Solution Brief

Executive Summary

Aggressive competition from over-the-top (OTT) service providers, like Facebook*, Google, and Microsoft*, has put pricing pressures on communication service providers (CoSPs) to deliver ubiquitous telephony and messaging services at a fraction of the price they have historically charged. Also putting pressure on CoSPs is the need to provide cost-effective roaming service options, enable Wi-Fi offload, and reallocate legacy 3G voice spectrum to deploy more spectral-efficient HSPA or LTE.

This white paper describes how CoSPs can address these challenges with a network functions virtualization (NFV)-based virtualized IP Multimedia

Subsystem (vIMS) that increases agility and lowers deployment and operational costs compared to traditional IMS solutions without NFV platforms.

IMS Background

IMS has long held the promise of delivering a completely decoupled, three-tier architecture (media, control, and application layers), composed of individual functional elements performing specific tasks and interworking using standard-based protocols and well-defined reference interfaces. The complexity of the IMS model and the need to migrate user databases further dampened CoSPs’ enthusiasm to adopt this new approach and associated technologies.

Lower Deployment and Operational Costs with Virtualized IMS Using NFVDell*, Intel, Metaswitch*, and Red Hat* demonstrate a virtualized IP Multimedia Subsystem for scalable VoLTE, VoWiFi, unified communications, and other rich media services.

Bringing Network Transformation to IP Multimedia Subsystems

CLOUD-BASEDIMS

Videoconferencing

Fax

Email

Telephony

Instant Messaging

Video on Demand

VoWiFi

VoLTE

Web Services

Internet Access

Figure 1. Examples of Unified Communications Services Supported by IMS

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VoLTE and VoWiFi

Today, IMS is back in the spotlight as CoSPs need to reallocate 4G voice spectrum and compete with OTT players offering HD audio and UC services, leading to aggressive Voice over LTE (VoLTE) roll-out plans around the globe.

“VoLTE is ramping, with improvements in network efficiencies as the chief driver,”1 said Stéphane Téral, research director for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at IHS.1 According to an IHS report in June 22, 2016, there are currently 63 VoLTE commercial networks up and running online,”2 deployed primarily for gains in core network efficiencies and spectrum reuse,” added Téral.

At the same time, CoSPs have been looking to offload expensive licensed spectrum and extend voice call coverage by offering Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) and using other unlicensed spectrum wireless access technologies. Additional benefits from this approach include extending coverage, reducing service delivery costs, and providing subscribers cost-effective roaming service options.

“VoLTE deployments have risen considerably in the past year, as 40 operators have launched HD voice service using VoLTE for their 4G/LTE customers in 28 countries,” according to Alan Hadden, VP of research at the Global mobile Suppliers Association.

VoLTE and VoWiFi implementations not only require an IMS core, but also a session border controller (SBC) that primarily secures the infrastructure, the application server responsible for delivering calling features, and the analytics elements that aid in service diagnostics and troubleshooting.

Network Transformation

The telecom industry is undergoing a network transformation to a software-based model, moving from proprietary network infrastructures to open-source, open-standard topologies. This transformation is using concepts from

NFV and software-defined networking (SDN) to give CoSPs greater agility and flexibility.

Much more than simply a technical advancement, NFV represents an evolution in the way carriers’ infrastructures are designed, purchased, deployed, and operated. It can now be said that NFV has completely redefined the supplier landscape and shaken up classic CoSP-vendor and vendor-vendor relationships.

The move to open and standards-based virtual network functions (VNFs), deployed within a private cloud optimized for NFV, represents an opportunity to redefine current business models, offering services in a far more cost-effective manner. This approach is not new, as web service leaders, like Netflix*, have long decomposed their applications into small, independently instantiated and managed functional elements in order to provide granular scaling and ensure there are no stranded compute resources.

The software-centric nature of NFV favors agile development and operations (DevOps) approaches and nurtures new vendors, providing reusable and individually-managed components, referred to as microservices in today’s NFV conversations. In addition, a large ecosystem of solution providers helps CoSPs avoid vendor lock-in associated with earlier solutions.

Why Virtualize IMS and SBC?

NFV/SDN concepts applied to IMS and SBC provide valuable benefits to CoSPs, such as:

• CapEx Reductions Individual functions and components can be dynamically and independently scaled (up or down) as demanded by usage patterns. This capability enables CoSPs to minimize stranded capacity and oversubscription, which improves resource utilization and right-sizes capacity.

• Fast Prototyping and Deployment CoSPs can quickly spin up an entirely new vIMS core to conduct small trials, and test innovative features and services by automatically instantiating and integrating new applications. Even in the prototype stage, dynamic linear scaling enables VNFs to be accurately benchmarked and IMS solutions to be evaluated for performance and resiliency.

• OpEx Reductions Designed to run on industry standard, high-volume servers, the solution can be managed in a standard way, requiring less effort and cost compared to the assortment of proprietary components comprising IMS solutions.

• Resiliency and Reliability The VNF Manager (VNFM) performs continuous health monitoring and self-healing to recover from failures pertaining to a virtual machine (VM), a host machine, or a more catastrophic widespread failure, such as an entire data center outage.

vIMS/vSBC Demo

At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016, Dell, Intel, Metaswitch, and Red Hat demonstrated a vIMS/vSBC system deployed on Dell’s NFV platform to support on-demand multimedia services. The demo implemented VoWiFi, but could easily be repurposed for 2G, 3G, 4G, or VoLTE.

The system, based on an NFVi foundation, uses industry-standard server architecture and carrier-grade Dell PowerEdge* servers based on the Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 v4 product family. The industry-standards, high-volume servers are highly scalable and flexible, configurable with one or two processors and multiple I/O options, such as 1 Gb, 10 Gb, or 40 Gb Ethernet.

The solution integrates various software components, including:

• Metaswitch Clearwater* vIMS Core

• Metaswitch Perimeta* vSBC

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• Metaswitch Service Assurance Server* (SAS) vAnalytics platform

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux* (RHEL*) with KVM*

• Red Hat OpenStack* Platform

• Open vSwitch* (OVS*)

With this suite of middleware and VNFs, it is possible to build a complete packet voice infrastructure in a matter of minutes, rather than the month-and year-long timeframes of past. Figure 2 overlays the major demo components onto the ETSI* NFV architecture and interfaces.

The MWC demo supports voice and video calls initiated by handsets over Wi-Fi, as shown in Figure 3. Call setup utilizes the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and a Metaswitch Perimeta Signaling SBC,

and call traffic is transmitted over Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) to the Metaswitch Media Signaling SBC. SIP is also used by the SBC to exchange traffic with the Metaswitch Clearwater vIMS core and by the vIMS to communicate with the Metaswitch VoWiFi Telephony Application Server (TAS). The Metaswitch SAS Analytics generates real-time call statistics, such as call start time and duration.

Although not yet integrated in the demo, the Metaswitch Media Resource Function (MRF) performs media related functions, such as media manipulation (e.g., voice stream mixing, and playing of tones and announcements). It also features enhanced single radio voice call continuity (eSRVCC) used to sustain a call when a subscriber roams to a lower

performance network, as in moving from 4G to 3G. This step down function avoids dropping the voice portion of the call; although, richer services, like video, may be discontinued if lower performance network does not support them.

vIMS/vSBC Components

The following sections provide additional details about the major demo components:

Dell* Servers

This demo is based on the Dell NFV Platform, which is built to meet the tolerances demanded by the CoSPs. The platform can be deployed in harsh environments with suboptimal conditions that exceed the capabilities of standard or generic enterprise servers, storage devices, and network devices. Embedded monitoring tools throughout each hardware component of the NFV system relay the system status on a regular basis.

Configured servers, storage devices, and networking devices in the NFV environment are being designed to consume less power, provide higher densities and availability, and operate under more extreme conditions than typical generic “white box” servers.”3

The demo implemented with 10 Dell PowerEdge servers (R630 & R730) and five Dell switches (S4820T and S6000)*. The configurations and interface speeds are shown in Figure 4. At the bottom of the figure, the control, compute, and storage functions each have three nodes with dedicated Dell PowerEdge servers. The nodes connect via a Dell switch to a PowerEdge server performing virtual infrastructure management (VIM) and therefore are configured to run the Red Hat OpenStack Platform. The nodes connect to four Dell S6000 switches that are meshed in a leaf-spin configuration.

The servers are built with the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 product family, which provides an array of new technologies for more efficient virtualization, smarter resource orchestration, and enhanced protection of systems and data.

OSS/BSS

Service, VNF andInfrastructure Description

EMS 1 EMS 2

Or-Vnfm

Or-Vi

Vi-Vnfm

EMS 3

VNF 1

NFVI

VNF 2

Vn-NF

Nf-Vi

Ve-Vnfm

Ve-Vnfm

Os-Ma

VNF 3

VirtualComputing

VirtualStorage

VI-Ha

HARDWARE RESOURCES

VIRTUALIZATION LAYER

Execution reference points

Other reference points

Main reference points

VirtualNetwork

ComputingHardware

StorageHardware

NetworkHardware

VNFManager(s)

VirtualizedInfrastructure

Manager(s)

NFVOrchestrator

Figure 2. ETSI NFV Architecture and Interfaces

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Dell NFVI Starter Kit

To facilitate trials and early deployments, this demo server and switch configuration is available for purchase as a Dell NFVi starter kit (bare metal SKU). For solution developers, this starter kit can reduce project risk and shorten time to market by providing an open standards-based platform that is application agnostic and supported by an open ecosystem.

Intel® Open Network Platform

The demo is based on the Intel® Open Network Platform (Intel® ONP), which is designed to accelerate the development of commercial hardware and software platforms. Based on the ETSI standards for NFV, Intel ONP is reference architecture for decoupling the network functions from the hardware itself. It provides the NFVi necessary to virtualize functions.

With Intel ONP, companies in telecom carrier networks, enterprise environments, and cloud data centers can more easily build solutions using an open source software stack running on standard, high-volume servers. Using this reference architecture, solution providers can plan, evaluate, and benchmark designs in advance of NFV deployments.

For telecom carrier network infrastructure, the Open Platform for

Network Functions Virtualization (OPNFV) is a Linux Foundation initiative led by telecom carriers, and software and hardware industry experts. The Intel ONP adopts key technologies and a framework from the OPNFV program so that open solutions based on an open ecosystem are available to end users.

To cultivate an open ecosystem, Intel established the Intel® Network Builders program, which brings together end users, and hardware and software NFV experts, including Dell, Metaswitch, and Red Hat. Through the Intel Network Builders program, demonstrations, like

the vIMS, are sponsored, developed, and promoted to accelerate the network transformation to a software-defined network.

Metaswitch* Software

Since its inception, Project Clearwater, a cloud-native IMS Core implementation introduced to the open source community by Metaswitch Networks in 2013, has been a prominent choice for vIMS based on NFV specifications. Architected from the ground up using web design patterns and methods, Clearwater is highly scalable, distributed, and resilient, meeting

Metaswitch orother VoLTE Telephony

Application Server (TAS)

Metaswitch Clearwater*vIMS Core

Perimeta* Signaling SBC

Perimeta Media SBC

SIP

SIP

SIP

Session Control

Communication Service Provider (CoSP) home subscriber (HSS),online charging system (OCS),

charge data function (CDF)

Metaswitch orother Media Resource

Function

Metaswitch* Service Assurance Server (SAS)

with vAnalytics

vSBC

4G / 5G / Wi-FiIntel® architecture-based

Computing Devices

VoLTE / Wi-Fi / 5GHandset

SIP

RTP

CA

LL

Call Set-Up

Voice/Video Call

Figure 3. End-to-End VoWiFi Demo

VIM

SPINE - AGGREGATION

VLT

VLT

S6000 Switch S6000 Switch

Control Node Computer Node Storage Node

1G

10G

40G

S6000 Switch

LEAF ACCESSS6000 Switch

S4820T Switch

Figure 4. Dell NFVI Starter Kit Configuration

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the stringent uptime demands of the regulated telephone operator industry while taking advantage of cloud compute environments originally built for non-real-time applications and services.

With this foundation of community-based NFV infrastructure and commodity platforms, CoSPs can incorporate DevOps methodologies into their core infrastructure processes, working with in-house or contracted specialists to tune these components for their specific requirements. The move toward open source software also extends to VNFs, with Project Clearwater performing the Core IMS requirements for a fraction of the price of classic IMS implementations.

This approach, together with subscription models for commercial platforms such

as the Metaswitch Perimeta vSBC, also facilitates the adoption of agile new-service-introduction practices. The vIMS/vSBC demo enhances agility with the ability to quickly spin up an entirely new vIMS core by automatically instantiating and integrating new applications with their requisite VNFs or VNFCs.

Instantiated on the Dell/Red Hat NFVi by the VNFM in a matter of seconds, the Metaswitch vIMS Core and vSBC are ready to process multimedia calls, either originating natively from VoWiFi and VoLTE handsets, or from clients resident on mobile devices or PCs. Secured by the vSBC’s back-to-back user agent (B2BUA), signaling is processed through the vIMS core with access into auxiliary user databases while call features are applied and managed by the high-level VoLTE

GSMA IR.92/IR.94-compliant Telephony Application Server (TAS).

Media calls are secured, transcoded, and anchored for roaming purposes by the media component of the vSBC. VoWiFi may be implemented by employing the GSMA IR.51 IMS profile for voice, video, and SMS over Wi-Fi. This includes origination, termination, and handover to or from 3GPP access infrastructure along with trusted or untrusted non-3GPP access points.

With the always-on Metaswitch Service Assurance Server (SAS) vAnalytics platform, CoSPs also have a powerful, proactive, troubleshooting tool at their fingertips. An example is the detailed call flow information shown in Figure 5. It is also possible to trace calls for quality of service (QoS) purposes or decode individual SIP messages to identify interoperability issues. This feature is a critical component of any virtualized deployment, providing the means to monitor individual elements that could be widely distributed across the network.

Red Hat Software

The Red Hat NFV Solution combines Red Hat Enterprise Linux with the Red Hat’s OpenStack cloud platform to deliver a scalable and secure foundation for building a private or public Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud. It offers a highly-scalable, fault-tolerant platform for the deployment of cloud-enabled workloads and VNFs.

The Red Hat OpenStack Platform IaaS cloud is implemented as a collection of interacting services that control compute, storage, and networking resources. The cloud can be managed with a web-based dashboard or command-line clients, which allow administrators to control, provision, and automate OpenStack resources. OpenStack also has an extensive API, which is available to all cloud users.

The Red Hat NFV Solution can be used for virtual infrastructure management (VIM) and the compute, network and storage layers in NFVi. Open source operational

Figure 5. Screen Shot from Metaswitch* Service Assurance Server* (SAS) vAnalytics platform

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tools used by the cloud community to manage cloud platform at scale are available to monitor the health and current capacity usage of the NFVi. The layers of the Red Hat NFV solution are shown in Figure 6 and described in the following:

• Linux* Layer The Linux layer is the foundation of the Red Hat NFV Solution. The main components are: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Software Defined Storage with Ceph (optional), Open vSwitch (OVS) standalone, or accelerated by DPDK.

• Virtualization Layer KVM is additionally secured using sVirt, a SELinux subproject to achieve the highest rating of isolation among VMs, and between VMs and hypervisors on the market. Red Hat also offers real-

time KVM for applications demanding predictable low latency instead of the maximum performance.

• OpenStack* Layer Red Hat enables compute NFV features (also called Enhanced Platform Awareness, or EPA), such as vCPU Pinning, Large Pages, NUMA awareness, IPv6, SR-IOV, and integration with DPDK-accelerated Open vSwitch. EPA enables the discovery of these features, allowing network functions to be deployed on the appropriate server (i.e., matching workload requirements to specific server capabilities). For example, time-sensitive applications may need to run on servers specially designed with features that minimize latency. One example is Intel® Resource Director Technology available on select Intel® Xeon® processors. The technology gives software programmers

fine-grain control over the processor cache to prevent time-critical data from being evicted by other processes, thus providing more deterministic performance.

• Management Layer CloudForms is the cloud management tool that presents data from multiple sources, like the VIM and the NFVi in a unified display. It allows CoSPs to reduce operations cost by managing hybrid VIM scenarios to consolidate fault, configuration, accounting, performance, and security (FCAPS) management functions.

• RHEL OSP Director Layer This layer provisions, updates, and upgrades Red Hat OpenStack Platform using a powerful and customizable automation engine based on the upstream TripleO project.

Figure 6. Layer of the Red Hat NFV Solution

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• Ansible Core* and Ansible Tower* by Red Hat Ansible can automate most CoSPs operational needs, thanks to its powerful engine, easy configuration language to write playbooks, agent-less operations over Secure Shell (SSH), and native support for network modules using the most popular vendors (Cisco*, F5*, etc.). Tower provides a comprehensive management tool to allow big operations team to share and recycle playbooks and orchestrate tasks over their network inventory.

Move to Open NFV Infrastructure

With this vIMS/vSBC demo, Dell, Intel, Metaswitch, and Red Hat have demonstrated a scalable solution for VoLTE, VoWiFi, unified communications,

and other rich media services. It employs open source, open-standard NFVi based on industry standard, high-volume servers to lower CapEx and OpEx, and improve flexibility compared to typical proprietary IMS designs.

CoSPs can accelerate their prototyping, testing, and development of NFVi by working with ecosystem members from open communities, like Intel Network Builders. Developers can get a jumpstart with the Dell NFVi starter kit.

In addition, Dell and Red Hat service teams are available to come to customer sites to load separately purchased NFVi software components.

More Information on NFVi Solutions

Dell: www.dell.com/telecom

Intel: networkbuilders.intel.com

Metaswitch: www.metaswitch.com

Red Hat: www.redhat.com

Footnote: 1 Stéphane Téral, Senior Research Director, IHS, “Voice over LTE on the Upswing as Availability of VoLTE Capable Devices Grows,” June 23, 2015, http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2015/VoLTE-

OTT-Mobile-VoIP-Services.asp2 IHS, https://technology.ihs.com/580240/research-note-voice-over-lte-ramping-up-1-billion-volte-users-by-20203 Source: Dell

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