With worldwide mobile network traffic expected to increase nearly 18 fold between 2011 and 2016, Cisco on Wednesday introduced the foundation for a new generation of mobile Internet networks: the Cisco ASR 5500 platform.

The new Cisco ASR 5500 system extends the industry leading Cisco ASR 5000 Series and delivers the agility and scale that service providers need to meet the evolving mobile requirements of their customers. As the industry's first elastic solution for mobile networks, the new Cisco ASR 5500 platform was designed to capitalize on breakthroughs in software architecture optimized on new, purpose built hardware. These design characteristics address three multi dimensional challenges known as the "new normal," which are:

Dramatic growth of mobile lifestyle devices consumers are buying sophisticated and powerful Internet enabled devices for use at home, on the road, and at work given the bring your own device or BYOD movement.

Increased usage of next generation applications explosive growth in applications by users, always on applications and those that continually interact with the network. Rise of the "Internet of things" also known as machine to machine or M2M, whereby machines like smart meters and sensors use the mobile network.

The result is nearly 19 billion mobile and fixed connections to the Internet by 2016, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2011 to 2016). Each connection has its own specific requirements, based on device type and application used, that must be met to deliver a superior and personalized mobile experience "your way."