In other news from last week's Mobile World Congress, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) announced its Flexi Network Server and the Flexi Network Gateway designed to enhance operators' high-quality multimedia services using an ATCA platform. Following on the heels of its Mobile Forecast for 2008-2012, Cisco announced mobility product enhancements. And Ericsson announced software upgrades to existing products and introduced a new Converged Packet Gateway (CPG).

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) launched two new products that will make up the key elements of its solution for Long Term Evolution (LTE), allowing operators to modernize their core data network to support a wide variety of access types using a common core network. The Flexi Network Server and the Flexi Network Gateway are designed to increase efficiency “to a comprehensive range of voice, data, high-quality and real-time multimedia services” using the same ATCA base platform,” according to the company. The products will be available for early field deployment in the second half of 2009.

Cisco announced enhancements to its Mobile Transport over Packet (MToP) solution, aimed at establishing more effective collaboration services, expanding its mobile collaboration portfolio offering for smartphones. Mobile users will be able to participate in WebEx Meeting Center Web and audio conferencing via 3G or Wi-Fi using standard conferencing features like viewing presentations, applications and desktops. The Cisco news followed an earlier release when the company disclosed the results of the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Mobile Forecast for 2008-2013. Among the research findings: mobile IP traffic is expected to increase 66 fold from 2008-2013, reflecting the transition to a 4G mobile Internet.

Ericsson announced software upgrades to its existing Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) to address converged broadband, a segment not addressed by other packet core vendors. The new Converged Packet Gateway (CPG), is built on the “award-winning SmartEdge platform and provides high-quality broadband services for both fixed and mobile traffic in the core network, according to the company’s statement.

Our observations: It seems a common carrier core that common user applications across fixed and mobile networks are becoming more (in a word): common. While enterprises have found premise-based solutions for converged fixed and mobile infrastructure, it is good to see the same evolution finally becoming available for carriers.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.