Network plumbing may not have the sizzle of the latest personal device, but without it, the revolution cannot be brought to you on the Internet. In fact, as a result of the explosion of data traffic being caused by the proliferation of those personal devices and all of the apps they access and that are constantly being pinged with alerts, status inquiries and updates, the data storm in service provider signaling networks is increasingly exponentially faster than that other data storm that dominates headlines. 

This signaling data storm is non-trivial. It has already caused mobile service providers in various places worldwide to throttle back on their service delivery, and without next generation solutions that are tied into the expansion of next generation mobile network IP-centric service delivery capabilities like IMS and LTE (News - Alert), things could get worse before they get better. Service providers are painfully aware of this and have been evaluating and deploying such next generation solutions. One that is going to get a close look is the announcement by multimedia and cloud communications solutions provider GENBAND that it has it joined forces with applications delivery networking company F5 Networks to deliver and integrated SIP and Diameter signaling solution.

The new QUANTiX™ DSC(Diameter Signaling Controller) integrates Diameter functionality with the GENBAND QUANTiX Session Border Controller to provide advanced, secure and scalable voice and data roaming capabilities for IMS and LTE network operators.

“Subscriber demand for bandwidth-hungry apps is placing strains on mobile networks and creating new complexities at the network edge for handling surging signaling traffic growth,” said B.G. Kumar, president of GENBAND’s (News - Alert) Multimedia Business Unit. “Mobile operators around the globe are adopting LTE at a significant rate. F5’s Diameter leadership and innovation make it an ideal partner for GENBAND to provide the best integrated solution for the network edge to its customers.”

QUANTiX DSC enhances GENBAND’s SMART EDGE™ solutions portfolio. It assists service providers in addressing the explosion of Diameter signaling volume within the IMS core and for managing policy-related Diameter message exchanges between IMS and LTE / VoLTE networks for roaming purposes. 

The integrated SMART EDGE solution delivers the following:

• Diameter Routing Agent (DRA)
• Diameter Edge Agent (DEA)
• Diameter gateway interworking function (IWF)
• Diameter load balancer, and a SIP Session Border Controller – all on a common platform with centralized management

Together these offer secure, seamless connectivity within and between IMS and LTE networks to enable simple, scalable, and cost-effective deployment of rich LTE voice and data services.

“As users demand anytime, anywhere connectivity across an array of devices and networks, service providers face growing requirements for scalable, reliable Diameter communications solutions, as well as state-of-the-art SIP Session Management,” said Mallik Tatipamula, vice president for Service Provider Solutions at F5. “Our partnership with GENBAND brings together the industry’s foremost technology and innovation from both the Diameter and SBC worlds, and we look forward to supporting the highly-differentiated and competitive QUANTiX DSC offering.”

Combining SBC functionality with Diameter signaling is going to be increasingly important. IP is the lingua franca of multimedia networking, and as mobile networks transition from being voice-centric to data-centric the need for SBC functionality in order to accommodate all of that data traffic is a key piece of the puzzle, and that is why the integration with Diameter signaling which handles all of those interactions cited above makes so much sense. As competitive pressures push service providers to accelerate their LTE deployments around the world, and the wave of smartphone and tablet adaption increases all of those apps exchanging all of that information and all of those bits for immersive interactions for things like video are already straining mobile operators to keep up. SIP and Diameter are the way to accommodate both data storms. This is a partnership that is one to watch.