New devices and the proliferation of more-personalized and sophisticated digital services will lead to a massive increase in LTE Diameter signaling traffic, according to the recently published “Oracle Communications LTE Diameter Signaling Index, Fourth Edition.”
Oracle forecasts that LTE Diameter signaling traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 68 percent in the next five years, from 30 million messages per second (MPS) in 2014 to 395 million MPS by 2019.
Some highlights of the study:
Applications
- LTE Broadcast is the fastest-growing generator of Diameter signaling traffic, creating 49.5 million MPS by 2019 at a CAGR of 75 percent. The technology is just emerging, and continued growth is expected as CSPs trial LTE Broadcast for everything from digital signage to live video feeds at sporting events
- Policy continues to drive the majority of Diameter signaling traffic, creating 277 million MPS. With more-sophisticated policy use cases, the number of Diameter transactions between policy enforcement points and charging has increased
- Mobility will generate 25.3 million MPS by 2019. It is currently not a major factor in overall Diameter signaling traffic generation, because it creates a low number of transactions in the Diameter network
- Voice over LTE (VoLTE) will generate 43.1 million MPS at a CAGR of 49 percent by 2019
Geographical Regions
- Latin America and the Caribbean showed the fastest growth and will account for 15.4 million MPS by 2019—a CAGR of 118 percent
- The Middle East and Africa region is the second-lowest generator of Diameter signaling traffic, creating a combined 29.8 million MPS—but it is the second-fastest–growing region with a CAGR of 103 percent
- The Asia Pacific region will become the largest generator of Diameter signaling traffic in the world by 2019, with 188 million MPS and a CAGR of 78 percent. The region also leads the world in VoLTE signaling, generating 19.9 million MPS at a CAGR of 55 percent
- North America is beginning to mature in Diameter signaling traffic. Generating 82.9 million MPS by 2019, signaling growth in this region has slowed to a CAGR of 42 percent
- Europe is the third-largest generator of Diameter signaling traffic, contributing 78.7 million MPS to global Diameter signaling traffic
“LTE innovation is still in the early stages, but it is gaining momentum,” said Doug Suriano, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Communications. “And we’re looking beyond today’s LTE—NFV is developing, creating a very attractive cloud-based LTE opportunity. The time for CSPs to plan for Diameter signaling growth is now.”