasing its software to support wireless data applications, company officials say.

Nominum sells carrier-class software that supports DNS naming and caching transactions and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) device configuration services. Nominum also offers software for Enum, which maps telephone numbers to various Internet services including VoIP.

Until recently, Nominum’s customers were traditional ISPs such as Verio and Verizon. However, Nominum is seeing a rise in the need for high-end naming and addressing services as wireless carriers expand their mobile messaging and multimedia services.

“We have wireless carriers signed up in Asia, Europe and Latin America,” says Georges Smine, senior director of product marketing at Nominum. “These are the countries where mobile messaging has the highest growth rates. It’s been a 2006 trend.”

Nominum says wireless carriers are getting serious about DNS for three reasons:

* To support high-speed wireless access, which requires a solid DNS and DHCP infrastructure.

* To support the growth of mobile e-mail and help eliminate the growing problem of wireless spam.

* Because they need solid directory services to support an IP Multimedia Subsystem, which can support multiple access methods – fixed, cellular, Wi-Fi and WiMAX – with a common IP backbone.

Led by DNS inventor Paul Mockapetris, Nominum is pushing the idea that DNS, DHCP and Enum services are critical for wireless data applications.

If wireless carriers rely on open source DNS solutions such as the Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) software, they will suffer serious performance issues, Nominum predicts.

“The top three challenges for DNS in the wireless world are speed, security and spam,” Smine says. “DNS can make it very, very slow [for users] if the carrier is not paying attention. Security is important in terms of stopping denial of service attacks. Third is the ability to fight off mobile spam. DNS is a key part of delivering e-mail messages, and it is being used by antispam filters. If wireless operators don’t attack these challenges, there will be significant ramifications on subscriber satisfaction.”

Carrier-grade software like Nominum’s Authoritative and Caching Name Servers for DNS, Dynamic Configuration Server for DHCP and Navitas for Enum will help improve the performance of wireless carriers, Smine says.

“In the past, traffic was not so high so [wireless carriers] got by with open source. But as traffic continues to increase, the open source software cannot scale,” Smine says. “As traffic moves to wireless networks, that issue is going to be uncovered.”

Nomimum plans to make announcements related to the wireless industry at the CTIA Wireless 2007 show in March.

“When you look at converged networks, routing becomes more complex,” Smine says. “For example, the DNS system has 90 million names. When it comes to telephone numbers, there are three billion. That’s a very different scale of a problem for carriers.”

Founded in 1999, Nomimum has raised $40 million in three rounds of venture financing. The company has 80 employees.

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