LTE, the future of wireless technology, also known as the 4G has already gained a hype in the wireless world. Service providers are spreading their networks that will be functional with the LTE. The planning phase of these networks has ended and now even the deployment has reached to its fullest capacity. LTE will mark a new era in the delivery of high speed mobile data but what the researchers are trying hard with is its use to transfer voice over the IP technology. The process of transferring the voice over LTE might be complex but it will become ordinary once the service providers start to play with it. Although the IP Multimedia Subsystem will lose its charm but the vendors are trying hard to use the same GSMA methods for the delivery of VoLTE. This process would mean that a vendor should be working at both the ends; example IMS and LTE. As a matter of fact this might not be the possible case.
What is more interesting is the use of IMS for the VoLTE delivery. This process might end the circuit switched infrastructure era. But on the other hand it might also be an efficient way to deliver voice data than the previous 2G and 3G networks. This process is also cost effective and thus the deployment will be beneficial. With the implementation of IMS the Rich Communications Suite services will also play an important part. The indications of presence, file transfers, rich messaging, video communication and address book are all some services provided by the RCS. The revenue generated will not be sufficient to ensure the implementation of the IMS networks but these will certainly motivate service providers to use IMS for voice delivery.
If the implementation of the LTE network is done without the IMS then this would end up in some difficult situation to deliver voice as that would mean the system will be relying on the circuit switching; delaying the voice calls. The latency time is another issue with 6s of call setup time. As every problem has a solution so is the IMS and LTE issue have. The use of VoLGA ensure that the calls are made through over the wireless link of LTE without the use of IMS infrastructure. But this technology implementation is only practiced by the Nokia Siemens Networks with their technology known as Fast track VoLTE; enabling voice to travel over LTE without the IMS. Other vendors are still trying their luck with this technology.
Joe Spoto