LTE Diameter signaling volumes will continue to expand through 2018 as wireless subscribers adopt personalized data plans and new video and voice services, including voice over LTE (VoLTE), according to the third annual Oracle Communications LTE Diameter Signaling Index.
The Diameter signaling protocol supports authentication, authorization and accounting for LTE networks. Diameter messages enable subscriber network access, LTE Broadcast services, VoLTE, charging and usage-based services plus secure interconnection with roaming and content partners.
Oracle said global LTE Diameter signaling traffic will grow at a 78 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2013 to 2018, expanding from 12 million messages per second (MPS) to nearly 216 million MPS. In the same report last year, Oracle predicted LTE Diameter signaling traffic would increase at a 140 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), from 1.2 million messages per second (MPS) in 2012 to nearly 99 million MPS by 2017.
Network policy and charging is the primary driver of LTE Diameter signaling messages, Oracle said. Its latest index predicts policy and charging MPS will double each year from 2013 to 2016 and will account for 72 percent of LTE signaling volumes in 2018. VoLTE will be the second-largest source of global LTE Diameter signaling traffic until 2017, Oracle said.
The vendor predicts that by 2018, LTE Broadcast will generate 26 million MPS of Diameter signaling traffic. In addition, Oracle expects that going forward, core network evolution in the areas of network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) will create additional needs for orchestration using Diameter.
Oracle predicts that North America will be the largest generator of LTE Diameter signaling MPS until 2016. In 2018, Japan and Asia Pacific LTE Diameter MPS are expected to generate 77 percent more Diameter MPS than North America and 49 percent of the global total.
In related news, Oracle announced its latest Diameter Signaling Router 6.0 and the Communications Performance Intelligence Center 10.1.
Oracle said the latest version of its Diameter signaling router provides mediation enhancements that improve network equipment interoperability, whether using standards-based or proprietary Diameter interfaces. It also enables operators to route policy traffic from a single subscriber to different policy and charging rules functions (PCRFs), supporting more-complex rating and charging.
Oracle's Communications Performance Intelligence Center is designed to help operators manage network assets, understand network performance, identify revenue leakage and analyze customer usage by gathering network metadata on legacy and LTE networks.
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