There is no element in my life more important than my
family. Over the years we have learned how to make the most out of our time together,
while still remaining dedicated to writing. Thank you to my beautiful wife for her
patience, and to my children Nichole, Laura, and Travis for their understanding and
encouragement.
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Introduction
Not since the Intelligent Network (IN) and Signaling System #7 (SS7) has there been
as much change to the telecommunications networks of the world as we are seeing
played out now by the 3GPP and 3GPP2 communities. Much of this change comes from
lessons learned, rather than a need for new technology. And as we have seen played
out many times before, this radical change relies on existing technologies with a new
implementation.
As the wireless world began moving away from traditional network architectures reliant
on older time division multiplex (TDM) facilities and into an all-IP infrastructure,
it became apparent that there would be many challenges. The most significant of these
challenges is supporting the many different functions required in a wireless network
to support capabilities such as roaming.
It is not the simple function of roaming itself that presents the challenge. It is the
challenge of making sure a subscriber using your network is authorized to use wireless
services, has an active account with a partner network, and is authorized to use the
services that subscriber is requesting.
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