Opera Software's Skyfire unit today released Rocket Insights™ as part of its Rocket Optimizer platform to help operators better manage their network loads by providing a real-time analytics dashboard that analyzes mobile video congestion. Operators can now instantly view key metrics such as stall rates, video start times, bitrate distribution and mean opinion score, and use this data to improve their overall network traffic management.

Rocket Insights requires minimal hardware and is lightweight, highly scalable and fast to deploy. It can even be used in advance of Rocket Optimizer as a stand-alone module, in order for operators to clearly observe the disproportionate impact that over-the-top video currently has on their networks. It can also be deployed alongside existing mobile video optimization hardware.
Rocket Insights elegantly addresses the current lack of existing real-time video monitoring analytics in a graphical and user-customizable dashboard. It provides operators with visibility into the importance of actionable quality of experience (QoE) monitoring that can intervene as needed to improve the video experience for each user on the network.

Operators can test and refine their optimization strategies using the dashboard, and measure how these rates improve or change on the basis of real-time adjustments that they make.

Prior to the release of Rocket Insights, traffic management analytics were limited to packet- or URL-level data, which were often a poor proxy metric for application session quality, and did not allow for session mitigation actions in real time. Rocket Insights, on the other hand, now allows operators to easily see the impact of video on their networks, down to individual subscribers and their anonymized location in the network.

“Video stall rates are the one KPI that a mobile operator in 2014 should never be without”, said Nitin Bhandari, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Skyfire. “In a world in which video QoE is an essential part of the overall customer experience, we’re happy to have risen to the challenge of quantifying mobile video playback analytics in an immediately actionable manner for operators with the release of Rocket Insights.”

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it is a fundamental truth for monetizing mobile video. Operators need easy monitoring and quick reaction to network congestion”, says Joe Hoffman, Practice Director at ABI Research.  “Video optimization solutions have to get the analytics right and deliver them with a user-friendly dashboard.  Otherwise, operators will seek different solutions when they comprehend the money that is left on the table.”

Operators can also extract even more value from the base product via the Custom Insights service, which allows for unique and operator-customized advanced analytics.

Rocket Optimizer is currently deploying with Telenor’s mobile networks across 11 countries, as well as across the national network of a Tier 1 US-based operator. Rocket Optimizer is also currently in live user trials with multiple operators around the world. The new Rocket Insights module is also compatible with leading traffic steering partners of Skyfire’s such as F5, Procera Networks and ConteXtream.