Abstract
This chapter describes motivations and characteristics of a novel service platform based on P2P technology for delivering Telecommunication and ICT services. It includes also an analysis of technical advantages, and considerations on business and costs aspects.
TopBackground
Telecommunication services are currently provided according to the Network Intelligence approach, where they are created, executed and managed by a “Service Architecture”, comprising a set of systems implementing network functions needed for the service delivery. Services are characterized by a “business logic” that uses basic Telco features (e.g., call/session control, end-user presence and location, messaging, charging). Currently, services interact with Telco features and terminals through a wide set of protocols, each one specialized to deal with specific capabilities. Most of the currently deployed “service layers” are implemented as “vertical” platforms, i.e., “silos”, each of them specialized to provide a specific service class on a specific network. This makes it hard to combine functions belonging to different silos without costly integration efforts.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Resource negotiation: Resource negotiation includes those mechanism adopted by distributed applications and services for discovering and negotiating the usage of shared resources that required for their execution. An auction protocol, for example, can be used for resource optimal allocation.
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA): It is a distributed software architecture where software systems are structured in a set of reusable and shared software components, offering, to other components, functions over a network through well defined interfaces (e.g., by using Web Services, or CORBA IDL).
Autonomic Computing: This term was coined by IBM’s term to indicate a technology for introducing self-managing capabilities into Information Technology. Goal is to shift the burden of management tasks such as fault, configuration, maintenance, and performance management from people to technology itself (i.e., by enhancing the systems with self-* capabilities). In this context, self-organization is defined as a process where the organization of a system spontaneously increases, i.e., without this increase being controlled by the environment or an encompassing or otherwise external system.
Telco Enablers: They provide reusable capabilities implemented through the telecommunication network control and resources. Examples of Telco Enablers provide capabilities for location, messaging, call control. Usually, they offer interfaces used by service logic to control the provided functions; these interfaces are structured in a set of commands and events.
Quality of Service: It is a generic term referring to the level of quality of a certain service. QoS definition depends on the specific service quality parameters (e.g., jitter, delay, errors).
Network Intelligence: Network Intelligence is the architectural approach used by Telecommunication operators to develop telecommunication services. It is based on a centralized set of servers which execute the service logic and are able to control, through specialized protocols, network and service resources deployed in the telecommunication network infrastructures. Intelligent Network and IMS are examples of solutions structured according to the Network Intelligence approach.
Network Operator: A network operator is a traditional telecommunication operator owning both a network infrastructure (i.e., routers, switches, transport nodes) and a service delivery infrastructure (e.g., servers, data centers).
Service Provider: Service Provider is an enterprise owning and operating a service delivery infrastructure.
Prosumer: Prosumer is a portmanteau word formed by contracting the word producer with the word consumer. This term, adopted in the context of Web2.0, indicates people and/or entities acting at the same time as producer and consumer of contents, data and services.
Cross-Layer Design: it is a technical approach that implies optimizing the design parameters of various protocol layers into a single coherent way, thus aiming at a global optimization of the network.