A good user experience goes well beyond the cool device in your hand

By Jessica Schieve

As thousands of people converge on Mobile World Congress the hype will be on the latest and coolest devices that will connect to the next generation wireless broadband network.  People will be in awe of the newest “thin as paper” notebooks and the “do everything” smartphones.  Device Manufacturers and Service Providers will demonstrate killer video and data applications running every kind of mobile device your can imagine.  But to win the mindshare and pocketbook of the Consumer takes more than cool gadgets.  It requires delivering the best user experience possible.   And, the expectation is not only that these devices look cool and do cool things, but they will also do everything promised at breakneck speed. 

Far away from the device in your hand is the network that processes, routes, and delivers every call, chat, email, or packet of data you send.   The equipment in the network: access points, base stations, node controllers, gateways to name a few, can make or break the user experience.  The growing expectation of the network is that it will always be on, will always make your voice call, will deliver video uninterrupted, and will do it all without any delays.

As most of the visitors to Mobile World Congress give their attention to the awesome device eye candy, the real cool story are the announcements about the latest and greatest multicore hardware and software technologies being developed for to improve the performance of network equipment.  3G and 4G networks are quickly adopting multicore technologies to increase network packet processing performance and to enable better scalability to handle the increasing broadband demand and multimedia traffic.  Multicore technologies are rapidly becoming the standard foundation for the next generation of network equipment delivering greater performance and ultimately a better user experience. 

At this year’s Mobile World Congress, look for multicore announcements from all the leading hardware vendors: Cavium, Freescale, Intel, LSI, and NetLogic.  And be sure to check out the announcement Wind River made about its multicore virtualization support made earlier this week. If you are planning to use multicore technologies in your next network product, be sure to read the Multicore Checklist for Success.