Fast IP to the core

In an article published in the Industry Analysts Relations Newsletter, Melih Tufan, head of Product Line Packet Core at Ericsson, wrote that the experience of Australian mobile operator Telstra – which has seen mobile-broadband data grow at a yearly rate of 500 to 600 percent – is not unusual.
 
“Mobile operators are responding to, and feeding, this demand with rapid rollouts of mobile-broadband access technology, while the introduction of mobile broadband-capable devices seems to be a daily occurrence,” he wrote. Citing the GSM Mobile Suppliers’ Association report, Tufan noted that, as of April 2009, there were 259 commercial High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) networks in operation in 110 countries, with more than 1400 different HSPA-enabled devices already made available.
 
More importantly, LTE is no longer a ‘future’ technology, Tufan added, noting that commercial rollouts were set to begin this year. By mid-April 2009, there were 31 operators in Asia, Europe and North America committed to rolling out LTE.
 
Fixed broadband performance also continues to improve. VDSL2 technology will offer up to 100Mbps over copper connections while GPON and PTP optical technologies will deliver up to 2.5Gbps to homes and offices.
 
“This growth in both the popularity and capabilities of broadband is great news for consumers and for the range of multimedia services that operators will be able to offer,” Tufan wrote.
 
“Ensuring these services continue to meet consumers’ expectations for speed and quality, however, requires not just more capable radio access, but also higher-performance core networks than we have today.”
 
According to Tufan, this puts operators in a dilemma. “They have a huge installed base of infrastructure that has evolved to serve the needs of voice and, increasingly, high-speed data subscribers very well. New high-capacity IP infrastructure equipment is available but – as efficient and powerful as it is – operators cannot switch to a high-capacity, all-IP core network overnight,” he wrote.
 
“This is why Ericsson has adopted a ‘twin-track’ strategy for its Evolved Packet Core (EPC) solution to support operators’ LTE network rollouts efficiently.”
 
At the Mobile World Congress 2009, Ericsson announced that its new EPC product portfolio would help operators evolve packet core systems via software upgrades. By doing so, operators can cap their capital expenditure while ensuring a smooth transition to the new technology.
 
“EPC delivers a simplified common core network architecture that enables operators to meet the needs of a range of fixed and mobile access networks – both 3GPP and 3GPP2 mobile networks – very efficiently,” Tufan wrote.