IMS and ATCA

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

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?

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…

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

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?

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 Key Elements: Application Servers • 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 SCIM HSS/HLR S-CSCF SIP C I-CSCF SCFF SIP BGCF P-CSCF MGCF MRFC CSCF MRFP MGW SS7 RTP MRF

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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