Deploying a middleware architecture for next generation mobile systems

Although 2G systems quite adequately cater for voice communications, today demand is for high-speed access to data centric applications and multimedia. Future networks have been designed to provide higher rates for data transmission, but this will be complemented by higher speed access to services via hotspots using secondary wireless interfaces such as Bluetooth or WLAN. With a wide range of applications that may be developed, a growing number of short range wireless interfaces that may be deployed, and with mobile terminals of different capabilities, a means to integrate all these variables in order to facilitate provision of services is desirable. This paper describes an architecture involving the use of middleware that makes software development independent of the specific wireless platfor

Interoperability and portability of cloud service enablers in a PaaS environment

Nowadays, the competition in the telecommunications market is exciting and new entities with value-added services have emerged over the core network of Telecommunications operators (Telcos). These new participants have taken out the operators’ relevance since they are entirely agnostic from infrastructure service connectivity. Therefore Telcos, like Portugal Telecom Inovação (PTIN), need to focus on the provision of services to a user’s point of view to not become just a dumb-pipe between the consumers and Cloud service providers. This paper proposes a definition of a distributed architecture that allows developers to create and expose services through a Service Delivery Platform (SDP). The benefit of such Cloud-enabled SDP architecture is the portability of service enablers between Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) providers through a standardized API. Service developers may thus select the more suitable PaaS offering in order to build on-top applications, based on the performance required by a service. An example of applications which can take advantage from more versatile Cloud platforms, is the delivery of mobile context-aware services that react to both environment and user conditions selecting the right type of content (e.g. photos, videos, etc.) to deliver.(undefined

Container ecosystem based PaaS solution for Telco Cloud Analysis and Proposal

Telco over Cloud, Network Function Virtualization andSoftware Defined Networking are changing thetelecommunications industry landscape, morespecifically in the Telco Service Providers networkinfrastructure and systems, by introducing cloudcomputing, virtualization paradigms and softwareapproaches which are already in use and mature intraditional IT environments.This paper introduces the current telco cloud landscapeand latest developments. It subsequently proposes acontainer based telco app orchestration mechanism.The shift of the telco cloud landscape towardscontainers is imperative as the traditional VM basedNFV and SDN solutions are running into scalabilityand performance problems and have an impact ondelivery speed and efficient resource utilization.In the solution we have derived in our lab uses a clustercontainer orchestration mechanism using ApacheMesos. A custom framework is developed to handle theTelco specific (NFV) capabilities on top of thetraditional containers. This novel approach will helptelcos to provision tons of containers in a span of shortduration adhering to the QoS Requirements of theindustry

Semi-automated creation of converged iTV services: From macromedia director simulations to services ready for broadcast

While sound and video may capture viewers’ attention, interaction can captivate them. This has not been available prior to the advent of Digital Television. In fact, what lies at the heart of the Digital Television revolution is this new type of interactive content, offered in the form of interactive Television (iTV) services. On top of that, the new world of converged networks has created a demand for a new type of converged services on a range of mobile terminals (Tablet PCs, PDAs and mobile phones). This paper aims at presenting a new approach to service creation that allows for the semi-automatic translation of simulations and rapid prototypes created in the accessible desktop multimedia authoring package Macromedia Director into services ready for broadcast. This is achieved by a series of tools that de-skill and speed-up the process of creating digital TV user interfaces (UI) and applications for mobile terminals. The benefits of rapid prototyping are essential for the production of these new types of services, and are therefore discussed in the first section of this paper. In the following sections, an overview of the operation of content, service, creation and management sub-systems is presented, which illustrates why these tools compose an important and integral part of a system responsible of creating, delivering and managing converged broadcast and telecommunications services. The next section examines a number of metadata languages candidates for describing the iTV services user interface and the schema language adopted in this project. A detailed description of the operation of the two tools is provided to offer an insight of how they can be used to de-skill and speed-up the process of creating digital TV user interfaces and applications for mobile terminals. Finally, representative broadcast oriented and telecommunication oriented converged service components are also introduced, demonstrating how these tools have been used to generate different types of services

Charging in IP multimedia networks

ArticleIMS charging can be performed at various planes of the IMS architecture. Different charging schemes may be utilized. The optimal charging scheme would be service dependent, but may also be influenced by user expectations. The 3GPP has standardized charging mechanisms, protocols and interfaces for IMS charging control; online and offline charging have been standardized. However, the design and development of charging systems is operator dependent. This paper presents an IMS charging prototype developed and implemented in C, in line with Open IMS research. The testbed supports flow level, subsystem level and content level charging for IPTV and VoIP. The testbed supports online and offline charging; it has been tested with the UCT IMS client and the Fokus Open IMS system. Testbed proof of concept and performance results are presented.IMS charging can be performed at various planes of the IMS architecture. Different charging schemes may be utilized. The optimal charging scheme would be service dependent, but may also be influenced by user expectations. The 3GPP has standardized charging mechanisms, protocols and interfaces for IMS charging control; online and offline charging have been standardized. However, the design and development of charging systems is operator dependent. This paper presents an IMS charging prototype developed and implemented in C, in line with Open IMS research. The testbed supports flow level, subsystem level and content level charging for IPTV and VoIP. The testbed supports online and offline charging; it has been tested with the UCT IMS client and the Fokus Open IMS system. Testbed proof of concept and performance results are presented

Linking session based services with transport plane resources in IP multimedia subsystems.

The massive success and proliferation of Internet technologies has forced network operators to recognise the benefits of an IP-based communications framework. The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) has been proposed as a candidate technology to provide a non-disruptive strategy in the move to all-IP and to facilitate the true convergence of data and real-time multimedia services. Despite the obvious advantages of creating a controlled environment for deploying IP services, and hence increasing the value of the telco bundle, there are several challenges that face IMS deployment. The most critical is that posed by the widespread proliferation ofWeb 2.0 services. This environment is not seen as robust enough to be used by network operators for revenue generating services. However IMS operators will need to justify charging for services that are typically available free of charge in the Internet space. Reliability and guaranteed transport of multimedia services by the efficient management of resources will be critical to differentiate IMS services. This thesis investigates resource management within the IMS framework. The standardisation of NGN/IMS resource management frameworks has been fragmented, resulting in weak functional and interface specifications. To facilitate more coherent, focused research and address interoperability concerns that could hamper deployment, a Common Policy and Charging Control (PCC) architecture is presented that defines a set of generic terms and functional elements. A review of related literature and standardisation reveals severe shortcomings regarding vertical and horizontal coordination of resources in the IMS framework. The deployment of new services should not require QoS standardisation or network upgrade, though in the current architecture advanced multimedia services are not catered for. It has been found that end-to-end QoS mechanisms in the Common PCC framework are elementary. To address these challenges and assist network operators when formulating their iii NGN strategies, this thesis proposes an application driven policy control architecture that incorporates end-user and service requirements into the QoS negotiation procedure. This architecture facilitates full interaction between service control and resource control planes, and between application developers and the policies that govern resource control. Furthermore, a novel, session based end-to-end policy control architecture is proposed to support inter-domain coordination across IMS domains. This architecture uses SIP inherent routing information to discover the routes traversed by the signalling and the associated routes traversed by the media. This mechanism effectively allows applications to issue resource requests from their home domain and enable end-to-end QoS connectivity across all traversed transport segments. Standard interfaces are used and transport plane overhaul is not necessary for this functionality. The Common PCC, application driven and session based end-to-end architectures are implemented in a standards compliant and entirely open source practical testbed. This demonstrates proof of concept and provides a platform for performance evaluations. It has been found that while there is a cost in delay and traffic overhead when implementing the complete architecture, this cost falls within established criteria and will have an acceptable effect on end-user experience. The open nature of the practical testbed ensures that all evaluations are fully reproducible and provides a convenient point of departure for future work. While it is important to leave room for flexibility and vendor innovation, it is critical that the harmonisation of NGN/IMS resource management frameworks takes place and that the architectures proposed in this thesis be further developed and integrated into the single set of specifications. The alternative is general interoperability issues that could render end-to-end QoS provisioning for advanced multimedia services almost impossible

A framework to provide charging for third party composite services

Includes synopsis.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-87).Over the past few years the trend in the telecommunications industry has been geared towards offering new and innovative services to end users. A decade ago network operators were content with offering simple services such as voice and text messaging. However, they began to notice that these services were generating lower revenues even while the number of subscribers increased. This was a direct result of the market saturation and network operators were forced to rapidly deploy services with minimum capital investment and while maximising revenue from service usage by end users. Network operators can achieve this by exposing the network to external content and service providers. They would create interfaces that would allow these 3rd party service and content providers to offer their applications and services to users. Composing and bundling of these services will essentially create new services for the user and achieve rapid deployment of enhanced services. The concept of offering a wide range of services that are coordinated in such a way that they deliver a unique experience has sparked interest and numerous research on Service Delivery Platforms (SDP). SDP‟s will enable network operators to be able to develop and offer a wide-variety service set. Given this interest on SDP standardisation bodies such as International Telecommunications Union – Telecommunications (ITU-T), Telecoms and Internet converged Servicers and Protocols for Advanced Networks) (TISPAN), 3rd Generations Partnership Project (3GPP) and Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) are leading efforts into standardising functions and protocols to enhance service delivery by network operators. Obtaining revenue from these services requires effective accounting of service usage and requires mechanisms for billing and charging of these services. The IP Multimedia subsystem(IMS) is a Next Generation Network (NGN) architecture that provides a platform for which multimedia services can be developed and deployed by network operators. The IMS provides network operators, both fixed or mobile, with a control layer that allows them to offer services that will enable them to remain key role players within the industry. Achieving this in an environment where the network operator interacts directly with the 3rd party service providers may become complicated