Sponsored Interview

Astellia the power of VoLTE

A

s operators deploy LTE networks according

the GSMA by the end of the first quarter of
2014 there were 288 live networks, and this
number is expected to reach more than 350 by the end
of the year so more and more operators are turning
their attention to Voice over LTE. About 50 have already
launched or are trialling VoLTE; another 40 have publicly
announced plans to launch VoLTE; and more than 90
have launched LTE roaming services.
SK Telecom is one of the few to have deployed the
technology already. Speaking at this years LTE World
Summit in Amsterdam, SK Telecoms Park Jun-Hyo told
delegates that once subscribers have experienced VoLTE
they dont want to go back to 2G or 3G voice quality
faster call set-up, no ambient sound, and the ability to
use voice and data simultaneously are among its many
advantages, according to the operator. In addition
operators have the opportunity to bundle a range of IMS
services with VoLTE, such as video calling, file sharing and
instant messaging.
We expect a massive deployment of VoLTE
technology in the next couple of years since Tier One
and Tier Two operators are looking for first mover
advantage, comments Thierry Jacq, business marketing
manager at Astellia. VoLTE promises much: better call
quality, faster call set-up, and higher spectral efficiency
through refarming 2G spectrum. Jacq says an operator
refarming its 2G bands into 4G will be able to carry six
times more voice calls. He adds: There are other drivers
for operators of course. VoLTE means that operators

It makes so
much business
sense for the
operators key
performance
indicators to
be focused on
the quality of
experience as well
as on technical
performance

Thierry Jacq, Business

Marketing Manager at Astellia
16 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk

have to implement an IMS and this in turn will help

them to deliver a suite of Rich Communication Services.
Then they can bring in new features which enable richer
interaction with consumers and allow them to compete
more effectively with over the top players.
Of course a VoLTE deployment can be full of technical
challenges, and Jacq says that Astellia is currently working
with operators in the US, Europe and Middle East both
in the lab and in field trials in order to help them iron
out the many issues they may have prior to deployment.
VoLTE is a new layer - on top of all the existing layers
like the radio access network and the evolved packet
core - they all involve procedures that have to be set up
correctly. The correct and efficient interoperability and
interworking of all these layers together is critical to an
effective VoLTE call, he says.
A good voice call experience is fundamental to a VoLTE
service, which after all is going to be marketed as high
definition voice. Call set up needs to be fast Jacq says
that five seconds is perceived as a very long time by a
user making a call and the quality needs to be assured.
Any delay has an impact on user perception and use,
he says, but one of benefits of LTE calling is the ability
to establish a call in a very short time when the South
Koreans first started using VoLTE they were amazed as
call establishment appeared to be instantaneous.
He says the different network layers tend to be
addressed by different teams in an operator, the RAN
team, the EPC team, the IMS core team, each has
different challenges for VoLTE calls. Astellia addresses
the needs of core EPC and core IMS teams, and as well
as reporting on 4G bearer set-up it also monitors SIP
to uncover any interworking issues between the SIP
voice service and 4G network layers. Astellias solution
provides the detection of any problems and a means to
drill down to the root cause of a problem, Jacq says.
Astellia has built its business by providing network
and subscriber intelligence to mobile operators and
its monitoring solution has already helped a number
of operators to refine and improve their services and
introduce new services on their 4G networks. With
headquarters in France, Astellia also has offices in Brazil,
Canada, India, Lebanon, Russia, Singapore, South Africa,
Spain and the USA. It works with more than 200 mobile
operators around the world and customers include the
likes of Orange, Airtel, Sprint, Zain, Telefonica and MTN
among others. Jacq says that end to end monitoring
is fundamental to its business proposition, and that
the ability to aggregate all the different legs of a call is
something weve done very well for years.

Sponsored Interview

He counsels: The most important key performance

indicators are those which reflect the actual experience
of the user. They are few in number - maybe 15 to 20
KPIs - for example time to establish a call, efficiency
of call set up, the number of dropped calls. Even the
duration of a call is important, if you see that a lot of
calls only last a very short length of time on a certain
point in the network then maybe there is an issue at this
location. So call duration can be a KPI which reflects
the user experience. Jacq says that operators mainly
rely on monitoring technical KPIs. He advises that these
should be complementary to user experience KPIs in
order to detect the impact of network issues on the user
experience.
Users will have high expectations of call continuity
and call quality in a VoLTE high definition voice call.
With 4G coverage not yet ubiquitous, call continuity
necessitates handovers from 4G to 3G and 2G and this
is automatically performed through SRVCC (Single Radio
Voice Call Continuity) which bridges the IMS core with
the legacy core. Astellia delivers end-to-end KPIs which
monitor and analyse handover efficiency between core
IMS, EPC and 4G RAN on the one hand and legacy core
CS and 2G/3G RAN on the other hand. Says Jacq: We
can offer standardised reporting so that comparisons can
be made between 3G and 4G and so on. We offer the
same type of KPIs for all the different technologies so that
operators can see the experience of the subscriber no
matter which network they use.
One of the features of VoLTE calling is the ability to
exchange data at the same time as taking or receiving
a voice call. Of course subscribers will still expect the
highest quality of experience when they do this, says Jacq,
adding that this is where performance metrics can really
come into their own. Weve seen in the field that call
set up can be impacted by this, he says, weve found
that exchanging data when trying to set up VoLTE call
can lead to an 8% failure rate in call set up, which is very
high. KPIs can then be used to identify weak points in the
network and rectify them. Jacq says Astellia also produces
a comprehensive range of VoIP call quality metrics
including MOS, or mean opinion score, the test that has
been used for decades in telephony to obtain a user view
of network quality, packet delay, packet loss, jitter and
latency. This MOS is calculated for each 5 second slice of
each VoLTE call performed by subscribers.
A VoLTE call requires each user to have a VoLTE
handset, although there are currently only a few handsets
which support VoLTE. Apples recent announcement that
the iPhone 6 supports VoLTE calling will surely be the

catalyst for other vendors to get in the game and is one

of many factors that will see the use of the technology
escalate rapidly over the coming months. But not all
handsets are alike, points out Jacq, and whether its a
voice or a video call it may have an impact on the quality
of the users experience. Handsets need to be part of the
end to end monitoring plan.
In a challenging climate where operators need to
rapidly implement a new technology and still strive
for a great user experience an end to end monitoring
approach can reap its own rewards. It means the
operator can generate dedicated reports, pinpoint
problems, uncover the root cause of any issue, and
provide independent evidence to transfer tickets to the
right vendor. Jacq summarises: Operators need to look
at the introduction of VoLTE through their subscribers
eyes. What is the user perception of their experience on
the network? It makes so much business sense for the
operators key performance indicators to be focused
on the quality of experience as well as on technical
performance.

Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 17