Introduction to Fixed Mobile Convergence Networks

In the world of innovations, enhancements and demands, the urge to deploy more advanced technologies is increasing day-by-day. Different technologies that are depolyed work best within their range of operating environments. This calls for a need to combine all the advanced and innovative technologies and house them under one shelter by which they work hand-in-hand according to the user's requirements and mobility.

Technically speaking, converging the existing and future technologies with seamless handover and compatibility with each other enabling the user to enjoy the freedom of being mobile and access data from anywhere without experiencing interruptions during the handover is known as Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC). This combination of pre-existing, present and future technologies require to work together by converging the core network, data management and customer care systems within the boundaries of the network. The development of future cellular mobile networks and evolution of Next Generation Networks (NGN) depends upon the technical infrastructure and resources provided to the service providers and network operators.

Triple play services that include voice, video and data are offered by the service providers such as cable TV network, mobile cellular network, fixed telephone network, xDSL network providers. Hence, to support these services by distinct service providers, there is a need of an all-IP architecture. The NGN architecture is built on an all-IP network infrastructure to offer these services as they are compatible to all existing and future technology infrastructures. Therefore, to support a single network, an all-IP based architecture is mandatory.

Reference

"Future technologies and testing for Fixed Mobile Convergence, SAE and LTE in Cellular mobile communications", Anritsu White Paper.