IP Multimedia Subsystems Standards
Carriers are beginning to realize that it is becoming financially unviable to retain legacy infrastructure because financial projections reveal that they will be faced with escalating costs. They will eventually realize that they will have to commit to a high initial cost in order to enable their business with a new service which in the long run will drive down costs. This would entail replacing their legacy infrastructure and implementing an IP-based infrastructure.
IP-based infrastructure has allowed for the integration of voice, data and video through a single network and combined with the prevalence of the internet, IP has been driving convergence in the telecommunications industry. The benefit of IP has affected businesses all over the world by transforming the way companies interact with one another and with their customers. With more consumers gaining high-speed internet access in their homes and increasingly on mobile devices, telecommunications companies have to plan for the impending convergence to respond to customer demand. The hump in the road for carriers is the high set up cost of replacing entire networks with new technologies.
Carriers have to be bold and realize that though they will be faced with increased costs (in the millions of dollars) for a short period of time, making to a network with IP at its core will help deliver news service revenues and drive down costs in the long run. Nonetheless, operators have been reluctant to make the bold move yet, but with the emergence of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as a standardized architecture, operators have little choice but to make the move in order to maintain service levels to their customers.
By definition any standard is an evolution, and right now, IMS is an architectural standard that is not fully developed and is still in the early stages of evolution. IMS will serve as an architecture based on assembling a network based on standard, multi-purpose elements. However, IMS hold plenty of promise for reducing the cost of a network infrastructure and is generating a lot of attention because of the services that can be enabled around it. Though many services can be delivered today using Web services and service- oriented architecture without the need for IMS. The main advantage that IMS will bring to carriers is a cost-efficient network infrastructure and promises to be the way of the future.
IMS allows operators to work with any underlying network architecture and increases the amount of IP-based services available as it allows:
- Networks to be independent of access technology
- Networks to be fully integrated
- Faster deployment of services
- Migration from fixed to mobile
- Scalability
IMS allows operators to respond and deliver ever-changing customer demands while increasing their reach across networks. Even with the high set up costs, telcos should understand that they will be able to build more services into their networks and increase the ability to cross-sell. As the IMS standard evolves and matures, it promises to deliver lower costs as carriers convert to standard, IP-based networks.
Though IMS was initially developed for the mobile market, fixed-line carriers will be the first to see the need to adopt the new technology as they are faced with high operational costs. Carriers will have to develop a roadmap for their network, operations, business support and infrastructure evolution to best take advantage of IMS.
Service Choice
The most important thing for carriers is to have a services delivery platform strategy and a service management strategy that can allow them to introduce new services with the cost trending toward zero - it has to be virtually cost free or marginal. How do you do that? You cannot depend on your own innovation engine alone, since most carriers do not have innovation engines from a services development point of view - which makes sense as most services come from switch manufacturers. Operators never developed services themselves; they got them from the equipment vendors. Considering the fact that the channel of innovation is not enough, carriers have to open up their networks to all the new companies out there, while protecting their underlying network in the process. This gives people choice and makes the experience seamless.
Once carriers have defined their delivery platform strategy, they can face the increasing convergence of IT and telecommunications. Especially with the emergence of IMS around service delivery platforms and service-oriented architecture, carriers have to possess core IT capabilities to be able to cope. Carriers will generally have to partner with IT vendors to ensure that they are able to meet the core IT capabilities. This then leaves the decision on whom to partner with pretty open. Generally, carriers’ expertise lie in telephony and IT companies specialize only in IT, it is crucial to select the right partner to ensure business goals are met. Carriers should ideally partner with a company that has deep expertise and core intellectual property in both.
That's one part of it. Then you take one step out of the network itself and you find that IMS and the whole next-generation of connectedness is about the services people want to use and the devices they are going to use them on. So now find a company that has telephony and IT expertise that also understands both consumer behavior and how devices are used and enterprise IT and how the network needs to be used. Now you're getting to a very short list.
IMS should enable a converged experience which makes use of all the content and services, allowing it to be accessible everywhere, using intelligent devices. Carriers have to be able to deliver agnostic networks resulting in converged service management that allows for a seamless network where the current lack of linkage between multiple technologies and underlying architectures no longer exist.stands both consumer behavior and how devices are used and enterprise IT and how the network needs to be used. Now you're getting to a very short list.
The evolution of IMS is looking to change the face of telecommunications and carriers are seeing the need to break out of their legacy infrastructures and the necessity to partner with IT companies to enable the proper implementation of IMS standards to meet the demands of the consumers.
Hitoshi Nishizawa is the General Manager, for the Communications, Media &Entertainment (CME) Business Unit in the Technology Solutions Group for HewlettPackard Asia Pacific & Japan. In this position, Hitoshi drives the strategic sales andmarketing initiatives of HP CME’s products and solutions offering to the telecommunications & service provider industries in the Asia Pacific region.
Before his appointment, Hitoshi was the General Manager, Strategic BusinessDevelopment, NSP, HP Worldwide. He was instrumental in developing global strategic business relationship and go-to-market activities with various key Telecommunications players.
Having worked in the industry for 13 years before joining HP, his prior experience inSales & Marketing with large organizations in Japan and the USA was instrumental in driving new growth for HP NSP in the Japan region.
In the last 20 years of his career with Hewlett Packard Japan, Hitoshi held several key positions including the Client Business Manager for Intelligent Network and Operation Support for Hewlett Packard Tokyo and General Manager, Telecommunication Sales for Hewlett Packard Japan.
Hitoshi is now based in Japan. He holds a Bachelor of Electronic Engineering degree from Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
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