A 3W network strategy for mobile data traffic offloading

This article presents a quantitative survey of mobile data traffic surge and a strategic solution to traffic offloading. As diverse mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers become ubiquitous, the explosive increase of data traffic in 3G cellular networks is a major concern for network operators. The rapid increase of mobile data traffic is unprecedented - a tenfold increase in a year is common. Thus, mobile data traffic offloading in 3G cellular networks is necessary. In this article we examine the effect of a network strategy deploying multiple wireless networks. We first discuss the relationship between the spread of smartphones and their contribution to the mobile data traffic surge. To see how mobile data traffic is transferred among different networks, we illustrate the traffic trend of the 3W (WCDMA, WIBRO, and WiFi) network in KT Corporation. Based on the composition of traffic, we also discuss functions and roles of the 3W networks in accessing mobile Internet. From these results, we show that deploying multiple wireless networks is an effective way of traffic offloading.