Picture this: you are chatting to a friend on the phone when you see the car of your dreams. Rather than just describing the car to them, imagine you have the option of sending a photo of the car, or even live video, while still speaking to them. All this and more is possible with the introduction of new multimedia capabilities to mobile networks.
Operators stand to gain new revenue streams and achieve cost efficiencies through the introduction of IMS as it will introduce not only a range of new services to their networks, but also a more structured network architecture, built primarily around IP (internet protocol). Furthermore, the open application environment, which is also part of IMS, allows operators and application developers alike to rapidly deploy new services.
The IP multimedia subsystem standard defines a generic architecture for offering voice over IP (VoIP) and multimedia services. IMS-based services enable person-to-person and person-to-content communications in a variety of modes - including voice, text, pictures and video, or any combination of these - in a highly personalised and controlled way.
Ericsson's vision for IMS is a world full of compelling, interactive, content-rich services delivered in a standardised, well-structured way that truly makes the most of layered architecture. At the same time, it provides a future-proof architecture that simplifies and speeds up the service creation and provisioning process, while enabling legacy interworking.
Why IMS?
As subscriber penetration rates approach - or pass - saturation point, operators need ways to expand the range and capabilities of the services they offer in order to protect and build revenues.
One way to support service expansion is to evolve the packet-switched infrastructure that enables the creation and delivery of new person-to-person multimedia services. This must be done in a way that protects the operator business model and generates new revenue.
A key way to attract and retain subscribers is to offer differentiated service offerings in areas like personalisation, service bundling and co-branding with other content or brand partners, and establishing strong business-to-business relationships with enterprise customers.
IMS allows operators to offer new richer services that are:
- Interactive combinational services that allow users to communicate via multiple medias;
- Convenient and easy to use;
- Always available to the user;
- Highly secure with no risk of intrusion.
Is there a market for IMS?
People have a basic need to communicate, and new ways to facilitate enhanced communication such as IMS are continuously being developed. Over the last ten years, instant messaging (IM) on the internet and short message services (SMS) have reached enormous popularity - showing that people want to stay in touch constantly and they want to have the freedom of mobility while communicating.
In 2004, Ericsson conducted a comprehensive survey of nearly 2000 random metropolitan dwelling respondents across all states within Australia. The study was set up to understand what Australians are seeking in IT and telecommunications technologies in the future.
The survey highlighted the real interest for IMS-based services, which allow people to communicate interactively, such as Ericsson's weShare solution that enables users to instantly and interactively share information such as image, motion and web content with the person they are talking to, while talking.
Ericsson's instant talk (commonly known as push to talk) was another mobile service that received interest. Instant talk enables users to instantly communicate over mobile networks in a similar manner as two-way radios. It offers quick one-to-one and group communication with very short connection set-up time.
What is evident is there's no one killer application that could be solely deployed and gain instant success. A successful strategy centres on diversification of services, allowing users to adapt new technologies to their lifestyle. Operators that offer a rich assortment of intuitive services, positioned to the right target markets over an extended timeframe, will be the most successful at driving traffic and revenue growth.
What do users want?
User and enterprise needs will drive multimedia service evolution for both mobile and fixed operators. Users expect to be able to do more with their communications services, for less money, and are showing an interest in services beyond voice. They are attracted by services that offer them access to a wide range of communications information and entertainment services in a user-friendly, cost-effective way. Users also want to be always best connected, ie, they want access to the services wherever, whenever and however they want.
Some of the key user needs include:
- Rich user experience: users are now used to accessing information, entertainment and other content-rich services through a variety of channels, such as any combination of voice, video, picture and messages.
- Safe communication: IP-based multimedia communications services must be safe for people to use - free from viruses or other malicious attacks - whether through their mobile or fixed terminals. Users will also want reassurance that others cannot gain unauthorised access to their personal services and information.
- Convenience and ease of use: any new service has to be natural and intuitive to use if it is to be a mass-market success. Users will expect new services to offer a seamless experience across multiple access technologies, devices and locations.
Standards
Experience shows that creating and expanding mass market requires standards-based solutions that enable interoperability in several dimensions. Terminal-to-terminal interoperability is essential to create convenience and clarity in users' expectations of person-to-person communications services. At the same time, interoperability between operators is necessary to give users the freedom to roam between different networks.
Ericsson is one of the leaders in driving standardisation. IMS is now an international, recognised standard, first specified by the third-generation partnership project (3GPP/3GPP2) and now being embraced by other standards bodies including ETSI/TISPAN.
The standard supports multiple access types - including GSM, WCDMA, CDMA2000, Wireline broadband access and WLAN.
Regulatory and standardisation bodies are working to ensure that IP-based communications meet the needs of the various members of the global community. Some of the specific issues being addressed include: number planning, number portability, reliability and voice quality, emergency services, inter-carrier compensation, data protection and lawful intercept.
Horizontal integration
One of the key benefits of IMS is the fact that it delivers true horizontal integration brought into networks. As a result, new applications can be developed far quicker than otherwise possible since common elements can be reused. Such common elements include billing, authentication, presence and provisioning.
Terminals
An essential ingredient in the success of IMS lies with the terminals and how the services are set up. Convenience and ease of use is essential; the service has to be intuitive to use and pre-configured for it to achieve mass-market appeal. The services should be ready to use as soon as the users walk out of the shop, without the need for salespeople to help with configuration.
Pricing and how the different IMS services are packaged are also of utmost importance.
Enabling rapid introduction of new services
Until now, each new mobile service or application has had to be delivered by a single logical node, or set of nodes, performing each of the specialised features for the service. The only possible way to interface between services - for example, for service composition - has been through protocols. In the absence of any common service framework, each service has had to be designed and implemented from scratch. Furthermore, the complexity of developing such new services, and performing the necessary integration into an operator's network, has made it difficult (if not impossible) for operators to provide third parties with a means of deploying new applications through their networks.
With the introduction of the IMS architecture, many common network functions are made accessible, allowing their reuse for fast service creation and delivery. IMS services are hosted by application servers, which means they are implicitly placed in the IMS application layer, and that various aspects of service control are defined. For example, IMS defines how service requests are routed, which protocols are supported, how charging is performed and how service composition is enabled.
As a result, one of the most exciting things about IMS is the opportunity it brings for new applications and services. In addition to the core applications and services which will be deployed by vendors such as Ericsson (Push to talk, weShare, presence, etc), also on offer will be complete application development and test deployment environments as part of IMS, allowing both operators and third parties to rapidly deploy new applications and services.
Application development and deployment process
IMS software development tools will typically be designed with a process flow in mind. In the case of the Ericsson development environment, included are pre-developed service templates and code wizards, network emulators, customisable client emulators, tracing and test tools along with a full execution environment for development and verification. Each application can initially be developed and tested using the tools and emulators.
Following this, an application developer can then do a test deployment of their application over a real IMS enhanced network using the full execution environment as the application server. While this environment is limited in capacity, it is functionally equivalent to the live network, thereby providing an ideal means of performing a final test on a new application or service before deployment on a live application server.
Conclusion
IMS paves the way for delivering a richer end-user service experience while providing operators with a clear path towards a layered architecture. As this layered architecture is based on IP, many of these new services will be delivered over the more cost-efficient packet network rather than the traditional circuit switched core.
This not only enables a more cost-efficient deployment of new services but also creates an environment where new applications can be developed far quicker than otherwise possible since common elements can be reused.
With the deployment of IMS we can expect to see some exciting developments in the area of enhanced communication, with a growing number of innovative applications available to the end-user.
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Aaron Maher is a Market Development Manager for Ericsson Australia. Throughout his life, Aaron has shown a predisposition towards entrepreneurial activities in the fields of science and engineering. In 1996, Aaron started studying a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Swinburne University, and later joined Holden Australia, working as a test engineer responsible for testing electronic and HVAC systems at Holden's proving ground. By the end of 2001, Aaron had finished his second degree in Business Management and had won the Prestigious Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship's 'Venture Cup Award' for business excellence, developing a business plan focused on the aquaculture industry. In early 2002, Aaron joined Ericsson Australia's Melbourne-based operations, positioned in the Network Design department, responsible for the delivery of Australia's first 3G network. In April 2004, Aaron moved into Ericsson's Marketing unit. Aaron has also completed a postgraduate certificate in Business Administration at the Australian Graduate School of Management. |
