NGN/IMS Forum report: IMS coming, just not as expected

As an example of this stepping-stone approach, the forum’s Vexler points to the broad adoption of SIP signaling inside carrier IP networks. “The massive introduction of SIP in the central office and in the enterprise is a significant step in the direction of IMS,” Vexler said. “An IMS purist might say, ‘Well, hold on. Where’s the QoS? Where’s the management interfaces in Diameter?’ And so on. And that’s true. But SIP is a first step.”

And if a carrier wants to be a single media provider -- say, simply a voice provider -- than SIP plus some basic security and billing elements are probably enough. “But here’s what’s missing,” Vexler said. “What happens when they want to add other media, such as video streaming? They have two options: They can put that network aside and build another network, but the better approach is combining networks and taking advantage of the economies of scale, the balancing of resources and the quality of service approach that an IMS network brings.”

While focusing on the benefits of IMS today, the report card also identified areas that still need work, specifically: reliability, security, billing and roaming. Future plugfests and forum work will focus on these areas, Vexler said.

Additional information about the NGN/IMS Forum report card can be found here, including a downloadable PDF.