2

VoLTE Deployment Strategies

Global mobile networks have been driven by voice service since the beginning and voice
has been the ‘killer’ application for many years. It can be said that there would be no
mobile networks without voice services. Today, we have a new situation where data traffic
is heavily growing in mobile networks and all deployments are going to be driven by data
increase. Also from a standards point of view a data-driven approach has been selected
where future mobile networks are based on the internet protocol (IP) technology and
mobile services are built on top of the ‘data layer’.
The third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) is the main
technology for further mobile networks and it can be said already now that it is the fastest
developing mobile system technology ever. One reason is that LTE first deployments are
for data with dongles and data cards including short message service (SMS) support, but
services like voice will follow later. From a LTE deployment perspective the LTE voice
service can be regarded as just one data application, but with specific requirements for
real-time traffic, quality of service and interoperation with existing voice infrastructure
[circuit switched (CS) core networks]. It is also self-evident that voice remains as a
mandatory service in LTE.
The LTE/evolved packet core (EPC) standards have been designed as mobile technology
based purely on the IP. The LTE/EPC networks will be driven by mobile broadband
services in which the voice and SMS traffic amounts are a smaller portion of the total
traffic amount but still retain their importance for both subscribers and operator business.
From a technology point of view the LTE/EPC network is designed to carry all applications
and it has excellent support for voice service with low latency and high capacity, which
means savings because in the end the operator does not have to maintain parallel networks
for voice and data.
The voice service over LTE is done with an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) as specified
by 3GPP. LTE radio access does not support direct connectivity to CS core and services,
but radio is connected to EPC that provides IP connectivity for the end user services and
interworking towards existing CS networks.

2.1 Common Networks Everywhere

It is fair to assume a long migration from CS voice to a full blown IMS-based voice over
internet protocol (VoIP) and therefore 3GPP has standardised several building blocks

Voice over LTE: VoLTE, First Edition. Miikka Poikselkä, Harri Holma, Jukka Hongisto, Juha Kallio and Antti Toskala.
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
6 Voice over LTE

to enable different roadmaps towards an all-IP network. With these building blocks a
communication service provider can have the right voice introduction based on its own
voice strategy, that is more CS reuse or more IMS-driven.
The LTE is a common technology for 3GPP and 3GPP2 operators and from a voice
deployment strategy point of view it is good to understand the differences between existing
global system for mobile communication (GSM), wideband code division multiple access
(WCDMA) and code division multiple access (CDMA) deployments. Both GSM and
WCDMA technologies provide simultaneous voice and data service, even though GSM
dual transfer mode (DTM) is not as widely used as WCDMA multi radio access bearer
(RAB). The CDMA technology is widely limited to evolution data only (EV-DO) where
simultaneous voice and data is not possible.

2.2 GSM/WCDMA View

The expected deployment strategy for existing GSM/WCDMA communication service
providers is to start with circuit switched fallback (CSFB) and gradually move towards
IMS-based VoIP deployments. Notice that either of the interim all-IP steps can be omitted
in this evolution. When LTE radio network is introduced the main steps to provide voice
service are as follows:

1. CSFB as a first voice solution for LTE subscribers.

2. IMS-based VoIP with single radio voice call continuity (SR-VCC) prior countrywide
LTE coverage exists. SR-VCC enables handover from IMS-based VoIP to CS speech
when user equipment (UE) is running out of VoIP coverage, and reverse SR-VCC
enables handover from CS speech to IMS-based VoIP.
3. IMS-based VoIP where all the calls are made over packet switched networks (all-IP).

In addition to the steps listed above there can also be mixed environments where some
voice services use CSFB but others use IMS-based VoIP. For example IMS-based VoIP
for a communication service provider’s own subscribers and CSFB for inbound roamers.1

2.3 CDMA View

The starting point for an existing CDMA operator is that the voice service is offered over
a CS network. When introducing LTE radio network the potential steps to provide voice
service are as follows:

1. Simultaneous voice and long term evolution (SV-LTE) or simultaneous voice and data
only (SV-DO) where dual radio terminal offers simultaneous LTE/evolved high rate
packet data (eHRPD) data and CDMA 1×voice. This allows simultaneous voice and
data service use for CDMA users.
2. CSFB is also an option for some CDMA operators, but is not necessary needed if
mobiles offer SV-LTE.
3. Eventual target IMS controlled voice over all-IP network where all the calls are made
over packet switched networks, either on the LTE only or on the LTE and eHRPD.
1The CSFB will be used as the initial voice roaming solution because IMS based VoIP roaming is still being
finalised in GSMA and 3GPP at the time of writing.
VoLTE Deployment Strategies 7

Single radio voice call continuity is also standardised from LTE to single carrier radio
transmission technology (1×RTT) but there exists the same limitation as on CSFB, that
is a simultaneous data and voice service cannot be offered after UE is moved to 1×RTT
during a voice call. In general, it can be said that both CSFB and SR-VCC are possible
but they require such investment to legacy CDMA technology that the operators’ interest
seems to be rather full LTE coverage as soon as possible with IMS based VoIP. The
intermediate phase will passed mostly with SV-LTE terminals, and CSFB will be used
only by some operators.