Alcatel-Lucent directory server enables personalized content

Alcatel-Lucent today announced a new directory server that centralizes rich subscriber data that service providers can tap to deliver personalized services such as more targeted advertising, video services or mobile applications.

Alcatel-Lucent’s 8661 Directory Server is designed to store free-form data that can be used by multiple applications with a focus on the type of high-performance, real-time access required in a network environment, said Jeff Cortley, president of Alcatel-Lucent's Subscriber Data Management business.

The new product puts Alcatel-Lucent in more direct competition with traditional database players like IBM, Oracle and Sun. It also tracks with the larger trend of the consolidation of typically separate network and back-office systems and functionality into a single telco database that is built more on industry standard computing platforms and more open, standards-based interfaces.

“Service providers are trying to differentiate themselves on services, but they are having a hard time doing it given the types of services they are offering,” Cortley said. “If you look at messaging, or push-to-talk, everyone is basically deploying the same service, basically the same look and feel. The challenge is to differentiate the service individual-by-individual.”

There are already typically two types of databases in today’s networks: network-oriented databases like HLR (home location register) or HSS (home subscriber server) that sit in the network and help with basic call flow; and subscriber databases that typically reside on the IT side of the house and store more static customer data (such as billing records) or network data (such as product catalogs) that can only be accessed in batch style.

A third style of database is required to sit between those two types of servers and fuel more personalized, dynamic and real-time interaction between network data and more static IT data, Cortley said.

To meet that need, the 8661 Directory Server was developed by UnboundID and is being sold to service providers exclusively by Alcatel-Lucent. The LDAP (lightweight directory access protocol) database will work in any carrier network and features a set of APIs that service providers can use to rapidly develop new personalized services. For instance, the directory server can be used to store real-time subscriber information such as location or presence as well as user preferences such as choice of mobile device, preferred language or advertising opt-in choices.