ITU: Huawei IMS targets fixed/mobile convergence

Huawei has unveiled the latest iteration of its IP multimedia subsystem architecture this week at ITU Telecom World in Hong Kong, claiming that it is the first IMS platform to fully meet standards set out by both mobile and wireline industry bodies and therefore the perfect architecture for fixed-mobile convergence applications.

Called IMS 3.0, the architecture was built to standard specifications laid out by the Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the Telecom & Internet Converged Services & Protocol for Advanced Networks (TISPAN). Huawei officials said carriers can deploy the all-IP platform without worries of tilting new multimedia applications and services toward wireless or fixed access network, and in turn applications developers can build services on a truly neutral platform designed to equally support any access technology.

“We believe this open, converged all-IP architecture will become a platform for innovations, through which carriers, consumers and our partners in services, platform and terminal domains will benefit,” Huawei president of core networks Ding Yun said in a statement from Hong Kong. “Carriers will easily be able to consolidate resources, information and customer requirements, and at the same time continue to release cutting-edge services.”

Huawei has been working with several other vendor partners on the architecture, and on Monday announced that it and BEA have completed interoperability testing of BEA’s WebLogic SIP server over the IMS 3.0 platform. BEA also announced a similar deal with NEC in Japan. The SIP server software acts as the middleware software layer between the applications themselves and the vendor’s network infrastructure. While BEA has been selling its SIP servers independently and through network integrators, director of product marketing Ken Lee, said that recently carriers have been coming to BEA and their infrastructure providers jointly asking them to integrate their IMS elements on a case-by-case basis. Lee said this has led BEA to pursue interoperability trials with Huawei and several other vendors in anticipation of more carrier interest.