Continuous Computing Develops Application-Ready LTE EPC Systems

Continuous Computing has incorporated Trillium FastPath protocol software into its pre-integrated, application-ready system solutions for Long Term Evolution (LTE) Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network elements.


Leveraging the 6WINDGate software suite from 6WIND, Trillium FastPath enables key protocols such as Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) and GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) to move into the native execution environment on Continuous Computing's ATCA-PP50 packet processing blade. The company said it is able to achieve performance gains of up to 3X over generic implementations for next generation mobile cores.


The Third Generations Partnership Project's (3GPP) choice of SCTP as the IP-transport layer for all signaling in the LTE EPC has created a significant strain on SCTP processing that was not anticipated when the protocol was first defined. In addition, the focus on small cell wireless deployments has also increased the sheer number of SCTP connections that need to be managed by the EPC. While the built-in reliability mechanisms of SCTP are attractive for providing carrier-grade networks, they create substantial overhead and thus generic SCTP implementations are unable to scale sufficiently to meet the massive core networking requirements of the EPC.


Similarly, 3GPP has identified GTP as the primary bearer plane protocol in the EPC. Since each LTE eNodeB could provide more than seven times the current throughput of today's 3G base stations, the EPC will be expected to handle a much larger amount of data traffic than legacy mobile networks. Coupled with the fact that both voice and data are expected to traverse the core and that consumer appetite for data remains insatiable, the EPC must be built to support massive data plane scalability. Trillium FastPath SCTP and GTP are designed to meet these demands whereas standard implementations fall short.


Trillium FastPath software complements the company's extensive selection of Trillium LTE protocols, including S1AP, X2AP, Diameter and more. All Trillium LTE protocol stacks are optimized for multi-core / multi-threaded processing architectures and each stack includes a reference application for the relevant LTE network interfaces including LTE-Uu, S1, S6, S7, S10 and X2.
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