Manage What You Measure with IPDR

Unfortunately, there’s no magic bullet for congestion — and many providers end up making network investments based on guesswork to cope with growth. There’s a smarter way to manage congestion, but it requires collecting and analyzing some seriously big data to identify exactly where and when bandwidth is consumed on your network.

IPDR is the number one way to find subscriber data because the protocol is already integrated into DOCSIS. As a result, a CMTS will automatically collect information about IP-based service usage on a per-subscriber basis. IPDR data contains information about every service flow inside a CMTS and consumption usage details about subscriber devices.

Collating and refining IPDR data lets providers understand patterns (such as subscriber and/or bandwidth growth) and regional trends. Finding this information manually can take weeks — if not longer — and requires disparate data sets and dedicated resources that may produce imprecise results. Even with IPDR, some providers encounter inaccuracies unless they have dedicated IPDR data collection and refinement tools to deliver key metrics. That’s why it’s so important to find the right bandwidth monitoring and management solution.

Once filtered and analyzed, IPDR statistics provide a wealth of network information. Learn what applications and services are using the most bandwidth. Gain insight into subscriber usage trends, growth patterns, and peak hours. Accurately pinpoint bottlenecks to manage traffic in real-time by implementing fair usage policies. Alternatively, offer upgrades and create subscriber profiles for future marketing and sales campaigns — all based on real usage data.

Using real data gives you the ability to make smarter business decisions — and deliver the best quality of experience to your subscribers.