LED BY VENDOR PARTNERSHIP, IP ENTERS WIRELESS FOREFRONT

Ericsson, Juniper Networks introduce router-based gateway

Recent announcements surrounding IP developments in the wireless world and some generous venture capital funding given to some IP wireless start-ups suggest wireless operators are finally ready to make their move toward all-IP networks.

Ericsson, the world's largest wireless infrastructure provider, and IP router company Juniper Networks last week unveiled a router-based GPRS Gateway Support Node (GGSN) — a key network element that will help GSM service providers migrate to all-IP networks in the wideband CDMA (WCDMA) world. Initially, the GGSN will be used to help route e-mail to users' handsets but eventually will support more complex IP transmissions such as streaming video.

“The whole goal is to reduce the risk in capex,” said Mike Capuano, director of product marketing for Juniper, which entered into the partnership with Ericsson as part of CEO Scott Kriens' strategy to diversity Juniper's markets. “We're going to [move operators to all-IP networks] in a cost-effective way and use legacy infrastructure to get a return on investment.”

Using legacy equipment will be crucial. Analysts still are forecasting huge revenues from the voice market, which has made wireless operators reluctant to spend money migrating to IP networks. Now enough packet data-based GPRS and 1X handsets are being produced to warrant more investments in IP, but carriers don't want to replace the systems they already have, according to analysts. Vendors such as Motorola and its IP partner, Cisco Systems, have been waiting for more industry traction toward wireless IP networks.

“IP is not in question for 2.5G and 3G. It's just being deployed a lot more slowly than everyone expected,” said Jean-Luc Abaziou, Ericsson's vice president of IP infrastructure.

The impetus for carriers to move to all-IP networks is more network efficiency and the ability to bill in detail for wireless data transactions. Most carriers today are limited in their ability to bill for data content, even though they offer some packet-data services. The proprietary packet billing solution used by NTT DoCoMo, for example, lets the Japanese mobile giant charge a 25¢ fee per packet.

GPRS carriers have no choice but to charge customers for the volume of wireless data they use on their GPRS networks because the technology requires carriers to allocate voice channels for data. Volume-based pricing is a way to measure capacity and ensure that heavy users don't clog the network.

“Data has a whole suite of applications, one of which is voice,” said Robin Hearn, senior analyst for Ovum. “IP gives operators a whole new approach to billing. There is a lack of data sensitivity in the voice market.

Yet most wireless infrastructure providers, while brilliant engineers on the radio frequency front, are not well-versed in the core network arena. Thus, partnerships such as Juniper and Ericsson's will become essential when it comes to IP, analysts said. And carriers are turning to a slew of new entrants with some strong financial backing.

“Operators and the existing big vendors assumed IP would get done by a natural process of development, but smaller players coming from the data networking side are pushing the market,” Hearn said.

WaterCove Networks, which has raised more than $50 million in equity financing, last week introduced Mobile Data Service System, a packet data system that integrates mobility and service intelligence with metered transport. Tahoe Networks, backed by $49 million in financing, is preparing to trial mobile service edge routers designed to intelligently manage packets flowing between wireless networks and IP core networks. And Cambia Networks has raised $11 million to deliver an open architecture that connects wireless CDMA and GSM networks to IP-based networks.

“A lot of operators are not sticking with total vendors solutions and are finally hiring people that are IP-based,” said Christine Loredo, senior analyst for The Strategis Group. “Operators finally realize they can do a lot more with an IP-based router.”