fixed mobile convergence lowering cost and complexity of business communications

WHITE PAPER Fixed-Mobile Convergence: Lowering Costs and Complexity of Business Communications Sponsored by: June 2007 THE BENEFITS OF FIXED-MOBILE CONVERGENCE Technically, FMC refers to the integration of wireless and wireline devices and services. This integration provides end users with a single device for all communications, a single address book, access to services from enterprise systems and carrier-based services, and seamless connectivity across multiple networks such as cellular, WiFi, and WiMAX. For enterprises and end users, FMC offers simplicity, flexibility, and economy. The vision of FMC is to tie the PBX with all its services to wireless devices via WLAN integration in the office and routing over the cellular network offsite so that cellular phones are fully integrated PBX extensions enabling access to voice, email, and applications as they roam between cellular and WLAN networks. Staff members are able to make use of all PBX functionality outside the office, including call transfer, conferencing, corporate directory, and internal extension dialing, and have full access to business applications from any location or network connection. End users benefit from FMC because it makes enterprise communications more efficient, bringing feature consistency across fixed and wireless networks. Voice, data, and mobile services are available from a single handset with PBX-type functionality at the office, at home, at hotspots, and on the normal cellular network. As a result, employee availability to customers and colleagues increases. Calls to desks reach workers, reducing phone tag. Quality is improved because the best available connection (e.g., GSM/CDMA, WiFi) is automatically selected, eliminating complex and repetitive configuration setups. In short, FMC means users never worry about being connected, are always on the "best" network, can get to whatever or whomever they need, and are easier to reach. Telecom managers and financial controllers benefit from FMC because it allows greater control over mobile costs and usage and also reduces maintenance and management costs of operating multiple networks within the enterprise. Mobile calls can now be tracked through the call detail records of the enterprise PBX, which leads to less administrative overhead associated with tracking phone expenses across distributed cost centers of corporate liable, individual liable, and data plans. Business phone numbers remain with the enterprise when an employee leaves the company. It is estimated that 30% or more of business cellular calls occur within buildings when employees use their cellular phones at work. An integrated mobility infrastructure using the enterprise WLAN leads to cost savings from free intraenterprise calling, reduced cellular voice minutes, as well as improved indoor wireless call quality. ENTERPRISE FMC SOLUTIONS ARE IN DEVELOPMENT FMC enterprise solutions are still in the early stages of adoption. FMC technical and business developments are occurring in four key areas: handsets, FMC control/management infrastructure, VoIP over WLAN, and provider networks. What is important is that all four factors are required to drive adoption of FMC in enterprises. Handsets FMC requires dual-mode handsets that operate on 802.11 technologies in the office and utilize cellular telephony elsewhere. These are multiple radio technologies, not just multiple frequency bands. These devices allow mobile workers to access a public cellular network for voice and data services or to roam onto a WLAN for IP telephony and high-speed data access. They employ switchable modes so that if users are making a voice call or are midway through a download session using a mobile phone and a WiFi connection, and move out of a hotspot, they do not have to drop the call and start over on cellular. The top 5 mobile manufacturers have announced commitments to rolling out dual-mode devices. However, there is no large commercial availability of dual-mode handsets in general. Widespread availability of mature dual-mode handsets is expected by the end of 2007. The handset challenge for enterprises is that employees already have a wide variety of phone types: cellular phones, smart phones, softphones, dual-mode phones, WiFi-only phones, BlackBerrys, PDAs, and so forth. Replacing phones presents big challenges of time, training, and cost. Approaches are emerging that allow enterprises to deploy a software client on voice handsets to connect into an FMC solution. However, the real benefits of FMC emerge only with dual-mode devices. FMC Control/Management Infrastructure FMC control/management infrastructure offers two basic approaches to implementing enterprise FMC: Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA). UMA is the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard for extending cellular voice and data services to unlicensed spectrum such as Bluetooth and WiFi networks. In the UMA-based approach, the UMA controller resides in the mobile operator's network and connects WiFi access points to the mobile operator's base station controller (BSC). This approach enables full cellular services to be emulated over the WiFi network. It has the advantage of reusing the existing cellular network call control infrastructure. The UMA-based FMC approach has the benefits of delivering improved in-door wireless coverage at lower cost, and it is prepackaged and fully managed by the mobile operator. A disadvantage of UMA is that it lacks interoperability with VoIP calls and IP PBXs. Therefore, mobile handsets with VoIP clients are not supported over the UMA infrastructure. UMA is a GSM standard and works only in the GSM/GPRS world. It will not be adopted by CDMA operators such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel. UMA manages handovers between WiFi access points, but its scope is limited to WiFi-GSM handovers only. Also, UMA does not deliver any new services beyond GSM voice, SMS, and GPRS data. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) over WiFi. This approach uses a centralized SIP application server to control user sessions through signaling. SIP can reside in any network domain — mobile provider, fixed network provider, or enterprise network. It is an open standard control protocol already widely adopted for IP telephony solutions. Additionally, SIP is the underlying protocol for the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) architecture, which is the long-term strategic road map toward which most operators are evolving their network upgrades. PBX vendors work with mobile handset vendors and WLAN manufacturers to introduce solutions that integrate mobile users into PBX functionality. Currently this approach lacks a standardized handover protocol, so it is used primarily to treat mobile phones as off-PBX bridged extensions and as cellular-only solutions. Proprietary solutions are available to support dual-mode phones and handover between WiFi and cellular. Meanwhile, standardized handover mechanisms are being created via the 3GPP Voice Call Continuity (VCC) effort, but VCC is not expected to be widely implemented in handsets and networks for another two-plus years. VoIP over WLAN Many enterprises have already deployed WLANs in their facilities for data connectivity. There is also widespread use of IP PBX technology in corporate sites. For organizations with both WLANs and IP PBXs, there are advantages to using WLAN for voice with full IP PBX feature functionality. However, a WLAN deployed for data is a long way from voice-capable — good enough for data is not good enough for voice. WLAN was originally designed for data; therefore, significant modifications are needed to make WLAN suitable for voice. Issues such as security, lack of proper quality of service (QoS), and seamless network handoffs make VoIP over WLAN challenging: Security. FMC cannot succeed without comprehensive security; strong security across WLANs and hotspots is a must. Providing services to users regardless of their location and access technology opens the network to security weaknesses. Standard security remedies such as handset authentication, registration and call setup registration, and encrypted channels for signaling in both cellular and WiFi networks can be applied to parts of the problem. However, FMC raises several unique issues affecting security components and how they are implemented. One issue is that the limited battery life of handheld devices prevents computationally intensive encryption that would provide a high degree of security. Another issue pertains to the levels of authentication and encryption that are required to maintain consistent protections during network handoff events. QoS. Wireless data networks may not be good enough for voice. Voice quality is critical. WLANs have been used primarily for non-real-time data traffic. WLAN technology developed to support real-time traffic — for example, 802.11e — attempts to support quality of service, unlike existing WLAN standards; and the 802.11n standard promises increased speed, thereby facilitating real-time traffic. Other factors contributing to voice quality include backhaul bottlenecks and bandwidth policy management. Network handoffs — intranetworking and internetworking roaming. Achieving call continuity during network handoffs is more complex with FMC solutions than with traditional cellular phones and PDAs. User mobility encompasses the office, a branch office, the cellular network, hotspots, and the home market. Therefore, FMC should seamlessly switch cellular calls to VoIP over WiFi without dropping the calls. Specifically, seamless in-call handoff means no dropped calls and interruption under 100 milliseconds. The 802.11r standard, which specifies a 30-millisecond handoff, is WiFi technology designed specifically for roaming. Provider Networks Much progress is being made on technologies and standards for cellular-WLAN integration. Those are largely technology issues. Equipping the CDMA/GSM wireless WAN for FMC invokes a number of business scenarios, not all of which are pleasant for mobile providers. FMC architectures determine business-case options. Issues include displacement of cellular minutes and revenues by moving traffic to WLAN as well as control of features, QoS, and billing. The UMA approach gives maximum control to mobile providers. The SIP-over-WiFi approach presents higher risk of mobile provider cannibalization and undermines the providers' ability to preserve control over features, QoS, and billing. This approach allows wireline providers to eliminate mobile usage on premise and to take back minutes that currently use the mobile network. Through tight integration of enterprise WLAN with enterprise IP PBX and a mobile infrastructure manager, enterprises can establish their own network-independent FMC solutions. VoIP providers can also leverage this approach to disrupt minutes and business models in the wireless network just as they have done in the wireline world. But SIP also supports advanced features, which represent new revenue opportunities for operators. PRACTICAL STEPS TO FMC TODAY Evaluating FMC business scenarios and technology trade-offs is a time-consuming process. Meanwhile, enterprises are faced with multiple near-term and long-term challenges to improve worker productivity and manage communications budgets. Nearly all enterprises are confronting challenges associated with: Mounting costs of wireless services due to disjointed fixed and mobile solutions and complicated telecom expense management. This situation requires more scrutiny of mobile operator business-to-business plans and a holistic approach to telecom cost management incorporating a life-cycle perspective of wireless and cellular usage. Dead zones due to lack of consistent in-building wireless coverage. This scenario requires configurations and partnerships with vendors of signal amplifiers and pico cell technology (which utilizes small transmitters to collate all the signals from nearby cellular phones within a structure and send them to a central network access point, thereby reducing the power requirements of the individual phones and reducing interference) to strengthen signal performance throughout a building or campus area. IP and legacy PBX integration to deliver feature consistency across wireless and wireline environments. Partnerships with PBX and equipment vendors need to be established to streamline integration of voice and data IP services over fixed and mobile WANs. Paths to advanced features such as presence and location-based services and authentication management. Although most companies are not ready for these services, they are clearly valuable features for improving workforce productivity. These services typically involve server-based applications deployed into the enterprise network with interoperability into the various network technologies. Delivered as network-based managed solutions, these applications will make presence, location, and authentication effective tools within the enterprise converged network environment. IP WAN integration for a single, flexible voice and data network platform. This integration requires a core MPLS backbone network that can convert and connect all access attempts to the corporate-specified protocol and security policies. If businesses are to benefit from the convergence of wireless and wireline applications, they need solution providers that can range across these areas as well as guide a migration to future advanced capabilities. Unfortunately, enterprises cannot easily buy FMC solutions today because the technologies, products, and business models have not yet stabilized. Therefore, enterprise FMC solutions are limited to a very narrow set of phone devices and require significant systems integration expenses. Adding to the confusion is that much of the discussion about FMC relates to consumer offerings as telephone companies position themselves against cable TV companies.
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