Nervous of next generation networks? Ericsson and TSSG team up for Irish mobile test centre

In order to quell some fears amongst operators about next-generation networks (NGNs), telecoms research centre TSSG is working with Ericsson to create an NGN testbed in Ireland. If none of that sentence made sense to you, don’t worry about it. All is explained below.

What are you talking about?

Next time you’re travelling any distance, try this: use your mobile to check what kind of network you’re on. You’ll see it changing a lot. On a relatively short trip in Ireland, I saw UMTS, GSM and EDGE all come and go. There are a lot of different kinds of network architecture, and each of them needs to be handled a little differently.

The idea behind “next generation networks” is to bypass all of that. Current telecoms technology will allow for a larger architecture to be built based around Internet protocols. NGNs should be able to support all of the different kinds of network within its own framework. It should also be able to carry voice, internet data, video and a lot of other types of info – including Digital TV. In other words, the ideal of the NGN is a one-stop shop for anything that needs to be broadcast. You could pipe all of your phone, internet and TV needs around an entire country within a single network architecture.

Sounds good. What’s the catch?

Well, NGNs aren’t exactly widespread. One of the reasons for this is that operators are understandably nervous about throwing all their eggs in one basket. The possibility of extremely damaging network crashes makes them twitchy. And it’s not just networks. A company that creates services for 3G networks might not be willing to invest resources in NGN without being able to test it out first. And this is what the NGN Test Centre is there for.

The TSSG, based in Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) unveiled the service today. The Test Centre Manager, Shane Dempsey says “the NGN Test centre will assist indigenous companies and entrepreneurs in carrying out NGN research and product development… the centre will also promote strategic and commercial alliances between Irish and European business in the NGN domain. This is of critical importance given NGN’s support for bundled and composed services.”

How does the testbed work?

Over the last 3 months, the TSSG has been working with Ericsson and Eircom to create a testing centre that realistically mimics an operator’s network. For people who want to check out how an NGN can work, the Test Centre will work through all the steps including development, testing and virtual roll-out.

What we think?

Ireland has been promised the roll-out of an extremely advanced telecoms network for the entire island (we haven’t seen it yet, but we remain cautiously optimistic). We’re not a very attractive nation when it comes to most industries, so setting ourselves up as an advanced testing centre for advanced telecoms is a pretty good idea – at least it will attract interest from foreign companies and we can try to get some of our now vast army of unemployed people back into jobs. Not only that, but this might get Irish operators (who are pretty conservative by necessity) to start getting involved in more advanced mobile services for subscribers.