Capacity Expansion and Modernization of Core Network Elements Running on ATCA Platform

Abstract

Actual telecommunications research topics are focusing on cloud-based Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). Less attention is given to the capacity expansion and optimization of existing Physical Network Functions. However, operators try to maximize their return of earlier investments too, even when they started to deploy cloud-based VNFs already. In the migration path of core network elements from vendor specific hardware to cloud, the ATCA (Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture) hardware can be considered as an intermediate step. ATCA is not a proprietary or vendor specific hardware, it is often referred as ‘commercial off-the-shelf’ platform. This paper reviews modernization, expansion, and upgrade possibilities for existing ATCA deployments that increase capacity and support easier migration to cloud later. In the presented network examples - as a case study - Telecommunication Application Server deployments are analyzed.