April 1999

Will The Intelligent Network Still Matter In An IP-Centric World?

BY JOHN DE KEIJZER AND DOUGLAS TAIT

Intelligent network (IN) technology overlays the public voice network with intelligence that enables new services, and it has been with us for several decades. But in contrast with rapidly developing Internet technologies, the historically proprietary world of IN services has developed services slowly. And while IN has some widely used services, such as 800 numbers, call forwarding, and last-number redial, its full potential hasn't come close to being realized, largely because IN services involve proprietary hardware and software platforms at the SS7 level, with proprietary services and applications written on top of them. Nearly one year ago, Sun Microsystems (www.sun.com) organized the Java in Advanced Intelligent Networks (JAIN) industry initiative to address the problem of incompatibility within the IN and SS7 environments. JAIN seeks to define common interfaces that will enable services and protocols to run anywhere in the network, establishing a level playing field that will benefit carriers, network equipment providers, and application developers.

Lack of standardization has made it difficult, time consuming, and expensive for carriers to deploy new services quickly -- in their heterogeneous networks, deploying new services means programming to many different devices. To offer ubiquity of service, a service provider may need to program two or more switch types, to program more than one call model, and to take into account the interoperability between the different SS7 stacks in their network.

At its simplest level, JAIN will define open interfaces and APIs so that services written for one area can be deployed across many. Most telecom service providers have mixed environments, but they will be able to use JAIN-compliant services throughout their network. Not only can this help to solve their network integration problems, but it will also free up staff resources to create revenue-generating new services.

JAIN is conceived as a telecom industry framework designed to spur a new wave of telecom services by blending Internet and IN technologies to drive convergence between traditional voice networks and IP-based data networks. A key goal of JAIN is to enable service portability, allowing service providers to provide the same telephony services across different networks and delivery platforms. Based on Sun's JavaBeans component architecture, the JAIN framework promises to make IN telecom application development -- including computer telephony integration -- faster, simpler, and less expensive through platform-independent Java technology.

INITIAL FOCUS: SS7
The initial focus of JAIN was on defining JAIN interfaces at the SS7 protocol stack layer. Key SS7 protocol stack vendors -- DGM&S Telecom (www.dgms.com), ADC NewNet (now ADC Telecommunications -- www.adc.com) and Ericsson InfoTech AB (www.ericsson.se/infotech) -- were JAIN's charter members. In January, however, Sun expanded the JAIN initiative to begin focusing on the higher level of application service creation environments -- establishing common interfaces that will enable IN applications to be "portable" across different network infrastructures. IBM (www.ibm.com) and Bellcore (www.bellcore.com) are the first members of this new expert group, with Bellcore and Trillium (www.trillium.com) also contributing to the SS7 consortium.

Let's take a closer look at these two "levels" of the JAIN architecture and how they will complement each other. At the SS7 level, the goal is to develop a JAIN API that will provide protocol independence and platform (both hardware and software) independence, while supporting elements such as TCAP, ISUP, and BISUP.

The next level is the service creation layer, where JAIN will allow the creation of capability sets: JavaBeans or applets that can be reused. For example, a "collect digits" capability, once created, can be used for dialing numbers, credit cards, or calling cards. Finally, complete JAIN-based IN services can be created by simply stringing together the various JavaBeans building blocks. We thus have a complete, open architecture for IN that for the first time supports reuse of components, speeding application time while dramatically lowering costs.

More significantly, however, JAIN provides an ideal mechanism to divorce the SS7 gateway from the service itself, allowing the service to be run on a separate host that can be anywhere within the network. The first implementations of JAIN may in fact have the gateway and service running on the same platform or SCP (service control point), as is now the case for SS7 applications. But the JAIN framework will provide operators with the unprecedented freedom to move services out into the network -- or even onto intelligent handsets or other advanced end-user terminals. Theoretically, a user could download a Java service from Web site for call forwarding, customize the application for personal preferences, and then activate call forwarding from the handset. Such functionality may be science fiction now, but it's technologically feasible.

CONSIDERING THE PBX
PBX technology is a prime potential application area for JAIN -- especially as VoIP (voice over IP) and IP-based PBX technology come to the fore. JAIN-compliant technology will enable these next-generation PBX systems to utilize network-resident Java-based services that can leverage the capabilities of the existing IN for their own purposes. These systems could thus use JAIN to provision phone calls, to perform their own routing, and to do real-time bandwidth allocation. Caller ID, an IN-based service, could start to flow through the JAIN interface for use in a PBX or IP-based PBX environment.

The key point here is that JAIN links these next-generation devices with the existing IN infrastructure, ensuring that the highly reliable, established IN services that already exist need not be reinvented as new IP-based technologies migrate onto the PSTN.

JAIN AND JTAPI: COMPLEMENTARY STANDARDS
The JAIN initiative isn't the first time Sun's Java technology has been used to establish a telecom-industry specification: JTAPI (Java Telephony Application Program Interface) was developed several years ago as an effort to use Java's platform-independent capabilities to bring application portability to the CTI space.

Although they both use Java technology to bring the benefits of interoperability to previously "closed" environments, JTAPI and JAIN are complementary and distinct technologies. JAIN is focused on the public network domain, while JTAPI is oriented to private network domains as typified by enterprise CTI and call center operations. While these two worlds are edging closer together, for the moment they are still separate realms with distinct requirements.

VoIP is one of the most exciting areas in telephony. But the real opportunity is not simply about replacing analog circuit-switched voice with VoIP -- it's about offering new services. Voice traffic can be shifted from analog to VoIP, but for most operators, the cost model doesn't justify such a move if it is done solely for voice. There's no reason for an operator to shift over to VoIP unless they get something more. And that something more could be unified messaging, transforming voice mail into e-mail, or e-mail messages into voice messages (via the Java speech interface, which can convert text into spoken messages). These are some of the next-generation applications we may start seeing as JAIN-related efficiencies and new services make their way into the network.

Because JAIN is an implementation of Java, this new environment enables providers to leverage Java's capabilities such as some of the existing APIs. Good examples would be Java Wallet -- enabling electronic cash for simple, secure transactions over the Web -- and JavaSpeech, as noted above.

Clearly, the JAIN framework and Java offer significant opportunities to developers of CTI platforms and applications. As they develop and specify new products, the CTI community should keep abreast of JAIN developments so they can take full advantage of JAIN's benefits.

Especially with rapidly emerging technologies such as VoIP and IP-based PBX systems, developers will need to interface to the IN network to access services and to route calls. JAIN holds the promise of being a highly functional, versatile interface that will help manage the transition to an open, IP-based communications infrastructure from proprietary CTI and IN environments. In fact, JAIN will allow the VoIP revolution to occur more quickly: much of the infrastructure for VoIP simply does not exist, and JAIN leverages the existing IN infrastructure so that existing IN services can be accessed -- not laboriously re-invented from scratch.

The ever-growing group of telecom companies committed to making JAIN a reality is now at work to propose preliminary specifications for JAIN at the SS7 level. Sun and its JAIN development allies believe that JAIN is a powerful enabling technology that will liberate IN from its proprietary heritage. By providing the critical link between IN and the Internet and bringing the capabilities of Java to bear at the very heart of the public network, the JAIN movement is working to help to bring these two worlds together. The ultimate goal: a truly converged, function-rich public network that will combine the best of both worlds and deliver a wealth of new services.

John de Keijzer is manager, Intelligent Networks and Enhanced Network Services at Sun Microsystems, Inc. He can be reached at [email protected]. Douglas Tait is an Intelligent Network specialist at Sun Microsystems, Inc., and can be reached at [email protected]. For more information on Sun Microsystems and JAIN, please visit Sun's Web site at www.sun.com.

BY STEPHEN NORTHRIDGE

A leading supplier of open, fault resilient Signaling System 7 (SS7) connectivity under the SignalWare banner, DGM&S Telecom has endorsed JAIN from the very beginning, envisioning its potential to speed the delivery of telecommunications services. DGM&S Telecom is using SignalWare products, coupled with Java technology, to free service providers from obstacles -- allowing them to rapidly develop and deploy services.

The JAIN API provides an industry standard, platform and vendor independent programming interface. Its component concept, Java beans, enables the use of standard Java tools such as Java Workshop and Java Studio as a service creation environment (SCE) to realize the dream of creating telecom services at "Internet speed."

DGM&S Telecom's implementation of JAIN is provided as a client-side API in a fault-resilient client-server configuration, an exclusive feature of SignalWare. SignalWare supplies the call and transaction control functions to handle SS7 messages, while Java-based JAIN allows for the services to be built and changed "on the fly."

JAIN-compliant applications deployed in SignalWare's client-server configuration, transparently inherit fault-resilient characteristics without explicit service programming. In addition, the client-server SignalWare implementation offers IP-centric clients access to the SS7 network, enabling these IP-centric clients to offer seamless services across converged SS7 and IP networks. The unique combination of SignalWare and JAIN offers the service provider a powerful combination of attributes to deploy services rapidly and reliably.

Stephen Northridge is CTO of DGMS Telecom. For more information on DGM&S Telecom and the SignalWare product line, please visit DGM&S's Web site at www.dgms.com.