IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) for Emerging All-IP Networks

Abstract

Today the traditional telecommunication technology is declining because of popularity and increasing demand of Voice over IP (VoIP) due to the reason that deployment, maintenance and operation of data networks based on IP infrastructure are less costly than the voice networks. Consequently, it is straight forward to think relaying all types of communications on data networks rather than maintaining in parallel two network technologies. On the other hand we see today increasing demand of integrated multimedia services, bringing together internet applications with telecommunications. In prospect of these global trends, the mobile communications world has defined within the evolution of cellular systems an all-IP network vision which integrates cellular networks and Internet. This is the IP Multimedia System (IMS) (3GPP, TS 23.228 (2005)), namely overlay architecture for provisioning of multimedia services, such as VoIP and videoconferencing on top of globally emerging 3G broadband packet networks.