Written by: Heino Hameleers and Christer Johansson

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Mobility and the Internet, the two most dynamic forces in communications today, meet in the design and implementation of the mobile core network. Support for new end-user services and a common transport technology are the main drivers of integration of IP technology into our systems. The IP multimedia application plays a special role in providing these new end-user services. IP transport technology addresses the vision of multi- service backbone networks, based on a single network layer technology. Ericsson provides complete solutions and products to support deployment of new IP-based services and transport networks. Moreover, Ericsson’s flexible core network architecture allows operators to address these drivers in an independent way.

The main parts of this article describe how the requirements for the two main drivers for IP technology are met in the mobile core network. Paying special attention to support for the IP multimedia application, the authors describe how support for IP applications is implemented. They then describe how IP transport technology can be supported, including site configurations and specific issues like quality-of-service and network redundancy.

[First published in Ericsson Review no. 01, 2002]