Steve McCarthy, Snr EVP, Global Customer Sales & Service, TELLABS

 

Maximizing Mobile Networks to Meet Tomorrow's Needs

Mobile operators have always had a far faster metabolism than their fixed-line counterparts. From a near-standing start two decades ago, the mobile industry has matured rapidly, continually introducing new technologies to support ever-richer service portfolios. With well over 1 billion GSM users worldwide, wireless revenues continue to climb as the fixed-line market for voice declines
.

Mobile success brings it own challenges. Each new protocol, application service or device added to the existing wireless infrastructure creates issues for service providers: Can they guarantee end-to-end quality of service (QoS) and service level agreements (SLAs)?

 

How will higher bandwidth services such as high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) impact their operational costs? How can they upgrade their time division multiplex (TDM) backhaul network to cope cost-effectively with today's packet-world? How can they merge fixed and mobile networks to offer truly seamless, multi-service interactions to their business customers?

While answers to some of these questions are shared with the fixed world, wireless operators face a host of unique concerns. First, customer mobility and increasing high-bandwidth data demands make it difficult to allot the supporting network and radio spectrum. Second, issues such as number portability legislation spur customer churn. The loss of just one large corporate customer due to poor QoS can seriously affect mobile operators' finances. Finally, there is the key question: Can network infrastructure keep pace with the imagination and creativity of the application developers and device designers?

The Shift to IP Traffic

While the industry headlines concentrate on mergers and the release of yet another smart handset, powerful forces are at work in the background. Changes to the transport and data portions of the core wireless network are mandatory as mobile operators seek to differentiate themselves from the competition. Operators want to increase their revenue from non-voice services and transform themselves into broadband service providers. That means transitioning from TDM voice networks to ATM and, finally, to all-IP traffic.

The migration to IP is a given that is also defined by industry standards bodies. TDM for voice is already complemented by Frame Relay and IP for GPRS. 3GPP Releases Four and Five show the migration path from ATM to All-IP. The initial 3G release of CDMA (1xEV-DO) is IP right from the start. Mobile operators know what they need to do – but how can they best achieve it?

The logical solution is for mobile operators to take advantage of recent developments in IP/MPLS – the key technology that provides QoS in IP networks. With this technology, operators can consolidate their current fragmented and diverse overlay networks into one single converged platform. Operators can then handle current and future demands while containing capital and operating expenses. In addition, the high costs of leasing circuits from other mobile operators will be minimized without hurting service availability or quality.

While an all-IP network will deliver many cost and performance benefits, it is important to remember that bandwidth alone cannot win customers. Just as in the fixed world, raw connectivity is no longer a differentiator. Any network technology and infrastructure must add value to the entire delivery chain and the wider strategic commercial direction of the mobile operator's business.

More than a Pipe

Migration to an all-IP, MPLS-enabled network must deal with a number of other issues and deliver more than just an open pipe.

For both legacy and future technologies to run efficiently on a converged infrastructure, grooming procedures are necessary to make the most effective use of bandwidth. In the rush toward data services, the continuing role of voice as the primary communications medium must not be forgotten. As a result, special attention must be given to the unique QoS requirements of speech, particularly in terms of eliminating echoes and delays that can result when speech is transmitted over IP – especially where radio is involved. The ability to provide MPLS, overlaid or integrated as appropriate with specific technologies to ensure voice quality, is an essential part of the new data offering.

Voice quality also is key to enable wireless to substitute for fixed line communications, or to make true fixed-wireless convergence a reality. Higher call quality also lengthens call times and revenue per user, and enables operators to offer newer IP-based voice services, such as Push-to-Talk, with far greater confidence.

Increasingly, mobile users will make multiple voice and data transactions during a single session. They will talk to friends, exchange messages, share music and video files, or join multi-player games. To make this a reality, the core network must be aware of the different policy requirements of each of these different media and be able to allocate network and radio resources appropriately. Then customers will enjoy the rich interaction promised to them by marketers as multiple services are aggregated into a single customer experience.

Intelligence Access

To support new services and migrate to an all-IP network, mobile operators also must make changes to the edge devices in their networks. Just as the wired world is moving toward multi-service digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs), wireless networks must provide more intelligence at the edge to cope with high-speed data. This means multi-service platforms in a wireless environment will need to handle ATM and packet-based IP/MPLS-based services as well as the more familiar circuit-switched services.

Intelligence in edge devices can help reduce operational costs by minimizing the truck roll and engineering time involved in network reconfigurations. This is particularly important given the additional complexities and capacity issues caused by the introduction of new radio access-technologies, such as HSDPA, W-CDMA and WiMax, as well as the related changes in other parts of the network needed to support services such as Push-to-Talk.

Consolidation is the Answer

Eliminating the management, integration and time overhead costs is critical in today's current financial climate. The old silo technique of developing new OSS , billing and CRM systems in response to new service launches is no longer feasible. Now, the move to a single, scalable network platform can simplify investment and operational strategies to make true end-to-end management of both services and the network a viable reality.

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), the heart of next-generation wireless systems, and the emerging area of service delivery platforms spotlight the breakdown of traditional functional divides within a mobile operator's business. Similar strategies out in the network need to complement this technology-agnostic consolidation of the entire service creation and delivery chain.

Service providers can no longer afford the costs and inefficiencies involved in supporting multiple backbone technologies. They need to find ways to migrate to converged technologies safely and cost-effectively. With the right strategy it is now possible to not only better support direct customers, but also to support the increasingly important content and application provider partners and MVNO customers, who are also seeking the best ways to market their services.

To compete in today's environment, wireless operators must offer reliable and universal services that fail as rarely as fixed-line voice services. While every wireless operator faces somewhat similar challenges, each has its own unique history, strategy and goals. Achieving those goals requires various solutions, including guaranteed QoS for Voice over IP (VoIP), integrated end-to-end management, seamless network migration and intelligent edge devices. Tellabs helps wireless operators compete successfully today and tomorrow by delivering a tailored migration path that enables QoS and reduces capital and operating expenses.

 

About the Author

Stephen (Steve) M. McCarthy, 50, is senior executive vice president of global customersales and service at Tellabs. In this role, he is responsible for all customer-facing functions including sales, marketing, customer service and communications.

Previously, McCarthy served as senior vice president of engineering and operations for Tellabs North America. In that role, he helped Tellabs return to profitable growth by outsourcing Tellabs' North American manufacturing operations. McCarthy also led the development teams for several Tellabs' North American products, including its market-leading digital cross-connects, transport switches and optical transport solutions.

Prior to this, McCarthy served as senior vice president of Tellabs' optical networking group and senior vice president of global marketing.

Before joining Tellabs in 1997, as vice president of global solutions and service, McCarthy served as senior vice president of Automatic Data Processing's (ADP) major accounts central division. From 1989 until 1997, McCarthy held various senior management positions at Ameritech, including vice president of marketing, vice president of sales and vice president of managed services. Prior to this, McCarthy spent 13 years with IBM in sales and channel management.

McCarthy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and finance from the University of Illinois and a Master of Business Administration degree in finance from DePaul University in Chicago , Ill.

McCarthy and his wife reside in the Chicago area and have two children.

 

 


 

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