Developing Telecom Network Gateway

The Network Gateway is an essential element that connects disparate networks and makes them work seamlessly together. It accomplishes that by providing a network abstraction layer that sits horizontally across network platforms such as switches, messaging systems, charging/rating systems and HLRs, and provides a common, standardized set of northbound APIs that simplifies the process of new services launch and delivery across multiple network protocols and platforms from different vendors. Services that are developed using these APIs are network-agnostic, i.e. the same services can be deployed across fixed and mobile networks, as well as within and between circuit-switched “legacy” networks and packet-based IP / IMS networks. The client was faced with a tough delivery schedule for a new version of Network Gateway. At the same time, the rapid market expansion has strained the company’s resources to the limit. The decision was made to look for an outsourcing partner who possessed the required expertise, had excellent track record and was located in a similar time zone. Following thorough evaluation process, a number of Eastern and Central European vendors were selected. Finally, Luxoft emerged as a leader, thanks to its strong telecom expertise, impressive portfolio of accomplishments and geographic proximity.

The Solution:

LUXOFT, together with the client has developed a new version of the product with the following functionality and features:

The Network Gateway architecture, which contains a secure and trusted access capability, allows services to be developed and deployed on the platform itself, on remote clients in the corporate domain, or by 3rd Party Developers. Allowing commercial Portals and Corporate users to deploy services in addition to the existing ones not only increases the network usage and the resulting revenue, but provides a more differentiated service to the end-user, increasing the subscribers’ loyalty.

Decoupling the network technology from the application simplifies the delivery of new and existing applications and future-proofs them for the next generation of network technologies. It also simplifies the process of future network upgrades and network expansion or reconfiguration.

The Network Gateway dramatically reduces time and cost required to develop and deploy new services, thanks to its support of industry standard interfaces. Application developers don’t need to write code for specific networks and environments, reducing risk and cost, and allowing new services to be delivered via the network operator’s channel. Because the services are network-agnostic, the same services can be deployed across fixed and mobile networks, as well as within and between circuitswitched “legacy” networks and packet-based IP/IMS networks. Additional benefits in application development and deployment are achieved by using the Client’s Telecom Application Server framework.

A number of off-the-shelf applications can be supplied by the Client, Luxoft or a number of third party providers. The Network Gateway does not have proprietary interfaces. The standard-based gateway eliminates the traditional restrictions when the applications have been closely tied to the network platforms, and enables a wide choice of application vendors that support industry standard interfaces.

The reduction in cost, lead-time and risk to deliver new services increases the range of possible business models allowing a shift from a utility model to a differentiated services model. The differentiated services are the key to maximizing subscriber loyalty and penetrating new niche markets.

The primary objective of the Network Gateway is to ease access to the network. Therefore, one of the key objectives was to ensure that it integrates easily with existing networks. From a network management perspective, this has been achieved by using established and well-understood management technologies (HTTP and SNMP) as well as ensuring that flexible data feeds (including CDR generation if required) are available. Client has an established track record working at the bearer network level and the Network Gateway has been repeatedly and successfully deployed around the world across the entire range of telecom networks.

The Network Gateway is typically deployed in a mated pair configuration containing a primary gateway and a secondary standby system.
Process failures on the primary gateway are detected by the management entity, and, when feasible, the process is restarted and primary gateway operation is maintained. However, if failure on the primary system is critical, processing is transferred to the secondary one and the gateway operation continues. This protects against both hardware and software failures. This configuration has been successfully deployed in numerous operators and has proven to be highly resilient.