Something New in IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) Processing

A rapidly growing number of telecom and network industry players are now deploying IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) technology. IMS brings a number of benefits to mobile network operators and end-users in terms of new services and the overall experience. New product and service announcements along with the evolving market have created intense competition among Telecom Equipment Manufacturers (TEMs) to deliver solutions. In this issue we will look at the recent release of the Dialogic® Multimedia Platform for AdvancedTCA, (MMP) as a critical building block to helping TEMs and others deliver IMS applications.

Tier 2 operators in high growth markets are looking to offer value-add IP-based wireless services and innovators are trying to offer more feature rich mobile applications in these markets each and every day. IMS provides a diverse open platform of resources for these applications. The mobile operator may however have their own ideas on how these applications get supported. For example, each operator may require that the application run on their own server or require individual application servers. This complexity will quickly erode the economics of scale.

The Dialogic® Multimedia Platform (MMP) for AdvancedTCA is a powerful and cost-effective product that can be used to deliver mobility applications such as voice and video mail, color ringback tones, unified messaging, and audio conferencing over IP and PSTN interfaces using standard protocols for session and media control. Its flexibility allows a choice between running customer applications locally on the MMP hard drive or remotely using standard interfaces for session and media control, while its interface capabilities enable migration from solutions deployed in existing TDM networks

“Our customers are looking for a path to higher density media solutions that will allow them to deliver their unique application services into the demanding environment of carriers,” stated Jim Machi, Vice President of Marketing for Dialogic. The media platform not only realizes the scalability demanded in the Service Provider market but does so with leading price-performance. Machi explained: “By assigning processor-intensive operations to the mezzanine card we leave more power for host media processing. And because the core processing algorithms are hosted on the CPU, we have the flexibility to meet ever increasing functional, operational and mobility demands through software-only revisions.”

The MMP includes both software and hardware which allows application developers to create and deploy their solutions in a very efficient manner. The figure shown illustrates one possible solution using an MMP server or gateway. In this example, the solution consists of an ATCA enclosure configured with a switch, SS7, MMP, and application server blades. The media processing is handled by the MMP blade running Host Media Processing (HMP) software.

Solution based upon MMP for ATCA

Both signaling and media IP traffic are terminated on an Ethernet switch blade which distributes signaling and control traffic over the ATCA base interface. The media traffic is handled over the fabric interface inside the chassis. For IP connectivity it utilizes the base interface for RTP media traffic. TDM media traffic terminates on the Rear Transition Module (RTM), which then routes to the baseboard for processing. TDM signaling traffic (SS7) is terminated on an SS7 signaling server blade. The SS7 signaling server and application server functions can be combined on the same blade.

Final Score

The Dialogic® Multimedia Platform (MMP) for AdvancedTCA appears to deliver on its promise. The product is designed for maximum flexibility and hardened for carrier class environments. Not only does it offer a feature-rich blade solution, but the ATCA architecture provides a High Availability (HA) environment with NEBS Level-3 compliance. As TEMS and Tier 2 operators look for more creative ways to be competitive, the MMP’s price-performance ratio will make a significant impact to the market. IT

Jeff Hudgins is VP of Engineering at Alliance Systems. For more information, visit the company online at www.alliancesystems.com.

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