Xcell Journal: The authoritative journal for programmable ... - Xilinx
Xcell Journal: The authoritative journal for programmable ... - Xilinx
Xcell Journal: The authoritative journal for programmable ... - Xilinx
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Interconnecting IP Networks<br />
<strong>The</strong> earliest all-IP networks relied on conventional<br />
public switched telephone network<br />
(PSTN) gateways to interconnect<br />
with other networks, even those with similar<br />
IP infrastructures. But a PSTN gateway<br />
cannot support cutting-edge IP services.<br />
Carriers will depend on these services to<br />
open new revenue streams, secure profitability,<br />
and differentiate their offerings.<br />
Access<br />
Wireless<br />
DSL<br />
Cable<br />
Enterprise<br />
For scalability and robustness... Newport Networks<br />
decided to implement a significant proportion of<br />
the functionality in custom hardware.<br />
PSTN gateways are also quite expensive <strong>for</strong><br />
making IP interconnections.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Newport Networks 1460 session<br />
controller solves this challenge. It sits at the<br />
edge of the carrier network to enable service<br />
providers to interconnect at the IP level.<br />
Figure 1 shows how the 1460 supports an<br />
IP-IP interconnect, controlling signaling<br />
and media streams as they enter and exit<br />
the network. Benefits include broadband<br />
multimedia interconnection and lower<br />
peering costs.<br />
Any solution designed to enable direct<br />
IP-IP interconnections must be extremely<br />
flexible. This flexibility will ensure maximum<br />
interoperability between network<br />
owners while IP standards and protocols<br />
continue to change quickly. Some protocols,<br />
such as the SIP (Session Initiation<br />
Protocol) family, are now quite well<br />
defined. Others are more esoteric and continue<br />
to evolve. And as some standards<br />
achieve de facto status, each new IP service<br />
seems to precipitate a flood of competing<br />
IP Edge IP Core IP Edge<br />
Call<br />
Call<br />
SIP, RTSP Agent<br />
SIP, RTSP Agent SIP, RTSP<br />
Megaco<br />
Edge<br />
Router<br />
Controlled<br />
Media<br />
Other<br />
IP Traffic<br />
Control Plane<br />
Media Plane<br />
Controlled<br />
Media<br />
1460 1460<br />
Megaco<br />
Other<br />
IP Traffic<br />
Figure 1 – <strong>The</strong> 1460 session controller supports direct IP-IP network interconnection.<br />
Megaco<br />
Interconnect<br />
Media<br />
Gateway<br />
and complementary protocols. We expect<br />
the many IP standards to consolidate in the<br />
<strong>for</strong>eseeable future. Flexibility is there<strong>for</strong>e<br />
paramount.<br />
Scalability must also be built into the<br />
infrastructure to support the subscriber<br />
growth that IP carriers are targeting. Easy<br />
management is also a prerequisite. This<br />
includes 99.999% availability, fully resilient<br />
operation, and the ability to modify key<br />
functions remotely and apply upgrades<br />
without powering down equipment.<br />
Further basic requirements of an IP-IP<br />
interconnect include features that preserve<br />
network security, ensure the availability of<br />
accounting in<strong>for</strong>mation <strong>for</strong> accurate<br />
billing, and control Quality of Service<br />
(QoS) mapping and media translations.<br />
Building the Next Generation<br />
Choosing whether to implement the functions<br />
of a device like the 1460 session controller<br />
in software or hardware depends on<br />
the carrier’s business model and future<br />
plans. For example, you can bring a software-centric<br />
solution to market quickly,<br />
which is also very flexible. But drawbacks<br />
include a relative lack of scalability, and<br />
robustness also falls as subscriber numbers<br />
increase. <strong>The</strong>se interconnects are also mission<br />
critical; because session controller<br />
servers are located in-line with the call parties,<br />
a software crash or other failure can<br />
result in dropped calls.<br />
On the other hand, a number of offthe-shelf<br />
computing plat<strong>for</strong>ms are capable<br />
of supporting cutting-edge services <strong>for</strong> a<br />
reasonable number of subscribers. But<br />
they lack the robustness required of a true<br />
carrier-class solution.<br />
For scalability and robustness, there<strong>for</strong>e,<br />
Newport Networks decided to implement<br />
a significant proportion of the functionality<br />
in custom hardware. But the new gateway<br />
also had to retain that crucial flexibility<br />
to remain protocol-agile and easy to manage<br />
– key attributes in delivering a low<br />
overall cost of ownership <strong>for</strong> IP carriers.<br />
For a network to be easily managed,<br />
operators must be able to per<strong>for</strong>m routine<br />
maintenance and apply periodic upgrades<br />
without visiting on-site to change cards,<br />
introduce additional logic, or implement<br />
hardware links to support test functions. In<br />
the IP world, new services emerge and<br />
evolve quickly, calling <strong>for</strong> frequent functional<br />
upgrades.<br />
<strong>The</strong> imminent widespread adoption of<br />
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) will also<br />
102 <strong>Xcell</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> Winter 2004