Tag: Service harmonization

Harmonization of services between generations of telecommunication core layers

A communication system can be made up of many components which are individually undergoing evolution such as access layer generations, and core layer upgrades. Harmonized and uniform open standard-based service delivery platforms over legacy Proprietary codebase is the preferred choice for most service providers to save the investment in their infrastructure and programming while keeping up with the shift in technology. I shall be editing this post to discuss more on the process of Service Harmonization.This saves the Telecom Service Provider the trouble of rewriting call logic with every telecom generation evolution ie IN to SIP to Web based WebRTC phones.

Landscape shift for Telecommunication Service providers includes Transmission layer which is ATM/Frame relays moving towards IP/MPLS. Access Layer hardware specific to POTS / PSTN / ISDN upgrading towards NGN and VOIP.  Packet Switched Next gen Soft Switches based on SIP.

Telecommunication service Harmonization

The Service Harmonization Layer does the job of holding all new and legacy services while providing uniform interface to interact with access network regardless of the back-end Call program logic. It involves consolidation for the service layers across IMS and legacy mobile network and Orchestration to extend the capability of underlying platform to support multiple IN variants. Diagrammatic depiction of scope of Service Harmonization.

Gateways based Harmonization

Service Broker based Harmonization

As CSPs evolve their networks for LTE, the resulting networks present tremendous challenges in voice services and application delivery. Realizing this opportunity, the telecom software industry has come forward with a purpose-built network element: the Service Broker, a solution specifically designed to overcome network architecture challenges and ensure voice service delivery from any network domain to any other network domain. Service Brokers are placed between the application layer and the control layer.

A service broker is a service abstraction layer between the network and application layer in a telecom environment. SB( Service Broker ) enables us to make use of existing applications and services from Intelligent Network’s SCP ( Service Control Point ), IMS’s Application Server as well as other sources in a harmonized manner

Legacy switches vs Softswitches

Legacy switches are circuit-switched, monolithic, propertiary and expensive while Softswitch is packet-switched and open interfaced. They are scalable and vendor-independent which enables easy convergence. Softswitches forms the basis for a service harmonization engine as they increase the granularity and power processing distribution of the Network

Service Delivery Layer in Legacy vs Harmonized Services

Legacy Service Layer has a function-centric architecture having multiple domain-specific session types such as Mobile calls, IPTV and broadband. Harmonized service delivery layer has Open APIs and is essentially Data-centric. This leads to fast and agile development and deployment of convergent services specifically IMS system providing the framework for underline network agnosticism across fixed and mobile.

Service Broker 1
Service Broker 2
Service Broker Architecture for IN and IMS
Service Creation Environment (SCE ) for SIP Applications

Unified Service Delivery Stack

The Unified Communication Solution leads to Network Agnostic, Agile, Cost Effective  & Customer Experience Centric Services Platform.

unified ccommunication

 

The Way from Copper -> Fiber -> 2nd Generation -> 3rd Generation -> LTE , depicts evolution of Telecommunications over the decades , in the Network layer Infrastructure area

The Sevice Layer Infrastructure is built  using techniques as Switching , Home Location Register (HLR) ,  Authetication (  AuC) etc  . The Services vary over ranges such as IN , Voice , SMS , VOIP , IM , IPTV , IMS  , Presence , MMS etc .

Top of this lies the Harmonization layer that performs the inter networking between different platforms and protocols .

The Application Layer consists of various usecases as Enhanced Screening , Social Networking Integration , Education Trade etc .

Service Broker 1

What is Service Broker ?

Service broker is a service abstraction layer between the network and application layer in  telecom environment. SB( Service Broker ) enables us to make use of existing applications and services from Intelligent Network’s SCP ( Service control Point ) , IMS’s Application Server as well as other sources  in a harmonized manner.

The Service Broker Application Server provides the services in various permutations and combinations. Examples:  Mobicents / Rhino TAs for Jainslee SBB , or Weblogic / Sailfin for Sip servlets.

What is Service Orchestration ?

The Process of Orchestrating various service to provide a single flow control is refereed to as Service Orchestration.

What is Service Harmonization  ?

I have tried to simplify the concept by visualizing different boxes of various communication platforms as SIP, HTTP , CAP 1/2/3/4 , SMTP etc and then imagining a system that caters to all of these .  It is primarily important that the billing and chagrining system remains common to all the sources and protocols be it 2G , 3G or 4G based. A post on service harmonization between various telecom generations is at

Service Harmonization between generations of telecom

service harmonization3

The next writeup Service broker 2 is :

Service Broker 2

This contains the Defination and purpose of using a Service broker as well as its role in network enviornment. It also contains service broker functions like Real-Time Charging , Protocol/Call Flow Management/Call Screening Management , Subscriber Data Management Interaction, Media Resource Brokering.

Details of Service Broker implementation in IN and IMS is at article below. Details on Service Broker and how service provider acts as a central Node for Services invocation and services composition is described in this. It clearly shows Service Broker provides Services Orchestration / Interaction, service development, third party integration and acts as a protocol gateway.

Service Broker Architecture for IN and IMS

OTT ( Over the Top ) Communication applications

Market trends are not in favour of Telecom Service /providers with increasing use of OTT ( Over The Top ) applications like WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, Google hangouts, skype, Viber, etc. OTT applications are often blamed to take a stake in voice traffic revenue by using IP calls where the telco could’ve charged based on its…

Harmonization of services between generations of telecommunication core layers

A communication system can be made up of many components which are individually undergoing evolution such as access layer generations, and core layer upgrades. Harmonized and uniform open standard-based service delivery platforms over legacy Proprietary codebase is the preferred choice for most service providers to save the investment in their infrastructure and programming while keeping…

SIP Presence

We have already learned about Sip user agent and sip network server. SIP clients initiates a call and SIP server routes the call . Registrar is responsible for name resolution and user location. Sip proxy receives calls and send it to its destination or next hop. Presence is user’s reachability and willingness to communicate its…

Legacy Telecom Networks

I use the term legacy telecom system many a times , but have not really described what a legacy system actually is . In my conferences too I am asked to just exactly define a legacy system . Often my clients are surprised to hear what they have in current operation is actually fitted in…

SIP/VOIP transformation towards IMS (Total IP)

The telecommunications industry has been going through a significant transformation over the past few years. At the outset incumbent operators used to focus on mainly basic voice services and still remained profitable due to the limited number of players in the space and requirement of huge amounts as initial investment. However, with the advent of…

Internet Telephony Convergence- JAINSLEE Platform

Convergence : Telephone networks and computer networks converging into single digital network using Internet standards. Components in a Network Client computer Server computer Network interfaces (NICs) Connection medium Network operating system Hub or switch Routers- Device used to route packets of data through different networks, ensuring that data sent gets to the correct address Figure :simple computer…

IMSSF and RIMSSF

This post particularly describes the gateways in IMS which communication back and forth with a legacy endpoints.To get a overview of IMS itself click here  and to get a detailed description of IMS and its architecture click here . What is IM-SSF  ? IP Multimedia Service Switching Function is a  gateway to provide IN service such…

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)

Why IMS ? What benefits does IMS bring ? Features of IMS Network IMS Layers Transport / Media Endpoint Layer Backhaul network Border Gateways Session & Control Layer HSS (Home Subscriber Server) SCF (Call Session Control Function) MGw (Media Gateway Control Function) Application Services Layer TAS (Telephony Application Server) IM-SSF ( IP Multimedia Services Switching…

IMS in EPC ( Evolved Packet Core )

Packet Switched and/or Circuit swicthed Communication The earlier models were distributed between legacy circuit switched networks and evolving packet switched networks With the massive improvents in quality of network srevices packet switched comunication protocls became more resilent and replaced the circuit swicthed protcols for realtime communication. LTE ( Long Term Evolution ) LTE evolved its…

Telecommunications convergence – VoIP, PBX and IMS

The signalling protocols migration like from signalling system 7 (SS7) to session initial protocol (SIP) have been taking place in Telco-Industry. Similarly nodes of legacy network like signal transfer point (STP) of legacy network are being migrated to call session control function (CSCF) of IMS that allows the rapid development and deployment of enhanced, revenue-generating…