Guide 58 VoLTE

8/12/2019 Guide 58 VoLTE

1/9


2/9

The continued roll out and growth of LTE places operators plans for voiceservices increasingly in the spotlight. Providing data services on one networkand voice services on older circuit switched networks, may not make best useof scarce resources. LTE provides lower cost of ownership over older networks,so consolidating data and voice services on LTE makes nancial sense. It canalso deliver customers a better service experience and enable operators to bebetter equipped to compete against OTT VoIP and messaging providers. Voiceover LTE (VoLTE) enables operators to consolidate network expenses, providemuch more efficient use of spectrum, and deliver a wider range of services fortheir customers.

While the initial function of VoLTE is voice services, as its based on IPMultimedia Subsystem (IMS), it enables operators to deliver many moreservices, such as Rich Communications Suite (RCS) offers including messagingand video calling. These can be offered and bundled with voice services thatcan be easily used by the operators subscribers.

As VoLTE is delivered as a voice service over a data network, it will requirecontrol and delivery capabilities that, while used extensively in data services,were not required in traditional circuit switched voice networks. One of

the main control and delivery functions needed by VoLTE will be policymanagement to ensure the consistent and quality delivery of a High Denition(HD) voice service.

VoLTEThe New Voice (thats Data)

Page 2


3/9

The Growth of HD Voice and LTE

Page 3

There is already a fast expanding market for HD voice. As of September 2013, 83mobile operators in 61 countries offer HD voice services.* While most of theseare on 3G HSPA, a number are VoLTE. This is set to increase as several large tierone operators look to launch VoLTE in the near future, taking advantage of thesuccess of LTE.

The rate of growth of LTE continues unsurpassed: by December 2013 therewere 244 live LTE networks with a total of 499 operators in 143 countriesinvesting in LTE. The number of LTE subscribers is also growing fast (126M Q2,

2013up 98M in 1 year, with a forecast of 2 Billion by 2017).*

* SourceGSA, LTE Data, September, December 2013


4/9

There is a strong demand from operators to roll out VoLTE. In August 2013Openet surveyed over 80 mobile operators71% said that they were lookingto introduce VoLTE services.* This number is backed up by research fromleading research rm telecoms.com intelligence who ran a survey asking mobileoperators how long after a commercial launch of LTE would they start toprovide VoLTE services. The answers showed that 34% expect to see VoLTElaunched commercially between 12-24 months after initial LTE launch whilealmost 19% expect a timescale of 6 months or less and over 27% see 6-12months.

Looking ahead, Infonetics projects the number of VoLTE subscribers to growat a 145% compound annual growth rate from 2012 to 2017 and ARCchartforecasts that VoLTE subscriptions will represent 10% of all LTE subscribers by2016. No matter which way you look at the numbers, LTE is enjoying massiveadoption and it makes commercial sense for operators to leverage this toprovide HD voice services to their LTE customers using VoLTE.

Page 4

VoLTE Roll Out and Growth Forecasts

Source - Telecoms.com Intelligence Voice over LTE survey, January 2013* Source: Openet SurveyCharging and Billing in the Digital Economy, August 2013


5/9

Enabling QoS in VoLTETraditionally policy management has been a preserve of data services. Butas VoLTE is a voice service enabled by IMS, advanced policy management isneeded. In order to deliver HD voice services, the policy management systemneeds to dynamically manage unpredictable mobile resources associated witheach VoLTE call. Policy is essential to manage the quality of service (QoS) ofevery VoLTE call, as the quality needs to be better than low-cost or free over-the-top services.

With VoLTE, delivering QoS is not just limited to voice. Rich communicationservices such as video messaging also need to be managed. Just like the HDvoice services, these messaging services need to have policy to dynamicallymanage every call and session.

PolicyDelivering Quality on Every VoLTE Call

Page 5


6/9

VoLTE - System Performance and Virtualization

Page 6

Supplementing LTE with Existing Circuit Switched NetworksOne of the components of rolling out a VoLTE service is the ability to use theexisting circuit switched network when LTE coverage is not available. Circuitswitched fall back (CSFB) is important so that operators can launch a VoLTEservice even if they dont have full national LTE coverage, and rely on existingcircuit switched networks to handle calls when a customer goes outside an areaof LTE coverage. This handover from LTE to 3G will add to the large number ofcall records that VoLTE will generate. This can place additional pressure on the

business support systems (BSS) used to collect, rate, dynamically manage andcharge for VoLTE calls. Its therefore important that BSS for VoLTE (and all LTEbased traffic) can provide cost effective, very high performance transactionmanagement.

VoLTEDriving the Economics for Virtualized PolicyTo commercially deploy VoLTE, the policy solution needs to scale to handlea dramatic rise in transactions per second (TPS) rates and network signaling.VoLTE requires all subscribers to have a permanent data bearer channelavailable together with the signaling associated with the IMS applicationfunction. This will drive the requirement for additional hardware and add to thecost of providing the systems to enable delivery of VoLTE.

Virtualization of policy management is critical to meeting this scalingrequirement in a cost effective manner.


7/9

The GSA reports that as at December 2013, there are six operators whohave launched VoLTE services. They are SK Telecom, Korea Telecom andLG U+ in Korea, O2 in Germany, Evolved Broadband in the USA, and Azercellin Azerbaijan.

Two of the current VoLTE offers are discussed below:

Page 7

Existing VoLTE Offers

SK Telecom HD Voice on LTESouth Korea Telecom launched VoLTE in August 2012and by May 2013 had more than 4.5 million customers using VoLTE. *

Using the brand of HD Voice SK Telecom see VoLTE as an opportunity tobetter compete with OTT and VoIP services and deliver a superior voice servicefor customers. According to SK Telecom VoLTE dramatically improves audioquality (able to handle 2.2 times wider frequency bandwidth as 3G voice) andhas much improved call setup times which range from 0.25 to 2.5 seconds onLTE, compared with a ve second setup time on 3G.*

LG U+ 100% LTE for Voice CallsKorean mobile operator LG U+ is promoting 100% LTEwhich means that all voice calls are pure LTEin other words no circuitswitched fallback on LG U+ network. In September 2013, LG U+ CEO said callsuccess rates on 100% LTE is as high as 99.89 percent. They have emphasizedthat there is no need for a 3G network to back up LTE and that 100% LTE alsouses less battery power. **

Since launching LTE and its associated services, all operators in South Koreahave seen an increase in ARPU.*

*Sourcetelecoms.com, May 2013. **SourceKorea Joongang Daily, August 2013

VoLTE

THE FUTURE IS CALLING

A


8/9

Page 8

Openets Policy Manager provides a standards compliant (3GPP and GSMAVoLTE) solution that enables the easy conguration of policies related to IMSapplications and QoS prole from a central decision core. Once Policy Manageris congured, IMS applications can be enabled through a single decision corecommand which greatly simplies the deployment process. Openets PolicyManager for VoLTE can be implemented as part of a larger policy solution fromOpenet, or as separate VoLTE / IMS policy solution for operators who haveinvested in other policy solutions. Openets Policy Manager provides proven tier1 performance in a virtualized environment.

Openets VoLTE Solution


9/9

w w w . o p e n e t . c o m

For more information,please visit www.openet.com

Since the introduction of mobile data services in 1998, Openet has helpedservice providers capitalize on opportunities and overcome challenges. Withcompetitive pressure accelerating, todays service providers rely on Openetsoftware to evolve business models around networking smartphones, M2Mdevices and third party services. Openets portfolio combines policy andcharging control with device and third party interaction to enable innovativecharging models, to control operating cost and to personalize services. Morethan 80 of the worlds largest service providers across over 30 countries useOpenets high performance software.

Openet has helped operators worldwide take advantage of growthopportunities by evolving legacy platforms to provide a exible, real-timecharging/OCS capability integrated with policy control (PCC).

About Openet

Page 9

Learn More About Openets VoLTE Solution
http://www.openet.com/solutions/voice-over-lte-voltehttp://www.openet.com/solutions/voice-over-lte-volte

Documents

Guide 58 VoLTE