Performance in IMS

Monitoring and Innovative
improving
performance
inStudent:
IMS networks
Communications
Alexandros Fragkopoulos
Technologies &
Group Number: 12GR890
Entrepreneurship
8
t h
Semester
Supervisors:
Rasmus Hjorth Nielsen

Neeli R. Prasad
Abstract
During the last decades the development and improvement of
telecommunications is massive. If one considers how long ago the
telephone was a privilege that only a few possessed, then one can see the
big onward steps technology has made. In this rapid rhythm of
technological advances, people demanded to be connected more and
more time until they reached the point that they want anywhere and
anytime full access into the digital world. It either serves their needs for
work or entertainment. Looking in this direction, research has been made
the last years on the development of efficient usage of the internet
services via smartphones or any other portable device and through any
type of network. An important issue that has to be solved and clarified is
how does someone utilize same services through all these different
technologies (old and new, complex and simple, wired and wireless
oriented)? And if one manages to do that, then who is benefited from that?
All these questions bring more and more issues on the surface. In an effort
to address all these issues the IMS framework has been created. Although
it is relatively still new as a framework, numerous benefits have been
discovered through research for this network. IMS networks help to
interconnect devices through different technologies and still provide the
same quality and number of services. In this way users are satisfied by the
operators and operators find the opportunity to setup a unified charging
policy (through the IMS network) that will help them increase their profits.
This project though, is being focused on the performance of these
networks from the point of improving them but also defining what are the
most important KPIs that depict weaknesses in performance issues.
Concerning the part of improvement, some ideas from two papers are
being presented and an approach of them is being implemented. In the
end of this project some results from simulations are derived and
discussed. Last but not least is a small reference to the future technologies
such LTE and LTE-A.
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Table of Contents
Abstract....................................................................................................... 1
List of Figures.............................................................................................. 3
List of Tables................................................................................................ 3
List of Abbreviations.................................................................................... 3
Chapter 1 Introduction..............................................................................5
Chapter 2 - IMS............................................................................................ 7
2.1 Why IMS?............................................................................................ 7
2.2 3GPP: Requirements and Standards...................................................7
2.3 IMS Architecture................................................................................. 9
2.4 Entities inside an IMS.......................................................................10
Chapter 3 Analysis..................................................................................15
3.1 State of the art................................................................................. 15
3.2 Performance in IMS services.............................................................16
3.3 KPIs for the IMS network..................................................................17
3.3.1 Accessibility KPIs........................................................................17
3.3.2 Retainability and Utilization KPIs................................................19
Chapter 4 Design.................................................................................... 20
4.1 First use case................................................................................... 20
4.2 Second use case...............................................................................21
4.3 Improving performance in IMS networks..........................................22
Chapter 5 Implementation......................................................................23
5.1 Description of the algorithm.............................................................23
5.2 Figures and Results..........................................................................25
5.3 Results Analysis...............................................................................28
Chapter 6 Conclusions............................................................................ 30
6.1 Future Vision in Communication Technologies..................................30
Bibliography.............................................................................................. 31
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List of Figures
Figure
Figure
Figure
Figure
Figure
Figure
Figure
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
- Layered Architecture of the IMS [2].............................................9

Successful IMS Voice Session Establishment [1].......................13
Plots from First Case Scenario...................................................25
- Plots from Second Case Scenario..............................................26
- Plots from Third Case Scenario..................................................27
- Plots from Fourth Case Scenario................................................28
- Ranking of the Best Case Scenario............................................29
List of Tables
Table 1 Acquisition of data from the simulations....................................28
List of Abbreviations
PSTN
IP
DSL
3G
4G
IMS
3GPP
VoIP
QoS
QoE
GPRS
LAN
WCDMA
WLAN
WiMAX
OFDM
Public Switched Telephone Network

Internet Protocol
Digital Subscriber Line
3rd Generation
4th Generation
IP Multimedia Subsystem
3rd Generation Partnership Project
Voice over IP
Quality of Service
Quality of Experience
General Packet Radio Service
Local Area Network
Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
Wireless Local Area Network
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex
Flash-OFDM
LTE
CSCF
HSS
P-CSCF
I-CSCF
S-CSCF
E-CSCF
Fast Low-latency Access with Seamless Handoff OFDM

Long Term Evolution
Call Session Control Function
Home Subscriber Server
Proxy- Call Session Control Function
Interrogating- Call Session Control Function
Serving- Call Session Control Function
Emergency-Call Session Control Function
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AS
SIP
SLF
MGCF
BGCF
DL
UL
SISO
MIMO
CS
CSN
NACF
IP-CAN
UE
UA
CLF
CN
RAN
Application Server
Session Initiation Protocol
Subscriber Location Function
Media Gateway Control Function
Breakout Gateway Control Function
Download
Upload
Single Input Single Output
Multiple Input, Multiple Output
Circuit Switched
Circuit Switched Network
Network Attachment Control Function
IP Connectivity Access Network
User Equipment
User Agent
Connectivity Session Location and Repository Function
Core Network
Radio Access Network
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Chapter 1 Introduction
Telecommunications is a very valuable and indispensable part of peoples
lives. In every aspect of everyday life there is an increasing need to
communicate with people that are far from someone. This need started in
the ancient times for different reasons and purposes than nowadays. Since
then it developed and today weve reached to a point that
telecommunications is a very important part of our work, lives and also
free time activities. Since telecommunications is so important in various
different levels, there has being great effort to combine different types of
telecommunications.
In
reality
combining
different
types
of
telecommunications is much more complicated than it looks like. There are
old (PSTN) and new (IP networks) technologies that have to be combined.
Another factor should also be met and that is the combination of wired
(DSL) and wireless networks (3g/4g). An effort in combining all these
networks, technologies, mediums etc. under one architecture is called IMS
(IP Multimedia Subsystem) networks. In the evolving world of
telecommunications the need for creating converged networks has
prevailed and the IMS networks pointing to this direction. Although they
already operate in many places of the world many things still remain
unsolved.
This project will give an insight on how IMS networks function, which are
their features but also which are their advantages and disadvantages in
combining different technologies. Furthermore, there will be an analysis on
how does someone monitor performance on these networks and which are
the challenges. Significant key factor in performance of the networks is
security but this project will not get into security issues.
Motivation
IMS networks seem to be the next big thing in the market of
telecommunications from the point of combining different technologies
and exchange content between them, making our communication
experience richer and the technologies interoperable. Since IMS are in the
center of attention, industry is pushing through R&D (research and
development) for improvement of these networks and defining some
aspects of them that are not yet so well defined, such as performance or
security. By allowing this act as an incentive, this project focuses on
matters of performance. Performance is quite important in general but
specifically in IMS networks, performance is really important since it needs
to:
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1. Be
well
defined.
Which
are
the
performance
characteristics that affect an IMS network and why.
2. How could one improve the performance on a framework
that uses different technologies?
By monitoring and better understanding of the ideas behind performance
and control, one would be able to set the best parameters or make the
most optimum alterations in order to have the best possible results, and
thus efficiency in a network that has IMS functionality. Thus, this project is
trying to address some issues in two entities of the IMS networks, the
Proxy-CSCF and the Server-CSCF. There is still space for improvement
there and by investigating some alternatives on how the user could get
connected in these two entities; one could derive useful information
concerning the general improvement of the IMS.
Problem Formulation
Performance in IMS networks is of vital importance as the wireless
networks and services becoming more demanding and QoS needs to be
increased. The idea is that in this project there will be a description of the
main KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and then there will be an effort to
determine how some changes in the parameters of the IMS or some extra
attention in the aforementioned entities could increase their efficiency and
performance. This will be done by the introduction of different cases for
the same problem and then there will be a discussion on which approach
fitted better and why.
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Chapter 2 - IMS
In this chapter there will be an analytical description of what is an IMS
through investigation of why do we need it , which are its requirements
and how does its entities function. There will also be examples of how the
services are provided to the end users in certain cases.
2.1 Why IMS?

Cellular systems have been around for a couple of decades. Circuit
switched networks have made a big impact and still do in cellular
systems with the use of voice service. It is, until today, the most popular
and reliable deployment for cellular networks. In the cellular networks
there is an effort to bring all services together under one roof. In order to
accomplish that, cellular systems have been using for some years now, IP
in fixed parts of the network, whereas as air interface not that much. Since
two to three years there has been a great effort to try and include real
time services over the air and use IP also there until the end user and not
only in the radio access and core network. Introduction of real-time
services in cellular systems is linked with VoIP (Voice over IP) technology.
So, the near-future vision is to have packet switched networks and end to
end IP usage regardless if it is fixed or mobile systems. Migration from the
current network is quite difficult but it can be phased and cut down into
parts.
Packet switched networks are deployed to cover the need for a more
interactive form of communication via any type of device and between any
technology. It is possible through them to exchange voice, data, video and
messaging and in that way communication is also enriched. In order to
enable simultaneous usage of circuit switched networks together with
packet switched networks and to have an equivalent quality of packet
switched networks as with circuit switched an architecture is being
specified by 3GPP and is called IMS (IP Multimedia Services). IMS includes
this functionality to enable these different types of networks to co-exist.
In IP multimedia services there are some parts of the protocol stack that
can be reused such as the addressing and routing, whereas other, like
parts from the application logic, differ in order for the service to be unique.
Thus, there is a common base in IMS networks and services are
interoperable with others [1].
2.2 3GPP: Requirements and Standards
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In order for the IMS to be able to cover a wide spectrum of technologies it

should contain some requirements that an IP multimedia application
should fulfill. By being standardized it functions as a starting point for a
common basis for manufactures, operators and vendors. These
requirements are mentioned below:
Potential for QoS negotiation during a session but also at the

beginning of it.
End-to-end voice quality the same or greater than circuit switched
telephony services.
Support of roaming and negotiation for QoS and service capabilities
between service operators.
Reassurance of interoperability with default media types between
all the services. But also support for other media types.
Possibility to have several IP multimedia applications within each IP
multimedia session.
Same level of privacy, security and authentication protection with
GPRS and circuit switched services.
Access independence support. So the users could be able to
connect through different technologies (such as: GPRS, fixed lines,
LAN, WCDMA (3G))
Potential to support applications that have been developed outside
3GPP community.
All of the above requirements bring a unified structure for all different
applications and benefit users, vendors and operators in different ways
each of them.
Users benefit from rich multimedia applications and rich services

provided in within. They are also benefit from the high level security
and integrity while inserting their personal data. And last but not
least, users benefit also from the possibility of using one device and
passing from one technology to the other and still being able to use
their services seamlessly but also being able to use their services
through different terminals.
Operators benefits from common authentication and authorization
mechanisms, service control and fraud management, charging
mechanisms but also legacy telephony interworking. One last thing
that an operator benefits from is that IMS helps to improve
efficiency by providing information concerning radio bearer
establishment process and services. And indeed this improves the
efficiency for the operator as it aids to wisely select a radio
bearer and make use of header compression as a performance
booster.
Vendors benefit from the introduction of one technology platform for
various services because it works as an incentive in improving
infrastructure and terminal devices [1].
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2.3 IMS Architecture

IMS basically consists of three layers and in these layers there is
communication for two different reasons: signaling and data. Some
components exchange only signaling but others data and signaling.
Figure 1 - Layered Architecture of the IMS [2]
This happens because only at the lowest level/layer of bit exchange,

there is the need to exchange data between users. The aforementioned
layers are the following (from bottom to top):
1. Media/transport
layer
2. Control/Signaling layer
3. Service/Application
layer
Each layer aids in a specific way so that a communication process
between different technologies and architectures could be achieved
successfully.
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The media/transport layer includes different types of access

technologies such as WLAN, 3G, xDSL, GPRS, WiMax, Flash-OFDM
and LTE, that users can access in order to be interconnected to the
network. In this layer except signaling there is also data exchange,
as mentioned above.
The Control/Signaling layer includes the most important
components of IMS which are all the **CF (Control Functions) and
the HSS (Home Subscriber Server). The CSCF (Control Session
Control Function) are the following: Proxy-CSCF, Interrogating-CSCF ,
Serving-CSCF and Emergency-CSCF. The Control functions will be
explained later. In this layer the SIP signals are being processed and
routed to the desired destination.
The Service/Application layer includes various AS (Application
Servers) that host and execute a wide range of services through the
IMS architecture [2].
2.4 Entities inside an IMS

In this section there will be an insight to the entities of the IMS and a
description of their usability. There will also be a reference to SIP and
DIAMETER protocols, as they are the most important protocols in this
architectural framework. And since SIP is the messenger inside most
entities of the IMS, it will be described before any entity.
SIP in IMS
SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is the most important signaling protocol of
the IMS. SIP is used for arranging sessions and establishes them but also
manages and controls them. Basically, in the Control and Signaling layers
are the places where this protocol is mostly used. The SIP protocol is
based in requests and acknowledgements or rejections. These messages
are sent in the form of a number and a word summarizes the function of
the message. These numbers are three digits long and the first digit gives
information about the type of the message. Below are presented the six
different types of messages:
1xx: Provisional Messages
2xx: Successful answers
3xx: Redirection Answers
4xx: Method Failures
5xx: Server Failures
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6xx: Global Failures [3]

All these messages are being exchanged between the entities in an IMS.
The complete process on how does SIP exactly functions will be explained
in detail below.
CSCF
Call/Session Control Functions are components that make use of SIP
signaling and help in various cases such as establishment, monitoring
and controlling sessions and are consisted of P-CSCF, I-CSCF, S-CSCF, ECSCF. Generally, CSCF is responsible for the following matters:
Keep track of session status

Querying HSS for authentication information concerning users
Establishment and allocation of the resources and routing of the
information through the correct nodes for a successful connection
A more detailed description of the components of the CSCF is presented

below [4].
P-CSCF
The Proxy-CSCF is the component that makes the direct communication
with the user. Any IMS requests from the user are routed to a P-CSCF node,
through a RAN (Radio Access Network) or a WLAN or in general any other
type of network and from the P-CSCF node to an S-CSCF node. P-CSCF
features are SIP compression (SigComp (Signaling Compression)),
interaction with PCRF and establishment a mutual authenticated
communication with the user with the help of IPsec [5]. SigComp is used
because if the available bandwidth is low, then the establishment of the
connection will take a long time to be completed. In order to avoid that, a
compression method is used [1].
I-CSCF
The Interrogating-CSCF is responsible for querying the HSS to assign an SCSCF node to the user that have communicated with the P-CSCF, and by
querying the HSS, then the HSS assigns an S-CSCF to the user/subscriber.
The I-CSCF together with P-CSCF were also enrolled to hide the rest of the
IMS network from the users and making a hiding topology but that
happened until the 7th release of 3GPP. Thereafter, these two elements
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stopped having this function and became part of the IBCF (Interconnection
Border Control Function) [5], [6].
S-CSCF
The responsibilities of the Serving-CSCF are about: maintaining sessions,
decisions on how to route data, storage of service profiles and handling for
the SIP registrations coming from the subscriber. The S-CSCF checks in the
HSS whether the user is authenticated to perform a certain registration for
a certain service. After the HSSs approval, the S-CSCF continues to
monitor the registration [5]. Another important process that is used by the
S-CSCF in order to provide routing services and support the connectivity
with older technologies such as PSTN or ISDN is ENUM (E.164 Number
Mapping). ENUM is used to interconnect the telephone number based
systems (such as PSTN) to the URIs based system (such as SIP protocol).
This function is managed by ENUM with the translation of telephone
numbers into URIs. E in ENUM stands for E.164 ITU-T standard for
international numbering where all globally-reachable telephone numbers
are registered and organized [7].
E-CSCF
The Emergency-CSCF is a newer component in the control functions and is
responsible for controlling the request of an emergency call. The
subscriber is calling an emergency number and the SIP request is being
directed directly to the E-CSCF through the SGSN (Serving GPRS Support
Node). Information concerning the users location is also important and
that is the responsibility of HSS and GMLC (Gateway Mobile Location
Center) collaborating to locate the SGSN and send the information to the
E-CSCF and then to determine which is the closest PSAP (Public Safety
Answering Point) [8].
MGCF & BGCF

In order to connect to a circuit switched network through the IMS platform,
all the SIP messages from the Control Functions should be altered to
comply with the signaling protocols in this type of network. Because of
that, there are two functions that implement the translation, BGCF
(Breakout Gateway Control Function) and MGCF (Media Gateway Control
Function).
In order for the messages to be translated MGCF uses a H.248-based Mn
interface. With the aid of this interface, the RTP (Real Time Protocol)-based
data/media, are translated in the media format which is acceptable by the
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circuit switched network. The interwork with the circuit switched network
is accomplished by the use, from both sides, of a circuit switched signaling
over IP.
Finally, the control function of the BGCF is actually choosing which MGCF
will handle the session, whether it is in the same domain or in a different
one, where, in the latter case, it directs the SIP request to the desired
BGCF [1].
HSS & SLF databases

HSS and SLF are the databases used in IMS. HSS is the database that
includes all the subscribers data such as: identities, access parameters,
service-enabling information and registration information. The SLF
(Subscriber Location Function) on the other hand is the responsible
database that gives information to the I-CSCF and S-CSCF for which HSS
has the information of a specific user, even in case there is more than one
public user identities. All these information that are being sent from and
to, HSS and SLF, make use of the DIAMETER protocol, which is a
networking protocol for AAA (Authentication Authorization Accounting) [9].
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SIPs Functionality
In Figure 2 it is presented how SIP signaling will function in order to
establish a session.
Figure 2 Successful IMS Voice Session Establishment [1]
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Initially, there is a SIP Invite request to the P-CSCF entity. This entity sends
the request to the S-CSCF that the HSS assigned the user to. Then, the
request is being forwarded to the I-CSCF where this entity queries HSS for
information about the other S-CSCF. The query is sent to the HSS with the
aid of DIAMETER protocol. After a successful reply from the HSS, the ICSCF connects with the other S-CSCF that makes an evaluation of the
users filters and controls whether it needs an AS invocation or not.
Afterwards, the request is being forwarded to the user through the P-CSCF
that is assigned for it. After the process is completed and before the
establishment of the session, a provisional response is sent and at that
time both terminals try to reserve resource from their access network. In
this way there is an effort to reassure QoS during the initiation of the
session. After the QoS is achieved the terminal starts ringing and the
session is established. The example shown above describes a successful
establishment of a Voice session scenario between two terminals through
the IMS network [1].
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Chapter 3 Analysis
In this chapter there will be a reference to state of the art work which is
happening in the field of IMS. There will also be a detailed explanation of
all important KPIs that play an important role in improving IMS networks
and how to estimate the improvement accurately.
3.1 State of the art

In the area of the IMS, and specifically their performance, various papers
have been published. These papers focus on different aspects and from
different angles of the performance indicators of an IMS network. Some
papers focus specifically in the internal performance of the IMS (e.g. the
cooperation between the CSCF entities) and some others to the
collaboration of an IMS network with RANs that utilize it.
In [10] the case was that they observed several RANs and compared them
under the same basis. By plotting some important time parameters for
sessions, they gave an idea about faster and slower combinations of
different RANs. According to their paper, they investigated four different
times in sessions: signaling request time, signaling reply time, signaling
release time and total session setup and release time. By doing these
computations, they came to the conclusion that when the end users use
GSM network to connect to each other, they have the highest delays in all
four measurements. On the other hand, users that use WLAN from both
sides have the least delays in all four categories. So, according to this
paper, the best performance in heterogeneous access networks is the
WLAN-IMS-WLAN connection. As a conclusion it is stated that various
factors affect these times such as: which technology ones uses, different
access nodes, capacity of the IMS core network and available bandwidth of
RANs.
Another paper [5] goes more into detail by comparing the performance of
the IMS networks to the performance of the SIP based networks. Under the
same workload both networks have been tested on messaging delays and
session initiation delays. As messaging procedure, it is stated the delivery
of the message and the acknowledgement for its successful delivery. As
the session initiation procedure, it is determined the time from the first
INVITE message until the acknowledgement from the called party. There
were three workloads: 200,400 and 600scenarios/sec. The aim was to
observe in which network the time needed to either initiate a session or
send a message, was higher. Some results from this paper project that
both networks performed quite well but the SIP based network was faster
in both cases and under all workloads. The users that were exchanging
these messages or initiating these calls had different statuses and they
could be registered or not - available or executing some other scenario.
The selection of their statuses was based on a Poisson distribution. One
last thing that it is included in these results is the addition of a probability
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that 50%, 90%, 95% or 99% of the service was handled smoothly. So one
could see where the time was increased and under which circumstances
(what amount of workload).
The last work that is presented here is entirely based on internal
performance of the IMS core network. According to [11] there have been
several tests regarding different issues in an IMS core network. The first
test determined some performance factors by increasing the number of
simultaneous calls/sec. It was observed that as long the server could
handle the routing of more calls everything were steadily increasing. The
number of calls/sec was increasing and the processor load was increasing
too; until the point that the number of simultaneous calls/sec reached to
the value of 150 and the server rebooted due to overloading. Throughout
the test, the memory utilization didnt exceed 65%. The second test was
more focused into security and robustness matters by sending malformed
INVITE requests. The messages were sent either to the UA (User Agent) or
the SIP proxy server. These messages were containing exceptional
elements; that is, data that could arise undesired behavior to the receiving
point as the device or process could crash, or needed to be rebooted
manually or consume a considerable amount of memory and/or CPU for a
fair or infinite amount of time. If one of the above actions takes place, the
test fails. The third and last test that was introduced in this paper
evaluated the behavior and the response of the system when sending SIP
requests. The test cases that were used are introduced in the ETSI TS 102
027-2 V4.1.1. The test cases included messaging, call control and querying
capabilities series. The conclusions that were drawn showed that all three
tests passed successfully. The first one determined the maximum amount
of simultaneous routable calls and it could be used to benchmark the
capacity of different vendors. The second one passed the test, as there
was no failure to the devices or the services due to malformed messages.
The third test finished also successfully and the responses were correct
according to the RFC 3161 standard.
3.2 Performance in IMS services

Performance is an important factor concerning the efficiency of an entity.
When there were only circuit switched networks, measuring performance
was easy. For voice services the performance was measured as the
highest amount of satisfied users that the system could support.
Nowadays, cellular systems support also VoIP technology via IMS
connectivity. In VoIP, things are not that clear, as to how one evaluates a
performance of a network that is based not only in voice services but also
in video and other components. A point of such an inquiry is the
interaction between different forms of multimedia, such as audio and
video [1].
Service Performance Requirements
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Services have some characteristics in order to be evaluated concerning

their performance. Some of them are: service availability, retainability and
quality. A circuit switched network has a minimum downtime of 0.0001%
and some similar standards for speech quality and mouth-to-ear delay.
VoIP standards are not as high as in the circuit switched networks.
Users perceive two characteristics as far as concerning performance
through VoIP telephony. The first characteristic that affects users
experience is individually every form of multimedia. For example, for
video sessions, the codec that is used has a large impact on the quality
and performance of the service and for voice sessions the speech quality
has more aspects, such as: sampling rate, frame loss etc. On the other
hand, the quality of the services, individually, is not enough because of
the potential end-to-end delay of the media. So the second characteristic
is the combination of them, for a high quality end-to-end experience [1].
3.3 KPIs for the IMS network

According to 3GPP and its latest update TS 32.454 V11.0.0 (2011-12) on
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the IMS networks, they are divided to
three major categories and these include, the Accessibility KPIs from
network and user perspective, the Retainability KPIs from network
perspective as well as the Utilization KPIs from network perspective [12].
3.3.1 Accessibility KPIs

The accessibility KPIs are divided into various subcategories for a better
understanding and defining of the performance of the IMS networks, both
from user and network perspective. The KPIs for the accessibility of the
IMS network are listed and presented below.
Initial Registration Success rate of the Serving-CSCF

Session Setup mean Time
Session Establishment Success Rate
Third Party Registration Success Rate
Re-registration Success Rate for the S-CSCF
Session Setup mean Time (regarding the messages originate
from an IMS)
from a CSN)
Immediate Messaging Success Rate
Session Establishment Network Success Rate [12]
Initial Registration Success rate of the Serving-CSCF:

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This KPI evaluates the success rate concerning the number of successful
registrations to the S-CSCF over the number of attempted registrations.
This evaluation aids to control the accessibility of the network [12].
Session Setup mean Time

This KPI acquires the mean setup time for a session. It is very important to
know if the setup times are low or high, both from users perspective and
satisfaction but also from network transaction performance [12].
Session Establishment Success Rate

This KPI evaluates the session establishment success rate by giving two
results from two fractions representing two different perspectives. One
from the originating side and one from the terminating side of the session
establishment. These two fractions are the successful session
establishments over the attempted session establishments. This KPI
differentiates between session successes from the originating and the
terminating side, in order to have the real number of success rate. It also
includes users behavior as no attribute is excluded [12].
Third Party Registration Success Rate

This KPI calculates a very vital feature of the IMS networks and that is the
success rate regarding registration to third parties. That is the information
provided by the S-CSCF to the AS (Application Servers) as to whether a
user is registered or not. The KPI is calculated by the successful 3 rd party
registrations over the attempted ones [12].
Re-registration Success Rate for the S-CSCF

In this KPI it is investigated whether the success rate of re-registration is
high or not. This is calculated by the success re-registrations over the
attempted ones. The re-registration is useful for some reasons; it can
either aid to inform the network of a change into the registration status or
just refresh the existing status or to inform the network about a change in
the capabilities of the UE or possibly to inform for a change in the IP-CAN
(IP- Connectivity Access Network) [12].
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from an IMS and CS)
Another KPI is the mean time regarding Sessions Setup from the IMS CN
(Core Network) and the mean time regarding the Sessions Setup from the
CS point of view. In both cases the results are helpful to IMS and to other
network operators as they can control whether the performance issues
originating from the IMS endpoint or the CS side [12].
Immediate Messaging Success Rate

In immediate messaging service the content could vary as there could be
any type of multimedia. The success rate affects users experience and is
expected to be high. It is calculated by the number of successful
immediate messaging procedures over the attempted immediate
messaging procedures [12].
Session Establishment Network Success Rate

This KPI gives the performance of the IMS based on the successful session
establishments together with the number of failed session establishments
due to users behavior over the number of attempted session
establishments. This KPI gives an insight to the actual success rate of the
sessions that have been established and therefore a more accurate
evaluation of the performance of the network, concerning this aspect. In
this KPI there is again a different calculation for the originating and the
terminating side of the session establishments [12].
3.3.2 Retainability and Utilization KPIs

The KPIs above are responsible for addressing problems or malfunctions in
the network or just evaluation of the normal behavior by controlling
accessibility to the network. But there are also other forms of performance
matters that can come up. Below the last two KPIs will be discussed,
concerning retainability of a session and utilization of an IMS network. So
these aspects are:
Call Drop Rate of IMS Sessions

Mean Session Utilization [12]
Call Drop Rate of IMS Sessions
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This KPI helps for the evaluation of the retainability of the sessions. In
order to calculate this rate, the fraction would be the amount of dropped
sessions over the number of successful ones. This is also an important key
indicator but doesnt give a lot of insight as to where could be the
problem. It indicates performance matters that could be caused by the IMS
network or the user side [12].
Mean Session Utilization
This KPI tries to address the utilization of the network by calculating the
mean number of simultaneously online and answered sessions over the
capacity of the network. This indicator reflects the relation between the
size of the network and the utilization of it. So, in case this number is low,
this gives an indicator that the network is utilized up to a good level [12].
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Chapter 4 Design
All the KPIs in the chapter above test the performance of the IMS
networks from different aspects and from different technologies that
cooperate with the IMS networks. In this chapter the project will move one
step further and provide an insight to what exactly is happening when the
network reaches its limitations. From that point and after, its entities
become unstable and the whole system cant provide services until it
reboots or until it overcomes the overload of the processor. There will also
be an analysis on how the sessions are directed into the IMS when
balancing a load of calls and what is happening while trying to establish
the nearest P-CSCF in a network. Both cases mentioned will be
represented by two scenarios.
4.1 First use case

In the case that there is an increased amount of sessions that needed to
be setup, then the entire load is being directed from the P-CSCFs to the SCSCFs by having the I-CSCFs choose via HSS information which S-CSCF
will make this setup for its session.
Root cause of the Problem

The large number of sessions is not a problem for an adequate number of
S-CSCFs. Though, if the amount of traffic is not well balanced then
problems might occur as one of the Serving nodes will be overloaded with
requests or established sessions and will cause a restart to it. As a result
all the sessions of data, video or audio will be lost and the performance of
the network will drop significantly. So, S-CSCF is playing an important role
in the good performance of the whole IMS architecture.
Solution
As stated in [13] I-CSCF is responsible for assigning the users to an S-CSCF
but the control for an overloaded S-CSCF comes afterwards. That means
that a I-CSCF directs a user to the S-CSCF and if the S-CSCF node become
overloaded then the I-CSCF starts de-register users from there and
registers them to another S-CSCF node. The problem that derives from this
action is low performance and a possibility that the user will be assigned
again at the same S-CSCF node as it will not seem to be overloaded after a
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number of de-registrations. So, in [13] there is a proposal that supports

the use of a load balancing method and that this function should be
handled by I-CSCF before even registering the user to a S-CSCF. This
method does not add any new entities or any significant message
signaling overhead. The change is that the selection of the S-CSCF is done
basically in the I-CSCF by knowing beforehand which S-CSCF has available
capacity
to
support
more
load.
This is done by SIP specific event notifications which will be sent from the
S-CSCF to the I-CSCF and inform every time about the load level of the
entity. The criteria that should be fulfilled are that the S-CSCF has free
capacity to serve the user and that it has the required capabilities to do it.
They propose that the notification messages are sent only every time
there is a change in the load of the S-CSCF and the content of these
messages will be only the identifier of the S-CSCF and the value that
indicates the amount of load in it. That message has the size of 512bytes.
In this way the I-CSCF knows every moment which S-CSCF has available
slots to accept a new user for registration. In the case that all available SCSCFs are full, a 5xx SIP message is sent, informs that the server has
failed.
Having an improved load balancing system provides a positive effect in
nearly all KPIs which are stated in the TS 32.454 V11.0.0 (2011-12). These
KPIs concern the Accessibility, Retainability and Utilization of the IMS
network. Generally, if one improves how load is balanced in the S-CSCF
entity then all the mean times are decreased and reliability and durability
of the whole architecture is improved.
4.2 Second use case

In the current case there is the need for a UE to register, the first step is
the connection of the UE to a P-CSCF from which the UE will enter the IMS
network.
Root cause of the Problem

Although this scenario does not imply any fail of the system or some entity
individually, it presents the need of a new approach to get connected
more intelligently and smoothly to a P-CSCF.
Solution
In [14] they propose a model based on two individual things. Initially, the
idea is that every P-CSCF will be characterized by two factors: firstly a
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geographical location (coordinates) and secondly four pointers stating

where the P-CSCF is located by having NE, SE, SW, and NW as signs. Then,
this idea will be used by a near neighbor range search in two dimensional
quad tree, algorithm and the UE will get connected to the correct P-CSCF
regarding its geographical location. This paper is more focused on the
condition that the UE is moving along visited networks.
The quad tree algorithm is functioning by dividing the two dimensional
space into four quadrants with the initial point and then subdividing into
four sub-quadrants every time there is a new point noted. In every
quadrant there is a characterization with NE, SE, SW and NW and it is
helping in keeping a good architecture over the created network. This
algorithm proved to be useful because by stating which node (with the aid
of coordinates) and which quadrant, it actually gives the right information
about the location of the UE.
CLF hold the quad tree information with all the P-CSCF nodes and the
creation of four quadrants for each P-CSCF node. P-CSCF will provide the
CLF, through e2 interface, with local information. Executing the algorithm
determine which nodes are actually nearest to the UE and then check
which one of these has an available capacity. The information regarding
the active sessions are stored in CLF together with the information on the
relay agent that is used for each session. The information on the relay
agent is sent via the a2 interface from NACF. When the right P-CSCF is
found, then CLF will inform NACF with a Bind Acknowledgment. This
message also contains the identity of the P-CSCF that serves the session.
4.3 Improving performance in IMS networks

Above there was a detailed reference in two improvements about two
different entities of the IMS network. Both ideas contribute in two things
and these are performance and availability.
The first improvement is targeted in the part where all the decisions are
taken and a big part of the intelligence of the IMS network is located and
that is the S-CSCF. Whereas, the second improvement is located in an
entry entity that connects users with the rest of the IMS architecture and
this is the P-CSCF. The combination of them can be applied since there is
no conflict between them. The improvement in the P-CSCF is using a
modified algorithm for discovery of the P-CSCF and some changes in the
way DHCP messages are utilized. The improvement though in the other
scenario adds a small overhead to the signaling between the I-CSCF and SCSCF but the result is a completely balanced load on all S-CSCFs of the
network. So, the cost of change for the network is only some minor
software changes. On the other hand, the benefits one receives by the
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introduction of both changes are much greater, and these are speed,
reliability and higher utilization of the network.
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Chapter 5 Implementation
After having analyzed many different aspects of the IMS networks and
presented two papers that actually propose improvements in two
important entities of the IMS framework, the project will go further in
presenting an implementation inspired by these two proposals mentioned
in the two different use cases in chapter 4. In this chapter the
implementation will be shown and important aspects of it will be
discussed. Results will also be given and compared with different cases.
5.1 Description of the algorithm

For the needs of the implementation an algorithm was made to simulate
the procedure of a user that gets connected to a P-CSCF and then to the SCSCF where a significant part of the intelligence of an IMS network is
located. In order to study some differences between different scenarios,
some parameters of the algorithm were changing so it could be possible to
create four different scenarios and then compare them.
These four scenarios are the following:
1. Random search of an available slot in a P-CSCF node for a
user and then random search of an available slot in an SCSCF node.
2. Search of an available slot in a P-CSCF based on the
minimum possible delay of all the available P-CSCF nodes
and then random search of an S-CSCF.
3. Search of an available slot in a P-CSCF based on the
minimum possible delay of all the available P-CSCF nodes
and then search of an available slot in an S-CSCF based on
the minimum possible delay of all the available S-CSCF
nodes.
4. Random search of an available slot in a P-CSCF for a user
and then search of an available slot in an S-CSCF based on
the minimum possible delay of all the available S-CSCF
nodes.
In order to simulate these scenarios and get a realistic sense in our

results, some things should be taken into consideration in making the
algorithm. So, before this project go any further, a clarification should be
given on what exactly the delay takes into consideration in this work for
both the user and the node side. This delay is a factor that represents:
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1. For users: signal quality, processing time or other factors that

the users position or device is responsible for the delay.
2. For nodes: the nodes distance from the user, the load of the
node or other parameters that affect the nodes processing time
and acknowledgement of the users request.
So, given the aforementioned clarification, the algorithm should have a list
of users that request a connection to IMS services. These users have a
delay from zero to one and it is based on a uniform distribution, meaning
that in the given interval the probability, of any value is the same. The
algorithm is making use also of a delay for the nodes of the P-CSCF and
the S-CSCF based also on a uniform distribution with a value range of zero
to one. In order to give a more realistic sense to the whole program, the
distributions for the delays of the P-CSCF and the S-CSCF nodes are
changing after every iteration, meaning that the nodes have longer or
shorter distance from each user since the users are moving and that
their processing time is varying in time. We also assume that the S-CSCFs
capabilities are adequate for the service that the user wishes to use.
The algorithm functions as introduced in the following steps:
1. The number of users is 500 and the number of available slots is 200
in ten nodes for each entity of twenty free slots each.
2. The user requests a connection with a P-CSCF.
3. Search for a Proxy based on the node with the minimum delay or a
random search (it depends which scenario it is studied)
4. If all the P-CSCF nodes are full then the program retries a few times
in case a node had a free slot but it wasnt found yet (that applies
only to the random search schemes) and then exits.
5. If a P-CSCF node is found for the user then the algorithm proceeds
in finding an S-CSCF.
6. Search for a Server is done based also on the node with the
minimum delay or a random search (it depends which scenario it is
studied)
7. If all the S-CSCF nodes are full then the program retries a few times
in case something was not done correctly and then exits but before
exiting, it erases the user from the P-CSCF connected list.
8. When the maximum number of users that can be connected is
reached the program retries a few times in case a node had a free
slot but it wasnt found yet (that applies only to the random search
schemes) and then exits.
9. As long as this procedure takes place, five plots are showing in
every iteration the following measurements:
a. The amount of users that are connected to a P-CSCF node
and in which node they are connected to (top left position)
b. The total delay of a user to get connected to a P-CSCF and to
an S-CSCF and this users own delay (top middle position).
Above this plot one can also see the current total delay of
each user as he gets connected after each iteration.
c. The amount of users that are connected to a S-CSCF node
and in which node they are connected to (top right position)
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d. A normal distribution which depicts the delay that most users

have in order to get connected until an S-CSCF (bottom left
position). Above this plot one can also see the average total
delay after every iteration.
e. How many users are connected to an S-CSCF and in which
iteration this happens (bottom right position). Above this plot
one can also see the current number of total connected users
after each iteration.
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5.2 Figures and Results

The algorithm produced some plots that will be illustrated in the following
pages. Above each plot there will be a description where one can see
which the scenario is and the measurements that were taken.
First Case
In this scenario (Figure 3) the user is connected with a random selection of
a P-CSCF and a random selection of a S-CSCF.
Figure 3 Plots from First Case Scenario
This algorithm needed 111.3922 seconds to finish its users registration.

Note that the User Delay: 0 shows that there was no user registered in
the last iteration of the program so the variable remained without a value.
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Second Case
In this scenario (Figure 4) the user is connected with a selection based on
the minimum possible delay to a P-CSCF and a random selection of an SCSCF.
Figure 4 - Plots from Second Case Scenario

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Third Case
In this scenario (Figure 5) the user is connected with a selection based on
the minimum possible delay to a P-CSCF and a selection based on the
minimum possible delay to a S-CSCF.
Figure 5 - Plots from Third Case Scenario

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Fourth Case
In this scenario (Figure 6) the user is connected with a random selection of
a P-CSCF and a selection based on the minimum possible delay to a SCSCF.
Figure 6 - Plots from Fourth Case Scenario

5.3 Results Analysis

The following table (Table 1) shows some important measurements
derived from the scenarios presented above.
Table 1 Acquisition of data from the simulations
Users Connected
Elapsed Time
First
Case
195
111.392
2
Second
Case
183
Third
Case
193
Fourth
Case
200
75.7921
70.5785
110.5606
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Average
Time
Connection
1.4659
1.0588
0.6169
1.1107
In most of the cases (except the total number of connected users), the
third case (selection of node with minimum delay in both P-CSCF & S-CSCF
entities) is better. The performance of this approach of an IMS network is
improved by applying the selection of a node based on its minimum delay
in both P-CSCF and S-CSCF.
The following figure (Figure 7) derived from the sum of the normalized
values of the table above and shows clearly which case achieves the best
results.
Total Number for each case

2.5
2
2.03
1.75
1.5
1.49
1.09
1
0.5
0
First Case
Second Case
Third Case
Fourth Case
Figure 7 - Ranking of the Best Case Scenario
As it was stated above, the algorithm in the third case decreased the delay
by 46.22% from the first case where every selection in each entity was
random. The only parameter that the first case had exceeded by the third
was the number of users that assigned during the process but the
difference was only 1.01% more users compared to the third one. The third
case had also an exceptional average time of connection (until an S-CSCF)
for each user (57.91% lower delay from the first case) since the algorithm
was searching in both entities the connection path with the lowest
available delay factor. Even the elapsed time for the algorithm to finish
directing all the users to the available slots, was smaller than all the other
cases. With respect to the first case the third case was faster by 36.64%.
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The overall behavior of the customization in the third case is the optimal
one in respect to the other three cases.
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Chapter 6 Conclusions
Along this report many topics were discussed concerning the IMS
networks. Moreover, two papers were presented and a suggestion that the
combination of them could improve even more the IMS framework, in
terms of performance and reliability, was given. Finally, an approach
inspired from these two papers was introduced and some results derived,
showing that in a system where randomness is narrowed down and
information is exchanged, the system becomes more reliable and faster so
the final user experience and the QoS are increased. The only
disadvantage in order to exchange information that will make the system
more intelligent, flexible and more reliable, is that one has to add
overhead in messages. In the next subchapter there will be a reference to
the LTE and LTE-A networks and what users should expect in the near
future.
6.1 Future Vision in Communication Technologies

IMS is an emerging architectural framework, as the 4G networks will push
things for better QoS and QoE and more demanding services but still there
is way to go. Currently, circuit switched networks are still in use maybe
phasing out but still used by a big part of the market.
LTE Networks
Since the LTE (Long Term Evolution) Networks will be the next big thing in
the area of mobile communications, it is only right to present some of the
key
aspects
of
them.
LTE networks were first started to be developed as an evolution of 3G
mobile system in 2004. Later, in the 8 th release of 3GPP the form was
standardized and in January 2008 it was approved and finalized. Since
then minor changes are made to this. Some of the requirements for LTE
are that for high mobility scenarios, the speeds would vary around
100Mbps in DL and 50Mbps in UL with a 20MHz bandwidth. One other
requirement is that the QoS should be enhanced for end-to-end services
and also that there should be flexibility concerning the spectrum, varying
from 1.25 to 20MHz [15]. The LTE use the OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplex) modulation for the physical layer and for the
transmission MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antennas system, as it
performs a lot better than SISO (Single Input Single Output). Although for
most people LTE is the specification that complies with the name of 4G, in
fact this is not correct. With the improvement of LTE LTE advanced , the
connection is now correct. LTE advanced among other things will support
higher speeds for scenarios of low but also high mobility [9].
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Bibliography
1. Shyam Chakraborty, Tomas Frankkila, Janne Peisa, Per
Synnergren. IMS Multimedia Telephony over Cellular Systems. s.l. : John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2007.
2. Challenges to the Next Generation Services in IP Multimedia Subsystem.
Kai-Di Chang, Chi-Yuan Chen,Jiann-Liang Chen, Han-Chieh Chao. 2,
s.l. : Journal of Information Processing Systems, 2010, Vol. 6. 1976-913X.
3. SIP Messages. Voip Think. [Online] [Cited: April 26, 2012.]
http://www.en.voipforo.com/SIP/SIP_messages.php.
4. Himanshu Pant, Andrew R. McGee, Uma Chandrashekhar,
Steven H. Richman. Optimal Availability and Security for IMS-Based VoIP
Networks. Bell Labs Technical Journal. 2006, Vols. 11(3), 211223.
5. Call and Messaging Performance Comparison Between IMS and SIP
Networks. Jari Kellokoski, Erno Tukia, Eero Wallenius, Timo
Hmlien. Jyvskyl : IEEE, 2010.
6. IMS interworking using IBCF . R. Vargic, Krhla M., Schumann S.,
Kotuliak I. s.l. : Convergence and Hybrid Information Technology, 2008.
ICCIT '08. Third International Conference, 2008, Vols. 2 (89-94).
7. J. Peterson, H. Liu, J. Yu, B. Campbell. IETF Documents. [Online]
June 2004. [Cited: April 26, 2012.] http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3824.
8. Active location reporting for emergency call in UMTS IP multimedia
subsystem. Meng-Hsun Tsai, Yi-Bing Lin, Hsiao-Han Wang. 12 (5837 5843 ), s.l. : Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on, 2009, Vol. 8.
9. Asif, Saad Z. Next Generation Mobile Communications Ecosystem Technology Management for Mobile Communications. s.l. : John Wiley and
Sons, Ltd., 2011. 9780470747469.
10. Performance Analysis of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Signaling in
Heterogenous Access Networks. Shyam S.Wagle, Nikolaos Doulamis,
Minesh Ade, M. Ghazanfar Ullah. 2011 : IEEE.
11. IP-Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Performance Evaluation and
Benchmarking. Wagdy A. Aziz, Salwa H. EL-Ramly, Magdy M.
Ibrahim. Irkutsk Listvyanka : IEEE Region 8 SIBIRCON-2010, 2010.
12. Project, 3rd Generation Partnership. 3GPP TS 32.454 V11.0.0
(2011-12) (11th Release). s.l. : 3rd Generation Partnership Project, 201112.
13. Notification based S-CSCF load Balancing in IMS Networks. Isam
Abdalla, S. Venkatesan. Dallas : IEEE, 2011.
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14. Efficient P-CSCF Discovery through NASS-IMS. Wu, Chen. Shanghai :

Second International Conference on Education Technology and Computer
(ICETC), 2010.
15. Seddik, Karim. LTE and LTE-Advanced:An Introduction. Alexandria
University & Nile University : s.n., 2011.
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Performance in IMS

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Monitoring and Innovative

Rasmus Hjorth Nielsen

- Layered Architecture of the IMS [2].............................................9

Public Switched Telephone Network

Fast Low-latency Access with Seamless Handoff OFDM

2.1 Why IMS?

2.2 3GPP: Requirements and Standards

In order for the IMS to be able to cover a wide spectrum of technologies it

Potential for QoS negotiation during a session but also at the

Users benefit from rich multimedia applications and rich services

2.3 IMS Architecture

Figure 1 - Layered Architecture of the IMS [2]

This happens because only at the lowest level/layer of bit exchange,

The media/transport layer includes different types of access

2.4 Entities inside an IMS

6xx: Global Failures [3]

Keep track of session status

A more detailed description of the components of the CSCF is presented

MGCF & BGCF

HSS & SLF databases

Figure 2 Successful IMS Voice Session Establishment [1]

3.1 State of the art

3.2 Performance in IMS services

Service Performance Requirements

Services have some characteristics in order to be evaluated concerning

3.3 KPIs for the IMS network

3.3.1 Accessibility KPIs

Initial Registration Success rate of the Serving-CSCF

Initial Registration Success rate of the Serving-CSCF:

Session Setup mean Time

Session Establishment Success Rate

Third Party Registration Success Rate

Re-registration Success Rate for the S-CSCF

Session Setup mean Time (regarding the messages originate

Immediate Messaging Success Rate

Session Establishment Network Success Rate

3.3.2 Retainability and Utilization KPIs

Call Drop Rate of IMS Sessions

Call Drop Rate of IMS Sessions

4.1 First use case

Root cause of the Problem

number of de-registrations. So, in [13] there is a proposal that supports

4.2 Second use case

Root cause of the Problem

geographical location (coordinates) and secondly four pointers stating

4.3 Improving performance in IMS networks

5.1 Description of the algorithm

In order to simulate these scenarios and get a realistic sense in our

1. For users: signal quality, processing time or other factors that

d. A normal distribution which depicts the delay that most users

5.2 Figures and Results

Figure 3 Plots from First Case Scenario

This algorithm needed 111.3922 seconds to finish its users registration.

Figure 4 - Plots from Second Case Scenario

This algorithm needed 75.7921 seconds to finish its users registration.

Figure 5 - Plots from Third Case Scenario

This algorithm needed 70.5785 seconds to finish its users registration.

Figure 6 - Plots from Fourth Case Scenario

This algorithm needed 110.5606 seconds to finish its users registration.

5.3 Results Analysis

Total Number for each case

Figure 7 - Ranking of the Best Case Scenario

6.1 Future Vision in Communication Technologies