Today, Digicel, a digital operator, announced that it has successfully implemented the BroadForward Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) in its network. The BroadForward Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) has now replaced outdated DRA systems, following the earlier substitution of IP Transfer Point (ITP) systems with the BroadForward Signaling Transfer Point (STP) across 26 of Digicel’s markets in the Caribbean and Central America. Within Digicel’s core network, the BroadForward Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) facilitates smart routing and interworking of Diameter signaling traffic across network nodes from various vendors.
Digicel offers mobile communications, media and entertainment, business solutions, along with digital services to both consumers and business clients in 25 markets throughout the Caribbean and Central America.
The DRA is deployed on BroadForward’s converged signaling architecture, which has received accolades from the GSMA. This versatile signaling architecture has significantly enabled Digicel to substitute SS7 and Diameter-based network functions using a more integrated approach. The solution is engineered to support core network functionalities for 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G, including interworking, routing, security, and number portability. As a result, each implemented product comes with built-in support for protocols like Diameter, SIP, SS7, RADIUS, ENUM, and HTTP/2.
According to GSMA Intelligence in 2022, “Mobile connectivity in the Caribbean is a growth industry with 28 million unique mobile subscribers, a market penetration of 63.7 percent”, while “a large number of users are still relying on legacy mobile technologies [such as 2G and 3G]”.
Miguel Calvo Vervaet, Group Director, International Business and Wholesale at Digicel, commented: “Next to 4G, which remains the dominant broadband cellular network technology in the Caribbean, we continue to support 2G and 3G. It is a great benefit to have both the BroadForward STP and DRA running on the same multi-technology software architecture, which allows for ongoing, innovative development and modern deployment. This enables us to continue to adapt to the technology changes, such as 5G, quickly and without prohibitive costs.”
BroadForward CEO, Taco Schoute added: “More and more mobile operators are looking for ways to replace 2G, 3G and 4G network functions with our solution, which unlike most legacy products, offers continued development and a path to the future, and includes support for 5G. The BroadForward converged signaling architecture which runs our STP and DRA, as well as 5G functions such as SEPP and SCP, gives our customers exactly that certainty of a future-proof investment.”
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