NetNumber Private LTE

NetNumber Private LTE A NETNUMBER WHITE PAPER Page 1

Scalable and Flexible Private LTE Network Solutions This whitepaper will review the advantages Private LTE brings to the enterprise, example enterprise use cases, and how systems integrators and MNOs can leverage the NetNumber Private LTE solution to meet the requirements of their customers. Advantages of Private LTE A Private LTE network can provide enterprise organizations (i.e. government, industrial, defense) with a compelling alternative to expensive commercial cellular services and unreliable and costly WiFi-based solutions. Enterprises worldwide are discovering how LTE technology opens the door to new wireless use cases that provide business transformation. They are also learning the advantages of replacing or augmenting their existing wireless solutions (WiFi) with cost-effective Private LTE network technology. The NetNumber Private LTE solution serves the following markets: Military and Defense Hospitals and Healthcare Government Public Safety Utilities Rural Broadband Coverage Mining Industrial and Manufacturing Maritime LTE is no longer a technology just for mobile operators. LTE has evolved to become simple and affordable for a much larger market, particularly within the enterprise. LTE advantages include: Coverage. LTE technology delivers superior indoor and outdoor range compared to WiFi with improved interference characteristics that enable new wireless use cases not possible before. Capacity. LTE can now easily accommodate a large number of wireless devices and high data rate applications such as video conferencing, HD voice, surveillance, and social media. Seamless Mobility. LTE provides greater service continuity in highly mobile environments, such as public safety and defense. Ubiquitous User Devices. LTE enabled smartphones and tablets are widely available and already used/owned by the user base supporting a BYOD model. Interoperability and Security. 3GPP standards are closely adhered to across vendors and include some of the strongest security standards (encryption, key management). Examples of How Enterprises are using Private LTE Each of the markets in the table above are learning the advantages of LTE technology and finding different ways to address their own unique challenges with Private LTE. The following examples describe how a Private LTE solution can be used in these markets. DEFENSE: Armed forces operating on the tactical edge require fast, secure, and reliable communications to support their mission. Higher bandwidth capacity, increased range, high mobility, and strong interference tolerance are a must. At the same time, size, weight, and power (SWaP) need to be minimized to the greatest extent possible. The Private LTE tactical bubble meets this need because it is lightweight and fits in a small compute resource that can be carried in a backpack. Private LTE provides connectivity in an autonomous fashion when IP backhaul isn t available and can also serve as a transparent extension of command HQ when IP backhaul is available. The IP backhaul can be satellite, microwave, LTE, or other IP enabled solutions. Private LTE supports seamless mobility across multiple Private LTE networks, allowing troops to move between companies with no interruption of service. MINING: When most people think about mining they think about picks and shovels and laborious working conditions. But contrary to popular belief, the mining industry not only pioneered, but is also the current leader in the use of technology for autonomous vehicle operations and M2M communications. The mining industry deploys monster-sized vehicles that are programmed to move autonomously around mining fields, Page 2

performing tasks when and where needed without human involvement. The critical communication system technology of choice is LTE, as other wireless solutions do not provide the same level of reliability, coverage, or price point. With a Private LTE network in place for autonomous vehicle and M2M communications, the mining companies are now adding human smartphone communications to the fold to reduce public cellular service costs for mining employees. Since mining employees also rely on the use of hand PTT (Push-to-Talk) radios, this also requires a separate LMR (Land Mobile Radio) network. The recent efforts of 3GPP to standardize MCPTT (Mission Critical PTT) on LTE enables the mines to integrate this capability into their Private LTE network, which further reduces costs and simplifies overall network operations. PUBLIC SAFETY: Many countries are in the process of implementing programs to overhaul their aging public safety communications networks. These public safety organizations include police, sheriff, fire, and other state, county, and local government entities that have relied on MCPTT radio systems for decades. While the LMR system is very effective in terms of providing immediate group voice communications for coordinated emergency management, it is limited to a voice-only solution due to its low bandwidth characteristics. As mentioned previously, the recent efforts of 3GPP to standardize MCPTT capabilities on LTE enables public safety to improve its abilities by adding video, imagery, messaging, security, and apps that are enabled by the higher bandwidth and smart device technology that LTE has to offer. Spectrum One of the more complicated steps of implementing a Private LTE solution is determining the best RF spectrum solution for the needed coverage area. RF spectrum has many dependent components that include frequency band, geographical area, licensed, unlicensed, radio equipment options, etc. The main idea is that you don t use the same frequency, at the same time, as someone else in the same area, which would result in interference. For some use cases, such as offshore and very remote areas, the spectrum laws are much more flexible. Each country has its own government body that regulates which frequency spectrums are utilized and who can use them. In the United States for example, this is the FCC (Federal Communications Commission, www. fcc.gov) There are multiple options available in terms of licensed and unlicensed spectrum for Private LTE solutions. Here are a few sources or options for acquiring RF spectrum for use in Private LTE: Spectrum Leasing (USA & Int l): The commercial mobile operators/carriers that provide service in a geographical area of interest can lease portions of their acquired spectrum to enterprise customers for Private LTE use. CBRS Spectrum (USA): In April 2015 the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) for shared wireless broadband use of the 3550-3700 MHz band (commonly called the 3.5 GHz Band). More information is available at cbrsalliance.org. EBS Spectrum (USA): EBS Spectrum makes up one of the largest prime spectrum bands allocated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for advanced wireless services in the U.S. The band is licensed on a geographic service area (GSA) basis only to accredited educational institutions and nonprofit entities whose missions are educational. MulteFire (Int l): MulteFire is an LTE-based technology for small cells operating solely in unlicensed or shared spectrum. MulteFire can be used in any unlicensed spectrum where there is contention for use of the spectrum, although deployments are initially expected in the 5 GHz unlicensed band and potentially also in the 3.5 GHz shared band in the U.S. More information is available at Multefire.org. The NetNumber TITAN Private LTE Solution The NetNumber Private LTE solution leverages our TITAN architecture to provide a flexible, scalable Private LTE solution that has a low capex entry point and is simple to operate. All software components are 3GPP standards compliant and are currently used to implement Private LTE solutions around the world. Page 3

TITAN Master @ datacenter PSTN/IPX OSS/BSS, Web Portal API Internet Master VoLTE, VoWiFi, SIP Any IP transport VoLTE, VoWiFi, SIP Any ios/android device Any ios/android device PC2 TITAN Remote TITAN Remote PC2 The NetNumber TITAN architecture advantages: Low cost of entry per subscriber enabled with minimum edge resource requirements and flexible subscriber licensing Simple deployment and management of entire network with API enabled centralized subscriber orchestration solution Autonomous operation permits remote edges to fully operate without impact to user services when backhaul links are down VM or Container deployment options at the edge enable full operation on the smallest of resources and permits integration with other platforms, e.g. satellite terminal Flexible deployment supporting from one to thousands of edge locations, all sharing a highly efficient, real-time distributed subscriber database Operational choice that includes use cases for VoLTE, VoWifi, and SIP over LTE or WiFi Interoperable and future proof solution allows customers to choose VoLTE, VoWiFi, or SIP Digest all on the same infrastructure, with a pathway to 5G Greater capacity and virtually unlimited subscribers, depending solely on the number of edge devices deployed High availability options for the TITAN Master include geo-redundancy while TITAN edges may also include 1:1 redundancy for larger or critical edge locations Partner Ecosystem to enable enterprises to obtain a completely validated solution that includes the RAN,, and other components like MCPTT Cloud ready support that enables efficient deployment options for the TITAN Master and s The NetNumber TITAN architecture is key to its highly flexible and efficient Private LTE solution. TITAN Master Server(s) hosts a highly resilient centralized solution for automating subscriber Page 4

database management and replication of subscriber credentials and configurations to remote edges in a highly optimized transfer. Distributed devices communicate over any IP transport (uwave, satellite, LTE, MPLS, etc.) and support as little as 10 to thousands of subscribers per edge. TITAN Master- User Database and Configuration Replication The diagram below illustrates how the TITAN Master can take subscriber credentials and accountspecific information and enable add/removes/ changes via a SOAP API that is immediately replicated to the appropriate nodes. The database contains the configuration values used in the various applications such as the and core that make up the subscriber information. This can be performed by a specific application or by a web portal that enables subscribers to on-board themselves, for example. The TITAN Master can support thousands of remote edge nodes and greatly simplifies the task of subscriber management. The TITAN Master can also perform tiered replication whereby a secondary TITAN Master node can sync with Primary Master and perform replication to a second tier of nodes. EDGE-c EDGE-b EDGE-a MASTER Backup (@ Datacenter) MASTER Primary (@ Datacenter) CSCF ims CSCF ims sdm sdm auc hss auc Replication Subscriber Database SOAP Provisioning API (web portal, self service) SIP Diameter Replication Any IP enabled transport (satellite, microwave, MPLS, etc..) Replication MASTER Second Tier EDGE-a Partner Ecosystem The Private LTE solution requires multiple vendor components to complete an end-to-end deployment. NetNumber has developed partnerships across specific vendors to assemble and validate a demonstrable Private LTE solution. The main point is that by working with partners we can establish that the NetNumber solution will work with a broad range of 3GPP compliant products. While NetNumber is not a direct provider of any partner products, we want our customers to be confident Page 5

in our ability to interoperate across a wide range of industry standard compliant products. The following chart identifies the various components and specific capabilities that we are actively validating with our TITAN platform for interoperability: SIP CLIENT RAN TITAN MCPTT enodeb P-CSCF AS I-CSCF Capabilities Support Voice Video Messaging Presence Codec Flexibility Broad OS Support Capabilities MCPTT Support: M1 Interface M2 Interface CBRS multefire epdg Capabilities MCPTT Support: MCE BM-SC MBMS-GW AAA AuC S-CSCF SDM Capabilities MB2-C/U Widely available and standard compliant SIP clients Standalone, purpose built, radio components Compact/hardened compute with virtualized/containerized apps Over time we expect to add additional components and also multiple vendors across these components to ensure we have a broadly supported solution with the ability to address Private LTE requirements across multiple verticals. NetNumber Private LTE Use Cases SIP Digest over LTE or WiFi: Many enterprise and defense organizations prefer to use an over-the-top SIP client app for their video, voice, and messaging requirements. Some of the advantages for using an over-the-top SIP client include customization, security (encryption), and cost. There are many standards-based SIP client solutions available that work with the Private LTE solution. While some SIP client apps are feature rich, others are fairly basic (and usually free). There are specific advantages to deploying a SIP Digest solution when compared to VoLTE/VoWiFi: Customization: VoLTE/VoWiFi require the use of the native client on the ios and Android device, so there are no customization features such as voice/video codecs, encryption, etc. Complexity: When compared to a VoLTE/ VoWiFi implementation, an over-the-top SIP client solution will usually require less heavy lifting in terms of the full implementation (TAS servers, client configuration management and certification, support/ troubleshooting, etc.) SIM Management: Over-the-top SIP clients can function on devices regardless of who the SIM provider is. For example, employee owned devices could use a SIP client solution while maintaining their Private carrier service. For most devices, a SIM isn t required when operating over WiFi. Features: The more advanced SIP clients provide inherent features for small group environments such as those at an edge location that permit HD voice/video, messaging, call waiting, multiple lines, transfers, and presence without any additional server applications. Migration step to VoLTE/VoWiFi: All components used for the SIP digest use case are fully 3GPP compliant and are investment protected when moving to VoLTE or VoWiFi solutions at a later date. Page 6

The detailed diagram below illustrates the components used for the SIP Digest use case. The TITAN Master and support standard 3GPPcompliant implementations for the (Home Subscriber Server) and Core (IP Multimedia Subsystem) for both LTE and WiFi access solutions while the (Policy Charge Rate Function) and (Evolved Packet Core) are standard 3GPP components required for an LTE radio access network. Datacenter TITAN Master Nodes PSTN/IPX (off net calls) API Web portal or automated system Master Master Corp Applications, Internet LTE WiFi AP /enodeb Any IP transport (uwave, mpls, satellite, etc..) WiFi AP /enodeb LTE Android or ios device with SIP Client App WiFi WiFi Android or ios device with SIP Client App locations (000 s) VoLTE (Voice/Video over LTE): The VoLTE 3GPP standard has evolved over recent years to enable the all IP mobile network solution as the new carrier standard. Carriers are still migrating to VoLTE as they continue to support and evolve existing 2/3/4G based architectures. Most all ios and Android clients today have VoLTE support embedded, but not all carriers have VoLTE support in all coverage areas. For the enterprise considering a Private LTE solution, VoLTE provides a solution that is basically the same as large carrier implementations, but on a much smaller scale. VoLTE permits the Private LTE operator to also become a Mobile Network Operator and establish interconnect agreements with roaming partner networks. The following are important points to consider: SIM Cards: VoLTE requires the SIM cards to be managed by the enterprise implementing the Private LTE solution. This carries additional opex and capex considerations in terms of complexity and cost. Native Clients: VoLTE enables the ios or Android native client to be used just like mobile devices work today with commercial network providers. Roaming: Most Private LTE networks are just that, private, but some enterprises also want the ability to allow visiting subscribers or their subscribers to work in other visited networks. VoLTE enables the Private LTE network to interconnect with other mobile network providers through an IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange) provider that can provide this roaming ability. There are many technical details related to the implementation options to enable roaming that are out of the scope of this white paper. The basic idea is that the client numbers associated with their SIMs are retained and supported when they roam onto another operator s network. The visiting operator would need to establish a roaming agreement to enable this type of visitor roaming. Page 7

The detailed diagram below illustrates the components used for the VoLTE use case. The TITAN Master and support standard 3GPP compliant implementations for the (Home Subscriber Server), Core (IP Multimedia Subsystem), and (Policy Charge Rate Function) while the (Evolved Packet Core) is a standard 3GPP component that is required for an LTE radio access network Datacenter TITAN Master Nodes IPX (if roaming) Web portal or automated system API Master Master PSTN (no roaming) Any IP transport (uwave, mpls, satellite, etc..) Corp Applications, Internet LTE LTE enodeb enodeb ios or Android native client ios or Android native client locations (000 s) VoWiFi (Voice/Video over WiFi): The VoWiFi 3GPP standard is a follow-on to the VoLTE standard and uses the same basic architecture and abilities as described in the VoLTE section, while enabling the use of WiFi as the access technology. The detailed diagram below illustrates the components used for the VoWiFi use case. In addition to the components described in the VoLTE section, VoWiFi requires an AAA (authentication, authorization, and accounting) application and an EPDG (Evolved Packet Data Gateway) application. Page 8

Datacenter TITAN Master Nodes IPX (if roaming) API Master Master PSTN (no roaming) Corp Applications, Internet Any IP transport (uwave, mpls, satellite, etc..) WiFi WiFi ios or Android native client ios or Android native client epdg epdg AAA locations (000 s) AAA Conclusion NetNumber has an architectural solution that helps make Private LTE more scalable, affordable, and easy to deploy and manage. Systems integrators and MNOs can expect to easily deploy the NetNumber TITAN for Private LTE solution into their Private LTE portfolio of products. About NetNumber NetNumber, Inc. brings 17 years of experience delivering innovative signaling control solutions that enable carriers to accelerate implementation of new services across multiple generations of networks, while dramatically simplifying the core network and reducing operating costs. Today, we are the leading provider of Centralized Signaling and Routing Control (CSRC) solutions to the global communications industry. Please visit www.netnumber.com or contact your local account representative via sales@netnumber.com Copyright 2018, NetNumber, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 9