Technology optimists have heralded IMS as the new architecture for IP-based services. Sceptics on the other hand slate IMS as over priced technology push from the telecom world. The IMS hype is clearly over, with big operators publicly announcing a scale down of their IMS roll out. On the other hand, we now start to see operators applying IMS technology for actual services. Is IMS finally finding its place?

Key issues on IMSIP Multimedia Subsystem

Operators have to make up their mind amidst all these conflicting

opinions. Questions emerge, like: “Why do I need IMS?”, “What do

I do with IMS?” and “How do I use IMS?”. Operators have to deter-

mine what role IMS can play in their business and how to imple-

ment IMS in their network. With extensive experience in IMS con-

sultancy, prototyping and service development, TNO Information

and Communication Technology is ideally positioned to help opera-

tors find their way in the myriad of IMS.

Business drivers for IMSIt is important to find the right business drivers for IMS. There are

three basic strategies for the introduction of IMS, but which one

is right for you? With service leadership, an operator creates new

innovative services with IMS to attract new customers. By creating

the best bundle of blended services an operator can also increase

customer retention. With a third party integrator strategy, an ope-

rator provides access to a compelling range of third party services,

rather than creating a set of services itself. An argument for the

third party integrator strategy is that one operator alone can never

create a similar breadth of services as can

be found on the Internet. With a cost reduc-

tion strategy, an operator stills provides the

same kind of services, but uses IMS techno-

logy to provide them more cost effectively.

Fixed network operators may replace their

complete voice telephony network with an

IMS implementation. For mobile operators,

the role of IMS is likely to be restricted to

providing value added services.

Of course, there are many more aspects

that determine an operator’s business stra-

tegy for IMS. Most important is to have a

good understanding of the possibilities of

IMS and the role that IMS can play for an

operator.

Role of TNOTNO can help you finding the right business

drivers for IMS. We can provide consultancy

on an IMS strategy tailored to the specifics

The three basic strategies

IMS provides a toolkit to implement all kinds of multimedia services.

The IMS Experience Centre consists of a core IMS network, with interfaces to add different services.

of your business. Examples of what TNO can do to help and esta-

blish an IMS vision are: developing an IMS roadmap; positioning an

IMS approach versus other strategies; developing business cases;

or a survey of IMS operator strategies.

Services and applicationsAn important question is which services and applications should

be developed. IMS provides a toolkit to implement all kinds of

multimedia services. Because IMS services are based on Internet

technology, IMS services can also be easily integrated with other

Internet-based services like web services or IPTV.

Too much choice can also be a bad thing though. Because of the

freedom to implement all kinds of services and applications, it can

become difficult to find end-user devices and application servers

that all interoperate to provide a particular service. Therefore early

IMS applications are likely to be value added voice services, where

standard mobile and fixed phones can be used to access the

services.

The assumption is that IMS will support a wide range of services.

Also the service life-cycle of service creation, service introduction

and service deletion will be much shorter. This has an impact on

Toolkit IMS

the service delivery platforms, service

interaction, and service provisioning pro-

cesses. Time-to-market reduction implies

that operators and service developers need

to implement a much faster service inno-

vation process than what is currently the

norm in telecommunications.

Role of TNOTNO offers you the possibility to proto-

type, perform proof of concept trials and

demonstrate new IMS services using our

IMS Experience Centre. The IMS Experience

Centre consists of a core IMS network, with

interfaces to add different services. Several

vendors already connected their products

to the IMS experience centre and demon-

strated their solutions.

TNO also has experience in IMS service

development, with specific methods to

position services in the market and to

check the usability of services.

The IMS Experience Centre consists of a core IMS network, with interfaces to add different services.

TNO Informatie- en Communicatietechnologie

TNO Information and Communication Technology helps government bodies, public organisations and companies in many diffe-rent sectors to become successful innovators. This can result in a new product or service, an improvement, a completely new working method, or a new strategic vision for the future.

Herman Pals

Brassersplein 2P.O. Box 50502600 GB DelftThe Netherlands

herman.pals@tno.nlwww.tno.nl

T +31 15 285 72 17

Architecture and technologyAfter deciding which services to deliver, the architecture of the

IMS network must be designed. Vendors will provide you with IMS

equipment and system integrators will be able to get this equip-

ment to work. But many decisions during the implementation of an

IMS network should be taken by the operators themselves. What

kind of identities should we use? How to interconnect to other

operators? Where will we generate the usage data to provide retail

and wholesale billing? The standards define the basic IMS functio-

nality, but a lot of these aspects are left open for the operators to

fill in. And because SIP/IMS technology is likely to be around for

many years, any unfortunate choices now may frustrate you for

quite some time in the future.

Role of TNOTNO can help you with architectural choices, based on its exten-

sive knowledge of IMS standards and a long track record of IMS

consultancy. Examples of projects that TNO can do for you: support

with RFI/RFQ processes; definition of IMS data models, identities

and routing architecture; definition of an IMS charging and billing

architecture, design of QoS and policy control; monitoring IMS

standardisation.

201E-08-07-2009

Technology optimists have heralded IMS as the new architecture for IP-based services.