TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

Top drivers for moving to IMS (left); leading carrier VoIP and IMS vendors by revenues, Q2 2011 (right)

Legacy equipment obsolescence

Ability to offer converged services

LTE network deployment

Nokia 0% 20% 40%

% of service providers rating definitely a driver

Fischbach, Colt’s network strategy and architecture director. IMS deployments typically are subscriber-centric and require elements such as the home subscriber server (HSS) for user authenti- cation, but Colt has used only the IMS elements needed to enable VoIP access services for its enterprise customers. “The platform we chose is flexible, so

you don’t have to deploy all the compo- nents that make up an IMS architecture but [rather] start with a softswitch that also delivers SIP and has whatever you need around it for business VoIP serv- ices,” says Fischbach. But while there is a place for interim

strategies, full-blown IMS will be the long-term solution as operators replace their PSTN networks. “From real [opera- tor] feedback, the cost of operating an IMS network is now lower, from an opera- tion and maintenance perspective, than managing the PSTN,” says Cassidy Shield, global solutions marketing, content, cloud and communications, at Alcatel-Lucent. Vendors say IMS has been simplified as

it has matured. “Whereas before we had multiple platforms and multiple middle- ware, we have now consolidated the technology,” says Ed Elkin, director, IMS solutions marketing at Alcatel-Lucent. “We can put two million subscribers into a single chassis.” The result is a 95% reduction in power consumption and floor space compared to circuit-switched

September 2011 www.totaltele.com 60% Siemens

Acme Packet

Combined worldwide trunk media gateway, softswitch, SBC, media server, VAS and CSCF server market share

Source: Infonetics Research

solutions, he says. But Michael Clever, head of voice and IP

transformation at Nokia Siemens Networks, says the motivation for IMS deployment goes beyond voice: “It is being driven for voice services, but if it was just for VoIP no one would implement this.” One example of other drivers is

converged fixed-mobile enterprise serv- ices. “The enterprise market is one that is relatively unexploited by telcos,” says Informa’s Mavrakis, who highlights Vodafone Spain’s IMS-enabled Oficina service. Oficina provides users with a fixed number on their mobile handsets while delivering advanced capabilities on their fixed phones. Voice is only part of the package which includes ADSL and mobile broadband. The merits of the service include a single bill and phone number, and converged pricing plans. A1 Telekom Austria launched its unified

voice service in 2010, a converged mobile and fixed business service based on IMS that includes short number dialling and user presence. But according to Franz Fertl, director of service network at A1, implementing the service and interfacing it to the company’s existing operations support system proved challenging. Not only did it involve one IMS box but also several servers and software elements. “That made it very complicated to

implement a process…to offer the service, giving customers the ability to order it

and enable it on several systems in the right way,” says Fertl. “All these things are big challenges.” But if the fixed network is where IMS

has been successful, the biggest recent IMS development is the adoption of VoLTE, which uses a stripped down version of IMS to deliver voice and multi- media for LTE. “Mobile is where the stickiness is for IMS,” says Mavrakis. “And it is the mobile operators that are the cash cow for IMS vendors.” According to Infonetics Research,

global IMS equipment manufacturer revenue was up 87% in the second quarter compared to the same quarter last year. Asia Pacific accounted for 68% of all IMS equipment spending in the second quarter, driven primarily by activity in China, Japan and South Korea. The research company says mobile IMS-based spending will be a strong contributor to market growth in the second half of this year, particularly in North America as operators increase LTE deployments and prepare for VoLTE services in 2012. Infonetics in a recent survey found that

LTE is now the main driver for nearly half (48%) of the 23 operators questioned that are implementing or have deployed IMS. “This is a big jump from a year ago; LTE is now a primary driver,” says Myers. In a separate LTE survey, the research company found that operators’ plans to deploy VoLTE are ahead of where they were a

9

Alcatel- Lucent

Other Genband Huawei