Today we see this with IMS. While many are promoting the IMS as a simple call
control architecture easily implemented at the edge of the network, the 3rd Generation
Partnership Project (3GPP) has defined a much more robust approach.
There are many who believe the IMS is all about services. Yet others believe it is all
about control. In reality, it is a little bit about both, but the primary purpose of the IMS
infrastructure is to provide session control at the core of the network while enabling
other support needed to provide those services, regardless of media type.
IMS Concepts
When people talk about IMS services, they talk about multimedia sessions consisting
of video, audio, and voice. They talk about mixing all of these media types in a single
session, and, of course, being able to use these services while roaming the network. This
is absolutely true, and is what makes the IMS different from the telecommunications
networks of today.
Today??™s networks support voice, but other media must be supported through network
overlays. The operations support systems (OSSs) and the back office support systems
(BSSs) needed to provide billing, mediation, provisioning, diagnostics, and all of the
other support mechanisms needed are piecemeal today, consisting of many different
disparate systems rather than one architecture supporting all media types.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36