DPI will be a balancing act of protecting networks and customer privacy

Continuous Computing has published three policy management white papers commissioned from industry analyst Disruptive Analysis. The white papers take a good look at Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) in mobile broadband networks -- always an interesting topic because it pits operator necessity for traffic management and targeted services against consumer desire for privacy assurances.

But simultaneous to that desire is the consumer desire for more compelling, personalized content, for which they are willing to sacrifice -- at least it seems -- some level of privacy. Though DPI is one of those technologies that quickly raises a lot of eyebrows because of its potential for abuse, its use will no doubt increase for traffic management, targeted marketing of products to consumers, and tailored advertising campaigns -- all necessary if operators are to grow revenues from the explosion of smartphones, tablets and other devices. The pressure to enforce policies, and do real-time charging and traffic management will mean operators will have to become more subscriber and device-aware to better understand the usage patterns of users and the impacts on network elements.