Cisco Demonstrates Fixed-mobile Convergence

HostReview.com
Thursday, December 8, 2005; 04:03 PM

Cisco yesterday successfully demonstrated Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) to a large audience of financial and industry analysts at its Worldwide Analyst Conference.

The industry-leading demonstration illustrated that the Cisco Service Exchange Framework (SEF), the service control layer of the Cisco IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture, supporting both IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) services and non-IMS services, can enable providers to quickly deploy voice, video and data services to increase revenues and improve customer relationships.

The live demonstration displayed seamless location, roaming and hand-off of voice calls between WiFi and cellular networks using a dual mode handset with a single number.

Applicable to data and video services as well, this capability will enable providers to deliver multimedia services to a range of different devices and maintain service continuity and Quality of Service (QoS) across a range of access networks for users at work, at home, or on the road.

"Orchestrating the delivery of voice and multimedia services across multiple access networks, protocols and service delivery platforms is a complicated but required capability of a next-generation service control layer," says Joe McGarvey, principal analyst, Current Analysis.

The demonstration utilized key components of the Cisco Service Exchange Framework, including the Cisco Call Session Control Platform (Cisco's implementation of the IMS CSCF), the class-independent Cisco BTS10200 softswitch, the high-density Cisco MGX 8880 Media Gateway, and the widely-deployed Cisco PGW2200 Media Gateway Controller.

The demonstrated infrastructure is also designed to support FMC for video and data services, in addition to voice, when interconnected to 3G mobile networks.

Additionally, the demonstration illustrates the standards-based interoperability of the Cisco Service Exchange Framework with equipment from Cisco partners including Apertio, HP and SIPquest.

"The Service Exchange Framework will enable operators to deliver fixed-mobile convergence for any service, from anywhere and at any time," said Mike Volpi, senior vice president of Cisco's Routing and Service Provider Technology Group.