According to a recently released GSMA Wireless Intelligence infographic, there are 163 live LTE networks today, and that figure is expected to grow to more than 400 live LTE networks by the end of 2017.  However, there are still hundreds of 2G and 3G networks that these LTE networks will need to connect to, not to mention the million or so (depending on source) WiFi networks. 

The signaling interworking between  Diameter, SS7 and Radius is an important issue that needs to be solved.  It has become such a priority that a Diameter signaling controller market has emerged.

Dialogic will be hosting a webinar next Wednesday in which I will discuss this in more detail.  I will be joined by Steve van Zanen from Broadforward.  We’ll discuss the need for this type of equipment and the use cases that drive demand for interworking solutions.

But signaling is not the only interactions that occur with the LTE networks.  There are also media interactions required because of more advanced voice and video codecs that are used on LTE networks that will require transcoding.  And all this traffic will contribute to congestion.

The webinar will explore all three of these areas and solutions to allow the interactions to go smoother.  Please register to learn more.

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"How Does Dialogic Fit In with WebRTC?" - May 01, 2013

WebRTC Webinar Q&A #1 "Is WebRTC 10 years too late?" - Apr 04, 2013

Real, Live Video Conferencing of Smart Devices on LTE, WiFi and 3G - May 15, 2012

The Land (and soon to be land) of the Mobile Internet - Oct 25, 2011

ITW, as described on its website is “the annual meeting point for the wholesale telecommunications community and offers various networking opportunities through meeting rooms, an integrated exhibit and bilateral table area, numerous breakfasts, lunches and cocktail receptions and provides a wide range of conference sessions for attendees to benefit from.”

This market is evolving. ITW was historically about DM interconnect minutes. But now, VoIP minutes and wireless minutes are becoming increasingly important. As such, IP Packet Exchange (IPX) is important to this audience since it enables mobile network operators, fixed line operators and application service providers to seamlessly interoperate with each other.

VoIP minutes are also increasingly important. VoIP brings different kinds of codec combinations, including video. Wireless brings other kind of codecs. So, the ability for the SBC to handle rich media well is critical. Many SBCs don’t do that today. And since policy and routing are important topics for this audience, a “regular” SBC just doesn’t cut it here. A combination of SBC and switch in an IP environment is also critical to service the new needs of the wholesale carrier attendees.

ITW has been an excellent event for Dialogic over the years. Many of our customers attend, and we will again be there this year. Dialogic has the expertise and products to address the rich media and integrated IP policy and routing needs that come from IP and wireless minutes, and we’re confident in our ability to continue to support the needs of the ITW audience. So, please come and see us if you will be there at meeting room # 4130.

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The Evolution of International Telecoms Week (ITW) - May 07, 2013

Why would you want a software based session border controller? - Apr 30, 2013

A view of the African telecommunications market - the reality - Nov 06, 2012

Visionaries Lead the Way - Oct 16, 2012

The Multimedia Enabled Cloud - Oct 09, 2012

Sponsored by the Call Center Outsourcing Community & the Virtual Contact Center Outsourcing Community

ITW, as described on its website is “the annual meeting point for the wholesale telecommunications community and offers various networking opportunities through meeting rooms, an integrated exhibit and bilateral table area, numerous breakfasts, lunches and cocktail receptions and provides a wide range of conference sessions for attendees to benefit from.”

This market is evolving. ITW was historically about DM interconnect minutes. But now, VoIP minutes and wireless minutes are becoming increasingly important. As such, IP Packet Exchange (IPX) is important to this audience since it enables mobile network operators, fixed line operators and application service providers to seamlessly interoperate with each other.

VoIP minutes are also increasingly important. VoIP brings different kinds of codec combinations, including video. Wireless brings other kind of codecs. So, the ability for the SBC to handle rich media well is critical. Many SBCs don’t do that today. And since policy and routing are important topics for this audience, a “regular” SBC just doesn’t cut it here. A combination of SBC and switch in an IP environment is also critical to service the new needs of the wholesale carrier attendees.

ITW has been an excellent event for Dialogic over the years. Many of our customers attend, and we will again be there this year. Dialogic has the expertise and products to address the rich media and integrated IP policy and routing needs that come from IP and wireless minutes, and we’re confident in our ability to continue to support the needs of the ITW audience. So, please come and see us if you will be there at meeting room # 4130.

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The Evolution of International Telecoms Week (ITW) - May 07, 2013

Why would you want a software based session border controller? - Apr 30, 2013

A view of the African telecommunications market - the reality - Nov 06, 2012

Visionaries Lead the Way - Oct 16, 2012

The Multimedia Enabled Cloud - Oct 09, 2012

Sponsored by the Call Center Outsourcing Community & the Virtual Contact Center Outsourcing Community

This blog represents the last of the series of questions we received from attendees of our February 20^th WebRTC webinar.  Quite a few of the questions we received during the webinar asked about Dialogic products that could be used to build WebRTC solutions, along with general questions on making the technology work for various use cases.  One solution our customers have found valuable is the  PowerMedia XMS, which is a software media server and IP multimedia system (IMS) media resource function (MRF).  Since WebRTC is poised to dramatically lower the barriers to rich multimedia communication sessions across so many use cases, we believe that WebRTC adoption will drive demand for the scalable, mixed media environment for audio and video. That’s what PowerMedia XMS was designed to deliver.  Happily, that view is being borne out by early solution and service provider engagements seeking a media server with built-in WebRTC support, which we’ll start delivering over the next few months to support their development projects, demos, proof of concept (POC) projects and pilots.

Whether in private networks, next-generation networks (NGNs), IMS or across new IPX and LTE networks, the voice phone call is getting ready to yield communication dominance to the rich communication session, from simple presence and chat thru rich multi-party, multimedia sharing experiences. The enabling applications and corresponding solutions will need on-demand media services in the networks to facilitate this, and PowerMedia XMS will be there to deliver. Dialogic fits in to this evolution by helping our customers deliver WebRTC solutions and services.   

Come to our booth at the WebRTC Conference and Expo or listen to my keynote there on June 27^th to hear more.  I look forward to it.

Note: On February, 20^th, Dialogic in conjunction with TMC webinars, ran a WebRTC webinar.  In terms of number of both registrants and attendees, it was one of the most successful webinars we ever did.  The webinar ran 15 minutes over and we were not able to get to some of the key questions that came in at the end.  We could have gone literally another hour.   This blog is part of a 5 part blog series to get to the top 5 unanswered questions from that webinar.

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"The contact center use case looks like a natural for WebRTC, but how will that work?" - Apr 24, 2013

WebRTC Webinar Q&A #1 "Is WebRTC 10 years too late?" - Apr 04, 2013

"Where do IMS and WebRTC Intersect?" - Apr 17, 2013

WebRTC Webinar Q&A #2 "Why WebRTC when we have Skype?" - Apr 17, 2013

Mobile World Congress 2013 Recap - Mar 04, 2013

Mobile World Congress 2013 in Full Swing - Feb 26, 2013

LTE Network Interactions - May 14, 2013

Why would you want a software based session border controller? - Apr 30, 2013

Attend the WebRTC Webinar and Learn More about the Disruption - Feb 19, 2013

2G Still Has Legs - Feb 12, 2013

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Why would you ever want a software-based session border controller (SBC)?  Is it even feasible? Right now, SBC’s are boxes that often implemented at the edges of IP-based networks.  It might seem unlikely for a hardware node of that critical network element morph to become a piece of software.

If the SBC sits on the border of two IP networks, then there are IP connections on both sides of the box, while means there is a physical connection to an IP network.  However, that physical connection doesn’t have to be at the exact demarcation point.  In fact, it doesn’t have to be part of the SBC box. Some other device could take care of the physical IP connection, and the IP data stream could then pass through a software-based SBC function that resides elsewhere. For example, a software-based SBC could be a resident in a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) type chassis, such as an ATCA chassis, where network interface cards (NIC)  handle the connection to the IP network. A series of single board computers could go into the chassis where the software based elements could run as an application. The software-based SBC could simply be connected and running on one of the single board computers. It could be running in a virtualized environment in a single board computer, or as part of a few applications in a 1U or 2U platform. Ultimately, it could also be in a cloud environment.  In this case, the actual physical NIC could be thousands of miles away from the SBC software.

Now that we’ve deemed it feasible, why would someone want to use a software-based SBC? First of all, economics come into play. COTS hardware can enter the picture, and when that happens, costs for that product set typically come down. A related piece to this reasoning is savings on the chassis. If you put the SBC on a single board computer that goes into a common chassis with multiple other network notes, also on single board computers, then there is savings on the chassis.   There would also clearly be sparing savings, since the COTS components are less expensive, and they would be more commonly available, obviating the need to as much on-site sparing. 

Software based SBCs are also a great way to get started if you think you need one. If you don’t know how many sessions you need, then you can get started using this and scale it up relatively easily. And it may be more economically viable for your situation if you need to scale as you go. 

Additionally, you can add more resources to the SBC easily. At Dialogic, we believe strongly that media and multimedia transcoding will be required for the SBC, and not because that is a strength of ours. We believe in that because if you buy into the notion that an SBC is basically an IP-IP gateway, then it will be obvious that transcoding would be required since transcoding is required in a TDM-IP gateway.  It’s simple if you think about it from that perspective. 

Let’s get more specific now. From a service provider perspective, costs and CAPEX are clearly important and we covered some of that above from the perspective of using COTS hardware. However, another consideration of using COTS hardware is some hardware (the base chassis say) will go away as part of using a software-based network node, then CAPEX will go down. This is clearly a driver as well for a movement to software based elements. 

Another important consideration though is that service velocity is increasing. New services are being rolled out quicker. Agility with respect to the network elements are required to be able to meet these needs. Software-based network elements enable this agility because of what I said above – ease of scalability and ease of adding newer functions such as transcoding.  It’s likely that the needs of the SBC will continue to evolve over time. With transcoding right now, we see the needs to transcode HD Voice codecs to the more “regular” codecs. But in the future I’m sure we’ll see video transcoding needed as well. Even if you feel video transcoding is covered now, what about when the H.265 video codec  comes out in a year? Will you need to buy a new SBC to cover that?  Or can you upgrade a piece of software?

And what about when WebRTC enters the scene? There is transcoding required there as well because the WebRTC audio and video codecs are different than utilized in the networks today. But there is also a signaling conversion required as the HTTP to SIP signaling conversion needs to occur. Having a piece of software to upgrade would also enable this support much easier. Transcoding and WebRTC are just two ideas that come to mind right now. What is the future to hold in this regard? Yes, you know that there will be a lot more!

For enterprises, software-based SBCs offer many of the same benefits as above, especially as it relates to WebRTC since I would expect WebRTC to enter the enterprise first. Integration of enterprise apps, whether WebRTC apps or not, could be a big differentiator with a software based SBC. And a software-based SBC, with its ability to scale down, offers a cost effective alternative for enterprises that don’t have one today, because the SBCs on the market are either too expensive for them or because the ones on the market today offer “too much” in terms of session capability. 

So you can see why a software-based SBC is convenient. But can it do what the hardware based SBC’s can do? Obviously, that is dependent on your supplier, but there is no reason that the software based and hardware based SBC cannot handle the same functions. There might be hardware assist in a hardware based SBC, but this would be to enable higher densities or more sessions, but shouldn’t be there to add features. At Dialogic, this is what we believe anyway. Almost 13 years ago Dialogic really drove the concept of Host Media Processing as an alternative to the Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) boards that drove Dialogic’s early years.  We know what is possible as the technology transitions to software.  And we know that you don’t have to lose functionality in this transition. We are experts in this “software-ization” of hardware and have applied this mantra to our software based SBC.

Software based SBCs have entered the industry discussion, because there are use cases where they make sense. If you are considering using one, or want to talk more about this, let us know.

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The Evolution of International Telecoms Week (ITW) - May 07, 2013

The Evolution of International Telecoms Week (ITW) - May 07, 2013

"The contact center use case looks like a natural for WebRTC, but how will that work?" - Apr 24, 2013

WebRTC Webinar Q&A #1 "Is WebRTC 10 years too late?" - Apr 04, 2013

"How Does Dialogic Fit In with WebRTC?" - May 01, 2013

"Where do IMS and WebRTC Intersect?" - Apr 17, 2013

WebRTC Webinar Q&A #2 "Why WebRTC when we have Skype?" - Apr 17, 2013

Mobile World Congress 2013 Recap - Mar 04, 2013

Mobile World Congress 2013 in Full Swing - Feb 26, 2013

Sponsored by the Call Center Outsourcing Community & the Virtual Contact Center Outsourcing Community

“The contact center use case looks like a natural for WebRTC, but how will that work?”

From our company’s viewpoint, implementing many of the WebRTC use cases in the modern contact center is a matter of normalizing the media and signaling streams between systems to interface with the existing service. The telco perspective in this context doesn’t mean exclusively carriers or service providers, but a wider view of enabling WebRTC endpoints to access known communication services or solutions, such as a contact center.

While our on-demand webinar described a click-to-call WebRTC use case that may already be emerging in the market, another use case has cropped up that is a practical application in the area of agent login and soft-clients.  IP contact centers have been using SIP soft-clients on agent workstations with USB headsets for years as an efficient method of equipping the agent with their login endpoint and voice channel.  But each soft-client comes with a cost, even to the solution provider, often in form of licenses or royalties to a third party that owns the SIP stack, or a SIP soft-client OEM.  It can be a significant cost across a group of agents, and of course, must be passed to the organization subscribing to, or otherwise procuring the contact center service.

So applying the no cost, open source, browser based soft-client capability of WebRTC, even just as a simple narrowband voice channel for agent connectivity is really appealing.  It has a low impact to actual contact center operations, and does not require any change to the customer facing portion of the contact center.  Granted – this is not earthshaking innovation, rather an incremental and practical use to make the contact center more competitive.  And in truth, this is a way to start adopting WebRTC technology without taking a big risk.

And yes, part of this very practical WebRTC use case requires normalizing the media and signaling sessions between the WebRTC agent position and the SIP/VoIP based contact center core, which is where Dialogic will help.

Note: On February, 20^th, Dialogic in conjunction with TMC webinars, ran a WebRTC webinar.  In terms of number of both registrants and attendees, it was one of the most successful webinars we ever did.  The webinar ran 15 minutes over and we were not able to get to some of the key questions that came in at the end.  We could have gone literally another hour.   This blog is part of a 5 part blog series to get to the top 5 unanswered questions from that webinar.

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"How Does Dialogic Fit In with WebRTC?" - May 01, 2013

WebRTC Webinar Q&A #1 "Is WebRTC 10 years too late?" - Apr 04, 2013

"Where do IMS and WebRTC Intersect?" - Apr 17, 2013

Why would you want a software based session border controller? - Apr 30, 2013

WebRTC Webinar Q&A #2 "Why WebRTC when we have Skype?" - Apr 17, 2013

Mobile World Congress 2013 Recap - Mar 04, 2013

Mobile World Congress 2013 in Full Swing - Feb 26, 2013

Attend the WebRTC Webinar and Learn More about the Disruption - Feb 19, 2013

The Disruption, and subsequent innovation from WebRTC, part 1 - Jan 08, 2013

LTE Network Interactions - May 14, 2013

Sponsored by the Call Center Outsourcing Community & the Virtual Contact Center Outsourcing Community

In January, a new video codec called H.265 (also known as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) was approved by the ITU-T.  This is significant for a couple of reasons:

It needs only half the bit rate of the best codec out there today (H.264) to provide the same or similar quality video.  You can even see it in this YouTube video.

Given that video is a massive use case for mobile data networks, estimated to be about half of mobile data traffic today with expectations of it garnering even more in the coming years, the improvement in quality while reducing the bandwidth requirement is a huge development.

Our engineering team doesn’t believe it will result in a 50 percent bandwidth savings even though it’s half the bit-rate. That’s because  a lot goes into the file size of a video, including computing power. Instead, we estimate it will initially save at least 25 to 30 percent in bandwidth and then up to 50 percent as the algorithm and optimization techniques advance later.  Use cases would also determine the savings with pre-encoded videos garnering up to 50 percent of bandwidth  savings, while real-time applications such as viewing football games online would be only 25 percent of savings.

Does this mean it will solve the mobile congestion issues? It’s too soon to say for sure. Some other things will need to happen first. For example, the ecosystem will need time to capture H.265 into devices, so it will be some time before we have H.265 devices en mass in the market.  And there could be a coming clash with WebRTC codecs that could potentially delay widespread adoption.

But assuming this is all worked out, would this new codec solve mobile congestion issues? Not completely, but it’s a contributing factor.  As I’ve also written before, there are many methods to solve mobile congestion, such as new technologies like H.265, and adding more bandwidth from deploying new towers, as well as offloading  data traffic to WiFi – all  optimization techniques enabled by Dialogic solutions.  All will be important to this.  This is an example of a new technology helping out.  And let’s remember human nature, too.  Once it’s easier and faster to view video, we’ll want more and larger file sizes.  And the more we watch, the more strain the networks will experience.  So this new technology won’t solve mobile congestion.  We’ll still need to consider multiple strategies and  techniques.

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The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is an architectural framework for delivering IP multimedia services. It is based primarily on SIP as a rich, real-time media session protocol for IP networks, and as such, relies on SIP-based endpoints and soft-clients to register and support subscribers on the services (at least those services that are truly multimedia in nature with HD voice and video interactivity, and not ‘skinnied’ down through gateways to a narrowband voice service).

The care and feeding of SIP client applications that enable the IMS service subscribers represents a considerable effort and cost to carriers for their on-net IMS service subscribers. Extending the IMS service reach with soft-clients to off-net endpoints, meaning those that are on other carriers broadband and mobile networks, presents another set of challenges, including various app store navigations and negotiations.

As a so-called client-less client, WebRTC is very appealing as a vehicle to extend the reach of IMS services. Not only is the care and feeding of the client app minimized, the ease of on-boarding new subscribers through a simple webpage interface lowers the barriers to trials and adoption. For the subscriber base, WebRTC can also act to extend the service and contact reach of present on-net subscribers to virtually any endpoint that can run an HTML5 browser. Taking this one step further, it enables the subscriber to access the IMS services from any browser equipped device – PC, tablet, smartphone – even a television, without client-app installations or concern for operating system versions or device manufacturer support.   And the experience would be the same (well very similar at least pending the screen size of your device).

So the intersection of IMS applications and WebRTC is where you would expect it – lowering the barriers to new subscribers through simplifying and standardizing the requisite soft-client. Will it work?

What do you think?      

Note: On February, 20^th, Dialogic in conjunction with TMC webinars, ran a WebRTC webinar.  In terms of number of both registrants and attendees, it was one of the most successful webinars we ever did.  The webinar ran 15 minutes over and we were not able to get to some of the key questions that came in at the end.  We could have gone literally another hour.   This blog is part of a 5 part blog series to get to the top 5 unanswered questions from that webinar.

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WebRTC Webinar Q&A #1 "Is WebRTC 10 years too late?" - Apr 04, 2013

"How Does Dialogic Fit In with WebRTC?" - May 01, 2013

"The contact center use case looks like a natural for WebRTC, but how will that work?" - Apr 24, 2013

WebRTC Webinar Q&A #2 "Why WebRTC when we have Skype?" - Apr 17, 2013

Why would you want a software based session border controller? - Apr 30, 2013

Mobile World Congress 2013 Recap - Mar 04, 2013

Mobile World Congress 2013 in Full Swing - Feb 26, 2013

Attend the WebRTC Webinar and Learn More about the Disruption - Feb 19, 2013

The Disruption, and subsequent innovation from WebRTC, part 1 - Jan 08, 2013

LTE Network Interactions - May 14, 2013

Sponsored by the Call Center Outsourcing Community & the Virtual Contact Center Outsourcing Community

“Why  WebRTC when we have Skype”?”

This is a really good question.   After all, Skype is the dominant real-time communications technology on the web with hundreds of millions of users and isn’t very hard to use. 

There is a key difference though which is you have to go out of your way to use Skype – you need to download a client.  And people would counter with “yeah, but look at everyone using it”.  And I’d counter with people figure out how to use it since it’s worth it to them – i.e. it’s free.   Sure, I’d figure out how to use it too.  And in fact, I have figured out how to use it for that very reason.  But if you didn’t have to do anything and download something, then I’m quite sure many, many more people would use it.  So that’s where WebRTC comes in.  Kind of a weak argument I admit but there is something there.

However, a very real item relates to Skype and business use.  Skype is not very integrated into businesses, though I do use it occasionally to talk to customers outside the United States if that is their preferred communication mechanism.  It is viewed as more of a consumer application, though possibly with Microsoft that will change now.  But still, it will change for Microsoft Messenger, etc. users only I would bet.  The key difference with WebRTC will be the integration of WebRTC functionality into the different enterprise applications, such as contact centers, conference servers, IVRs, etc.   As media servers, such as offered by Dialogic, are WebRTC enabled, it will enable an entire enterprise application infrastructure that would be embraced by enterprise IT.  And that is very different than Skype.

That argument above also relates to service providers as well.  Because the value-added services offered by service providers today are not really Skype enabled.  Skype is simply an OTT service to the service provider.  But if WebRTC value-added applications can be enabled, then WebRTC isn’t simply just an OTT service like Skype.  It becomes different and more integrated into a service provider offering and something for the service providers to embrace.

Note: On February, 20^th, Dialogic in conjunction with TMC webinars, ran a WebRTC webinar.  In terms of number of both registrants and attendees, it was one of the most successful webinars we ever did.  The webinar ran 15 minutes over and we were not able to get to some of the key questions that came in at the end.  We could have gone literally another hour.   This blog is part of a 5 part blog series to get to the top 5 unanswered questions from that webinar.

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"How Does Dialogic Fit In with WebRTC?" - May 01, 2013

"The contact center use case looks like a natural for WebRTC, but how will that work?" - Apr 24, 2013

"Where do IMS and WebRTC Intersect?" - Apr 17, 2013

WebRTC Webinar Q&A #1 "Is WebRTC 10 years too late?" - Apr 04, 2013

Why would you want a software based session border controller? - Apr 30, 2013

Mobile World Congress 2013 Recap - Mar 04, 2013

Mobile World Congress 2013 in Full Swing - Feb 26, 2013

Attend the WebRTC Webinar and Learn More about the Disruption - Feb 19, 2013

The Mobile VAS Ecosystem - May 22, 2012

Sponsored by the Call Center Outsourcing Community & the Virtual Contact Center Outsourcing Community

Two days ago, I wrote a blog about Diameter Interworking use cases.  If you are a network operator, are these issues real? Well, they’re real enough that the 3GPP and GSMA have identified elements called Diameter Routing Agent (DRA),  Diameter Edge Agent (DEA), and Diameter Interworking Function (IWF), which is more closely aligned to the interworking described above.

Given that these issues are real, how do you address them?  For starters, operators need a box that connects the carrier LTE/IMS and policy control environment to existing 2G/3G/Wi-Fi and back office environments. This requires a box that bridges different technologies and overcomes incompatibilities through configuration, not through additional research and development. That is a fancy way of saying the use cases need to be considered ahead of time. Dialogic prides itself on any-to-any connectivity, as we have been in this game a long time.  The fast pace of infrastructure change during the past 15 years proves that the communications industry is up to the challenge. Vendors will solve this problem, and subscribers won’t even know what is happening in the background.  They’ll just know it works.  

Are you a service provider seeking to supercharge your network while migrating to LTE?

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Two days ago, I wrote a blog about Diameter Interworking use cases.  If you are a network operator, are these issues real? Well, they’re real enough that the 3GPP and GSMA have identified elements called Diameter Routing Agent (DRA),  Diameter Edge Agent (DEA), and Diameter Interworking Function (IWF), which is more closely aligned to the interworking described above.

Given that these issues are real, how do you address them?  For starters, operators need a box that connects the carrier LTE/IMS and policy control environment to existing 2G/3G/Wi-Fi and back office environments. This requires a box that bridges different technologies and overcomes incompatibilities through configuration, not through additional research and development. That is a fancy way of saying the use cases need to be considered ahead of time. Dialogic prides itself on any-to-any connectivity, as we have been in this game a long time.  The fast pace of infrastructure change during the past 15 years proves that the communications industry is up to the challenge. Vendors will solve this problem, and subscribers won’t even know what is happening in the background.  They’ll just know it works.  

Are you a service provider seeking to supercharge your network while migrating to LTE?

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Last week, I wrote a blog about Diameter protocol and its application use cases.  Since LTE uses it as a signaling protocol, operators have a need to interwork Diameter with the signaling technologies used in other mobile networks. This has given rise to the Diameter Interworking Gateway function, which moved onto the center stage at Mobile World Congress this year. It’s a critical element to enable the successful rollout of LTE and a seamless user experience across different networks.

 Let’s take a look at some of the key use cases:

1. Legacy network interworking. Signaling conversion from Diameter to SS7/MAP includes scenarios such as roaming between LTE and 2G/3G networks, security hand-off and home location register subscriber authentication. Since LTE will only account for 10 percent of all access networks by 2017, this roaming use case will be critical for LTE-legacy network interoperability. 
2. Wi-Fi interworking. Wi-Fi interworking requires signaling conversion from RADIUS to Diameter to connect the Wi-Fi network to the carrier’s central traffic management and charging systems. This allows carriers to offer subscriptions that combine mobile and Wi-Fi connectivity into a single bundle.
3. IT interworking. This requires connecting the new Diameter-based systems, such as a PCRF or a Diameter signaling controller, to either SOAP or XML/HTTP, so IT information systems such as customer relationship management (CRM) and subscriber databases can be used for policy and routing decisions.
4. LTE to IMS interworking. On the surface, both LTE and IMS use Diameter, so why would interworking between these be required?  In the VoIP world, just because SIP is on one device doesn’t mean it talks to another SIP device automatically. Different SIP versions might be used, or the vendors might have interpreted the specs in a slightly different way. Both of these scenarios result in poor interworking. It will be the same story for Diameter, and I understand there are close to 70 different variants of Diameter alone right now.

 What’s your LTE rollout challenge?

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“Is WebRTC 10 years too late?”

To properly answer this question, one needs to take a position.  One position is to assume that all the VoIP “stuff” that came before Web Real Time Communication (WebRTC) is kind of useless.  But moving to a world where SIP, G.711, and H.264 are the dominant real-time communication protocols and codecs over IP networks is not useless.  The industry has gravitated to these solutions because they either add value or save costs, or both.  Now that we have IP-based wireless networks with sufficient performance (such as  LTE) to be an on-ramp to the internet, technology that takes advantage of that has come to the forefront.  I think this movement to wireless capable networks is the real driver from 10 years ago.  If WebRTC occurred 10 years ago, who knows, maybe it wouldn’t be getting the attention it is now.  

Another angle with regards to the question could be related to all the investment that has gone on with SIP, making it hard to “root it out.” Remember that the TDM technology transition, that had way more capital investment, is nearing its final stages, proving that it is possible to transition technologies.  If WebRTC really can add value or save costs, then widespread adoption will happen.  There will be intermediary gateway type products to enable it.

I don’t think it’s 10 years too late, but we’d like to hear your views as well.

Note: On February, 20^th, Dialogic in conjunction with TMCnet, ran a WebRTC webinar.  In terms of number of both registrants and attendees, it was one of the most successful webinars we ever did.  The webinar ran 15 minutes long and we were not able to get to some of the key questions that came in at the end.  We could have gone literally another hour.   This blog is part of a five- part blog series to get to the top five unanswered questions from that webinar.

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"How Does Dialogic Fit In with WebRTC?" - May 01, 2013

"The contact center use case looks like a natural for WebRTC, but how will that work?" - Apr 24, 2013

"Where do IMS and WebRTC Intersect?" - Apr 17, 2013

Why would you want a software based session border controller? - Apr 30, 2013

WebRTC Webinar Q&A #2 "Why WebRTC when we have Skype?" - Apr 17, 2013

LTE Network Interactions - May 14, 2013

Mobile World Congress 2013 Recap - Mar 04, 2013

Mobile World Congress 2013 in Full Swing - Feb 26, 2013

Attend the WebRTC Webinar and Learn More about the Disruption - Feb 19, 2013

The Disruption, and subsequent innovation from WebRTC, part 1 - Jan 08, 2013

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Diameter is the key signaling protocol used in IMS and LTE networks that enable applications running on those networks to authenticate, authorize and charge. In other words, your mobile applications, when running on these networks, are using Diameter protocol in the background to enable you to utilize the many apps on your smartphone or tablet. This includes, for example, a location-based service type of application (such as Foursquare or Yelp), or mobile payment (such as Square), or an Internet purchase (from an app store online retailer like Amazon).

Given the huge amount of smartphones and tablets out there that are either now running on LTE networks are that are expected to be LTE-enabled in the future, I predict that will be a big increase in Diameter signaling traffic. I’ll be writing a two-part blog in a few weeks about interworking between LTE networks and other networks, such as 2G or 3G networks. These use cases will be ever important going forward.

Diameter also enables some cool applications beyond just roaming from one type of network to another. For instance, applications enabling Equipment Identity Register functionality allow operators to control which handsets or devices can be used in their networks. So if your smartphone or tablet is lost or stolen, it can be disabled. I’m also sure there are cool applications beyond just disabling a phone that can be enacted. Has anyone seen the “Mission Impossible” movies?

Perhaps the most important aspect though is the credit control application support, for enhanced use of your mobile device for mobile payments, price inquiries, prepaid service charging, real-time service charging, etc. This enables your phone or tablet to easily pay for or charge for a unit of whatever the application is doing, whether it’s paying for something on the internet with money, debiting either a unit of time or prepaid byte downloads, and more.  

If you are an application developer in this realm, Diameter enables you to write some forward looking and very relevant applications. Please visit the Dialogic website if you are interested to learn more.

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As some of you readers know, I have been an avid Blackberry user for some time. That time has now past.  I am an equal opportunity device person, and have used Motorola, Nokia and Blackberry devices.  It was time for a new one.

I am now an iPhone user. I have an iPad and don’t really like it, because I don’t like typing on it.   But I got an iPhone anyway. Why?  Because with the touch screen now a standard, all the smartphones now are the same with respect to typing.   There is no keyboard and they have the keys that pop up as part of the screen.  With that in mind, the differentiator to me was my iTunes. Now, I can just use my iTunes via my iPhone instead of carrying around my iPod.  I didn’t want to do it, but I did.  Now my iPod has a permanent place in my car.

Here is a picture of my mobile devices from the past 20 years.  I found them the other day when I was putting my Blackberry away. Maybe I was thinking at my funeral they’d take out these old devices and put them on the table for people to laugh at.  It’s interesting seeing them all together.

The first thing I noticed was there aren’t that many of them. I tend to use them for many years and definitely get my money’s worth.  My first one was a Motorola.  Back then, it was kind of a status symbol.  I used it quite a bit in the U.S., as I was travelling to California quite a bit.  But I spent quite some time saying, “Hello, hello can you hear me?”   Still, it saved me time, especially when in airports, so it was worth it.

The next device is the Nokia, from their glory years.  The trend was for devices to get small, small, small.   Small enough to fit into your pocket.  Look how small that one is!  The devices still offered no video back then, just talking and texting.  This was the eve of true value-added services.  During this era, texting was a key money-making value added service.  And remember “welcome messages?” When I landed in Europe I’d get “To Dial the US hit +1,” since us moronic Americans didn’t understand the concept of a country code and those European operators figured that out pretty quickly.  Grab those roaming charges, so tell the Americans how to call home!

I noticed that the screens started to get bigger, too. They need to be larger to fit all those text messages in.  And, oh yeah, as 3G enters the picture, we start to see the devices getting bigger, too.  We need bigger screens, but also need better batteries!  My Blackberry and the “Zoom” feature was cool, since I could actually READ the url page with it.  Now, tablets have relatively gigantic screens.  I see people in airports now, holding the tablets up to their ears as they Skype back home going, “Hello, hello can you hear me?” It’s bizarre and kind of full circle.

What is your mobile device history? Is there a device you wish you never discarded? One you wish you never bought?

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