3GPP standard protocols are inadequate for LTE core, says Continuous
Published: 17 December, 2009
READ MORE: Core Network | Standards | LTE
Migration to a new generation of technologies rarely means an entirely fresh new start. Carriers have to integrate with legacy systems and harness existing technologies, often stretching them to limits that were not envisaged when they were invented. There will be several examples within LTE's evolved packet core (EPC), one of them being the 3GPP's choice of SCTP (stream control transmission protocol) as the IP transport layer for all signalling in the core.
This has created a "significant strain on STCP processing that was not anticipated when the protocol was first defined," according to core network specialist Continuous Computing, which says it is addressing the issue by supporting Trillium's FastPath protocol software in its LTE EPC platform. It believes many EPC systems are currently under-specified for the burdens they will face, in particular because the 4G focus on small cells will greatly increase the number of SCTP connections that the core will need to manage.
"While the built-in reliability mechanisms of SCTP are attractive for providing carrier grade networks, they create substantial overhead and thus generic SCTP implementations are unable to scale sufficiently to meet the massive core networking requirements of the EPC," said Continuous.
Another 3GPP decision is also storing up potential problems for the future, once LTE networks gain mass. The standards body has selected GTP (GPRS tunnelling protocol) as the primary bearer plane protocol in the EPC, but this will now have to handle more than seven times more throughput than in 3G base stations - again, vendors will race to enhance the vanilla implementations to create cores that support massive data plane scalability.
"The challenges of the LTE core network cannot be met by a generic collection of hardware and software components," said Ronald Gruia, telecoms analyst at Frost & Sullivan. Continuous believes its combination of Trillium FastPath and its PP50 platform, based on standard ATCA architectures, will address the performance requirements, allowing key protocols like SCTP and GTP to move into the native execution environment.
There will be many challengers looking to boost the performance of the basic 3GPP EPC designs, as the core network becomes more strategic to carriers, and as new and old vendors seek to establish their position. Notably, Cisco has acquired Starent and Tellabs has entered the game by purchasing start-up WiChorus.
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