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SI3000 MSCN: Solving the control-plane challenge For the past 15 years the world of telecommunications has been facing a new type of challenge. The infrastructure and technologies originally designed to carry only telephony services have needed to evolve to cope with the expanding world of multimedia and data services. New multi-service networks have had to be built on top of the legacy equipment of the PSTN, and it has been essential for this transition to be both smooth and cost effective. This transformation is referred to as the migration to Next Generation Networks, or NGNs.
Carriers’ prospects for future growth With the transformation of traditional telephone PSTN services the carrier must focus on: - providing new, cost-effective services for a reinvented revenue stream, - preserving the existing services and regulative features with a new technology, - avoiding any degradation of the services or inconvenience to the end-user, - the possibility of functional scalability and capacity growth for newly deployed infrastructure. All these issues are an encouragement for a fixed-line voice-service provider to evolve existing voice nodes and other network elements.
The changes have to be seamless and gradual with no inconvenience to end-users in order to guarantee future benefits for the service provider. During the process of network transformation it is crucial the users receive the same services and the same user experience together with the possibility of new services and expiriences.
The right time and the right technology In an ideal situation the end-users would have the same user experience with the IP-based network as they had with the PSTN, although they will start to use new applications and services. Achieving such a situation is a challenging task, especially in suburban and rural areas where investments are very carefully chosen. The prediction of a telco’s future revenue structure suggests that telephony is losing importance as a stand-alone service and is becoming part of a broader communications service. Revenue tends to increase where the telcos are able to offer a full bundle of services - in addition to telephony this includes messaging and video communications. The deployment of new services is mandatory.