Mobile Broadband's IP Transition is Driving Signaling, Routing Control Investment

By Tara Seals
TMCnet Contributor

IP transition is creating a raft of new investment, even when it comes to bridging technologies. For instance, market research firm Infonetics Research (News - Alert) is predicting a cumulative $282 million will be spent globally on centralized signaling and routing control equipment from 2014 to 2018, driven by LTE (News - Alert) network expansion.

Centralized signaling and routing control (CSRC) platforms are a class of solutions designed to help operators relieve congestion and simplify network management as they bridge legacy networks and next-generation IP.

“The convergence of IP and legacy networks creates a complex signaling environment,” said Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC and IMS at Infonetics Research. “ CSRC platforms facilitate interworking between the two by enabling operators to manage both legacy and next-gen signaling protocols, including SIP, Diameter, SS7 and Radius.”

“The CSRC market is not new, but the platforms are expanding as operators look to scale networks more efficiently with the rise in mobile broadband traffic,” Myers explained.

To date, CSRC platforms have primarily been adopted for IP interexchange with Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) redirect, utilizing local policy. However, a number of different applications can be integrated in a CSRC platform to broaden capabilities, including ENUM/Domain Name System (DNS), breakout gateway control function (BGCF), home subscriber server (HSS), Diameter signaling control, IMS call session control function (CSCF), and policy and charging rules function (PCRF).

There are a few vendors in the CSRC space, including Italtel (News - Alert), NetNumber, and Sonus, that are finding success with operators that have a mix of legacy and next-gen networks, particularly large Tier 1s, the firm noted.

LTE’s success will continue to drive transitions and success. Dell (News - Alert)'Oro Group for instance said that the LTE equipment market for both macro and small cell radios will witness tremendous growth over the next five years, with LTE RAN revenue levels expected to outdo the RAN revenue peaks of GSM in 2007 and WCDMA in 2011.

"The momentum around LTE coverage build-outs and subscriber adoption is stronger than anything we have experienced with previous mobile technologies," said Stefan Pongratz, analyst of Dell'Oro Group’s RAN and Small Cell Programs. "The pace of the LTE radio deployments during the coverage phase and the variety of band combinations available for LTE is enabling service providers to deploy radios in multiple bands optimized for coverage and capacity. This is driving investments to remain high even after the initial LTE coverage phase.”

Edited by Adam Brandt