Orange launched a new wholesale service that will allow mobile operators to provide their customers with LTE services outside their domestic markets.
Orange said its "LTE Signaling" service is based on the diameter signaling protocol and enables operators to provide end-users with a roaming service on latest LTE devices. The service will be provided via Orange's Multiservice IP eXchange solution.
Roaming on LTE networks is the latest nut to be cracked by operators and vendors. TeliaSonera and iBasis, the international carrier owned by KPN, recently said they will interconnect their diameter signaling and data hubs to enable LTE roaming, while Ericsson announced it would provide LTE roaming support for Swisscom.
"LTE Signaling is a must-have service that offers both differentiation and the ability to generate additional revenues in an increasingly evolutive market," Alexandre Pébereau, Orange's executive vice president of international carriers, said in a statement.
Indeed, the rollout of LTE networks worldwide is driving the adoption of the diameter signaling protocol, which is used for authentication, authorisation, charging, mobility management and policy.
Oracle now produces an annual LTE Diameter Signaling Index to track traffic growth, and in the latest report it predicted that LTE diameter signaling traffic will grow more than twice as fast as mobile data traffic in general through 2017.
According to the index, Global LTE diameter signaling traffic will increase at a 140 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), from 1.2 million messages per second (MPS) in 2012 to nearly 99 million MPS by 2017.
Network policy is the primary driver behind the growth, said Oracle. "Policy-related signaling is growing at a 164 percent CAGR through 2017, due to both the number and complexity of use cases," the vendor said.
For more:
- see this Orange release
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