QoS Strategies for IMS & VoLTE

Roland Schott Project Manager & Architect, Fixed Mobile Engineering Germany

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Roland Schott

23.05.2012

Overview.

Introduction

QoS Basic Functions

Fixed Network Approach

Mobile Backhauling

IMS All IP / VoLTE

QoS Functions for EPS

Audio Codices

Conclusions

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23.05.2012

Overview of current Deutsche Telekom Group Networks.

Mobile Networks

Service offering in Europe in 15 countries with 0,6

82 Mio. inhabitants.
Case Study Germany:
QoS functions in mobile networks available.

Fixed Networks

Service offering in Europe in 11 countries with 0,6

82 Mio. inhabitants.
Case Study Germany:
QoS functions in fixed networks available.

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A VoLTE Solution requires Ubiquity, Flexibility & Quality.

1
2
3

Ubiquity

Independence of services from access network

Integration of legacy networks (e.g. GSM, PSTN)
Seamless 2G/3G/4G/WiFi mobility
Full int. roaming support in mobile networks

Flexibility

Enables service evolution

Fixed-mobile convergence
Docking station for new applications
Various charging options
Scalability

Quality

Telco-grade Quality-of-Service
Security
Reliability
Fulfilment of regulatory requirements
Replacement of legacy CS hardware

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Drivers for IP Data Volume are Broadband-Internet, mobile Internet

and Migration to All IP.
QoS Mechanisms can handle increasing Data Traffic appropriate and enable Service Differentiation.

Mobile Data Volume Germany

Data Traffic requires appropriate treatment

Textbox Headline

Mobile data volume in Germany has

increased exponentially.
Broadband data volume has increased
linearly.
Always-On services and mobile users are
migrating to IP today.
Machine to Machine Communication
(automotive, metering) will become an
additional driver for IP communication.
M2M (automotive, metering), IMS (Voice
services) and IPTV services require
appropriate QoS and QoE.
QoS mechanisms are a possibility to
operate increasing network bandwidth.

Traffic Volume Broadband Germany

Textbox Headline

Ref.: Bundesnetzagentur Jahresbericht 2010

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QoS Mechanisms on different Levels ensuring QoS in fixed

Networks.
Traffic Differentiation on Transport Level

100Mb/s

LAN

10Mb/s

Implemented with DiffServ

LAN

100Mb/s

100Mb/s
10Mb/s

User A
10Mb/s

User B

LAN

100Mb/s

Call Admission Control on Control Level

Subscriber A

PSTN

RACS / Call Admission Mechanisms

IMS

1
T-Home

IPPlatform

QoS means Hop-by-Hop and ensures alone no E2E

Quality.
DiffServ QoS traffic classes are always traffic
aggregates. No QoS Guaranty for Single-Users.
Required Criteria: Best Effort Traffic without guaranty
should be available and droppable.
(E2E QoS Mechanisms like IntServ do not scale in
Carrier-Networks).

For fixed Networks call admission control mechanisms

are available.
RACS (busy tone) implements same look & feel like in
PSTN/mobile networks for ensuring voice quality.
Additionally rate adaptive codices help for ensuring
voice quality.

RACS = Ressource Admission Control

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DiffServ is a scalable differentiation mechanism in the IP World.

Differentiated Service Mechanism & Class of Service
Service Classes

Voice

Particular Quality Parameter

Delay

Jitter

Gold
Silver

Packet
Loss

Access
Bandwidth

Best Effort

Voice
Gold
Silver
Best Effort

Example: Possible SLA Values

Delay

Jitter

Loss

30 ms

20 ms

2%

60 ms

40 ms

3%

100 ms

40 ms

0.5%

---

---

---

Classification

Recognition of communication packets authorized for

different service qualities

(Re)-Marking

Setting the code point for the traffic class determined

by the classification process

Queuing/
Scheduling

Queue scheduling determines how each queue is served

to fulfill priority & bandwidth guarantees.

Shaping

Limits the traffic rate on the outgoing interface.

Policing

The (drop) policy determines how to drop packets from the

queues when the interface gets congested.

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QoS Functions can be used for Mobile Backhauling.

Mobile Backhaul Traffic requires QoS Concept with Service Differentiation

10 Gb

RiFu

eNodeB
eNodeB
eNodeB

1Gb
1Gb
1Gb

10 Gb

MPLS

AGS NT

NT

10 Gb

eNodeB

Fixed and mobile traffic are transported over the same MPLS aggregation network.

Aggregation Network supports QoS functionality.

With LTE increasing mobile backhaul traffic is expected.

Differentiating QoS Concept tackles bandwidth situation.

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VoLTE & QoS: LTEe requires a QoS based Voice Solution.

VoLTE & EPC architectural Overview

SIP AS

MMTEL AS

HSS

SMSC

Characteristics

HLR

SCP

Sh

SIP/ISC

MAP

Cx

SIP/ISC

MME

CSCF

PCRF

SGs

Gx

IP/ATM/TDM
Backbone

S1-U

LTE Access

EUTRAN

S/P- GW

LTE offer pure IP based data access &

requires a voice solution.

The preferred voice solution is a

converged one. VoLTE is the IMS based
voice solution for LTE.

VoLTE promises lower call setup times

compared to CSFB.

LTE offers inherent QoS mechanisms

which can be combined with PCC/PCRF
functionality for the EPC.

MGW

S11
S1-MME

LTE offers bandwidth for data services of

about 100 Mbps downstream.

CAP

MSC-S

SIP/ISC
Mg/Mj

Rx

Legacy CS
Mobile Core

SGi

RTP/UDP/IP

external
IP networks

other
networks

A, Iu

UTRAN/

QoS based business models seem

GERAN

feasible in minimum required to

distinguish voice from data service.

EPS Solution

Possible Architecture - Symbolic Picture

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VoLTE has various Levels of Bearer.

Internet

EPC

E-UTRAN

P-GW

S-GW

eNB

UE

Peer
Entity

End-to-End Service
External Bearer

EPS Bearer
S5/S8 Bearer

E-RAB
Radio Bearer

Radio

S1 Bearer

S1

SGi

S5/8
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Network initiated QoS Control for IP Flows.

QoS enabling via Policy and Charging Control (PCC)

Characteristics

Application

1. Application Signalling e.g. IMS SIP

AF
(P-CSCF)

Core Network

dedicated bearer procedure

to the terminal e.g. uplink

packet filtering

2. Session Information e.g. type of service, bit rate

Rx

PCRF

4. Policy
Decision

3. Subscription Info
SPR
Sp

7. Activate & modify bearer

OFCS

8. Uplink IP flow
bearer mapping

8. Service data
flow detection

5. Credit
Gy management OCS

BBE
PDN GW

Access Network

to the RAN e.g. QoS Info

access agnostic

Gz

Access
Interface

dedicated bearer procedure

AF

5. PCC Rule
Gx
PCEF

Network-initiated QoS:

SGi

PDN

7. Bearer
Binding

= Application Function

PCRF = Policy and Charging

Rules Function
SPR = Subscription Profile
Repository
PCEF = Policy and Charging
Enforcement Function
BBE = Bearer Binding
Function

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Dynamic PCC Rule.

Type of Element

PCC Rule Element

Comment

Rule Definition

Rule Identifier

Referencing PCC rule between PCRF

and PCEF

Service Data Flow detection in PCEF

Service Data Flow (SDF) Template

List of packet filters for detection of

service data flow
Determines order in which service data
flows are applied in PCEF

Precedence

Policy Control i.e. gating and QoS

control

Gate Status
QoS Class Identifier (QCI)
UL and DL max. bit rates
UL and DL Guaranteed Bit Rates
(GBR)
Allocation & Retention Priority (ARP)
(Pre-emption & CAC)

Indicates gate open/closed

Packet Forwarding Behaviour
Max. UL/DL bitrates auth. for SDF
Guaranteed UL/DL bitrates authorised
for SDF
ARP for the SDF

Charging Control

Charging Key
Charging Method

Charging Key to be applied for SDF

Required Charging Method for PCC
Rule
Indicates whether SDF data volume,
duration etc. shall be measured

Measurement Method

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Standardised QCI Parameters.

Priority

Packet Delay
Budget

Packet Error
Loss Rate

Services

100 ms

10-2

Conversational Voice

150 ms

10-3

Conversational Video (live

stream)

50 ms

10-3

Real-Time Gaming

300 ms

10-6

Non-Conversational Video
(buffered stream)

100 ms

10-6

IMS signalling

300 ms

10-6

100 ms

10-3

300 ms

10-6

300 ms

10-6

QCI

Resource Type

GBR

Non - GBR

Ref.: 3 GPP

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Roland Schott

Video (buffered stream)

TCP e.g. progressive video,
email, www etc.
Voice, Video (live
streaming) interactive
gaming
Video (buffered stream)
TCP e.g. progressive video,
email, www etc.
Video (buffered stream)
TCP e.g. progressive video,
email, www etc.

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Service Data Flow Detection & Mapping to downlink Traffic.

Service Data Flow Detection

Characteristics

Downlink IP packets from the PDN

Association between PCC

Rule and bearer is referred to
as bearer binding.

Bearer binding is done in

Bearer Binding Function (BBF)
located in PCEF.

BBF triggers resource

reservation in access network
and ensures providing of QoS
for authorised QoS of PCC
Rule.

A single EPS bearer may be

used to carry traffic described
by multiple PCC Rules.

BBF maps QCI of PCC Rule

(IP Flow related and access
agnostic) to EPS bearer QCI of
GTP.

for this UE and IP address

Bearer

Bearer

match

match

Bearer

No match

Precedence

No match

Service
Data Flow
templates
(downlink)

match

no match & discard

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EPS Bearers for PDN Connections.

EPS Bearers are transport over GTP Tunnels across S1 and S5/8
Terminal

UE

Application 2

APN,
IP address etc.

PDN connection #n

Application 1

APN,
IP address etc.

eNodeB

MME

EPS Bearer #1

Bearer ID,
QoS parameters etc.

EPS Bearer #n

Bearer ID,
QoS parameters etc.

DL TFT

UL TFT
GTP Tunnel

TFT = Traffic Flow Template

GTP = GPRS Tunnelling Protocol

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Filter #1
Precedence

TFT

PDN GW

Serving
GW

GTP Tunnel

Ref.: 3 GPP

TFT

DL TFT

UL TFT

PDN connection #1

Roland Schott

Filter #n
Precedence

IP Flows

PDN

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Delay in Packet-Networks influences the Voice Quality.

Delay causes echo, MOS do not have to be decreased by Delay necessarily.

Reference: ITU-T
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Comparison of Audio Codices.

Audio Codec can increase Voice Quality.

G.711

Technology
Audio BW [Hz]

log PCM

300-3400

G.722

Sub-band
ADPCM
50-7000

AMR WB/
G722.2

ILBC

Skype (Silk)

ACELP

FB-LPC

proprietary
(IETF)

300-3400

8000, 12000,
16000,
24000*

50-7000

6.6, 8.85, 12.65,

13.33 (30 ms frames),
14.25, 15.85, 18.25,
15.2 (20 ms frames)
19.85, 23.05, 23.85

Bit rates [kbit/s] 48, 56, 64

48, 56, 64

Frame Length
[ms]

0,125

0.125
(2 samples)

20

20, 30

MOS

bis 4.5

bis 4.5

4,0 - 4.5

4.14

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8000 Hz = Narrow Band

12000 Hz = Medium Band
16000 Hz = Wide Band
24000 Hz = Superwide Band

6 - 40

20, 40, 60,

80, 100

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Overview Voice Codices.

Royalty-free super wideband codices in IETF discussion (OPUS):
SILK
Skypes loss-resilient, adaptive-rate codec with
sampling rates between 8 kHz and > 24 kHz
CELT

hybrid

Frequency Band

Xiphs low-delay, adaptive rate codec, with

sampling rates between 32 kHz and 96 kHz, stereo
(at 160 kbit/s)

Enhanced Speech
Codec from Skype

Audio
Codec
CELT
from
Xiph.org

Bit Rate
Reference: IETF
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Conclusions.

QoS based function are available for VoLTE & IMS.

DiffServ is the appropriate QoS approach for IP transport.

PCRF is required to handle QoS quality on the mobile access link.

Introduction of innovative audio codices in the IP world offers new opportunities

regarding voice quality.

Convergent QoS solution offers synergy effects.

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