Video to drive majority of mobile data traffic by 2016

More than 70 per cent of the world’s mobile data traffic will be driven by video by 2016, according to new research from Frost & Sullivan.

The analyst firm forecasts the global IP video network management market will reach $442.4 million in 2017, up from $217.8 million in 2012.

“As broadcasters all over the world upgrade to digital and high-definition workflows, the deployment of IP networking across the value chain is a certainty,” said Frost & Sullivan’s digital media research director, Vidya Nath.

"Across end-user verticals, clients clearly indicate video quality is directly linked to survival. With the increasing complexity in video delivery, service providers are not merely trying to please their present customers but are also seeking to deploy IP video network management solutions to future-proof their entire delivery ecosystem."

The research firm said increasing multi-screen viewing across multiple devices is driving demand for video quality monitoring, especially within the telecommunications segment.

Probes, video analysers and data-mining tools will be key in delivering efficient management of IP video, Frost & Sullivan said. Probes, which had the biggest global market in 2012 (53 per cent), provide real-time and offline quality loss measurement, while video analysers monitor compliance with regulatory guidelines, such as closed caption subtitling. Data-mining assists in measuring quality of experience and service.

“As targeted and interactive advertisements increase across devices and applications such as video on demand [VOD], the use of such video monitoring and tracking technologies will grow," said Nath. “Evolving data-mining solutions provide system information at the most granular level pertaining to every channel connected to the network, plus pan-geographic location views.”

The research firm said an IP architecture – as opposed to others such as asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), asynchronous serial interface (ASI), and intermediate frequency (IF)/radio frequency (RF) – allow for flexibility and scalability in in managing and distributing content in real time.