Working in a closed loop with the Devicescape Curator Client, the Curator Service Platform (CSP) provides advanced mobile experience services in three main areas:
The art of curation consists of carefully selecting the best network based on operator policies and curating the virtual network of amenity (free, public, and intentionally shared) hotspots to greatly improve the general availability of networks in a given location. The goal is to elevate the “always best connected” user experience—that is, connecting users to the best network at the best time based on cost, performance, load, and many other preferences or parameters.
To create and grow the CVN, the CSP employs patented cloud-to-device machine learning algorithms that constantly identify and qualify amenity-based Wi-Fi hotspots. The CSP creates and manages a customized CVN for each mobile operator, based on a specific selection from Devicescape’s recommended CVN and on existing operator Wi-Fi assets. The curation process ensures that the CSP provides a carrier-grade service, as the hotspots that are selected and managed must meet exacting standards for improving the overall user experience.
The curation process also ensures that the CSP receives a constant feed of device-level quality of experience (QoE) and congestion-detection measurements from the subscriber's perspective. This is used for real-time connection management decisions and for historical trending purposes.
As the availability of amenity Wi-Fi expands rapidly worldwide, hotspots are continually being created and taken down, secured and unsecured. Any static list of viable ones would rapidly become out of date. That's why the CSP is built in the cloud and constantly updated by millions of active client devices in the field.
From the universe of known access points, Devicescape eliminates those that are too slow, those with high latencies, the unreliable, the itinerant, the inaccessible, the firewalled, and all the rest of the chaff. That leaves less than 10% that make it into the Devicescape CVN. Monitored and reevaluated over and over again, this result is the world's most up-to-date live database of the best hotspots for mobile connectivity.
Devicescape's Curator Service Platform allows operators to define their own policy for intelligent network selection and Wi-Fi offload. The operator has a series of controls to adjust the behavior of the Curator Client and to customize their particular CVN. Operators can choose to use only their own Wi-Fi network, or connect to the entire Devicescape CVN, or do anything in between. They can also change policy at any time, and the Curator Client will immediately respond to the changes without performing any software updates.
For example, a mobile operator might choose to adjust Wi-Fi hotspot policies based on the following:
Another integral policy that improves the user experience is automating intelligent network connection so it requires no user intervention. Subscribers set their own policies—for example, always using the fastest speed or ensuring the lowest cost in conjunction with their pricing plan—and the network handles the rest.
Another critical component is automating the connection to the amenity CVN even when it is entirely open or behind a portal. Using Devicescape proprietary technology, the CSP sends instructions to the Curator Client for navigating the portal, based on user-accepted sign-up terms and conditions. This service component, along with QoE detection, eliminates the "not-spot" scenario—when a subscriber gets caught on a hotspot that either is blocked by a portal or does not have a solid internet connection.
Mobile analytics have become popular in recent years, allowing operators new insights into subscriber behavior. Most mobile analytics systems use a network probe and attempt to measure performance and behavior characteristics based on the user traffic that flows through the network. This strategy works well when subscribers are on mobile networks, but it cannot capture any analytics when they are on Wi-Fi.
Now, by placing the Curator Client on the device, the operator can view analytics on any bearer network, including Wi-Fi. The Curator Client constantly reports aggregate data to the CSP, which monitors usage, offload, and performance trends. The CSP crunches this data and produces reports that operators can use to gain market insights, plan network capacity, or deliver detailed reports to real-time billing systems. The CSP also has a number of extensible APIs to interface with existing analytics, reporting, and billing systems.
