2. IMS and ATCA James Rafferty James.rafferty@dialogic.com

3. 3 Agenda Open Systems for Service Providers SIP: A Success Story IP Multimedia Subsystem ATCA Where are we on the adoption curve? IMS and ATCA: The Road Ahead

4. Open Systems for Service Providers Traditional switches (pre-IP) built on proprietary hardware and various quasi-standard telecom protocols With advent of IP, a chance to revisit the model Two key directions emerged: –Open protocols –Open hardware How is that working out? 4

5. Open Protocols Good News –Open protocols are very popular –But, there’s been too many of them Circuit-Based: MFR2, ISDN PRI, SS7 H.323, MGCP, H.248, SIP –From a variety of standards groups and consortia ITU-T, ANSI, ETSI, IETF, 3GPP, W3C, … –Fortunately… 5

6. Winner of the Standards Wars SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) Two Key Endorsements – Microsoft –Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) 6

7. SIP and Open Telecom Since 2001, VoIP industry has built products that are SIP enabled But SIP is pretty complex –Many core standards –Many standard extensions –Many proprietary “de facto” extensions How to sort out this puzzle? 7

8. 8 One Answer: IMS Wireless Vendors worked to produce standards for Multimedia Services over SIP Design Criteria: –Provide common architecture for multiple services –IP at the core –Offer access to users on existing networks –Need to interwork between IP and circuit switched at the edges Result: IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) –Developed by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) –Endorsed by both wireless and wireline industry groups

9. IMS Architecture

10. IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Simplified View  AS – Application Server  SCIM - Service Capability Interaction Manager  MRFC - Multimedia Resource Function Controller  MRFP - Multimedia Resource Function Processor  MRF – Media Resource Function  CSCF- Call Session Control Function  BGCF - Breakout Gateway Control Function  MGCF - Media Gateway Control Function  MGW - Media Gateway  HSS - Home Subscription Server  HLR - Home Location Register Key Elements: MRFC HSS/HLR MRFP CSCF MGW SCIM C I-CSCF SCFF S-CSCF BGCF MGCF MRF SIP RTP SS7 SIP Application Servers P-CSCF

11. Benefits of IMS Reference Architecture for Vendors and Customers Provides standard profile of SIP –3GPP standards reference core SIP standards and extensions No work in process documents are mandated Provides focus for SIP and related interop Updated about every year and one half –Updates reflect progress in filling standards gaps 11

12. Gaming SIP MSCML RTP SIP MRF SIP SIP SIP w/ VoiceXML SIP w/ MSCML SIP SIP VoiceXML NFS HTTP FTP Network Storage Web Content SIP Routing Cloud 3G 2.5G PSTN Cable IP Phones Unified Messaging Announcements Video Mail Video Conferencing IP Call Center Pre-Paid Voice Mail Conferencing Video Ringback S-CSCF/ SCIM IP MSC CMTS MGCF/ MGW QuickTime mp3 Text MPEG-4 IMS: Foundation for Multimedia Services

13. IMS: Filling out the Specs Work continues on notable IMS components Example: Internet Engineering Task Force is developing a SIP based media control protocol –Likely to be adopted by 3GPP for IMS –Will provide a linchpin in the critical interaction between Application Servers and Media Servers Current IMS spec is Release 7 (2007) Next IMS Release 8 is targeted for 2008 13

14. IMS and Sorting Out SIP The promise of IMS is a reference architecture that many vendors buy into Reality is more complex Vendors ARE deploying pre-IMS or partial IMS solutions –SIP is widely used, but interoperability issues remain –IMS will help encourage standard profiles of SIP –As a vendor, we’re already seeing more pressure to adapt the SIP specs endorsed by 3GPP 14

15. What about Open Hardware? PICMG devised the first pass of a telecom architecture early this century –Used Compact PCI –Had Ethernet backbone – PICMG 2.16 –Enabled use of bladed architecture with IP protocols tying together the blades Reaction of Telecom Vendors –Not sufficiently carrier grade –PCI bus is single point of failure 15

16. ATCA to the Rescue PICMG started all over again Created the Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) Goals: –Support very high bandwidth backbones in a chassis –Provide specifications for all key hardware components –Support multiple switch fabrics –Include built-in management tools –Build in robust high availability hardware from the start 16

17. 21-Nov-15 ATCA Expanded Board Size Connector Zones CompactPCI 55 square inches ~50 watts power AdvancedTCA 125 square inches ~200 watts power 280mm 8U 6U 160mm

18. 21-Nov-15 Bus vs. Switched Fabric Comparison Shared Bus can jam with one failure Switched Fabric can have redundant paths

19. Example: Evolution to ATCA Rackmount Server Compact PCI Boards Software-Based Media Server ATCA Host Blade Add HW Assist ATCA Carrier Card ATCA Chassis ATCA AMC Cards

20. ATCA: Vision and Reality ATCA Vision of Open Hardware is a great idea –Encourage creation of open hardware eco-system –Get broad participation of experts in all key components –Build best of breed systems using open components The Reality? –The xTCA eco-system has partially taken hold –Lots of competition from private bladed architectures –All of the fabric choices fragmented the vendor implementations –Many vendors and carriers have not bought in 20

21. In Perspective Can you buy a deployable IMS implementation using xTCA components today? In total: –No In parts: –Yes Does this mean that Open Systems are a failure? –No, not at all 21

22. Where are we on the adoption curve? For SIP –Core SIP RFCs widely adopted –Lots of proven interop between components –Interop via SIPIT and other industry assocations For IMS –IMS concepts being used, but standards are incomplete –Hence, adoption of pre-IMS built around SIP For ATCA –Sporadic adoption by key vendors –Alternatives have emerged 22

23. Alternatives to ATCA Blade Servers –Platforms developed by several computer vendors –Heavy processing focus; less emphasis on I/O throughput Rack Mounted Servers –Use server as appliance approach –1 and 2U form factors; expand via rack and stack –Purpose built hardware coupled with open protocols 23

24. Open Systems Example IP Media Servers have been adopted in several form factors –Began as proprietary, carrier rack systems –Shift toward 1 and 2U appliances, often with standard CPUs and no DSPs –Blade servers offer high density and scalability –ATCA processor blades can also run media server code and scale up via addition of more blades –MicroTCA will enable smaller form factor media servers built on xTCA eco-system 24

25. So What about ATCA and IMS? ATCA has helped spawn an open hardware movement –But rack mount servers and blade servers have been hugely popular IMS is one of the factors driving wide adoption of SIP –Open protocols have been a big winner, with SIP being the focus –IMS offers a reference architecture for SIP and ways of gluing SIP components together 25

26. ATCA and IMS: Evolution, not Revolution ATCA still has an uphill climb Service providers want reliable HA architectures ATCA has the promise, but needs more adoption –Smaller xTCA form factors may be more successful –Can build on same eco-system as ATCA IMS has lots of vendor mind share, but… –Specifications are still maturing –Still early on the adoption curve –Vendors are using IMS concepts 26

27. Resources IMS Forum – www.imsforum.org 3GPP – www.3GPP.orgwww.3GPP.org Internet Engineering Task Force – www.ietf.orgwww.ietf.org ETSI TISPAN - http://portal.etsi.org/portal_common/home.asp?tbkey1=TISPAN http://portal.etsi.org/portal_common/home.asp?tbkey1=TISPAN PICMG – www.picmg.orgwww.picmg.org MultiService Forum – www.msforum.orgwww.msforum.org 27

28. Summary Movement toward Open Standards is strong in Telecom SIP has been widely adopted IMS offers promise as a reference architecture, but still in early stages of deployment ATCA has supporters but is vying with alternatives as the basis for next generation hardware Combination of ATCA and IMS makes sense, but is not happening yet on a wide scale 28