Vodafone IPX: Reconfiguring the future of IP connections A white paper from Vodafone Carrier Services Vodafone Power to you

Executive summary The shift of telecom services to IP is already widely accepted and under way. IPX (IP Packet eXchange) has emerged, offering a high quality, highly secure ecosystem to support IP services. Mobile, fixed and cable operators, over-the-top players (OTT), content and application service providers can all use the same system architecture to bring new services to market faster, cheaper and with guaranteed quality. IPX is regarded by the GSMA (Group Speciale Mobile Association – a worldwide association of mobile operators) as the future of global interconnection. It is a private ecosystem distinct from the public internet, and represents a fundamental advance in managing communication interconnections. Its ramifications for businesses are highly significant. With a clearly defined framework agreed by key industry participants, IPX will allow both providers and customers to gain the greatest benefits from increasingly converged data and communications. As is often the case with such advances, those that understand and embrace the opportunities first, stand to gain the most. This white paper explains how Vodafone IPX will deliver these advantages and enable worldwide interworking. It also outlines Vodafone’s involvement in and commitment to IPX, and as a leading IPX provider, what we can do for your business.

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Section 1: Introducing IPX IPX – revolution or evolution?

Why does the world need IPX?

The experience of disparate or conflicting technologies being developed in parallel to arrive at a common solution is all too familiar. Betamax versus VHS, or Blu-ray versus DVD are two examples. IPX is an attempt to take existing IP interconnect technology and standardise it worldwide, so commercially sustainable business models can integrate within a common architecture, and subscribers benefit from innovative IP services.

The volume of global communications traffic is increasing, as consumers and enterprises become more connected and more data passes between them. Businesses have a pressing need for high quality communications that offer flexibility across different channels and access methods, yet also meet ever-tougher requirements for security.

IPX is an evolution of existing technology. Yet as it offers a genuinely viable alternative to the public internet, and simplifies considerably the complexity of potential interconnections between service providers, it can also be considered a communications revolution.

IPX has evolved gradually over the last few years, but uptake is now accelerating as mobile operators roll-out 4G aggressively, migrate voice interconnection from TDM to IP, and launch rich communication services.

At the same time, businesses and consumers have wholeheartedly embraced the concept of ‘always-on, anywhere’. They see less distinction between connecting locally and globally, and place more importance on being able to speak, message, browse, access data and consume services from anywhere, at any time. Fortunately the telecoms industry has worked together to satisfy these demands. Network operators and industry bodies such as the GSMA and i3forum have collaborated to develop IPX, with the aim of enhancing IP-based interconnection and giving customers more forward-looking, adaptable and homogenous IP-based services.

“Buyers want to be able to purchase, operate, monitor and manage all of the wholesale services they require through fewer, simpler and more consistent interfaces. T  he wholesale market has changed, however, and many customers now want to buy a package of services that are consistent across the telco’s global footprint, and can be provisioned, monitored and managed through a single integrated interface.” 1 3

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Section 2: Defining IPX

IPX is not a new network – it’s an end-to-end IP ecosystem, which allows multiple services to be delivered over existing, privately managed IP/MPLS networks, via a single connection. IPX uses existing components to accommodate new technologies and services. Where IPX scores over the internet, is in its ability to provide the same ubiquitous global connectivity, but with greater quality, security and sustainable commercial models.

Extending beyond the limitations of GRX, and completely separate from the public internet, IPX unites Service Providers over a single physical interface, with multi-service connectivity, end-to-end features and Quality of Service (QoS). IPX is the standardised IP-based interconnection solution initially defined by the GSMA, and now fully endorsed and supported by the i3forum. IPX was conceived as an evolution of GRX (GPRS Roaming eXchange). Specified at the beginning of this century, GRX has relatively simple quality requirements.

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“IPX is the ‘ideal’ model for the full IP world… it is neither unique, nor perfect, but is standardised.” 2 4

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The original definition of IPX was mainly concerned with the demands of mobile operators and their transition to LTE (Long-Term Evolution – a standard for high-speed wireless data communication such as 4G). Yet the nature of the IPX ecosystem also makes it ideal for global businesses to send data across their organisation, to work with and store it in the cloud and to exchange it with their customers, wherever they are – with guaranteed quality and security. The IPX Providers (IPXP), including Vodafone Carrier Services, provide the interconnection framework at the heart of the IP-based ecosystem. This common framework allows Service Providers to send and receive traffic for a variety of different services. The Service Providers (SP) are mobile network operators, fixed and cable network operators, OTT players, content providers and application service providers. As long as they comply with the relevant GSMA and i3forum specifications, any market participants can use the framework to interconnect with each other. There are three types of IPX interfaces: • IPX Access – the interface between an IPX Provider and a Service Provider • IPX Peering – the interface between two IPX Providers • Break-in/break-out – an interface with a non-IPX complaint network operator or carrier, via a TDM connection, private IP connection or public IP connection. For public IP connections, all the traffic entering the IPX Provider’s network must be filtered by the IPX Provider and meet security requirements, to ensure there is no direct connection between IPX and the Internet.

Quality control

Ensuring security

IPX is split into four main classes of service: conversational, streaming, interactive and background. The GSMA also recommends mapping applications to more granular quality values (known as Diffserv and DSCP parameters), aligned to the four main classes.

IPX is an IP-based network which guarantees traffic separation between the IPX services and the public internet. To safeguard this isolation, IPX uses its own set of IP addresses which are neither visible to nor accessible from the internet. The GSMA sets out other security requirements and mechanisms to ensure protection.

IPX Providers can choose how to implement the four classes of service within their own network, but where they interconnect with another IPX Provider at a Network-to-Network Interface (NNI), they must both agree and implement a mapping that ensures all IP packets travel through the IPX ecosystem with the right priority and meet the quality requirements, end-to-end. There are Quality of Service (QoS) parameters applicable to all services: • Service availability • Service provision time • Incident response time • Incident resolution time Other QoS parameters depend on the type of service, e.g. for a transport service delay, packet loss and jitter are mandated per class of service, whereas for a voice service NER and CLI delivery qualify the service quality much better. The exact QoS parameters should be covered in Service Level Agreements (SLA), in the contracts between IPX Providers and Service Providers, and between IPX Providers.

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End-to-end consistency Traditionally, carriers guarantee service quality for destinations directly connected to their network. With IPX, these guarantees are valid end-to-end between any two Service Providers, where feasible. As IPX Providers compete per service within the IPX ecosystem, measuring end-to-end quality accurately can be challenging. For this reason, IPX has specific mechanisms and features to improve end-to-end quality, including: • Routing Transparency IPX Providers have to inform Service Providers and other IPX Providers of the path to another Service Provider. If a Service Provider is directly connected to the IPX Provider’s network for a particular service, they are on-net. Off-net means the Service Provider is directly connected to another IPX Provider’s network.

Types of connectivity • Two hop rule Traffic between any two Service Providers should not pass more than two interconnected IPX Providers (unless specifically allowed for a particular service). This two hop rule implies all parties in the chain are responsible for identifying and localising the root cause of any problem. • Quality of Service Where two (or more) IPX Providers are involved, they should aggregate QoS parameters to give the Service Provider a true view of end-to-end quality (as long as the aggregation is mathematically meaningful and needed to qualify the service). • Cascading Service Level Agreements IPX Providers have to sign bilateral agreements that include SLAs, allowing each IPX Provider to cascade SLAs and give their Service Provider an end-toend service quality commitment.

IPX supports different types of connectivity, to meet different Service Provider requirements and to ensure continuity between current and future services. • IPX Transport This provides a service-unaware connectivity between two Service Providers. SPs with service-aware relationships will need to establish bilateral agreements between them. • IPX Hubbing This provides service-aware multilateral connectivity. The Service Provider signs a single agreement with the IPX Provider, and benefits from connectivity with many other SPs (as long as the IPX Provider has already signed agreements with them, or their respective IPX Providers). • IPX Transit This provides service-aware connectivity between two Service Providers. The commercial relationship is still managed by a bilateral agreement, but as well as exchanging traffic between the two Service Providers, the IPX Provider can also deliver service-specific functions if requested. These could include routing, service-specific charging and cascaded payments. IPX Transit is not related to the IP Transit model in the public internet.

“As we move to an all-IP world, customers will continue to demand high quality and high reliability for their voice services,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA. “By providing global interoperability, this initiative will help to drive the widespread deployment of services such as VoLTE, with the same quality of service that consumers have come to expect.” 3 6

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Business models

Simplifying complexity

IPX has the flexibility to support a variety of existing business models, and the capability to accommodate future models. Examples of established business models include Minute-based charging (e.g. for Voice), Usage-based charging (e.g. for Signalling), and Capacity-based charging (e.g. for GRX). Alternative business models can be established within the IPX Ecosystem, subject to industry discussions, such as Usage-based charging for high quality data traffic.

Although global ISPs can use secure connections to provide a service over the internet, the drawback is that packets are still liable to congestion or discrepancies between peering interconnects. Without IPX, the global interconnect environment for voice and data services is complex and unwieldy, with numerous wholesalers, carriers and mobile hubs transporting voice, data and signalling via many different providers, over networks with varying capacity, quality and security.

IPX Services IPX was designed to deliver reliable, high quality services to Service Providers around the world. It provides the reference architecture for delivering a range of services in a competitive, yet still interoperable way. It supports: • migrating legacy services from TDM to IP, such as voice and SS7 signalling • incorporating existing, stand-alone IP-based services such as GRX, into one multi-service framework • introducing new services such as Diameter signalling, rich communication services and quality differentiated, service-unaware data transport • enriching all these services with value added propositions

By contrast, IPX provides a single, secure transport layer with defined standards. It connects different types of Service Provider (e.g. mobile, fixed, content, OTT) to support multiple services such as: • Voice (including HD Voice and VoLTE) • Video • Data roaming • Email • File Transfer • Messaging (including SMS and Instant Messaging) • Signalling (including Sigtran, Diameter, and SIP) The Service Provider’s secure connection with their IPX Provider is split into different classes to provide low latency where needed (e.g. for voice or video), low error rate for sensitive services (e.g. signalling) and low priority for less critical traffic (e.g. file transfer). Service Providers may use more than one IPX Provider, both to ensure the geographical reach they need and to be able to play one provider against another during negotiations. However, the IPX standards stipulate that only two (or on rare occasions, more) IPX providers are allowed in a connection (the ‘two hop’ rule). Although this might appear to limit choice, it has the advantage of simplifying connections. This, plus the strict peering requirements for connections between IPX Providers, ensures service quality.

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Section 3: What’s possible with IPX? Providing global reach

Consumer demand enriched and integrated services. Voice and video interaction combined with chat and parallel exchange of photos being a typical example. Enterprises are increasingly seeking greater mobility and agility, and looking to build closer relationships with customers, both through more effective communications and a better understanding of their behaviour. The IPX platform enables the technical developments to satisfy these objectives.

A multi-service solution One of the main benefits of IPX is its ability to support a variety of different services through one interconnection. One Network-to-Network Interface (NNI) connects IPX Providers and Service Providers for several services – each delivered separately and over an independent VLAN. IPX Access

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Geographic reach

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Regional

An IPX Provider can provide services to any Service Provider connected to the IPX ecosystem or indeed outside it, as long as well-defined break-in and break-out conditions are met. IPX Providers deliver traffic to on-net customers directly, and reach off-net customers through peering agreements.

Guaranteeing trusted communications As an entirely separate entity from the public internet, IPX is contained and secure. Addresses used within the IPX ecosystem are not visible from outside, and IPX IP addresses are invisible in the public internet. Security features and processes are contractually agreed between parties, and the Service Providers’ subscribers cannot access functions such as voice switches, signalling nodes or DNS servers. As IPX take-up expands, the GSMA and i3forum are continually reviewing and updating security requirements.

Ensuring reliable quality

Innovation

Commodity services

Two or more NNIs can be combined for resilience, to increase capacity or to exchange traffic locally, i.e. close to where it’s initiated or terminated by subscribers. Using one interconnect for several services means lower costs for Service Providers, while transmission costs can also be reduced through volume discounts. In addition, the Service Provider’s network only needs to be set up once. As well as benefiting from less complexity, Service Providers can bring new services to market faster, without having to set up a fresh interconnect for each one.

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The IPX Value ecosystem has been designed to added services New services ensure consistent, end-to-end quality. IPX standardises quality classes, so all parties involved in a communication handle and transport it with the appropriate priority, to ensure performance and QoS for on-net and off-net destinations. IPX supports delivery of IPX Services with quality controlled by SLAs, tools, processes and procedures agreed between all parties in the delivery chain, so Service Providers can promote services with contractually defined quality.

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Delivering cost-effective efficiency

Conclusion

IPX interconnections offer the flexibility to redistribute bandwidth to services as required, making the best use of available resources and avoiding the expense of building unnecessary extra capacity into interconnects. This means that when the decision is taken to expand interconnect capacity, all services benefit accordingly, and network resources will be readily available for any future services.

The clear and compelling arguments for IPX mean that it, inevitably and perhaps quite rapidly, will replace most legacy interconnects between Service Providers. Many are already being attracted by the many advantages of IPX.

IPX has adopted an efficient hubbing model already proven in areas such as voice and SMS. The Service Provider signs just one agreement with an IPX Provider, rather than several bilateral agreements with all the other Service Providers with which it exchanges traffic.

IPX not only offers Service Providers the opportunity to expand and upgrade the range of services they offer, but allows them to reach global markets faster, with less complexity and greater flexibility.

Providing transparency

 ith IPX, they benefit from an exceptionally secure ecosystem with W clearly defined quality of service and simpler commercial agreements. It’s a system that allows them to do more, cost-effectively, by supporting multiple services over a single interconnection and allowing several services (such as voice, video, messaging and file sharing) to be combined in a single session.

T he history of telecommunications is littered with visions of the future that never quite lived up to their potential. Fortunately, through the co-operation of industry players and the governing influence of the GSMA and i3forum, IPX is already proving that it is fulfilling its promises.

The transparency built into IPX gives Service Providers another assurance of quality. IPX Providers are obliged to share high-level routing information with other parties in the delivery chain, including Service Providers. This allows the SP to choose the IPXP offering the shortest route for their particular service.

Supporting flexible payment models The IPX ecosystem supports a range of interconnection and end-to-end business models, including those requiring ca scaded payments. For example, for exchanging voice calls and SMS messages, IPX providers cascade termination fees from the terminating Service Provider to the originating Service Provider.

“The inextricable link between network interconnection and service interoperability is broken. These two elements and the interworking of dissimilar IP networks all need to be addressed to deliver the effective interconnection we see in traditional telecoms.” 4 9

X aming

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Section 4: IPX with Vodafone Carrier Services Our position within IPX

Why Vodafone?

As the IPX ecosystem evolves, a broad range of Service Providers will emerge. SPs can be classified by a variety of criteria:

Vodafone has been a key player in developing the specifications of IPX within the GSMA and i3forum since the very beginning and have successfully deployed IPX with the Vodafone Group. Vodafone Carrier Services is now able to bring the benefits of IPX to your business.

• Type of access network (mobile, fixed, cable) • Number of subscribers (a few thousand for an enterprise, up to hundreds of millions for the biggest network operators, or content providers) • Services offered (voice services, SMS services, rich voice services, OTT services, HD video conferencing solutions, etc.) • Reach (services offered in one country, regional or worldwide). The other key players in the IPX ecosystem, the IPX Providers, can be classified by two key criteria: • Geographic reach – IPX Providers serving SPs predominantly within a country, a region or globally. The IPX Provider may want to focus on a specific geographic customer base because of their underlying IP/MPLS network, existing regional business relationships with the SPs, or service-specific regional expertise and/or assets, for example access to number portability information within some countries. • Service offering – While some IPX Providers focus on delivering high volume services to a broad customer base, others focus on value added services and/or the early deployment of new services. These two criteria are graphically shown in Figure 3. Geographic reach

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Figure 3: IPX Providers’ market positioning

We see carriers being part of operator groups predominantly within quarters 1 and 2, their main objective being to provide key services to their Group. Independent IPX Providers without a strong subscriber base within their organisation need to differentiate by service innovation and value added services, and so are typically found in quarters 3 and 4. Vodafone Carrier Services extensive IP/MPLS network and global reach establishes it in the top left quadrant initially with a focus on expanding our service offerings beyond the Group.

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We are one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, in terms of market capitalisation and number of customers, both consumer and enterprise. As a total communications provider with data and mobile broadband as key areas that support future growth, our focus is on continuing to be a leader for the digital world and using our scale and reach to deliver IPX based services for our 444 million mobile subscribers and our Carrier customers. Vodafone Carrier Services sees IPX not only as a technology allowing reduced costs and improved time to market but, even more importantly, as a transition to sustainable commercial solutions for the IP world. Over time, IPX will replace most legacy interconnects between Service Providers. Our ultimate objective is to simplify interconnection, interworking, roaming and service delivery to subscribers for Service Providers. We make this possible through a single point of contact for all IPX Services. Whether for commercial support (e.g. one contract), physical connectivity (e.g. multi-service interconnection), operational support (e.g. consistent SLA terminology, one Service Desk), or reporting (e.g. one Web Portal), Vodafone Carrier Services provides personalised and centralised care.

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Vodafone Carrier Services IPX Portfolio We deliver our IPX Suite across our global IP/MPLS network and globally distributed Hubs.

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Figure 4: The Vodafone Global IP network

Our service is based on a common IPX access, plus each customer’s preferred combination of independent IPX services. Customers can add or replace services whenever required. Our IPX Suite is constantly evolving. With our market insight as part of the Vodafone Group, we can anticipate future requirements very early and enhance our service portfolio accordingly.

Our customers have a single Master Service Agreement (MSA) for all the IPX services they contract. This MSA includes terms and conditions, is negotiated once and covers all legal aspects. General Service Level definitions and principles are summarised in a dedicated schedule to ensure consistency. Service schedules are added as required, to cover service description, technical details, required service specific KPIs and SLAs and commercial terms.

“Product-wise, we will be focusing primarily in three areas. The last one is our Vodafone IPX, which we are deploying on a global level. It is operational today, but we are targeting to expand it to connect 100 LTE operators, preferably directly, by the end of Q1 2015.” 5 11

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Vodafone IPX services include: • Vodafone IPX Access This grants customers access to our common infrastructure. Beyond pure access, IPX Access defines our core enablers (e.g. a Customer Web Portal) together with a set of rules (e.g. service separation via VLANs, class of service mapping), operational processes (e.g. one entry point of fault reporting) and business models required for the different services. • Vodafone IPX Sigtran This signalling service provides access to our SS7 Network, which covers mobile operators’ needs for 2G and 3G signalling and roaming. This network facilitates reliable international transport of signalling messages (MSU) to ITU and ANSI destinations. Service Providers can also use it to exchange SMS or access any signalling-based service. Signalling traffic is critical for allowing mobile operators to offer roaming to subscribers. Despite the huge number of signalling messages exchanged, signalling traffic only needs low bandwidth. IPX Sigtran provides high quality and committed capacity while achieving cost savings due to the shared interface.

• Vodafone IPX Diameter This signalling service provides access to our worldwide Diameter Network, which covers mobile operators’ needs for 4G signalling. This network facilitates the global, reliable transport of Diameter Transactions (DTRs) to all mobile networks that have launched 4G. Our service includes interworking between Diameter protocol flavours implemented by different network equipment suppliers; this is particularly important in early phases of 4G deployments whilst Diameter expertise is still limited, and could affect your fast rollout of 4G roaming. IPX Diameter is as important to 4G enabled mobile operators as IPX Sigtran is for 2G/3G mobile operators, and has similar reliability and performance requirements. IPX Diameter provides high quality and committed capacity, while achieving cost savings due to the shared interface.

• Vodafone IPX GRX Access to this service is limited to mobile operators, e.g. to implement 2G/3G/4G roaming. This service allows mobile operators to exchange data traffic as required for 2G/3G (GPRS) and 4G (S8) data roaming. IPX GRX can be used for other data traffic as well, for example exchanging Multi-Media Messages. IPX GRX includes access to the GSMA Root DNS – a domain name service completely separate and secure from the public internet, which finds the correct IP addresses within other mobile networks. Vodafone Carrier Services provides proxy functions that keep an up-to-date replication of the GSMA Root DNS. This proxy receives and answers our customers’ DNS queries, ensuring 5*9 availability and providing very short response times. • Vodafone IPX Transport All Service Providers can access this service, to transparently exchange data traffic with varying quality requirements. This service adds value when Service Providers require one transparent bit pipe for data packets with varying quality classifications. Like IPX GRX, IPX Transport includes access to the GSMA Root DNS.

“VCS IPX is being built to support its own consumption. Thanks to its large network investment and existing global presence, including fixed and wireless assets, 435 million customers and hundreds of MNO partners, the resulting VCS IPX platform delivers internal benefits and synergies, and reduces risk compared with rivals that are building IPX platforms solely for customers.” 6 12

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Future Vodafone IPX releases • International Voice over IPX A range of International Voice Services enhancing the Vodafone IPX Suite. Our premium Voice over IPX product will include overflow routes and assured CLI transparency, meeting stringent routing criteria applied within the Vodafone Group. Other quality products are well suited for other Service Providers. Our Voice Services will be further enhanced for HD Voice and VoLTE, which both require tighter path control within IPX, for example to ensure calls remain on a full IP path end-to-end. • Hosted solutions With our extensive group-wide infrastructure and portfolio, we can offer customers more than just connectivity solutions via Vodafone IPX. For example, we can provide hosted Diameter Edge agents, a temporary capability requested by some mobile operators, hosted RCS solutions and more.

• Global Messaging This service allows our customers to offer subscribers advanced, centralised and automated messaging services, both Person-to-Person (P2P) and Application-to-Person (A2P). This is particularly suitable for Messaging aggregators, Messaging Hubs and other groups of mobile operators. Global messaging will start with SMS delivery and will evolve to include newer capabilities, such as instant messaging. • Enterprise solutions As part of Vodafone Group Enterprise, Vodafone Carrier Services continuously reviews how IPX delivers competitive advantages to enterprise customers – particularly focusing on multi-service, high-quality communication solutions with global reach.

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For Further Information Contact us

Vodafone Carrier Services

For more information about Vodafone Carrier Services IPX offerings please email: [email protected]

Vodafone Carrier Services division has a dedicated team with deep industry expertise offering a broad portfolio of fixed and mobile voice and data products in the international wholesale market.

About Vodafone

We are one of the world’s largest investors in submarine cables and are in the top 5 in the world in terms of global connectivity and reach.

Vodafone is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies and provides a range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 54 more, and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 31 December 2014, Vodafone had 444 million mobile customers and 11.8 million fixed broadband customers. For more information, please visit: www.vodafone.com

We work with over 1,000 Service Providers globally and our approach is based on simplifying processes, points of contact, and commercial frameworks.



Sources: Ovum: 2015 Trends to Watch: Wholesale Telecoms; Reference code TE012-000516

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Alessandro Forcina, Chairman, i3 Technical Work stream

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GSMA and i3forum launch deployment initiative that will lead to IP-based interconnect between all operators. 14 May 2013. www.gsma.com

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Ovum – the future of International Interconnection; Reference code TE012-000514, Dec 2014

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Brian Fitzpatrick, CEO Vodafone Carrier Services, ‘The Ten Commanders’, Volume 2; Hot Telecom, Feb. 2015

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Current Analysis: Vodafone Carrier Services (VCS) IPX, Joel Stradling, 22 Oct. 2014

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Glossary

A2P ANSI APM CLI CoS Diffserv DSCP DTR E2E FNO GPRS GRX GSM GSMA HD IP IP/MPLS IPX IPXP ISP ITU MNO MSA MSU NER NNI OTT P2P PoP QoS S8 SIP SLA SMS SP TDM VLAN VoLTE

Application-to-Person American National Standards Institute Application Performance Management Caller Line Identification Class of Service Differentiated services Differentiated Services Code Point Diameter Transaction End-to-End Fixed Network Operator General Packet Radio Service GPRS Roaming eXchange Global System for Mobile Communication GSM Association High Definition Internet Protocol Internet Protocol / Multiprotocol Label Switching IP Packet eXchange IPX Provider Internet Service Provider International Telecommunication Union Mobile Network Operator Master Service Agreement Message Signal Unit Network Efficiency Ratio Network-to-Network Interface Over-the-Top player Person-to-Person Point of Presence Quality of Service Interface defined by 3GPP for 4G Session Initiation Protocol Service Level Agreement Short Message Service Service Provider Time Division Multiplex Virtual Local Area Network Voice over LTE

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