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January 25, 2007

IMS Forum's Plugfest Proves Inter-Vendor Interoperability

By Erik Linask, Associate Editor,
Internet Telephony magazine

The daunting task for service providers and hardware developers who understand the value proposition of IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert))-based network infrastructures is twofold. Naturally, they must play the role of evangelist and spread the word across the industry to speed the adoption of the technology that can revolutionize communications. The second, and more difficult part — but once complete, it will greatly ease the former — is proving interoperability between products from various vendors.

Having an industry association to help with the task certainly is a benefit, which is what the IMS Forum does — it has become known as the voice of IP convergence. Earlier this month, IMS Forum (News - Alert) successfully completed its inaugural IMS Plugfest, which was conducted at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL), the first in the Forum’s series of open Plugfests intended to establish certification for IMS products and services through intense interoperability testing, which is a key to widespread adoption of IP-based multimedia services.

“With this first IMS Plugfest, we built a reference test network which will be used to accelerate the interoperability of IMS services, enabling the quadruple play,” said IMS Forum Chairman and President, and Pervasip CTO Michael Khalilian. “The IMS Forum Plugfests will provide an industry-wide validation process for IMS services, including voice, mobility, video and high-speed Internet access.”

The series of Plugfests has been established to define methodologies that will continue to evolve IMS technologies and, more specifically, to test for interoperability between various components of triple and quadruple play components from various vendors.

“The first IMS Forum Plugfest is a good indicator that IMS is closer to becoming a mainstream technology,” said Ronald Gruia, principal analyst, emerging communications, Frost and Sullivan. “Even more important to note, is that the focus on IMS services and applications that enable service providers to capitalize on new revenue opportunities, while significantly shortening the time to market of innovative services. A better interoperability of IMS services over multiple networks greatly enhances the ability of operators to become relevant triple and quadruple providers in the near future.”

Fifteen carrier-grade IMS platforms, worth more than $3 million, were involved in the initial Plugfest testing, which sought to prove the power of an and-to-end IMS infrastructure and hasten the rate of IMS testing overall. Included in the event were tests of multi-vendor 3GPP environments, multi-domain VoIP calls, and integrated SIP Application Servers with multiple IMS cores and the Home Subscriber Server (HSS) serviced by DIAMETER interfaces.  Through the use of dual mode phones, and various simulated VoIP and WiFi environments, the testing process provided the insight into the opportunities presented by the IMS.

The initial Plugfest included Ditech, Empirix (News - Alert), Ixia, Reef Point Systems, NE Technologies, Starent Networks, Tektronix, Tekelec, Sonus, Valid8, and was sponsored by Empirix, Ditech, Sonus, GlobalTouch Telecom and Trendium.  The next in the series is planned for Q2 2007.

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Erik Linask is Associate Editor of INTERNET TELEPHONY. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert), he was Managing Editor at Global Custodian, an international securities services publication. To see more of his articles, please visit Erik Linask’s columnist page.

(source: http://ipcommunications.tmcnet.com/hot-topics/ims/articles/4727-ims-forums-plugfest-proves-inter-vendor-interoperability.htm)

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