VoIP and Broadband Technologies

Southern Africa Development Community

Luanda, Angola , October 2005

NGN Concepts and Elements

Oscar González Soto

ITU Consultant Expert
Strategic Planning and Assessment
 NGN Concepts and Elements

• Motivation and concept

• NGN Architecture

• Network Elements

• Performance and Status

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 2

 Motivation
Premises
• Strategic Trends
– data traffic (bandwidth) will become 2 to 5 times higher than the voice
traffic.
– IP is becoming the universal transport protocol used by all services
• How PSTN should evolve ?
– as before, with its dedicated optimised technology (TDM) ?
– or move to packet IP networks, telephony being a service among
others ?
• Background reasons to evolve
– service merge and new services
– DSL and other broadband access penetration
– cost of ownership: unique instead of separated networks

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 3

 Motivation
Premises
• Packet technology for voice is emerging
– rapid evolution in its performance, features, and costs (CAPEX)
– addresses evolution to multimedia services

• However, Not yet in a large scale deployment

– focused applications (dialup offload, long distance bypass)
– many trials
– few strategic decisions of operators to move part of their PSTN network
to NGN
– gradual transition, just starting.

• General feeling / agreement that it will take time

– for technological reasons
– for economical reasons
October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 4
 Motivation
NGN concept

•A multi-service network able to support voice, data and video

•A network with a control plane (signaling, control) separated from

the transport/switching plane

•A network with open interfaces between transport, control and

applications

•A network using packet mode technology to transport of all kind

of information

•A network with guaranteed QoS for different traffic types and SLAs

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 5

 Motivation
Why

• Flexibility for service building and offering

• Expectation of cost reductions by sharing infrastructure and

systems

• Simplification of O&M, thus lowering OPEX.

• Use of open interfaces leads for:

- quick deployment of services and applications
- new services (third parties)

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 6

 NGN Concepts and Elements

• Motivation and concept

• NGN Architecture

• Network Elements

• Performance and Status

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 7

 Network Architecture towards NGN
Existing networks and architecture

NMC

SCP
• 5 different network types to handle
telecom services
IN
SS7 • TDM for fixed and mobile networks
Mob
working in circuit mode with end to
LEX/TEX
NAS
end reserved paths
Data
TDM ATM/IP • SS7 and IN network working with
LEX message switching mode
• Data network working with leased
PCM lines and packet mode with different
RSU MUX/DSLAM
and conventional IP protocols
POTS ISDN
HDSL/XDSL

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 8

 Network Architecture towards NGN
Existing networks and architecture

• Hierarchical topology with 4 to

TRANSIT NETWORK
5 layers, connectivity to the
NATIONAL LAYER upper next layer and within each
layer as a function of economical
REGIONAL LAYER
optimization
• Number of nodes as a function
of O/D traffic and nodes capacity
LEX
LAYER
• Service handling for media,
RU
signaling and control at all
LAYER
exchange nodes
•Carrier grade quality with well
customers defined QoS criteria and
LAYER
standardized engineering rules

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 9

 NGN Network Architecture
NGN Layers for all services

Legacy Network
Signaling/Service

Legacy Network Network

Media Independent
Services

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 10

 NGN Network Architecture
Target architecture

OSS Services

Control Softswitch

Transport/Media Distributed Switching

Trunk
Access
gateway
gateway
Packet Other
Network Networks
Access Access
gateway gateway

DSL

Wireless DLC
gateway

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 11

 NGN Architecture and
Network Elements

Intelligent Network
Appl. Servers Access Gateway

Softswitch
Media Gateway
N7 Signalling
Controller
H.248

H.248 H.248

PBX PSTN IP/XX Access Gateway

Network
Trunking H.248
Gateway

Access Gateway

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 12

 NGN Concepts and Elements

• Motivation and concept

• NGN Architecture

• Network Elements

• Performance and Status

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 13

 NGN Network Elements

• Packet networks
–Information is packetized in variable packet sizes with control headers to allow
appropriate routing and delivery
– trend is to use IP based networks over various transport possibilities (ATM,
SDH, WDM…)
– IP networks must offer guarantees of Quality of Service (QoS) regarding the
real time characteristics of voice
• IPv4
– Internet Protocol at network level that insert headers for each packet in order
to allow end to end packet flows: v4 is the first widely used version with 20 octet
header
• IPv6
– Internet Protocol at network level that insert headers for each packet in order
to allow end to end packet flows: v6 is the latest version with 40 octet header
and adding capabilities for current requirements in addressing and routing

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 14

 NGN Network Elements

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 15

 NGN Network Elements

• Access Gateways
– allows the connection of subscriber lines to the packet network
– converts the traffic flows of analogue access (Pots) or 2 Mb/s access
devices into packets
– provides subscriber access to NGN network and services

• Trunking Gateways
– allows interworking between classical TDM telephony network and
Packet-based NGN networks,
– converts TDM circuits/ trunks (64kbps) flows into data packets, and vice
versa

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 16

 NGN Network Elements

• Softswitch/MGC
– referred to as the Call Agent or Media Gateway Controller (MGC).
– provides the “service delivery control” within the network
– in charge of Call Control and handling of Media Gateways control (Access
and/or Trunking) via H.248 protocol
– performs signalling gateway functionality or uses a signalling gateway for
interworking with PSTN N7 signalling network
– provides connection to Intelligent Network /applications servers to offer the
same services as those available to TDM subscribers
• Application Server (AS):
– A unit that supports service execution, e.g. to control Call Servers and
NGN special resources (e.g. media server, message server).

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 17

 NGN Network Elements

• H.248 Protocol
– Known also as MEGACO: standard protocol, defined by ITU-T, for
signalling and session management needed during a communication
between a media gateway, and the media gateway controller managing
it
– H.248/MEGACO allows to set up, keep, and terminate calls between
multiple endpoints as between telephone subscribers using the TDM

• SIP
– Session Initiation Protocol in order to handle communication
signalling and negotiation like call establishment, maintenance and
termination from packet mode terminals. Has a distributed peer to peer
implementation

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 18

 NGN Network Elements

• Signaling Gateway (SG):

– A unit that provides signaling conversion between the NGN and the
other networks (e.g. STP in SS7).

• ENUM
– Electronic NUMbering: Protocol that allows to establish a
correspondence between the traditional telephone numbering (E.164 )
and the network addresses related to the packet mode networks ( RFC
2916 "E.164 number and DNS" IETF).

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 19

 NGN Network Elements

• MPLS
– Multiprotocol Label Switch or protocol that assigns labels to information
packets in order to allow the node routers to treat and route flows in the
network paths according to established priority for each category. Establishes
a tunnel for an end to end forwarding. A label is a short, fixed length, locally
significant identifier which is used to identify a "Forwarding Equivalence Class"
(FEC ) to which that packet is assigned."

• LSP
– Label-switched paths: An LSP is a specific path traffic path through an
MPLS network that using convenient protocols will establish a path through
an MPLS network and will reserve necessary resources to meet pre-defined
service requirements for the data path.

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 20

 NGN Network Elements

• OSPF
– Open Shortest Path First: A routing protocol that determines the best path
for routing IP traffic over a TCP/IP network based on distance between nodes
and several quality parameters. OSPF is an interior gateway protocol (IGP),
which is designed to work within an autonomous system

• BGP
– Border Gateway Protocol: performs inter-domain routing in TCP/IP
networks, handling routing between multiple autonomous domains. Routers
use BGP to maintain a consistent view of the internetwork topology

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 21

 NGN Concepts and Elements

• Motivation and concept

• NGN Architecture

• Network Elements

• Performance and Status

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 22

 NGN Concepts and Elements
Performance Issues: Scope
• Quality of Service (QoS): Characterization of the service
accessibility and quality both with quantitative and qualitative (user
perception) parameters and values

• Domains for QoS evaluation:

- Service accessibility: capability to access a service
- Connection establishment: Capability to get connection
- Information transfer: Quality of information delivery
- Reliability: Failure probability
- Availability: Probability of system being active
- Survivability: Capability to provide service in abnormal conditions
- Security: Information and systems protection level
- Qualitative: Intelligibility, audibility, visualization ... of information
content as derived from user perception

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 23

 NGN Concepts and Elements
Performance Issues: Example Parameters
Typical QoS parameter classes organized in 6 main types:

- Service accessibility: Waiting time to get service for a customer

request, measured in days or weeks (average, STD, distribution)
- Connection establishment: Loss of calls or information in a
connection measured in probability (average, STD, distribution)
- Information transfer: End to end delay, transfer delay, jitter,
measured in msec. (average, STD, distribution)
- Reliability measured in failure probability
- Security measured in protection probability
- Qualitative: Intelligibility, audibility, visualization ... of information
content as derived from user perception, measured in Mean Score
of Opinion (MOS)

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 24

 NGN Concepts and Elements
Performance Issues: Example Values
• Most parameters have a statistical meaning and are modeled with known
statistical distributions like: Poisson, negative exponential,
hyperexponential, self-similar, etc.
• Measured values given in: Average, STD, Percentile
• Some example values
• Voice calls in circuit mode
• Call loss probability less than 0.5%, 1% or 2% per class type
• Ring tone in less than 3 sec with 99% probability

• Packets
• Packet loss ratio less than 10e-3
• Packet transfer delay less than 150/400/1000 msec per class type
• Round-trip delay less than 400 msec
• Packet jitter (delay variation) less than 10 ms

• Availability:
• System or path or service available more than 99.999% of time
October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 25
 NGN Concepts and Elements
Performance Issues: Application requirements
Requirements per service/application type are a function of the
application sensitivity to each parameter

Variety of Sensitivity per application to combination of delay and loss of data

(ITU Rec. G.1010)

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 26

 NGN Concepts and Elements
Performance Issues. Measurements procedures
PESQ - (Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality). The ITU standard P.862.
It measures speech quality in the ultimate terms - customer perception.

• PESQ is the most accurate speech quality standard against which many other
speech quality algorithms are compared. It measures the effects of distortions
such as noise and delay to model and predict subjective quality. It produces voice
quality measurement scores based on the ITU Mean Opinion Score P.800.1
(MOS) scale which is representative of customers’ perceptions of quality. PESQ
has been proven to be extremely accurate and correlates highly with subjective
test results.

• PESQ measures end to end voice quality by comparing an input test signal with
the signal output, and is effective across a range of network types, including
PSTN, mobile, and VoIP.

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 27

 NGN Concepts and Elements
Performance Issues: Measurement procedures

Process to quantify perceived speech quality as compared to reference signal

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 28

 NGN Concepts and Elements
Performance Issues: Application requirements
Perceived Quality of Service for different codecs as a function of packet
loss probability (19th International Teletraffic Congress September 2005,
Beijing)

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 29

 NGN Concepts and Elements
Performance Issues: Application requirements
Perceived Quality of Service for different codecs as a function of packet delay (19th
International Teletraffic Congress September 2005, Beijing)

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 30

 NGN Concepts and Elements
Performance Issues: Application requirements
Iso-quality curves as a function of packet delay and packet loss
probability for G.729 (19th International Teletraffic Congress
September 2005, Beijing)

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 31

 NGN Concepts and Elements
Performance Issues: Application requirements
Perceived Quality of Service as a function of the number of crossed domains for
the G.711+PLC coding with ppp = .01 and gold /silver SLA (19th
International Teletraffic Congress September 2005, Beijing)

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 32

 NGN Concepts and Elements
Performance related issues

• Availability for all the functionalities within a public environment and

carrier-grade service still needing “some time”

• QoS guarantee for high priority flows subject to evolution and

standardization

• Security and Survivability being studied and needing more explicit and
generic solutions

• Implementation of CAC mechanisms and inter-domain negotiations with

design differences and in evolution

• VoIP across domains not standardized and very sensitive to number of

crossed domains and QoS in each one

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 33

 NGN Concepts and Elements
Status today

• Available today for application in multiservice private

networks

• Optional for alternative operators that emerge with dominant

data services and starting with multiservices

• Careful planning needed for operators with existing

infrastructure and operation (migration, profitability, QoS and
survivability)

October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 34

 NGN Concepts and Elements
Summary of main factors

• Main advantage of NGN based on IP is the flexibility for many

services

• NGN for all services with required quality is not just IP or

internet

• Most NGN elements available today for private and small

networks
• Functionalities and performance for large public networks
and multidomain interoperation requiring
agreements and some time
October, 2005 ITU- BDT NGN Introduction slide 35