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. |