Ericsson, Facebook and XL Axiata boost app efficiency

Developing Telecoms - Facebook and Ericsson claim to have developed a methodology that will improve app performance by as much as 70%.

The companies have cooperated under the internet.org partnership between Facebook and six other firms aimed at driving internet connectivity in emerging markets. It has the stated goal of providing internet access to the two-thirds of the world’s population that remains unconnected.

Chris Daniels, Vice President, Internet.org, Facebook says: "We have a model for improving network performance that can be applied globally by mobile network operators. This will help ensure we have more efficient use of existing network capacity and resources, which is the key to delivering on our mission to close the connectivity gap."

The methodology can reportedly measure and optimize network performance, increasing efficiency. The joint project developed a framework for evaluating user key performance indicators (KPI) based on simulated Facebook application use cases using a test agent and correlated these KPIs with network statistics. Through this process, user-impacting issues were identified and addressed throughout the network.

The resultant optimizations improved app coverage significantly – the number of connections completed within three seconds improved up to 70%, with time to content also reduced by 70%. Upload time improved by 50%.

The test project was carried out on the network of Indonesian operator XL Axiata. In Indonesia, 75% of users are on 2G GSM/EDGE networks, yet the country has the fourth-largest Facebook user base in the world. Traffic rose by 142% on XL Axiata’s network in 2013, while more than half of its 62.9 million subscribers are data users.

Hasnul Suhaimi, Chief Executive Officer XL Axiata says: "Recently the use of data services in Indonesia has increased significantly and is expected to continue into the future. We believe app coverage is essential and correlating Facebook application use cases with network-wide statistics has proven to be an innovative and efficient way to detect and address network optimization opportunities."

Facebook and Ericsson are among the founding members of internet.org.