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The demand for superior service – How to meet the expectations of the Internet Generation
By Pat Dolan, VP and General Manager of EMEA, Tellabs
The Internet generation can rightly be considered as the first generation of truly “mobile” consumers. They expect services to be instant, reliable, and accessible. A world of seamless communications has been sold to them, even built for them - and they expect it to work. No excuses. Their lifestyle dictates the big ticket wireless applications such as multimedia messaging, Web browsing, blogging, full-motion video and content downloading, interactive gaming and mobile TV. Their parents had the telephone.They have the telly phone. And that’s just the leisure side. They work wirelessly, always connected, communicating via mobile email, swapping files, collaborating on-line. They are the bandwidth-hungry generation.
This is good news for the mobile operators, who at last are seeing a market that will exploit the potential promised by 3G and is likely to be delivered by HSPA. Operators now need to compete for the business of the high bandwidth mobile data users, on price, on quality and on service differentiation. Above all, the most impressive aspect of this demographic development is the fact that high-speed mobile data subscriber connections are expected to triple over the next five years.
This growth projection poses a risk. The expectations of this new generation of subscribers are pressuring wireless service providers to introduce new services. The combination of new services and an increasingly large customer base that knows how to use them will cause a network capacity crunch. This potential bottleneck must be addressed to ensure that consumer expectations are met – but not at any cost.
Unless operators find cost-effective, network solutions for the transport of these 3G services, the anticipated growth in revenue from the high-speed data market may be outpaced by the operational and capital costs required to provide sufficient network capacity. Because backhaul costs are typically between 30-70% of operational expenses, network costs could easily escalate faster than revenues.
Operators are already migrating from second to third generation networks, and this necessitates technology change within the network infrastructure itself, both in the Radio Access Network (RAN) and in the mobile core.
When implementing a 3G migration, service providers have several objectives for RAN transport networks. First, create a rapid and cost-efficient roll out of 3G services. Second, invest once and then leverage this investment for all future technology steps and applications. Third, lower RAN costs by implementing low-cost Ethernet backhauling.
To meet these objectives, operators are grappling with multiple evolution paths to support traffic or capacity growth in wireless networks. They want the most cost-efficient way to deal with the first installations of 3G infrastructure, especially when building networks for coverage and testing new service ramp-ups. Often, use of existing transport infrastructure is the best solution.
Operators have an economic imperative to leverage their current RAN transport solutions as new services and networks must coexist with existing technologies. There is a strong case for maintaining existing infrastructure, even in an age of rapid migration to IP-based services. In fact, while IP/MPLS-based transport has emerged as a preferred option in dense urban areas, in rural areas where capacities are lower and there are fewer users per node it makes sense to use existing platforms.
New enhancements in SDH network technology make the reuse of existing platforms even more cost efficient. Additionally, Ethernet over SDH (EoSDH) enables the first implementations of Ethernet connectivity in mobile RAN. When traffic demand grows and data services begin to dominate, operators cannot rely purely on SDH. They will need a new platform that fulfills the requirements of data-centric traffic mix in the RAN.
In early UMTS networks, ATM – the Layer 2 technology most appropriate for 3G transport when the 3G specification was created – is being deployed for 3G services, and providers are transporting both voice and data with ATM. Unfortunately, ATM is inefficient for IP transport. ATM switches, unlike devices based on new technologies, are not designed to handle IP natively. Furthermore, ATM is not future-proof as the mobile industry moves toward more IP-centric architectures, and it does not provide optimal support for Metro Ethernet backhauling options. Finally, ATM is not particularly suitable for additional services such as WLAN and WiMAX or support of fixed mobile convergence.
Given the shortcomings of TDM and ATM in data-centric 3G networks, there is an increased interest in, and deployment of, Ethernet in the RAN. Ethernet is a lower-cost solution, with cheaper interfaces and cheaper operational expense, to help drive down total RAN costs for the service provider. The drawback of pure Ethernet networks is the lack of service-quality mechanisms for voice and critical data traffic.
MPLS, with its inherent flexibility, is a good choice to accommodate all 3G and beyond requirements on a single platform. An IP/MPLS-based implementation enables the network to be IP-aware and still support 2G and 3G technology requirements, TDM, FR, ATM, Ethernet and IP on the same network, as well as support future evolution. Ethernet connectivity together with IP/MPLS can offer low cost Ethernet connectivity with strict Quality of Service (QoS). An IP/MPLS platform offers the possibility of Ethernet backhauling and use of all existing transport networks in a cost-efficient manner. It can work as an aggregation platform for additional services such as WLAN and WiMAX. It also offers a flexible path toward convergence with established IP/MPLS-based fixed networks. IP/MPLS is the clear choice for 3G RAN and beyond.
As the RAN evolves toward packet-based networks, the mobile core network also is going through a similar evolution.
ATM in the mobile core has the same issues as in the RAN when transporting high-bandwidth data. It is burdened with a “cell tax” and data overhead on the network. And with ATM, the core is not IP- aware, so service providers would have to maintain two topologies, one for IP and one for ATM. This increases the operational and management complexity of the network.
Here again, IP/MPLS is becoming the choice network for the core. Using this technology, one network can carry multiple services: TDM, FR, ATM, Ethernet and IP—all with a single management system. MPLS was designed with multi-service capabilities in mind and it is natively able to transport different services.
As operators manage the migration from a TDM infrastructure to a packet infrastructure they seek simplified network management. They are looking to collapse multiple networks into a single multi-service network. This convergence enables them to consolidate network management from end to end into a single control-plane layer that reduces their expense and simplifies operations. As the growing networks change continuously, network management technologies must offer connection-level tools over multiple technologies to handle these changes in a cost-efficient manner. The evolution needs to result in an IP/Ethernet-driven network with an MPLS control plane that guarantees QoS across the network, supporting multiple services including voice, data and more advanced applications based on IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).
Driven by the needs and expectations of the always-connected mobile data generation, the migration from 2G to 3G wireless technologies is in full swing. The most advanced 3G applications will drive more bandwidth to the mobile phone and the transport network must be able to accommodate this traffic growth.
The process is causing a fundamental change in the transport network required to support these high-bandwidth services and it is affecting the network from end to end, from cell site right through to the switching core. This change requires a true multi-service architecture that can support voice and premium data services. The change from 2G to 3G is a migration – and that means moving from one place to another. Maximising existing investment is important, but it is not advisable to assume that network elements designed for 2G can cope with 3G service delivery.
Operators are considering the cost-efficiencies of 2G to 3G migration. It can be achieved without massive infrastructure investments – especially when there is no guarantee of revenue for the ROI calculations. Informed decisions, taken as early as possible, will ensure that investment is cost-effective and delivers the quality that the targeted market expects.
Specific solutions are required and to address market needs in 2007 Tellabs launched the Tellabs® 8605 Access Switch. As a compact 1U cell site aggregator it supports a combined 2G and 3G backhauling. Designed for the access and cell site where space is limited, it can offer cost effective migration from E-1 and T-1/TDM networks to Ethernet based packet networks. The resulting lower cost per bandwidth can only be good news, as operators consider the cost-efficiencies of 2G to 3G migration.
The new product complements Tellabs’ end-to-end managed Tellabs® IntegratedMobileSM solution, which also features the successful Tellabs® 8600 Managed Edge System, deployed for example in Telecom Italia and Vodafone Hungary Networks.
The desired result is that operators, and their networks, are ready for the next wave of applications, the demands of the new generation of mobile data users are comprehensively met; and the market is confident enough of the quality to pay for the service.
For more information, please visit http://www.tellabs.com/solutions/integratedmobile/
About Tellabs
Tellabs advances telecommunications networks to meet the evolving needs of users. Solutions from Tellabs enable service providers to deliver high-quality voice, video and data services over wireline and wireless networks around the world. Ranked among the BusinessWeek InfoTech 100, Tellabs (NASDAQ: TLAB) is part of the NASDAQ-100 Index, NASDAQ Global Select Market, Ocean Tomo 300™ Patent Index and the S&P 500. www.tellabs.com
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