The 3GPP release 8 IMS Implementation, Deployment & Testing workshop took place in Sophia Antipolis on 24-25 November 2010.
The event was attended by 70 delegates actively participating to the discussions.
Presenting companies included: Tel : A1 Telekom Austria, Alcatel Lucent, Codenomicon, Conformiq, Eircom, Elvior, ETSI, France Telecom, GSMA, Huawei, Huawei, Mobitel, NTT DoCoMo, SFR, Telecom Italia, TestingTech, TU Berlin, Wind, Wipro, ZTE.
The main objectives of this event were to :
• Share experiences on IMS implementation, best practices
• Discuss future needs for IMS network testing
• Evaluate testing and validation best practices, and techniques such as test specifications, interoperability events and logos
Agenda, Biographies, Event Presentations
The 3GPP IMS Release 8 Implementation, Deployment and Testing workshop which was held on November 24th/25th in ETSI Sophia Antipolis, France was very well received by 71 attendees. The two days were packed with presentations and panels, discussing implementation issues, reporting on test results and sharing trial experiences of IMS solutions. The conclusion of the workshop emphasised the need to hold an ETSI PLUGTESTS™ in 2011 dealing with 3GPP R8 NNI (base for VoLTE), RCS 2.0 interoperability on ISC interface, use of IPV6 and IMS Interactions with Legacy PSTN systems.
Presentations were given by A1 Telekom Austria, Alcatel Lucent, Codenomicon, Conformiq, Elvior, Eircom, ETSI, Fraunhofer FOKUS, GSMA, Huawei, NTT Docomo, Mobitel Slovenja, Orange FR, SFR, Telecom Italia, Testingtech, Wind Italy, Wipro and ZTE. Panellists included representatives from Eircom, SFR, Huawei, Fraunhofer FOKUS, AT&T research (representing IMTC), Wind Italy, Telecom Italia, NSN, ZTE and TestingTech IMS is now beginning to roll-out. The workshop heard of implementation plans, difficulties of ensuring quality of IP based FAX service, new IMS services already launched but more effort is required for IN migration. The need to standardise provisioning of QoS and implementation issues of Voice over LTE and the role of IMS in call handover, QoS and user profiles were underlined as well.
RCS trials reported that the greatest value of these activities is in cross-operator interoperability and compatibility with a wide range of phones. The need for implementations compliant to the Standards and tested on NNI (Network to Network Interface) in a formal way was also expressed. This means that NNI interoperability tests (IOTs) are crucial to ensure connectivity.
Following OpenIMS successful experience OpenEPC has been developed for prototyping advanced LTE services. This will allow also stand alone node provider to complement their system during Plugtests™.
A panel on maturity of IMS Technology found that there were no missing elements and no major inhibitors, but IMS is often coming "in pieces", and most of the time those pieces are not yet "a network". IMS brings a big change in the service environment, where the market forces now pitch "Voice as an app" against "Voice as a Service"
From the standards point of view, we heard about 3GPP standards for II-NNI (Inter IMS connection). In order to resolve IP addresses to telephone numbers, GSMA proposes a global shared ENUM database that will provide DNS-like services for telephone numbers, and will help routing during the services migration phase and beyond. GSMA, in support of ETSI's rigorous approach to testing, underlined the importance of interoperability in order to guarantee ENUM interconnection.
Testing carried out during the reported trials revealed the need for automated testing. Advanced testing techniques, such as the use of TTCN-3, can save up to 50% of testing costs and time. Various tests of network performance aspects were also reported. In particular, testing Voice (speech) quality and the standards for assessment of speech and media, and security testing of IMS elements will be important for the future.
The final panel on interoperability scope and resolution addressed clearly that a lot of IOTs are carried out nowadays and there is the need to clarify the scope and timing of each IOT phase. ETSI Plugtests™ is the only interoperability event able to provide feedback to 3GPP and to the industry to directly improve standardisation. Possible differentiations will be needed between IOTs of mature technology, like 3GPP R8 in 2011, able to boost the implementation and deployment, and IOTs of early implementation, like 3GPP R9 able to provide feedback to standardization and improvement to the industry implementations. An IMS Plugtests™ on 3GPP R8 NNI, collecting all the feedback from the workshop will be organized in Q3/Q4 2011.
In summary, the 2-day event was a good place to learn about implementation tools, tests and experience for IMS projects, as noted by attendees – "very close to industrial reality". Attendees also appreciated the presence of "so many experts in IMS", and commented that it was "a good balance where each part of the ecosystem was present".