Advanced billing and security capabilities to lift barriers to the adoption of mobile data services
Technology improvements aimed at increasing the operating efficiency of mobile packet core networks are likely to boost the performance and reliability of wireless data services, making those services much more attractive to business and consumers. These are the findings of a major new report from Heavy Reading, the market research division of CMP Technology’s Light Reading.
The report – ‘Mobile Packet Core Networks & the Future of Wireless Data Services’ – is claimed to analyse the current wireless data services market and offer a ‘concise accounting of the mobile packet core network today’, describing what leading mobile operators have deployed in terms of design architecture, capacity, and features. It is also said to take account of the varied levels of sophistication in current operator deployments.
The 48-page report focuses on the two key nodes in GSM and W-CDMA networks – the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) – along with additional capabilities that can be deployed either as separate network elements or else as enhanced IP service functionality in the GGSN. It includes Heavy Reading’s first ever market share analysis of the mobile packet core sector, focusing on the SGSN and GGSN sectors.
The report also provides a profile of the major vendors that are delivering products into the mobile packet core space and the way that their solutions are providing the core technology building blocks from which mobile operators can further develop the mobile data services market.
“Mobile operators are clearly driving toward consolidation in the packet core,” notes Patrick Donegan, Senior Analyst at Heavy Reading and author of the report. “This consolidation is taking multiple forms, including the combination of multiple policy functions into a single network node; the convergence of multiple pre-paid/post-paid, voice/data, and fixed/mobile billing systems; and merger and acquisition activity among the network equipment vendors that are the primary developers of mobile packet core products.”
Several new features in the mobile packet core will lift barriers to the adoption of mobile data services, Donegan says. “Among these are advanced billing capabilities and security features that protect enterprises against unlawful usage by employees and prevent children from receiving inappropriate content,” he explains. “Operators are just starting to roll out these features today.”
Among other key findings of the report, Nokia Siemens Networks stands to gain much from consolidation among major equipment vendors in the mobile packet core, while Cisco faces the biggest challenges. While Siemens previously resold the Cisco GGSN and Cisco Mobile Exchange (CMX) solution into mobile operators worldwide, the new Nokia Siemens is likely to cease selling Cisco-based products at some point. Cisco is also likely to lose Lucent and Motorola as distribution channels for its GGSN and CMX due to the former’s merger with Alcatel and the latter’s strategic alignment with Huawei.
Among smaller vendors, Bytemobile, Redknee, and Starent Networks are having the biggest impact on the composition and strategic direction of mobile packet core networks. Redknee and Bytemobile are reaching out from their core businesses in monetization and optimization, respectively, into adjacent spaces in the mobile data policy environment. Although it hasn’t yet announced any significant wins, Starent Networks is making significant headway as an independent GGSN vendor, calims the report.
Some leading mobile operators are developing integrated services architectures in the mobile packet core, but this trend is not universal, says Heavy Reading. Both Vodafone and T-Mobile are loading an increasing amount of policy enforcement intelligence on the GGSN in their respective networks. But many other operators continue to prefer a distributed architecture, with functionality distributed across multiple nodes in the network, either due to a deliberate architectural decision or because they lack a compelling reason to move to an integrated architecture.