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3G Americas Recommends IPv6 Transition Considerations for LTE and Evolved Packet Core
'The Time Is Now' for Planning and Implementation Throughout the Wireless Ecosystem
| Source: 3G Americas
BELLEVUE, WA--(Marketwire - February 25, 2009) - 3G Americas, a wireless industry trade
association representing the GSM family of technologies including LTE,
today announced that it has published a research report titled, "IPv6
Transition Considerations for LTE and Evolved Packet Core." The educational
white paper outlines recommendations needed in the Americas region to
further build and expand upon a March 2008 white paper titled,
"Transitioning to IPv6," which 3G Americas published to assist wireless
service providers in planning a smooth and successful IPv6 transition.
The explosive growth in the wireless industry has created a requirement for
always-available IP addresses. IPv4 addresses are rapidly diminishing and
are likely to exhaust by 2012. As IPv4 addresses are being depleted,
always-on services (SIP-based applications) are being deployed at an
increasing rate and, therefore, the urgency to move to IPv6 continues to be
a major issue for vendors and particularly operators in the wireless
industry. The report strongly recommends that rather than wait for the
inevitable difficulties to arise, service providers should begin planning
their transition to IPv6 as soon as possible.
"The time is now for the entire converged wireless ecosystem of operators,
vendors and regulators to fully plan and implement IPv6 transition
strategies to ensure our great industry continues to prosper," stated Chris
Pearson, President of 3G Americas. "As today's four billion wireless
subscribers transition to Internet-capable mobile devices, the need for
IPv6 addresses becomes more apparent to ensure wireless data growth for the
robust mobile broadband industry."
"IPv6 Transition Considerations for LTE and Evolved Packet Core" highlights
specific LTE and Evolved Packet Core element recommendations that operators
and their vendor partners can begin implementing to ensure a smooth
transition. The white paper notes that carriers evolving their networks to
Long Term Evolution (LTE) should consider making IPv6 a requirement from
day one. Since LTE Evolved Packet Core (EPC) does not support a Circuit
Switched Core as part of the 3GPP standard, native support for voice will
be supported by the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core. Because the
transition to IMS-based Voice-over-IP (VoIP) will likely take several
years, it is critical for operators to understand the impact of IPv6 on the
existing Voice Core and Signaling infrastructure.
The white paper recognizes that the transition to IPv6 is a significant
effort and will carry expense for operators, but at this point in time, can
no longer be delayed. Failure to transition to IPv6 in a timely manner will
also cost operators money due to reasons such as the inability to scale
services. IPv6 has several additional benefits and will likely enable new
services that would otherwise be impossible in an IPv4-only world.
The 3G Americas white paper,
"IPv6 Transition Considerations for LTE and Evolved Packet Core," and the previous March 2008 report,
"Transition to IPv6," both were written collaboratively by members
of 3G Americas and are available for free download at: www.3gamericas.org.
About 3G Americas: Unifying the Americas through Wireless Technology
3G Americas is an industry trade organization composed of
telecommunications service providers and manufacturers. The organization's
mission is to promote, facilitate and advocate for the deployment of the
GSM family of technologies including LTE, throughout the Americas. 3G
Americas has contributed to the successful commercial rollout of GSM across
the Americas and its place as the number one technology in the region, as
well as the global adoption of EDGE. The organization aims to develop the
expansive wireless ecosystem of networks, devices, and applications enabled
by GSM and its evolution to LTE. 3G Americas is headquartered in Bellevue,
WA with an office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Dallas, Texas.
More information is available at www.3gamericas.org.