The DPI and Web/Video Optimization Market: Big Numbers, Bright Future

There are steadily more mobile devices emerging in the field, and with more mobile devices, and more mobile users, so too comes the demand for more mobile bandwidth. Network congestion becomes a problem of ever-increasing magnitude, and it's not a problem that's likely to clear up any time soon. Traffic optimization solutions, to help smooth out the various peaks and valleys of traffic, become a valuable tool to have on hand, and that's got ABI Research forecasting brisk business in this field between now and 2019.

ABI Research recently brought out the forecast suggesting that the market for deep packet inspection (DPI) tools, as well as Web and video optimization tools, will climb to clear $5 billion annually just by 2019. The forecast in question was just part of a larger study titled “Optimization and the Gi-LAN,” and offered up quite a bit in the way of commentary on the larger market for tools to make the bandwidth that's already available more functional.

There are several such options on the market already, as the report notes, including several optimization solutions from firms like Vantrix and ByteMobile. DPI can be brought in from companies like Sandvine to help provide the best quality of experience by slowing down some forms of traffic that don't need immediate response in favor of some others that do. But beyond these can come other help from things like content delivery networks (CDN) that can not only help offer the kinds of traffic desired from different sources but also provide better service during those times of day when traffic is at its thickest.

ABI Research's Sabir Rafiq, a research analyst with the company, offered up further commentary on the issue, saying “The optimization solutions market continues to challenge those vendors, and continued consolidation is likely to achieve a healthy and sustainable ecosystem. Operators should be concerned with the amount of data consumed by their subscribers, and how this affects the overall Quality of Experience (QoE).”

The problem, and its solution, are both fairly clear. Users want more, and this is the kind of thing that's both opportunity and challenge all at the same time. Providing customers with more—particularly more of those things like streaming video—of what's desired is a great chance to open up new services and get new revenue streams going. That's the kind of thing that any business would want more of, as opposed to less. But at the same time, getting more out to the user is a difficult and costly endeavor. Figuring out the mechanics behind getting all that streaming video and such to users on a mobile basis is a tough call, and with networks already crowded, it might seem like the only solution is to add capacity. But finding a way to make better use of the capacity that's already in place can be a much better short-term solution, and allow users to enjoy an improved experience while at the same time buying the time necessary to ramp up a larger capacity offering.

The mobile front is one that's likely to be busy for the foreseeable future, and with mobile devices gaining a foothold with users from business to personal—and in the case of bring your own device (BYOD) platforms, both throughout the day—it's clear that bringing more capacity is going to be necessary. Until then, however, the use of DPI and optimization tools can help make better use of what's already there, and that's a great way to bridge the gap.