A year-old industry forum this week unveils a commercial framework it hopes will create the ecosystem for a new generation of Internet services to benefit content producers, network operators and consumers alike. Along the way, this effort also could address major issues in the Net neutrality debate.

The IPsphere Forum (IPSF), which met last week in Sophia Antipolis, France, is hoping to create this commercial framework to balance the interests of content providers — which want ready, high-quality and affordable access to consumers — with those of network operators, which need to see a return on the multi-billion-dollar investment needed to build the next generation of Internet.

Its members include major technology companies such as Alcatel, Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Siemens, as well as network operators such as AT&T, BT, France Telecom and Verizon. The organization has worked to bring network operators together with content providers to encourage the collaboration that will allow both to thrive.

“There is more flash, more multimedia and higher-impact high-quality video with interactive services and content collaboration today,” said Kevin Dillon, a Juniper executive who is IPSF chairman. “That requires much more of the channel, particularly as you deliver personalized content to residences, and there are four to five people pulling down different things at the same time.”

By creating “an improved commercial framework that is service-agile, in a loosely coupled way” that multiple service providers can use, the IPSF hopes to avoid past investment cycles, in which either network investment or producer investment lagged and required a major injection of capital to catch up, Dillon said.

“If one stakeholder is needing capital to move forward, that is constraining growth and opportunity of the other stakeholder,” he said. “We want to introduce a commercial framework that allows market mechanisms” to level out the investment cycle.

In the U.S., network operators are investing $40 billion to upgrade their networks and must earn a return on that investment. The IPSF's commercial framework seeks to address that, while balancing the needs of content producers, some of which — such as Google and Yahoo — are seeking federal regulation to force network operators to provide access to their upgraded networks.

In establishing its framework, the IPSF is attempting to balance the interests of both sides.

The IPSF would establish a business layer above the network that it calls the IPsphere Service Structuring Stratum, which builds on a services-oriented architecture/Web services framework. Within that business layer, individual providers and retail providers negotiate and establish contracts for use of service elements and collaboration in delivering services.

For example, a retail provider can get the elements — such as identifying authentication, access and transport — that a network operator could make available through this commercial framework.

The IPSF will be delivering technical requirements for the IPsphere SOA Framework over the course of this year, Dillon said.

Although the IPSF work was under way months before the Net neutrality debate exploded, Dillion believes the commercial framework can address many of the underlying issues of Net neutrality.

“We are looking to drive more folks to come and get involved and use the forum as a forum to work together to address mutual interests,” Dillon said.

One challenge for the group will be to get a major content provider to sign on, said Joe McGarvey, senior analyst with Current Analysis.

“This is a market solution to the problem,” he said. “But the folks who are concerned that there needs to be some kind of higher authority that makes sure there is enough bandwidth for services that reside outside service provider's network are likely to be a little suspicious.”