Understanding Wi-Fi Calling

Mobile service providers offer services where you can make voice calls or send and receive text messages from their mobile phones using a Wi-Fi network, without changing the mobile number.

Built-in software applications on smart phones provide seamless authentication of the device when on the Wi-Fi network with the mobile carrier network. When Wi-Fi calling is enabled by the mobile carrier, an IPsec tunnel is established between the phone and the mobile network through which calls are routed.

Due to increasing use of Wi-Fi for device connections, Wi-Fi Calling is seeing high demand by many service providers worldwide, which allows them to differentiate their Wi-Fi access. Though the end-user device and Mobile Packet Core communicate directly over encrypted tunnels, it is important for the Wi-Fi network to detect and prioritize this type of traffic for an optimal application experience.

Wi-Fi calling supports Wi-Fi calling traffic recognition and prioritization above other network traffic, with visibility for Wi-Fi calling statistics for the network operator.

In this section:

  1. Analyzing Wi-Fi Calling Statistics
    Wi-Fi calls are tunneled to the carrier’s Evolved Packet Data Gateway (EPDG), which eliminates dropped calls when switching from Wi-Fi to LTE and vice versa. Multiple carriers’ EPDGs can be supported on a single WLAN. Wi-Fi Calling coexists seamlessly with RUCKUS CBRS (Citizens Band Radio Service) APs.
  2. Creating a Wi-Fi Calling Profile
    You can classify the voice packets in a Wi-Fi call based on the carrier by creating a Wi-Fi calling profile.
  3. Configuring Wi-Fi Calling in a WLAN
    Use the configuration option to create the Wi-Fi policies.
Parent topic: Traffic Policies, Firewall and QoS