NSN aims to cut M2M signalling with new GSM software suite

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) is making a determined play for the burgeoning M2M market with the announcement of new software that reduces signalling traffic over GSM networks.

The company said that it expects there to be a billion GSM M2M subscribers to by 2015, which will cause a corresponding increase in signalling, QoS and traffic management issues.

NSN believes it can overcome the potential problems caused by M2M using its new GSM software suite. This is based upon a precise paging feature--a NSN invention that the vendor said reduces the amount of signalling between M2M modules and base stations. The company also claimed the software provides priority class-based QoS, prioritising urgent M2M transactions such as health and security-related data.

The GSM software, which will become available next month, will be shipped with a Smart Resource Adaptation feature, which NSN claims will enable up to five times more M2M subscriptions.

"M2M applications create both additional information and signalling load on the network," Thorsten Robrecht, head of network systems product management at NSN, said in a statement. "In mass-M2M applications, such as smart metering, the additional monthly payload is low, typically less than 1MB per subscriber. However, there will always be additional signalling load for every data transaction. Since M2M data transactions are expected to grow by ten times in the next few years, signalling will be a very relevant issue for operators. Our M2M software suite reduces signalling by up to 70 per cent."

For more:
- see this NSN press release
- see this Telecoms.com article

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