Mike Wright, Telstra executive director for Wireless, says: “The MSC Server Blade Cluster from Ericsson allows us to streamline our core network, increasing voice capacity as we add subscribers, while at the same time simplifying our operations. It also makes it easier and faster to operate, maintain and extend the core network.”

The world’s first mobile softswitch to use blade technology went into commercial service in Australia recently as Telstra Wireless began the process of modernizing and transforming its mobile core network with Ericsson’s Mobile Softswitch Center (MSC) Server Blade Cluster. This makes it one of the world’s most modern and efficient mobile networks.

While boosting Telstra’s NextG Network capacity, the MSC Server Blade Cluster will reduce equipment floor space by 85 percent and cut energy use by 75 percent, with a proportionate reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. By 2010, the operator expects to replace 18 regional Mobile Softswitch Center (MSC) Servers with a single MSC Server Blade Cluster group deployed at two sites.

The MSC is the main node in a mobile core network that is used to control the switching of voice traffic. Magnus Furustam, vice president of product area Core & IMS, Ericsson, says that the Blade Cluster enables Telstra to increase network capacity by more than 500,000 subscribers simply by inserting a single blade, or electronics board, into the MSC Server cabinet. A single node can service up to 8 million subscribers. Blade Clusters can be combined into logical groups, or pools, to share traffic.

“The Blade Cluster model requires far fewer nodes at far fewer sites than a traditional MSC Server architecture,” Furustam says. “This saves the operator energy costs, floor space, maintenance and operating costs.”

Ericsson is the first vendor to deliver a mobile softswitch using blade technology. The MSC Blade Cluster provides the ultra-high capacity mobile core networks need to meet the demand for mobile broadband, and for growing voice traffic.

“This technology is easily scalable and delivers robustness and higher capacity efficiently and with improved environmental impact,” Furustam says.