Communication service providers are desperately looking to relieve some of the pressure caused by flat revenues in the face of growing network traffic, and they have their eyes squarely focused on employing efficient network architectures that can offer enhanced voice and video services to their subscribers. With such a deployment configuration, not only would cost-per-bit decrease, but the network bandwidth would increasingly be consumed with revenue-generating personalized communication services. Services like VoLTE, video conferencing, video ring back tones, mobile coupons, or video security monitoring – each adding incremental revenues over and above the standard mobile data plan revenues
So where does the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) fit in all of this? Today, IMS deployments are increasingly common in wired and wireless networks. In LTE networks in particular, IMS has been specified by the standards body as the service delivery in the architecture to deliver and monetize personalized communication services. Underlying all these real-time communication services in the IMS is the Media Resource Function (MRF), which is the workhorse behind the real-time audio and video packet stream processing essential for delivering the types of personalized mobile applications and services that are forecasted to explode in the coming years.
All the LTE network investment underway is fantastic, and with that investment the providers are hoping to recoup their investments through additional data plan revenues. But that is just the first step. My opinion is making that small additional investment to add a proper IMS core inside the LTE network will add proportionately much more to the service revenue profile and ARPU of the provider. In short, through the thoughtful deployment of IMS architecture—a relatively small incremental investment relative to LTE access and core IP network infrastructure investments underway—service providers will ultimately generate more revenue and ARPU.
Where do we fit into the bigger picture here? I’d like to direct you to our latest whitepaper that outlines the market drivers and considerations revolving around IMS MRF solutions for ubiquitous multimedia communications. Then take a look at our award-winning media server solutions, the backbone for real-time media processing in LTE and 4G mobile networks.
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