BT extends LTE trials for fixed/mobile convergence

(Feb 7 2011) LTE

1. 

   British Telecom is one of the few European telcos to have no mobile arm, but it has been taking an active interest in 4G technologies for some years now. Its dilemma is how to harness this wave and a new multivendor trial may offer some clues.

   BT had been widely expected to bid in the UK’s 2.6GHz spectrum auction.  Before repeated delays pushed the sale into 2012, BT was interested in running WiMAX as a way to get a 4G headstart, but now that LTE is commercialized too, its focus has shifted to the newer standard. Its latest move is to run a multivendor LTE lab trial to explore fixed/mobile convergence applications. However, the research may not focus so much on a wireless/wired system entirely run by BT, but points to an IP architecture that could consolidate BT’s wireline infrastructure with several different cellcos’ mobile networks. This would point to an extension of the telco’s current approach of working with the mobile carriers, as an MVNO but also providing on-demand backhaul and other managed services to all of them.

   The extensive research and trial program will be handled by BT’s Advanced Research Mobility Team and a key participant will be mobile broadband gateway maker Stoke. “This research with Stoke enables us to explore together the opportunity to develop innovative services for current 3G environments and opportunities for evolving the architecture to 4G,” said Chris Bilton, director of research and technology at BT, in a statement. “The program findings and vendor interoperability will provide invaluable insights to both of our companies.” 

   BT’s project will focus in particular on the use of flat IP architectures in mobile networks, especially LTE SAE (Service Architecture Evolution), with the aim of creating a single IP architecture, with common services, that would span wired and wireless connections.

   In terms of the BT business model, the priority is to investigate how such a framework could support fixed/mobile convergence for the carrier’s retail and wholesale business units, using a multivendor system for maximum flexibility and the ability to support multiple wireless partners.

   The Stoke Session Exchange (SSX) 3000 will be the multi-access gateway that helps BT test how to consolidate “three or more different mobile network operators’ networks within a combined, highly scalable and cost effective, core infrastructure”. The aim is to identify new revenue opportunities in connecting those cellcos’ access networks to BT’s future intelligent backhaul and transport network, to carry traffic from a range of wired and wireless broadband devices.  BT already provides managed backhaul services for all the UK cellcos via its all-IP 21^st Century Network.

   The SSX product sits at the edge of the network, integrating an IP access gateway plus session and mobility managers, removing many functions and burdens from the core network. These include the identification and offloading of traffic that does not need to go via the core, to the internet; encryption; femtocell or ASN gateway; and mobility management. It can handle seamless movement of subscribers and data between different RANs including LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi and others.  

   BT’s expertise and mobility research labs will allow Stoke to investigate the implementation of advanced features into its portfolio. Many features of the SSX platform already comply with LTE/SAE. In particular, it will provide BT with repurposing and rerouting (supporting approaches such as femtocells and Wi-Fi offload), and evolution from 3G to 4G.

   Stoke’s flagship customer for SSX has been Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, which is also an investor. DoCoMo is using the SSX 3000 in its LTE network, to aggregate LTE base stations and support multinetwork access within DoCoMo’s all-IP infrastructure, as well as supporting femtocells.

   Bookmark or Share this article

Login to comment