Rapid changes in the wireless network, such as the deployment of LTE, present significant opportunities and challenges to mobile operators and service providers. These changes are driven both by the proliferation of smart phones with bandwidth-hungry multimedia applications and by the adoption of these technologies from a growing subscriber base. These applications depend on a high user quality of experience (QoE) which operators must maintain and improve to gain competitive differentiation.

Since legacy TDM back haul infrastructure cannot scale to meet demand, the industry has embraced the migration to an all IP/Ethernet network for scalability and cost effectiveness. This next-generation architecture requires new technologies that support carrier-grade performance on a packet-switched network (PSN).