Making IMS More Resilient and Reliable Today
by Adam Stein on 11 February 2008 - 04:22:48 PM
For the last few years, the IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) architecture
has been heavily discussed by leading service providers and their suppliers but
not rapidly implemented due to fragile interoperability and untested
specifications. Both barriers, expected
during initial development, appear to be quickly falling as the technology with
more production deployments. This week
at CableLabs, Mu is working with its MSO
clients to help speed IMS deployment of advanced IP services.
Another solid point of IMS engagement occurs regularly at
the IMS Forum’s Plugfest at UNH
IOL. Many IMS ecosystem members participate
to ensure both product interoperability and testing of availability/resiliency
before deployment in production Carrier networks. The IMS Forum and
Mu also just published a new paper describing the importance of IMS
Availability and Resiliency testing prior to product deployment – including the
proactive elimination of product weaknesses and 0day issues. Interoperability was the IMS Forum’s starting
point but always-available IMS-based
services are essential to carrier profitability and vendor success.
Similarly, mobile
operators in the US and Europe at this week’s Mobile World Congress Conference
including Verizon and AT&T are moving beyond specs and noticing the revenue
implications of advanced IMS applications and mobility services. In the United States, AT&T is gearing
up their IMS-based applications.
AT&T is rolling out VoIP over IMS through its U-verse
(SM) VoIP offering.
Nokia last week rallied a group of key
IMS-interested operators, infrastructure and device vendors comprised
of Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, TeliaSonera, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens
Networks, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung, towards IMS services calling them “rich
communication” applications. Naming
doesn’t matter much since both carriers and their vendors realize the revenue
opportunity associated with their respective IMS ecosystems and the maturing
IMS standards. This holds true for
extending traditional GSM standards over IP as defined by the 3GPP group and in
enhancing existing services (voice, now over IP as well as GSM) for ultimately
offering new services, to drive real-time application usage and associated
revenue.
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