WHITE PAPER
Moving toward third-generation (3G) mobile network standards and satisfying increasing market demands, mobile operators are faced with expanding their networks to offer more and diverse voice, data, and video services. Many are increasingly turning to Internet Protocol/Multiprotocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS), which combines the intelligence of network routing with the performance of switching and provides significant benefits for delivering carrier-class multimedia services. IP/MPLS can be used by mobile operators as a common backbone for gradually replacing their traditional ATM, Frame Relay, and time-division multiplexing (TDM) networks.
IP/MPLS delivers superb quality-of-service (QoS) capabilities and greater scalability for both existing and future services, from General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) data to unified messaging, Short Message Service (SMS) offloading, 2G tandem bypass, voice over IP (VoIP), voice over ATM (VoATM), multicast, VPNs, and the move to many other Third-Generation Partnership Program (3GPP)-enabled applications (as specified in Releases 99, 4, and 5). At the same time, IP/MPLS and the network convergence it enables can bring significant reductions in capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx) in addition to top-line revenue growth caused by the faster introduction of new mobile services. However, to make the move to IP/MPLS, mobile operators must feel comfortable that this proven technology is reliable and effective in further enhancing the bandwidth availability, QoS, uptime, security, and resilience they already depend on in their existing networks. Cisco Systems®, a pioneer of IP/MPLS, provides important traffic engineering and QoS technologies to support mobile network migration to IP/MPLS backbones, drawing on its extensive experience assisting wireline service providers around the world with this transition.
This paper describes the IP/MPLS traffic engineering and QoS capabilities in Cisco IOS® Software and their use in supporting high-availability voice, data, and video mobile services over a common IP/MPLS backbone built on Cisco® products and solutions.
SUMMARY
IP/MPLS is becoming a mainstream technology in many network backbones because of its many efficiencies and cost savings. A growing number of mobile operators are adopting IP/MPLS as a technology that will allow them to cap investment in ATM and other Layer 2 infrastructure elements while quickly and flexibly deploying and supporting 2.5G and 3G services. This move to IP/MPLS includes mobile operators using standards based on the two main mobile technology roadmaps: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), running data applications using Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GPRS, and wireless LANs and moving to the all-IP network via the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) architecture; and CDMA technologies, where data services are enabled using solutions such as CDMA2000, 1 x Radio Transmission Technology (1xRTT), Evolution Data Optimized Overlay (EV-DO), and WLANs.
Other mobile operators using different technologies, such as Fast Low-Latency Access with Seamless Handoff-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (FLASH-OFDM) and iBurst, are also considering IP/MPLS for more efficient transport of voice, data, and video. IP/MPLS provides a common network backbone to encapsulate and transport mobile traffic. This reduces CapEx and OpEx.
Multiservice IP networking products and solutions for mobile networks from Cisco are helping to transform the design, profitability, and cost-effectiveness of evolving mobile GSM and CDMA networks around the world. Cisco, a pioneer of IP/MPLS, provides important traffic engineering and QoS technologies so mobile operators can deploy IP/MPLS backbones-as thousands of service providers around the world have done-with confidence and operational integrity.
Mobile operators are at different stages of migrating to 3G/4G mobile network services, architectures, and applications. Standards bodies such as 3GPP are recommending IP for mobile network traffic. The development of 4G standards is moving toward IP-addressable mobile devices.
Until now, mobile operators have been deploying mobile services for voice, data, and multimedia in disparate parts of their existing networks. Many are now actively engaged in researching or deploying both existing and new mobile services based on an IP/MPLS backbone. With its global leadership in IP/MPLS and its broad networking experience, products, and solutions, Cisco is helping mobile operators take advantage of the many compelling benefits of a migration to a converged wireless network backbone based on IP/MPLS.
Cisco IP/MPLS products and solutions-proven successful through deployments by most wireline service providers worldwide-provide mobile operators the end-to-end traffic engineering, QoS, security, scalability, resiliency, and management enhancements for deploying data-, voice-, and video-based mobile services. These carrier-class, industry-leading features run on the broad Cisco line of powerful hardware, ranging from the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System, the world's most powerful router; to Cisco 12000 Series edge routers, which can scale from digital signal level 0 (DS0) on channelized interfaces up to multiple ST-64 or 10 Gigabit Ethernet; to Cisco 7600 Series routers, the best-performing provider edge and enterprise metropolitan-area network (MAN) and WAN routers.
Mobile operators can generate new revenue streams from emerging IP services. They can also reduce complexity and lower OpEx and CapEx through the consolidation and migration of their existing ATM, TDM, and Frame Relay networks and business processes to a converged IP/MPLS backbone with VPN technologies at Layer 2 and Layer 3. Cisco IP/MPLS can also run over MPLS-enabled ATM switches, which helps protect investments as mobile operators transition from ATM to IP.
Cisco has broad expertise helping mobile operators understand the business transformation necessary to move to next-generation mobile networks. A phased approach to IP service development, called Cisco IP Factory, is also available, to give mobile providers a service component methodology for network convergence and transformation.
Maintaining high-service availability is among the top concerns of mobile operators as new services are added and as the benefits of network convergence are evaluated. Cisco IP/MPLS Traffic Engineering Management and QoS technologies in Cisco IOS Software, along with carrier-class management in the Cisco IP Solution Center (Cisco ISC), allow mobile providers to operate their old networks side by side with new ones with the same features they have come to expect, plus other capabilities inherent in IP/MPLS.
With a Cisco IP/MPLS backbone, mobile operators can rely on traffic engineering, QoS, and management features to provide these benefits:
Enhanced applications
• Support voice, data, and video traffic types
• Apply various QoS attributes
Optimization
• Optimize the routing of multiple classes and types of traffic
• Optimize the use of available network bandwidth by using alternate paths to move traffic efficiently
• Manage hard bandwidth classes and delay constraints to support strong service levels
End-to-end quality of service
• Enable rapid recovery from disruptions to help ensure fault transparency to users and network applications
• Effectively manage delay and delay variation, bandwidth, and packet loss parameters
• Create greater network resilience to withstand link or node failures
Improved network performance
• More efficiently use transmission capacity
• Monitor service-level agreements (SLAs) with end-to-end service assurance agents
• Monitor overall network performance
• Maintain high network availability
Cisco IP/MPLS Traffic Engineering brings to an IP/MPLS backbone the same traffic engineering capabilities as traditional Layer 2 ATM and Frame Relay networks that mobile operators are familiar with, plus much more. The Cisco traffic engineering solution, together with QoS features in Cisco IOS Software, give mobile operators a suite of comprehensive, carrier-class network tools to manage end-to-end mobile voice, data, and video services in response to escalating customer demands.
CHALLENGE
Today's mobile service marketplace is extremely competitive. Consolidation and declining subscription rates for mobile voice services have forced mobile operators to differentiate themselves by offering more new services while keeping costs down. The move to 3G architectures includes an array of new types of services with very different characteristics and requirements. Voice has low-latency requirements, video can run with higher acceptable latency, and data services typically have no tolerance requirements for latency. However, voice transmissions can tolerate low bandwidth, but data and video transmissions cannot.
Managing and operating all of these different kinds of services on disparate Layer 2 networks have proven expensive and inefficient. Yet converging to a packet-based network, as recommended by Cisco and all major mobile standards groups, requires careful management of traffic and bandwidth. Mobile operators must adhere to SLAs with increasingly more stringent QoS requirements demanded by customers. WAN bandwidth is expensive, and the common backbone network has to be shared among diverse applications with diverse needs. Also, the network must be able to scale and to run with high reliability and availability.
Cisco engineers, consultants, field sales representatives, account teams, and channel partners understand and can help mobile operators with the business transformation requirements inherent in the move to next-generation mobile networks. Having separate engineering and operating processes for existing network architectures can delay getting new services on the market. Once deployed in a traditional environment, these new services can be extremely difficult to support and time-consuming to troubleshoot. A converged Cisco IP/MPLS infrastructure provides a natural point of modularity and standardization, letting mobile operators save time by reducing complexity, redundancy, and overhead costs. Within this converged, simplified infrastructure, Cisco technologies for traffic engineering and QoS provide mobile operators a proven, dependable environment for ATM, Frame Relay, and TDM traditional network convergence and the rapid deployment of the newest mobile services.
SOLUTION
Certain service-enhancing features provide major benefits to the efficient operation of mobile IP/MPLS networks. The Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering feature helps mobile operators optimize the use of available network bandwidth by using alternate paths to move traffic efficiently. MPLS traffic engineering also protects the network during a failure with Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering Fast Reroute (FRR) used to redirect traffic from primary tunnels to backup tunnels. Guaranteed bandwidth can be achieved through a combination of these two features. Cisco DiffServ-Aware Traffic Engineering not only allows the configuration of a global pool for bandwidth accounting but also provides a restrictive subpool configuration for high-priority traffic types, such as voice.
Cisco MPLS FRR is another technology that contributes to guaranteed bandwidth. It allows extremely quick recovery if a node or link fails. Such fast recovery prevents end-user applications from timing out and also prevents loss of data. Cisco MPLS FRR can locally patch traffic onto a backup tunnel in case of a link or node failure with a failover time of 50 milliseconds, which is competitive with SONET and SDH. The Cisco IP/MPLS class-of-service (CoS) capability helps ensure that delay-sensitive and important traffic is given the appropriate priority over the network and that latency requirements are met. The Cisco IOS Software Family provides a rich set of QoS features that work together with Differentiated Services (DiffServ) traffic engineering to provide a point-to-point QoS guarantee for each service class. It provides preferential treatment for certain types of traffic based on specific attributes and helps ensure that all applications can coexist and function at acceptable levels of performance.
Traffic engineering, QoS, and network monitoring solutions from Cisco have been successfully applied to mobile backbone networks. They are essential for IP/MPLS backbones because they greatly enhance the delivery of end-to-end mobile services with bandwidth protection, provide resilience during a link or node failure, and give devices the QoS intelligence to handle traffic based on each subscriber's network policy within defined classes of service.
IP/MPLS OVERVIEW
MPLS complements IP technology. It is designed to take advantage of the intelligence associated with IP routing and the switching paradigm associated with ATM. First developed by Cisco as tag switching in the 1990s, MPLS is now an international industry standard that combines elements of both connection- and connectionless-oriented networking by integrating information about service characteristics (such as bandwidth, latency, and utilization) with the flexibility and ease of management of IP routing.
MPLS labels are superimposed on IP packets at the edge of the MPLS network and removed at the destination edge or penultimate hop. MPLS labels are added between the Layer 2 and the Layer 3 header (in a packet environment) or in the virtual path identifier/virtual channel identifier (VPI/VCI) field (in ATM networks). Among other things, the labels applied assign packets to groups of Forwarding Equivalence Classes (FECs). Packets belonging to the same FEC get similar treatment, providing QoS for varied traffic types. MPLS imposes a connection-oriented framework upon a connectionless IP network, providing the necessary foundation for reliable QoS and bandwidth utilization as found within an ATM network, but without the equipment expense and processing overhead. An MPLS label summarizes all the information about how to direct a packet, including:
• Destination
• Precedence
• VPN membership
• QoS information from Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP)
• The route for the packet as specified by traffic engineering
MPLS uses labels to forward traffic across the MPLS-enabled backbone. When packets enter the MPLS domain, labels are imposed on the packets, and the label (instead of the IP header) determines the next hop. Labels are removed at the egress of the MPLS domain. When a labeled packet arrives at a label switch router (LSR), the incoming label determines the path of this packet within the MPLS network. MPLS label forwarding then swaps this label to the appropriate outgoing label and sends packets to the next hop. The MPLS backbone can be configured to accept Layer 2 virtual LAN (VLAN) traffic by configuring the label edge routers (LERs) at both ends of the MPLS backbone.
These labels are assigned to packets based on grouping or forwarding classes. This MPLS lookup and forwarding system allows for explicit control of routing, based on destination and source address, allowing easier introduction of new IP services. Thus, MPLS is rapidly emerging as a core technology for next-generation networks. Implementation of MPLS allows for the consolidation of multiple disparate networks into one and provides a means for multiple Layer 2 technologies to be used simultaneously, providing a tremendous cost saving. Many mobile operators are finding real benefit in designing a packet core network based on MPLS.
CISCO MPLS TRAFFIC ENGINEERING
Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering is an extension to MPLS in Cisco IOS Software that is used to select the most desirable paths across an MPLS network, based on bandwidth and administrative rules. Every LSR in an IP/MPLS backbone network maintains a traffic engineering link-state database with the current network topology. Changes to the link-state database are distributed through flooding, in which a router forwards packets to all of the devices to which it is attached. This flooding technique is used by Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) Protocol to distribute and synchronize the link state database between routers in the network backbone.
The goal of Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering is to compute the most desirable path from one given node to another so that the path does not violate any other constraints such as available bandwidth and latency. Once the path is computed, traffic engineering is responsible for establishing and maintaining forwarding state along the path. The end-to-end MPLS path is known as a label switched path (LSP). The LSP originates at the MPLS ingress router and terminates at the MPLS egress router across the network backbone.
The most effective way to provide greater optimization of network resource utilization is with Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering because the existing Interior Gateway Protocols (IGPs) only support routing decisions based on shortest-path algorithms but do not take into account bandwidth availability or traffic characteristics. Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering, on the other hand, creates a virtual topology constructed from virtual links that appear as physical links to the routing protocol and provide constraint-based routing, traffic shaping and traffic policing features, and failover.
Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering determines the routes for traffic flows across a network based on the resources required by the traffic and availability in the network. A constraint-based routing feature establishes the shortest path for a traffic flow that meets the resource requirements. Recovery from link or node failures is possible because the network adapts to new constraints. Using the routing and signaling capabilities of LSPs across a backbone, Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering accounts for link bandwidth and for the size of traffic flows when determining routes for LSPs across the backbone.
CISCO ISC TRAFFIC ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT
Cisco ISC Traffic Engineering Management (Cisco ISC TEM), a carrier-class management solution that can be fully integrated into Cisco IOS Software, is an important component in Cisco ISC (Figure 1). Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering management features provide mobile operators an IP/MPLS backbone to replicate and greatly expand upon the traffic engineering capabilities that they are familiar with in their existing Layer 2 ATM networks.
As a Layer 2 and Layer 3 technology, IP/MPLS makes possible much broader traffic engineering capabilities, providing a solution to help ensure not just the optimal bandwidth and delay characteristics of the network but also to concurrently address connectivity and bandwidth protection in failure scenarios. In addition, it makes possible major improvements to network utilization by providing a mechanism for avoiding congestion in one portion of the network and underutilization in another.
Cisco ISC TEM evaluates the bandwidth reservations on links in a network and optimizes the routing of tunnels to make the best use of the available bandwidth. It also supports a range of operational requirements in IP/MPLS network backbones related to traffic routes. Cisco ISC TEM acts automatically to spread traffic loads around the links of a network as evenly as possible to prevent overloads while still maintaining any constraint boundaries that might be placed on each traffic type.
Figure 1
Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management
Route Server Software from the Cisco acquisition of Parc Technology in 2004 further augments traffic engineering capabilities in Cisco ISC TEM to help optimize primary and backup Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering tunnel placement. The Route Server Software is based on a hybrid traffic engineering optimization algorithm from a combination of technology from Cisco and Parc.
MPLS GUARANTEED BANDWIDTH SERVICES
There are three components of Cisco guaranteed bandwidth services: Cisco DiffServ-Aware Traffic Engineering, AutoBandwidth Allocator, and MPLS FRR.
Cisco DiffServ-Aware Traffic Engineering extends MPLS traffic engineering to enable constraint-based routing of guaranteed traffic versus regular traffic. The more restrictive bandwidth is termed a subpool, and the regular traffic engineering tunnel bandwidth is called the global pool. Figure 2 shows the separation of high- and low-priority traffic. The ability to specify a more restrictive bandwidth constraint for high-priority traffic translates into the ability to achieve higher QoS performance (in terms of delay, jitter, or loss) for the high-priority, guaranteed traffic.
Figure 2
Cisco DiffServ-Aware Traffic Engineering
AutoBandwidth Allocator is a Cisco IOS Software feature that adjusts and manages bandwidth. It automatically increases the amount of bandwidth for a Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering tunnel based on measured traffic loads. Tunnels are resized at default time intervals for extra-efficient network utilization.
MPLS FRR can reroute traffic within milliseconds in the event of network failure, which translates into higher network availability and performance (Figure 3). Cisco IP/MPLS FRR helps ensures that traffic reaches its destination despite link or node failure at the MPLS network core. When a router in the label-switching path is aware of link or node problems at the next-hop destination, the router stacks additional labels onto MPLS packets to reroute the traffic around the problem area. If the problem is in the data link, the router provides line protection by redirecting the traffic to the original next-hop destination through a different path. If there is a fault at the next hop, the router provides node protection by bypassing that hop and routing the traffic to the next hop in the original path. In either case, when the MPLS traffic returns to the node on the original path, the FRR label is popped, and the original MPLS label is restored. Besides rerouting the traffic, the router informs the ingress provider edge router of problems in the path so that future traffic originating at the ingress provider edge router will use a different tunnel. The router also informs the ingress provider edge router when an offending link or node is repaired so that the original MPLS tunnel can be assigned again to new traffic. In Shared Risk Link Groups (SRLGs), in which links in a network share a common fiber or a common physical attribute, if one link fails, other links in the group may fail, too. Links in the group have a shared risk. But with MPLS FRR, the problem is averted because the SRLG feature enhances the backup tunnel path selection so that a backup tunnel avoids using links that are in the same SRLG as the interfaces that the backup tunnel is protecting.
Figure 3
MPLS FRR and Cisco IOS ISC Provide Link, Node, and Bandwidth Protection
The Cisco FRR feature also supports the use of RSVP hellos to accelerate the detection of node failures. Backup tunnels that bypass next-hop nodes along LSP paths also provide protection from link failures because they bypass the failed link as well as the node. RSVP hello enables RSVP nodes to detect when a neighboring node is not reachable. This provides node-to-node failure detection. When such a failure is detected, it is handled in a similar manner as a link-layer communication failure.
RSVP hello can be used by FRR when notification of link-layer failures is not available (for example, with Ethernet), or when the failure-detection mechanisms provided by the link layer are not sufficient for the timely detection of node failures.
IP/MPLS QOS
QoS in IP/MPLS provides the backbone network with the intelligence necessary to handle different types of traffic based on network policies and to control bandwidth, delay, jitter, and packet loss. Cisco provides a broad range of tools that are used to enable QoS (Figure 4) and that are applied both locally to a network device and continuously across the backbone network, including:
• Classification and marking
• Congestion avoidance
• Congestion management
• Traffic conditioning
• Signaling and link-efficiency mechanisms
• QoS management
Figure 4
QoS for Converged Networks
CLASSIFICATION AND MARKING
The Cisco packet classification and marking features allow traffic to be partitioned into multiple classes of service (CoS). Packets can be classified in a variety of ways, ranging from input interface, to Network-Based Application Recognition (NBAR) for overcoming difficulties when classifying applications, to provider-managed access-control lists.
CONGESTION AVOIDANCE
The Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED) algorithm enables congestion-avoidance on network interfaces by providing buffer management and allowing TCP traffic to throttle back before buffers are exhausted. This works to avoid dropping the last packet in a stream wasting the resources spent on the first part of the stream that would have to be retransmitted and assist with global synchronization to maximize network utilization and TCP-based application performance.
CONGESTION MANAGEMENT
At times, network interfaces can become congested. Even at high speeds, transient congestion is not uncommon in a backbone network. Queuing techniques are necessary to ensure that the most critical applications get the prioritized forwarding treatment necessary. For example, real-time and delay-sensitive mobile applications such as voice may require forwarding with the least latency and jitter possible. Cisco Low-Latency Queuing (LLQ) provides for such a solution. For traffic not sensitive to delay, other queuing techniques such as Class-Based Weighted Fair Queuing (CBWFQ) and Modified Deficit Round Robin (MDRR) may be used. The queuing techniques can be instantiated using the policy framework of the Cisco Modular QoS command-line interface (MQC).
TRAFFIC CONDITIONING
Traffic entering a network can be conditioned by using a policer or shaper. A policer simply enforces a traffic flow rate limit and a shaper smoothes the traffic flow to a specified rate by using buffers.
SIGNALING
In addition to supporting provisioned QoS, such as the IETF DiffServ model, Cisco IOS Software also provides for the Integrated Services (IntServ) model, in which resources are actually reserved ahead of time along the entire path of a "flow." RSVP is the primary mechanism to perform admission control for flows in a network. A perfect example application is VoIP, in which a call may be completed only if the resources are available for it, ensuring that a call coming into a network does not bump or affect the quality of existing calls.
LINK-EFFICIENCY MECHANISMS
Streaming video and voice traffic use Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP), in which the packet headers can be compressed from about 40 bytes down to 5 to 8 bytes. This compression saves a tremendous amount of bandwidth in the case of low-speed links and when supporting a large number of media streams. Additionally, Frame Relay Fragmentation Implementation Agreement FRF.12 and the unique Cisco link fragmentation and interleaving (LFI) feature allows for fragmenting large data packets, interleaving them with RTP packets, and maintaining low delay and jitter for media streams to gain greater link efficiency.
QoS MANAGEMENT
Cisco QoS management refers to the monitoring and learning functions that are designed to best understand current network behavior and how to optimize as well as configure, provision, and monitor networks. Examples of Cisco QoS management tools and third-party tools that can be used to manage QoS in an MPLS-enabled network are the Cisco IP SLAs and class-based QoS. Additionally, MIBs provide a hierarchical data structure in a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) system that describes the "objects" that a device can monitor and control.
CISCO NETFLOW AND CISCO IP SLA
The Cisco NetFlow accounting feature provides highly granular traffic statistics for Cisco router-based networks on a per-flow basis. flow" is a unidirectional set of packets that arrive at a router on the same subinterface and have the following additional variables in common: source and destination IP addresses, Layer 4 protocol, TCP/User Datagram Protocol (UDP) source and destination ports, and IP type of service (ToS) byte.
Cisco MPLS-Aware NetFlow captures MPLS traffic that contains IP and non-IP packets. Mobile network operators can activate MPLS-Aware NetFlow inside the MPLS backbone network on a subset of backbone routers. These routers export Cisco MPLS-Aware NetFlow data to an external NetFlow collector for further processing and analysis. This mechanism provides a way to get accounting and capacity-planning data by using an MPLS label. For example, network operators can discover which points of presence (POPs) are forwarding traffic and measure traffic volumes forwarded by each POP.
Cisco IOS IP SLA is a capability embedded within nearly all Cisco devices that run Cisco IOS Software. It allows mobile operators to proactively monitor network performance and availability, which can greatly minimize the frequency of network outages. Using SLA software agents embedded in Cisco routers and switches, Cisco IP SLA conducts "active" performance measurements by generating sample traffic that is sent across the network to measure performance between multiple network locations or across multiple network paths. The sample traffic generated by Cisco IP SLA simulates voice, data, and other mobile services, and network
performance information is collected in real time. Collected information includes response time, one-way latency, jitter, packet loss, voice-quality scoring, and server response time. Cisco IP SLA can monitor performance for different classes of traffic over the same connection. Different types of performance measurements are then gathered and made available through various third-party tools or on the Cisco command-line interface (CLI).
Cisco IP SLA can perform network assessments, verify SLAs, and assist mobile operators with network troubleshooting. Its service-level assurance measurements and methodology provide highly accurate, carrier-class, precise service measurements.
CONCLUSION
As the market evolves and competition increases, mobile operators striving to offer greater differentiated services need networks with more stringent QoS guarantees and technologies that can add higher network resilience and bandwidth availability. Greater scrutiny of end-to-end performance, better use of network resources, and adherence to SLAs for mission-critical customer applications mean that mobile network backbones must support end-to-end QoS with enhanced bandwidth management and forwarding mechanisms and that the networks must be extremely resilient in the event of link or node failures. Cisco IP/MPLS Traffic Engineering and QoS provide mobile operators a proven and manageable environment for ATM, Frame Relay, and TDM traditional network convergence and deployment of new mobile services that can dramatically increase differentiation and lower CapEx and OpEx. Research among existing Cisco customers has shown that mobile operators can reduce network operating costs alone by as much as 25 percent after converging disparate networks into a common IP/MPLS backbone.
Cisco leadership and experience in IP/MPLS traffic engineering and QoS translate into a feature-rich implementation running on a set of robust and proven multiservice Cisco switching and routing platforms, all running Cisco IOS Software. Worldwide partners, 24-hour global technical support, and a clear vision of network, service, and application convergence over IP/MPLS technologies make Cisco the internetworking provider of choice for mobile networks transitioning to 3G technology.
Multiservice mobile IP networking products and solutions from Cisco are helping to transform the design, profitability, and cost-effectiveness of mobile networks around the world as operators migrate to 3G and 4G technology and converge new mobile services and applications. Cisco IP/MPLS-based architecture, proven successful through actual deployments by most wireline service providers, has the end-to-end QoS, security, scalability, resiliency, and management enhancements for mobile operators to deploy more value-added voice, data, and video services. Standards bodies such as 3GPP are recommending IP for mobile network traffic. 4G standards development is moving toward IP-addressable mobile devices. Cisco is working with mobile operators to take advantage of a compelling first phase in the migration to IP: the converged wireless network backbone based on IP/MPLS.
Mobile operators can generate additional revenue streams from emerging mobile services and efficiencies. They can also lower OpEx and CapEx through the consolidation and migration of their existing ATM, TDM, and Frame Relay networks to a converged IP/MPLS backbone and VPN technologies at Layer 2 and Layer 3. Cisco IP/MPLS can also run over MPLS-enabled ATM switches, which helps protect investments as mobile operators transition from ATM to IP.
The Cisco next-generation mobility framework for mobile operators, based on a Cisco IP/MPLS network backbone, includes six technology pillars (Figure 5):
Figure 5
The Six Pillars of the Cisco Next-Generation Mobility Framework for Mobile Operators
The six pillars of the Cisco next-generation mobility framework for mobile operators include:
• Cisco IP/MPLS backbone-a common transport and integrated management platform for the convergence of packetized voice, data, and video services over existing ATM, TDM, and Frame Relay networks
• Cisco Mobile Exchange-the intelligent mobile Internet edge solution set that links the Radio Access Network (RAN) to IP networks and their value-added services; it also simplifies and enhances service delivery independent of underlying access technologies with functions supporting service selection and control, flexible billing models, security, Mobile IP, and load balancing
• Cisco IP RAN optimization technology-which takes IP all the way to the cellular site and interoperates with leading wireless vendors, can dramatically lower backhaul costs, improve cell site maintenance, and enable operators to more easily add 3G radios to a cell site
• The Cisco IP Transfer Point (ITP) platform-which increases Signaling System 7 (SS7) efficiency and lowers circuit costs by moving signaling traffic to IP, can help mobile operators dramatically decrease the costs of services such as SMS, mobile number portability, custom ring-tone downloads, and other resource-intensive new applications
• Cisco Mobile Voice solutions include high-capacity, carrier-class voice gateways that offer standards-based support for VoIP and voice over ATM (VoATM) services and wireless trunking that replaces traditional TDM trunking with aggregated VoIP transport between mobile switching centers
• Cisco public/private wireless LAN solutions offer access points, access zone routers, and Cisco Mobile Exchange for service selection, content billing, and other features for consumer, enterprise, and service provider markets
BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION FOR MOBILE OPERATORS
IP is the foundation and base technology for the next-generation communications architecture. IP/MPLS is one step in the move to 3G/4G network services where IP is of increasing importance. To help mobile operators manage the complexity of their existing array of networks and applications while introducing next-generation services cost-effectively, the Cisco IP Factory was created. The Cisco IP Factory, which is available through the Cisco Customer Advocacy Organization, helps mobile operators capture and simplify existing processes and technologies, creating modular service components. Successful application of this model can yield up to 25 percent in operational cost savings per year for mobile network operators.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information about Cisco ISC Traffic Engineering: http://www.cisco.com/go/mplshttp://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/netmgtsw/ps4748/index.html.
For more information about Cisco IP/MPLS QoS: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk436/tk428/technologies_white_paper09186a00800a4455.shtml.
