Where Are We Headed

By Mike McHugh
Many service providers see IMS primarily as a means to develop and deploy more and better applications and services at lower cost. Since applications are increasingly driving the justification for the deployment of IMS, it makes sense that the service layer of the IMS architecture is an increasingly important consideration for service providers looking to provide services that can help generate new revenue streams. The concept of the service delivery platform (SDP) — sitting “on top of” or at the service layer of the IMS network — has arisen as a way to view this part of the IMS network.

Already being proven out by early adopters, service providers have been detailing requirements for the service layer of the network. There is a need for a complete ecosystem for the rapid development, deployment, management and billing of these value-added services in a device- and network-independent way. Additionally, service providers have articulated the desire to aggregate different network capabilities and services and different sources of content. To help enable application developers to access these services and content in a uniform and standardized way, carriers need to provide open and secure access to service capabilities. The service layer of the network also should make it easy for third parties, including independent software vendors and service providers themselves to offer new services.

Delivering on the promise of IMS will require a new kind of service model. This model should include new technologies, be standards-based, focus on cost-effectiveness and avoid costly integration services. Key technologies for this include Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) integrated with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services and service orchestration. This new model embraces the concept of loose coupling, whereby each service capability provides unique functionality, coupled together via SOA, to create a complete service in a cost-effective and highly scalable manner.

Web Services are the modern standard for this model. When it comes to simplicity, plug-and-play, building and exposing basic and advanced services to the external service providers and enterprises, Web Services are the natural choice. Web Services continue to gain in the role of providing abstract interfaces to the core network services and capabilities. The simplicity of the Web Services concept is compelling as they are based on widely accepted standards such HTTP and XML. The success of Web Services within the SDP and IMS environments are dependent in their ability to integrate SDP with IMS, OSS, BSS and AAA systems, as well as multimedia and content solutions. (I’ll address the common performance concerns regarding Web Services, SOAP and XML in a future column.)

Provisioning and management of application developers and content providers is one of the key facets of the SDP for which Web Services technologies are ideally suited. Issues such as SLA management, security and policy must be addressed. A highly automated process, based on standard, widely understood protocols and interfaces is required. This function needs to permit changes as services evolve. This is where Web Services come into their own. Publication, discovery, exposure and provisioning via Web Services can allow the management and control to be integrated with an operator’s general account management infrastructure.

By using Web Services as one of the main technologies to deliver the SDP, operators can partner with a much broader range of content and application providers, many of whom will be small (perhaps even single-person) players offering targeted, highly specialized services. A large range of programming resources is available in the marketplace, reducing the need to rely on highly skilled and specialized engineers.

In summary, the time has come for the industry to embrace a next-generation service delivery platform, one that allows service and content/application providers to take full advantage of the benefits of service flexibility and re-use, which are afforded by modern concepts such as SOA and Web Services.

Mike McHugh is Vice President and General Manager, BEA WebLogic Communications Platform, at BEA Systems. For more information, please visit the company online at www.bea.com.

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