The truth about IMS

WHERE IMS AND IPTV STANDARDS MEET

A handful of complementary projects making headway this year could give IMS some of the push it needs. On the handset front, the Rich Communications Suite initiative is trailing and could help add telco-friendly features — including IMS stacks — to mobile handsets. The MultiService Forum will be holding its Global MultiService Interoperability event this fall, with IMS playing a key enabling role. Finally, the IMS Forum keeps chugging along; as core interoperability issues become less pressing, the forum is focusing increasingly on enabling technologies such as billing/charging and on application enablers, including a new service delivery platform program to be launched this fall.

In the end, the saving grace for IMS may be that as much as carriers are slow to deploy expensive new technologies without a solid business case, they are even more loath to deploy something they'll need to replace before its time.

“Carriers' don't want to implement anything new that's not standards-based,” said Nigel Upton, general manager of business support system products for HP, “ because they know they'll have to rip it out tomorrow.”

The ATIS 0800002 specification, IPTV Architecture, was published in 2006. ATIS recognizes the next-generation network architecture published in the ITU-T's Functional Requirements and Architecture of the NGN to support multiple access, distributed control, service independence, open control, and converged and fixed/mobile converged architectures.

The ITU-T IPTV Focus Group published its IPTV specifications on Dec. 18, 2007. They were consolidated into an ITU-T IPTV FG Proceedings document this spring to provide three specific architectural models for IPTV based on whether the deployment is within an NGN framework, and if so, whether it is IMS-based. The ATIS 0800002 IPTV specification is a key reference within the ITU-T's standards.

The Telecoms & Internet Converged Services & Protocols for Advanced Networks was formed within the European Telecommunications Standards Institute in 2003. TS 182 027, which calls for a pure IMS implementation of IPTV, is still being iterated, while TS 182 028, IPTV as a stand-alone infrastructure within IMS, has been finalized. The 028 approach can integrate a provider's existing IPTV service deployment through a service delivery platform.

The Open IPTV Forum, established in 2006, champions the TISPAN specifications. Its 26 participants include six Tier-1 operators, eight network providers, 11 consumer electronics companies and one global systems integrator.