JDSU picks up Arieso for $85M to help carriers serve heavy mobile data users

Optical equipment and network testing firm JDSU has bought the British location-aware software outfit Arieso, which helps carriers precisely site their small cells so they can better offload heavy users’ mobile data.

Mobile networks are based on cells, which can only support so many local users at once before performance starts to head south. A really heavy user will speed up this process, so operators are increasingly looking at ways to pinpoint problem locations. The idea here is to deploy cheap equipment (such as femtocells, small cells or even Wi-Fi hotspots) exactly where it is needed, so someone with high data requirements doesn’t spoil the mobile internet experience for other customers in their vicinity.

Arieso’s software does this by analyzing vast amounts of mobile connection events in a geolocated fashion, right down to building-level resolution. The firm is also, along with the likes of Intucell, one of the companies leading the emerging self-optimizing network (SON) trend, which will see radio access networks (RANs) dynamically adapt on a geographical basis so each cell is optimized for the levels of usage found at its location.

The Arieso purchase, worth $ 85 million in cash, brings Milpitas, CA.-based JDSU new engineering expertise and technology based on proprietary algorithms, such as the AriesoGEO network monitoring and optimization package and the AriesoACP network-planning product. JDSU said in a statement that it would integrate these with its own portfolio, notably with PacketPortal – a cloud-based data-capture tool that can be embedded in carriers’ networks.

Here’s what JDSU communications test and measurement chief David Heard had to say:

“Arieso’s mobility expertise, market leadership and culture of innovation are directly in line with our strategy to deliver unmatched network visibility and intelligence to our customers. They are a recognized mobility leader and, as part of JDSU, create new, unique opportunities for innovation in one of the fastest-growing segments of the market.”