Oakland, CA, October 21st 2013 – Adax, an industry leader in high-performance packet processing, security, and network infrastructure, is today warning that current LTE signaling infrastructure is insufficient for the imminent wave in 4G uptake. With analyst firm, Strategy Analytics, forecasting that LTE subscribers will hit one billion worldwide by 2017, operators are facing a serious signaling issue due to this rapidly rising number of users causing a potential ‘bottleneck’ in the LTE signaling network.

A reliable LTE signaling infrastructure is critical to the successful deployment of 4G, and failing to support that network with the latest technology for policy and charging applications could have serious implications.

“We hear a lot about spikes in data traffic, and it’s an important issue, but operators should be more concerned with the inadequate signaling network technology that’s being used,” said Drew Sproul, Director, Marketing, Adax Inc.

“The problem is not only the data crunch on the network, but that there is an inherent problem with effective signaling infrastructure, one that if left unattended will present a serious problem for operators. Diameter signaling solutions will deliver an improved architecture to enable an optimum customer experience on the LTE network.”

To help support operators with this signaling issue, Adax has today launched its new Diameter signaling solution. The Adax Diameter Router (ADR) has been designed to deliver respite to the core network, which will become heavily congested due increased LTE/IMS nodes in the flat All-IP network.
 
Diameter is an essential signaling protocol in today’s LTE and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) networks. The Diameter protocol will be widely used for policy and charging applications in LTE as well as authentication, authorisation and accounting (AAA) and mobility management in IMS.

“This increase in signaling traffic is driving the importance of Diameter Routers and Edge Agents for roaming on a daily basis. For example, Point to Point Diameter to the LTE Home Subscriber Server (LTE HSS) causes congestion and the Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) relieves that congestion,” continued Sproul.

“As consumers switch to 4G in volume, the network will come under greater pressure. Developing the right signaling infrastructure now will allow operators to deal with sudden explosions in traffic and cope with the increased signaling levels.”