Schachne said that the peering agreement with Aicent had been in the offing for “quite some time” and that the willingness of operators to now implement LTE roaming was a major “decision point” to establishing an agreement.
For the agreement, both providers will roll out and maintain separate privately managed IP cloud, serving to connect communications service providers. IPX traffic between the two clouds will be established through three interconnection points, allowing the respective communities to interact.
According to Schachne, other IPX providers will establish similar peering agreements in the coming months and years: “The whole aim of IPX is to provide connectivity and global reach to any service provider establishing some means to leverage IP for its valued services.” He continued: “There is a need to interconnect the various IPX networks and make sure by connecting any of those major players, you can establish connectivity with the entire set of operators and communication service providers.”
LTE is considered to be a major driver behind IPX adoption for operators. A Questex survey of 353 global operators found a clear correlation between the number of operators planning to deploy IPX within the next one to three years at 41% and those who believe IPX will become essential for operating 4G networks in the same time frame at 45%.
