VoLGA makes progress despite pressure from IMS players

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VoLGA makes progress despite pressure from IMS players

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 11 December, 2009

Good and bad news for VoLGA, one of several approaches to the knotty issue of supporting voice services over LTE. The initiative, led by T-Mobile and vendor Kineto Wireless, was somewhat overshadowed by the recent announcement of OneVoice, which focuses on making it simpler to deploy an IMS-based voice platform for 4G carriers. Since VoLGA was conceived as an interim step for operators that are not yet ready for the complexities of IMS, some observers believed OneVoice made it redundant, a view apparently strengthened when Ericsson, almost as soon as OneVoice went public, decided to leave the VoLGA Forum. Undeterred though, T-Mobile has shown off two test systems and Kineto has released a new release of the software that underpins the approach.

Voice over LTE is a complicated issue and several approaches are likely to be required for different carrier models. The main options, apart from VoLGA, are CS Fallback, where voice calls are run over a 2G or 3G network (a 3GPP standard, but a lowest common denominator, and obviously only for those with legacy networks in place); over-the-top VoIP solutions; full IMS/Carrier VoIP - now reportedly made simpler with OneVoice; and vendor specific solutions like Nokia Siemens' VoLTE.

VoLGA uses Kineto's technology, the basis of the 3GPP's Generic Access Network (GAN) standard, which was originally designed for integrating Wi-Fi and cellular systems in fixed/mobile convergence. In VoLGA the system is used to deliver circuit switched voice and messaging over packet-based LTE. One of the technology's key selling points is that it is quick and relatively cheap to implement, even though it requires a dedicated gateway. Steve Shaw, head of marketing for Kineto and VoLGA, said this week that Alcatel-Lucent and Kineto have succeeded in building two networks within T-Mobile's labs in Germany, completing them only six months after the VoLGA specifications were finalized. This demonstrates, he says, what a "low impact" the deployment has one carriers.

Kineto has just announced the latest software release for its VoLGA compliant access gateway solution, which "enables operators to add their existing voice and SMS services effortlessly to their LTE trials", as Kineto VP Ken Kolderup put it. VoLGA controllers connect to existing mobile switching centers through standard network interfaces. Kineto also recently released the first combined VoLGA/IMS voice client for LTE handsets, and this can be field upgraded to full IMS.

Despite this progress, Ericsson has gone cold on the project, while Nokia Siemens continues to plow its own furrow, though the other equipment majors are all still part of the Forum, with ALU the most active. Ericsson made the decision when OneVoice was unveiled in early November, and went public this week, with VP of technology Eric Ekudden telling Unstrung that "there are no signs [VoLGA] will be strongly supported" by mobile operators (http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=185481&). Shaw speculated that Ericsson had left under pressure from "one operator in the US who can't take advantage of VoLGA" - presumably Verizon Wireless, which is implementing LTE with Ericsson and ALU and has an aggressive IMS strategy (VoLGA does not run with CDMA).

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