Mobile networks, for decades, were built around a simple premise: people used their phones to talk. Today’s networks have evolved, and user devices have improved with it – they are now AI‑infused companions that listen, respond, predict, generate content, and orchestrate tasks all in real time. This shift is not just redefining what a smartphone is; it is fundamentally changing what a telecom network must be.
New Devices, New Dynamics
Despite all the benefits this mobile “renaissance” has introduced, AI-driven devices and user behavior also present sharp, unpredictable bursts of uplink traffic. As devices and applications snap photos, generate mini prompts, share metadata, and synchronize context between devices, they put stress on the network. Traffic that once posed little strain now moves in patterns the network was never designed for, adding new layers of complexity.
These traffic spikes:
- Hit the RAN with sudden uplink surges
- Create short, intense scheduling challenges
- Demand near‑instant prioritization of critical sessions
- Amplify user‑experience sensitivity to micro‑latencies
A GSMA survey, in partnership with RADCOM, highlights this stark reality, with data services alone accounting for 45% of customer complaints. And this is not specifically counting AI-native devices. These AI devices require near-perfect consistency. Even minimal jitter becomes noticeable, and when something goes wrong, users don’t care whether the issue is the app, the device, or the network. They tend to blame the operator, risking churn and disloyalty.
Understanding the Data Plane: Why User‑Plane Visibility Matters
Without visibility, operators cannot accurately assess performance, allocate resources effectively, or enhance customer experience. Yet extracting these insights is increasingly difficult. Most data services today are encrypted end‑to‑end, making it harder than ever to derive meaningful analytics and understand what is happening across the network. Despite these challenges, deep, real‑time user‑plane intelligence has become indispensable.
What is User-Plane Intelligence?
In mobile networks, the data plane (or user plane) is the layer responsible for carrying all user related traffic i.e. the actual data transmitted between devices and applications. This includes everything from video streaming and online gaming to IoT sensor outputs, enterprise applications, voice calls, and everyday web browsing.
For operators, gaining insights into this user plane traffic is essential for understanding the true quality of experience (QoE) and quality of service (QoS) delivered to customers. User plane visibility provides a direct window into how subscribers actually experience the network, whether their videos stream smoothly, calls remain uninterrupted, or applications respond instantly.
Why Traditional KPIs Are No Longer Enough
Classic KPIs were designed for steady, predictable flows. However, AI‑powered devices generate ephemeral, dynamic, per‑session patterns that shift rapidly and behave unpredictably.
To understand these new realities, operators require:
- Per-subscriber visibility
- Real‑time anomaly detection
- Predictive quality management
- End-to-end awareness extending deep into the user plane
This is precisely where next‑generation user‑plane intelligence, and RADCOM’s unique capabilities, become mission‑critical.
Enabling AI-Era Network Visibility and Performance
AI-native phones depend on ultra responsive networks, from instant translation to context aware assistants. Delivering this requires visibility into the user plane, where performance issues appear first.
RADCOM’s offering includes:
- Per‑subscriber quality insights that detect problems before they impact users
- High‑capacity, cloud‑native analytics capable of processing the massive volumes generated by AI traffic
- Real‑time anomaly detection uncovering micro‑latency issues invisible to legacy KPIs
- End-to-end intelligence correlating RAN, user plane, and core behaviors
RADCOM’s High-Capacity User Analytics solution empowers network operators to efficiently process enormous volumes of traffic data, all at the network edge. By harnessing the capabilities of accelerated computing, this solution provides data capture and analytics at bandwidths reaching up to 400 Gbps on a single probe using commercial off-the-shelf servers.
The advanced processing enables operators to analyze 100% of network traffic in real time, resulting in significant reductions in processing costs. Additionally, it delivers real-time, subscriber-level insights, even for data that is encrypted, ensuring comprehensive visibility into the customer experience and service quality.
RADCOM: Delivering Real-Time, AI-Powered Network Intelligence
As networks evolve, operators need analytics engines that efficiently process immense volumes of granular user‑plane data. RADCOM’s High‑Capacity User Analytics empowers them to:
- Identify traffic patterns across services and devices
- Measure experience at a per‑session level
- Detect behavioral shifts introduced by AI workloads
- Correlate RAN, core, and edge activities
- Drive real‑time workflows and automated decisions
These enriched insights help operators respond faster, prevent performance degradation, improve service quality and deliver the consistency today’s users demand. They unify network and subscriber insights, giving operators a true customer aware understanding across the entire network.
Beyond Performance: Encouraging Loyalty
In this AI era, customer expectations aren’t just rising, they’re accelerating. To deliver the seamless experiences users expect, operators need real-time visibility into the user plane, gaining a true level of understanding into the service quality. User plane intelligence provides clarity, enabling faster detection of issues and deeper insight into per subscriber performance, increasing retention and reducing churn. RADCOM’s high-capacity, real-time analytics solution is built for the AI era, helping operators stay ahead and deliver consistent, reliable experiences.
For more information about RADCOM’s High-Capacity User Analytics, visit: https://radcom.com/high-capacity-user-analytics/
Or contact us: https://radcom.com/contact/
