Building the IP Messaging Network

Operator ChoicesFollowing years of speculation, revision of various standards, and debate over business models, Mobile Operators world-wide are finally embarking on a major network overhaul to provide support for all-IP messaging services such as RCS Chat and SMS delivery via VoLTE. In doing so, they will have to choose a vendor, and in the first place they will have to select the sort of vendor that they choose to rely on in assisting them with this difficult task.

The fact is that IP Messaging solutions are now offered by two classes of vendor:

• Solutions offered by IMS core vendors as part of an overall network offering;

• Dedicated messaging solutions offered by expert messaging vendors.

IMS core vendors include messaging as part of their solution-set in order to act as a single provider for IMS equipment in the network. The messaging components may be sourced from an OEM partner, or developed as an adjunct to the core network systems. Messaging is not a core-competence for this type of vendor, and they are assuming that a basic “vanilla” offering will be sufficient to meet operator needs in this area.

On the other hand, Messaging vendors such as Openmind, believe that various characteristics of messaging (store & forward requirements, service continuity with 2G/3G standards, home routing, spam control, to list but a few) make it sufficiently distinct from other parts of the IMS core to justify investment in a specialized solution. Messaging vendors have built up many, many man years of expertise in dealing with complex use-cases pertaining to messaging and assert that IP messaging is too difficult and important to be relegated to a secondary or simplified solution.

This document provides further detail on why operators should treat messaging as a special case and not simply use the “vanilla” messaging components provide as part of an IMS core vendor’s portfolio.

The Need for Specialist Messaging ProvidersIMS, GSMA and OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) standards define the need for several new network elements to implement different message flows and services involving both all-IP clients and interworking with legacy devices. These elements include:

• The IP-SM-GW, to allow devices attached to an IMS network to exchange SMS messages with devices on a 2G/3G network. The IP-SM-GW is required to support VoLTE, and could also be used to offer Fixed Mobile Convergence messaging services between mobile devices and fixed softphones or VOIP handsets. If the IP-SM-GW fails to deliver a message into the IMS domain, it needs to be able to support fall-back delivery to the circuit-switched domain.

• The RCS Messaging Application Server (RCS MAS), which supports all-IP chat sessions via SIP and MSRP protocols between RCS clients. There are several different versions of the of the RCS standards, with different requirements on the RCS MAS in terms of handling group chats and store and forward use-cases.

• The OMA CPM Controlling and Interworking Functions, which is mandated by RCS standards versions (5.0, 5.1) requires an RCS client to support in-built interworking with the SMS and MMS services in legacy networks. OMA converged IP messaging also mandates the presence of a message store accessible from an IP messaging client.

In addition to these messaging services, related services such as file transfer and email, also requiring store & forward support, must be implemented in the network.

It can be seen from the above (simplified) list, that full deployment of IP messaging will require architectural oversight and expertise on how best to implement the necessary components in the network. IMS-core network specialists may provide some of the components as options on their switching infrastructure, but there is a major difference between the technology required to implement a SIP switch or Media Gateway, and the technology needed to build a high performance and scalable message store capable of interworking with different legacy messaging services.

Operators should also seek to avoid a situation whereby they end up with different systems responsible for managing the different IP messaging services. This will result in the need to integrate multiple different systems into the OSS/BSS framework, and will also necessitate high on-going OPEX costs to maintain.

While some of the basic IMS/SMS interworking scenarios could be supported by a vanilla IP-SM-GW running as part of an IMS core offering, Operators need to consider now what their medium to long-term roadmap is for IP messaging. If there is an impending business requirement on the network to, for example, support RCS 5 with its complex store-and-forward multi-party chat sessions, Operators should start with messaging infrastructure that is flexible, scalable and adaptive enough to move from early interworking use-cases to later full-service IP messaging cases. This will ultimately prove to be less expensive and avoid the frustration and costs caused by the need to replace relatively new systems that are ultimately realized to be a technological “dead end”.

T: + 353 1 633 0070F: + 353 1 670 8008E: info@openmindnetworks.com

Head OfficeOpenmind Networks,4 Westland Square,Pearse Street,Dublin 2, Ireland

Openmind’s Solution for IP Messaging NeedsOpenmind are expert-providers of messaging infrastructure for mobile operators and Interconnect (Wholesale) carriers. Our platform, Traffic Control, was designed to provide operators with a cost-effective consolidated replacement to the disparate legacy systems previously used to run SMS, USSD and MMS messaging services in 2G/3G networks. We are intimately familiar not just with the protocols and technology required to implement a world-class messaging platform, but also with the operational and support needs of our operator customers.

The principles we used to design our 2G/3G messaging solution – that it should eliminate unnecessary complexity and functional duplication in the network, that it should be scalable and flexible, that it should be easy to manage and simple to integrate, that it should support and assure operator messaging revenues in the face of increased competition, fraud threats, and replacement threats from OTT providers – have also been applied to our 4G and all-IP messaging solution, Traffic Control 4000.

Traffic Control 4000 will provide a single point for operators to manage both legacy and all-IP messaging services. It will allow operators to re-use integration effort for charging, billing, management, legal interception etc when launching new IP messaging services. By using the same base platform for legacy and IP messaging, the same business logic can be applied to all types of messaging. For example, anti-bullying or anti-spam rules can therefore be easily applied to SMS and SIP messaging traffic. This avoids the need for operators to co-ordinate the implementation of charging rules for billing, spam control and other services on both legacy- and IP-messaging infrastructure.

Openmind’s proposition to operators for 4G and IMS messaging is this: Using a vanilla messaging component provided as a “tick-the-box” option by an IMS-core vendor will ultimately prove to be false economy. It will limit your ability to launch more advanced IP messaging services, and will cost you more money in the long run as you inevitably replace it with a dedicated messaging solution designed to meet all your needs. Openmind understands messaging technology and the business needs of operators. Our messaging solution is built using this knowledge, and will provide you with a highly flexible solution that will meet your immediate and long term IP-messaging requirements, and will complement and enhance your legacy messaging services.

About Openmind Openmind provide mobile and intercarrier operators with leading solutions that enable them to deliver on their commitment to their customers. We are the market leader in SMSC replacement, SMS Content Management and InterCarrier Messaging platforms, with over 120 system deployments worldwide. We offer the benefits of rich, IP communication and provide a range of network infrastructure and applications for mobile messaging and RCS services, built on a common platform and architecture known as Traffic Control.