GSMA IPX initiative readies commercialisation of IP services

The GSMA’s IPX (IP Packet eXchange) initiative has developed into a proven service preparing for commercial deployment, twelve months after trials began. The aim of the initiative is to enable mobile operators and other service providers to exchange IP-based traffic, including both person-to-person communications and content, securely and with a guaranteed quality of service.

The IPX is an interconnect service with common agreed technical specifications that can be offered by carriers on a competitive basis. Essentially a virtual private Internet, the IPX creates the mechanism for managing IP traffic to guaranteed SLAs, enabling service providers to offer existing services more efficiently by ensuring both quality and security. The IPX will open up the market for the development of new services and new connections, giving service providers the potential to reap the benefits of being part of a global network.

“The open Internet is a wonderful thing, but when it comes to providing a guaranteed quality of service, particularly for time-critical services, there is still a long way to go,” Alex Sinclair, GSMA CTO, told the Show Daily. “By contrast, IPX should guarantee reliable and secure carriage of traffic between networks because each party involved in transmitting the data offers a pre-defined service-level agreement.”

There are already quality issues caused by too many users and services chasing too little bandwidth, and with the increasing use of services such as IPTV, these are set to multiply. Research* demonstrates that the Internet could run out of capacity as early as 2010 – not only impacting existing services but also stifling future innovation.

Transparent but not accessible from the Internet, the IPX is only available to accredited organisations, with every element covered by technical specification and commercial templates. The IPX provides an interconnect solution that follows the GSMA’s four key principles for a successful IP Interworking solution: openness, quality, cascading payments and efficient connectivity. Service providers can benefit from access to many network providers and ISPs with a single commercial agreement and technical interconnection. It is anticipated that it will no longer be essential for content to be paid for by credit or debit card; additional payment mechanisms will be possible via the operator or ISP, with the charge appearing on the consumer’s phone bill.

Any potential player in the delivery of IP services – mobile and fixed network operators including cable providers, and carriers and ISPs – can become involved in the IPX service, gaining access to a managed IP network with predefined guarantees of end-to-end quality and absolute security. The IPX focuses on end-to-end quality by cascading responsibility. This means each party agrees to be responsible for the performance of the next party in the transit chain. Every IPX provider will commit to deliver a range of services that meets agreed service specific SLAs. Because all participants make this commitment, the financial benefits of providing the service are cascaded through the value chain, enabling all involved to receive a fair commercial return for their participation. The transactions will flow in the same way as the data. SLAs mean that the consumer can have complete confidence in the standard of content delivery because each stage of the process has an owner who takes responsibility.

Service providers can also benefit from simple access to many network providers and ISPs with just a single commercial agreement and technical interconnection. The IPX means that it will no longer be essential for content to be paid for by credit or debit card as happens today. Additional payment mechanisms will be possible via the operator or ISP, with the charge appearing on the consumer’s phone bill.

The SLAs need not be the same between services – they will be more stringent for voice, for instance, to ensure uninterrupted speech. A service such as MMS will not require such rigorous levels of service and will have a less demanding SLA. Whatever the agreed level of SLA, performance to its specification is guaranteed and is integral to the business model and the actual commercial performance of the IPX.

Development of the IPX initiative has attracted broad support from the industry. Phase 1 trials were completed at the end of 2007. Further trials are now under way to test SIP interoperability, additional performance and quality measures and to promote participation from an even greater number of potential IPX players worldwide. Fixed operators, mobile operators and carriers participating in existing or planned trials include Belgacom ICS, BT, Cable & Wireless, DTAC, Elisa, France Telecom/Orange, iBasis, Mobilkom, Proximus, T-Com, T-Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telecom Italia Sparkle, Telefonica/O2, Telefonica IWS, Telekom Austria, Telenor, Telenor Global Services, TeliaSonera, TeliaSonera International Carrier, Telus, Telecom New Zealand, Telecom New Zealand International, Vipnet, Vodafone and Teleglobe/VSNL.

This is an expanded version of an article first published in the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress ‘Show Daily’ newspaper, Monday February 11th 2008.

*The Internet Singularity, Delayed – Nemertes Research November 2007