Barcelona, Spain – February 20, 2012 - Nokia Siemens Networks has added a raft of new capabilities, many of which are industry-firsts, to its Liquid Net portfolio. By fluidly allocating mobile broadband where and when it’s needed, the company’s approach creates far more efficient networks that adapt to volatile demand. The company will be providing further details on its evolution of Liquid Net in the run up to Mobile World Congress 2012, in Barcelona, where the breakthroughs will be demonstrated in live networks.

One specific advance being showcased at the event is a new service-aware and cell load-aware capability for HSPA/HSPA+ networks. Even when demand is at its highest, this feature can help operators deliver data-thirsty services like video with the lowest costs and customer-pleasing quality, as well as tap into new revenue sources.

Nokia Siemens Networks is the first to implement this new real-time service-aware capability in radio infrastructure as part of the company’s Liquid Net-based end-to-end Intelligent Broadband Management*. Data consumption per subscription is doubling every two years, and operators can now deal with this, setting policies to tag data packets and enabling the radio access network to use these tags to prioritize different services within the same data connection. Broadband users get the service they want, video service providers gain a boost in usage even when the network is congested, and operators can reduce their investments as much as 35% by increasing the network’s overall utilization and efficiency.

“More than 200 operators globally are already using Nokia Siemens Networks Single RAN and can implement this unique service awareness in their HSPA/HSPA+ radio access networks with an easy software upgrade,” said Marc Rouanne, head of Networks Systems, Nokia Siemens Networks. “This Liquid Radio innovation works with any devices that the 1.2 billion** broadband subscribers around the world are using and harmonizes the 3G and 4G mobile broadband experience.”

Among Liquid Net’s other novel developments is a Self Organizing Networks (SON) function that optimizes the use of macro and pico cells deployed by operators to provide optimum capacity and coverage for voice and mobile data sessions. The same Liquid Net function can also automate network operations for the Flexi Multiradio Antenna System. This enables the active antenna to provide even more dynamic beamforming – focusing a particular radio connection and directing it to a specific user – within the radio cell, depending on demand.

A key principle of Liquid Net is evolutionary change rather than disruptive revolution. This allows an operator to start transforming its network at any time and in any domain – radio, core or transport. Nokia Siemens Networks already has one deal and three trials with customers for the Liquid Radio-based Flexi Multiradio Antenna System under its belt, with rollout ramping up throughout this year.

Close to 280 operators use Nokia Siemens Networks mobile softswitching in live commercial networks connecting 1.6 billion people every day. Almost 40 of them have already started implementing Liquid Net-based core virtualization using the Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) ATCA® platform. These include live networks operated by Telkomsel Indonesia and Aircel India.

Over 100 operators use the company’s Liquid Core-based LTE-ready packet core, and more than 120 operators have selected Nokia Siemens Networks optical solutions***. Several of these operators like FASTWEB have implemented the company’s Liquid Transport-based 100 Gbps (100G) technology and several 400 Gbps (400G) laboratory trials are ongoing.

Live demonstrations of the company’s latest Liquid Net enhancements can be seen at Mobile World Congress 2012.