Mobile Internet on deck in the changing Internet plan
There’s a tab on the Cisco site for next-generation Internet initiatives labeled “Mobile Internet.” It suggests pretty strongly that this is the next phase of Cisco’s “forever change the Internet” product rollout plan, which was filled in by the CRS-3 core router in this week’s first phase.
Cisco just relabeled the Starent Networks mobile packet core gateways as the ASR 5000 series. Two of the key pieces of the CRS-3 rollout are the Network Positioning System and Cloud VPNs. NPS acts as a GPS for the network – it steers traffic towards the most reachable source of compute and storage resources, or content.
Cloud VPNs establish a secure connection through the cloud based on NPS directions. Adding these to the ASR 5000 – or enabling it to optimize these features of the CRS-3 — would allow the gateway to securely direct content requests from mobile devices on various radio access networks through the cloud to the most accommodating resource, regardless of the device’s underlying wireless technology: CDMA, LTE, UMTS/HSPA, femtocell, Wi-Fi, and WiMAX. Cisco may also pull AT&T back into the picture to discuss its Cisco femtocell trial within the context of an NPS/Cloud VPN-enabled ASR 5000 (In fact, we believe the AT&T MicroCell trial will be front-and-center in Cisco’s “forever change the (mobile) Internet” launch).
Borrowing an NPS example from Cisco’s Web site… if content desired by subscribers and studios in the U.S. originates in a South African data center yet also resides in data centers around the world, NPS and Cloud VPN can, using Layer 3-7 information, locate the content nearest the U.S. studios and then redirect the studio’s requests there. Conceivably, it could do the same for mobile subscribers of that content.
But, this is all speculation, of course. And as we know, speculation — especially when fueled by some “forever change the Internet” hype — can lead to some just plain old goofy guesses…
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