Future Mobile Networks: 3G and Beyond
A valuable resource which presents technological advances and market expectations to those in the mobile communications field.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Future Mobile Networks: 3G and Beyond
6.3: Migration to Internet Protocol Voice Bearers 3GPP Release 4
6.3 Migration to Internet Protocol Voice Bearers 3GPP Release 4
The following two phases of UMTS evolution specify how voice and multimedia can be supported by an Internet protocol (IP) transport service. Currently, two phases are defined:
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Release 4, which includes the migration of the Release 1999 circuit-switched domain core network and services to an IP transport;
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Release 5, which takes a more radical approach to the introduction of conversational and interactive multimedia services on to an end-to-end IP transport provided by an enhanced general packet radio service in the packet-switched domain this is described further in section 6.4.
These releases were previously known singly as Release 2000.
6.3.1 Voice in the 3GPP Release 4 Network
The 3GPP Release 4 standards provide a means for operators to migrate the Release 1999 circuit-switched domain to an IP-based core network infrastructure, independently of the UTRAN and GPRS networks. The Release 4 standards include other changes and new features which do not directly affect the voice service, and hence are not described here.
An overview of the Release 4 network is shown in Fig 6.2.
Figure 6.2: 3GPP Release 4 network overview.
The Release 4 circuit-switched domain connects to the UTRAN via the Iu-CS interface, which supports the same speech transport and signalling protocols as in Release 1999. GSM radio networks can also be connected via the GSM A interface. However, rather than terminating on an MSC, the Iu-CS interface (and similarly the GSM A interface) terminates on a media gateway...
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