The telecommunications industry—and associated network—has typically been characterized by a very methodical and sometimes slow approach to major network/technological changes. Numerous factors have led to this, including:
• Expense in changing network architectures
• Software costs
• Purpose-built hardware costs
• Slow process in network protocol standardization
• No consistent worldwide standard for network protocols
Once these networks were deployed, they tended to remain in place and provide fairly consistent feature sets to subscribers for years. This longevity is evidenced by the deployment of the Signaling System 7 (SS7) network in the mid-1980s and its continuing usage today.
The implementation of an all Internet Protocol (IP) network is changing the characteristics of the entire telecommunications network and industry. The rapid deployment of Long Term Evolution (LTE)/Evolved Packet Core (EPC)/Diameter-based mobile networks, coupled with the implementation of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Voice over LTE (VoLTE), is a monumental change in the telecom landscape.
The next major telecommunication paradigm shift, Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), is occurring even before the migration to all-IP networks is complete. NFV uses Information Technology (IT) approaches of decoupling applications and software from the hardware on which they reside. Once again telecommunications is learning—or we might say—moving closer to data or IT concepts such as independent hardware servers, Cloud-based services, and all IP networks.
The benefits and objecti ves of NFV are:
1. Increased network design flexibility
2. Rapid service innovation
3. Reduced capital expenditures
4. Reduced operational costs
5. Reduced power consumption
6. Standardized and open interfaces
Buckle up your seat belts; these are going to be rapid-moving, challenging, changing and exhilarating times for the telecommunications industry. The remainder of this paper will cover NFV, especially as it relates to the Diameter Protocol and Diameter Signaling Controllers (DSCs).
