Switching on the move

Cingular is in the process of consolidating each of its markets under either the former AT&T Wireless core — known as the “blue” network — or the Cingular core — known as the “orange” network. The blue and the orange, however, both used different infrastructure. At the time of acquisition, AT&T Wireless was transitioning to a distributed network based on Nortel's R4 MSC and gateways, while Cingular's network was run on legacy Nokia and Ericsson elements. Meanwhile, Cingular is building out an entirely new packet-based core for its new UMTS/high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) networks supplied by Lucent and Siemens, with softswitches from Alcatel and gateways from Tekelec.

Maybery's main priorities are to fully integrate the orange and blue networks while readying the UMTS core for the launch of 3G by the end of the year. He said the decision to consolidate a particular market under either orange or blue is determined by which radio access network has the best coverage or most capacity. And in doing so, Cingular hasn't been neglecting AT&T Wireless' former architecture. Cingular has 30 Nortel R4 switches in its network today, and because of core migrations from orange to blue as well as expansion, Cingular will install another 20 by the end of the year, Maybery said.

As the UMTS network goes up, data and voice will be switched over the same IP network with the eventual goal of using it as a common core for all of its GSM and UMTS traffic, Maybery said. That melding of the cores won't begin until mid 2006, however, and then it's likely to start slowly, Maybery said.

“It will be at least that long before we feel the common core is ready to handle everything,” Maybery said. “We're being very judicious in testing all of this.”

U.S. carriers certainly aren't the only ones deploying this technology, however. In fact, carriers in less-developed markets are some of the most aggressive in adopting softswitch architectures because their growth occurred after most Western carriers established sizable legacy core infrastructures. Latin America and Asia in particular have embraced the technology with countries like Brazil, China and even Vietnam investing heavily in MSC softswitches.

The rapid growth has created intense competition in the space, with several new vendors vying in a global marketplace traditionally dominated by a handful of top infrastructure manufacturers. Established MSC vendors like Ericsson, Lucent, Nokia and Nortel, have taken a migratory approach to softswitching, creating hybrid circuit-packet switches and MSC upgrades that allow carriers to turn their legacy switches into serviceable softswitches.

Nortel claims to be the leader in R4 switching with more ports installed than any other carrier, and it is currently developing a fully realized softswitch based on Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture standards as part of its IMS platform, said Alan Pritchard, Nortel vice president of GSM and UMTS marketing. When it's completed, Nortel plans to leverage its success with the R4 MSC servers to not only sell to existing customers, but branch out to new carriers migrating from legacy to next-generation platforms. And even if Nortel is mainly limited to upgrading with its existing install base with its R4 technology while the ATCA switch is under development, it can go after new business with its gateway product line, which is far less disruptive to another vendor's core infrastructure, Pritchard said.

“With IMS coming, numerous vendors will be supplying elements to any given carrier's network,” Pritchard said. “From an overall portfolio strategy, it's better to focus on our strengths. We're very proud of our gateway. It's an area we think we can absolutely lead in.”

In fact, the disruptive nature of the core overhaul is creating new competitors and potential new leaders in the core space. Vendors like Alcatel and Motorola, which previously had little core presence, have bought next-generation switch vendors, giving them cutting-edge technology without the worries of a legacy portfolio to maintain. Alcatel's purchase of Spatial Wireless last year has given the French vendor its first major wireless infrastructure deals in the U.S. with T-Mobile and Cingular. Motorola has enjoyed similar success after buying Winphoria Networks in 2003 and has landed a succession of softswitching deals to build out Vivo's large and rapidly expanding CDMA IP core in Brazil.

Wireline softswitch vendors are also venturing into the mobile universe. Tekelec and Sonus Networks are taking two entirely different tacks, with Tekelec starting at the edge with media and convergence gateways and Sonus at the other side of the core selling its Class 4 softswitches as IP transport hubs to the likes of Cingular and other carriers.

Probably the most competitive of the softswitch vendors, however, will be the Chinese vendors ZTE and Huawei, both of which have developed their own MSC softswitches from scratch, They are aggressively feeding them into their rapidly growing wireless market at home while also garnering successes abroad. China Mobile is deploying Huawei's GSM R4 MSC softswitch in 31 of China's 33 provinces, independent municipalities and autonomous regions, using the core technology to switch calls locally and long-distance.

The growing giants in Shenzhen have already started to raise fears among the Western vendors, many of which have decided to partner with them instead of compete directly in East Asia. But their biggest concern is the Huaweis and ZTEs will muscle in on their traditional turf in Europe and North America. Huawei has built full product lines covering every aspect of the network from core switching to handset. And even though those vendors are hoping to gain wins in other areas of the network, Douglas Black, Huawei North American vice president of marketing, conceded it's in the core where it will have a distinct advantage.

“We're simply not faced with the problems other vendors have of migrating a TDM platform to an IP one,” Black said. “Our initial products were TDM, but our product groups recognized that the way going forward was IP, so we started our NGN solution from scratch. As carriers start to migrate off those TDM networks, it's presenting us with the greenfield opportunity to compete with the other vendors.”