Service control layer (SCL): enabling rule-based control and enrichment in next-generation telecom service delivery

ABSTRACT

Telecom operators have started to make significant investments towards evolving their Service Delivery Platforms (SDPs) to a next-generation architecture based on IP technologies and standards such as SIP, SOA and increasingly, Web 2.0. With consumers and businesses increasingly relying on Web 2.0--oriented services for information, communications, collaboration and entertainment - the key to this evolution would be the integration of Web/SOA middleware and Telecom middleware infrastructure, thereby creating a converged Web-Telecom services layer. To this end, operators are gradually embracing the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and looking at developing an ecosystem of IMS/SIP--based services that can be mashed up with Web--based applications, in innovative ways. Service delivery is vital for the success of the IMS--based approach. To this end, operators will require greater flexibility around real--time management, control and enhancement of user services at runtime - in a manner that is decoupled from the application logic itself. We observe this need and present the Service Control Layer (SCL), a middleware technology that sits between the IMS service and network plane, and provides operators with the requisite fine-grained control and enrichment over the delivery of next-generation converged services.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.3 Network Operations
          Subjects: Network management

General Terms:
Management

Keywords:
IMS, mashups, service control, service delivery, web 2.0