NEC and NetCracker Released a Virtual IMS Solution for VoLTE

NEC Corporation and NetCracker Technology announced that they have ".. released a virtualized IP multimedia subsystem (vIMS) solution through their joint business brand, NEC/NetCracker SDN/NFV Solutions. The NFV-based vIMS solution offers both control and data plane functionalities of IMS for 3G mobile voice services (W-CDMA) and voice over LTE (VoLTE) services. It has successfully achieved the same service quality levels of those realized in a physical environment.

.. The vIMS solution provides users with high-quality VoLTE and high-definition video calling, leveraging general-purpose servers that share resources with other virtual network functions and IT functions. By virtualizing IMS, the vIMS solution can reduce service delivery and assurance costs while optimizing performance attributes such as quality of service and delay.

The vIMS leverages the technical functionality of NEC’s VoLTE solution. Demonstrating high availability and reliability for signaling and protocol handling and data processing, the VoLTE solution is operating live in commercial networks such as those provided by NTT DOCOMO".

See "NEC and NetCracker Release Virtualized IMS (vIMS) Solution" - here.

IHS: VoLTE Starts to Pick Up; Huawei Leads the SP VoIP and IMS Market

A new report by Diane Myers [pictured], research director for VoIP, UC and IMS, IHS finds that ".. global service provider VoIP (voice over IP) and IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) revenue was up 46 percent year-over-year in 2Q15, to $1.3 billion .. Spending related to voice over LTE (VoLTE) deployments is starting to pick up, especially in Europe and India, fueling continued strong growth in the service provider VoIP and IMS market ..As well, operators with commercial VoLTE networks in North America and Asia Pacific are purchasing additional capacity as subscriber numbers grow in those regions". 

"Huawei took the lead in overall service provider VoIP and IMS revenue market share in 2Q15 ..  Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, GENBAND and Mavenir (a division of Mitel) also had standout growth from a year ago". 

See "Service Provider VoIP and IMS Market Soars 46 Percent YoY in 2nd Quarter" - here.

[Survey]: Huawei, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent are the Top IMS Vendors

  

Diane Myers [pictured], research director for VoIP, UC and IMS, IHS (Infonetics Research): "conducted in-depth interviews with global service providers that have IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) core equipment in their networks or will by the end of 2017 and discovered that only 8 percent are running IMS network elements in a network functions virtualization (NFV) environment today .. more are on the path by starting to utilize software running on commercial off-the-shelf hardware as a stepping stone to full NFV. One of the biggest drivers for NFV is the ability to scale services up and down quickly and introduce new network services more efficiently and in a timely manner, which makes IMS a good early fit for NFV".

"80 percent of service provider respondents indicated that parts of their IMS elements will be running in an NFV environment by 2017, which IHS believes is somewhat optimistic. In an open-ended question asking respondents who they consider to be the top three IMS infrastructure vendors, operators most often named Huawei, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent"

See "Service Providers Optimistic about Moving IMS Networks to NFV, Rate Vendors" - here.

[Infonetics]: What are the Key Use cases for DSC?

A new white paper by Diane Myers [pictured], principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS, Infonetics Research, "examines the key Diameter use cases operators need to consider when planning for IP multimedia subsystem (IMS)".

“The growth of IMS around voice over LTE (VoLTE) deployments brings new challenges and opportunities related to Diameter and, ultimately, Diameter signaling controllers. When configured correctly, Diameter can enhance customer experience by ensuring quality of service in voice over LTE calls, video sessions, and enhanced messaging.

By managing Diameter traffic, Diameter signaling controllers (DSCs) play an important role in ensuring a high-quality experience for services running over IMS networks. The four use cases that represent opportunities for DSCs and for which operators need to consider in planning for IMS are 1) session binding, 2) charging, 3) subscription location function, and 4) monetizing assets"

See "Infonetics whitepaper examines the Diameter use cases operators need to plan for in IMS networks" - here.

[ABI]: VoLTE (w/IMS) is the Next Big Thing; $30B Market to 2019

   

A new report by Sabir Rafiq [pictured], research analyst, ABI Research finds that ".. as the first wave of LTE deployments achieve coverage, VoLTE is the next big thing. VoLTE runs on IMS, and the market will total over $US30 billion through 2019 as it becomes widespread. 

Leading infrastructure vendors such as Ericsson and Nokia are fully committed to VoLTE and IMS space and equip customers with this next wave in mobile broadband. Similarly, other vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, and Cisco recognize the impact VoLTE and IMS will have on the market. These vendors are active in the VoLTE space by offering credible solutions in order to attract and retain customers ..  IMS mobile core revenue corresponds directly with the popularity of VoLTE”.

".. With the availability of VoLTE smartphones, operators realize benefits with improving quality in voice service, and also top-line growth with value adding services. This leads to increasing VoLTE services in smartphones, with Apple [see "iPhone 6 also supports Voice over LTE (VoLTE)" - here] and high-end Android  [see "New Moto X on Verizon to get Advanced Calling 1.0, run VoLTE - here] devices leading the way. 

[see also: "GSA: 116 MNOs Offer HD Voice - Even on 2G Networks!" - here]

VoLTE will become extremely important in the future and ABI Research believes competitive positioning will lead operators to VoLTE/IMS"

See "Mobile Broadband Operators Scramble for VoLTE, Creating an IMS Land Rush as Ericsson and Nokia Stake Claims on the $US30 Billion Market" - here.

[Infonetics]: VoLTE Slows down the IMS Market (led By Huawei)

A new report by Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS, Infonetics Research finds that deployments of VoLTE services slows down the IMS equipment market - "The global service provider VoIP and IMS market totaled $878 million in 2Q14, down 6% from 2Q13, and down 12% sequentially .. Huawei and Metaswitch are the standout IMS/VoIP vendors in 2Q14, bucking the down quarter"

"To date, nationwide launches of voice over LTE (VoLTE) have taken place only in small countries and city-states such as South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong .. Larger nationwide launches of VoLTE in the U.S. and Japan are expected to begin toward the end of 2014; this, in addition to the activity of operators in Europe, Canada, and other parts of Asia, will fuel IMS equipment related to VoLTE in 2015.

The large network equipment vendors—Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia—are benefitting from VoLTE-related activity and product sets that extend beyond IMS". 

See "Service provider VoIP and IMS market enters period of correction after ramp-up to VoLTE" - here.

[Infonetics]: VoIP & IMS Market Grows by 37%, Due to VoLTE; ALU Leads

A new report by Diane Myers [pictured], principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS, Infonetics Research finds that "Worldwide service provider VoIP and IMS equipment revenue totaled $992 million in 1Q14, an increase of 37% from 1Q13, but a sequential decline of 9% .. the standout vendor in 1Q14 is Alcatel-Lucent, rising to the top due to strong growth of core IMS and voice application server revenue, particularly in North America"

“Voice over LTE (VoLTE) continues to positively impact the service provider VoIP and IMS equipment market, though we look for the market to slow this year as operators commercially launch services and draw down capacity built over the past year .. Already this year we have seen AT&T, PCCW/HKT, and other operators launch VoLTE services, and NTT DoCoMo is set to do so in June"

See "VoLTE fuels 37% year-over-year growth in Q1 carrier VoIP and IMS market; Alcatel-Lucent rises to top" - here.

[ABI]: VoLTE Drives IMS Deployments to $4B Market by 2017

A new report by Joe Hoffman [pictured], Research Director, ABI Research finds that "IMS Core Network deployments are edging up as operators put the necessary infrastructure and capacity in place for planned 2014 VoLTE launches. Spending for the core network products (HSS, CSC, Media Controllers and Gateways, MSF, IBCF, SBC and P-CSCF) integral to a functioning IMS network will reach US$ 4 billion by 2017"

"While the IMS driver is clearly VoLTE, operators will also find competitive advantage with a standardized, network-integrated solution that can also deliver superior user experience for WebRTC and OTT services under network congestion".

See "IMS Deployments Edging Up as Leading LTE Operators Ramp for VoLTE, Reaching US$ 4B by 2017" - here.

DT: QoS for VoLTE Available - Needs PCRF

 
Interesting presentation by Roland Schott, Project Manager and Architect, Deutsche Telekom, made during LTE World Summit (Barcelona, May 2012).

Brought by Zahid Ghadialy, editor of the 3G and 4G Wireless Blog.

One of the conclusions is that "PCRF is required to handle QoS on the mobile access link"

[Update] [Rumors]: Which IMS Component Caused Verizon's LTE Outage?

 
[Update]: Tekelec informed me that "Our Diameter Signaling Router was not responsible for the Verizon Wireless outage".

In a recent post to the Gigaom blog, Kevin Fitchard interviews Verizon Wireless VP of network engineering Mike Haberman, trying "to shed some light on the LTE network’s recent problems and explain how Verizon was taking the necessary steps to ensure that they don’t happen again" (see "Verizon explains its string of LTE outages" - here).

Haberman told Gigaom that "All three outages were caused by problems in Verizon’s service delivery core — in telecom-speak called the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) .. The first outage on Dec. 7 was caused by the failure of a back-up communications database. The second, last week, was the result of an IMS element not responding properly, while Wednesday’s outage was caused by two IMS elements not communicating properly .. once each problem was fixed, it never recurred. Every subsequent outage is a result of a new bug, and it just so happens that December was the month many of these bugs chose to reveal themselves .. "

"Veizon’s IMS systems are a complex network of databases, servers, routers, gateways and policy managers supplied by multiple vendors. Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks, Acme Packet and Tekelec all provide different parts, but Haberman declined to identify which particular elements or which particular vendors were responsible for the problems. In fact, Haberman defended Verizon’s vendors saying that they were experiencing the same LTE growing pains as Verizon".

A 2nd hand rumor I heard, claims that one of the IMS elements that failed this week was Tekelec's Diameter Signaling Router (DSR).

For background - see "How does/will Verizon Wireless Use Tekelec's Diameter Router?" - here.

PCRF Announcements: Openet Adds Support for 3GPP/IMS Rx Interface

 

Openet announced "the immediate availability of a major new version of its award-winning PCRF software. Flagship features of Policy Manager 4.0 include:  an enhanced rules engine that enables operators to more easily monetize and manage service-driven data growth, improved configuration interfaces and enhanced Rx interface [see chart below] extends application support"

See "Openet Announces Availability of Policy Manager 4.0 Featuring Improved Flexibility, Streamlined Configuration" - here.



Source: Evolution of the 3GPP Network Architecture,(the Evolved Packet Core) by Dr. Sungho Choi



[Guest Post]: “Policy exchange controllers - scaling policy infrastructure in LTE and IMS”

By Kevin Klett*, Vice President, Strategic Product Management, Acme  Packet

As mobile broadband growth continues apace and LTE and IMS networks are deployed as replacements for legacy technologies, service providers are looking for ways to cost effectively scale policy infrastructure. Policy, which includes authorization, authentication, charging and quality of service (QoS) information, is essential for service delivery and for networks to operate efficiently and profitably.

The volume of policy-related traffic can be crippling as subscriber population expands and voice and data service usage intensifies. In order for the network to keep pace, policy exchange controllers—a new element—are required to streamline operations and facilitate manageable scalability.

Policy exchange in IP networks
 
Let’s start with the basics: last decade the transformation of telecommunications began as voice and all communications started the migration from circuit-switched networks to an IP world. It has largely affected fixed line networks until recently—although that transformation is still early and not complete—and mobile is the next frontier. The combination of the broadband IP transport networks and a new service layer, largely IMS, is the network of now and the future. While 3G RANs such as EVDO and HSPA brought IP and the Internet to mobile networks, LTE is the major technological leap forward embracing the all-IP network thus leaving no home for TDM technology.

SS7, the intelligent signaling layer in TDM networks, is replaced in these LTE and IMS networks by two protocols: SIP and Diameter. SIP is the call control protocol used to establish voice, messaging and multimedia communication sessions. Diameter takes on the role of exchanging policy information between network elements for each subscriber data, voice, video or multimedia session. This information is also exchanged between visited and home networks for roaming subscribers.




Exhibit 1: Diameter interfaces in LTE and IMS


More specifically, policy means subscriber and session authentication, authorization, location, charging and quality of service (QoS) information must be exchanged among HSS, PCRF, MME, CSCF, OCS and other elements within a single service provider’s network. There are scores of Diameter interfaces defined by various standards groups and industry bodies. The dominant ones are show in Exhibit 1 and can be broadly grouped into the following categories:
 

·         Registration, authorization and authentication

·         QoS/bandwidth-based admission control

·         Charging

·         Location

Challenges to scalability

Now, returning to the policy traffic conundrum: Diameter signaling is everywhere and can be quite demanding of the network. The main challenges that service providers face with scaling and managing policy in LTE and IMS networks include:

·    Scalability – the volume of messages and Diameter transactions for each voice or data session can be huge–in excess of 60,000 messages per 1 million subscribers in certain large service providers.

·    Overload and network failure – the servers involved in processing various AAA, QoS or charging functions are not equipped to deal with spikes in volume; this can impact quality or availability of services.

·    Network attack – policy infrastructure that is exposed to external networks in roaming scenarios can be attacked and, as in overload event scenarios, be taken out of service, affecting overall network availability.

·    Provisioning and routing – given the number of elements, where they are located and how they must interconnect, the programming of route tables and the effective routing of messages in a network can be daunting to provision, maintain and change as the network grows.

·    Multi-vendor interoperability – while Diameter is a standard, there are numerous interpretations of that standard as IMS and LTE has evolved and as more vendors enter the market.  In addition, there differences in networks (such as transport protocol or IP version) that can cause incompatibility and transaction failures. Multi-vendor environments are long known for interoperability problems that add extra time or costs to an initial deployment and ongoing operations.

·    Troubleshooting and management – the ability to collect and correlate all messages with the number of elements and vendors and volume of transactions is formidable if not impossible; the information from these messages is critical for network planning, troubleshooting and daily operations.

While focused on LTE networks, these challenges can exist in today’s 3G environments as well for QoS and charging interfaces (but not roaming or AAA functions as they use SS7 even for 3G data).

Policy exchange controllers – Diameter signaling control for a scalable network

A policy exchange controller (PEC) controls Diameter signaling, enabling the seamless communication and control of policy information between network elements within LTE or IMS networks and across LTE network borders. For those well versed in VoIP, a shorthand way to think of this element is a session border controller for the Diameter protocol as opposed to SIP.

PECs fulfill two major functional elements defined by 3GPP: the Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) and the Subscriber Location Function (SLF). These functions are proxies or front ends that sit in the middle of Diameter transactions and assist in completing the exchange of policy information. The DRA is largely associated with load balancing clusters of PCRF servers and the SLF is charged with discovery of the appropriate HSS for a given subscriber. Both elements assume a large installation of PCRF and HSS elements. PECs are also valid elements according to the Diameter standard, serving as proxy or relay agents between clients (e.g., MME) and servers (e.g., HSS).

DRA is a commonly used, but inadequate term, for the solution needed. To be successful, routing is only the starting point. To address those challenges outlined earlier, the major features that PECs provide are:

·         Centralized and intelligent routing

·         Load balancing across Diameter servers

·         Overload control and denial of service (DoS) attack prevention

·         Encryption

·         Diameter protocol mediation and normalization

·         Transport protocol and IP address interworking

·         Aggregation of messages and reporting of key performance metrics

Policy exchange controller is a new and rapidly emerging product category. Along with Acme Packet, there is a number of start-up and established companies involved in this market as Azi Ronen pointed out in his post "Resource: Diameter Routing Explained" (here). Today there are five announced products and this is just the start; we expect there to be offerings from the big telecommunication vendor—players in IMS, legacy SS7 signaling and LTE— as well as other policy server specialists.

Who needs a PEC?

Any service provider will require policy exchange controllers to varying degrees. Since Diameter is tightly integrated into IMS and LTE, policy exchange controllers will be required to successfully scale these networks.



Exhibit 2 – Core policy aggregation



The greatest need is for a core policy aggregation role within an individual service provider (see Exhibit 2). This applies to all LTE service providers as well as some 3G and fixed line IMS networks.

For LTE data and VoLTE roaming, all players in the ecosystem—mobile service providers, IPX carriers and roaming hubs, will require PECs to control policy exchange at their external interconnect borders. PECs replace the SS7 STPs that enable 3G roaming today.

Another application, service federation, can also drive the need for PECs for fixed and mobile broadband and over-the-top providers. Service federation uses a revenue-share or partnership model and is predicated the exchange of QoS and authentication information between the two provider types.

A policy exchange controller is a new network element that controls Diameter signaling, enabling the seamless communication and control of policy information between network elements within LTE or IMS networks and across LTE network borders. The need for this element is rising as all-IP networks proliferate, creating a mesh of Diameter connections that negatively impacts network performance, capacity and management. PECs alleviate those challenges and provide a path to profitability in the broadband era.



_______

*Since joining Acme Packet in 2000 Kevin Klett has led product strategy, development and life cycle management for the service provider Net-Net product family. Prior to Acme Packet, Kevin served in system engineering leadership roles at Lucent Technologies and Excel Switching. He holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications from the University of Connecticut.

PCRF Manages VoLTE QoS: RooX Announces Interoperability ALU

 

RooX (covered - here) announced recently that its PCRF product ".. passed interoperability tests (IOT) with IMS hardware from Alcatel Lucent. Yota Lab performed interoperability tests of complex VoLTE solution based on IMS including transport network LTE from Huawei, IMS from Alcatel Lucent and PCRF from RooX. The tests were aimed to check the functioning of quality of service (QoS) complex control in VoLTE system. As a part of IOT, Yota Lab specialists initiated voice call between two IMS clients. RooX PCRF module was responsible for assigning dedicated stream with guaranteed QoS level in LTE transport network by online request initiated by IMS application server (P-CSCF) via standard Rx protocol".

See "RooX PCRF successfully passed IOT with IMS Alcatel-Lucent" - here.

Certainly a new domain for PCRF control, where QoE expectations are the highest, and QoS polices must be in place to meet these expectations.

See also "Alcatel-Lucent IMS- and 4G LTE-based network supports over-the-air VoLTE demonstration using pre-commercial smartphones" - here.

The slides below are taken from an ALU presentation, by Maria Palamara - "VoLTE for Public Safety Broadband Networks" - here.

Verizon CTO: "policy control is very important"

   

A nice push to the policy management industry (here, here). In an interview to Sue Marek from Fierce Broadband Wireless, Tony Melone (picture), CTO of Verizon Communications, was asked about the importance of policy control (after saying about IMS is "It's not as big an enabler of the future").

Mr. Melone responded that:

"It [policy control] is very important. The tools in LTE and in this 4G IP-mobile broadband network are available to do creative things. The policy engine is the brains of how you want the network to treat different things at different times. It's essential. It's important for us to take those tools and structure them in a way that is simple to implement and simple to communicate to customers. It's rational in terms of what customers would expect. 

One thing that we as an industry need to do is segment the data market better than we have. We have segmented the voice market over the years but the data market has been one market: Aircards are this price and smartphones are this price. 

I think when you talk about LTE and how the world will evolve you want an environment where people can dip their toes in the water and experience some of it, and then move up the value chain. These policy engines are a key ingredient in doing that."

See "Verizon's Melone: Data market needs to be segmented further" - here.

The Camiant unit of Tekelec must be proud! (see "Verizon Wireless Selects Camiant for PCRF" - here). Verizon is not alone - see "Policy management is becoming a key technology for mobile operators (Vodafone, Orange)" - here.