Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
An Industry Whitepaper
Contents
Executive Summary ................................... 1
Introduction to Voice over LTE ..................... 2
The Benefits of VoLTE ............................. 2
Requirements of a VoLTE-Capable PCRF ....... 3
The Anatomy of a VoLTE Call .................... 4
The QoS Class Identifier ....................... 4
The Traffic Flow Template .................... 4
Default and Dedicated Bearers ............... 5
VoLTE Call Flow ................................. 6
Challenges and Opportunities ....................... 9
Signaling Considerations .......................... 9
Verifying Call Quality ............................. 10
Other Quality Considerations ................ 10
Preventing Fraud .................................. 10
Abusing the VoLTE Bearer .................... 10
Abusing a Video Bearer ....................... 11
Universal Policy Control.......................... 11
WiFi Offload..................................... 12
Life after VoLTE ................................... 12
LTE VoIP without IMS .......................... 13
Conclusions ............................................ 14
Related Resources ................................ 14
Executive Summary
The Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) is the key
element that enables the transition to and reliable operation of
VoLTE services. Heavy Reading reports that more than 70
percent of service providers believe they will need to upgrade or
replace their existing data PCRF to handle the rigors of VoLTE.
With voice services now sharing the pipe with other data services
like web browsing, video and social media, the ability to manage
the speed, quality, volume and diameter signaling associated
with VoLTE is critical to providing a differentiated experience.
Additionally, although the LTE network provides a framework for
signaling application QoS, CSPs need to verify the actual quality
experienced by subscribers who have purchased VoLTE services.
There is a significant difference between signaling priority and
verifying subscriber quality of experience (QoE).
There is also an opportunity for CSPs to consolidate their control
plane architecture with a PCRF element that can leverage the
LTE QoS architecture to enable such use cases such as non-IMS
voice services, gaming, universal fixed and mobile policy control,
and WiFi offload. A capable PCRF offers CSPs the opportunity to
save costs and deploy additional revenue-generating services
that capitalize on the new QoS control capabilities of the LTE
network.
This paper first presents a crash course in VoLTE, and then
explores the challenges and opportunities associated with this
emerging technology.
Version 2.0
ABI research
See this report.
3
The SRG study can be accessed here. Alcatel-Lucent summarizes the report findings here.
2
VoLTE call quality greatly exceeded that of 3G circuit-switched voice and was measurably higher
than the HD voice service offered by Skype 4
With network loading (i.e., lots of competing traffic), and in particular with background
applications running on the mobile phone and transferring data with the network, the VoLTE results
were considerably better than Skype
VoLTE call setup time was nearly twice as fast as 3G Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) call setup
VoLTE used substantially fewer network resources than Skype voice, which in turn resulted in
longer estimated device battery life for the subscriber and a more efficient network for CSPs
When leaving LTE coverage, VoLTE calls were successfully handed over to 3G circuit-switched
voice, ensuring calls continued without interruption
Ultimately, then, subscribers benefit from a high quality of experience and improved device battery
life, while operators enjoy greater delivery efficiency and happier subscribers.
Function
Voice Services
VoLTE Roaming
Regulatory, Standards,
and Device Requirements
Explanation of Features
Premium call quality with dedicated-bearer set up and teardown with dynamic
quality of service (QoS) that offers a competitive quality advantage over OTT voice
services
Differentiated VoLTE services: meter voice and data separately to create
differentiated service plans; enable flexible QoS to support regional, subscriber or
device-specific policies
HD Voice
Allow IMS emergency call priority and data plan override; high QoS by default when
invoked
Ensure access to reliable emergency call support; 3GPP standards for networkprovided subscriber location information (NPLI)
Global roaming coverage for VoLTE services with guaranteed QoS
Local breakout support: supplying policy rules and charging parameters to
outbound / inbound roamers with guaranteed VoLTE QoS
Identify subscriber location and apply appropriate QoS / charging parameters
Support for the always-on nature of the VoLTE dedicated bearer and increased
number of concurrent voice sessions
Handle the ten-fold increase in diameter signaling generated by VoLTE call flows
Manage increased performance requirements as more VoLTE services and devices
are on-boarded
Reduce signaling with policy decision point capability in the data plane
Circuit-switched fall back (CSFB) in case the LTE network is not available
Support Rx call flows in real time to ensure highest available media codec on a perdevice basis
3GPP standards-based solution; includes comprehensive 3GPP R7 through R12
support
Modify and customize VoLTE policy rules per device: reject improper calls, adjust
When considering quality, the absolute rock bottom minimum for an CSP-provided voice service is the quality delivered by
over-the-top alternatives
5
6
Figure 2: TFT mapping to PDP context on 3G (dedicated bearer analogous to secondary PDP context)
The TFT is where CSPs create definitions for how specific application traffic, including VoLTE, will be
treated based on pre-set policy conditions.
Ibid.
There are three main examples of how a VoLTE call can take place. First, there is the situation where a
caller calls a callee in another network, in which case both networks handle half the signaling required
to apply QoS. When a caller calls a callee within the same network, signaling for both sides of the call
is handled by a single network. The third example is where the network uses the circuit switched fall
back to establish the call.
The mobile subscriber indicates on their LTE-enabled smartphone the desire to make a VoIP call.
LTE identifies a PDN Gateway (P-GW) that offers a connection to the IMS network.
LTE establishes a Default bearer for SIP from the subscriber to the selected P-GW.
The default EPS bearer is established with a QoS Class Identifier (QCI) value of 5 (the QCI value required for
SIP signaling).
4.
The smartphone sends a SIP Invite message toward the IMS network. Contained in the SIP message is a
Session Description Protocol (SDP) that carries the QoS requirement.
Note that although SIP messages are carried through the LTE network, the LTE network is unaware of the
content of the message (nor the need for special QoS treatment at this stage).
5.
6.
The IMS network extracts the required QoS setting from the SIP message.
If a charging policy applies, then the IMS network sends an initial diameter Credit Control Request (CCR) to
the OCS over the Ro interface and an initial amount of credit is reserved anticipating the need to precisely
meter flow data during the call.
7. The QoS requirement is sent from the IMS network through the Rx interface (using the Diameter protocol) to
the PCRF.
8. The PCRF creates actionable charging and QoS rules and forwards these across the Gx interface to the Policy
and Charging Enforcement (PCEF) that lives with the P-GW in the LTE network.
9. The P-GW now sends a request to establish a separate dedicated bearer (with a QCI value of 1) to the
smartphone.
10. After the smartphone confirms that LTE can support the new dedicated bearer, it sends a SIP UPDATE
message to the IMS network.
11. The IMS network completes the setup process and establishes the call.
12. Bidirectional VoIP call packets flow inside the LTE network (to the P-GW) and smartphone.
Signaling Considerations
A key challenge specific to VoLTE is the over 10-fold increase of signaling load on the control plane and
PCRF element, which must specify QoS for every single voice call passing through the LTE network.
When one considers the addition of non-voice application services such as streaming video and online
gaming, the signaling load increases further.
A detailed report from Oracle shows that global LTE Diameter signaling traffic will grow at a 78 percent
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2013 to 2018, expanding from 12 million messages per
second (MPS) to nearly 216 million MPS. In the same report, Oracle predicts LTE Diameter signaling
traffic will increase at a 140 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), from 1.2 million messages
per second (MPS) in 2012 to nearly 99 million MPS by 2017.
As mentioned earlier, the majority of CSPs report that their legacy PCRF implementations are
inadequate. In most cases, the CSPs have assessed their systems either to be not compliant with the
latest 3GPP standards specifying VoLTE or simply incapable of handling the transaction rates required
to manage a VoLTE offering.
One way to significantly reduce signaling at the front end is with data plane decision-making: the PCRF
signals an overall service plan identifier to a data plane PCEF, which hosts TFTs that manage the actual
QoS required for thousands or even millions of VoLTE- and QCI-related flows per second.
Figure 6 Control and Data Plane PDP reduces signaling and service latency
Preventing Fraud
There is a real potential for fraud by users who know how to mimic the QCI framework; by doing so,
these users can potentially request a specific treatment of data unintended or authorized by the CSP.
Figure 7 demonstrates a possible scenario where the QCI-signaled dedicated VoLTE bearer and/or video
bearer are manipulated to bypass charging and override the CSPs intended quality for a specific data
type.
10
A VoLTE bearer will typically be zero-rated at the PGW via Gy, since charging is based on the Ro interface between the PCRF
and IMS network, and the VoLTE bearer it specifies GBR for the traffic.
11
WiFi Offload
The rapid growth of data-hungry smartphones and tablet computers has created the need for what we
today refer to as seamless WiFi offload. By offloading mobile network traffic onto a WiFi network, CSPs
can prevent or relieve congestion and free up valuable radio network resources.
To enable WiFi offload, mobile operators with WiFi networks have introduced SIM authentication (EAPSIM/AKA) to automatically log users onto the WiFi network when coverage is detected.
The universal policy control depicted in Figure 8 also simplifies WiFi offload use cases and ensures
uniform application of network-wide management and charging policies.
12
This is not supported by PCRF standards today, but can be supported through traditional DPI-based
network policy control if the PCEF can negotiate the required QoS.
13
Conclusions
With voice services now sharing the pipe with other data services like web browsing, video and social
media, the ability to manage the speed, quality, volume and diameter signaling associated with VoLTE
is critical to providing a differentiated experience.
In addition, although the LTE network provides a framework for signaling application QoS, CSPs need to
verify the actual quality experienced by subscribers who have purchased VoLTE services. There is a
significant difference between signaling priority and verifying subscriber quality of experience (QoE).
CSPs can use the necessity of upgrading to VoLTE-capable PCRFs as an opportunity to truly
revolutionize their policy control solutions. For instance, by investing in a universal policy controller
with close integration to an intelligent PCEF, CSPs can:
leverage the LTE QoS architecture to enable use cases including quality-protection for non-IMS
voice services, video, and gaming services
simplify policy control across all access technologies, by having a single system that can make
decisions and enforce policies across multiple standards
preserve radio resources by implementing seamless WiFi offload
Related Resources
In addition to the documents and resources cited throughout the footnotes, please consider reading
these other Sandvine papers.
For additional information about policy control and LTE, refer to the Sandvine whitepapers
Quality of Service in LTE and Network Policy Control and the Migration to LTE
Detailed information about Sandvines Service Delivery Engine acting as a universal PCRF to
enable VoLTE services, see the technology showcase VoLTE and the Service Delivery Engine
14
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