Written by: Jonas Bjurel, Staffan Blau, Anja Thyssen
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The Integrated Site (IS) concept springs from ideas behind blade servers; that is, as with blade servers, Ericsson’s Integrated Site infrastructure provides a framework that yields flexibility and short time to market for IP-centric applications.
The authors describe the blade server concept, which has a fundamental role in the Integrated Site framework. They then describe the principles and components of the Integrated Site. They conclude the article with a description of the session border gateway and Ericsson’s EDA MSAN, each of which is a pioneer user of the Integrated Site infrastructure.
The telecommunications challenge
The ongoing deployment of IP-based next-generation networks and associated services signals the convergence of telecommunications and data communications. Today’s mobile operators are offering services that were previously only available from fixed-access service providers. Notwithstanding, as next-generation mobile networks and the mobile internet gain momentum, mobile operators will face greater complexity and encounter the same kinds of challenges that fixed-access service providers experienced during the internet boom.
Operators are strongly emphasizing service deployment but because no single service suite can satisfy every need, the services must be adapted to individual business strategies. The services framework must thus be extremely flexible, so as to fit the total service offering of different operators and to adjust to ever-changing business needs.
Fortunately, to facilitate these trends and overcome complexity, vendors of networks and services have a swelling arsenal of powerful technologies at their disposal. In addition, the availability of open source code and open standards, such as IEEE Ethernet, IETF, Network Processing Forum, Service Availability Forum, and OSDL, facilitate the introduction of new technologies and give rise to the open, third-party ecosystems in which these technologies can be used. Highly competitive vendors are quick to take advantage of these new technologies and ecosystems and to augment them with their own unique know-how. The Integrated Site framework springs from the ideas behind blade servers. Through aggressive use of third-party technologies, open-source code, and standard protocols, operators can employ blade severs and Ericsson’s Integrated Site infrastructure to provide a framework that yields flexibility and short time to market.
