The cellular industry has experienced an extraordinary growth curve, where subscriber acquisition was the top priority. Now, as a result of competitive pressures, operators’ minutes-of-use are increasing, while average revenue-per-user is decreasing. Thus mobile operators are now looking to optimize their network infrastructure costs per subscriber by IP-enabling their MSCs, through architectures enabling mobile operators to focus their MSC investments on maximizing subscribers, managing their mobility, and evolving their networks in a manner consistent with the emerging standards for wireless technologies.

Now the industry is moving strongly towards SIP, not only as the signaling protocol for IP telephony, but also for use in trunking applications using the SIP-I variant. Using SIP for IP-based inter-machine trunking has many advantages for mobile operators. It works seamlessly through all of the classic SIP routing proxies and session border controllers that an operator may install, and also enables operators to deploy enhanced services using SIP application servers and state-of-the-art service creation tools.

Three basic applications are available mobile operators defining the ways to implement IP technology in their networks:

• Distributed Gateway MSC: Mobile network operators are seeking new core network solutions to enable them to build larger mobile networks that are simpler to manage and operate, as well as support evolution to 3G and 4G architectures. These core network solutions enable cost-effective deployments of centralized call server networks supported by distributed media gateways to enable operators to migrate from legacy to next generation switching, with a clear migration path to IMS.
  
  
• MSC Offload: Mobile operators are under continuing pressure to decrease their network costs by improving network efficiencies. A significant portion of these costs are incurred in their core networks, which are often comprised of a mesh of circuit switched trunks. These trunks are leased or owned facilities between MSCs in a city or between city or even country locations. At the same time, many mobile operators are using a parallel IP network for their data traffic. As mobile operators seek ways to reduce costs, one rapidly deployable solution is to replace the circuit-based trunks between switches with lower cost, more flexible IP-based facilities. Distributed Inter-MSC Trunking solutions use the advanced routing and transport features to migrate the core of today's mobile voice network from TDM to VoIP.
  
  
• Gateway MSC: Mobile operators are increasingly challenged to lower costs and improve the efficiency of their networks, yet many calls to subscribers must be inefficiently routed through multiple mobile switching centers (MSC) to reach the actual location of the called party's handset. Gateway MSC solutions provide an efficient, IP-based intelligent gateway that eliminates this problem in mobile networks. Instead of routing all incoming calls through a subscriber’s home MSC and wasting MSC ports -- especially in markets served by multiple MSCs -- IP-based Gateway MSC queries a Home Location Register (HLR) to determine the subscriber’s location, enabling the call to be directly routed to the correct MSC. This reduces utilization of expensive MSC ports and transport facilities, reducing network cost and complexity.

The Verscom G-MSC and Distributed G-MSC Solutions

Verscom offer mobile operators advanced Gateway MSC solutions that can also serve many other mobile applications. With its native packet and TDM voice core and wide range of codecs and interfaces, Verscom solution substantially lowers total cost of network ownership by freeing expensive MSC ports, reducing facility requirements between MSCs and the PSTN, and replacing long distance and leased facility costs with less expensive IP transport.

The platforms' geographically redundant, carrier grade architectures enable operators to start with small networks and expand to support millions of calls across a continent. A wide range of IP and TDM network interfaces, protocols and codecs are supported for flexible and cost-effective network deployments. The platforms also provide IP tandem/transit and international gateway services, enabling mobile operators to deploy multiple applications using a single network system, simplifying network operations and lowering total cost of ownership.

Benefits of Verscom G-MSC Solutions

• Network-proven, widely deployed, carrier grade, open standards-based solution highly scalable to millions of BHCA
  
  
• Lowers network capital and operations costs by freeing MSC capacity, reducing the need for new MSC purchases, and eliminating the mesh of expensive TDM trunks between MSCs, as well as redundant TDM facilities, with advanced routing and translations, support for MPLS and OSPF, and a wide range of network codecs and interfaces
  
  
• Consolidates many smaller, more expensive, and duplicative MSC-to-PSTN connections into larger facilities to enable concentrated PSTN handoffs through an efficient media gateway
  
  
• Facilitates migration to IMS and the Long Term Evolution (LTE) of the mobile all-packet core
  
  
• An advanced, IP-based solution that eliminates the backhauling of calls to the home MSC location
  
  
• Reduces operator space, cooling and power-related costs by replacing expensive, circuit-based Mobile Switching Centers (MSCs) with more compact, efficient, and advanced packet platforms
  
  
• Simultaneously supports CDMA, GSM and UMTS radio networks and IP, ATM and TDM network transport on a single gateway
  
  
• Reduces network complexity and costs with integrated echo cancellation, voice quality enhancements, conferencing, tones, and announcements
  
  
• Integrated signaling gateway consolidates signaling links into fewer network nodes, simplifying operations and lowering network costs
  
  
• Improves IP backhaul efficiencies and reduces deployment costs with integrated IP/MPLS and OSPF traffic engineering support