Can IPX Save the World? (of Mobile IP)

By Bill Dudley, Sybase 365

The last couple of weeks have been quite busy for those of us who follow or participate in the mobile industry. First, we had the Research in Motion/Blackberry stories that Saudi Arabia, UAE, possibly India and Lebanon would go as far as outright banning Blackberry e-mail and IM traffic from networks in their countries, due to national security concerns. Next, we had the non-story about Verizon and Google agreeing on some network neutrality language around a “tiered Internet," followed by denials, followed by further agreement ("Googizon" as TelecomAsia put it). AT&T noted that the Google/Verizon neutrality plan (excludes wireless) was “reasonable."  Then, we heard from Facebook who had criticisms for the Google/Verizon position. You know you are in an interesting industry, when stories like these make headlines in the mainstream press as well as the industry-focused press and blogs. The mobile industry has done a lot of that as a rule, in the last few years.

Follow that up with some more industry-centric news from Analyst firm Chetan Sharma, that Verizon Wireless just edged itself into the No. 1 ranking in the USA mobile broadband market, in terms mobile data revenues, slipping past NTT DoCoMo. The summary continued to note that data traffic continued to expand across all U.S. networks, although, as a whole, the USA still lags Korea, Japan, and others in mobile data subscriber penetration.

All of this in less than 2 weeks – that’s a lot of IP/broadband-related news – some of it mainstream and some of it industry-specific. And guess what – it is ALL related in more ways than you can image. Let’s focus on the fun stuff – our IPX.  

As I’ve stated before an IPX or IP eXchange is a multi-tenant network, separate from the Internet – emphasize separate – that is used by operators and trusted service providers to provide transport of IP data between various consumer networks (e.g. 2.5G, 3G, 4G, etc).  An IPX is not visible to devices or users on the Internet.  An IPX is completely separate (but not really private, in that there are many entities connected to it; but all must adhere to strict SLA and quality rules).  Bandwidth on IPXs is dedicated for specific purposes, including, but not limited to:

• roaming signaling (the signaling traffic that is moved from a visited network to the home network, when you do something as simple as turn on your handset after landing at an airport) and SMS 
• data roaming
• voice transport (that is dedicating IP bandwidth to transport multiple voice calls between operators)

The fact that companies like Google and Verizon and AT&T are coming together with recommendations for network neutrality and that RIM may be blocked in some markets are all symptoms of a intricately connected ecosystem, all dependent on being interconnected and having enough bandwidth for the subscribers –  you and me – to browse, e-mail, Tweet, watch videos, have video calls, conference calls, voice calls, message, blog, access data with security, privacy, and some semblance of service quality.

The fact that wireless carriers express concerns about network neutrality on wireless networks is simple. There is only so much bandwidth to go around on their IP radio networks. Use too much and simple voice calls can’t even get through. Not a good situation. I think Google and other content providers are starting realize this. There IS technology to compress high-bandwidth data for more efficient use of wireless bandwidth, but these operators suggest that they have the ability to differentiate the type of data that traverses their networks and be able to manage it. The IPX comes into this for purposes of connecting and aggregating “bulk data" between one operator and others (usually relying on some hubbing capabilities for messaging and various other services). This is analogous to an operator’s backhaul network – that is the fixed or microwave network that is used to transport data from tower sites back to the central locations within the mobile operator’s coverage age. The IPX could be seen as a backhaul IP network for multiple operators – connecting each of their 3G and 4G IP networks and services with other operators and third-party service clouds.

In an IPX scenario, network neutrality does not really apply. It is essentially a private network; however, Google, Verizon, AT&T, and Facebook are certainly all welcome. If they have services that need interworking between them, then the IPX is the logical choice. A direct, dedicated and managed IP route for their voice calls also enables them to offer a higher-quality service for their subscribers. In fact, I would venture to say that operators who use an IPX to interconnect core services such as voice and messaging have an advantage over services and operators that don’t. For example, say that a VoIP provider offers a service that competes with an operator’s core voice service … but, at a lower price.  Because this service is in competition with the VoIP provider, on its own network (and allows it, assuming the network operator supports network neutrality, in terms of services available over its IP network), the operator’s core voice service can still compete as he moves bulk voice routes to the IPX for higher quality and lower costs, which he can pass on to his subscribers. So, the operator wins. The VoIP provider must rely on “best efforts" of the Internet. Does this give the operator an advantage? Yes, it does. Is it unfair? Not at all – the VoIP provider has the SAME opportunity to use an IPX as the operator, BUT, the VoIP provider must agree to support the same QoS and SLA standards as other parties on the IPX. Voice? It is only the beginning…

For years, RIM has used GRX (and now IPX) networks to transport its encrypted Blackberry e-mail and IM data back to its central servers from operators’ networks around the world. This network was chosen for it security (remember, separate from the Internet), and managed quality of service. Secure data on a secure, private, global network. It is a prime example of using this multi-tenant “backhaul" network to reach an Enterprise’s cloud of services – in this case RIM’s  Blackberry e-mail service.

The ability to leverage the IPX as a transport from cloud based services to multiple network operators is a key element to help enable network operators offer new classes of services to further leverage their own 3G and 4G networks.  Using this technology and model, I envision an ecosystem, where operators will be able to compete on new services, beyond voice, beyond video, beyond messaging and who has the most reliable 3G network. They also won’t have to worry too much about what apps are running on their network and will this app or that app compete with their core services. That’s ultimately where this all should end up. We are not there yet, but we are certainly putting in the foundations to make these capabilities a reality.

The group director of Operator Services at Sybase 365, Bill Dudley has spent more than 25 years building and managing telecommunications network infrastructures.