4G Mobile’s Core Difference

For LTE and WiMAX, router- based platforms adapted from 3G are a bad fit. A purpose-built platform is a smarter move. By Kevin Fitchard

A year ago, the words “mobile core” and “Tellabs” wouldn’t have been mentioned in the same sentence. As far as wireless networks went, Tellabs was focused almost entirely on backhaul. But that all changed for two reasons. First, Tellabs bought

WiChorus, an upstart vendor that made a big mark in 2009 with several key WiMAX core contracts. Second, the 4G core’s distributed architecture breaks down the distinctions between the core and backhaul network, enabling Tellabs to expand beyond its backhaul niche. In a recent interview with Kevin Fitchard, wireless infrastruc-

ture editor at Connected Planet, Tellabs CTO Vikram Saksena explained why his company chose to enter the core market, how its platform fits into its portfolio and overall wireless strategy and how it plans to compete in the larger 4G core market.

Kevin Fitchard: Why get into the packet core space? Vikram Saksena: We historically have been strong in the backhaul space, and what we were trying to do was find adjacencies to see where we could expand beyond just doing backhaul. When we looked at 4G, because of the way the networks are being flattened to be more data-centric, the obvious play beyond backhaul was the packet core. There are synergies between backhaul and the packet

core when you look at how 4G networks are built. We felt that having both those pieces would offer our customers an advantage. We feel we can leverage our backhaul presence and innovate for customers in ways that would be hard to do with a stand-alone packet core. In 3G and before, the RNC was the demarcation point

between backhaul and the packet core. When you go to 4G, there is no RNC. There is the radio part, and then there’s an IP network behind it. Artificially you can break it up into packet core and backhaul, but it’s really all one IP network.

KF: Tellabs isn’t just entering a core market; it’s doing so with a different strategy than the established core vendors. Explain how your purpose-built platform is different from the router-based approaches of your competitors.

TELLABS INSIGHT Q3 6