Plugging 3G Mobile Networks into the Internet: A Prototype-Based Evaluation

Abstract

The Third Generation Mobile Network aims at providing present and future Internet services everywhere and at anytime using cellular technologies. This is based on its all-IP core network known as the IP Multimedia Subsystem which provides end-users with better QoS, charging and integration of different services. However, certain interoperability and interconnectivity limitations still exist, indicating that the convergence of the Internet and 3G networks is still not complete. We provide a prototype-based evaluation on the signalling interworking of end-toend services across the networks. Our results show crucial performance shortcomings of the standardised approach which requires immediate attention.

An analysis of mobile signalling in converged networks

“…Under this scenario, a call rate 900 calls per second was injected into the system; which is the call rate in which the system became saturated as observed from earlier performance based test which are not provided in this paper but can be found in [14].This experiment aim to study how the B2BUA will recover from issues like congestions when the originating traffic is from an external domain like the Internet in which it has no control over.…”

“…fixed and mobile) are used in converged networks in order to support its fixed and mobile services. In order to allow the interworking of both the fixed and mobile SIP profiles, the IMS uses a gateway known as the Back-toBack User Agent (B2BUA) [14]. These gateways introduce some limitations in terms of end-to-end communications, Quality of Service (QoS), charging, signalling interworking, media adaptation and protocol translation.…”