Interconnection Issues in NGN V.K. Agarwal, Dy. Advisor Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) 11/19/2018 TRAI

Present Telecom Scenario Present licensing framework is mapping different Telecom services with specific telecommunication licenses Low penetration of high speed Internet and Broadband Limited availability of Value-added services and content Restrictive regulatory framework for launch of new services 11/19/2018 TRAI 2 2

Present Telecom Scenario (contd.) Separate networks for PSTN, wireless and data Huge growth of wireless deployment Complex network design to support increasing bandwidth hungry applications Telecom service penetration is high in urban areas. Digital divide needs to be addressed Huge investments are required to set-up access infrastructure. 11/19/2018 TRAI

Present Telecom Scenario (contd.) Migration from PURE voice traffic in early eighties to pure IP traffic in near future Growth of voice traffic is stagnating while data traffic shows exponential growth (nearly 100 % annually) IP networks are stable , robust and time tested able to support triple play application efficient to support emerging service requirements Supports required QoS Network Traffic Growth Source: Cybermedia Center, Osaka University IP Networks are future requirement 11/19/2018 TRAI

Drivers for NGN Increasingly acceptability of IP platform to provide triple play services Low cost of IP equipment, reduced power & space requirement and ease of maintenance Flexibility to provide different Value Added Services and content quickly Increasing convergence of devices pushing for convergence of Networks Competition demands integration of the network to reduce cost as parallel networks means high costs. Fast growth in telecom sector is reducing average revenue per user. Therefore need is to boost revenue earnings through launch of new value added services and applications 11/19/2018 TRAI 5 5

4-Key Business Drivers of NGN Consumer / Business Services Reducing Cost Raising ARPU Enabling Convergence Consumer / Business Services 11/19/2018 TRAI

Support System Convergence Device Convergence Network Convergence Service Convergence Support System Convergence 11/19/2018 TRAI

4-Key aspects of NGN Architecture Quality of Service (QoS) Scalable Reliable Granular and modular On the fly enhancements Flexibility Carrier grade High availability Trust Openness Quality of Service (QoS) Standard interfaces and protocols Plug-n-play Consistent performance Preservation of key information parameters 11/19/2018 TRAI

4-Segments of NGN Architecture IP Core Service s and Applications S-CSCF I-CSCF P-CSCF BGCF DB IP Networking, Transport and Aggregation – IP / MPLS Multi-Access 11/19/2018 TRAI

Networks in NGN Scenario 11/19/2018 TRAI 10

Networks in NGN Scenario (contd.) 11/19/2018 TRAI 11

Stages of NGN Implementation NGN is basically Network Convergence which consists of Core Convergence Switching convergence Access Convergence 11/19/2018 TRAI 12

Present Telecom Networks GMSC MSC BSC BTS End-to-End Mobile Network L2 TAX L1 TAX L2 TAX Local Exch. Local Exch. End-to-End PSTN Network ADSL DSLAM Int’l Internet Bandwidth Provider National ISP Local Exch. Broadband Network 11/19/2018 TRAI 13

Convergence at Core Network 11/19/2018 TRAI 14

End-to-End convergence 11/19/2018 TRAI 15

Stages of NGN Implementation Core Convergence Switch Level Convergence End-to-End Convergence Core convergence is presence of Unified backbone IP Backbone is being used in converged core network since IP based packet transmission is more efficient Introduction of Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is favored as it is now one of the most powerful technology for converged core network. Migration from TDM based switches to IP based soft switches Media gateways are used to communicate with legacy central office (CO) TDM switches Media gateways will not be required in fully converged IP Network. Class-4 Softswitch: Used for Trunk Automatic Exchange (TAX) and Tandem Switching Class-5 Softswitch : Deployment in access network A fully IP based network from one end user device to other end user device is end to end convergence. Only IP based access devices will be permitted in access network. This is third stage of Network Convergence and will require sufficiently long time due to migration from traditional TDM to total IP user devices. 11/19/2018 TRAI 16

Supportive & Regulatory Framework Regulatory framework should facilitate expansion of Infrastructure, especially in rural and remote areas. Promoting Competition and technology neutrality Focus on ‘Light touch’ regulation with special emphasis on regulatory forbearance Time bound resolution of regulatory impediments for rollout and migration to NGN services Govt. support for upgradation of end link will be desirable 11/19/2018 TRAI

NGN Interconnection Issues Migration from service based interconnection to service neutral interconnection Reference interconnect offer (RIO) in NGN environment Maintaining Fair cost based interconnection Ensuring equitable & non-discriminatory interconnection Point of interconnect between various operators Basis of charging

Point of Interconnection Direct Interconnection among service providers.

Point of Interconnection Interconnect Exchange

Comparison of two methodology of Interconnection Issue Conventional Interconnection Scenario Interconnect Exchange Scenario Complexity of Network Very High Low Interconnection and port charges High Capacity Utilization Inefficient Efficient Bandwidth Scalability CAPEX Requirement Initially Low Initially high, as cost of setting up Interconnect Exchange will be shared among all operators OPEX Requirement Low, however the OPEX involved in Exchange will have to be shared Overall Performance Depends on Individual Operator May also depend on Interconnect Exchange Call Handling IUC settlement Difficult Easy Implementation of Number portability and carrier selection Sharing of IN platform

Interconnection in Legacy Networks Charging methodologies Calling Party Pays (CPP) – widely used Receiving Party Pays (RPP), Bill and Keep – mostly in Internet scenario Costing techniques Distance Based Element Based Capacity based

Current Interconnection Usage Charging(IUC) Scenario in India IUC determined based on minutes of usage for various Unbundled Network Elements and the cost of these elements. The IUCs for Origination, Transit and Termination are based on the principles of element based charging i.e. one operator charging the other for the resources consumed for carriage of its calls in terms of minutes of use (MOU). The total Interconnection Usage Charges for carriage of a call in a multi operator environment are shared for Origination, Transit and Termination on the basis of work done in each segment for the carriage of the call.

Charging methodologies in NGN Calling Party Network Pays, Bill and Keep, Based on Quality of service, Bulk billing.

Service Level Agreements across multiple networks in NGN Scenario

Issues and challenges – for IUC Billing and Accounting in NGN Inter-operator settlement issues- content and quality based pricing, usage based or bulk billing. In an NGN world, the network service provider will not necessarily be the application service provider. The network provider will have only limited visibility into third party applications running over its network. The application provider may have extensive visibility into the application that it provides, but only limited visibility into the use of network resources. Usage-based billing will be possible only to the extent that the usage can be rigorously and unambiguously measured. How will providers and customers ensure that service commitments are met? Whose statistics will govern?

Issues and challenges – for IUC Billing and Accounting in NGN cont. Competitive providers may be reluctant to share statistics about their respective networks with one another, and peering agreements may typically restrict the ability of the providers to disclose information about one another‘s networks to third parties. Can sufficient information be disclosed to customers? How will responsibility be allocated if a customer’s traffic fails to achieve its committed service level specification in case of multiple networks? Traffic data can legitimately be interpreted in more than one way. Will it be possible to administer payments and penalties rigorously and fairly? How can providers prevent fraud? How can they distinguish between fraud and legitimate use?

Thank You dacn@trai.gov.in 11/19/2018 TRAI