Solutions Comparison towards Voice Services Implementation for Operators Starting LTE Deployment

Abstract

The continuity of voice services, for many operators planning to start their LTE network, is one of the key requirements to cover back the cost of this expensive network. In this paper, we discuss and compare the possible solutions to add voice services on an LTE network dedicated mainly for high-speed data transfer. By comparing advantages and inconvenient of the existing approaches, we conclude that the selection of the One Voice approach is obvious, especially for operators starting LTE deployments, the One Voice approach has the support of all the famous operators and vendors. Selecting the One Voice approach as a first alternative was evident, but the choice of CSFB as a mid-term solution or backup solution from many operators was not clear. As a key lesson can be learned from the existing technologies, CDMA and GSM, where the type of handset was one of the major factors of the GSM success; we prove in this paper that VOLGA approach is better than CSFB for many reasons: The VOLGA approach uses less complex and less expensive handset while it gives more comfortable user experience compared to CSFB approach, so operators should take into consideration these two points before selecting the second alternative.