It is commonly believed in the industry that the traditional PSTN network is transforming to the next-generation network (NGN). Estimation shows that the cost of NGN-based new services is only 1/5 of that of the PSTN and the development period is only 1/10 of that of the PSTN. Softswitch has been put into commercial use in many countries and regions, but it is still important but hard to improve the quality of the bearer network to meet the NGN service requirements.
The access network is evolving into the multiplex broadband access network. Accounting for an increasingly large proportion in the whole data service revenue, the broadband service revenue has become an indispensable revenue resource of carriers. By contrast, the traditional network develops slowly. Therefore, it is a continuous challenge to effectively consolidate various broadband access technologies, ensure smooth transition from an old network to the new one, provide lower cost TDM network services by using the rapidly developing IP and Ethernet technologies, and guarantee the smooth transition of the service platform.
The mobile communications network is evolving into the next generation mobile communications network represented by the 3G network. However, a 3G network should provide not only an access technology but also a large number of attractive applications. In addition, it requires sustainable investment to realize the evolution of 3G from R99 into R4 and then into R5 and to bear 3G data and voice services in an integrated way.
The fixed phone services operated by the traditional telecom carriers are suffering a severe change from mobile and IP services. The traditional telecom carriers have to look for a new strategic path of new services as soon as possible. The network carriers encounter two problems. One is that the service provision capability of various traditional networks is insufficient, and the other is that new services emerging from the IP network occupy much bandwidth but bring few revenue.
A fundamental solution to the first problem is to evolve the traditional network to the IP network, construct a new-generation network to meet various networking and service demands, and transform traditional basic network carriers to integrated information service providers. Besides, a unified all-service network should be built to replace the current mode of constructing different networks for different services. In this way, the traditional TDM network will be melt into the IP network centered with packet switching. To solve the second problem, the key point is to build a new-generation IP communications network that concentrates on services, has service sensitiveness category capability, and provides powerful QoS control and assurance capabilities. This can transform the IP network bearing Internet data services only into a telecom network bearing data, voice, video, private line of VIP customers, NGN, 3G, and many other services.
It is the key of an NGN solution to realize the "IP-based telecom services and telecom-based IP network" and to construct a carrier-class IP network that bears various services. Such a network can dramatically reduce the construction and operation cost of telecom carriers, assist carriers in rapidly launching new services to the market, and bring new service experience to users.
Huawei`s ME60 multi-service control gateway (ME60 MSCG) aims at enabling the transformation from the IP network to the multi-service carrier-class network. Located at the edge of the IP core network, the ME60 MSCG acts as a key node to aggregate services from various networks into the IP network and the service control gateway and portal for the IP network to bear various services. Therefore, it is a necessary device for the traditional network to transform to the IP network and then to the multi-service carrier-class network.
As a new-generation multi-service edge device, the ME60 MSCG is the aggregate point of network integration and service integration. It provides various broadband access capabilities, supports terminal access authentication, service identification & classification, security, session agent, service differentiation, and VPN service.
The ME60 can assist carriers in building a single all-service network to slash capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operation expenditure (OPEX), and in increasing the average revenue per user (ARPU). In detail:
1. The ME60 aggregates various media and services to the IP/MPLS core network and supports various user services over a single network platform, thus constructing a unified multi-service bearer network.
As the all-service aggregate node of the IP/MPLS core network and multiple access networks, the ME60 accesses different high-performance network equally to a unified IP and MPLS core network platform. It allows carriers to use the most rapidly developing but lowest-cost IP and Ethernet technologies to implement TDM and other network services and service, effectively promote network performance, and reduce the construction and maintenance expenditure.
The ME60 provides such high-performance interfaces as Ethernet, ATM, POS, E1, T1, E3, and T3 interfaces with a processing capability of 10 Gbit/s at each slot, provides the pseudo wire emulation edge-to-edge (PWE3) function, supports the edge-to-edge pseudo wire services of the TDM interface in IP and MPLS, and offers MPLS VPN function.
The ME60 can be used as a core data node of the 3G bearer network. Its PWE3 function facilitates carriers evolving the 3G network from R99 to R5, thus protecting the wireless network investment.
The high-performance NP+ASIC platform of the ME60 is designed complying with the telecom standard. It is helpful to service expansion. This platform makes it possible to upgrade forward processing and software protocol processing at the same time, assuring the ME60 to be upgraded synchronously together with carriers` service demands and thus effectively protecting carriers` investment.
2. It powerful dispatching function and flow queue control function, together with the COPS policy control effectively improve network function and service quality and promote the ARPU.
The ME60 provides Class-5 layered dispatching function complying with the TR059 standard, with each board providing 256K hardware dispatching queues, supports multiple dispatching policies, and provides each service of each user with real-time high-quality QoS control, bandwidth monitoring and assurance. The ME60 also supports COPS-based policy control and differentiation service for each service flow, serves as a QoS control gateway (SSG) of various services or a service control execution node when cooperating with the policy server, and provides powerful support for value-added service expansion. In addition, the ME60 provides such functions required by Triple play as terminal management, broadband user access, and multicast control , and combine the session border controller (SBC) to satisfy the demands of broadband Internet access, VoIP and IPTV services realized in a same network. This improves the ARPU. When acting as the wireless terminal data access node, the ME60 can effectively ensure the control over services and service quality of carriers.
3. High-performance deep packet inspection (DPI) enables the flexible service sensitiveness function and improves the network operation efficiency.
The DPI function of the ME60 can monitor P2P traffic and network protocol analysis and perform policy control according to the analysis result, thus guaranteeing the rational usage and network security of network bandwidth and assisting the carriers in governing uncontrolled service growth in the IP network. With its unique three-layer flexible DPI infrastructure, the ME60 processes policy forwarding and packet analysis in different layers to avoid the influence of service sensitiveness on system forwarding performance and forwarding delay. This meets the requirements of high-speed access and highly-efficiency service expansion. Besides, the ME60 can coexist with dedicated DPI devices in a same network in inline or offline mode. It can dynamically issue policy actions via the CPOS protocol, and support more complete service sensitiveness and more flexible function expansion.
4. The ME60 integrates the high-performance firewall function to provide secure and controllable high-speed network access and guarantees service and network security.
With its built-in high performance state firewall function, the ME60 can analyze and control network traffic effectively, provide secure access function, enhance the anti-attack capability of the network, and minimize the harm of the worm virus. Besides, it can cooperate with the security immunity gateway (SIG to provide the active immunity capability for the network. There is no doubt that a healthy network is valuable for carriers.
5. The ME60 integrates the SBC function, and combines the call admission control (CAC) mechanism and IP forwarding with QoS control, and service control with MPLS TE bearing to guarantee the bearing of NGN services.
With its built-in high performance (10 Gbps each slot) agent, forwarding, and SBC of H.323, MGCP, H.248, and SIP protocols, the ME60 can realize NAT traversal to guarantee smooth service development. Combined with CAC, the ME60 enables the policy forwarding and QoS assurance according to services, guarantees the QoS of VoIP services, eliminates carriers` worries about the transform from the traditional PSTN to the NGN, and assists the carriers in using lower-cost VoIP to provide the same QoS as PSTN. Besides, the SBC function protects NGN resources effectively, protects and separates the softswitch core device, and makes the NGN services over an open IP network as secure and healthy as over PSTN.
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