VoLTE on the 4G network provides customers with much higher voice and video HD quality, shorter call set-up times and calls while browsing the internet in parallel, including HD and ultra HD video streaming. Vip Mobile is preparing for commercial implementation of its 4G network in Serbia, which was the basis for the limited live deployment of VoLTE service on NFV technology.
In previous trials, Telekom Austria Group looked at virtualised network functions individually. In this trial it chose to virtualise the entire core network production chain of a VoLTE service. Instead of being received and processed by dedicated hardware equipment with dedicated software running on it, the data terminates in a general purpose IT data centre running Intel x86 hardware and virtualisation services. On top of the virtualization services, software is deployed that provides the necessary processing for the delivery of VoLTE in a virtualised environment.
Mobility and data session control are handled by a virtualised Evolved Packet Core (EPC) from the start-up company Connectem. This guarantees that a subscriber is served by a mobile network and keeps its service up and running while on the move. Procera Networks' Application Visibility Library (NAVL) software engine provides the application identification, traffic visibility, intelligence and control for Connectem's virtual vEPC.
A call control for setting up calls, negotiating media formats and terminating calls is handled by a virtualised IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based on the Clearwater system from Metaswitch. The desired features of a phone system are provided by the virtualised VoLTE Application Server (AS) from OpenCloud. Both together ensure that customers can call one another and exchange information on a variety of media.
This is the first time that the entire core network stack is deployed virtualised, from the virtualized EPC through the virtualised and open-source IMS to the virtualised VoLTE application server. Telekom Austria will be discuss the deployment at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month, in cooperation with Connectem, OpenCloud and Metaswitch.
