Mobile Softswitches
With Empirix’s Hammer XMS™ mobile network operators can deliver the same level of voice quality throughout the migration from a TDM to an all-IP network. Hammer XMS provides network performance, planning, operations and engineering teams with the tools and business value to smooth the transition to all-IP.
Background
As Mobile Network Operators migrate from their legacy Circuit Switched Cores in order to overcome the increased erosion of voice ARPU, the challenges of delivering a high quality service change. There are many threats on the horizon such as Skype and operators are taking different approaches to address them - such as blocking Skype or embracing it.
No matter which approach they use, Mobile Network Operators are migrating their networks to IP technology in the core through either the standalone VoIP (3GPP R4) or IMS (3GPP R5). The OPEX and CAPEX benefits are compelling: a single Mobile Soft Switch (MSS) can control many Media Gateways (MGW) to provide increased capacity at lower cost.
In R4 and above networks, it is no longer sufficient to monitor the control signalling to determine call quality as was the case for TDM-based networks. To understand users’ QoE (Quality of Experience) in packet-based networks, Service Assurance solutions need to monitor both control and user plane data.
Hammer XMS Assures R4 and above voice quality
Hammer XMS delivers the following benefits for mobile operators for verifying quality of customer services in their core network:- End to end visibility of voice and SMS service quality from control to media across TDM and IP domains
- Ability to identify failures in Location, Authentication and Subscriber profile procedures and their root cause
- Reduce Mean Time To Repair of potentially revenue threatening issues
- Ensure voice QoS is maintained as networks transition from TDM to VoIP by providing quality metrics on all calls with the ability to identify quality for a single subscriber
- Improve investment efficiency by ensuring capital spend is properly directed at network bottlenecks and undersized network elements
- Seamlessly integrate IMS specific signalling monitoring
- Single system with integrated analysis of mobility and call quality issues including media quality analysis
- Full correlation of mobility management, call management, authentication, registration and media where applicable.
- Support for Core protocols including MAP, CAP, IS-41, INAP, ISUP, BICC, SIP and GCP (MGCP, H.248 and MEGACO), and WIN services
- Support for IMS call models for R5 and above networks
- Support for Narrow and Wideband interfaces including GbE and 10GbE
- Real-time analysis and troubleshooting
- End to end correlation of all interfaces and protocols involved in voice and SMS service delivery
- KPI generation of network and service performance with deep dive into root cause analysis
- Scalable from small installations to network wide coverage
The Diagram below shows a sample Mobile Softswitch deployment:
Hammer XMS provides unrivalled visibility by monitoring the marked interfaces and relevant protocols as shown in the diagram above.
