Reflecting everyone’s everyday need to be in touch at all times just about all aspects of the telecoms industry are converging, from networks, technologies, platforms and services down to handsets. Priscilla Awde investigates.

 

Convergence is even happening within telcos as they integrate, automate and rationalise the formerly distinct network and IT sides of their business.

It is all done in the interests of saving money, bringing innovative products and services to market faster and reacting to customer demand for voice, video and data applications delivered to one device, over one network, covered by one contract seamlessly, efficiently and at affordable prices.

That at least is the dream – the reality is that most operators are some way off delivering. Moving to a single, flat IP end-to-end architecture is an expensive and technically challenging undertaking. However demand is driven by competition and the return on investment is realised in lower operational and maintenance costs. Operators and enterprises alike want to run one network for voice and data and eventually merge fixed and mobile traffic.

The requisite next generation networks are being built and operators implementing Service Delivery Platforms (SDPs) and Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs), and the associated technologies which bring all the speed and flexibility of IT web systems into the telecoms world. According to Analysys-Mason, the SDP market is growing at 23% a year and its market worth in 2008 is expected to be £2.4 billion.

“What is new now is the convergence of the network and IT departments,” states Keith Bergeron, director OSS solutions at HP. “Both talk different languages but integration is forced on operators by cost savings; delivering better customer experience and to handle the vast numbers of value added services.”

Converging these traditionally separate domains means applications can be developed, delivered and managed within a single SDP thereby bringing significant cost and efficiency benefits. Operators are consolidating all platforms into an agile, standards based IP IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), architecture which supports convergence, reduces opex and makes it easier to manage internal IT systems. In time, IMS will be the core technology for both fixed and mobile networks.

Replacing legacy systems is essential since they are expensive to run and no longer capable of supporting either the required speed or flexibility or blended multimedia services efficiently or cost effectively. A critical driver for convergence is to deliver integrated multimedia traffic reliably and securely over high-speed broadband fixed or wireless networks to any connected unit.

Ulrich Schoen, head, network technology at Nokia Siemens Networks believes: “Voice convergence is driven by operators wanting to reduce the number of voice platforms whilst keeping legacy quality of service (QOS), as they move to IP platforms – ideally without users noticing any service difference. QOS plus mobility equal high value but how can NGNs deliver?

“Mobile operators need to build networks able to scale with low capex and opex, giving users broadband internet access from laptops and mobiles to increase the value chain. Converged infrastructure shared between fixed and mobile data applications will be mission critical.”

Although it has had limited success, F ixed Mobile Convergence ( F MC), may still be attractive in certain markets offering as it does one phone for both fixed and mobile connections. In the enterprise world, F MC is a means of controlling the spiralling costs and relative lack of control of the many mobiles connected to the network. A growing number of employees use mobiles at work even within range of fixed phones. Traditional fixed phones can be replaced by a single dual mode Wi F i/GSM mobile which automatically connects to whichever network is most cost effective thereby giving people mobility without raising the cost of connections. Within buildings all traffic travels over the wireless local area network (WLAN), to the fixed network only switching to GSM or Wi F i outside.

However for consumers, femtocells will likely be more popular as users will not have to buy new handsets. F or mobile operators, femtocells bring 3G networks indoors reliably whilst solving the backhaul and capacity problems expected from exponential growth in data traffic. The key to successful femtocell deployments is likely to be in tariffs and service bundles.

In a relatively new model, operators under pressure to add capacity or increase penetration are collaborating. Instead of each building new networks to cover a given area, they are sharing each other’s infrastructure.

Service level convergence is about delivering triple or quad play services and developing multimedia and blended applications fast using IT technologies then delivering to any connected device. “Historically convergence was secondary to the introduction of new services,” says Larry Goldman, head of practice for global telecoms software at Analysys-Mason. “The new model of deploying new services sees them as features of the converged networks.”

Developing services in next generation networks is not only faster but cheaper since many elements can be reused. Lower development, production and delivery costs combined with innovative blended services are likely to stimulate demand.

Multimedia services and data are being shared and information automatically switched between devices bringing the ideal of three interconnected screens (TV, mobile and PC), closer to reality. Mobile phones now communicate with a range of other units including PCs, televisions, laptops, R F ID (Radio F requency Identification), tags and Near F ield Communications (N F C), terminals.

As smart phones become more powerful and provide fast easy use of innovative services, people will carry fewer but more powerful, functional and feature rich gadgets providing access to all their personal and professional applications. Everyone wants seamless interaction between easy to use devices, networks and products.

 

> class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" RIM’s Blackberry is already the business tool of the time making it possible for people to work and log onto corporate applications and emails wherever they are.

For Apple, convergence is the sine qua non of almost everything it does and its impact on the market has been little short of revolutionary. According to Mike Short , VP R&D at Telefonica, the iPhone: “brings the mobile and internet together in ways not seen before and has opened customers’ eyes to new services which converge mobility and web services. The earliest impact is a high use of internet downloads, convenience and the easy use of the mobile internet capability in ways not previously done.”

More and more consumers are used to getting what they want whenever they want it fast and conveniently via the internet and are increasingly managing their accounts and self provisioning on-line. To accommodate this trend, operators are converging pre and post paid billing systems and providing web access to accounts. “ F lexibility is essential. Converged charging across domains, invoicing and reconciliation is an on-going area of critical interest,” says Sanjay Mehta, senior director for product marketing at Oracle. “People are looking for greater interaction: can they self provision and access multiple services simultaneously via Web 2.0 which is changing the paradigms?”

Thanks to social networking, people are more comfortable transacting and collaborating on-line within specified communities. Stimulated by the arrival of presence and being able to merge location and navigation with text, picture and/or video applications on the move and at home, many are sharing their lives with group members in the virtual world. Convenience is the name of the game. People want the control and flexibility to do what they want whenever they want switching seamlessly between devices. They are creating and sharing their own video content and time shifting to watch television or other programming at their personal convenience, on fixed or mobile units.

“Users want to switch between operator provided applications like voice, video and messaging and internet applications like weather and local information,” explains Schoen. “Interfaces will allow internet style bundling between these two classes of services and this will grow with internet innovations moving to hosted services on operators’ platforms.”

Mobility combined with convergence supports multi-tasking and flexible working. Schoen believes convergence directly affects where, how and the way people work and has environmental consequences: “ F ile sharing, video conferencing and remote, virtual, collaborative working together with making communications applications available from any device anywhere, saves the carbon footprint. Environmental pressures are driving broadband access from anywhere, telepresence, teleconferencing, voice, video and data sharing plus remote collaboration require very good networks. Eventually we are moving towards a more user centric system where the access network is transparent and all communications seamless.”

Business users want to switch between devices without dropping a call and configure the system to suit their particular needs. They also want one address book, contact number and preferably one device capable of handling multimedia applications. Ideally all linked units should be automatically updated when any information is changed either by individuals or authorised personnel.

Companies want the ability to push information and services to any device on their networks.

Consumers everywhere increasingly expect better value, personal experience and are coming to expect the same consistent experience on fixed as on mobile devices. However delivering true, end-to-end convergence depends on operators transforming their internal business processes and building NGNs – a challenging and on-going process.