Opening into a virtualized IMS based telecom architectural framework: Telecom cloud manager

Abstract

One of the considerable use cases for network functions virtualization (NFV) is the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS). With the emergence of software defined network (SDN) and NFV, the mobile network operators (MNOs) that are deploying the IMS look to make a gain from these leading technologies to mitigate hardware costs and reduce time to market. With the use especially of the NFV approach, the MNO looks for scaling services up and down fast and also reduce costs to align with network usage. In this paper, we give an introduction to a virtualized IMS based telecommunications platform called Telecom Cloud Manager as a virtualized and extended architecture of the 4G/LTE system, being defined by the 3GPP, toward a proposed five generation (5G) paradigm. We intend to migrate all IP switching layers to virtualized entities, including servers and network elements, by using one of the leading virtualization technologies and concepts involving a cloud manager, and an NFV framework. On that account, we set up a testbed system with the goal of evaluating the behavior of a virtualized IMS core network, as part of telecom operators' networks, within a static service provisioning context. Experiment results show that resource performance could be enhanced quickly in the case of unforeseen degradation by supporting a new VNF based service chain.