White Paper

IPv6: Building the foundation of the 3G Wireless Internet

Contents
Executive summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Technology challenges for wireless operator profitability . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The situation today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Solutions for tomorrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Technology solutions for wireless operator profitability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Unique permanent global addressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Security over the wireless Web: transactions will grow operator revenues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Quality of service: to make the subscriber experience rich and predictable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 IP v6 brings routing efficiency and performance for mobility. . . . . 8 Leveraging Nortel Networks IPv6 experience for solutions today . . . . . . . . 9 IPv6 core competency at Nortel Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2001: the evolution & roadmap to IP version 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2001: IP v4/v6 dual stacks on terminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2001: the Nortel Networks IPv6 solution today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2002: all-IP UMTS Release 5 for multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The IP multimedia Systemthe mandate for IPv6 . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The migration to the IP multimedia Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2002: UMTS R99 to Release 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 2002/early 2003: UMTS Release 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 MPLS: enforcement of QoS in the all IP network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 IP header compression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Executive summary
The worlds population is poised to receive delivery of the content and resources of the Internet in the palm of ones hand. Where once the Internet was accessed by a limited few high-tech researchers and academia networked to stationary servers, the combination of Web-based technology and the upcoming third-generation (3G) wireless networks will open the doors to any common subscriber. The ability to personalize the wireless experience for any subscriber, and provide that service anywhere at any time, gives rise to the underlying requirement for unique addressing in a global environment. Personalization will form the basis for long-term subscriber loyalty and highly profitable wireless services for the wireless operator to deliver always-on push services tailored to an individual and his current location. Transactionbased applications will continue to become more prevalent through the wireless Web when quality of service (QoS) and security measures are taken to deliver confidence to the consumer to execute banking and stock trades wirelessly. The delivery of high-margin wireless multimedia content as specified in Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Release 5 will add

additional rationale for QoS and highly scalable, bandwidth-rich optical core networks. The rollout of these services will depend greatly on equipment vendors such as Nortel Networks to provide choice and seamless migrations to accommodate wireless operator profit goals today and tomorrow. The next-generation Internet protocol (IPv6) aims to eliminate the barriers to globally unique addressing and to complement the QoS and security features of IPv4 to deliver a secure mechanism to differentiate levels of service per user within the wireless operators network. In this paper, we will discuss some of the challenges presented by always-on, content-rich services, and how IPv6 specifically solves these challenges, and at the same time presents opportunities for operator profitability while minimizing equipment churn. This paper demonstrates our commitment and leadership in delivering a seamless, phased approach to UMTS today that will deliver the enabling technologies of IPv6 and QoS for the allIP common multiservice infrastructure of tomorrow. Nortel Networks is uniquely positioned in the marketplace to deliver all of the pre-integrated components necessary for an end-toend solution.

Technology challenges for wireless operator profitability

The situation today
Today there are about 6 billion people on earth. They own an estimated 350 million computers, 480 million mobile telephones, 600 million cars, and 1 billion television sets. The number of mobile telephones and wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs) is expected to reach 1 billion by 2003. Many of these devices will need to be interconnected, and the wireless web will be a ubiquitous means of doing so. Currently, most of the computers in the world are largely turned on only when needed, and interconnected through traditional cabled wireline networks. Generally, computing takes on a clientserver (many-to-one) relationship based on asymmetrical information retrieval from well-known sets of sources. While numerous services have been successfully deployed, the sheer growth of devices and the proliferating ways they can interconnect will create an exponential explosion in interconnections (peer-to-peer, many-to-many). As this happens, the difficulty and cost of accommodating this explosion with the existing IPv4 address limitation of around 4 billion becomes inefficient and expensive. Mobile computing will hit this wall sooner than traditional forms of computing as people become unbound
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from traditional ways of interacting with computers, and as the notion of computers themselves changes drastically when they are manifested in appliances, automobiles, vending machines, and portable silicon. Additionally, many parts of the world have to suffer the unforeseeable consequences of inefficient address allocations of the early days of Internet naming and addressingmany parts of the world where populations are the highest and operator growth will be the strongest. To address this limitation, the current IP version 4 specifications have been updated to provide for a new, more scalable addressing structure called IP version 6. Subscribers will demand multiple IP addressable devices as manyto-many computing becomes pervasive and feature-rich. IPv6 will allow every citizen on earth to own over a million uniquely addressed and individually locatable IP addressable devices, so that they may take part in a seamlessly networked world of the future. No longer will computers have to be turned off so that IP addresses can be shared.

Solutions for tomorrow

Somewhere on the growth path between 100 million and 1 billion addressable devices, the cost to deploy and manage IPv4-based wireless services will exceed that of IPv6-based services. No longer is there an asymmetric computing model; rather, there is a chaotic, many-to-many, peer-to-peer relationship between devices, users, and personalized information. While today, the number of PCs connected to the Internet vastly exceeds the number of handhelds, the situation will invert sometime in 2003, because the most profitable services those based on personalized, locationbased push technologiesrequire that the mobiles are always on and that there is a permanent unique identifier for every subscriber. Success will also depend on the ability of an operator to offer any-to-any connectivity; namely, connecting users and applications across all wireless and wireline environmentsfrom general packet radio service (GPRS)/UMTS to 802.11b to Bluetooth cellular peripherals to wireline, and to all combinations thereof. As originally proved by the advent of the fax machine, the total value of any network increases with the square of the number of nodes in that network. Operators will want to capture as much of this total value as possible, and will look to vendors to provide interconnected, all-IP multiservice networks.

The wireless operator is in the drivers seat as to the initial portal to which the subscriber must connect first before going to other destinations on the Internet. Unlike commodity wireline connectivity in the public Internet, wireless connectivity is not ubiquitous. The menu choices for the subscriber will be streamlined and the allocation fiercely competitive due to screen real estate. Operators will make top dollar providing portals for pass-through and billing (called micropayments, as what NTT DoCoMo collects on behalf of banks, retailers, and content providers) for consumer transactions. Private companies will be rolling out cell rate margin (CRM) and customer-facing wireless applications, and may require wireless operators to own and manage the distributed access networks that will support these applications so strategic to their business. These will be highmargin, application-hosted networks for the operators, because these wireless networks are not commodities, and the enterprises cannot own these in-house (companies such as Avon, Frito-Lay, and UPS use these networks.) This connectivity model creates a massive explosion in permanent addressing requirements, only adequately solved by IPv6. The innovation of operator value-add services based on IPv6 will demand equipment vendors such as Nortel Networks to ensure that this takes place in a graceful way to optimize operator profits throughout the migration, and to ensure that products evolve to be IPv6-ready in 2002.

Technology solutions for wireless operator profitability

Unique permanent global addressing
A number of techniques for address relief for IPv4 have beenand will continue to beimplemented to alleviate IP address constraints. These will continue to be deployed to bring solutions to operators today and tomorrow. In some cases, techniques have provided for IPv4 address relief, but at the expense of complexity of network design. Classless inter-domain routing (CIDR) and network address translation (NAT) are examples of viable workarounds that have been deployed, despite inefficiencies in routing tables which can lead to poor performance and the growth of operational costs. In other cases, application layer gateways (ALGs) have been required to translate application-aware IP addressing within the payload of the packets. Nortel Networks stands behind its integrated leadership approach to IP security (IPsec) and network address translation (NAT) and on the Shasta Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) platform today, and will continue to support this as a viable solution for address relief while providing competency for native IPv6 development. Roadblocks to end-to-end security and network address transparency can be

eliminated for simplicity and speed of application development for some higher layer protocols that embed addressspecific information (e.g. H.323, DNS security [DNSSEC], IPsec) and many three-tiered Web applications (client, application server, database server). IPv6 alleviates the need for ALG and NAT equipment in the network, thereby increasing performance and eliminating not only single-point-of-failure bottlenecks, but also unnecessary complexity in the network configuration, management and operation that these devices introduce. The costs of subscriber IP address management will become an increasing concern as the number of mobile terminals proliferates. Wireless operators have three approaches to address assignment today: IP addresses can be statically assigned through the home location register (HLR), they can be statically or dynamically assigned through dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP), or they can be statically assigned and returned to the mobile upon successful remote authentication dial-in user service (RADIUS) authentication. In all cases, addresses are constrained that is a constant for IPv4-based systems. IPv6 addressing solves these problems because addresses can be permanently assigned and not shared from a pool thereby providing always-on addressability. Furthermore, an enhancement intrinsically provided in IPv6 is autoconfiguration, which eases the manage-

ment burden and administrative cost to the operator by allowing end stations to auto-configure their IPv6 address based on the subnetwork prefix of a default gateway. Additionally, when whole networks need to be re-addressed, auto-renumbering enhancements in IPv6 can perform these tasks quickly and efficiently. Customers cannot change service providers and service providers cannot change their backbone connections flexibly without replacing their IPv4 addressing allocations; with IPv6, auto-renumbering and corresponding routing take place automatically.

Security over the wireless Web: transactions will grow operator revenues
The solution to the network addressability problem should not create consumer skepticism regarding alwayson privacy and security. High-margin operator offerings will require that every transaction over the wireless Web whether control over authenticated stock trades or home burglar alarm activationbe authorized and undetectable. This also includes sending billable bytes of traffic toor on behalf ofanother human being. Andersen Consulting predicts that transaction-based applications will be the highest percentage growth market in terms of revenue between now and 2004.

IPv6 solves this problem through builtin security on an end-to-end basis by leveraging the same IPv4 algorithms to maintain application transparency. IPsec is natively supported in IPv6 and can secure both transmission control protocol (TCP and user datagram protocol (UDP) traffic. Through the use of the authentication header and encrypted security payload, all IP transactions can be secured, as opposed to just transporting the layerbased secure sockets layer (SSL)which only secures certain (i.e., simple mail transfer protocol [SMTP], hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP], and network news transport protocol [NNTP]) protocol-based transactions in IPv4. The authentication header (AH) provides a secure exchange to validate the sender, and allows a receiver to detect whether a non-authoritative source is transmitting. This allows privacy of messaging and push services, as well as minimizing the opportunity for packet streaming and denial of service attacks, leading to service downtime and/or erroneous billing and operator concessions. The encrypted security payload (ESP) provides protection from the detection and pirating of sensitive information (such as credit card numbers) by keeping eavesdroppers from sniffing traffic over the airwaves.

IPv6 also provides the basis for secure, worldwide commerce and inter-domain security through multi-vendor compliance with internet key exchange (IKE) to enable operators to broker transactions on behalf of their subscribers and offer value-added services resulting in micropayments. This is not to say that we have arrived at a completely secure Internet, but to the extent possible with the IP protocol itself and supplemented by further cryptographic measures, transaction security over the Web has become as secure as possible. When used end-to-end, IPv6 can help eliminate consumer misgivings about data passing unencrypted through a short segment within the Internet service provider (ISP) domain.

tion- and subscriber-specific QoS is a result of the negotiation algorithm between the mobile and the cached HLR records in the serving GPRS support node (SGSN), resulting in the enforcement of the latency requirements for each of these classes within the Nortel Networks core network. The DiffServ codepoint (DSCP) is used in both IPv4 and IPv6 environments to mark traffic in accordance with filter criteria such as TCP/UDP port numbers associated with IP applications. Once marked, the traffic is then identified by its class or DSCP and per-hop behaviors (such as queuing and rate shaping) applied consistently throughout the journey from source to destination. This marking can be done in end systems or on routers, but needs to be under the domain of network management control to allocate bandwidth to particular applications and users. IPv6 reuses the DiffServ field as the traffic class octet and provides additional flow labels to identify the subflows of a particular transaction (e.g. NetMeeting creating both voice and video subflows). Some traffic is very difficult to classify using DiffServ filterstraffic such as real-time applications that use dynamic and random port numbers. The implementation of the flow label is still under interpretation, but it presents an opportunity for applications to mark this field in welldefined ways such that per-hop behaviors can be based on flow label values

Quality of service: to make the subscriber experience rich and predictable

For wireless operators to truly differentiate their offerings, they must provide transactional and multimedia environments for their subscribers, and the performance guarantees that are associated with the time-critical data delivery and real-time human interaction provided by the QoS capabilities of differentiated services (DiffServ) and proper network engineering. Nortel Networks offers a complete QoS solution today through the use of the IPv4 field to distinguish between UMTS R99 traffic classes and subscriber allocation/retention priority. This applica-

rather than on moving targets such as port numbers. This also alleviates routers from performing deep packet payload analysis and keeping state on the flows directly, thereby maximizing router simplicity and performance. While resource reservation protocol (RSVP) is still possible in both IP environments, the quantitative use of the flow label to signify absolute bandwidth requirements accomplishes a similar purpose without the signaling overhead associated with RSVP. Bandwidth admission control can be performed based on the marking/re-marking of the traffic class (DSCP) based on prevailing network conditions, and policy admission control can be under network management control to determine which users and applications qualify for the same privileged traffic class markings. Since GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP) is always used within the UMTS core network, it is the Nortel Network strategy to represent the packet data protocol (PDP) context creation/QoS negotiation algorithm in the outer DSCP of GTP, such that the appropriate end-to-end QoS may be preserved even when IPv6 may be tunneled in GTP . IP data streams matching a specific class of service through the DSCP values then traverse a lower layer enforcement scheme, such as a virtual circuit with a corresponding QoS class (variable, constant, or undefined bit rate [VBR-RT/NRT, CBR or UBR]) for asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) in UMTS R99.
IP

Subscriber HLR (SLA)

Traffic_Class x A/R

Create PDP_QoS

IP GTP-U TCP/ UDP IP L1/L2 IP L1/L2

GTP-U SNDCP TCP/ UDP IP L1/L2 L1/L2 MS Passport SGSN

ATM COS IP DSCP

Shasta GGSN

Figure 1. Subscriber differentiation based on QoS. IPv6 also includes a hop-by-hop options header for alerting routers along the forwarding path. The router alert hop-by-hop optionwhen used in conjunction with signaling such as RSVP and MLDPcan be used to facilitate applications such as bandwidth on demand, per-flow forwarding, and multicast path preservation to ensure that certain of the traffic traverses wellprovisioned, bandwidth-rich paths. New hop-by-hop header options are being explored and standardized to meet new demands such as secure cross-network routing and location privacy. In the future, MPLS can be leveraged to utilize flow labeling through explicit label switch path assignment based on the contents of these flow labels, and ultimately the flows themselves. The ability to deliver a higher QoS for a higher paying customer is a value-added IP service that the wireless provider must enable within their network. Subscriberbased service level agreements within the UMTS framework are met through the use of advanced traffic management capabilities of the Nortel Networks switching components within the IP core network.

IP v6 brings routing efficiency and performance for mobility

Using hierarchical routing implicit in IPv6, route calculation, optimization and forwarding performance are greatly enhanced. Hierarchical routing provides for efficient aggregation of addresses within the Internet, leading to smaller routing tables, faster route lookups, and less routing control traffic. Broadcast handling is also made more efficient. IPv6 was developed specifically with macro-mobility in mind. In version 6, IP mobility makes use of a care-of address (with the globally unique IPv6 home address nested within for authentication, authorization, and accounting [AAA] and billing) and eliminates the triangle routing problem. Packets destined for a roaming terminal in a visited network can be routed directly without having to pass through the home network. IPv4 requires that packets traverse this triangle, thereby leading to unnecessary network traffic (particularly exacerbated with multicast applications) and requiring excess network capacity, driving up costs. In IPv6, mobile nodes use router discovery to determine the network prefix (such as v4 subnet) of the visited network, which the visited GGSN will use to address the mobile. This allows the mobile to auto-configure a care-of address in the visited network while retaining its original home address in the destination options field so as to not break applications dependent on
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IPv4 Packet Header

IP Version Number (4) Identification (16 Bits) Time to Live (8 Bits) IHL (4 Bits) Type of Service (8 Bits) Total Length (16 Bits) Flags (4 Bits) Protocol (8 Bits) Source Address (32 Bits) Destination Address (32 Bits) Options (variable) Padding (variable) Fragment Offset (12 Bits) Header Checksum (16 Bits)

IPv4 Packet Header

IP Version Number (6) Payload Length (16 Bits) Traffic Class (8 Bits) Next Header (8 Bits) Source Address (128 Bits) Destination Address (128 Bits) Flow Label (20 Bits) Hop Limit (8 Bits)

IPv4 Packet Header

Encrypted IPv6 Hop-by-Hop Header Extension Header AH Header ESP Extension Transport Header Header (TCP, etc.) Payload

Figure 2. Packet formats of IPv4 and IPv6 headers. transport and higher layer connections. Additionally, there are provisions within the protocol to support transition areas where a mobile can move in and out of areas, and eliminate the black hole problem common with IPv4, where a mobile can send but is not reachable in the reverse direction. Changes to the header in IPv6 to make it of constant length and offset, and to eliminate seldom-used option fields in the header, allow for simpler and more efficient packet processing, thereby reducing latency within an IPv6 node and end-to-end. Fragmentation is also minimized due to maximum transmission unit (MTU) discovery.

Leveraging Nortel Networks IPv6 experience for solutions today

IPv6 core competency at Nortel Networks
Nortel Networks is a pioneer in the IPv6 routing space. Nortel Networks was a founding member of the IPv6 Forum and a member of the IPv6 Forum Technical Directorate. We have been active in the IETF Internet protocol next generation (IPNG) working group and has contributed to RFCs and draft standards over the years. We currently have two North American and one European site operational on the 6Bone, more than any other network equipment vendor (see http://www.6bone.net/ for topology). Nortel Networks has successfully designed, installed and supported IPv6 compliant routed networks since as early as 1997. This initial IPv6 development expertise is delivering core IPv6 services across our product line to create portable stacks for re-use throughout Nortel Networks, guaranteeing interoperability and second-generation technology leadership. The gradual introduction of IPv6 into the predominant IPv4 world is an exercise in which engineering experience plays a crucial role. Wireless operators will look to the core competencies of their equipment vendors to support the rollout of services at any point on the path to IPv6. Operators will demand that

these vendors demonstrate technology leadership in IPv6 and provide for a graceful migration from the IPv4 networks of today, through the hybrid v4/v6 transition, to the all IPv6 networks of tomorrow. Equipment vendors must provide roadmaps for their wireless operators to sustain profits throughout.

2001: IP v4/v6 dual stacks on terminals

During the transition period (and maybe forever), leading operating systems will take a dual-stack approach in order to support the maximum number of applications. Multiprotocol stack approaches are familiar e.g. IP and IPX using same line drivers, e.g. Ethernetand provide for orderly co-existence and incremental application transitions. Applications choose which IP version to access based on the format of the IP address returned by the DNS server when sending. When receiving a packet, the application will respond based on the version of the packet sent.

2001: the evolution and roadmap to IP version 6

In order to begin generating revenue as quickly as possible, operators will expect their vendors to provide the required technology enablers for rapid service innovation. There will be implementations of IPv6 required to accommodate IP address constraints in the near-term, and vendors will be called upon to deliver IPv6 mobile terminals in existing IPv4 production networks. IPv6-only or dual stack v4/v6 end stations and terminals are envisioned. Meanwhile Asian and European service providers are beginning to test IPv6 solutions today with specific focus on v4/v6 transition mechanisms and mobility support for production rollouts in 2002/2003. Until mobile terminals can have unique permanent IPv6 addresses, NAT must be used to map private/public IPv4 addresses as well as within application layer gateways to map roaming bearer traffic within the GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP).

2001: the Nortel Networks IPv6 solution today

Dual IPv4/IPv6 mobile stations (MSs) could possibly begin appearing in 2001. Operators with constrained public v4 addresses must deliver applications to support these mobiles. Nortel Networks will be ready to support these early adopters through the UMTS R99 thirdgeneration partnership project (3GPP) specifications, making it possible for IPv4/IPv6 compliant devices (MSs) to tunnel v4 or v6 packets transparently across the core network with no direct support for IPv6 required on the SGSN. Protocol Data Packet (PDP) requests generated by the SGSN on behalf of the MS are encapsulated
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through the GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) into an IPv4 packet and sent to the GGSN to de-encapsulate the packet and reveal the IPv4 or v6 packet stream to a dual-stack router. The mobile will instantiate either IPv4 and IPv6 stacks (or both) and addresses (different PDP context type)and, after retrieving the appropriate DNS destination address (IPv4 A records or IPv6 A6 records, or both), call the appropriate link library to create PDP contexts to a v4 or v6 access point name (APN). The most likely early adopters will be those with v4 address shortages or a non-preference for NAT; therefore v6 mobiles will be required to always use v6 addresses and the servers will still be v4 (pre-IMS). 6in4 and 6to4 techniques are used with automatic tunnels, where the mobile will initiate the tunnel and use the v4compatible v6 destination address. This address is sent to the v4 tunnel endpoint interface on the router, where the encapsulated v4 address format is recognized, and the packet then routed from a v4 interface to the v4 server.

Terminal Devices

Access Networks

IM Subsystem

Internet, Intranets

Mobility Subscriber Data Server Server

Alteon Switch SIP Servers IPv6 Network

MS

PP15K SGSN

Shasta GGSN

PP 8600

6 to 4 Network NAT-PT
Intranet VPN

IPv4

IPv6 Network

IPv4/v6 tunneled in GTP

Alteon Switch

Content Switch IPv4 or IPv6

IPv4 or IPv6

Figure 3. The all-IP UMTS network. IPv6 mobiles and IPv4 networks The most likely early adopters will be those where the MS is dual-stack and the destination server or network will still be v4 (pre-IMS). NAT-PT techniques are used if applications can tolerate network address translation. 6in4 tunnels must be created by the mobiles and terminated in a dual-stack v4/v6 router for applications that cannot tolerate address translation. IPv6 mobiles and IPv6 networks If the destination is a v6 APN and the mobile is using a v6 address, the packet is simply sent by the v6 router (default gateway to the mobile) to the corresponding v6 interface serving v6 networks. In such a scenario, the packet is routable to local v6 hosts or to emerging v6 ISPs without having to transit a v4 network.

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2002: all-IP UMTS Release 5 for multimedia

Investment protection is of utmost importance in the migration from todays wireless data technology to the eventual all-IP architecture in Release 5 of UMTS, not only from a hardware perspective but also from the perspective of an installed subscriber base. Subscriber churn continues to plague the wireless marketplace. In order to minimize loss in users and services due to major equipment swap-out during the transition, Nortel Networks maximizes the current investments made by the operator through an intelligent migration of existing wireless platforms.

The IP multimedia system the mandate for IPv6

Operators will have choices in offering high-margin, multimedia-based subscriber services. They will be able to support circuit-switched voice and video as they do today, but they will more likely adopt the efficiencies and reduced cost of a packet-based architecture based on the recommended standard interface protocols (SIPs) mandated by 3GPP UMTS Release 5.

In Release 5, many equipment vendors have positioned IPv6 exclusively. Nortel Networks will support these standards, but will also support existing IPv4-based networks and services, realizing that these will still be prevalent. The Nortel Networks UMTS solution provides the carrier-class reliability, low latency, and high-packet throughput rate required to support latency-sensitive conversational applications through todays core packet networks. This is accomplished through header compression and the introduction of symmetric and asymmetric radio bearers, in conjunction with their requisite class-based packet treatment and dynamic PDP modification of QoS. IPv6-compliant mobile devices will tunnel through the SGSN and terminate at the Shasta GGSN. Session transactions and content within the IP multimedia subsystem to the device are conducted natively via the IPv6 protocol suite. If the mobile is exclusively v6, access to a remote v6 service across an IPv4 Internet or corporate Intranet will need to pass through an IPv6 to IPv4 translation device, but this would need to occur only with non-simple IP (SIP) applications.

The value in this model is the reduction in capital expenditure. The devices that are giving wireless subscribers the means to access both voice and data and that are providing the wireless operator with revenue generation today, are the ones to evolve to the all-IP architecture of UMTS Release 5. This important differentiator provides the wireless operator with a mechanism to capture revenue immediately. This is extremely important, given the costs associated with purchasing spectrum within 3G frequencies.

The migration to the IP multimedia subsystem

Nortel Networks Succession architecture will deliver on the promise of connected fixed and mobile wireless and wireline any-to-any multimedia services. Succession includes a service support infrastructure, including simple Internet protocol (SIP) proxies to support call and service management and SIP-based multipoint control units (MCUs) to support multiparty videoconferencing and video message store. These UMTS R5 services can be rolled out through a graceful migration from existing Nortel Networks GPRS, 1XRTT, and UMTS R99 installations.

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2002: UMTS R99 to Release 4

Nortel Networks DMS-MSC (Mobile Switching Center), wireless gateways, and 3G SGSN/GGSN equipment can support UMTS R99 deployments while preserving 2G services. This allows for low-risk evolution from R99 to R,4 while providing 2G investment protection. The following details highlight the migration to R4: Upgrade Passport 15000 public switched telephone network (PSTN) and wireless gateways (compliant H.248 media gateway) Install Succession nodesUniversal Audio Server, Gateway Controller, and eMMU Upgrade DMS-MSC to support H.248 Gateway Controller (UMTS Call Server) Migrate HLR to support home subscriber server (HSS) Upgrade existing support of SS7, SGSN (Passport 15000) and GGSN (Shasta) functionality Install single- or dual-stack IPv4/v6 servers (IMSI or otherwise)can be operational during and after the migration using the techniques described earlier In this stage, the operator offers voice and data convergence on a single packetized R99 ATM transport at significant cost savings, while preserving 2G (GPRS, 1XRTT) investments and services.
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GGSN

UMTS R00 Overview

Internet
Gp

Other PLMN

PS Domain
Gi

Intranets

SGSN
Gn

GGSN
IP Backbone
Gi Gc Gi Mm

Iu-PS IP Apps & VoIP

CAP

CAP

MSC

Mr

CSCF

Mw

CSCF

UTRAN
Basic Telephony

Gs

CAMEL Server (SCP)

CAP

CAP

HSS

Cs Mg

IM Subsystem

Iu-CS

MAP

MAP

MGCF
Mc

MSC

Nb Nc

GMSN

IP Based

Gs

IM Subsystem
Gs

TDM, ATM, or IP Backbone

PSTN

CS Domain

Figure 4. The UMTS IP multimedia subsystem.

2002/early 2003: UMTS Release 5

It is in UMTS Release 5 that the all IP common-core infrastructure emerges as a multiservice delivery transport for all carrier services across diverse access technologies, thereby encouraging anyto-any access. Nortel Networks is uniquely positioned to support all of these access technologies and to position existing investments in 2G equipment and services for smooth migration to our best-of-breed Succession multimedia service delivery. Release 5 allows for innovative service delivery for existing UMTS networks, as well as the unification of packet- and circuit-switched technologies across

disparate networks for efficiency and savings. IPv6 is exclusively mandated for the Gm interface (UE to call session control function) through which the mobile communicates with the IMSI for SIP-based services. Many concerns with theft and denial of service are alleviated with the native security features of IPv6 for the call control plane (HSS to call state control function [CSCF]). Nortel Networks will support this UMTS Release 5 mandatebut, at the same time, we realize that other services will continue to be IPv4-based.

Nortel Networks is committed to offering operator choice regarding IPv6 deployment. Wireless operators need to implement current standards for stable 2G and UMTS R99 networks to begin realizing revenues immediately. Nortel Networks is committed to offering solutions for any operator along the migration path from IPv4 to IPv6, and to allow for market forces and standards evolution to point the way. While mandated only at the GGSN by R5 standards, Nortel Networks will offer dual IPv4 and IPv6 solutions for an all IP networks, as well as offer minimized cost/complexity options that will not mandate any preference. The all-IP core network will allow standard skills and standardized operational software and methodologies to be leveraged to the benefit of a lower cost model for the operator. This will allow an operator to offer any IP solution in the access, core, and GGSN transit networks. All of the multiservice server-based resources are interconnected through distributed, redundant IP Layer 3 switching and routing to provide subnetwork isolation and course-grained firewalling. Within each Layer 3 domain, Alteon WebSystems will provide Layer 4 and above content-based routing (URLs and cookies, SSL offloading) and per-subscriber content, steering across highly scalable, applicationspecific, load-balanced 10/100/1000mbps server farms.

SIP CS

MS

Passport SGSN

Shasta GGSN

MPLS QoS Differentiated LSPs per Source/Dest Pair

Passport SGSN

Shasta GGSN

Figure 5. MPLS within PLMN.

MPLS: enforcement of QoS in the all-IP network

Migrating to the all-IP model of UMTS Release 5 brings forth two additional methods of differentiating subscribers and the applications that they initiate. Packet prioritization within both IPv4 and IPv6 is handled through the DSCP (IPv4) and traffic class (IPv6) within the header. IPv6 brings forth an additional flow field thatdepending on multimedia applicationscan be set to specific values to maintain packet priority and sequencing for real-time sessions. Provisionable mappings between DSCP and traffic class will standardize IPv6 implementations while exiting the GTP tunnel (Gi interface).

The second additional QoS mechanism within the all-IP architecture is the removal of the dependency on ATM through the deployment of MPLS. For R99 and R4, ATM AAL2 is specified to optimize for the short, constantsized radio bearer packets. In the all-IP Release 5 network, MPLS replaces AAL2 with support for these characteristics, to enforce the real-time characteristics of multimedia coupled with header compression. This will allow the operator ultimate flexibility in deploying other transport technologies such as Ethernet/packet over SONET. MPLS offers the same bandwidth efficiency and QoS as ATM, while creating link layer choices for the operator.
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The Nortel Networks QoS negotiation algorithm will classify and DiffServ mark wireless data or voice over IP (VoIP) sessions set with the conversational traffic class and allocation/retention priority from the HLR. These DiffServ classes are mapped to specific forwarding classes within the MPLS system that gain access to a bandwidth and latency engineered label switched path (LSP) of corresponding quality between any two endpoints. LSPs are established between the Passport SGSN and Shasta GGSN(s) within inter- and intra-public land mobile networks (PLMNs), as well as the core components within the IP Multimedia Subsystem (see Figure 5). MPLS is enabled on the switching and core products through software upgrades, thus minimizing impact to the current investment that is generating both voice and data revenues for the wireless operator.

IP header compression
IP header compression will be important for IPv6 packets traversing the airlink and for overall multimedia end-to-end performance. Radio spectrum is expensive and scarce, and header sizes are proportionally large and even larger with IPv6 (source and destination addresses are larger). Smaller and more consistently sized packets lead to more predictable delay and fewer errors/retransmissions. This efficiency serves to improve the interactive response time for the conversational applications supported by the IMSI. Header compression is impractical for R99, as the existing standard (RFC 2507) is inefficient for wireless networks. 3GPP is currently backing the robust header compression (ROHC) (for UDP/IP) working group as a means to deliver compression for R4 as an interim step to the real-time transport protocol (RTP) compression with header stripping that will be supported by the RTP-aware UMTS core network in Release 5. ROHC will yield benefits in both IPv6 and IPv4, but there are greater benefits with IPv6 due to a fixed-size header and static fields leading to compression efficiency gains. Also, there is no fragmentation in the network with IPv6 (header compression can not compress fragmented IP datagram) through path MTU discovery in IPv6, making every datagram compressible in IPv6.

It is important to bear in mind that the scarce resource that needs to be allocated in a narrowband network is bandwidth (computing resources for header compression are cheaper than the cost of the bandwidth) while in broadband the scarce resource revolves around routing (cost of bandwidth is cheaper than the high-performance routing engine). This difference is reflected in requirements and design approaches for hosts and routers in future wireless networks. An end-end IPv6 implementation will serve to align QoS treatments exactly between IPv6 user traffic and network paths, as well as provide for a single engineering paradigm in the IM and PLMN (supporting easier configuration, provisioning, etc.). These soft values, in addition to the hard benefits of header compression, will encourage the expansion of the IPv6 domain beyond the 3GPP IMSI.

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Conclusion
Mobile phone subscribers are prepared to pay up to 63 percent more than they do for existing services in order to use 3G services offering high-speed Internet connections, according to a survey by Siemens in Ireland. The survey also reported that nearly 90 percent would change their operator in order to get 3G services, and many of these services can only be delivered across IPv6 networks. Wireless operators face numerous challenges as they bring about the revolution from fixed to nomadic computing, so important to our emerging lifestyles and the next wave of the Internet. Nortel Networks is uniquely positioned in the industry to provide choices for operators to begin deployment of revenuegenerating networks today and to

minimize the disruption of migration in the future. Nortel Networks is also well-positioned to leverage its core competencies to deliver a pre-integrated, end-to-end solution for subscriber differentiation to the wireless operator. Of key importance is the ability for the wireless provider to enable its network with enhanced protocols such as IPv6, while still generating revenue to cover investments and create profits. Nortel Networks will be there every step of the way to migrate operators at their own pace to the optically enabled, end-toend unified, all-IP multi-service transport networkriding on the Wings of Light of the wireless Internet. Please refer to the following Web site for the Nortel Networks wireless strategy:
http://www.nortelnetworks.com/corporate/ leadership/wireless/.

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Copyright 2001 Nortel Networks Corporation. Printed in USA, February 2001. Information subject to change. Nortel Networks Corporation reserves the right, without notice, to make changes in equipment design or components as changes in engineering or manufacturing methods warrant. Nortel Networks and the globemark are trademarks of Nortel Networks Corporation. 66014.25/05-01 Printed in USA May 2001