The hope, according to media reports, is that people who may not have tried using TV Everywhere will kick the tires, so to speak, during the big game, and then return for more. Estimates are that viewership in the United States will be upwards of 100 million, including those watching on laptops, desktops and tablets as well as those who are viewing on a "traditional" TV set. (On smartphones, the game will be available to Verizon customers through an NFL Mobile app.)
This will undoubtedly result in a surge in bandwidth demand, but operators have been preparing for these spikes as well as for an increase in capacity requirements caused by an upswing in OTT and other such options, said Pete Koat, CTO of Incognito Software Systems.
In 2013, Incognito ran a study within its customer base of service providers to see what plans they were putting into action. Approximately 83% responded that they were undergoing a variety of infrastructure upgrades, and 40% were implementing fair usage policies. Others were utilizing bandwidth caps and/or proprietary services for policy enforcement.
"Operators are using bandwidth management where they have rules to enforce capacity restraints so they are not taking down the network," Koat said.
The use of MPEG-DASH and adaptive streaming will allow for switching among bit rates so all viewers will be able to see some quality of the feed. Network monitoring tools identify when and where there are bandwidth pressures, not just during the live event, but also over time. "Operators (need) a platform that can identify usage patterns and make predictions about the network based on data collected over time," Koat said. "They can identify where to invest in the plant, where to do node splits, and how to do tailored policy enforcement."
An important end goal is to increase customer satisfaction. By capturing data, operators can develop trend analysis that allows them to see what is happening on a daily basis vs. a monthly basis and between residential vs. corporate customers and even provide insight into which subscribers are using the most bandwidth.
"With large outlier events (like the Super Bowl), having tools in place to capture data is very important," Koat said. "Operators can see which interfaces and nodes are experiencing saturation. Without recording that information, they can't invest intelligently in the infrastructure .... (It is important) so the operator can provide quality of experience without investing in areas that may not need additional capacity."