Lessons Learned: Transitioning from TDM to IP

The transition from the Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) cell phone networks of the 2G and 3G mobile era has been a long time coming. However, the mobile industry seems to be at one of its proverbial inflection points where IP (Internet Protocol) technology is ascendant and TDM has begun the long but inevitable decline into legacy status.

Aviat Networks has been there all along the way, helping operators design and deploy aggregation systems. We’ve seen and learned a lot as some of the leading mobile phone carriers have upgraded their networks. Now as LTE works its way into mainstream status, cell phone networks are transitioning to full-IP, the underlying technology of LTE.

One of our IP experts, Hadi Choueiry, network solutions architect, recently sat down and went through the process of moving a leading European operator to LTE. The network design for LTE required traffic shaping and QoS (Quality of Service) policies, according to Choueiry. With QoS policies, the operator’s microwave backhaul maintains services for high priority LTE traffic through all conditions. Other TDM-to-IP lessons Choueiry has learned include:

• Taking advantage of statistical multiplexing
• Using QoS to maintain TDM quality for voice services
• Mitigating dropped calls between cells through mission-critical site synchronization

See and hear all of Choueiry’s lessons below.

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