In early 2009, the Chinese government granted 3G licenses to the three restructured telecom operators, triggering competition in the fullservice market. China Mobile took the challenge as motivation to begin implementing a new era of full-service operation.
All-IP Convergence strategies
The two other competitors China Telecom and China Unicom have a strong foothold in the market. They are competing with China Mobile not only in the mobile market, where China Mobile has a traditional edge, but are also continuously expanding their household and enterprise user base. Both have a solid legacy in the fixed broadband access market.
China Mobile lagged behind in fixed broadband access and high speed data service. They are an established and a popular provider of mobile services, yet lacked strength in fixed broadband services and progress promised to be arduous.
To gain a leading market position, China Mobile needed to make an effort to fully develop its fixed broadband access services and provide future-oriented convergent services.
China Mobile started considering an All-IP core network (CN) because: all network services can be triggered uniformly; all service interfaces are open with the same standard, facilitating introduction of multimedia services, especially Internet-based; and the network meets the capability requirements of fullservice operation.
After years of development, China Mobile has deployed a powerful mobile network. As a major promoter and leader in the mobile softswitch field, China Mobile has now taken the lead in 2G network replacement. Based on R4 softswitch architecture, they have built an IP-based CN on the IP bearer network and laid the foundation for the 2G network to smoothly migrate to the 3G network, while transforming the mobile network from narrowband to IP-based.
Due to technological limitations, the existing mobile softswitch of China Mobile does not have fixed broadband access capability. Likewise, the fixed softswitch, which is applied in narrowband voice services, cannot solve the broadband access issue.
If China Mobile decided to deploy the fixed softswitch, the investment would be huge and the new network OPEX would rise. The question of the day was, “How should China Mobile choose a broadbandaccess-capable CN for its full-service operation?”
Faced with those challenges, and based on its existing network resources, China Mobile established the uniform architecture of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) and formulated a full-service operation strategy with the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as the only control core to build the FMC based CN.
IMS-based full-service operation CN can not only enable fixed broadband access and share convergent services on the entire network, but also trigger existing mobile value-added services via the IMS and share mobile services on the entire network.
More importantly, IMS inherently is the only technology to integrate existing networks and realize uniform CN control of multi-networks. Also, it supports the access of networks like WLAN, 3G, and LTE, while contributing to future-oriented convergence and evolution. The fixedmobile convergent network architecture provided by IMS is helping China Mobile to transform from a sole mobile service provider to a full-service provider.
Zhang Tongxu, Vice President & Chief Engineer of China Mobile Group Design Institute Co., Ltd., said: “In terms of network convergence, IMS is the red hot topic. IMS is the technology to which operators attach great importance. It is a wide spread and unanimous opinion that IMS will be the major technology used in future CNs. IMS features include: access independence, complete separation, more standard networking, unified database management, an improved QoS mechanism, and network security design.”
China Mobile's IMS-based full-service operation has emerged in the market.
IMS wins the first battle
Located in the south part of Yangtze River Delta in China's southeast costal area, Zhejiang Province is relatively small, but one of the most prosperous in the country. In 2008, the overall provincial GDP exceeded 300 billion USD. Demand for multimedia communications service is huge here because of the densely distributed small to medium-sized enterprises, especially those dealing with exports.
To meet their subscriber's multimedia requirements, China Mobile decided to provide IMS full-service on a trial basis. In September 2008, China Mobile selected Huawei's IMS-based FMC full-service solution and quickly started building networks and deploying services in the
province.
China Mobile's base stations are connected through optical fibers and the base stations spread out across the country.
The new Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network (GPON) access can use optical fibers to provide broadband access to save time and money when constructing and deploying the network. Optical access clients have various types of interfaces. For example, they have phone interfaces to provide telephone and fax services and also network interfaces to support broadband access IN devices and the broadband network. This provides integrated multimedia voice, video and data applications.
Based on the existing All-IP bearer network, China Mobile deploys the IMS CN equipment in the capital city of Hangzhou and the access equipment in other cities, reducing the complexity in network management by establishing a flattened network.
By using optical fibers, the IMS network provides rich voice services and multimedia applications. The MSC on the mobile network can access the IMS through SIP and the fixed network can access the IMS through interworking, establishing a convergent CN architecture and sharing IMS services. The IMS helps China Mobile integrate and unify the existing networks and paves the way for future convergence of multi-access networks.
The interfaces of the existing service control points (SCP) have been upgraded to SIP standard inter faces that can interwork with the IMS CN. All services can be triggered by the IMS. Full-service subscribers can enjoy rich multimedia convergent services provided by the IMS in addition to original services provided by the mobile network. New services can be quickly deployed because services can be triggered and developed on the IMS network. This new mode not only injects new energy into original services and adds values to these services, but also shortens the publishing time for new services and new service deployments throughout the entire network.
| "With the IMS convergent solution, we can provide our subscribers with better convergent services and keep the leading position in the fullservice operation era.” Zhong Tianhua, General Manager of China Mobile Zhejiang, says. |
Based on the IMS convergent network, China Mobile has rolled out a series of multimedia ser vices like eSpace, convergent Centrex, video conference, IPTV and video sharing. It is moving fast into the enterprise and household user markets.
The eSpace services allow users to integrate their mobile phones with their PCs. In addition, eSpace services can be closely integrated with enterprise IT sys t ems , providing ICT service experiences. For instance, eSpace can also be interfaced with Lotus Notes address book for improved functions such as clickto-call and click-to-conference.
After upgrading, the existing SCP provides convergent Centrex services, a typical IMS application that adds value to the existing services. Fixed and mobile subscribers can share the same Centrex group and make calls by dialing a short number. The application of Centrex services saves service deployment cost and embodies China Mobile's development trend of creating a new futur e by converging with the present.
In early 2009, China Mobile put the IMS full-service network into commercial use in Zhejiang Province. Now, over one million subscribers enjoy the brand-new user experiences brought by the convergent network. China Mobile has achieved its strategic goal in Zhejiang Province with the IMS helping to win the first battle, and the market looks very promising.
The successful IMS application in Zhejiang has reflected their wisdom of using the IMS-based FMC to implement full-service operation. Construction of the IMS realizes the architectural convergence and rapid deployment of fixed and mobile networks, provides rich multimedia services, shortens the time-to-market of services, and enables the reuse, as well as quick layout of broadband optical networks.
The IMS helps China Mobile to preempt the market of full-service operation while cutting down OPEX, initially explore a full-service operation business model, develop new profit points, and lay a solid foundation for future network convergence.
Zhong Tianhua, General Manager of China Mobile Zhejiang, says: “With the IMS convergent solution, we can provide our subscribers with better convergent services and keep the leading position in the full-service operation era.”
In cooperation with Huawei, China Mobile is deploying the IMS-based fullservice networks in cities and other provinces such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, and Shanxi. The full-service operation strategy has helped China Mobile cope with market forces and currently enjoy a highly competitive position. The launch of IMSbased services has given China Mobile further strength and a better bottom line.
