The telecommunications industry is rapidly re-inventing itself to meet its changing and expanding role in the business world. With the advent of cellular, Wi-Fi, and WiMAX technologies, as well as increasingly powerful and portable devices, the demand for unique services that fit a variety of customer business models grows each day.

With the average cell phone delivering new services such as music, video, and ring-tones, service providers scramble to find ways to deliver these capabilities. Unfortunately, the telecommunications infrastructure on which the service providers rely was not designed to handle many of the delivery demands of these new features and services.

As standards bodies began to address cellular issues, the focus was on consolidating Internet services, traditional phone services, and services such as voice mail, video, and data into a combined offering. To accomplish this, two standards bodies -- 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) -- combined forces. The 3GPP, representing the wireless/cellular providers, and the IETF, representing the wire-line carriers, created joint committees to address issues and establish an all-encompassing vision. Together, these two standards bodies defined the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) architecture, the first industry-specified architecture for telecommunications. IMS defines an architecture that allows the convergence of both wireless and wire-line networks in addition to Web and communication services. As designed, IMS is not vendor-specific or service provider-specific and it is freely available to everyone.

The former MCI, now Verizon Business, recognized the need for a robust service delivery architecture many years ago. To deliver optimal support to its customers, MCI recognized it needed a single portal for customers to order and provision services. Customers needed a single billing system -- with a single service delivery platform. At that time, which was several years before IMS became available, MCI began designing and implementing an architecture similar to IMS, known as the Services on Demand Execution Environment, or SODEE. With the definition of IMS, MCI ensured its efforts with SODEE conformed to this new industry standard.

In today’s competitive environment, SODEE gives Verizon Business the flexibility to offer a unique blend of services to fit customer needs. For instance, two package delivery companies could have very different business models. While they both deliver packages, their methods of controlling the air fleet and the truck fleet, monitoring packages, and distributing the work load are likely very different. SODEE allows Verizon Business to quickly, reliably, and affordably deliver unique communication solutions that fit different business models. The time has come when communication services must provide capabilities well beyond the standalone products of the past.

Embracing IMS

Vendors not delivering IMS solutions are looking for ways to lock in their customers by becoming a single source provider. Because IMS breaks down the walls to create a plug-and-play service delivery environment, virtually all telecommunications vendors are working to deliver on the IMS vision. Verizon Business is pushing its vendors to provide open, IMS-based solutions that perform within the SODEE architecture. Using SODEE, and with an emphasis on standards, Verizon Business is able to quickly respond to new enhancements in the communications world.

Customers know their needs and they want the best products available. At the same time, they do not want to be locked in to an inferior product without the ability to change. By separating the devices from the services, IMS provides the flexibility and enhanced choices customers want while providing convergence of services.

Stepping Away From Silos

Visualize a prairie with several large grain silos. Each silo stands alone. One silo does not interoperate or communicate with another in any way. The construction of one silo does not speed up or slow down the construction of the next silo. One silo does not enhance the usability or functions of the next silo. Because of their functional similarities, the telecommunications industry has borrowed the word “silo” to describe the way in which computer services and telecommunication services are developed.

Granted, the silo method of development simplifies the development of a single service. However, under the silo approach, if two distinct services both need to perform the same function, such as a welcome message, these same functions are developed, managed, and integrated twice -- once for each service,

With one overriding service delivery architecture, such as SODEE, an infrastructure is developed that moves away from the silo method of development. Instead of creating a collection of silos with each representing one service, SODEE provides an infrastructure for the creation and integration of individual components. Each component represents a mini-service, such as “play a message” or “ask for a phone number”. These components can then be combined dynamically in different ways to create unique services.

With SODEE’s flexibility, Verizon Business' customers can define the services that meet their exact business needs.

SODEE’s benefits to Verizon Business are:

• Decreased complexity – Since the services can be developed as smaller components, the skills needed for component construction can be shared and each component simplified.
• Increased reusability – Since the older silos are now broken into smaller components, the components can be freely used in the construction of many services rather than just one.
• Decreased time to market – Most services are similar in many ways. The ability to reuse existing components minimizes the amount of new development. In some cases, no development may be needed, simply a recombination of existing components into a new service.

The benefits to Verizon Business customers are:

• Services that match the business model of the customer – While two customers may exist in the same industry, they each have their own model of service delivery. Communication services can now be delivered that directly match the customer’s business model.
• Increased capabilities – Customers can now expand their communication models to include virtually any Internet or web service as well as all internal applications.
• Decreased delivery time – A customer can now describe their business model and the telecommunication service provider can literally deliver their unique communication services within days or weeks.

Handling the Complexity

Evolving silo-based legacy applications to component-based services may seem like a daunting task. The traditional telecommunications network architecture is not designed for decomposing services or for converging communication and Internet-based services. Not only must the physical network be changed, but the delivery infrastructure affecting provisioning, billing, support, and integration also must be replaced.

In the past, huge software and hardware platforms delivered legacy communication services. These must be reengineered to fit a component-based structure. At the same time, these platforms must retain much of the business logic sprinkled throughout the old silo-based delivery infrastructure. Harvesting the valuable components of the legacy platform is critical to move from a silo architecture to a component architecture such as that offered by SODEE.

To assure success, a service provider must follow a logical deconstruction process that is manageable and allows maximized use of development resources. Verizon Business has simplified that process by developing an Integration Strategy. An Integration Strategy initially focuses on the integration points between high level functional areas such as provisioning, billing, service delivery, and routing. Once the integration points are defined and the interfaces for each integration point are fully architected, the legacy applications can be decomposed to fit into the Integration Strategy model.

To begin the deconstruction process, the existing applications are divided into distinct categories of function within the Integration Strategy. Using this division of function and the previously documented interface definitions, developers can re-engineer each specific functional category without concern for the other categories. Following this approach, the provisioning functions can be developed independent of the billing functions and the service delivery functions can be developed independent of the core routing functions.

A sample Integration Strategy might look like this:

Achieving Convergence

For the first time, the telecommunications industry, almost as a whole, is moving toward a single unifying architecture. To successfully complete that move, the implementation of the 3GPP IP Multimedia Subsystem is critical for continued growth of the powerful features and communications options that the public demands. Further, the convergence of wireless and wire-line networks is critical to pushing the industry ahead. But in order to achieve that convergence, a standards-based approach must be taken; IMS provides that standard.

Telecommunications is undergoing a paradigm shift as emphasis moves from traditional telecommunications services to new, enhanced, and fully-integrated service offerings and capabilities. As a result, communication providers must move from their traditional ways of doing business to a flexible, integrated, standards-based environment.

David Croslin is IT Chief Product Architect for Verizon Business.

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