The Cisco Systems Development Unit (SDU) is pleased to announce availability of the first release of the Unified MPLS for Mobile Transport System (UMMT) – bringing industry leading developments in the scale and operational simplicity of MPLS to the highly competitive RAN backhaul market. The UMMT design utilizes platforms optimized for mobile services, in a system architecture customized to the mobile opportunity. The UMMT system solves the scale challenges inherent in extending MPLS to cell sites, while at the same time simplifying the operational aspects of managing such an MPLS network.
Why UMMT and Why Now?
Operators are making huge infrastructure investments now to support the 4G/LTE technology transition for mobile networks. This transition brings with it substantially greater throughput capabilities, with requirements for transport virtualization to maximize return on investment by supporting multiple services. Packet transport is universally accepted as the solution to build 4G/LTE networks, with MPLS as the technology of choice to support virtualization and legacy protocol transport when required. To enjoy the benefits of MPLS in 4G/LTE networks, new scale requirements, operational simplicity and management capabilities need to be added to traditional IP/MPLS to make deployments feasible. UMMT meets these new requirements with industry leading technology and cost optimized platforms.
What is UMMT 1.0?
UMMT combines new developments in MPLS technology, like Loop Free Alternates and Hierarchical Label Switch Paths with optimized platforms like the ASR901 and ME3800X into an architecture that supports the throughput, availability, QoS and synchronization requirements of 4G/LTE networks.
UMMT System Target
UMMT is designed for customers with significant interest in deploying MPLS in the Access to scale MPLS networks for Mobile backhaul, facilitating deployment of 3G/4G/LTE mobile infrastructures. The UMMT design is applicable to both greenfield deployments as well as to operators with existing TDM- and ATM-based infrastructures, providing a flexible design capable of simultaneously transporting all generations of mobile services on a single network infrastructure.
UMMT System Details
UMMT 1.0 is the first in a phased roadmap of the system. As these releases become available, updates will be posted to the SP Mobility community. Subsequent releases will include support for new partners NSN and NEC providing microwave integration, and new technologies such as ATM/TDM pseudowires on ASR platforms.
Architectural Role | Hardware | Software Revision |
Core Node | CRS-3 | XR 4.1.1 |
Pre-Aggregation Node | ME 3800X | IOS-15.1(2)EY1 |
Aggregation Node | ASR9000 | XR 4.1.1 |
Cell Site Gateway Node | MWR2941 ASR-901 | IOS-15.1(1)MR IOS-15.1(2)SNG |
Please note that a newer version of UMMT has been released. Details on this release may be found here: SDU Unified MPLS for Mobile Transport (UMMT) 2.0 Available NOW, and the updated Design Guide may be found at the following link: https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-29526. This document describes in detail the design methodology behind the UMMT system, functional considerations of the design, and the system validation performed on the design, including platform configurations used in the validation.
For more information on the SDU UMMT System, please email ngcsb-info@cisco.com.
