iness to also be used for real-time services opportunities Emerging IP technologies such as MPLS & DiffServ look promising Network and technological evolution Figure 5.24 Business objectives and considerations for the core network High capacity in backbone networks (up to hundreds of Gbit/s). Efficient forwarding of IP packets (MPLS). Cost benefits in equipment. Savings in operations cost and transmission cost. The critical question is when is IP ready to provide carrier class quality for voice and other real-time services. Figure 5.25 gives an indication. 5.14 THE ACCESS NETWORK AND THE SERVICE PLAN For a more in-depth study of access techniques refer to Chapter 13. The access network is the main contributor to capital expenditure. As an average more than 50 % of all network investments are related to the access part. It is, however, also a Services Time to IP telephony Curve Figure 5.25 Opinion of 50 operators regarding IP maturity for real-time services door from the subscriber to the core network and the possible services and applications, or, in another view, a door from the network operator to the 'money', the paying subscriber. The size of the door corresponds to the maximum bandwidth of the services. A larger bandwidth implies an increased income potential. However, there is no linearity between bandwidth and revenue. It is also a matter of quality. High-quality narrow band services such as telephony continue to be a main income source for tele-centric operators. Some ideas of the connection of services to systems is shown in Figure 5.26. Service continuity Telephony UMTS UTRAN circuit switched Circuit switched bearers Conversational bearers Web browsing UMTS UTRAN GPRS / EDGE packet switched Interactive / background Interactive / background bearers (with several time bearers slots in BSS) Streaming video UMTS UTRAN GPRS / EDGE packet switched Streaming QoS bearers Streaming bearers (with several time slots in BSS) Figure 5.26 Example of matching services and networks Understanding Changing Telecommunicat