It's no secret that mobile operators has little idea what apps their mobile data networks are actually carrying. Alcatel-Lucent, however, claims its  9900 Wireless Network Guardian (WNG) device discover this in real time.

It's the myths that this black box has exploded that are the most interesting.  When a mobile data network slows down or falls over, there's always a great deal of finger pointing.

Contrary to popular belief, according to A-L's Mike Schabel, peer-to-peer networks are actually quite efficient in their consumption of network resources. So is mobile web surfing.

But email and a whole host of services which behave like email – such as banking, stock tickertapes and location based services are heavy consumers. They can account for 4 per cent of total traffic volumes but snaffle 70 per cent of all the signalling traffic.

These are generalisations – for example, Schabel revealed that a DNS look-up was a big resource consumer. In specific cases, the 9900 has revealed that subscribers playing the Quake 3 game or whose laptops were infected with the Conficker virus have brought data networks to their knees.

And the mobile operators had been scratching their heads for ages trying to identify the root cause.

A real problem is a mobile application which wishes to provide an 'always-on' facility. Badly written mobile apps will do this in a network inefficient way. The 9900 can identify the culprits. The upshot is that network operators will be looking at ways to discourage their subscribers from running such apps.

There's another possible outcome from the attachment of 9900s to operators' networks. The technology can be used to identify which netbook/laptop users haven't loaded any anti-virus software.

Which is where an anti-virus vendor like Trend Micro could clean up. A recent deal it did with the Carphone Warehouse involved supplying its products not just for smartphones but for laptops, too. And it is feasible for operators to provision mobile devices with anti-virus software using OTA techniques.

Obviously, A-L reckons its product is unique. The biggest benefit is that it doesn't require any probes to be added to the network. Stick it in the data centre and within two hours it will know what 90 per cent of the network is doing. It'll reach 100 per cent in time.

What I couldn't figure out was exactly how the 9900 could be plugged into existing operator apps. But A-L's Marc Omwal hinted it will soon be integrated into the company's own customer helpdesk offering.

So an agent could tell a caller that the reason the network appears to be slow is that there's too many people in the same cell using the data network. How helpful.

It's no secret that mobile operators has little idea what apps their mobile data networks are actually carrying. Alcatel-Lucent, however, claims its  9900 Wireless Network Guardian (WNG) device discover this in real time.

It's the myths that this black box has exploded that are the most interesting.  When a mobile data network slows down or falls over, there's always a great deal of finger pointing.

Contrary to popular belief, according to A-L's Mike Schabel, peer-to-peer networks are actually quite efficient in their consumption of network resources. So is mobile web surfing.

But email and a whole host of services which behave like email – such as banking, stock tickertapes and location based services are heavy consumers. They can account for 4 per cent of total traffic volumes but snaffle 70 per cent of all the signalling traffic.

These are generalisations – for example, Schabel revealed that a DNS look-up was a big resource consumer. In specific cases, the 9900 has revealed that subscribers playing the Quake 3 game or whose laptops were infected with the Conficker virus have brought data networks to their knees.

And the mobile operators had been scratching their heads for ages trying to identify the root cause.

A real problem is a mobile application which wishes to provide an 'always-on' facility. Badly written mobile apps will do this in a network inefficient way. The 9900 can identify the culprits. The upshot is that network operators will be looking at ways to discourage their subscribers from running such apps.

There's another possible outcome from the attachment of 9900s to operators' networks. The technology can be used to identify which netbook/laptop users haven't loaded any anti-virus software.

Which is where an anti-virus vendor like Trend Micro could clean up. A recent deal it did with the Carphone Warehouse involved supplying its products not just for smartphones but for laptops, too. And it is feasible for operators to provision mobile devices with anti-virus software using OTA techniques.

Obviously, A-L reckons its product is unique. The biggest benefit is that it doesn't require any probes to be added to the network. Stick it in the data centre and within two hours it will know what 90 per cent of the network is doing. It'll reach 100 per cent in time.

What I couldn't figure out was exactly how the 9900 could be plugged into existing operator apps. But A-L's Marc Omwal hinted it will soon be integrated into the company's own customer helpdesk offering.

So an agent could tell a caller that the reason the network appears to be slow is that there's too many people in the same cell using the data network. How helpful.