Feasibility Study of

A-interface over
Internet Protocol
Master’s Thesis Presentation
Eero Laitinen, 7.9.2009

Supervisor: Professor Heikki Hämmäinen

Outline

• Objective of the Study and Methodology

• Mobile Market Situation
• All-IP Transition
• Case Study: Feasibility of AoIP technology
• Conclusions

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

Outline

• Objective of the Study and Methodology

• Mobile Market Situation
• All-IP Transition
• Case Study: Feasibility of AoIP technology
• Conclusions

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

Objective of the Study and
Methodology
 Objectives:
– Compare GSM A-interface over IP to legacy A-interface
over TDM in terms of CAPEX and OPEX
– Study factors influencing expected lifetime of GSM
 Methodology:
– Literature survey
 Books, standards, whitepapers, press releases, etc
– Interviews
 Ericsson expert interviews

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

Outline

• Objective of the Study and Methodology

• Mobile Market Situation
• All-IP Transition
• Case Study: Feasibility of AoIP technology
• Conclusions

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

Mobile Market Situation

 2G GSM currently the most successful

 3G technologies are growing importance
 LTE is at the ”door step”

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

Outline

• Objective of the Study and Methodology

• Mobile Market Situation
• All-IP Transition
• Case Study: Feasibility of AoIP technology
• Conclusions

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

Transport Technologies

 Three main transport technologies in mobile networks:

– Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
– Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
– Internet Protocol (IP)
 Why IP?
– Some reasons:
 Packet based data transmission considered more
efficient and future proof
 IP instead of TDM
 IP used in the datacom índustry
 IP can utilize the economies of scale
 IP instead of ATM

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

The Traffic and Revenue Challenge

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

All-IP Transition

 Reduce costs
– Networks are simply transformed to use IP
– Preparing for the future
– E.g. Circuit-Switched mobile network from TDM/ATM/IP to IP only
 Generate revenues
– All-IP based core network will provide access to IP based applications via
variety of different access systems
– 3GPP IMS and EPS/SAE

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

Reduce costs in GSM architecture: A-
interface from TDM to IP

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

Outline

• Objective of the Study and Methodology

• Mobile Market Situation
• All-IP Transition
• Case Study: Feasibility of AoIP technology
• CAPEX benefits
• OPEX benefits
• GSM lifetime speculation
• Conclusions

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

CAPEX: Transcoding

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

CAPEX: MGW Redundancy

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

CAPEX: Transmission equipment

 Network nodes in AoTDM architecture use TDM ports

(e.g. STM-1), whereas network nodes in AoIP
architecture use Ethernet ports (e.g. Gigabit Ethernet)
 One STM-1 port can carry 1890-1953 voice calls,
whereas one Gigabit Ethernet port can carry over 26
000 voice calls
 About 13-times more STM-1 ports are needed to fulfil a
certain traffic need
 The CAPEX benefit depends on the unit prices of the
ports

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

CAPEX Summary

 Transcoderless BSS
– No need for transcoders in BSS anymore
 Transcoder equipment savings
 Transcoding in MGW
– MGW capacity is impacted due to ”new” transcoding functionality
– If capacity decreases, more hardware needs to be purchased, and
if capacity increases, existing hardware becomes available
– The impact depends on the traffic model
 MGW redundancy
– Extended A-interface enables N+1 MGW redundancy
 Less MGW capacity overdimensioning
 Transmission equipment
– TDM ports in BSC and MGW are replaced by Ethernet ports
 Less Ethernet ports are needed than TDM ports and typically
Ethernet ports are also less expensive

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

AoIP vs. AoTDM: OPEX

 Single transport technology

– Operating one transport technology instead of multiple ones is
more cost-efficient
– AoIP is only one part of the big picture
 Node configuration
– Reduced node configuration effort in BSC, MGW and MSC-S
 Service availability
– Better service availability due to N+1 MGW redundancy
 Speech quality
– Transcoder Free Operation doesn’t reduce voice quality
– Same can be achieved with TFO in AoTDM
 Training
– Synergy savings with 3G RAN

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

GSM lifetime speculation

 Operating more than one, not to mentions two, mobile network is

considered to be too expensive
 3G technologies are expected to replace GSM
– 3G will enable new revenue streams
– However
 3G coverage and existing handset base not yet good
enough
- Situation is expected to get better around 2015
 Three competing 3G technologies create market
uncertainty
 LTE commercial operation is expected to begin in the near future
 Could it be LTE instead of 3G that will replace GSM?
– It remains to be seen

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

Outline

• Objective of the Study and Methodology

• Mobile Market Situation
• All-IP Transition
• Case Study: Feasibility of AoIP technology
• Conclusions

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

Conclusions

 GSM has still strong market position

– 3G and LTE are expected to replace GSM eventually
 AoIP is more cost-efficient option to build and operate
GSM networks than legacy AoTDM
 AoIP is also more future proof
 AoIP has business opportunities especially in emerging
markets
 In developed markets operators will more likely choose
3G and/or LTE

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

Questions?

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02

Feasibility Study of A-interface over Internet Protocol 2009-09-02