More people are using smartphones, but that means they are using more data, which chokes mobile networks. ADTRAN (News - Alert), a provider of networking solutions, has announced that it will demonstrate the world’s first cloud-based mobile offload architecture at the Broadband World Forum, which can help alleviate some of the network congestion.

“With the great response we’ve had from customers to our cloud-based mobile offload solution, we are excited to share this live demonstration with Broadband World Forum attendees so they can see the benefits first hand,” Chris Koeneman (News - Alert), vice president of sales for the Bluesocket Business Group at ADTRAN, said. “Our virtualized approach to mobile offload addresses the backhaul dilemma for operators by eliminating the need for hardware-based controllers in the network. As a result, service providers are able to deploy a highly secure offload solution that can cost-effectively scale to absorb the demand for mobile data.”

People attending the show in Amsterdam will authenticate with their mobile providers in Dublin, while the whole setup is controlled by a Bluesocket (News - Alert) virtual WLAN across the Atlantic in Boston. As long as the user’s carrier has a roaming agreement, the traffic will be automatically offloaded to the show floor’s Wi-Fi network, without having to go back to Boston first.

ADTRAN said its solution is unique in that it is managed locally at the access point. Control of the network is virtualized so it can be done from anywhere in the cloud. Managing sessions at the access point eliminates the need for backhaul.

This virtualized architecture allows carriers a greater degree of flexibility in designing networks over conventional backhaul solutions. While many smartphones and tablets have the ability to offload traffic to Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi access points are independent and cannot talk to each other. Backhaul networks also depend on hardware, which can make installing them an expensive and difficult operation. The virtual WLAN, however, allows for access-point to access-point mobility and eliminates backhaul, since it’s based in the cloud.