Ixia announced the sharing of key insights and findings with the mobile industry to help them prepare for the next major wireless technology — Voice over LTE (VoLTE) Based on extensive work with leading mobile operators and equipment vendors, Ixia has published an industry-first book, “Validating VoLTE: A Definitive Guide to Successful Deployments,” providing a unique study of the major deployment challenges and a step-by-step process to help customers deliver superior VoLTE services.

VoLTE gives mobile operators the opportunity to deliver a new conversation experience by enabling enriched voice, enlivened video and intuitive messaging services; however, VoLTE will be one of the most complex technologies that mobile operators have ever had to deploy. This free book is designed to help the mobile industry overcome those challenges in order to accelerate VoLTE deployments and ensure a high-quality and profitable VoLTE service.

With in-depth knowledge of the potential pitfalls faced by both equipment manufacturers and mobile operators in deploying VoLTE, “Validating VoLTE” provides the insights customers need to overcome challenges, including:

• Multivendor Collaboration: There are many moving parts in a VoLTE network, and more often than not, networks are multivendor sourced, and operators must be confident that all the components used in the live network will work together seamlessly.
   
• Quality of Service (QoS): VoLTE is not just voice services, it is the complex mix of voice, video and messaging services, and providing toll-grade voice quality comparable to or better than 3G is imperative to QoS. Getting the correct framework and design in place sets the stage for operators to offer differentiated services, enter into new pricing structures, and partner or compete with over-the-top (OTT) players without sacrificing QoS.
   
• Network Congestion: In dense metro environments, wireless networks can be plagued with capacity constraints. If premium voice and video applications perform poorly, operators’ brands and reputations are put at risk.

Ixia’s insight and leadership extend to the VoLTE test solution, which delivers customers a comprehensive, flexible and powerful assessment of performance and enables operators to confidently deploy and operate world-class VoLTE services. These and many other significant challenges and solutions are tackled in “Validating VoLTE.” For more information on VoLTE market trends and deployments and how mobile operators can overcome today’s challenges, visit validating-volte.ixiacom.com.

Industry commentary
“With significant revenue still coming from traditional voice and SMS services, VoLTE requires zero technical default,” said Stéphane Téral, Principal Analyst, Infonetics Research. “Put another way, the network has to be properly tested and validated end to end with solutions like Ixia's to deliver superior QoS so that consumers can feel a brand new experience."

“Even with the fast rise of Web and data services in mobile networks, voice and SMS services still generate around 70 percent of total operator revenues globally. With these revenues at stake, LTE operators must have a path to provide high-quality, toll-grade voice services natively on LTE networks,” said Joseph Zeto, Director of Product Marketing, Ixia. “With a deep understanding of what is at stake, we created ‘Validating VoLTE’ to help guide our customers through the process of building, testing and delivering a stable VoLTE network.”