report - Light Reading

4 

PICK AND MIX 

TO DEVELOP YOUR SERVICES 

B R O A D E N Y O U R L I F E 

ALCATEL TELECOMMUNICATIONS REVIEW

Pick and mix to develop 

your services 

EDITORIAL BOARD 

Alan Mottram 

Alcatel, Paris, France 

Olivier Baujard 


Joëlle Gauthier 


Pierre Tournassoud 


Vince Pizzica 

Alcatel Asia Pacific, Shanghai, 

People’s Republic of China 

Guido H. Petit 

Alcatel, Antwerp, Belgium 

GUEST EDITOR 

Hervé Amosse 


Herve.Amosse@alcatel.com 

EDITORS 

Willem Zevenbergen 

Editor in Chief, Paris, France 

Catherine Camus 

Managing Editor, Paris, France 

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

Gustavo Arroyo 

Spanish edition, Madrid, Spain 

Keith Allen 

Sens de Bretagne, France 

www.alcatel.com/atr 

Alcatel Telecommunications Review - 4 th Quarter 2005 

OPEN SERVICE DELIVERY 

ENVIRONMENT 

CONTENTS 

Alcatel Telecommunications Review is the quarterly technical journal of Alcatel, 

reporting its research, development and production achievements worldwide. 

EDITORIAL 258 

A Service Delivery Transformation Program 

for Telecom New Zealand 

Greg Patchell 

INTRODUCTION 260 

Transforming Service Delivery Architectures 

to Deploy Multiple and Manageable Services 

Hervé Amossé 

Alcatel’s Advanced Rating Engine: 

a key success enabler for the OSDE 262 

Alcatel’s Advanced Rating Engine is a key facilitator of the introduction 

of new services delivered through the Open Service Delivery 

Environment, and helps Service Providers to bill and promote 

innovative services. 

C. Chabernaud, I. Vellin, J.-C. Waeselynck 

Enabling MVNOs at Bell Mobility with Alcatel’s 

payment solution 266 

Taking wireless penetration rates to the next level: initially selected 

strictly as a pre-paid voice replacement solution, Bell Mobility utilized 

other features of Alcatel’s payment solution to support MVNOs 

and consolidate rating functions. 

P. Burton, P. Hanley (Bell Canada) 

Service-Oriented Architectures: 

Orchestrating the OSDE 270 

Service-Oriented Architectures create value on top of IMS, IP TV, 

legacy, and third-party SDPs, by exposing their capabilities and 

combining them into new, orchestrated services. 

G. Maas, J. Marien 

Operational Support Evolution with Web Services 274 

The impact of IMS/NGN, OSDE and Web services on OSS/BSS. 

T. de Groot

Using Fixed/Mobile Convergence to Competitive 

Advantage 281 

Fixed/Mobile Convergence is a tool helping established Service 

Providers to differentiate in a world where revenues are being 

increasingly undermined by disruptive business models. 

D. Hills, N. Mercouroff 

BT Communicator: 

The world’s biggest SIP Deployment 286 

BT is transforming the way consumers communicate with a 

groundbreaking multimedia service. One of the world’s first and biggest 

commercial SIP deployments is enabled by an Alcatel solution. 

M. Jadoul, E. Osstyn 

Network Migration Strategies towards IMS 291 

IMS at the core of Next-Generation Networks (NGN) delivers 

user-centric services over multiple types of access networks in 

a way transparent to the end user. 

J. de Vriendt, G. Hanson, A. Urie 

Alcatel’s User-Centric Data Repository 

and provisioning Architecture 297 

Migration steps towards a repository architecture to facilitate 

user-centric data management in the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) 

and fixed/mobile access domain. 

S. Grégoir, H. Verbandt 

Security from 3GPP IMS to TISPAN NGN 303 

Security for multimedia services is a key for success in a hostile IP 

world crowded with hackers. 

A. Bultinck, D. Hoefkens, M. Mampaey 

Reachability and Context Enablers for IMS 309 

Improving the experience of converging IMS services through 

reachability and context-enabling applications. 

F. Bataille, C. Bazin, G. Dorbes 

Presence and Localization data enable new 

IMS User Services 312 

France Telecom and Alcatel prototype three new-generation services 

over TISPAN/IMS for fixed networks. 

R. Duval, S. Hamzaoui, M. Patte (France Telecom), 

B. Pinatel (France Telecom) 

Triple Play: Don’t Play! Make it Real! 319 

Alcatel’s End-to-End Triple Play Framework is a powerful infrastructure 

for the delivery of convergent streaming, conversational, and Internet 

services. It includes an innovative broadband access and IP infrastructure 

and also a well-integrated service delivery environment. 

A. Lemke, G. Marx, M. Nemani 

Ingredients, Utensils and Recipes for the Triple Play 

Application Innovator 324 

Mixing user-centric creativity with service delivery platform technology: 

a testimonial 

J. Bouwen, M. Godon, K. Handekyn 

Orange Video Project with Alcatel 330 

Orange Video Project with Alcatel 

C. Besset, C. Le Drogo (Orange), C. Dumetz (Orange), 

R. Paquette 

Rich Media Service Delivery 334 

Rich media technology will turn mobile TV into a new media beyond 

“TV over mobile”. Customers will experience a new generation of 

interactive TV services, promising new revenues for mobile operators. 

S. Betgé-Brezetz, P. Kelley, O. Martinot 

Customer Applications Notes Technology White Paper Strategy White Paper Technical Paper 

www.alcatel.com/atr 4 th Quarter 2005 - Alcatel Telecommunications Review - 257

EDITORIAL 

After 24 months of architecture, planning and design, 

Telecom New Zealand recently announced how, in relatively 

short order, we will replace the entire PSTN and be delivering 

all our services for customers over the IP network. The first 

residential customers will migrate onto the new network by early 

2007 and eventually all of New Zealand’s 2.2 million customer lines 

will be transitioned to the new platform in 2012. 

One of the key objectives is to provide customers with more 

control and flexibility whether they are at home, at work or on 

the move. At the same time, we need to get new services to market 

more quickly, and ensure that those services are more compelling 

than other choices our customers may have. To do all that 

while containing operating costs obviously means not only 

changes in our operating model, but also some significant 

changes in the technology architecture that underpins our 

business. 

Since it supports our fixed, mobile and on-line businesses, 

that technology architecture obviously incorporates a wide variety 

of different elements and systems. However, in simple terms 

we could divide the technology into three main areas – the network, 

service delivery and support systems (in which I include 

what the industry traditionally calls OSS, BSS and network management). 

If I were to arrange those three categories by how much we 

spend, it would be the network first, followed by support systems, 

and then service delivery a distant third. Now, since customers 

buy services, which are largely driven by service 

delivery applications, that third place means that service delivery 

is arguably our most highly leveraged area of investment. 

However, it is not just the revenue side of the equation that 

service delivery impacts – it can also have a big impact on 

reducing overall operational complexity and therefore cost. 

That doesn’t have too much impact on our network spend, but 

it can have a dramatic impact on reducing our other large technology 

spend – support systems. 

As an aside, it is interesting to observe the blurring of the 

lines between service delivery and support systems. There are 

many functions that were traditionally part of “support systems” 

that are now also an integral part of “service delivery”. To take 

an obvious example, rating (i.e. the application of pricing rules 

to usage records to determine service charges) is simply a “support 

system” in the case of the legacy PSTN, but is an active 

part of “service delivery” for mobile prepay. This blurring will 

itself become an increasingly important consideration that I’ll 

come back to shortly. 

Greg Patchell 

A SERVICE DELIVERY 

TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM 

FOR TELECOM NEW ZEALAND 

Before that, let me talk about some of the key principles we 

adopted in the creation of our service delivery architecture. 

Firstly, we emphasize common service enablers across our different 

service delivery applications. As our architecture develops 

those common service enablers will include presence, location 

and “reachability” to enable services like advanced collaboration, 

geographic promotions, and sophisticated mobility 

services respectively. 

Our initial emphasis has been focused on the most important 

of common service enablers – an integrated profile. We 

have invested significantly over the last three years to build a 

common meta-directory for user and device information 

across our entire range of next-generation fixed and mobile 

services. This “meta-directory” has brought together many separate 

user databases from disparate service delivery environments. 

The results of this effort have included not only the ability 

to bring brand new services to market much more quickly, 

but also to significantly simplify the integration between the 

service delivery environment and support systems. As we 

approach PSTN migration, this profile capability is critical to 

the practical implementation. 

In effect, profile becomes the primary connection between 

service delivery and support systems. This is because all new 

service delivery applications are profile-driven. In other 

words, to change the user’s service characteristics, you just 

change the profile. 

A very good example of this profile-based service delivery 

is in the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) architecture that is 

being supported by an increasing number of standards bodies 

including TISPAN for wired networks. In this architecture, the 

HSS (Home Subscriber Server) contains all the profile information 

required to determine the IMS user experience. In our 

architecture, the HSS is synchronized with our meta-directory, 

so as we move our “IMS-ready” applications to full IMS compliance 

with separate HSS, there won’t be any significant 

change required to support systems or service enablers. 

IMS itself provides another opportunity to reduce complexity 

of the application environment by sharing applications 

and/or service enablers between fixed and mobile users. 

Obviously this also offers the potential to deliver some converged 

fixed/mobile services that are not practical with today’s 

separate fixed and mobile control planes. 

On the subject of IMS, I would also emphasize that IMS is 

not the “be all and end all” of service delivery applications. It 

is important to realize that IMS is primarily focused on next gen- 

258 - Alcatel Telecommunications Review - 4 th Quarter 2005 www.alcatel.com/atr

A SERVICE DELIVERY TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM FOR TELECOM NEW ZEALAND 

eration conversational services. As such, it will exist in parallel 

with other “service delivery platforms” – our legacy IN platforms 

for the PSTN and mobile, as well as other next generation 

service delivery platforms for other service-areas like 

online, broadcast, messaging, call centers and so forth. 

However, wherever possible we will try to limit the number 

of service delivery platforms to as small a number as practical 

and we will ensure that new integration work occurs wherever 

practical on our target service delivery platforms rather than 

our legacy platforms. 

What’s more, whenever practical, that new integration 

work will be based on Web services and orchestration technologies. 

That’s because we believe these technologies have the 

potential to dramatically improve our business by reducing the 

operational costs for next-generation business processes and 

network-based products. 

These new processes and products require a complex 

user perspective very different to the traditional PSTN. This 

complexity has the potential to increase the time needed to 

launch new products. There are two main bottlenecks in that 

service creation process – the definition of requirements, and 

integration with support systems. It is this second area where 

we are excited about the potential of Web services and the use 

of service orchestration based on BPEL (Business Process Execution 

Language). This type of service-oriented architecture 

will enable us to maximize the re-use of existing business logic 

(exposed via Web services interfaces) so that we can get new 

services to market with less integration effort. 

Where this type of approach is particularly useful is in creating 

variations on existing services, when a service variation 

is just a recombination of existing service features this can be 

rapidly executed simply by “dragging and dropping” in a graphical 

interface. That’s interesting not only in terms of helping 

with rapid responses to market changes, but also introduces 

the ability to more quickly prototype and iterate services – so 

the technology we use to solve the “integration bottleneck” 

might also help us to attack the “requirements bottleneck” too. 

How real is BPEL technology? We’ve just completed our first 

BPEL-based order management application, which will be in production 

by the time you read this. It uses BPEL-based orchestration 

for DSL provisioning requests and billing enquiries. Of 

course, even with BPEL, there remains the need to manage the 

logical and physical configuration of the network, and as 

much as possible this should occur at the network management 

level so that, as an operator, we can focus on service logic. 

This strategic evolution of today’s OSS, which will occur over 

the next several years, will have significant parallels in the evolution 

of service delivery, bringing me back to the “blurring of 

the lines” that I mentioned earlier. Though our first application 

of service orchestration is in the area of support systems, 

the longer-term service-creation vision must encompass not 

only the supporting business processes of fulfillment, assurance 

and billing, but also the definition of service delivery logic itself. 

In order to realize these improvements in time-to-market 

while at the same time offering compelling services and 

reducing operational complexity, we believe it is necessary to 

move to a service delivery environment based on a small number 

of service delivery platforms, which share a common set 

of service enablers, which in turn can exploit a highly standardized 

interface to a network, and which provide Web service 

interfaces to enable service orchestration. 

Even with the scale of network transformation implied by 

transitioning an entire PSTN to IP, perhaps the most strategically 

important changes in our technology architecture are 

those we are making in service delivery. 

Greg Patchell, BSc 

General Manager Technology Strategy & Capability 

Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Ltd 

Greg leads the merged and centralized Technology Strategy & Architecture function for the Telecom NZ Group including Network and IS areas. 

This involves accountability for the Enterprise Architecture, Technology roadmaps and technology selection for the Telecom NZ Group. Additionally 

he is accountable for the sourcing and supply of technology specialists across most disciplines that are used for Telecom NZ change programs. 

In June 2002, The Telecom New Zealand Group, which includes Telecom New Zealand and AAPT, and Alcatel formed a strategic partnering 

relationship relating to the supply and integration of telecommunications equipment and the development of capability to deliver competitive, 

innovative and cost-effective customer solutions. In June 2003, Telecom outsourced its Network operations and Network development responsibilities 

to Alcatel as part of an ongoing alignment of competency and business models. 


INTRODUCTION 

As Greg Patchell, General Manager Technology Strategy 

& Capability, Telecom Corporation of New 

Zealand Ltd, explains very well in his editorial on Service 

Delivery in this issue, the telecom industry is adopting 

a more sophisticated approach to services. With fierce competition 

at all levels, and with Internet technology providing 

a constant stream of disruption, Service Providers cannot risk 

committing the future of their business to a small number of 

“killer” services. Fixed and mobile broadband services are 

seen as a vast and growing area of opportunities for Service 

Providers to provide new services to subscribers in the domain 

of VoIP, Triple Play or enterprise collaboration tools. This issue 

will focus on key transformations implied by these opportunities 

in the services delivery architectures for consumer services. 

The next issue will develop equivalent trends for enterprise 

services. 

Service Providers develop new business and technical 

practices: they work in a stronger partnership mode with their 

vendors to take position in a new services domains. Beyond the 

Figure 1: Alcatel OSDE architecture 

End-User 

CPE 

IMS Client 

TV Client 

Streaming 

Client 

Video 

Player 

Mail 

Client 

MMS 

Client 


TRANSFORMING SERVICE 

DELIVERY ARCHITECTURES 

TO DEPLOY MULTIPLE AND 

MANAGEABLE SERVICES 

GUP/ 

HSS 

Softswitch 

Network 

Services 

OSS/BSS 

Integration 

SIP, ISC, LDAP, 

Diameter, HTTP 

INAP, CAP 

Parlay-X 

existing telecom application domains, the new ones typically 

include IMS for VoIP, and IP TV for Triple Play. Service 

Providers become better position to compete in their market 

place, offering to their subscribers attractive and innovative 

Internet-based services that they will sell as basic bundles, premium 

packages, and/on a pay-per-use basis. The targeted new 

service domains include innovative VoIP multimedia services; 

Fixed/Mobile convergent services; PSTN evolution and eventual 

replacement; and fixed and mobile entertainment services. 

Service Providers then face the double challenge of deploying, 

using and exploiting the value of the new service domains, at 

the same time as making them by design able to communicate 

and interact with one another, with existing telecom application 

and with external web-based applications, to attract the 

largest developers community. 

Within its User-Centric Broadband architecture, Alcatel has 

defined an Open Services Delivery Environment (OSDE) to 

enable such technological and business transformations. With 

the OSDE, Service Providers are given the means to: 

Open Service Delivery Environment 

Services 

Enablers 

End-User 

Services 

Provisioning/Activation 

Inventory, Alarm handling, QoS, 

Performance, traffic 

CDR handling 

Customer Self-mgt Service Fulfillment Service Assurance Billing 

260 - Alcatel Telecommunications Review - 4 th Quarter 2005 www.alcatel.com/atr 

Presence 

GLMS 

Rating 

Server 

SIP, LDAP, 

Diameter, HTTP/SOAP 

Mobile Video 

SDP 

IPTV SDP 

IMS SDP 

IN SDP 

HTTP,Other 

SOAP/WSDL 

WS* 

Parlay-X 

WS 

Services 

Orchestration 

HTTP(S), SOAP/XML SNMP,FTP,SOAP/XML Ad-hoc, SOAP/XML 

Self-Mgt OSS BSS 

HTTP,Other 

SOAP/WSDL, WS* 

Any Application, Any Content

TRANSFORMING SERVICE DELIVERY ARCHITECTURES TO DEPLOY MULTIPLE AND MANAGEABLE SERVICES 

• Tailor services for each specific service domain (VoIP/IMS, 

IP-TV, mobile TV, PSTN/PLMN services), which users can personalize 

to match their own needs, as user-centricity 

becomes part of the broadband experience; 

• Enrich end-user service offers, combining and re-using features 

and innovations deployed in each of the above service 

infrastructures by SPs and their partners. 

The Alcatel OSDE uses a Service-Oriented Architecture 

(SOA) model to facilitate achieving the above market conditions. 

It structures components to deliver user-centric services 

in five categories, each exposing the most relevant abstraction 

to the others: network services; service enablers; end-user services; 

service orchestration; and OSS/BSS integration. The 

abstractions offered by each component are the sets of specialized 

and standardized interfaces and protocols to be used for 

communication between the different components, both 

within and between SDPs. Some of them are standardized in 

organizations like OMA, 3GPP, TISPAN, etc. 

Each service domain comes with its own development and 

execution environments, defining a Service Delivery Platform 

(SDP) spanning the above service enablers and end-user service 

categories. Coarse-grained interaction between the components 

of each SDP is made available through Web Services. 

Web Services provide a general exposure mechanism independent 

of each SDP execution environment. Exposed features are 

orchestrated either as composite application, or as BPEL scripts 

through the use of Orchestration tools. 

This will ultimately allow the agile deployment of a rich and 

flexible portfolio of services, of which the communications component, 

i.e. VoIP, will be key, as it will structure the user experience 

around presence, reachability, friends & colleagues list 

management, etc. 

Main components of the Alcatel OSDE are: 

• Network services (see Figure 1) is where most basic communications 

services are deployed, such as subscribers’ repository, 

softswitches, media servers, etc., and where Quality of 

Service (QoS) and security are controlled. They provide an 

end-to-end view of the required resources in real time, ensuring 

that service usage is controlled, that services do not compete 

for resources, and that user authentication is simple and 

rapid. Network abstraction is where the various network protocols 

are abstracted to other layers without losing network 

functionality. 

• Service enablers include functions like rating, presence, location, 

content delivery, and device management. Implementing 

a service enabler once, and re-using it across multiple layers 

and applications, can achieve significant cost savings. Enduser 

services, other enablers, and applications beyond standard 

service exposure use these enablers via specific protocols 

or Web Services APIs. 

• The end-user services area is where the applications that 

support user-centric services are deployed. All kinds of applications 

can be envisaged, depending on the scope of the 

OSDE deployment. Typically, applications deployed within 

this function are high-traffic, high-penetration services, 

with configurable features that address specific market 

segments or corporations: voice VPNs, mobile redirect, 

800/900 numbers, instant messaging, push-to-talk, mobile 

video streaming, video on demand, TV broadcast, and so on. 

• Service orchestration is the set of Web Services interfaces 

used by engineers, and scripting tools used by non-engineers, 

to deliver additional services by combining various SDP features 

in a fast and efficient way. Partners can therefore exploit 

the SP’s services offering with secured access and SLAs. These 

interfaces are simple, providing well-defined functionalities 

and abstraction capabilities to developers and non-developers 

with limited or no knowledge of the telecoms domain. 

• OSS/BSS integration is the link between the OSDE and the 

OSS/BSS layer. Each service, enabler, and SDP execution platform 

exposes interfaces towards the OSS/BSS integration 

function for self-provisioning and management, alarms, provisioning, 

event records, configuration, command logging, etc. 

The integration layer significantly reduces the cost of introducing 

new services and new components in the SDPs. Web 

Services-based mechanisms are also used to integrate with 

the latest OSS/BSS systems. 

This issue of Alcatel Telecommunications Review presents 

the key aspects of Alcatel’s OSDE and shows it at work in various 

conditions. We start with three key components of the 

Alcatel OSDE: the Alcatel rating server and its use within the 

Bell Canada network; the Web Services orchestration layer; and 

OSS/BSS integration, notably in the context of introducing SOA 

architectures. Later we describe the OSDE at work in the 

deployment of Fixed/Mobile Convergence services, via a customer 

case: the BT Communicator service. With the growing 

importance of IMS/VoIP solutions for Service Providers, we then 

explore IMS in depth, from both the network and applications 

perspective. France Telecom gives us its first conclusions about 

its innovative IMS services, jointly developed with Alcatel. 

Finally, we look at further Triple Play offers, focusing on Video 

Services platforms for both fixed and mobile networks. In particular, 

Orange tells us more about its mobile video services. 

In the Alcatel OSDE, each network service, service enabler, 

and end-user service is a re-usable component that can be consumed 

directly, or with orchestration scripts, through an open 

technology approach based on a powerful SOA paradigm. As 

a result, it enables the rapid development and deployment of 

multiple services in the domains of Triple Play, Fixed/Mobile 

Convergence, and Managed Communications, while taking into 

account three key elements: the user-centric experience; differentiation; 

and operational excellence. 


Alcatel Applications Strategy Director 


TECHNOLOGY WHITE PAPER 

C. Chabernaud, I. Vellin, J.-C. Waeselynck 

In mature markets, service differentiation is a key driver for operators 

and service providers. It is becoming a general trend, as the 

convergence of services and networks accelerates. The service 

provider’s challenge, going forward, will be to offer more services, 

innovative business models, and enhanced service accessibility. 

Charging and billing tools are a key part of the service delivery 

chain that supports this service differentiation challenge. 

These tools must offer the necessary flexibility and “universality” 

in order to follow, and sometimes anticipate, the evolution 

of service offer catalogs. 

End-user consumption aspects 

Services are no longer confined to access and transport, but now 

also cover content provided by the service provider or third parties. 

Therefore, highly flexible and open rating/charging mechanisms 

are needed to take new business models and types of 

consumption into account. 

Convenient payment means are also essential for user satisfaction. 

Pre-payment, post-payment, bundled subscriptions, 

credit card payments, or any combination of these “basic” 

mechanisms can help to stimulate consumption. 

Figure 1: OSDE view 

End User 

IMS Client 

TV Client 

Streaming 

Client 

Video 

Player 

Mail 

Client 

MMS 

Client 

GUP/ 

HSS 

Softswitch 

Network 

Services 

OSS/BSS 

Integration 

ALCATEL’S ADVANCED RATING 

ENGINE: A KEY SUCCESS ENABLER 

FOR THE OSDE 

Alcatel’s Advanced Rating Engine is a key facilitator of the 

introduction of new services delivered through the Open 

Service Delivery Environment, and helps Service Providers 

to bill and promote innovative services. 


SIP, ISC, LDAP, 

Diameter, HTTP 

INAP, CAP 

Parlay-X 

Service 

Enablers 

Identity 

Management 

Presence 

GLMS 

Rating 

Server 

Inventory, Alarm handling, QoS, 

Performance, Traffic 

CDR handling 

Customer Self-mgt Service Fulfillment Service Assurance Billing 

SIP, LDAP, 

Diameter, HTTP/SOAP 

Integration & Operations 

Moreover, real-time cost control is essential for the early 

adoption of innovative services by pre- and post-paid users. 

Real-time rating/charging functions help users to control their 

budget, and service providers to reduce bad debt. 

Commercial offers should be complex enough to be adaptable 

to the user’s needs, but must remain easily understandable 

in terms of price and delivered services. 

Reducing complexity and costs while enlarging the 

service offering 

Business models are now rapidly evolving towards bundled 

offerings that span once-separate domains (e.g. mobile, fixed, 

ISP operators) and multiple supporting access technologies 

(3G, GSM/GPRS, POTS, xDSL, etc.). SPs are therefore turning 

to “Open Service Delivery Environments” as a means of dramatically 

reducing complexity and costs, and improving the way 

they deliver and bill new services. 

In such environments, providing a unifying solution for innovative 

and flexible charging and rating of a rich variety of crossdomain 

services, while hiding the complexity of underlying network 

technologies, is paramount. 

End-User 

Services 

Mobile Video 

SDP 

IP TV SDP 


IMS SDP 

OSP SDP 

HTTP,Other 

SOAP/WSDL 

WS* 

Parlay-X 

WS 

Services 

Orchestration 

HTTP(S), ... SOAP/XML LDAP/Diameter 

Self-Mgt OSS BSS 

HTTP,Other 

SOAP/WSDL, WS* 

Any Application, Any Content 

Network 

Ro 

CAP 

O 

C 

F 

Re 

Re 

OCS 

ABMF 

Account 

Balance 

On-Line 

Charging 

RF 

Rating 

On-Line 

Charging Capability

ALCATEL'S ADVANCED RATING ENGINE: A KEY SUCCESS ENABLER FOR THE OSDE 

Charging and rating positioning within OSDE 

Alcatel positions its payment solutions as a strategic “common 

charging capability” of its OSDE, as shown in Figure 1. 

As part of the OSDE, Alcatel’s solution provides a logical, 

common, off-line and/or on-line charging architecture and 

framework, which can be applied to all network domains (fixed 

& mobile voice, multi-bearer data access such as GPRS, 

WLAN, xDSL); to all subsystems (e.g. Legacy, IP TV, IMS); and 

to all services (hosted/external). 

The rating engine benefits from a set of open interfaces provided 

and supported by the OSDE, such as: 

• interfaces to external application services i.e. Internet Service 

Provider (ISP) sites and content provider platforms, 

based on Web services provided by the “Service Exposure 

Layer”; 

• interfaces to internal services within the SP’s network (Service 

Provider Portal for instance), based on the Diameter protocol; 

• interfaces to legacy network equipment based on CAMEL and 

INAP; 

• interfaces to IP or IMS networks via SIP/ Diameter; 

• CORBA, FTP, and XML towards the OSS/BSS. 

On-line charging as a primary means of 

enhanced control 

Alcatel promotes on-line (real-time) charging as a primary 

means of bringing full control to both the Service Provider and 

end user. 

The On-Line Charging capability comprises (see functional 

entities shown in Figure 2): 

• the On-line Charging Function (OCF), which performs realtime 

charging, event monitoring and processing; and manages 

exchanges with network elements 

for authorization granting/denial, 

allocation of quotas, forced session 

termination, etc; 

• the Rating Function (RF), which 

determines the value of the network 

resource usage (described in 

the charging event received by the 

OCF from the network) on behalf of 

the OCF; 

• the Account Balance Management 

Function (ABMF), which is the 

location of the subscriber’s account 

balance within the OCS (On-line 

Charging System). 

The charging capability is triggered: 

• either by the network: network elements 

perform real-time monitoring 

of resource usage across the various 

domains to detect chargeable events, 

while delivering services to the end 

user; 

• or by native or external applications 

(via the service exposure 

layer). 

Figure 2: OSDE/ rating engine interfaces 

Services 

VoIP TDM 

PSTN/PLMN 

Further, the charging capability can support complex and 

powerful charging situations, involving management of: 

• both Session-Based and Event-Based Charging paradigms for 

different types of media (voice, data, etc.); 

• charging in parallel for several concurrent services running 

as part of the same user session (handling one charging context 

per media or sub-session involved in the user session); 

• possible multiple parallel sessions for the same user; 

• multiple interim events within the same session to describe 

changes to session characteristics (e.g. QoS change, change 

of IMS session media type); 

• unexpected termination of user sessions (implementing 

graceful termination policies); 

• advice of charge. 

The decision about when and how to charge for a session 

is handled by charging policies provisioned in the rating 

function. It should be noted that, in some cases, non-chargeable 

sessions (or sub-sessions) have to be explicitly monitored 

via “zero rating charging contexts” for consistency. 

Exploiting rating engine intelligence 

The Alcatel Convergent Rating Engine supports multiple and 

complex rating policies, which are defined through easily configurable 

rules, based on a decision tree mechanism (see article 

by Paul Burton and Patricia Hanley, Enabling MVNOS at 

Bell Mobility with Alcatel’s payment solution). 

This state-of-the-art technology allows the implementation of 

flexible rating rules, triggered by event types coming from the online/off-line 

mediation layer. These event types include Mobile- 

Originated Calls (MOC), ring tone downloads, Multimedia Message 

Service (MMS) Picture Sending, video telephony, on-line purchase 

of MMS units, and so on. The rules are based on a cascade 

of criteria taking into account not only classical parameters such 

CORBA, FTP, XML 

Event Charging 

Rating requests 

OSS/BSS 

Rating Functions 

On-Line Charging Layer 

INAP CSx 

INAP CAMEL 

IP Multimedia 

IMS/TISPAN 

Diameter 

IP access 

Service 

Exposure 

Radius 

Diameter 

HTTP, XML 

Web 

Services 

Internet 

M-commerce 

Content & 

application 

servers 



as time, date, volume, and origin/destination, 

but also any promotion/discount 

to be applied; customer-related information 

such as type of subscription (pre- 

/post-paid), loyalty, or age; bundles; 

and any variable criteria entered into the 

rating database or sent by the network. 

The SP can rapidly implement new 

tariff policies by altering these configurable 

rules. 

In addition to this capability, the 

Convergent Rating Engine provides 

complete Product Catalog management 

for voice/data/content/pre-paid/postpaid 

services, including non-network 

related services such as handset rental, 

itemized billing, or Friends & Family 

subscriptions. New services can be 

added dynamically by the Service 

Provider. 

Product Catalog organization into 

different commercial offers (Figure 3) 

helps the Service Provider to implement 

intelligent market segmentation, and 

allows the elaboration of offer packages aimed at cross-selling services. 

Typically, a package mixing both voice and multimedia services 

at a lower rate will help to boost innovative services in a dedicated 

market segment. 

For customer account management, the Alcatel Convergent 

Rating Engine not only supports real-time balance management, 

but also offers unlimited sub-balances. These can be dedicated 

to a specific usage in units, e.g. voice in minutes; SMS in units; or 

GPRS by volume. These sub-balances are critical for supporting 

dedicated promotional/bonus programs offered to the end user 

for a limited period. The SP can dynamically create promotional 

and bonus programs, via the creation of counters and thresholds 

related to customer consumption. 

The CRE is a powerful tool for generating and supervising loyalty 

programs that help the Service Provider to retain customers 

and gain new ones. 

Another key innovative feature is 

community management, which positions 

the end user within an organization 

and in relation to others (e.g. a child 

within a family or an employee within a 

company, where the family/company 

authorizes and/or pays for the 

child/employee’s service usage). 

In this context, a customer may have 

multiple accounts: private, corporate, 

pre-paid, post-paid; and may share his 

accounts with other individuals according 

to guidelines defined in the Decision 

Tree. Guidelines perform routing of 

charges, i.e. who pays, for which 

account, according to which tariff plan 

(see Figure 4). 

With its powerful community and 

promotion management tools, the 

Alcatel Convergent Rating Engine 

enables truly user-centric service customization. 

Figure 3: Product catalog model 

Commercial 

Offers 

Commercial 

Offers 

Basic Packages (Voice/SMS) 

MMS usage 

MMS monthly subscription 

MMS explicit purchase 

Handset upgrade 

Commercial 

Offers 

Roaming Packages Heavy user bonus 

ADSL Packages 

Old user discount 

Multimedia Packages 

Product catalog 

Service offer Group Video 

Service offer Group Music 

Service offer Group MMS 

Tariffs 

(charging+rating rules) 

Tariffs 

Tariffs 

Tariffs 

Given all these capabilities (product catalog, pricing policies, 

account and community management), the Alcatel 

Convergent Rating Engine is therefore the heart of the SP’s 

Business Support System (BSS). To ensure close and smooth 

integration with the existing BSS, the rating engine provides 

a full set of APIs (standards-based Application Programming 

Interfaces). These enable external systems (Customer Care 

and Billing Systems (CCBS), Customer Relationship Management 

(CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), etc.) to 

extract relevant information like customer or commercial offer 

data, and to support business processes such as customer and 

contract management, provisioning of customer accounts, revenue 

assurance, and cash collection. 

These APIs, mainly based on CORBA, XML and FTP, make 

the rating engine a truly open platform. 

Figure 4: Example of routing of charges within a family 

Internet unlimited 

Flat rate bundle share 

by the whole family 

I accept to pay on my 

account when kids are 

calling me 

3 hours’ pre-paid video 

telephony towards my 

boyfriend in Australia 

Family offer mixing applications 

Voice 

Emily 

Dupont 

Video Tel 

Family Shared 

account 

Anna and Tom Dupont 

Postpaid 20 

Internet 

TV 

Prepaid 20 

Prepaid 22 Prepaid 23 

VoD 

Internet 

David 

Dupont 

Game 

The caller is not always the one who pays! 

Mobile post-paid 

subscription 

For some data, I prefer 

my pre-paid accounts 

Able to top up 

children’s accounts 

Extra communication & 

entertainment paid with 

my pocket money 



The charging and rating engine at work: 

examples 

On-line theatre ticket reservation 

This example is a complex, multi-session service, which 

involves the on-line purchase of a theater ticket using collaborative 

IMS services, and requires a highly flexible charging function. 

Scenario assumptions: booking a ticket from the reservation 

center with a time-based charge; tickets are purchased via 

credit card. 

The sample purchase scenario could unfold as follows: 

• The customer calls the booking center; the customer agent 

provides a list of theatres with available seats (voice call). 

• The customer asks for details about a theatre (continued voice 

call); the agent pushes back a leaflet (document push). 

• The customer inquires about tariffs (continued voice call); 

the agent displays a layout of the theatre room, showing pricing 

areas and vacancies from which the customer interactively 

selects a seat (document share). 

• Upon validation, credit card payment is proposed to the customer 

(secure web transaction). 

• An electronic ticket is sent to the customer (document push 

and confirmation mail). 

• The purchase session terminates. 

From the charging viewpoint: 

• The purchase is managed as a main session, with secondary 

sub-sessions for the voice call, document push, document 

share, etc. 

• The main session has a time-based charging context. Secondary 

sessions have “zero rating” charging contexts. 

• Charging events are generated by the network at various steps 

of the purchase. These include, amongst others: the voice call 

to the booking center; opening an IMS session; pushing the 

theatre document to the end user; selection of the seat; the 

ticket purchase; sending the electronic ticket; terminating the 

voice call; and terminating the IMS session. 

• Events are correlated to the main session using Identifiers. 

• The credit card transaction is managed by the booking center 

(outside the OSDE’s scope). 

Triple Play and mobile package for a family 

This example describes a bundle mixing Triple Play and 

mobile services for a family, which requires highly flexible rating 

and community charging capabilities. 

Package assumptions: 

• A 60 euro monthly fee, including 

- Triple Play services covering unlimited national calls 

(VoIP), Internet access, and access to selected TV channels 

(IP TV); 

- A mobile bundle with two hours of mobile communications 

to national mobile numbers, 30 national SMSs, and 10 

national MMSs. 

• The son has his own mobile pre-paid account limited to 30 

minutes of national voice and 10 SMSs debited from the family 

bundle. He can top up his pre-paid account with scratch 

cards when the balance is exhausted. 

• All other calls (outside the monthly fee) are charged by time 

and destination. 

• All services are charged on a single monthly bill. 

From the rating viewpoint, the following functions are 

required: 

• Management of the monthly fee (60 euros) with several balances 

in units (SMS, Minutes, MMS); 

• Community management, with routing of charges to the family 

account, and a limit on the son’s usage; 

• Out-of-bundle call charging according to the appropriate tariff 

plan; 

• Call Detail Records (CDR) generation and aggregation for the 

monthly bill. 

Conclusion 

The Alcatel Convergent Rating Engine is a key success 

enabler for the OSDE, offering the flexibility required to meet 

the challenges faced by service providers. The most advanced 

current business models are supported, as are future evolutions, 

thanks to a wide set of customization tools. 

Rating and charging for bundled high-value services such 

as Triple Play can be easily introduced, because the Alcatel 

solution is open to new 

media, new services, 

and to virtually any 

type of current or 

future business model: 

legacy services; settle- 

http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/ 

archive/32_series/32.240/ 

32240-630.zip 

ment and revenue-sharing schemes; merchant/third party 

transactions; wholesale/retail transactions; Video on Demand; 

Voice over IP; and all IP TV services in general. 

It is worth noting that Alcatel’s charging and rating capability 

already implements the main generic on-line and off-line 

charging concepts defined in the TS32.240 3GPP charging specifications 

for the IMS subsystem. 

Its real-time charging and rating capabilities make it possible 

to build commercial offers mixing pre-paid and post-paid 

accounts, while offering full control to the operator as well as 

to the end-user. 

Both incumbent operators and emerging service providers 

can take advantage of such a powerful OSDE architecture to 

differentiate themselves from the competition with innovative 

services and charging schemes. 

www.alcatel.com/atr 4 th Quarter 2005 - Alcatel Telecommunications Review - 265 

> 

References 

[1] 3GPP TS 32.240 (IMS & Charging) 

[2] Technology white paper: Alcatel Open Service Delivery 

Environment (T0503-Service_delivery-EN.pdf) 

Isabelle Vellin 

is Marketing Product 

Manager, Payment 

Products, Alcatel 

MSD/SPA, Vélizy, 

France. 

(Isabelle.vellin@alcatel.fr) 

Christian Chabernaud 

is Marketing Product 

Manager, Payment 

Products, Alcatel 

MSD/SPA, Vélizy, 

France. 

(Christian.chabernaud@alcatel.fr) 

Jean-Claude Waeselynck 

is responsible for Bid Management and Sales Support in 

the Alcatel MSD/ Bid Office & Advanced Tendering, Vélizy, 

France. 

(Jean-Claude.Waeselynck@alcatel.fr)

CUSTOMER APPLICATION NOTE 

P. Burton, P. Hanley (Bell Canada) 

The trend towards Mobile Virtual Network Operators 

(MVNOs) started in Europe in 1999, but it is only in the 

last two years that this business model has reached the 

mobile industry in Canada. Alcatel and Bell Mobility have 

worked together to enable Bell Mobility to position itself as the 

Mobile Network Operator (MNO) of choice for MVNOs. 

In 2002, Bell Mobility’s existing pre-paid platform was being 

discontinued. This resulted in a request for proposal being 

issued in mid-2002. After being short-listed and successfully 

completing a lab evaluation, Alcatel’s payment solution was 

selected to replace the existing system while maintaining an 

unchanged end-user experience. Alcatel was selected based on, 

among other things, the solution’s flexibility, ability to migrate 

the current feature set seamlessly, quality, and track record. 

Migration to the new Alcatel payment solution was completed 

in the fall of 2004 as over 1 million users and 20 million 

vouchers were transitioned to the new system. The migration 

was nearly flawless, causing only minimal customer impact, and 

all those involved acknowledged it as a great success. 

Over the duration of the pre-paid replacement project, the 

Canadian pre-paid market was also changing. Vineet Parmar, 

Senior Manager, Wireless Services Development at Bell Canada, 

summarizes these changes: 

“Initially, wireless pre-paid was marketed towards safety users as 

well as customers who were credit challenged. These customers 

were either unable to qualify for a post-paid wireless service, or 

were willing to trade a lower monthly fee for a higher per-minute 

charge. Over the last couple of years, wireless pre-paid has 

become a significant growth opportunity for Bell Mobility, particularly 

within the youth and budget-conscious markets. The youth 

themselves are making more wireless purchase decisions. With a 

less stringent credit policy compared to that of post-paid, wireless 

pre-paid becomes a very attractive offering. 

Today, Bell Mobility is working on offering innovative data services 

such as Bell Mobility’s push-to-talk service, called 10-4, to our wireless 

pre-paid customers. Combined with new MVNO opportunities, 

Bell Mobility’s pre-paid wireless service continues to experience 

increased growth and market acceptance.” 

Bell Canada’s 2005 second quarter report supports 

Mr Parmar’s comments. Pre-paid ARPU had increased by 45.5% 

over the same quarter last year, and year-to-date pre-paid activations 

were up 52% over the first half of 2004. 

ENABLING MVNOS AT BELL 

MOBILITY WITH ALCATEL’S 

PAYMENT SOLUTION 

Taking wireless penetration rates to the next level: 

initially selected strictly as a pre-paid voice replacement 

solution, Bell Mobility utilized other features of Alcatel’s 

payment solution to support MVNOs and consolidate 

rating functions. 

This change in market conditions created a need to 

expand the capabilities of the pre-paid platform beyond what 

was originally planned. In the fourth quarter of 2003, the Alcatel 

payment solution was designed as a direct replacement for 

existing pre-paid voice services, which already serviced 

three different wireless operators. Since then, capacity has 

been increased to support 3 million subscribers. Services 

within Alcatel’s payment solution have been modified, and 

more systems integration work has been completed while two 

MVNOs were added. With the advent of MVNOs, Bell needed 

to enhance its existing text-messaging rating platform. 

Rather than continuing with the existing platform, which was 

not capable of supporting MVNOs, the rating of text messages 

was migrated onto the Alcatel platform. Similarly, when the 

time came to introduce rating for 10-4, Bell’s push-to-talk service, 

it was done on the Alcatel platform to take advantage of 

its existing flexible rating and MVNO capabilities. 

Introduction to Bell Mobility 

Bell Canada is Canada’s national leader in communications. 

With over 27 million customer connections, Bell Canada provides 

connectivity to both residential and business customers 

through wired and wireless voice and data communications, 

local and long-distance phone services, high-speed and wireless 

Internet access, IP broadband services, e-business solutions, 

and digital television services. 

Bell Mobility, a division of Bell 

Canada, provides CDMA-based wireless 

services to over 5 million sub- 

scribers, and boasts one of the lowest 

levels of customer churn of any major 

wireless service provider in North 

America. Bell Mobility has demonstrated 

innovation and leadership by 

being the first Personal Communications 

Service (PCS) company in North 

America to put an Internet browser in 

a PCS handset, and the first mobile 

operator in Canada to launch 1X data 

services, commercial location-based 

services, and caller ring tones – a ringback 

tone service. 

Alcatel’s payment solution, as 

deployed at Bell Mobility, is based on 

Alcatel’s Rating Engine release 1.4 

Voucher 

management 

refers to the 

management of 

top-up card profiles 

and batches of 

cards. Voucher 

profiles contain 

information such as 

the value of the 

card, expiration of 

the card, and 

validity period for 

funds once applied 

to an account. 


ENABLING MVNOs AT BELL MOBILITY WITH ALCATEL’S PAYMENT SOLUTION 

and includes functions such as voucher management, customer 

service agent Web interfaces, and recurring charges across multiple 

services. These services benefit from the redundancy, scalability, 

and management features of Alcatel’s underlying Open 

Service Platform. After integrating 13 different external systems, 

the Alcatel payment solution at Bell Mobility today supports 

five MVNOs and service bureaus, and over 1.3 million subscribers. 

The Alcatel / Bell Mobility team 

Alcatel and Bell Mobility formed a geographically diverse 

team, which enabled some of Alcatel’s best pre-paid developers 

to be assigned to the project. The core team was spread 

between Mississauga, Canada; Plano, USA; and Namur, Belgium. 

The appropriate resources were brought to Canada during the 

project for the definition of requirements, initial system trial, 

joint lab testing, and on-site support for migrations. Depending 

on the expertise required, 13 different people spent a total 

of 30 weeks on site at Bell Mobility. 

Key to the success of the project was open, honest communication 

in both directions, with the entire team striving 

towards a common goal. Vijay Singh, Assistant Vice-President, 

Canadian Sales at Alcatel, describes the relationship: 

“Alcatel and Bell have created a solid working relationship for the 

delivery and implementation of the pre-paid platform. Both technical 

teams worked collaboratively to ensure the success of the project. 

The success was best summarized by a senior executive of Bell 

Canada. At a Bell Canada town hall meeting, the executive asked 

his technical team how the project was progressing and when they 

would be going live. The response from the team was that they 

had already gone live and had over 500,000 subscribers on the 

platform at the time. This is truly a testament to the working relationship 

between Bell and Alcatel, as the implementation and 

cutover were almost flawless.” 

More than 75 people at Bell were interviewed over the summer 

of 2005 as part of Alcatel’s customer satisfaction survey. 

The survey, which covered all products currently sold by 

Alcatel to Bell, highlighted that the relationships between the 

Bell Mobility and Alcatel teams were a key strength of this 

project. Alcatel and Bell continue to work together, defining 

ongoing changes and enhancements to the service, looking for 

further opportunities to leverage the existing investment and 

plan for the future. 

Figure 1: MVNO Architecture using Alcatel Payment Solution. 

MVNE 

Network 

Billing 

Back 

Office 

Content 

MNO MVNE MVNO 

The MVNO Model 

Types of MVNO 

There are many terms used to describe the various relationships 

between network operators and third parties that 

want to address the mobile market: service bureaus, white 

labeling, Mobile Virtual Network Operators, and partners (see 

Figure 1). 

A Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) is a company 

that does not own a licensed frequency spectrum, but resells 

wireless services under its own brand name, using the network 

of another mobile network operator. The services offered to an 

MVNO can range from ‘access only’, where the MVNO provides 

everything except radio access; to a ‘white label’, where the 

MVNO arranges branding and distribution, but outsources 

everything else to the mobile network operator. 

There are also Service Bureau arrangements. In this 

case, a mobile network operator owns its radio access network, 

but contracts with another company, which may also 

be a mobile network operator, to provide certain services such 

as billing. The operators in this case are more likely to refer 

to each other as partners. 

If a MVNO wishes to work in an ‘access-only’ model with 

a mobile network operator, it may engage a Mobile Virtual Network 

Enabler (MVNE). The MVNE would provide the Operations 

Support Systems and Business Support Systems 

required by the MVNO. In this case, the MVNE acts as a service 

bureau, and the MVNO can work according to a white label 

model. 

Perspectives on the MVNO market 

Mobile Virtual Network Operators are currently the fastest 

growing segment of the mobile market. While nearly all 

MVNOs today offer only pre-paid service, MVNOs are now 

starting to explore post-paid user offerings. To be successful, 

an MVNO needs to have a customer base loyal to its brand, 

and should achieve 100,000 users after two years of service. 

To achieve this goal, MVNOs want to collaborate with mobile 

network operators whose networks are stable and provide outstanding 

coverage. 

Several key issues face those who want to enter the MVNO 

market. Many MVNOs enter the new wireless market, bringing 

their brand, but greatly underestimating the effort required, 

especially to create handset specifications and complete systems 

integration. Secondly, while there may be little infrastructure 

required up-front for the MVNO, there are significant capital 

expenditure costs. These costs are generally not well understood 

by companies that are not involved in the mobile space. 

The third key issue is ensuring that there is a sound marketing 

strategy for pursuing the wireless 

market. Most MVNOs are not in the 

wireless business, and need to shift 

their thinking to understand a new 

approach to customers. 

MVNOs will strive for success since 

their brand loyalty can reach a lucrative 

wireless market, and failure will 

Marketing Branding adversely affect their primary line of 

business. Choosing the correct mobile 

network operator is key. 

Almis Ledas, VP Corporate Development, 

Bell Mobility, describes Bell’s 

approach to the MVNO market. 



“At the start of 2005, the Canadian wireless market was 

approaching 50% penetration. Bell was positioned as a full service 

supplier of reliable, fully-featured, premium communication 

services, including wireless, serving customers across all segments. 

We concluded that delivering differentiated wireless offers to drive 

penetration and to target underserved segments, without confusing 

customers loyal to the Bell brand, would require multiple brands. 

We looked for brands with proven equity among targeted customers, 

and from these, we selected those that we thought would 

be most likely to succeed. We selected brands that either had a 

track record of success in mobile, like Virgin, or established distribution 

channels, like President's Choice. In each case, we used the 

Alcatel pre-paid platform to deliver differentiated offers over the 

Bell Mobility network.” 

MVNOs at Bell Mobility 

Given Bell Mobility’s extensive mobile coverage, reaching 

95% of the population in Ontario and Quebec, and network 

operations expertise, it is a natural partner for MVNOs. The current 

MVNO relationships at Bell Mobility fall into different areas 

of the range between ‘access-only’ and ‘white label’. 

Bell Canada entered into a joint venture with the Virgin 

Group to offer wireless services to the key youth market under 

the dynamic Virgin brand. Virgin Mobile Canada operates closer 

to the ‘access-only’ style of MVNO relationship. It obtains its 

own content and operates its own information services departments, 

customer care, and customer-facing systems, while using 

Bell Mobility’s radio access network and network systems, 

including Alcatel’s payment solution and rating engine. 

Loblaws, a national supermarket chain, decided to leverage 

its leading President’s Choice brand in the wireless space. While 

still an MVNO, President’s Choice Mobile (PC Mobile) is 

embracing a white label approach, leveraging Loblaws’ broad 

distribution channels and trusted President’s Choice brand, as 

well as Bell Mobility’s solid Operations Support System and 

Business Support Systems. 

As Bell Mobility does not operate in all regions of Canada, there 

is cooperation between Bell Mobility and other regional operators. 

In these scenarios, Bell Mobility acts as a service bureau, 

allowing the regional operators to use their own radio access networks, 

but leveraging Bell Mobility’s systems such as pre-paid. 

The marketing organizations of the individual service 

providers define their individual requirements in terms of services, 

rate plans, tariffs, and promotions. While the Alcatel payment 

solution can grant different organizations secure and partitioned 

access to manage their service, Bell Mobility has cho- 

sen not to enable this capability. In the pre-paid environment 

at Bell Mobility, the technology and engineering functions associated 

with pre-paid services have been centralized. They are 

maintained within Bell Mobility, with the goal of providing the 

highest quality of service possible to the MVNOs and partners 

that share these common systems. 

BSS and network systems integration 

Each MVNO or service bureau has its own customer care and 

provisioning systems, which need to interface to the Alcatel 

payment solution. The interfaces can vary, from batch processing, 

to direct provisioning through the Alcatel customer agent 

interface, to actions in real time through CORBA (Common 

Object Request Broker Architecture). Alcatel’s flexible solution 

has adapted to meet these varied requirements. 

All MVNOs and service bureaus must receive regular data 

outlining the status of accounts and the transactions carried 

out by their subscribers. All transactions, including calls, text 

messages, top-ups, and balance adjustments, generate usage 

records which are sent regularly to a call detail record mediation 

function, which sorts, formats, and forwards the data to 

the correct MVNO or service bureau. This information can then 

be used for activities such as generating marketing queries and 

financial reports. 

When introducing an MVNO, all systems in the call path need 

to be examined to ensure they are MVNO-capable. Adel Bazerghi, 

Vice President, Wireless Technology at Bell, describes Bell’s experience 

in introducing MVNOs to the Bell Mobility network. 

“The largest challenge to deploying an MVNO solution from an 

operator perspective is the alignment of all the systems used to support 

the MVNO partner. Having one or two MVNO-capable systems 

is not enough. Each system in the call path may have to be 

capable of supporting multiple operator configurations, or may 

require duplication to provide customized functionality to the partner. 

The differing configurations can extend to the application, 

management, provisioning, and reporting interfaces, and can vary 

by partner. However, once this effort is completed, each subsequent 

deployment is simplified as a result.” 

Alcatel enables MVNOs 

A leading provider of pre-paid solutions, Alcatel’s customers 

began asking for MVNO support within their pre-paid systems. 

In 2003, Alcatel’s Rating Engine 1.3 was released with the capability 

to support MVNOs (see Figure 2). 

The concept of a service retailer was introduced into the rating 

engine, and their associated customer accounts. By partitioning 

all aspects of the solution by service retailer, Alcatel 

enabled them to manage and view only their own aspects of the 

service offering, ensuring privacy of information. Each service 

retailer can independently configure, among other things, the 

definition of which calls are long-distance, rate plans, bundles, 

all aspects of their vouchers, and recurring charges. 

Building on this underlying partitioning of information, customized 

portals with their own look and feel can be created for 

each MVNO. This enables variations in the content and capabilities 

offered to the customer service agents of different 

MVNOs. Individual agent capabilities within an MVNO also may 

be restricted, determined by the authority granted to the agent. 

These inherent capabilities of the Alcatel payment solution 



Figure 2: MVNO Architecture using Alcatel Rating Engine. Bell Canada Enterprises 2004 

CDR 

Mediation 

Rate Plans 

Tariffs 

Voucher & 

Service 

Definitions 

Transaction 

Records 

10-4 

Rating 

Bell 

Mobility 

Back 

Office 

Bell Mobility 

Alcatel 

Rating 

Solution 

Voice 

Rating 

MVNO 1 

Back 

Office 

MVNO/ 

Partner#1 

MVNO 2 

Back 

Office 

Customer Accounts 

Rating Engine 

Voucher Management 

Event Scheduler 

OSP 

SMS 

Rating 

MVNO/ 

Partner#2 

Event 

Rating 

MVNO/ 

Partner#X 

Data 

Rating 

MVNO X 

Back 

Office 

Alcatel 

Event 

Collector 

have enabled Bell Mobility to add new MVNOs with relative 

ease, requiring only minimal development for certain unique 

MVNO needs such as the customer care interface. Bell Mobility 

can create new service retailers and rate plans, and change 

other associated configurations to allow new MVNOs to come 

to market as quickly as possible. 

Future Directions 

The Alcatel and Bell Mobility teams continue to work closely 

together to exploit the flexibility and capabilities of the installed 

platform to bring greater value to the end user, and have already 

identified potential areas of further development. 

Alcatel’s payment solution enables Bell Mobility to offer 

pre-paid customers the higher-profit services that are already 

available to post-paid users, thereby increasing pre-paid 

ARPU. These services can then be creatively bundled to 

encourage use and customer retention. 

Mobile data services still need to be better integrated into 

pre-paid offers. Rather than just flat-rate data charges, usage- 

Customer 

Service 

based and bundle-based data rating 

could encourage spontaneous use by 

end users. 

If it continues to embrace MVNO 

business models, Bell Mobility needs to 

enable more of its systems to be 

MVNO-capable. The current content 

and event charging process does not 

allow for the re-use of its content distribution 

systems and event-driven 

applications for MVNOs. Alcatel’s flexible 

rating capabilities could be used to 

meet this need. 

The newest version of the Alcatel 

Convergent Rating Engine, release 

2.0, offers enhanced capabilities in many areas, including the 

ability to handle pre-paid, post-paid, and hybrid users. Other 

features in release 2.0 that are of interest to Bell Mobility 

include tracking and expiring each pre-paid account recharge 

independently, improving cross-service bundling, and introducing 

hierarchical user accounts. 

These capabilities would help Bell Mobility attract the best 

MVNO partners and increase its share of the Canadian wireless 

market. 


Web Portals- 

Customized for 

each MVNO 

Paul Burton 

is Senior Systems 

Engineer, Alcatel 

Canadian Sales, 

in Mississauga, 

Ontario, Canada. 

(Paul.Burton@alcatel.com) 

> 

Annual Report, and Bell Canada 

Enterprises 2005 Second Quarter 

Shareholder Report can be located 

at http://www.bce.ca/en/ 

investors/financialperformance/ 

corporatefinancial/bce/ 

Patricia Hanley 

is Associate Director 

in Wireless 

Technology, Bell 

Canada, in 

Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. 

(Patricia.Hanley@bell.ca)

STRATEGY WHITE PAPER 

G. Maas, J. Marien 

Today, users are confronted with a variety of data and voice 

services. With the introduction of IP TV solutions, the 

choice becomes even wider, as this media transforms a 

classic, passive broadcast service into a new, personalized, interactive 

channel, opening many possibilities for new and innovative 

broadband services direct to the user. The main challenge 

in this ongoing convergence is how to integrate disparate 

systems in a coherent environment, where existing assets can 

be re-used, and new value can be created. 

For example, users might like to see on screen who is calling 

on the telephone while they are watching their favorite program, 

and then have the choice of redirecting or taking the call. 

Likewise, they might like to communicate with their friends via 

their TV, sharing photos and videos of their summer holidays, 

or exchanging comments about the 

ongoing football match. Many of 

the capabilities needed to build 

these new services are already present 

and scattered among different 

Service Delivery Platforms (SDP): 

presence information, buddy list 

management, calling capabilities, 

streaming, real-time payment, etc. 

The challenge we face is how to 

expose these capabilities of the different 

platforms, and access them in 

a uniform way to compose new services. 

The classic approach is to build services as giant blocks containing 

all the necessary functionality, from execution logic to 

billing rules. This model cannot cope with the dynamic and 

competitive market of today. A new methodology is needed to 

leverage the available assets and build new services, based on 

the proven capabilities of the Alcatel SDPs and third-party functionality 

integrated in the operator’s systems. 

In this paper, we will review the Service-Oriented Architecture 

(SOA) approach, and see how it can change the way new 

services are created, from both from the technical and business 

perspectives. 

In the first part of the paper, we will give the rationale for 

exposure of capabilities. We will review the important enabling 

role that Web services technologies play in an SOA implementation. 

In addition, we review the core part of the Web services 

family that is needed to understand how the flexibility and 

loose coupling are achieved. 

SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURES: 

ORCHESTRATING THE OSDE 

Service-Oriented Architectures create value on top of IMS, 

IP TV, legacy, and third-party SDPs, by exposing their capabilities 

and combining them into new, orchestrated services. 

As Web services support becomes ubiquitous, attention is 

turning to the issue of bringing them together into a coherent 

service model. How should I think about the relationships 

between services? How will I connect them across my business? 

How will I orchestrate interactions across them? In the 

second part of this paper, we will find answers to those questions 

and understand the principles of an SOA implementation. 

Evolving towards User-Centric Services 

Today, users are faced with a multitude of data and voice 

services for both work and entertainment. With the introduction 

of IP TV solutions in the Alcatel portfolio, the choice 

becomes even larger as this new media, formerly a passive 

broadcast service, now becomes a new, personalized, interactive 

channel. IP TV, as part of a Triple Play solution, opens a 

completely new range of possibilities to deliver new and 

innovative broadband services direct to the user. 

Suddenly, our trusted TV becomes a window on a world of 

interaction, turning from a boring box into a digital album, a 

Blockbuster store, or an answering machine, according to 

the user’s wishes. Furthermore, with the emergence of 

mobile TV, we can take all this experience with us in our 

pocket. The main challenge in this ongoing convergence is 

how to integrate disparate systems in a coherent environment, 

where existing assets can be re-used, and new value can be 

created (Figure 1). 

Web Services 

The first step to 

achieve this new form 

of integration is to 

expose the capabilities 

available on the differ- 

‹http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/ 

REC-xml-c14n-20010315#XML- 

Canonicalization 

ent systems in a uniform way, independent from the underlying 

system or implementation. 

The introduction of the eXtensible Markup Language 

(XML) was the first successful step to simplify the application 

integration process. XML defines a lingua franca that applications 

can process and understand. This means that information 

can be easily exchanged between systems in a canonical 

form (see insert). The use of XML has become pervasive 

because XML is a structured, self-describing method of representing 

data, independent of the application, protocol, vocabulary, 

and operating system. 


>

SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURES: ORCHESTRATING THE OSDE 

Figure 1: The convergence of IT and telecom into an environment that allows the creation of new, user-centric services. 

Web services build on XML’s success to define a modular, 

self-describing, self-contained interface mechanism to expose 

applications capabilities. The success of Web services relies on 

the use of open standards for the encoding, while using the 

ubiquitous HTTP transport protocol for IP networks popularized 

by the World Wide Web. 

The modularity and flexibility of Web services make them 

ideal for application integration. Businesses can combine 

Web services in new applications with minimal programming. 

These new applications can again be exposed as Web services, 

creating a value cycle of re-usability that brings down integration 

costs, and reduces time to market for new developments. 

For general use, Web services rely 

on two major cornerstones: 

• The Web Services Description Language 

(WSDL) provides the interface 

definition of a Web service. It 

uses an XML format to describe the 

available functions of a Web service. 

Simply put, WSDL answers the question: 

“what services do you provide?” 

in a machine-readable form. 

• Simple Object Access Protocol 

(SOAP): SOAP started as an option 

for binary Remote Procedure Calls 

(RPC), which allowed disparate systems 

to call each other regardless of 

the underlying technical implementation 

(programming language, operating 

system, SW platform, HW platform). 

It takes the form of a virtual 

envelope, with headers and content 

that are expressed in XML. The 

body contains the data related to the 

Figure 2. Web services stack 

WSCL, BPEL4W5 

UDDI 

WSDL 

SOAP 

XML 

HTTP, SMTP 

TCP/IP 

request/response, while the headers provide addressing 

information. The headers are currently being extended via 

ongoing standardization efforts to implement extra functionality 

in the protocol, such as support for security, transactions, 

and reliability. 

The high popularity and adoption of Web services has created 

market traction, and driven efforts to increase the applicability 

of the technology in different domains. We can therefore 

refer to a Web services stack whose evolution today is represented 

in Figure 2. Different organizations (WS-Interoperability, 

W3C) are currently working on Web services standards 

Composition 

Publication and Discovery 

Service Description 

Messaging 

Data encoding 

Transport 

Network 


Security 

Transactions 

Reliable Messaging


Eventing means 

to subscribe, 

receive and 

manage events. 

to address domain-specific applications 

like security, eventing, notifications, 

addressing, and others. 

In the OSDE, Web services allow us 

to define interfaces towards the capabilities 

of the different Service Delivery Platforms that can be 

re-used across different existing and new services. For example, 

instead of creating a new buddy list feature for a new IP 

TV service, the existing group list management of the IMS SDP 

could be re-used. In this way, the user has a consistent experience, 

and services are developed much faster, since the main 

effort becomes that of integrating proven components, rather 

than the creation and validation of new ones. This type of service 

exposure can be achieved by enabling capabilities and applications 

with a Web services interface containing the right level 

of abstraction and functionality, commonly called a Web Services 

Profile. 

Orchestration 

The reason behind new technologies for service development 

is to provide an environment where better services can be developed 

with less effort – services that should closely align to user 

needs and service provider business requirements. Developing 

Web services and exposing functionalities from the different 

SDPs is not enough to create new applications. Two Web services-enabled 

functionalities cannot start “speaking” to each 

other by themselves. We need a way to compose these functionalities 

in a logical way, i.e. a definition that matches the business 

requirements associated to the service, and which will 

make use of the exposed functionalities. 

Orchestration 

An executable 

script describing a 

business process 

from the 

perspective and 

under control of a 

single entity. It can 

be described as a 

workflow applied 

to Web services 

The term orchestration relates to an 

executable script describing a business 

process from the perspective and 

under the control of a single entity. It 

can be described as a workflow applied 

to Web services. 

“Orchestrated services”, as this new 

kind of composed application is called, 

exploits the exposure functions of the 

different SDPs to create a new functionality. 

Applied to the OSDE, this 

technical approach brings two core values. 

First, re-use of capabilities 

becomes a common denominator for orchestrated services, 

reducing development efforts and time-to-market for new services. 

Second, inter-SDP interactions are moved towards an 

external layer, reducing dependency, and increasing the flexibility 

of our services in a multi-vendor environment. 

The Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) 

Well-designed Web services expose a coarse-grained interface 

to the supported functionality. This basic service orientation 

requirement permits the simplification of the language 

used to describe how Web services should be composed into 

business processes. The Business Process Execution Language 

(BPEL) is one such simplified language. It provides primitives 

to invoke Web services and process the results using algorithmic 

constructions. BPEL is the first workflow-oriented language 

to receive wide industry adoption. 

For its clients, a BPEL process looks like any other Web service. 

When we define a BPEL process, we actually define a new 

Web service that is a composite of existing services. This 

process of exposing an orchestration as a Web service allows 

an existing orchestrated service to be used in a new BPEL 

script, achieving real re-usability of deployed services in new 

developments. 

Service-Oriented Architectures 

The exposure of 

SDP capabilities in the 

form of Web services 

brings openness and 

interoperability to the 

service platform, but 

still leaves many impor- 

“Web Services Architecture”, 

http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/ 

NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/, W3C 

Working Group, Feb 11/2004 

tant variables undefined. Service-Oriented Architectures 

provide a framework to normalize Web services exposure, 

using a set of best practices to achieve a coherent and functional 

service-oriented environment. 

The W3C Web Services Architecture Working Group defines 

SOA as (see insert) “a form of distributed systems architecture 

that is typically characterized by the following properties: 

• Logical view: The service is an abstracted, logical view 

of actual programs, databases, business processes, etc., 

defined in terms of what it does, typically carrying out 

a business-level operation. 

• Message orientation: The service is formally defined in 

terms of the messages exchanged between provider 

agents and requester agents, and not the properties of the 

agents themselves. 

• Description orientation: A service is described by 

machine-processable meta data. 

• Granularity: Services tend to use a small number of operations 

with relatively large and complex messages. 

• Network orientation: Services tend to be oriented toward 

use over a network, though this is not an absolute 

requirement. 

• Platform-neutral: Messages are sent in a platform-neutral, 

standardized format delivered through the interfaces.” 

Although not a new concept, the SOA approach is being 

widely adopted in the market. The main differentiator is that 

SOA provides, for the first time, a sound model for correlating 

business needs to technological solutions. A sound SOA 

implementation can bring considerable business benefits to the 

organization. 


>


Reduced Integration Expense 

Loosely-coupled integration approaches can reduce the complexity 

and hence the cost of integrating and managing distributed 

computing environments. Integration expenses are 

reduced on two levels. First, moving to standards-based communication 

creates a common methodology, making developers 

much more efficient, as they are not faced with different 

interfaces in different paradigms. Second, defining coarsegrained 

interfaces reduces the cross-application interaction typically 

found in API-based communication, making better use 

of network resources, and reducing hidden dependencies 

between systems. This all translates into reduced CAPEX and 

OPEX when an SOA implementation is in place. 

Increased Asset Re-use 

One of the most important benefits of SOA is that users can 

create new business processes and composite applications from 

existing services. Technologies such as BPEL enable the 

exposure of business processes as Web services, creating a 

recursively growing 

value, and building on 

blocks of proven functionality. 

Increased 

Business Agility 

High-level SOA rep- 

> 

“Re-use engineering for SOA”, 

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/Webservices/library/ 

ws-reuse-soa.html, Rich Rogers for 

IBM DevelopersWorks, Sept 09 

2005. 

resentations lower the barrier between technical and business 

people, ensuring better definition and management of services. 

By bringing the technical and business sides closer to each 

other, businesses can react faster to changing customer 

requirements, and introduce new service propositions where 

the technical components truly represent business needs. 

Reduced Risk 

SOA technologies enable the control of business processes, 

establishing corporate-wide security, privacy, and implementation 

policies, and provide auditable information trails. Re-use 

of functionally-proven components reduces risks related to project 

rollout and bringing new services into production. 

Conclusion 

Service-Oriented Architecture is a complementary approach 

to the creation of new services on the OSDE. It leverages the 

existing capabilities of the different Service Delivery Platforms 

by defining a loosely-coupled architecture for the creation, 

deployment, delivery, and evolution of services, independent 

of the network and underlying access technology. As dictated 

by the Service-Oriented Architectures, the key challenge is to 

achieve the separation of the infrastructure and its capabilities 

into independent layers, connected using open and standardized 

interfaces. 

Using techniques like orchestration, the capabilities of different 

SDPs can be combined in new services. This technical 

approach enables the re-use of capabilities, reducing development 

efforts and time-to-market for new services; and moves 

inter-SDP interactions towards an external layer, reducing 

dependency, and increasing service flexibility in a multi-vendor 

environment. 

The value proposition of SOA for the OSDE is threefold: 

• Provide a user-centric experience: The re-use of enablers 

to create new services ensures a smooth experience for the 

user, since trusted data and expected functionality are 

present in a consistent way across all the services. 

• Provide an open service delivery environment: The environment 

created by Web services technology ensures a level 

of openness from the operator towards different service 

providers, fostering competence and creation of services on 

top of the network. 

• Provide service differentiation for competition: Service 

providers are furnished with a toolbox to facilitate innovation. 

Reduced implementation effort means faster time-tomarket, 

hence a greater chance of success. 

A successful SOA implementation is key to the establishment 

of the OSDE as a true service ecosystem. 

Bibliography 

[1] “Service Delivery Platforms and Telecom Web Services: 

An Industry Wide Perspective”, Moriana Group, 2004 

[2] “InFocus: Service Delivery Platforms”, OSS Observer, 

Martina Kurth, Larry Goldman, April 2005 

[3] “Patterns: Implementing an SOA using an Enterprise 

Service Bus”, IBM Redbook Series, Martin Keen et al, July 

25, 2004. 

Gerard Maas is 

a Systems Architect 

for OSDE & Service 

Creation in the Strategic 

Project Delivery of 

Integrated Services, Research and 

Innovation Department, Antwerp, 

Belgium 

(Gerard.Maas@alcatel.be) 

Johan Marien is a 

Product Line Manager 

for Open Service Delivery 

Environment in the 

Enhanced Applications 

Business Unit of the Fixed Solutions 

Division in Antwerp, Belgium 

(Johan.Marien@alcatel.be) 



T. de Groot 

The migration of telecommunications Service Provider 

(SP) networks towards an IP Multimedia Subsystem 

(IMS)/Next-Generation Network (NGN) infrastructure 

is taking place today. SPs expect it to deliver the capabilities 

required to create new revenue-generating service 

offerings. These new services are expected to be a mix of 

IMS/NGN telecommunications services and B2B/B2C business 

applications. 

Web services and related orchestration environments are 

becoming the main complementary approach to delivering 

such new services, building on and combining features available 

in telecommunications and enterprise networks with 

Internet/Intranet types of application (see previous article by 

Gerard Maas and Johan Marien). The Alcatel Open Service Delivery 

Environment (OSDE) provides the network applications and 

Figure 1: An overview of the OSS and network management for OSDE 

Open 

Web Services 

OSS interfaces 

Multi-service NG OSS 

Customer-Facing Support Systems 

Network-Facing Support Systems 

Strategy and Lifecycle management for Services and Infrastructure 

Operations Support & Readiness, Fulfillment, Assurance, Billing 

Each User 

Every Terminal, Everywhere 

Network Resource Mgmt 

Service Network 

EMS/NMS 

Business 

Environment 

Consumer 

Environment 

Universal 

Broadband 

Access 

Wireline 

Wireless 

Satellite 

Mobile 

OPERATIONAL SUPPORT 

EVOLUTION WITH WEB SERVICES 

The impact of IMS/NGN, OSDE and Web services on 

OSS/BSS 

Transport Network 

EMS/NMS 

Service- 

Aware 

Edge 

and Data- 

Aware 

Transport 

Open 

Services 

Delivery 

Environment 

control elements that deliver such base features (e.g. TV 

broadcast/Video on Demand, voice and multimedia services). A 

set of cooperating Service Delivery Platforms (SDPs) is used to 

create, execute, and securely deliver these new services. 

One of the overwhelming issues for many SPs introducing 

IMS/NGN and OSDE is their impact on Operational Support Systems 

(OSS). 

The integration of the OSDE with the OSS/BSS (Business 

Support System) environment, and the impact of Web services 

and orchestration technology on the operational processes and 

OSS environment, need to be well understood to ensure that 

new services effectively bring new revenues (see Figure 1). 

OSDE-to-OSS integration aspects , and operational process 

support for Web services, are the focus of this article. Example 

applications from Alcatel’s OSDE, such as the 5350 Presence 

Server, the 8610 Prepaid Postpaid 

Suite, and the My Own TV service that 

OSDE Service Mgmt: 

Service Creation, 

Execution & 

OSS integration 

Any Content 

allows subscribers to store their own 

videos and to build a channel offer for 

friends based on their own content, are 

referenced throughout the paper. They 

illustrate how the OSDE guarantees 

the management, delivery quality, and 

billing of next-generation services 

using Web services technology. 

The challenges of Web 

services operation 

A main challenge for most SPs moving 

to IMS/NGN is the adaptation of 

their operational processes and related 

OSS organization to support next-generation 

services. 

Following the introduction of 

IMS/NGN and OSDE, operators may 

envisage several changes to their 

Operations Support Systems (OSS), 

such as: 

• deciding how to organize operational 

groups to support various services: 

e.g. in dedicated groups for telecommunications, 

IP TV delivery or 

B2B/B2C applications; or covering all 

services within a single group; 


OPERATIONAL SUPPORT EVOLUTION WITH WEB SERVICES 

• rationalization of 

multiple equivalent 

OSS systems for different 

network technologies, 

by introduc- 

ing a single OSS application to support a particular OSS function 

across the network. Examples are the Alcatel 8950 Assurance 

(customization of Micromuse Netcool), for crossdomain 

fault management; and a single application (e.g. 

Cramer) for the network and service inventory of all 

IMS/NGN and OSDE resources; 

• automation of fulfillment, assurance and billing (FAB) 

processes for the new services through the integration of 

existing or new OSS systems with automated links to the 

OSDE, by: 

- evolving (most of) the front-office support towards a 

combination of Web portals, call centers, and databasebased 

front-office functions. This emphasizes self-management, 

and creates greater automation and flexibility in proposing 

product offerings to the end user; 

- adding on-line rating / billing and micro-payment solutions 

as part of the service delivery chain, creating greater 

automation in product bundling, and increased flexibility 

in payment facilities for the end-customer; 

- increasing focus on automatic and systematic data mining 

in the network, in terms of events and performance or other 

measurement data, to exploit and derive customer-focused 

information that may help to personalize product offerings 

and actions towards customers; 

• introducing a Web services creation and orchestration environment 

as part of the service lifecycle chain, as in the Alcatel 

OSDE, enabling a faster time to market and reducing operational 

costs. 

Figure 2: Service management on the OSDE 

Service Activation 

Subscribers 

Voice, Video, 

HSI, IPVPN 

Safe 

> 

For more information on Alcatel 

8950 Assurance, See 

www.alcatel.com/products/ 

productsbyreference 

SNMP/ASCII/XML/… (alarms & config.) File/XML content XML/Web Services (service mgmt) 

Alcatel 

NMS/ 

EMS 

Transport 

SDP 

1430 HSS 

5750 SSC 

OSS Solution (network-facing) 

Network Assurance 

Network Performance 

Legacy 

SDP 

GUP Server 


Fault Management 

Network & Service 

Omnibus 

Alcatel OSDE 

OSDE 

Orchestration Environment 

All services 

IMS 

SDP 

Further, a major change that may be envisaged is the introduction 

of a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) for the OSS. 

This targets increasing flexibility to integrate OSS applications 

or to change operational processes, and lowering integration costs. 

This can be implemented through the introduction of Web services 

and orchestration environment technology inside the 

OSS/BSS itself. Existing OSS applications may be adapted to such 

an SOA-based OSS by extending them with Web services interfaces. 

Several operators are moving in this direction, and standards 

organizations like ETSI/TISPAN are working on interfaces 

required for SOA NGN OSS. 

In the long term, this OSS evolution path may even lead to 

the possibility of including OSS integration directly at service 

creation time, by combining telecommunications, B2B/B2C, and 

OSS applications as part of the service. 

The integration of the Alcatel Legacy, IMS, Video or other 

SDPs with the OSS is performed according to current management 

paradigms. As Web services and orchestration technology 

become more and more widespread, existing SDP applications 

are being enabled with these technologies. The IMS SDP 

of the Alcatel OSDE supports this technology natively. Direct 

OSS integration based on Web services is a simple step from 

there, which can be taken at the SP's convenience. 

Designing manageable Web services 

In order to manage next-generation services created and 

deployed with the OSDE, each service must respect a number 

of Fault-management, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, 

and Security (FCAPS) design guidelines, and support 

features that make it possible for the SP to manage and bill services 

efficiently. A carrier-grade OSDE provides these features 

required in the design phase of a new service to ensure its 

resulting manageability (see Figure 2). 

Service Assurance 

SLA Management 


RAD 

Billing 

DWH, Invoice, 

Statement 

End-user 

Self- 

Management 


Video 

SDP 

3 rd pp 

SDP 

Rating 

Pre/postpaid 

CDR collect


The major requirements for designing 

manageable Web services supported 

by features of the Alcatel 

OSDE are: 

• support for security and related 

management features, e.g. by integrating 

the OSDE-provided secure 

authentication and key management 

features that support single sign-on, 

identity federation and Web service 

security standards, as defined by 

Liberty Alliance [1] and OASIS [2] 

(WS-Security, XML/SAML); 

• generation of service-related data 

such as usage, performance, personalization 

information and billing 

records, by integrating the OSDE 

features that support data generation 

and storage facilities, and/or reliable 

collection and export mechanisms 

of such data for the service. 

The data format is expected to be 

based on XML, and may be standard- 

Service Network Setup: 

• Provision bandwidth broker 

• Soft-switch/GWs links 

• SIP signaling & GWs 

• Border GW QoS/SLAs 

• … 

ized like the 3GPP-defined CDR (Call Detail Record) format; 

• support for Operation and Maintenance (OAM) processes by 

providing meaningful alarms, event information, and appropriate 

configuration interfaces. Alarms and events are 

expected to use either existing SNMP (Simple Network Management 

Protocol) or CORBA (Common Object Request Broker 

Architecture) mechanisms and to extend to XML, e.g. for 

application alarms. Configuration interfaces will migrate to 

SOAP/XML Web services as standards become available; 

• support for service lifecycle management, such as service distribution 

and software versioning mechanisms that allow the 

easy upgrade of deployed services, by integration with 

OSDE-provided features for application inventory and distribution 

services; 

• support for Web portals by providing appropriate portal APIs 

based on XML or http as part of the service; 

• providing interfaces for OSS/BSS integration as Web services 

(through corresponding WSDL specifications), to guarantee 

flexibility and openness for integration with off-the-shelf 

orchestration environments. 

As an example, the My Own TV service may use applications 

from several SDPs: the Alcatel IMS SDP to execute the My Own 

TV service; the Alcatel IMS SDP Presence Server for its “Buddy 

List” function; the Alcatel Video SDP to use Microsoft IPTV 

applications; and the Alcatel Legacy SDP for the associated payment 

and rating services. The My Own TV service consists of 

the description of the service logic (e.g. as a specification in 

the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL)), which 

combines Web services offered by these SDP applications using 

the OSDE orchestration environment. 

The Alcatel OSDE provides these support features to 

ensure that new services developed on this OSDE inherently 

have all the characteristics to enable the SP to efficiently manage 

and bill these services. 

Service Transport Setup: 

• VoIP Trunks 

• Routing Plans 

• Video & MM application 

servers 

• HSI servers: DHCP, AAA, 

… 

IMS/NGN Co-operative Management Functions 

GUP 

1430 HSS 

5750 SSC 

1. Industry Consortium specifying standards for a single sign-on and identity 

federation 

2. Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards 

Figure 3: IMS/NGN and OSDE service infrastructure set-up and service provisioning 

Alcatel EMS/NMS for Service Stratum 

1300 CMC/OMC 

Fixed, Mobile, IMS/NGN infrastructure 

5020 CSC 

5020 MGC 

75xx GW 

ACME BGW 

DHCP 

AAA 

5430 SRB 

Service and subscriber provisioning 

Provisioning on the IMS/NGN and OSDE involves a number 

of different aspects, most importantly those regarding service 

and subscriber provisioning and related self-service provisioning 

features. 

Service infrastructure provisioning 

Service provisioning firstly involves configuration of the signaling, 

service transport and application hosting elements, so 

that they are coherently linked to implement actual service 

delivery, e.g. using the Alcatel 5620/1350 IP and Optical 

Transport Domain Managers. 

Features for managing the IMS/NGN and OSDE service delivery 

infrastructure, and the configuration of relations between all 

the entities involved in service delivery (softswitches, gateways, 

DHCP and AAA functions, databases), are provided by Alcatel 1300 

Domain Manager applications (OMC/CMC, see Figure 3). 

Finally, after the creation of a new service on the OSDE, 

service provisioning involves the distribution and commercial 

deployment of the service on the appropriate SDP servers of 

the OSDE infrastructure; the configuration of related service 

data using supporting OSDE applications; the declaration of the 

service in involved OSS systems (order entry system, billing 

system, etc.); and the updating of self-service portals to 

enable subscription (see Figure 4). 

Subscriber provisioning 

The subscriber provisioning process makes the link between 

user-triggered subscriptions (order entries) and related 

actions on the network that enable service delivery, e.g. as supported 

by Alcatel 8950 Provisioning (an Alcatel customization 

of Axiom). 

It requires the availability of user profile management and 

associated identity management functions. These functions 

allow an operator to 

offer the security and 

personalization services 

needed to increase 

end-user loyalty. 

Application Setup: 

• Install applications: 

presence, localization, 

IPTV, … 

• Set up Web Portal & link 

with databases 

• Set up orchestration 

• … 

8920 TMSM 

Service QoS Mgmt 

SDP App. 

Servers 

Other 

Service 

Networks 


> 

Media 

Servers 

For more information on Alcatel 

8950 Provisioning, see 

http://www.alcatel.com/products/ 

productsummary


Figure 4: OSDE service creation and provisioning support 

Transport 

SDP 

Service Data Creation/Update 

Alcatel 

NMS/ 

EMS 

Users can subscribe to multiple services, each of which may 

manage its specific data and customization information. Service-specific 

and customization data are located with the service, 

while general subscriber data are located in a common user 

database. This means that the data for one user may be distributed 

over several SDP servers. 

To facilitate provisioning of and application access to the distributed 

data for a given user, the Alcatel OSDE supports the 

concept of data federation. Data federation provides a single 

point of data entry and real-time access to the distributed data. 

In the Alcatel OSDE, data federation is implemented by the 

Generic User Profile (GUP) server. It manages multiple databases 

that support user data (like Alcatel’s 1430 IP Multime- 


Subscribers 

Voice, Video, 

HSI, IPVPN 

Safe 

Alcatel 

NMS/ 

EMS 

Transport 

SDP 

1430 HSS 

5750 SSC 

Service Creation 

Order Entry 

1430 HSS 

5750 SSC 

Legacy 

SDP 

Figure 5: Subscriber provisioning and data federation 


Legacy 

SDP 

Alcatel OSDE 

OSDE 


All services 

GUP Server 

IMS 

SDP 

Access Line Provisioning User Profile & Application Data Federation 

Alcatel OSDE 

OSDE 


All services 

Service Distribution Application 

IMS 

SDP 

dia Home Subscriber Server (IM-HSS) and 5750 SSC (Subscriber 

Service Controller) on highly reliable platforms, and provides 

the required federation mechanisms. Stepped migration 

from existing environments is supported, due to a facility for 

integrating legacy databases under the same data federation 

mechanism, e.g. by providing these databases with appropriate 

Web services interfaces (see Figure 5). 

The GUP data model is of particular importance to operators, 

as it is closely related to their business model, and strongly 

influences the way their OSS processes will be affected. The 

design of the Alcatel OSDE data federation mechanism is thus 

highly flexible in order to support different operators’ business 

models, including the use of third-party applications. 

Order Entry via Web Portal/Set-top box 

Billing System Update 


Video 

SDP 

Set-top box 

Update 

Video 

SDP 

3 rd pp 

SDP 

3 rd pp 

SDP 

Web Portal 

Update 

Rating 

Pre/postpaid 

CDR collect 

Billing 

DWH, Invoice, 

Statement 

End-user 

Self- 

Management 

Rating 

Pre/postpaid 

CDR collect


Self-provisioning 

Self-subscription and self-provisioning are provided 

through Web portal support applications, which link Web or 

TV GUIs to the relevant support systems. They interface with 

OSS applications to automate the interactions with 

service/network provisioning, assurance, and billing applications 

as regards information about the new user or subscription. 

In particular, this process relies on the GUP server to 

safely create, update and access user related data in the 

appropriate network databases. 

Service activation 

Service activation has different meanings according to the 

service type: 

• it may refer to an end user-action to request the use of a given 

subscribed service through an appropriate means, e.g. by 

invoking a (SIP) call; selecting a service proposed on a TV 

screen; or clicking on a Web page link; 

• it may refer to an action by an operator using a (cross-) 

domain manager to activate a transport service, such as a 

VPN (Virtual Private Network) or VLL (Virtual Leased Line). 

In this case, service activation refers to “opening” the contracted 

and already provisioned transport service to end 

users. Such services are less dynamic in nature than the former. 

On top of such an activated transport service, other 

services may be activated by the end user, e.g. a call over 

a Voice VPN. 

While the service activation process for transport services 

is today quite well known for technologies such as SDH or 

ATM, new technologies such as LSPs or VLANs, which are used 

to handle IP/Ethernet traffic, bring new challenges, especially 

in the Service Assurance area. Features to manage these trans- 

Figure 6: Service activation, assurance, and billing 


Subscribers 

Voice, Video, 

HSI, IPVPN 

Safe 

Alcatel 

NMS/ 

EMS 

Transport 

SDP 

1430 HSS 

5750 SSC 



Network Performance 

Legacy 

SDP 

GUP Server 


Fault Management 


Omnibus 

Alcatel OSDE 

OSDE 


All services 

IMS 

SDP 

port service aspects are provided by the Alcatel 5620/1350 

Domain Managers. 

The activation of end user-invoked Web services is a new 

requirement. The orchestration environment is not only used 

to create a new service, but also in the activation of this service. 

An end-user’s service activation request will result in triggering 

the execution of this service’s BPEL (Business Process 

Execution Language) specification, e.g. via the URL used by 

the GUI through which the service is invoked. 

For the My Own TV service, end users may subscribe either via 

the operator’s Web portal, or via a set-top box, which will create 

an entry in the operator’s order system. This in turn will trigger the 

addition of user data to the appropriate databases and the 

required network provisioning actions (e.g. via the Alcatel 8950 Provisioning 

system). This might include the configuration of the subscriber’s 

DSL access line on the 7301 ISAM (via the Alcatel 5523 

AWS); the application of related VLAN QoS policies to the 7450 

ESS edge router (via the 5750 SSC); and related information 

updates in OSS systems such as the billing system (e.g. LHS). 

Activation of the My Own TV service will consist of the end 

user adding content (home videos), filling his “buddy list”, and 

publishing My Own TV channels to show content to his buddies. 

Service assurance 

Service assurance is considered by many operators to be the 

major problem area for next-generation service delivery, and 

involves guaranteeing Quality of Service (QoS) from both the 

SP and end-user perspectives (see Figure 6). 

It complements standard network assurance processes, such 

as alarm analysis, network SLA (service level agreement) management 

and traffic performance with service assurance and quality 

management (e.g. by the Alcatel 8950 Assurance and Alcatel 8920 

Traffic Management and Service Monitoring (TMSM) applications). 


Video 

SDP 

Service Assurance 

SLA Management 


RAD 

3 rd pp 

SDP 

Billing 

DWH, Invoice, 

Statement 

End-user 

Self- 

Management 

Rating 

Pre/postpaid 

CDR collect


Quality of Service: the service provider viewpoint 

Service assurance from the SP point of view requires full control 

over all services to guarantee their delivery according to the 

subscribers’ SLAs. This involves networking features such as access 

authorization, admission control, and account verification; and OSS 

features such as service impact analysis based on alarm correlation, 

and QoS data collection to check deliveries against SLAs. 

An important evolution in service assurance from current 

networks is that the IMS/NGN network configuration is 

adapted in a much more dynamic way, taking into account 

already-running services and the QoS of a newly requested service. 

A policy-based approach is used as a complement to preprovisioning 

of the network, which enables the SP to have the 

required flexible control of network resource usage and thus 

of service quality. Policy management and the definition of the 

operator’s business policies, e.g. for priority traffic or security, 

become an important aspect of the OSS in support of service 

assurance. In the Alcatel OSDE, applying policies to network 

resources is supported by the 5750 SSC. 

User-perceived Quality of Service 

When looking at Quality of Service (QoS) from an end user’s 

point of view for voice services, the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) 

calculation and related measurement data, and KPI/KQI have 

been defined by standards. These are today being extended to 

cover video perceived quality calculations. Alcatel’s 8920 

TMSM supports per-session quality supervision based on data 

collected from the network and the OSDE elements, and can 

trigger related SLA events that can be used to update OSS/BSS 

systems accordingly. 

Voice and (soon) video services have well-known quality 

characteristics. However, for other services such as SMS, combi- 

extended Telecom 

Operations Map 

(eTOM) 

The enhanced Telecom 

Operations Map ® is a 

part of the NGOSS 

(Next - Generation 

Operations Support 

Systems) initiative within 

the Telecom Management 

Forum. 

It describes the business 

processes of the telecom 

operators. As a result, the 

Alcatel network 

management products 

need to provide interfaces 

according to the processes 

defined in eTOM. Within 

Alcatel CTO and through 

the partnerships with OSS 

companies such as Motive 

and MicroMuse, a 

consistent use of eTOMcompliant 

OSS interfaces 

of our network 

management product 

families such as 1300 and 

5620 is pursued. 

nations of voice and video in video conferencing services, or other 

combinations of such services, there is no standard defining their 

QoS or even the data for measuring it. Nevertheless, the Alcatel 

OSDE supports a number of features that help in the definition and 

implementation of Web service QoS measurement and assurance 

(see Figure 7). The Alcatel 8950 Assurance supports a service 

quality Dashboard customized to the SP's service portfolio. 

Web services technology and service quality 

QoS will need to be defined as an aspect of each next-generation 

service based on Web services. This will require expertise in 

both OSDE application environments and telecommunications service 

delivery, since data for QoS measurements can be generated 

by external monitoring services or by the Web services themselves. 

They can use the OSDE services for data logging or storage. 

Examples of such Web services quality-related measurements 

are: 

• Web service response time between XML request and XML 

response; 

• Web service performance in terms of number of XML message 

per second; 

• Web service failure rate in terms of number of lost XML 

responses; 

• application availability time; 

• alarms generated by the application; 

• logging of errors at Web service interfaces. 

When combining Web services into composed services, policies 

can be defined according to the operator’s service(s) model to 

obtain the quality of the combined service, e.g. by further customizing 

the Alcatel 8950 Assurance solution (based on Micromuse). 

Figure 7: QoS data collection, service quality assurance, and SLA management 

TEX 

PSTN 

AGW 

Access 

LEX 

POTS 

ISDN 

TGW 


BGW 

SoIP 

GW 

Softswitch 

PBX 

PE 

E2E QoS Management 

EP 

8920 TMSM 

SoIP QoS Mgmt 

IP 

IP-PBX 

IMS SDP 

Legacy SDP 

Video SDP


Self-assurance 

As demonstrated by Alcatel in the 

DSL domain, good support for selfassurance 

can reduce the number of 

helpdesk calls by 30%, thus allowing 

an important decrease in operational 

costs. Such self-assurance support 

consists of: 

• guiding the end user in problem 

diagnostics, e.g. via a Web GUI or TV 

screen indications; 

• gathering data on the end user’s 

terminal (software version, configuration 

and performance data, etc.) to 

perform parallel troubleshooting 

from the SP side; 

• automatic forwarding to a call center 

if the end user is unable to solve 

the problem. 

All these service assurance aspects 

need to be covered in a carrier-class, 

competitive OSDE environment. Alcatel has used its experience 

in both applications and telecommunications service delivery 

to build the required service assurance features into its OSDE 

and OSS solutions, e.g. the Alcatel 8950 Assurance Solution, 

complemented by the Alcatel 5950 Broadband Care solution. 

For a service like My Own TV, service assurance will comprise 

the exploitation of the collected data according to the QoS 

policies of the operator and the triggering of related alarms. 

Service billing 

All of the above only makes sense if the OSDE provides appropriate 

features to bill the delivered services (see Figure 6). 

Billing for next-generation services needs to be as flexible as 

the orchestration environment that is used to build these services. 

In addition, B2B/B2C services may require support for 

instant payment of items or content, while telecommunications 

services often require pre-paid and post-paid approaches. 

Further, in both cases, additional on-line rating may apply. 

The billing architecture and protocols for next-generation 

services have been extensively standardized as part of the 3GPP 

IMS architecture. ETSI TISPAN is adapting this to include additional 

fixed broadband service billing requirements to achieve 

a convergent fixed/mobile billing architecture fully supported 

by the Alcatel OSDE. 

The Alcatel OSDE provides the features for data generation, 

in particular CDRs, for use by Web services developed with the 

OSDE. The OSDE supports a wide variety of real-time payment 

features through the Alcatel 8610 Prepaid-Postpaid Suite 

applications: 

• integrated 8618 Convergent Rating Engine services for realtime 

rating, according to a set of operator-determined constraints 

or billing policies; 

• instant payment through the integration of the Valista 

Micro-Payment system; 

• finally, 8965 C3S complements the OSDE payment chain with 

services for off-line data collection and processing of generated 

CDRs or billing events, and for interfacing with OSS 

applications, such as fraud analysis and billing systems. 

Figure 8: OSS and Network Management for IMS/NGN and OSDE positioning 

Mobile 

Circuit 

Access 

Operations and Business Support Systems 

Network Domain Managers 

Service Aware Edge 

and Data-Aware Transport 

Mobile 

Data 

Access 

Fixed 

Circuit 

Access 

OSS Interfaces / WebServices 

Fixed 

Data 

Access 

IMS/NGN 

Network 

Conclusion 

The aim of this article was to show the OSDE features 

required to enable SPs to create, provision, assure and bill new 

services in the most flexible way. In particular, OSDE support 

for creating manageable Web services, and the impact of Web 

services and orchestration technology on OSS processes and 

integration, have been explored. 

The introduction of an IMS/NGN infrastructure can have a 

significant impact on a Service Provider’s operational processes 

and OSS environment. 

Deploying next-generation services without the support of 

an OSDE that can fully integrate with the OSS environment may 

lead to an operational nightmare. 

When selecting IMS/NGN network and OSDE providers, an 

SP needs to assess the capabilities of these suppliers to understand 

the full scope of the required evolutions and the 

involved technologies, including the impact on the SP’s OSS 


Alcatel’s OSDE is a reliable, carrier-class OSDE that provides 

all the features necessary to help telecommunications SPs 

migrate in a stepped way to IMS/NGN and OSDE, while 

enabling integration with legacy service environments. 

Therefore Alcatel will help Service Providers to be more 

competitive in the next-generation services market, to face new 

entrant SPs focused on B2B or B2C businesses. 

By introducing Alcatel’s solutions for IMS/NGN and OSDE 

into their network, and by relying on Alcatel’s Professional Integration 

Services, telecommunications Service Providers will 

have a key competitive advantage to facilitate their success in 

next-generation service delivery. 


SDPs 

GUP 

Subscr 

DBs 

Open 

Service 

Delivery 

Environment 

CDRs 

End-User 

Web Portal 

Tanja de Groot is OSS Strategy Director in the Alcatel 

CTO Network Strategy Group, Paris, France. 

(Tanja.de_Groot@alcatel.com)


D. Hills, N. Mercouroff 

Competition for voice revenues has intensified in recent 

years in most markets. Worldwide, voice prices have been 

falling for some time now, and fixed-voice revenue growth 

peaked worldwide in 2003 (see Figure 1). 

Until now, mobile players have been successful in maintaining 

significant growth by adding subscribers and supplanting 

fixed-voice revenues. However, as Figure 2 shows, this 

growth is expected to slow in the next few years. When looking 

at the combined growth of mobile voice and data services 

in Figure 1, mobile growth is forecast to slow from 11 percent 

in 2004 to less than 3 percent in 2008. 

The fight for market share has been on between established 

service providers such as traditional PSTN providers, mobile 

operators, and Cable TV players. More recently, competition 

has intensified as Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) 

and VoIP providers have entered the market with more disruptive 

business models. In many markets these are serious 

threats, which have not yet gained massive market share, but 

their potential is concerning many. For example, Application 

Service Providers (ASPs) offering VoIP can do so in the socalled 

bring-your-own-broadband model. Existing broadband 

subscribers sign up for VoIP services from an ASP independent 

of their broadband service provider and independent of any 

Figure 1: Worldwide Service Revenues 

Revenues (U.S. $ Millions) 

800,000 

700,000 

600,000 

500,000 

400,000 

300,000 

200,000 

100,000 

0 

USING FIXED/MOBILE 

CONVERGENCE TO 

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE 

Fixed/Mobile Convergence is a tool helping established 

Service Providers to differentiate in a world where 

revenues are being increasingly undermined by disruptive 

business models. 

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 

Year 

2007 2008 2009 

Fixed Voice 

• Includes line rental and call charges 

for retail PSTN and VoIP services 

Fixed Data 

• Includes leased lines, packet VPNs, 

ISDN, DSL and satellite services 

Figure 2: Total call services revenue in Western Europe, 

mobile and fixed line (2002-2008) 

Fixed Internet/Public IP 

• Includes ISP fees such as access 

and hosting revenues 

Mobile Services 

• Includes mobile voice and data 

revenues 

2002 2003 2004 2005 

Year 

2006 2007 2008 

Fixed Voice includes line rental 

and call charges for retail PSTN 

and VoIP services 

Fixed Data includes leased line 

packet VPNs, ISDN, DSL and 

satellite services 

Fixed Internet/Public IP includes 

ISP fees such as access and 

hosting revenues 

Mobile Services includes mobile 

voice and data revenues 

Source: Gartner, March 2005. 


Millions of Euros 

180,000 

160,000 

140,000 

120,000 

100,000 

80,000 

60,000 

40,000 

20,000 

0 

Total Retail Call Services Fixed-Line Revenue 

Total Mobile Voice Service Revenue

USING FIXED MOBILE CONVERGENCE TO COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE 

PSTN contracts. Where local loop unbundling is available, subscribers 

are then cancelling their public switched telephone network 

(PSTN) subscription. In the mobile market, where new 

wireless access networks are being deployed (WiFi, WiMAX), 

it is possible that VoIP solutions will erode mobile roaming revenues 

as well, and as data tariffs come down, VoIP may become 

possible and economic on mobile data services. 

Service providers with declining revenues are looking for two 

things: a defense against revenue decline; and new revenue 

sources. Fixed/Mobile Convergence (FMC) promises to be a 

compelling way to achieve both of these objectives. 

FMC as a tool to simplify the user experience 

Broadband services have reached mass-market penetration 

in many countries; consequently users are faced with a massive 

array of new services and applications. While many of these are 

delivered through a common Internet Protocol (IP) transport 

layer, they still present the user with a fragmented experience 


Figure 3: Richness of terminal offer is fragmenting user’s experience 

Work PC 

TV 

Accessories 

Bank Cards 

Stereo 

PIN numbers, 

passwords, 

telephone numbers, 

e-mail addresses, 

operating systems, 

cables everywhere! 

!#&$^# 

Home PC 

Services are often delivered with a different set of passwords 

and subscriptions and are often tied to one particular device. 

This is simply because the service arrangement or the service 

provider is organized around vertical silos of fixed, mobile and 

Internet services. Not only does this 

make the consumer’s life more complex 

and fragmented, many consumers 

simply cannot be bothered to figure 

out how to use new services, devices 

or applications. As a result, they never 

subscribe to or use these new services. 

Making services more user-centric 

makes them more accessible because 

they are easier to use (common look 

and feel). Furthermore, because services 

are presented in a consistent 

manner regardless of device, it is easier 

for users to explore new services 

and features, which otherwise would 

be ignored or unseen with a traditional 

non-user centric interface. Alcatel 

research indicates that users are seeking 

seamless services, where potentially 

any service can be delivered to 

Phones 

Gaming 

Music Player 

Offering services across domains adds value 

Packages make services easier to use 

Bundles make services attractive 

Enhancements make services better 

any device over any network, and where the user controls which 

devices, services and networks are used. For service providers 

that can address the demand for a simple customer experience, 

the rewards could be great. 

A simple user experience could be delivered to users by 

offering only one service, and hoping they do not use other services. 

For example, a VoIP provider could try to attract users 

with a very low-priced and easy to use VoIP service, hoping 

users will abandon mobile and PSTN to ensure a simple experience. 

This may be attractive to a particular niche of price-sensitive 

users. The trouble with this approach is, first, that most 

users already have a traditional phone, a mobile, and an on-line 

service; second, each service offers its own intrinsic value which 

has yet to be duplicated in the other domains. For example, 

fixed phone services are ubiquitous, easy to use, most countries 

have some form of legal restrictions on nuisance callers, 

numbers can be listed (or not) in a directory, call quality is consistent, 

and prices are relatively low. Similarly, mobile services 

offer mobility, and enhanced devices offer a wide range 

of services including larger contact directories and sophisticated 

messaging functions. On-line communications services 

offer very low-cost calls, and a level of integration 

between communications media such as voice and text. 

A window of opportunity exists today to exploit users, subscriptions 

to multiple services, the value apparent in each service, 

and the users’ desire for a simpler user experience. Established 

Service Providers can exploit these by offering integrated 

services across all three domains, enabling a simple yet better 

user experience, while continuing to shield users from complexity. 

This would open up the opportunity to realize more revenue 

through increased convenience and usage. 

Figure 4 shows how the common elements of these services 

can be integrated together to take the best from each 

domain and enhance and simplify the overall user experience. 

Making FMC happen for service providers 

Different players (fixed service providers including ISPs, 

mobile service providers) have differing priorities for convergence, 

depending on their market (highly competitive or less 

competitive). According to these priorities, several types of 

service can be delivered by a service provider, with a gradually 

growing impact on its network organization. 

Figure 4: Service Integration around the three dimensions of user service delivery. 

Mobile 

Services 

Messaging 

Voice 

Traditional 

Services 

Address Books 

Presence 

IM 

Email 

On-line 

Service 



Fixed service providers 

Fixed Service Providers will likely want to offer services as 

shown in Figure 5. 

Figure 5: Suggested Service Strategies for Fixed Service Providers 

Commercial Bundles 

• One Bill 

• Single Call Minute Bucket 

• One Contact Centre 

• Service Bundles 

- Fixed 

- Mobile 

- Broadband 

- TV 

Enhance Services Integrate Services 

• VoIP: Presence, 

Messaging, Video 

Communication, mobility 

• Menu-Driven IP Phones 

• Personalization: Ring 

Tones, Ring Back Tones, 

single voice mail, locationbased 

services 

• eWallet 

The first step towards commercial bundles allows fixed service 

providers to use FMC without integrating services. This 

offers a short-term defense of revenues, but is likely to be easily 

copied, with VoIP providers able to form MVNOs relatively 

easily. So a move to enhanced and integrated services is necessary 

for service durability: enhancing traditional voice services 

is critical to compete with new entrants in the VoIP domain. 

Service innovation is necessary to defend existing revenues, 

prevent users moving to new providers, and to see off competitors. 

To date, most service propositions have been based on 

either black phones or PC clients. These attempt to replicate 

PSTN services at a lower cost, or require users to be connected 

to their PC. In short, these are price-based propositions. It is 

only a matter of time before these services are enhanced as 

IP phones mature and the additional features of VoIP become 

usable. 

Established fixed players can make use of VoIP services 

by enhancing their voice service to the installed base, and 

personalizing the home / office experience. Personalization 

would be delivered by enabling individual telephone numbers 

and voicemail accounts, individual handsets with customized 

address books, ring tones, etc. These services can be made 

accessible via a range of new IP phones, which offer menudriven 

displays giving access to commands such as call divert, 

call waiting, etc. 

Once service enhancements are in place, integration can be 

made between different systems, such as messaging on home 

/office phone, mobile and PC services such as Instant Messenger, 

etc. 

Figure 6: Suggested Service Strategies for Mobile Service Providers 

Lower perceived cost 

• On-net tariffs 

• Home zones 

• Cross-network bundles 

• Bundle Data Usage 

Enhance Services 

• Presence, IM, Email 

integrated with voice & 

directories 

• Enable PBX feature 

integration 

Mobile service providers 

Mobile Service Providers will likely want to offer services as 

shown in Figure 6. 

Mobile Service providers may want to 

integrate with fixed voice offers if they 

have a fixed voice partner or parent. But 

other mobile service providers may want 

to deliver home / office phone services 

either through a mobile network directly 

or through VoIP. In this mode they will 

aim to fully supplant fixed services. 

Figure 6 shows that the recommended 

approach for mobile operators 

is first to take steps to remove any perceptions 

that picking up a mobile phone 

is more expensive than using a fixed 

phone (including VoIP). The classical 

way to do this is to rely on users having 

a bundle of call minutes. Alternatively, 

to defend existing mobile revenues and compete with fixed 

prices in markets where landline calls are a lot cheaper than mobile, 

it maybe necessary to offer a home zone tariff in addition to the 

regular mobile tariff. 

As a further defense against very low-priced offers with a valueled 

proposition, mobile service providers may want to integrate with 

other services such as directories, IM, etc., depending on the relationships 

they have with fixed providers and ISPs. Integration with 

PBX services offers a chance to gain more enterprise revenues, and 

differentiate from single-service providers by offering mobility and 

enterprise services. 

Ultimately, mobile service providers may decide that the only 

way to really compete with fixed players is to move to a full service 

provider mode. They may then want to provide all voice over 

mobile, but need to have a high-speed broadband offer to complete 

their proposition for users. Otherwise, users are likely to be targeted 

by their broadband provider with VoIP services, eroding calls 

on the mobile network. 

How quickly either fixed or mobile service providers move to 

deliver these services depends on the competitive nature of their 

markets and the situation they find themselves in. 

The service providers most likely to deploy converged services 

are the ones facing the most competitive pressure. Today, these 

are fixed service providers in highly competitive countries, such 

as the United States, France and Italy, or those facing significant 

threats because they have no mobile operations. In these situations, 

service providers are already reacting to threats, and most are 

already some way through the first step of the roadmaps in Figures 

5 and 6. As these competitive threats intensify, they become 

a catalyst, forcing change on the established players. 

Service providers in these situations 

are already considering or implementing 

a major business transformation, and in 

• Messaging IM, SMS, MMS 

• Video Communications 

• Presence fixed & mobile 

• Common preferences 

• Hybrid Phone 

• Other services (e.g. 

Entertainment) across 

fixed and mobile 

Selected Services 

full service offer 

• Higher speed services 

(e.g. fully unbundled DSL + 

3G Voice) 

• Roam seamlessly between 

2.5G/3G and WiFi for 

data sessions 

most cases this will revolve around the 

deployment of IMS/NGN networks, and 

related solutions for convergence (single 

phone for multi-access mobility, Unified 

Messaging, Converged Payment), which 

are described below. 

In less competitive markets, service 

providers do not have such a compelling 

threat driving major network transformation. 

These service providers are focused 

on new services to deal with discrete 



threats, such as improving their competitive position against an 

entrenched competitor, and opportunities, such as introducing presence, 

which will have a positive impact on their business in the 

short term. These service providers are following the roadmaps 

shown in Figures 5 and 6 more incrementally. Alcatel’s solution 

enables a step-by-step approach to FMC supporting this strategy. 

Examples of FMC services 

Converging access network: Multi-Access Mobility example 

The single phone solution for Multi-Access Mobility, shown 

in Figure 7, offers providers a converged service that allows 

the user to roam freely between the fixed network and the 

mobile network using one phone with one phone number. The 

solution uses a single handset to make and receive fixed and 

mobile calls, eliminating multiple contact numbers, multiple 

voice mail and address books. It offers a converged service 

which automatically roams between a connection to the fixed 

network via Bluetooth or WiFi and the mobile network, hence 

saving the user time and money. 

Figure 7: Single phone for multi-access mobility over GSM, 

CDMA, or UMTS, and Bluetooth or WiFi 

GSM/CDMA/UMTS 

Dual-mode 

terminal 

Access 

BTS 

Mobile 

Network 

Softswitch 

Fixed 

Network 

MSC 

Application 

Server 

Alcatel’s single phone solution contains all the necessary feature 

sets to ensure that the end user is always optimally connected: 

• reduced cost through use of the optimum (the cheapest) network 

for incoming and outgoing calls; 

• enhanced voice quality by providing fixed voice quality over 

a mobile phone, important where GSM coverage is spotty 

(inside buildings, in rural settings); 

• a single contact number – no need to manage fixed, mobile 

and office numbers; 

• a single address book, voicemail and bill; 

• seamless interworking with other residential applications like 

PRBT (Personalized Ring-Back Tone). 

Alcatel’s single phone solution offers two complementary 

architectures: 

• Intelligent Mobile Redirect (IMR) that uses Session Initiation 

Protocol (SIP) call control; 

• Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) that uses UMA technology. 

The choice of the optimal architecture depends on the service 

provider’s context (e.g. fixed vs. mobile) and the targeted 

end-user segment (e.g. residential vs. enterprise). Alcatel provides 

proven, quantitative business consulting support to 

service providers to assist them in making this optimal choice 

on their way towards convergence. 

Converging back-office: 

Unified Messaging and Payment examples 

Unified Messaging combines voice messaging, video messaging, 

and email into one single service, for fixed or for mobile 

access. Video is a key opportunity for enriching the user experience, 

with its messaging environment accessible from fixed 

broadband as well as mobile broadband (3G / EV-DO) networks. 

Unified messaging provides the end user with a single mailbox, 

where any type of message (data, voice, or video) can be stored 

and retrieved, whatever the access network or terminal (PC, 

fixed or mobile phone, PDA, etc.). 

Alcatel’s Unified Messaging relies on a modular architecture 

allowing the secure storage and flexible management of mediabased 

messages (voice, fax, video, MMS, etc.), as well as a powerful 

voice/video mailbox including user self-management capacity. 

It combines multi-access capacity (fixed, mobile) with 

openness, allowing for full interfacing with other environments 

of the service provider (IMS, IMAP, vXML, etc.) 

Convergence between fixed and mobile, pre-paid and 

post-paid, as well as data and voice, brings relief through a single 

rating engine, compared to the legacy decorrelated rating 

approaches. Flexibility and simplicity in charging schemes offer 

the possibility to adapt the operator’s service offer to the most stringent 

market conditions. 

Alcatel’s payment applications are based on its successful call 

control, rating and charging platform. Based on a carrier-grade 

platform, it is able to deliver state-of-the-art flexibility and functional 

richness, while respecting the tremendous real-time / 

high-reliability constraints. In particular, Alcatel’s payment application, 

based on the 8690 OSP, offers a true convergence capability, 

letting service providers charge voice, data and content 

usage for any bearer (NGN, IMS, WiFi, GSM, EDGE, UMTS, 

PSTN, etc) and for any subscribers (pre- or post-paid). This 

enables, in particular, community charging for hybrid accounts 

(e.g. partly pre-paid/partly post-paid, or partly corporate/personal) 

and complex family/corporate charging rules. 

Converging service delivery environment: 

IP Multimedia Subsystem 

In order to grow according to market conditions, service 

providers of all types need to deploy future-safe architectures. 

A central requirement is to have an overall architecture which 

enables the definition, implementation and deployment of new 

services more quickly than ever before. This architecture is IMS, 

which is defined by the standards organizations 3GPP and ETSI- 

TISPAN. Figure 8 shows a simplified IMS architecture. At the 

same time, end users want to consume simplified services. The 

IMS architecture with its SIP-centric service delivery satisfies 

this requirement. 

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a framework for providing 

IP telecommunications Services. It is the foundation for 

a world where services and transport are IP-based, from the 

devices to the network. The access network might differ, but 

every service can be common to the wireline (DSL, cable, FTTU, 

PSTN, etc.) and wireless (2G, 3G, WiFi, WiMAX, etc.) worlds. 

It is thus a true foundation for Fixed / Mobile Convergence. 



Figure 8: IMS reference architecture for service delivery over any type of access network 

Application Layer 

Session Control HSS CSCF MRF 

Layer 

(S/I/P) 

Connectivity Layer O&MCharging 

IP Network 

Alcatel IMS is inherently access-agnostic, hence covers the 

convergence needs of both fixed and mobile service providers. 

Accordingly, a single network can be implemented (see 

Figure 8), sharing subscriber profiles (Home Subscriber 

Server function, as part of Alcatel’s 

1430 MDS), session control (Call Session 

Control Function, as part of the 

Alcatel 5020 Softswitch), applications 

(Alcatel 5350 IMS Application Server 

for SIP applications, Alcatel 8690 

Open Service Platform for hybrid 

applications), and payment capabilities 

(Alcatel 8690 as well). Services 

can be deployed across a fully converged 

customer base. When combined 

with a parallel client offering – 

a mobile handset client, together with 

a common-look-and-feel PC client, all 

the way to a common TV appearance 

– this can result in a ubiquitous user 

experience that binds the user to the 

service provider. 

The main building blocks of Alcatel’s 

IMS solution were deployed 

within BT as part of the Alcatel SIP 

multimedia platform delivered in 

2004. In particular, BT selected the 

Alcatel 5020 Softswitch to support 

SIP-based VoIP and multimedia 

applications within an IMS-ready 

architecture. 

AS AS 

Unified 

Messaging 

PSTN/PLMN 

Service providers can select individual services within Alcatel’s 

IMS service portfolio as shown in figure 9. Alcatel’s IMS 

Application Server, part of the Alcatel OSDE (Open Service 

Delivery Environment), enables the delivery of these services 

via a rich variety of access means, including fixed and mobile, 

as well as traditional (IN, SMS (short message service)/MMS 

(multimedia messaging service), etc.) and IP-based (SIP- 

based for IMS, as web services, etc.). 

Conclusion 

FMC offers established service 

providers the opportunity to introduce 

innovative multimedia applications 

(voice over broadband, rich messaging 

applications independent of access network 

and device) in a value-led proposition 

differentiated from disruptive 

new entrants. Service Providers offer- 

MGCF 

ing users better integrated services are 

SGW 

likely to have a superior product to their 

competitors, if they leverage this product 

with the core values of existing services 

such as quality, reliability, emergency 

calling, directories, etc. By reinforcing 

such core brand values, we 

believe they can much better defend 

their share of the voice market, and provide 

new service innovation to secure 

long-term profitability. 

Alcatel, as a long-standing market 

leader in the fixed and mobile market, 

is delivering to its customers the best 

tools for taking advantage of these new opportunities: at the 

levels of converged access (with single phone multi-access 

mobility), back-office (with unified messaging and payment), 

and service delivery (with IP Multimedia Subsystem solutions). 


1 

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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 

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Multimedia 

Communication 

< 

- 

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# 

Support System 

Figure 9: Examples of Alcatel Services from NGN/IMS Solutions. 

Real-time 

Payment 

Consumer Communication 

Fixed/mobile 

GSM Phone 

NGN 

Advanced 

Flexible Rating 

VideoChat 

& VoIP 

Fixed/mobile 

Video Telephony 

Content Value 

Charging Location 

Mobile Office Fixed/Mobile 

Voice Phone 

Fixed/Mobile VPN 

Wireless PBX 

SIP/WiFi 

Multimedia 

Conferencing 

Collaboration 

Payment & Common Capabilities 

Dave Hills is 

Director,Global Market 

Positioning in CMO, 

Alcatel,Greenwich, 

UK, 

(Dave.t.Hills@alcatel.co.uk) 

Business Communication 

Presence 

User profile 

Nicolas Mercouroff 

is VP Fixed-Mobile 

Convergence in Alcatel, 

Vélizy, France


M. Jadoul, E. Osstyn 

For decades, the main revenue source for telecoms service 

providers has been fixed telephony, a regulated market 

characterized by stable pricing and high service availability. 

Over recent years however, they have seen margins on traditional 

fixed telephone services decline. At the same time, the 

rapid growth of mobile and data has allowed them to expand 

their service offerings with new, user-centric services. 

Whereas initial Voice over IP (VoIP) deployments were inspired 

by cost optimization, current roll-outs are mainly driven by price 

competition, future-safe network expansion (e.g. as a first step 

towards IMS, the Internet Multimedia Subsystem), and the promise 

of a range of enhanced applications, giving fixed and mobile service 

providers access to new revenues. 

In this article, we will explore the vision behind, and the 

implementation of, one of the world’s first and biggest commercial 

VoIP deployments based on the Session Initiation Protocol 

(SIP): “BT Communicator with Yahoo! Messenger.” 

Launched by British Telecom in July 2004, the service is giving 

tens of thousands of BT customers a truly converged, multimedia 

communications experience. 

BT sets the pace for next-generation network 

(NGN) and multimedia applications 

BT is one of Europe’s leading providers of telecommunications 

services. Its principal activities include local, national, and 

international telecommunications services, high-value broadband 

and Internet products and services, and IT (information 

technology) solutions. In the United Kingdom, BT serves over 

20 million corporate and residential customers with more than 

29 million exchange lines, as well as providing network services 

to other licensed operators. 

About BT’s “21 st Century Network” transformation 

program 

To be prepared for the massive deployment of next-generation 

broadband services, BT is implementing its 21st Century 

Network (21CN) strategy, a battle plan for reshaping BT’s network 

and services into a single, multi-service network, and for 

consolidating the service delivery process. 

The main drivers for this transformation are: 

• New broadband revenues: fully exploiting the capabilities 

of broadband, BT will be able to upgrade its service offering from 

bit-pipe transport to a wide range of value added services. 

• Benefiting from convergence: thanks to voice/data conver- 

BT COMMUNICATOR: THE WORLD’S 

BIGGEST SIP DEPLOYMENT 

BT is transforming the way consumers communicate with 

a groundbreaking multimedia service. One of the world’s 

first and biggest commercial SIP deployments is enabled 

by an Alcatel solution. 

gence, fixed/mobile convergence, and Information & Communication 

Technology (ICT) convergence, BT will be able to 

offer more differentiated and richer services to the market. 

• Enhancing the customer experience: making existing and new 

services work more tightly together, BT will be able to give its 

customers more choice, more flexibility, and more control. 

• Cost reduction: although implementation of 21CN represents 

a bigger annual investment than that spent on the UK’s motorways 

and trunk roads, by deploying a common network and 

service delivery infrastructure, BT will avoid the expense of 

building, integrating, and managing a different “stovepipe” 

solution for every product and service. 

Over the past two years, BT has started rolling out a number 

of initiatives, in different domains, contributing to the implementation 

of 21CN. Alcatel is proud to be one of BT’s partners, 

working together with the UK operator to make BT’s 21 st Century 

Network vision a reality. 

“Through our 21 st Century Network strategy, we are collapsing 

a series of complex networks into a single, open, multi-service 

network, and providing our customers with the benefits that a simplified 

operating environment brings.” 

– Dale Register, Managing Director, Network Design and 

Implementation, BT Wholesale (quoted in an Alcatel press 

release, March 2004) 

BT’s VoIP offering 

Fully compliant with its 21CN objectives, BT is embracing 

VoIP as an integral part of a complete communications package, 

aimed at increasing its addressable market with an 

enhanced service offering. 

BT envisions three distinct VoIP offerings: 

• Full Class 5 NGN voice, combined with a multi-service 

approach, as part of BT’s Public Switched Telephone Network 

evolution/replacement program; 

• 2 nd line Plain Old Telephony Service (POTS) for DSL and 

Cable subscribers, offering a limited feature set on black 

phones through a special adapter unit; 

• PC-based VoIP services, as part of a converged, multimedia 

“communications hub” for broadband users. 


BT COMMUNICATOR: THE WORLD’S BIGGEST SIP DEPLOYMENT 

“BT is embracing VoIP as an integral part of 

a complete communications package aimed 

at increasing our addressable market with 

an enhanced service offering.” – Andrew 

Burke, Director, Value Added Services, BT 

Retail (quoted in an Alcatel press release, 

July 2004) 

In this article we will focus on the third 

domain, and examine in detail the service, 

which is currently marketed as “BT Communicator 

with Yahoo! Messenger.” 

BT Communicator with 

Yahoo! Messenger 

BT Communicator is the foundation of 

a long-term strategy by BT to integrate 

call management, voice-related capabilities, 

and the Web, providing an enhanced 

user experience to its customers. 

The service was launched in collaboration 

with Yahoo!, a world-leading Web portal 

service provider. 

A multimedia communications hub 

BT Communicator can be seen as a 

“hub” built around the popular Yahoo! 

Messenger application (Figure 1). Yahoo! 

Messenger is a free instant messaging 

service that Internet users can use to communicate. 

Users can see which friends are 

online and ‘chat’ with them in real time, 

exchange e-mail, share live webcam video 

streams, or transfer files. The new service 

fully integrates Instant Messaging, 

SMS, e-mail, PSTN, VoIP, and video 

telephony, to deliver a truly converged, 

multimedia communications experience. 

Downloadable free from the Internet, 

the BT Communicator software package 

enhances Yahoo! Messenger with true 

voice and multimedia communications. It 

also enables users to manage all their 

communications from a single PC applica- 

Focus group research has shown that one in every ten instant messaging 

conversations ends in a phone call, often from a mobile. By 

integrating BT Communicator with Yahoo! Messenger, BT is now 

able to respond to changing user behavior, e.g. in the youth segment, 

by offering ways to communicate that reflect new lifestyle 

choices. 

International travelers often pay high charges for calling home from 

their hotel rooms. BT Communicator subscribers can take their laptop 

abroad, or download the client to any available PC and, while on 

line, use BT's VoIP technology to make international calls to any UK 

number for the price of a domestic UK call. 

Figure 1: Multimedia communications hub concept 

Address book 

Fixed line Mobile phone 

Voicemail 

Figure 2: End-user pricing 

BT Communicator feature 

Client download 

Yahoo! Messenger Features 

– Instant Messaging 

– Address Book 

– E-mail 

– Avatars 

PC-to-PC calls 

Video chat (webcam) 

PC-to-phone calls (Clic2call) 

Phone-To-Phone Calls (Clic2connect) 

Internet Call Waiting 

Internet Call Barring 

Caller Display 

BT Call Now button 

Directory Enquiries 

Messenger 

End-user pricing 

Free of charge 




Multimedia PC 

tion. BT Communicator adds a number of communication-oriented 

features to the basic Yahoo! service, such as: 

• making PC-to-PC voice calls over Internet; 

• setting up voice calls from a PC client to any fixed or mobile 

phone inside or outside the UK (‘Clic2call’); 

• using the PC user interface to initiate phone calls between 

your home telephone and most local, national and international 

numbers (‘Click2connect’); 

• alerting you to incoming calls when your line is busy (Internet 

Call Waiting). Through the ‘Caller Display’ feature, the 

identity of the calling party can be shown on the PC; 

• preventing certain numbers being dialed from your PC, e.g. international 

or premium rate numbers (‘Internet Call Barring’); 


Email 

Normal BT call rates apply. 

Special rates for international destinations 

Same as Clic2call, with additional 1p connection fee per call 

£1.75/month - or free if you already have call waiting as part of 

your calling features package. 

£1.75/month - or free if you already have call barring as part of 


£1.75/month - or free if you already have caller display as part of 


Setting up a BT Call Now button is free. Calls made using this 

button are charged at the same rate as any other similar call from 

BT Communicator. 

Free of charge up to 100 searches a day.


Figure 3: Promotional banners on BT and Yahoo! UK websites 

• adding a ‘BT Call Now’ button to your emails or web pages, 

to make it easier for people to contact you; 

• directory enquiries for personal or business numbers. Once 

found, the number can be used with Clic2call or Clic2connect. 

The pricing principle of the BT service is that downloading 

the PC client, using the basic Yahoo! Messenger features, as well 

as conducting PC-to-PC calls are free, but that the additional 

Communicator features are charged for (Figure 2). 

As the service usage is billed to a BT account, subscription 

to the service is only possible for registered BT subscribers. 

Communicator is also used as a promotional tool for, e.g., discounted 

international tariffs. (Figure 3). 

“We believe that BT Communicator with Yahoo! Messenger will 

fundamentally transform the way in which people communicate 

through its multimedia capability. There is simply nothing to 

match this service in the marketplace at the current time.” – 

Gavin Patterson, Group MD, Consumer and Ventures, BT 

(quoted in a BT press release, July 2004) 

A SIP-centric implementation 

Implementation of the BT Communicator is based upon the 

IETF’s Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The 

choice of the Session Initiation Protocol is 

motivated by the fact that, over recent 

years, SIP has become the de facto signaling 

protocol for conversational IP services, 

allowing smooth inter-working of voice with 

other forms of IP communication like Instant 

Messaging, e-mail, video, etc., and seamless 

integration of new features such as presence 

and web-based call management. 

Network architecture evolving 

towards IMS 

The VoIP service was implemented 

using the Alcatel 5020 Call Session Controller 

(CSC) and 8690 Open Service 

Platform (OSP). The interconnection to 

Figure 4: Network architecture 

Alcatel 5020 CSC 

SIP 

Yahoo! Messenger client 

the PSTN uses BT’s existing Media Gateway Controllers 

(MGC) and Media Gateways. 

The CSC – a core component of Alcatel’s IMS Softswitch – 

provides SIP-based call control and triggers the MGC (that provides 

the necessary bridging between the voice and data 

worlds). The OSP facilitates the creation, customization, and 

rapid roll-out of new value-added voice and multimedia services 

on top of Communicator. 

When designing the service, BT realized that using SIP is 

fundamentally different from using traditional end-user communication 

protocols. To anticipate to possible peer-to-peer 

misuse of the SIP protocol, Alcatel has integrated a Session Border 

Controller (SBC) into BT’s solution. 

The deployment of a modular architecture (Figure 4), as 

well as the end-to-end use of the SIP protocol, clearly illustrates 

BT’s intention to embrace an IMS /TISPAN-compliant network 

vision, in which CSC, MGC, SBC and OSP respectively provide 

the 3GPP-defined S-CSCF (Call Session Control Function), 

Media Gateway Control Function, P-CSCF and AS functions. 

Centered on Alcatel’s service delivery platforms, BT has 

rolled-out an (IMS-ready) re-usable architecture to develop, 

deploy, and deliver a broad range of carrier-class, SIP-based 

services for both internal and external customers. 

Well thought-out PC client and self-registration 

When the Communicator project started in December 

2003, the Yahoo! Messenger client did not have the necessary 

voice or video capabilities. Therefore additional SIP client software 

was acquired, which is tightly integrated with the Yahoo! 

IM desktop (e.g. new Clic2call and Clic2connect buttons). Both 

software components are packaged and offered as a free-ofcharge 

upgrade to UK-based Messenger users (Figure 5). 

This enhanced BT/Yahoo! client is part of BT Communicator’s 

go-to-market approach, since first use of the Clic2call button 

triggers a message that informs customers that PC-to-Phone 

calls will be charged to their BT account. As there is no upfront 

subscription for the service (not even when the software is 

downloaded), users are redirected to a web page where they 

can subscribe on-line to the paying service. To achieve this 

instant self-registration, the softswitch and application subsystems 

are provisioned through a common application relying on 

the concept of federated data, which has been tightly integrated 

in BT’s Operations Sup- 

port System/Business 

Support System 

(OSS/BSS). 

SBC 

Internet 

SIP 

SIP 

MGC 

“Yahoo! Messenger with Voice”, 

http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/ 

Alcatel 8690 OSP 


> 

PSTN


Figure 5: BT Communicator client user interfaces 

Alcatel and British Telecom, working 

together 

Alcatel is proud to be one of BT’s partners, contributing to 

the implementation of the service provider’s 21 st Century Network 

vision. 

• Alcatel is supplying BT with a next-generation service delivery 

platform, which will act as the cornerstone for BT’s Common 

Intelligence Services Layer (CISL). The Alcatel solution 

is based on the Alcatel 8690 Open Services Platform (OSP), 

which gives the British carrier a healthy competitive edge, 

as it allows the customization and rapid roll-out of its voice, 

data, and multimedia services. 

• The company was the prime contractor for the implementation 

of BT’s Fusion service. BT Fusion is the world’s first service 

offering one single phone for fixed and mobile calls. This 

fully converged communication service, launched in June 

2005, was developed by Alcatel and a consortium of partners. 

• Alcatel has also been selected as a supplier of the metro node 

for BT’s 21 st Century Network (21CN) transformation. The 

solution includes the Alcatel 7750 Service Router and 5620 

Service-Aware manager. 

• In addition, Alcatel’s media gateways have been selected by 

BT to provide the high-capacity trunking between its traditional 

circuit-switched network and the new converged IP 

core. The Alcatel 7510 Media Gateway builds a service-aware 

edge for voice and multimedia services in user-centric 

broadband networks, by providing any-to-any media switching 

and inter-working for circuit and IP ports. 

Furthermore, by choosing Alcatel’s 5020 Softswitch and 8690 Open 

Service Platform as the foundation for implementing the BT Communicator 

service, BT has opted for a future-safe investment. BT’s 

selection reaffirms Alcatel’s position as a leader in next-generation 

networks (NGN), and as a strategic partner in delivering innovative, 

user-centric broadband applications – with capabilities that 

may go far beyond the current BT Communicator implementation. 

” Many service providers are recognizing that VoIP and multimedia 

services present a very real opportunity to increase their revenues 

and therefore are looking for vendors that embody that same visionary 

thinking. Given our broadband experience we recognized this 

need very early and invested in products that meet market demand 

from such respected industry leaders as BT. ” – Alan Mottram, 

Alcatel CMO. 

Conclusion 

The growing success of broadband in the consumer market 

is increasingly linked to aggressive pricing for high-speed Internet 

access service. It should as a result be no surprise that service 

providers are introducing IMS network architectures with 

new, user-centric services, to increase average revenue from 

customers, and to address new market segments. 

BT, a major European service provider, is leading the way 

in the deployment of new-wave services, which it considers part 

of a fundamental transformation for the company’s future. The 

launch of BT Communicator is a first step in BT’s strategy to 

offer new SIP-based VoIP and multimedia services for the broad 

consumer market. BT is also the first telecom operator in the 

world to join forces with a major Internet company like 

Yahoo!, and to offer this type of innovative service on this scale 

– making it available to over 19 million consumers in the UK. 

Having rolled out Alcatel’s future-proof, SIP-centric solution, 

BT has the right building blocks in place to migrate smoothly 

to an IMS architecture, 

and to host a complete 

set of new-wave, revenue-generating 

voice 

and multimedia services 

on a single platform, 

using a common 

management and OSS. 

To get more information on BT 

Communicator or to download 

the client software, please visit 

the BT Internet on 

http://www.bt.com/ 

btcommunicator/ 

”BT Communicator has been downloaded by 2.5 million customers 

since launch two years ago, and has 60,000 users." 

Reuters News. 


> 

Bibliography 

[1] “BT Consumer Broadband Strategy”, BT industry analyst 

presentation, 11 March 2004 

[2] “21st Century Network”, BT industry analyst presentation, 

9 June 2004 

[3] “BT hails a communications revolution with the launch of 

mass market voice over the internet in the UK”, BT press 

release, 15 June 2004 

[4] “BT boosts 21st Century Network with Alcatel“, Alcatel 

press release, 31 March 2004 

[5] “Alcatel provides BT with SIP-based solution for VoIP and 

multi-media services”, Alcatel press release, 28 July 2004 

[6] “BT selects Alcatel as a preferred supplier for 21st 

Century Network transformation”, Alcatel press release, 

28 April 2005


[7] “BT selected Alcatel’s Media Gateway for 21st Century 

Network project”, Alcatel Press release, 9 June 2005 

[8] “Alcatel-primed consortium launches ‘BT Fusion’”, Alcatel 

press release, 16 June 2005 

[9] “VoIP with a vengeance“, Bob Emmerson, VON 

Newsletter, 15 November 2004 

[10] “Ben Verwaayen determines British agenda“, Datanews, 

18 March 2005 

[11] “BT Communicator offers international calls for half the 

price of Skype”, BT press release, 27 September, 2005 

[12] “BT says to slash Internet telephony call charges”, 

Reuters News, 27 September, 2005 

[13] “Alcatel’s SIP solution puts BT at the forefront of service 

innovation”, Alcatel press release, 25 October 2005 

[14] “BT Communicator with Yahoo! Messenger”, 

http://www.bt.com/btcommunicator/ 

Marc Jadoul is 

Manager, Business 

Development, in the 

Alcatel Fixed Solutions 

Division, Enhanced 

Applications Business Unit, Antwerp, 

Belgium. 

Edmond Osstyn is 

Manager, Portfolio Strategy, 

in the Alcatel Fixed 

Solutions Division, Next- 

Generation Networks 

Business Unit, Antwerp, Belgium. 



J. de Vriendt, G. Hanson, A. Urie 

Historically, NGN has targeted the emulation of legacy voice 

services for class 4 (long-distance) and class 5 (end-user) 

voice services. As such, it has offered savings in terms of 

both capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure 

(OPEX), but has not created new revenue flows for operators. 

Since close alignment with each operator’s existing services 

has been required, vendor implementations have been burdened 

with a substantial degree of operator-specific development; 

therefore cost savings have not been as great as originally 

anticipated. The major exception has been the recent 

increase in 3GPP release 4 NGN markets, where significant cost 

savings are being realized due to the tight standardization of 

mobile voice services. 

In parallel, incumbent operators and their larger competitors 

have faced a growing threat from fixed-to-mobile substitution, 

and from smaller operators exploiting Voice over IP 

(VoIP) technologies in a simple overlay architecture (Skype, 

Vonage). Often these operators have not had to fulfill universal 

service obligations (emergency calls, legal interception, quality 

of service, or lifeline services) and so can generate substantial 

traffic without a major investment in infrastructure. 

In addition, converged fixed/mobile voice solutions are starting 

to be deployed. Alcatel supports two of these: the Intelligent 

Mobile Redirect (IMR) and Unlicensed Mobile Access 

(UMA) solutions [1], which target different but often complementary 

markets. 

Recently the NGN concept has evolved to support a far more 

flexible service platform that aligns well with the user-centric 

broadband concept [2-4], offers new, innovative services, and 

meets the needs of operators investing in preparation for imminent 

legacy infrastructure end of life. One key aspect of this 

new approach has been the development of the IP Multimedia 

Subsystem (IMS) specifications by 3GPP, along with the Open 

Service Architecture (OSA). While initially proposed for use 

> 

> 

> 

http://www.alcatel.com/publications/abstract.jhtml? 

repositoryItem=tcm%3A172-188431635&abstract 

Language=English 

http://www.alcatel.com/publications/abstract.jhtml?repositoryItem=tcm%3A172-188211635&abstractLanguage=English. 

http://www.alcatel.com/publications/abstract.jhtml?repositoryItem=tcm%3A172-74451635&abstractLanguage=English 

NETWORK MIGRATION 

STRATEGIES TOWARDS IMS 

IMS at the core of Next-Generation Networks (NGN) 

delivers user-centric services over multiple types of access 

networks in a way transparent to the end user. 

in UMTS mobile networks, 

this SIP-based 

“all-IP” approach has 

been adopted by 

3GPP2 for use in 

CDMA2000 networks; 

work is now ongoing in 

ETSI (European 

Telecommunication 

Standard Institute), 

ATIS (Alliance for Telecommunication Industry Solutions) and 

ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union - Telecom Sector) 

for the re-application of IMS to fixed broadband networks. 

This final step positions IMS solutions for use in fixed broadband, 

UMTS, and CDMA2000 networks, either individually or 

as a convergence of fixed and mobile networks, offering ubiquitous 

connectivity (“Connect Me”) with personalized services 

(“Empower Me”) [4]. A common IMS solution benefits vendors, 

service providers, and subscribers alike. 

IMS services and network architecture 

Each of the current NGN, FMC (Fixed/Mobile Convergence), 

and VoIP solutions has its limitations with respect to at least 

one of the following aspects: QoS support; innovative services; 

fixed/mobile convergence; and/or emergency services. This section 

will describe the IMS solution for NGN/FMC, how it 

addresses these shortcomings, and the IMS value proposition. 

The next section discusses possible migration paths to IMS. 

IMS positioning 

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) plays an important role 

in offering user-centric broadband services. Converged IMS 

allows service providers to offer QoS-assured, secure SIP (Session 

Initiation Protocol) based multimedia services efficiently, 

over any type of broadband access technology (wireline, 

wireless, mobile), with sufficient control to create, manage and 

appropriately bill for those services. IMS facilitates seamless and 

transparent interoperation from the end-user perspective across 

different access networks. The horizontal architecture of IMS also 

enables operators to move away from vertical ‘stovepipe’ implementations 

of new services, eliminating the traditionally 

costly and complex network structure of overlapping functionalities 

for charging, presence, group and list management, routing, 

and provisioning. SIP is used because it is a signaling protocol 

common to IETF, 3GPP and ETSI TISPAN (Telecommu- 


NETWORK MIGRATION STRATEGIES TOWARDS IMS 

nications & Internet converged Services & Protocols for 

Advanced Networks) for fixed and mobile network convergence; 

in addition, terminal vendors are moving towards SIP, 

and it is easier and more flexible to extend than H.323. 

IMS is a framework for providing a whole variety of IP services. 

IMS has been defined to support a variety of network and 

user services such as: 

• Person-to-Person (e.g. voice, video telephony) and Personto-Machine 

(e.g. gaming) services; 

• fully integrated real-time and non real-time multimedia 

communications (e.g. live streaming and chat); 

• interaction of different services and applications (e.g. services 

that use location and/or presence information); 

• easy user set-up of multiple services in a single session or multiple 

simultaneous sessions (flexibility in adapting a service: 

adding media components, adding parties, etc.). 

The ability of IMS to integrate different media components 

opens up opportunities for far richer services than are available 

today, and to provide real added value to the end user. In 

other words, IMS provides an answer to end-user expectations 

of user-centric broadband services. 

IMS architecture/solution 

The IMS architecture is based on a set of SIP proxies and 

servers that work together to ensure that end users can obtain 

the services they require, irrespective of which access network 

they use. 

Figure 1 shows the main functions of an IMS solution, and 

they are briefly described below. For a more detailed description, 

see [5-6]. 

Figure 1: IMS functional architecture 

> 

> 

BTS 

GGSN 

Mobile 

xDSL 

WiFi 

Other IMS 

network 

Service 

Edge 

P-CSCF 

P-CSCF 

P-CSCF 

HSS 

I-CSCF 

MRF 

http://www.alcatel.com/doctypes/articlepaperlibrary/pdf/ 

ATR2005Q1/T0503-IMS-EN.pdf 

http://www.alcatel.com/doctypes/articlepaperlibrary/pdf/ 

ATR2003Q4/T0312-IP-Multimedia-EN.pdf 

ASs 

S-CSCF 

MGW 

Application Servers (ASs): The Multimedia Application 

Servers (ASs) host the service execution environment. 

Serving Call Session/State Control Function (S-CSCF): 

The S-CSCF implements the SIP-based IMS session control. 

Proxy CSCF (P-CSCF): The P-CSCF acts as a SIP proxy 

server and is the primary link between the IMS and the 

underlying access networks. 

Interrogating CSCF (I-CSCF): The I-CSCF is the initial 

contact point within an operator’s network. 

Home Subscriber Server (HSS): The HSS comprises a network 

database containing all the subscriber data related to 

the IMS layers. 

Media Resource Function (MRF): This Media Server and 

Conference Bridge provides support for audio and video 

conferencing, multimedia announcements, and media processing 

(e.g. transcoding). 

Media Gateway Control Function (MGCF) and Media 

Gateway (MGW): These network elements are required 

to support communications between IMS users and CS 

users (e.g. PSTN or circuit-switched PLMN). Note that in 

addition to the functions shown in Figure 1, the complete 

IMS solution also includes components for network and 

service management, convergent charging, variety of application 

servers, etc. See [5-6] for a more complete description 

of the key processes used by IMS. 

Other IMS 

network 

IMS value proposition 

The Alcatel global multimedia program 

provides a fully standard-compliant 

(3GPP, TISPAN), complete IMS 

solution for mobile, fixed, and fixed 

wireless networks. The core of the 

Alcatel IMS solution (S-CSCF, HSS, AS 

and IMS SDP, MRF) is completely 

common to the different access networks. 

Adaptations are limited to P- 

CSCF and to the interworking with the 

control systems of the access networks 

for resource control and network 

attachment (see insert). 

The value proposition of Alcatel’s 

IMS solution is: 

• it is applicable to all carriers: mobile, 

fixed, fixed wireless, and converged 

operators providing IP multimedia 

services; 

• it is an inherent enabler for 

fixed/mobile convergence as the 

service platform is common for fixed 

and mobile. Service adaptation (if 

required) can be handled at the 

border of the access network; 

• it supports flexible bundling of revenue-generating, 

rich multimedia 

services, as it allows applications to 

add/drop media components, invite 


MGCF 

PSTN/CS 

Network 

attachment 

is in TISPAN the 

term for defining the 

mechanisms to get 

access to (to attach 

to) the network.


or disconnect communications parties, 

and access a wide range of service 

capabilities (location, presence, 

charging, instant messaging, conferencing, 

etc.); 

• it enables the migration of applications 

data from existing “stovepipe” 

applications on fixed or mobile networks 

to IMS-enabled, converged 

applications; 

• it supports enhanced E2E QoS support 

and security of the IMS architecture. 

These key features provide 

important benefits to the fixed and 

mobile network operator; 

• it is the basis for the fast development 

and deployment of many innovative 

multimedia services: “Where 

is the nearest taxi?” – “See what I see 

and what you see” – “How do I get to 

your place?” – “What is the best way to contact you?” etc; 

• it is part of an Open Service Delivery Environment designed 

for Service-Oriented Architectures, and uses Web services for 

integrating creative services from third-party service 

providers, allowing the easy introduction of new services, and 

resulting in rich service bundles; 

• it uses open and well-specified interfaces that will limit interoperability 

issues and allow rapid take-up. 

PSTN replacement 

For the evolution of the PSTN network, there are two alternatives 

being addressed within ETSI TISPAN: 

• PSTN/ISDN Emulation Subsystem (PES): near-perfect PSTN 

emulation, with a focus on supporting most if not all legacy 

PSTN services in a way that is transparent to the end user 

(same equipment, same look and feel); 

• PSTN/ISDN Simulation Subsystem (PSS): simulation of the 

most popular legacy services and support for the most commonly 

used set of PSTN services, with possibly different 

behaviors from some of the services. 

Alcatel offers two TISPAN-compliant options for PSTN emulation: 

NGN-based emulation, and IMS-based emulation. In 

NGN-based emulation, the Media Gateway Control Function 

(MGCF) performs all the control layer functions of a classic 

PSTN switch. In IMS-based emulation, PSTN emulation services 

are implemented as a specific application of the IMS core 

network, and the Access Gateway Control Function (AGCF) 

provides the adaptation of H.248-based access gateways to the 

SIP-based core network. The PES approach is mainly used in 

the PSTN replacement case and growth scenarios. PSS is a 

good choice for supporting the most important legacy PSTN 

services, whilst enabling rapid evolution to advanced multimedia 

services. This is possible as PSS is positioned as a subset 

of the IMS services, supported by the IMS architecture. A 

combined IMS and PES architecture (see Figure 6) has: 

• a common control layer based on the Alcatel 5020 Softswitch 

platform, with support for IMS/PSS services from the call and 

session controller (CSC), and support for PSTN emulation 

services from the Media Gateway Controller (MGC) or via the 

Access Gateway Controller; 

Figure 2: Scenario 1 – network renovation via PES introduction targeting PSTN replacement 

Revenues 

2005/2006 2007/2008 

TDM 

• a common application 

environment with a 

whole range of residential 

and business 

applications that can 

be offered either by 

the operator or a third- 

MM IMS 

See http://www.alcatel.com/ 

products/productsummary for 

more details of the Alcatel 5020 

Softswitch 

party application provider; 

• a centralized HSS database, containing IMS subscription data 

as defined by 3GPP and ETSI TISPAN; subscription data for 

PSTN emulation; application data (as opaque data) for different 

services; and access-related user data. 

Migration to IMS 

IMS is clearly the best target architecture for next-generation 

networks. Different migration paths from current networks 

are possible, reflecting the different short-term business 

priorities and starting points of fixed, mobile, and converged 

operators. 

Fixed operator migration path 

The typical starting point for a fixed operator is from a PSTN 

network, with possibly some pre-IMS solutions for multimedia 

services, an alternative VoIP offering, and/or H.323 services. 

An initial FMC solution such as IMR (Intelligent Mobile Redirect) 

may also be in operation. The main issues are the evolution 

of the PSTN network, and the need to introduce new revenue-generating 

services, both to increase ARPU, and to create 

differentiation from mobile (addressing the fixed-mobile 

substitution issue) and alternative VoIP providers. These 

issues include aspects such as which PSTN service features 

should be supported and how; QoS and security support on a 

par with PSTN; terminals supported; and service provisioning 

aspects. 

Different migration scenarios can be identified according to 

the operator’s focus and market situation (growth market, ageing 

PSTN network, and competition). The main scenarios are: 

• scenario 1: Network renovation via PES, prioritizing PSTN 

replacement; 

• scenario 2: Growth market for voice via PES; 

• scenario 3: Focus on new services and revenues now, and 

PSTN replacement later. 


Time 

NGN 

Voice 

IMS 

> 

PSTN 

replacement 

IMS voice 

migration 

IMS advanced 

services


In scenario 1 (Figure 2), the operator is mainly concerned 

with the ageing of its PSTN network, and wants to renovate the 

network substantially, with the target of lower OPEX. So as not 

to disturb the customer base, it wants to renew the network 

without the customers noticing. This means that the migration 

should not require new customer equipment, and should have 

full feature parity with the PSTN network, i.e. use the NGNbased 

PES solution. New revenues are a secondary issue, and 

derive from targeting SMEs and corporations, as well as from 

providing second lines to residential customers, offering a lowcost 

telephony solution. 

The fixed operator in a growth market (China, India, etc.) 

is covered in scenario 2 (see Figure 3) and will introduce an 

NGN-based PES solution as a cost-efficient (CAPEX, OPEX) 

way of extending a classic voice network. PES is introduced 

on an as-needed basis (aligned with subscriber base growth), 

and the service set is equal to that offered by the PSTN. As PES 

is introduced to cope with the growing subscriber base, this is 

immediately translated into new revenues for the operator. IMS 

for new service support, as well as for PES/PSS services, is 

introduced in a second phase. 

Scenario 3 (Figure 4) is the most attractive scenario for 

incumbent operators in mature markets 

that do not require immediate 

and large-scale PSTN replacement. 

The fixed operator is focused on 

leveraging large-scale deployments 

of broadband access with the introduction 

of new services (e.g. Triple 

Play) to increase revenue. A fixed IMS 

solution is the ideal first step for 

these operators, and complements 

the evolution towards Triple Play networks. 

This is accomplished with the 

introduction of the IMS multimedia 

softswitch (5020 CSC) in the network, 

or a software upgrade of a pre-IMS 

solution to make it compliant with 

IMS. The initial target customers will 

TDM 

be business and high-end users who 

are most interested in user-centric 

broadband services. Once new revenue 

services are deployed, the IMS 

platform can be used to migrate end 

users smoothly. 

Most business and many residential 

customers will move to IMS on their 

own, for the reasons previously discussed. 

Residential users will do so 

with high-end SIP terminals for multimedia 

services, or by connecting 

legacy phones to a residential gateway. 

Other residential users can be accommodated 

transparently using the IMSbased 

PES or IMS PSS service set, in 

conjunction with the deployment of 

broadband Triple Play infrastructure, 

e.g. the Intelligent Services Access 

TDM 

Manager-Voice (ISAM). This handles 

both the broadband and narrowband 

traffic, and will terminate POTS signaling 

and transform it into H.248 or SIP. 

Any remaining legacy customers can 

be consolidated at one or more legacy switches to reduce significantly 

the OPEX associated with these customers. One 

major advantage of this approach is that “exotic” PSTN services, 

focused on business customers, need not be supported 

with the PSS platform, since these customers would have 

already been migrated over to advanced IMS-based services. 

This scenario is thus characterized by a more disruptive 

approach with regard to PSTN, and avoids the need for an evolution 

towards NGN-based PSTN emulation. 

Mobile operator migration path 

The typical starting point for a mobile operator is from a 2G 

voice (classical MSCs) and data (SMS, GPRS) network in the 

initial phase of 3G deployment. Revenues are mainly derived 

from voice (>80%), and data is mostly SMS (>90% of data revenue), 

with other data services still to take off. 

In the mobile domain, the first step (see Figure 5) will be 

the introduction of a class 5 softswitch (3GPP R4), as this is 

still a growth market with the take-up of UMTS, 2G growth in 

developing markets, and partial replacement of GSM MSCs. 

Migration to circuit-switched NGN is driven by CAPEX/OPEX 

considerations. 

Figure 3: Scenario 2 – growth market for voice via PES 

Revenues 

2005/2006 2007/2008 

Time 

2005/2006 2007/2008 

Time 

NGN 

MM IMS 

Voice 

IMS 

MM IMS 

Voice 

IMS 

NGN growth + 

limited PSTN 

replacement 

PSTN replacement + 

IMS voice migration 

IMS advanced 

services 

Figure 4: Scenario 3 – focus on new services and revenues, with PSTN replacement later 

Revenues 

PSTN replacement 

IMS advanced 

services 



The introduction of EDGE 

(Enhanced Data rates for GSM 

Evolution) and 3G technologies also 

provides the bandwidth to start offering 

more attractive services (e.g. 

video) that can increase ARPU. In 

addition, terminals are becoming available 

in the market with larger screens, 

camera features, etc., extending the 

opportunities for content delivery and 

content creation. As explained earlier, 

IMS is the best available platform to 

allow an integrated approach to launch 

a variety of these services (push-to-x, 

reachability, group and list management, 

presence, etc.). It can be 

deployed as an add-on to the existing 

GPRS network with components such 

as PDF, x-CSCF (Call Session/State 

Control Function), HSS (Home Sub- 

TDM 

scriber Server), and IMS Application Server. These components 

are the same as for fixed operators. 

There is no pressure today for a massive migration of voice 

from CS towards IMS, especially for low-margin customer voice 

services, where the added features offered by IMS cannot generate 

new revenues. Voice capacity using initial IMS releases 

is expected to be lower than existing circuit-switched services 

(SIP message overheads, header compression issues, etc.). 

Migration of voice from CS to IMS will be driven by voice being 

one component of a richer, multi-component service, and when 

IMS has reached a sufficiently high penetration rate. 

Converged operator migration path 

IMS is a real enabler for fixed/mobile convergence. It 

offers major opportunities for operators with both fixed and 

mobile divisions. Until now, these divisions have operated 

almost independently from each other. However, end-user 

Revenues 

Figure 6: Layered IMS architecture for converged fixed + mobile 

Application 

Layer 

Control 

Layer 

HSS 

I-CSCF 

BGF 

Media 

Layer Other 

IP/SIP/IMS 

Access Layer 

Enhanced 

Voice 

Services 

Third party apps (Parlay, XML, J2EE, Web services...) 

BB Access 

(SIP) 

Messaging 

& presence 

Services 

I-CSCF 

RGW 

IP Contact 

Centers 

P-CSCF 

BGF 

Figure 5: Mobile operator migration path 

MM Conf 

Services 

IMS Service Delivery Platform 

AGCF 

PSTN 

(Class 5) 

ISAM-V 

AGW 

Content 

Service 

2005/2006 2007/2008 

MSC-S 

MGCF 

Class 5 

Class 5 

(mobile) 

(fixed) 

P-CSCF 

GGSN 

IP 

Centrex/3 d 

party 

S-CSCF MGCF 

Cl 4 

Mobile 

(PS) 

Mobile 

(CS) 

Time 

MM IMS 

NGN 

(2G&3G) 

Voice 

IMS 

CS NGN growth + 

TDM replacement 

IMS voice migration 

IMS advanced 

services 

demand for better integration of their communication services 

has resulted in a renewed interest in fixed/mobile convergence. 

The availability of enabling technology provides huge opportunities 

for these operators. They are best positioned to offer 

a complete broadband service for quadruple services (Internet 

access, communications, video entertainment/infotainment, 

mobile), where services and content can be leveraged across 

all networks. This full service provider model is also well positioned 

to offer services to enterprises such as managed communication 

services for increased productivity. Operators are 

aware of this potential, and are regrouping their fixed and 

mobile businesses. IMS allows the converged operator to deploy 

one common service delivery environment for fixed and 

mobile, where the overall architecture view is a combination 

of those discussed in the previous section, i.e. a single service 

platform providing services to end users over fixed and 

mobile access networks. 

AGW 

MGW 

PLMN 

PSTN 

(Class 4) 

Conclusion 

Broadband is becoming ubiquitous. 

However, the end user is not only 

interested in bandwidth, but is also 

looking for more and richer services 

that make life easy, i.e. user-centric 

broadband services. Several current 

trends are towards a renewed interest 

in fixed/mobile converged services, 

which is one aspect of this UCBB 

architecture. The wide availability of 

broadband has triggered new types of 

operator and business model to 

emerge. While the focus today is on 

voice and instant messaging, more 

advanced services are also within reach 

for these new players. Mainly ad-hoc 

solutions are being provided, which 

lack interoperability and economy of 

scale, and have no or limited QoS, 

resulting in a rather low take-up. Other 

solutions are tending towards providing 

fixed/mobile converged service 

offerings that target lower cost, better 

quality common service offerings. 



The IMS solution solves all these issues. It is a standardized 

(3GPP/3GPP2, ETSI TISPAN, ATIS) solution providing a complete 

architecture, with open interfaces for easy integration in 

a multi-vendor environment. It provides QoS at the access level; 

security at the service level; advanced service control and interaction 

capabilities between different application servers; an 

open model to support different applications via a standardized 

ISC interface; a common user database; and a service 

framework supporting capabilities such as IN/CAMEL, OSA/Parlay, 

and SIP application servers. IMS is an enabler for the fast 

development and deployment of new services. It is also a framework 

that allows very different types of services such as realtime 

and non real-time; multiple component services; interaction 

between sessions; dynamic sessions (upgrade/downgrade), 

etc. 

Several migration paths are possible depending on the operator’s 

focus and market situation. The most attractive and 

future-proof path for fixed operators is that which is focused 

on new services, where the potential PSTN replacement 

requirement is solved via offering voice services as an inherent 

part of IMS. For mobile operators, parallel investment in 

CS NGN for optimized voice delivery, and IMS for new services, 

is the expected evolution, with full CS replacement (all voice 

over IMS) only as a longer-term evolution. 

References 

[1] Philippe Lainé et al, ‘Integrating fixed and mobile telephony with 

dual-mode phones and appropriate network architecture’, Alcatel 

technical white paper. 

[2] ‘Delivering User-Centric Broadband: The Open Service Delivery 

Environment’, Alcatel strategic white paper, 

http://www.alcatel.com/publications/abstract.jhtml?repositoryIte 

m=tcm%3A172-188431635&abstractLanguage=English 

[3] ‘User-Centric Broadband: Service Provider Strategies’, strategic 

white paper, 


m=tcm%3A172-188211635&abstractLanguage=English. 

[4] ‘The User-Centric Broadband world: A vision for consumers, 

enterprises and service providers’, Alcatel strategic white paper, 


m=tcm%3A172-74451635&abstractLanguage=English. 

[5] Denis Attal, ‘Internet Age Telephony’, Alcatel Telecommunications 

Review, 2005 Q1, http://www.alcatel.com/doctypes/articlepaperlibrary/pdf/ATR2005Q1/T0503-IMS-EN.pdf 

[6] M. Tadault et al, ‘Network evolution towards IP multimedia subsystem’, 

2003 Q4, http://www.alcatel.com/doctypes/articlepaperlibrary/pdf/ATR2003Q4/T0312-IP-Multimedia-EN.pdf 

Johan De Vriendt, 

a member of the Alcatel 

Technical Academy, is 

Strategy Director, Next- 

Generation Network 

(NGN), Corporate CTO, Network 

Strategy Group, Antwerp, Belgium. 

Gary Hanson 

is Strategy Director, 

NGN, Corporate CTO, 

Network Strategy 

Group, Plano, USA. 

Alistair Urie 

is Strategy Director, Mobile, Corporate CTO, Network 

Strategy Group, Paris, France. 



S. Grégoir, H. Verbandt 

The emergence of converged fixed/mobile networks has 

imposed new requirements on the location, access and 

management of user data, such as: 

• the assurance of user data consistency across different network 

domains managed by the same operator; 

• a reduction in the number of different types of platform; 

• a migration path when an existing network evolves towards 

the converged network; 

• data availability, even when a session control node is out of 

service. 

Fixed/mobile convergence at the network control level is 

realized via 3GPP’s IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), currently 

being refined by the European Telecommunications Standards 

Institute (ETSI)/Telecoms & Internet converged Services & 

Figure 1: Reorganization of databases 

SGSN 

DHCP 

PDBF 

Aggregation 

AAA 

DSLAM Fixed IP edge 

3G 

Mobile 

HSS (HLR) 

GGSN 

Network Access Provider 

SLF 

P-CSCF 

S-CSCF 

AAA: Authentication, Authorization & Accounting 

AS: Application Server 

CSCF: Call/Session Control Function 

DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol 

DSLAM: Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer 

GGSN: Gateway GPRS Serving Node 

HLR: Home Location Register 

HSS: Home Subscriber Server 

I-CSCF: Interrogating CSCF 

ALCATEL’S USER-CENTRIC DATA 

REPOSITORY AND PROVISIONING 

ARCHITECTURE 

Migration steps towards a repository architecture 

to facilitate user-centric data management in the IP 

Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and fixed/mobile access 

domain. 

IM-HSS 

IP 

MGCF 

AS 

I-CSCF 

Application Service Provider 

Protocols for Advanced Networks (TISPAN) to fit the needs of 

fixed networks. Service-related user data are to be stored in 

databases residing in access-independent repositories, e.g. the 

IP Multimedia Home Subscriber Server (IM-HSS) database on 

the Home Subscriber Server (HSS). 

A converged network operator providing services to fixed and 

mobile users faces the issue of handling fixed and mobile access 

user data. Due to their nature, these data models cannot be merged. 

However, the access user data can be stored in the same repository 

(but as a separate database component) as that used for service-related 

data (HSS). 

A challenging part of the data story concerns the management 

of the data in the network, i.e. the migration from an existing, pre- 

IMS network to a converged one, and the integration of the data 

management systems with the operator’s Operations Support System 

(OSS). 

Multimedia 

network 

PSTN 

IM-HSS: IP Multimedia Home Subscriber Server 

MGCF: Media Gateway Control Function 

P-CSCF: Proxy CSCF 

PDBF: Profile Database Function 

PSTN: Public Switched Telephone Network 

S-CSCF: Serving Call/Session Control Function 

SGSN: Serving GPRS Node 

SLF: Subscription Location Function 

Federation or centralization 

of user profile data 

The migration towards the user-centric 

data repository architecture 

involves the reorganization of the data 

in current pre-IMS networks, together 

with the introduction of a user profile 

management system that is extendable 

beyond the application domain. 

Reorganization of databases 

Two choices exist for databases 

hosting user profile data: 

• centralize all the user data in a single 

database: such a solution is not 

considered practicable or scalable, 

and introduces unnecessary delays 

in data manipulation; 

• keep the data in different databases: 

here, data consistency becomes an 

issue. 

Reorganizing the databases tackles 

the disadvantages of both approaches, 

by centralizing databases only where 

necessary and when a clear advantage 

results. This means moving the data 


ALCATEL’S USER-CENTRIC DATA REPOSITORY AND PROVISIONING ARCHITECTURE 

from the different 

application domain 

nodes, e.g. the call session 

controller, to a 

central database, while 

keeping the accessrelated 

databases 

separate (Figure 1). 

The reorganization 

is achieved by 

using the possibilities 

offered by the IMS, i.e. the HSS is the only master database 

of the IMS network (see [1]), but it consists of multiple 

instances, with each instance hosting a part of the profile data. 

Since ETSI/TISPAN is in the process of adopting the data definition 

of 3GPP’s IMS, data conver- 

gence in the application domain is 

achieved by implementing 3GPP’s 

IM-HSS database, thus enabling service 

delivery to both fixed and mobile 

user. Further convergence is 

achieved by also implementing 

ETSI/TISPAN’s enrichments (e.g. 

legacy voice services) contained in 

the User Profile Server Function 

(UPSF); see [2] and [3]. The subset of 

the UPSF hosting the IMS-related 

data is the same as the IM-HSS. 

Large networks containing a number 

of IM-HSS databases require a 

Subscription Location Function 

(SLF) to identify the correct database. 

Instead of introducing a separate 

node, perhaps on a separate 

platform, the choice is made to host 

the SLF on one of the HSSs. This particular 

HSS will contain both its own 

subscriber data (IM-HSS) and the 

data related to the subscription location 

function. The application servers 

have the option to store their data as 

opaque data on the IM-HSS. However, 

it is logical that third-party service 

providers will keep the data on their 

own application servers, while operator-owned 

servers might host their 

data on the IM-HSS. The same 

approach can be adopted for the 

legacy NGN data, whereby the data 

used by the media gateway controller 

can be hosted on the IM-HSS. 

A mobile network operator provid- 

Figure 2: GUP architecture 

RAF 

Opaque data: 

data that is 

understood 

syntactically but not 

semantically by the 

HSS. It is data that 

an application 

server may store in 

the HSS, thus using 

it as a repository. 

Proprietary 

GUP data 

repository 

ing IMS services requires both the Home Location Register and 

Authentication Center (HLR/AuC) and the IM-HSS databases 

for the operation of the network. Alcatel’s implementation of 

the HSS is flexible enough so that the IM-HSS can access the 

installed base of an Alcatel or non-Alcatel HLR/AuC when necessary. 

For most recent mobile network deployments, the Alcatel 

HLR/AuC is extended with the IM-HSS on the same platform. 

For a fixed network operator, the AAA-proxy/server and 

DHCP server part is constituted by ETSI/TISPAN’s Profile Database 

Function (PDBF) [4], and resides in existing equipment 

and databases that are not part of the HSS. In the short term, 

IMS service offered by a fixed access provider will consist of 

an IM-HSS database that is independent from the access database 

and on a different platform because of the installed base 

equipment. However, in the longer term, it is advisable to host 

the PDBF part on the same platform as the IM-HSS to reduce 

the number of different platforms, thereby reducing OPEX. 

Management and data federation 

To manage the user-centric data repository architecture, an 

implementation of the data federation mechanism is used. This 

is realized by means of 3GPP’s defined Generic User Profile (GUP), 

see ref. [5] to [9]. GUP provides an architecture (Figure 2), data 

description, and interface with mechanisms to handle user data. 

The GUP server is the key element in the architecture. 

It contains the metadata that hold the knowledge of the 

Applications 

Rg 

GUP server 

Rp 

RAF 

Proprietary 

GUP data 

repository 

GUP: Generic User Profile RAF: Repository Access Function 

RAF 

Proprietary 

GUP data 

repository 

location of the data components and of the different data repositories. 

It also acts as a gatekeeper by authorizing or denying 

access to profile data. The GUP server either operates in proxy 

mode (collects the requested data and provides it to the 

requestor), or in redirect mode (provides the addresses of the 

data repositories to the requestor). It acts therefore as a data 

federator and offers a single point of entry to the OSS. 

On its northbound interface (Rg), the GUP server is connected 

via the standard SOAP/XML interface: 

• to the service management system that integrates the GUIs 

that are offered to the operator, and provides OSS mediation 

in case the customer needs a different northbound interface, 

e.g. CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) 

instead of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol); 

• to the customer OSS that automates the subscriber provisioning. 

The SOAP/XML interface is generic, hence independent of 

the GUP application data model deployed. A change to the 

GUP application data model, due to the introduction of new 

services for example, has no impact on the northbound 



interface. On its southbound interface (Rp), it connects to the 

main data repositories, e.g. the SLF, the IM-HSS, the AS, the 

HLR/AuC, the PDBF, etc., also via the standard SOAP/XML 

interface. 

Benefits 

The user-centric data repository architecture offers operators 

the possibility of facilitating the Operations, Administration 

and Maintenance (OAM) of the network (see article Operational 

Support evolution with Web services by Tanja De 

Groot), and therefore a reduction in OPEX. This is achieved 

through: 

• single point of access to the user profile data of the operator’s 

network: this is provided via the GUP server. It obviates 

the need for the operator to know in which network 

element the data resides. Requests from operators or selfmanagement 

access by end-users are directed to the GUP 

server, which does the rest. The final solution uses one type 

of platform technology: Alcatel’s Multi-access Data Server 

(MDS); 

• the architecture’s applicability to all carriers: fixed, mobile, 

wireless and converged; 

• compliance with 3GPP, ETSI/TISPAN and TMF standards; 

• improved scalability and geo-redundancy of call session controller 

nodes. 

By striving for a balance between centralization and federation 

of user profile data and data repositories, the impact on 

the operator’s network, performance, maintenance and costs 

is kept to a minimum. 

Migration steps towards the user-centric 

data repository architecture 

This section explains how pre-IMS network deployments can 

evolve towards the repository architecture. Note that the focus 

is on database migration more than other network aspects of 

the migration. 

Figure 3: User profile databases in fixed pre-IMS deployments 

Access 

Domain 

PSTN/ISDN 

Emulation 

Subsystem 

Domain 

Network 

Topology Data 

Subscription 

Location Data 

Subscription 

Location 

Server 

SOAP/XML 

SOAP/XML 

WEB 

FTP 

Gateway Data 

Endpoint Data 

PSTN Border Node 

User profile 

databases in pre-IMS 

deployments 

Current fixed pre-IMS 

and NGN deployments are 

characterized by a user 

profile database that is 

distributed over a number 

of data repositories. Figure 3 gives an example of such a 

network, focusing on the application domain. 

In the pre-IMS network, there is no real master database like 

the IM-HSS that keeps the user profile database. Each node has 

its own independent database and the profile data contained 

therein are not standardized. It is up to the operator to guarantee 

the consistency of data in the network; i.e., once provisioned, 

changes made directly to a network node are not automatically 

synchronized. 

Every network node is provisioned separately with its data 

via a node called the User Profile Provisioning server (UPP), 

which receives its data from the operator’s OSS. To this end, 

the UPP provisions the Subscription Location Server (SLS) with 

network topology and subscription location data. In the case 

of a provisioning failure or data synchronization problems during 

the provisioning process, the UPP relies on its recovery data 

to revert the network nodes to the previous, stable data state. 

The operator’s OSS has no single point of entry to the network; 

i.e. the UPP is used to provision the application domain and not 

the access domain, for which the OSS needs to take separate 

actions. 

For mobile networks, the pre-IMS deployment equates 

to a 3GPP Release 4 network (see ref. [10]), as depicted in 

Figure 4. 

The master database containing the user profile data is 

located in the HLR/AuC (note that the term “HSS” is not used 

in Release 4). From the HLR, different nodes download a working 

copy of the data they need. The HLR itself is managed by 

the Operations and Maintenance Center for the Core Network 

Recovery 

data 

Operations 

Support 

System 

User Profile 

Provisioning 

Server 

SQL SQL 

SQL 

Subscriber Data Subscriber Data 

Call Session 

Controller 

Application 

Server 

Subscriber Data 



(OMC-CN). The main difference from 

the fixed network is that, in a mobile 

network, there is no UPP. 

In order to have a network that 

enables fixed/mobile convergence 

with feature-rich multimedia services, 

not only changes to the network 

architecture are needed, but also 

some reorganization of the user profile 

data and repositories. This means 

that the data in the different nodes 

become cache data that are synchronized 

with a master database. Furthermore, 

there is an opportunity to 

enhance the operator’s network provisioning 

system. 

Step 1: introducing the IM-HSS and the GUP server 

Step 1 of the migration towards the user-centric data 

repository architecture is the creation of a fixed/mobile converged 

network. This is achieved by adopting the IMS architecture 

(Figure 5). From a database point of view, the migration 

is done in phases. 

In the first phase, the Home Subscriber Server (HSS) and 

Subscription Location Function (SLF) are introduced into the 

network. Via a mass creation tool, all the users are created in 

the SLF and HSS but with no profile data. The OSS (through 

the Alcatel 1300 CMC) is adapted to 

incorporate new Graphical User 

Interfaces (GUIs) and Application 

Program Interfaces (APIs). If the 

IMS network is to be deployed for a 

greenfield mobile access provider, 

the HSS will contain both the 

HLR/AuC and the IM-HSS data. If 

not, the HLR/AuC cannot be 

upgraded to an HSS, but the HSS 

containing the IM-HSS is able to 

communicate with it. In the case of 

a fixed access operator, no HLR 

function is needed, and the HSS will 

only contain the IM-HSS database. 

The second phase comprises the 

actual data population of the IM- 

HSS. Via an automated procedure 

controlled by the UPP, user and service 

data are transferred from each 

Call Session Controller (CSC) and 

Application Server (AS) in the network 

to the IM-HSS. If needed, a data 

restructuring takes place at this time. 

The IM-HSS is now the actual master 

database of the network, and the 

CSC and AS nodes only contain local 

Figure 4: User profile databases in a Release 4 mobile network 

Node B 

Master data 

Working 

copy 

RNC 

MEGACO 

SCCP 

SGSN 

VLR/MSC 

server 

MAP 

UDP/IP 

MAP 

SS7 

HLR/Auc 

OMC-CN 

FTP 

Corba 

WEB 

MAP 

MAP 

GGSN 

CS-MGW CS-MGW 

Figure 5: IMS compliance and provisioning 

Provisioning 

IMS compliance 

Subscription 

Location Data 

GMSC 

server 

MEGACO 

working copies (for performance reasons) synchronized with 

the data in the IM-HSS. Network elements other than the CSC 

and AS containing user profile data are still handled as before. 

The focus of Step 1 is on SIP users and Alcatel AS data. 

The last phase is the introduction of a GUP server, by merging 

the UPP and the SLS to create the metadata. At this stage, 

the GUP server will consist of the standard GUP interfaces 

towards the OSS (GUP Rg interface) and the repositories (GUP 

Rp interface), and it will perform some of the standard GUP functions, 

like authentication, etc. It will also know which user profile 

components are located in which repository (metadata). 

SOAP/ 

XML 

SOAP/XML 

FTP/XML 

Call Session 

Controller 

Metadata 

DIAMETER 

Local 

Cache 

Operations 

Support 

System 

GUP server 

SOAP/ 

XML 

User profile 

Data 

Local 

Cache 

Application 

Server 

SS7 

Opaque 

Data 

IP 

PSTN 

SLF IM-HSS 



Figure 6: Extending the architecture 

PSTN/ISDN 

Emulation 

Subsystem 

Domain 

Application 

Server 

Subscription 

Location Data 

Local 

Cache 

Media Gateway 

Controller 

Access 

Domain 

SOAP/XML 

FTP/XML 

SOAP/XML 

SOAP, Corba,... 

Metadata 

SOAP/XML SOAP/XML 

Local 

Cache 

Local 

Cache 

Application 

Server 

Step 2: towards a generic data platform 

This step concerns extending the architecture to cover more 

data (Figure 6). 

The following enhancements are made to the architecture 

of the previous step: 

• the user profile data of the IM-HSS is extended with new profile 

attributes to support PSTN-like services for users connected 

through IMS; 

• new user data is managed by the IM-HSS to support new subscriber 

topologies like IP-PBX, with services provided by the 

IMS, native H.323 users, etc; 

• introduction of wholesaling (VPN) concepts at both the control 

and application layer; 

• all kinds of semi-permanent data can be hosted on the IM- 

HSS; not only user profile data, but also equipment data for 

H.248 terminations; 

• non-Alcatel application servers have the option to store their 

application-related data in a standardized way as opaque data 

on the IM-HSS; 

• inclusion of mobile access data by adding the HLR. 

Fixed-access user profile data are treated by a separate database; 

i.e. are not located in the IM-HSS. However, the OSS can 

still make use of the single point of entry into the network, 

because the GUP server will hold the location of that type of 

data. When queried by the OSS, the GUP server will return the 

location where the repository can be found. This is called the 

redirect mode of operation in GUP. 

Evolution 

To take full advantage of the repository architecture, a further 

evolution is envisaged. 

SLF 

Call Session 

Controller 

DIAMETER 

Equipment 

Data 

Operations 

Support 

System 

GUP server 

User profile 

Data 

IM-HSS 

Opaque 

Data 

Local 

Cache 

3 rd party 

Application 

Server 

HSS 

HLR 

Local 

Cache 

xGSN 

Local 

Cache 

MAP 

3 rd party 

Application 

Server 

Local 

Cache 

xMSC 

server 

First, the IM-HSS will be able to serve as a repository of 

shared information used by applications and services, probably 

going beyond transparent data storage, e.g. location 

information, application-level routing data, etc. Therefore, 

the architecture will be extensible at run time to take into 

account this type of data. To achieve this, the GUP’s functional 

capabilities are used; e.g. to create and/or delete data 

components. 

Building on the GUP’s data federation mechanism, the GUP 

server will be linked to the user data of the IP TV domain to 

afford a complete view of the user profile data in the Triple Play 

solution. Further integration with the PSTN/ISDN emulation 

subsystem, the access domain, and the enterprise environment 

is also envisaged. 

The user-centric data repository architecture can be used as 

the basis for a Single Sign-On solution. In such a solution, an identity 

provider is needed; the GUP server could take on this role. 

Conclusion 

Operators evolving from a pre-IMS to a fixed/mobile converged 

network (IMS) are confronted with the question of how 

to deal with user profile data and their corresponding repositories. 

Alcatel’s user-centric data repository architecture 

offers a two-step solution. First, a reorganization of the databases 

is done through the introduction of IMS with the IM- 

HSS and an SLF. The IM-HSS is the master database in the 

IMS network, while the other network elements store synchronized 

working copies. Second, a GUP server is provided, 

thereby offering a single point of access to the user profile 

data of the operator’s network. This avoids the need for the 

operator to know in which network element the data resides. 

The GUP server is connected to the IM-HSS, the SLF, the 

HLR/AuC, the PDBF and others via standard SOAP/XML interfaces. 

In this way, the GUP server acts as a data federator. 



The solution is based on one type of platform technology, 

namely the Multi-access Data Server. This will help the operator 

to reduce the number of different platforms to be maintained, 

thereby reducing OPEX. The architecture is applicable 

to all carriers: fixed, mobile, wireless and converged. It also 

provides improved scalability and geo-redundancy of session 

controller nodes. Furthermore, the solution has the flexibility 

to integrate other databases. 

The solution described in this paper outlines a migration plan 

to evolve from the user profile databases in a pre-IMS network 

to a complete, converged user profile database solution. 

Alcatel is further extending this data repository architecture 

to encompass the IP TV domain, enterprise profile databases, 

etc., to provide a complete solution covering all user profile 

database areas. 

References 

[1] 3GPP TS 23.008: “Organization of subscriber data” 

[2] ETSI ES 282 001: ”TISPAN NGN Functional Architecture – 

Release 1” 

[3] ETSI ES 182 005: “TISPAN NGN Organization of user data – 

Release 1“ 

[4] ETSI ES 282 004: “TISPAN NGN Network Attachment Sub- 

System (NASS)” 

[5] 3GPP TS 22.240: “Service requirements for GUP; Stage 1” 

[6] 3GPP TS 23.240: “GUP architecture; Stage 2” 

[7] 3GPP TR 23.941: “GUP Data Description Method (DDM); Stage 2” 

[8] 3GPP TS 24.241: “GUP common objects; Stage 3” 

[9] 3GPP TS 29.240: “GUP network protocol; Stage 3” 

[10] 3GPP TS 23.002: “Network architecture” 

Stefaan Grégoir 

is a Network Analyst 

in the Corporate CTO 


Group, Service Delivery 

& Control, Antwerp, Belgium, 

(stefaan.gregoir@alcatel.be). 

Hugo Verbandt 

is a member of the Alcatel 

Technical Academy, 

and a Network Systems 

Engineer in the Alcatel 

Fixed Solutions Division, NGN Business 

Unit, Antwerp, Belgium, 

(hugo.verbandt@alcatel.be). 



A. Bultinck, D. Hoefkens, M. Mampaey 

The convergence of fixed and mobile infrastructures not only 

allows reducing standardization efforts and development 

costs, but also provides operators with great opportunities 

to increase their customer base and customer satisfaction by providing 

integrated service offers across fixed and mobile access. 

This goes together with a convergence of the security aspects. 

While it is essential not to relax the security as defined for mobile 

IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), fixed operators have specific 

needs. They want to preserve existing investments (at both operator 

and customer premises) by taking into account the large 

installed base in the fixed networks, lower the threshold for customer 

acceptance of IMS and accelerate IMS rollout, while replacing 

legacy services with state-of-the-art technology. 

The need for security in NGN (Next-Generation Networks) 

was already discussed in [a]. This paper continues the security 

discussion and focuses on IMS security for broadband fixed networks 

in the context of fixed/mobile convergence (Universal 

Mobile Telecommunications System). 

3GPP (Third Generation Partnership 

Project), where the UMTS (Universal 

Mobile Telecommunications System) 

standard is being defined, produced an 

exhaustive set of specifications for 

IMS security and is now working on 

“Release 7”. These specifications show 

a high level of maturity. ETSI TISPAN 

(European Telecommunications Standards 

Institute) (Telecommunications 

and Internet converged Services and 

Protocols for Advanced Networking) is 

working on its first release of an equivalent 

set of specifications dedicated to 

broadband fixed networks. The logical 

and efficient approach is then to use 

3GPP specifications as the basis where 

> 

[a] M. Mampaey, O. Paridaens, 

“Alcatel Vision for Secured Next 

Generation Networks,” 

http://www.alcatel.com/ 

publications/abstract.jhtml? 

repositoryItem=tcm%3A172- 

208301635, March 2005. 

SECURITY FROM 3GPP IMS 

TO TISPAN NGN 

Security for multimedia services is a key for success 

in a hostile IP world crowded with hackers. 

3GPP 

IMS 

Terminal 

HSS 

HLR/AuC 

Access 

Node 

convergence is identified. The main intention is to extrapolate 

TISPAN security from 3GPP’s approach. 

This article first gives an overview of the IMS architecture 

from 3GPP and describes its security. This is used as a basis 

for a description of the TISPAN NGN architecture and its security. 

A quick TISPAN threat analysis is also provided. An additional 

section illustrates security for non-IMS services. Finally, 

conclusions are drawn. 

3GPP IMS Architecture 

The article “Network Migration Strategies Toward IMS” in this 

issue (see [1]) gives an overview of the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) 

architecture and proposes references to earlier articles 

that further detail it. This section focuses on the elements that 

contribute to securing the IMS architecture: the “Core IMS” and 

the HSS. Figure 1 gives a functional and simplified overview of 

the IMS network architecture defined by 3GPP for Release 7 for 

a generic packet, fixed or mobile-based access. 

Figure 1: 3GPP IMS Functional Architecture Overview for Release 7 

IMS Session Signaling 

IMS User Plane Data 

SLF 

S-CSCF 

I-CSCF: Interrogating Call Session Control Function 

SLF: Subscription Locator Function 

S-CSCF: Serving Call Session Control Function 


Applications 

Core IMS 

P-CSCF 

I-CSCF 

IMS 

Trunk 

GW 

Access 

IP-CAN Border 

Gate 

Core Transport 

Network 

PSTN 

Border 

GW 

Other IP 

Networks 

P-CSCF: Proxy Call Session Control Function 

HLR: Home Location Register 

AuC: Authentication Center 

IP-CAN: IP Connectivity Access Network 


SECURITY FROM 3GPP IMS TO TISPAN NGN 

The Core IMS consists of all Call 

Session Control Functions (CSCF) 

that are responsible for session control. 

It performs three types of functions: 

• serving CSCF (S-CSCF), which performs 

the session control services 

and maintains the state of each IMS 

session. The S-CSCF authenticates 

the IMS user using the HSS security 

data Authentication Center (AuC); 

• proxy-CSCF (P-CSCF), which is the 

first point of contact of the IMS terminal 

and represents the terminal. 

Security association and signaling 

compression are required between 

the IMS terminal and the P-CSCF; 

• interrogating-CSCF (I-CSCF), which 

is the contact point within an operator’s 

network for all incoming sessions. 

The subscriber database handling 

of the 3GPP system consists of: 

UE-P-CSCF 

signaling is 

NOT protected 

UE-P-CSCF 

signaling protected 

by IPsec ESP 

• Home Subscriber Server (HSS) superset of the HLR (Home 

Location Register) with AuC and comprises the IMS subscriber 

data for session control and application control; 

• Subscription Locator Function (SLF) that finds the subscriber’s 

HSS in a multi-HSS configuration. 

3GPP IMS Security 

Security is a key part of the 3GPP IMS architecture. It is 

based on a layered approach in which IMS is designed as an 

overlay on top of a 2.5/3G mobile network, independent of the 

access technology, and with its own user authentication/authorization 

and communication flow protection. The objective is to 

secure all IMS sessions between the subscribers and the IMS 

Call Servers, and between Call Servers. It is based on a “hop 

by hop” security approach where: 

Figure 3: Intra- and inter-network security domain interfaces 

IPsec tunnel 

(optional) 

Figure 2: First-hop security user authentication phase at SIP registration 

SIP Register 

Auth Challenge 

SIP Register 

Auth_OK 

UE: User Equipment 

ESP: Encapsulating Security Payload 

P-CSCF: Proxy Call Session Control Function 

SIP: Session Initiation Protocol 

Operator A 

Za interface 

Operator B 

SEG SEG 

NE 

SEG: Security Gateway. 

Zb interface 

Zb interface 

NE 

IPsec tunnel 

Zb interface 

UE P-CSCF I-CSCF HSS S-CSCF 

NE 

SIP Register 


SIP Register 

Auth_OK 

Cx-Selection-Info 


Cx-Query 

Auth_OK 

SIP Register 

Cx-Put 

AV-Req 

AV-Req-Resp 

SIP Register 

Cx-Put 

Cx-Pull 

I-CSCF: Interrogating Call Session Control Function 

AUTH: Authentication 


AV: Authentication Vector 

• the first hop between the subscriber and the P-CSCF is 

secured with an individual security context for each subscriber 

[2]; 

• hops between CSCFs are globally protected for all the sessions: 

Network Domain Security (NDS) [3]. 

First-hop security 

The first hop requires very strong security as it provides users 

with a signaling channel straight into the heart of the IMS control 

infrastructure. The main security needs at the first hop are: 

• the need to authenticate the user to prevent user identity 

theft; 

• the need to authenticate and protect the integrity of the user’s 

signaling to prevent theft of service (ToS) and malicious 

attacks exploiting the signaling. 

IPsec tunnel 

(optional) 

Zb interface 

NE 

First-hop security is based on the 

ISIM (IMS Subscriber Identity Module) 

application on an UICC (UMTS Integrated 

Circuit Card) in the terminal. It 

re-uses a strong, field-proven mechanism 

defined for UMTS access to protect 

the sensitive radio access: the AKA 

(Authentication and Key Agreement 

protocol), which allows authentication 

and key agreement via a common secret 

shared between the subscriber (ISIM 

application) and the network 

(AuC/HSS). At IMS registration, the 

user authenticates using a SIP Digest 

AKA message exchange. The next 

exchanges are protected by IPsec (IP 

Security) transport mode between the 

subscriber and the P-CSCF using 

integrity and encryption keys derived 

from the shared secret and the challenge 

value. This is illustrated in Figure 2. 



Network Domain Security 

Network Domain Security for IPbased 

protocols (NDS/IP) is less of an 

IMS-specific feature. NDS / IP proposes 

a security architecture and 

tools that allow IMS operators to 

structure their own IMS network in 

security zones (see [a]), and to have 

interoperable security mechanisms 

for exchanges with other operators. 

To that effect, NDS / IP introduces 

the notion of the intra-domain interface 

(Zb), which represents the interface 

between IMS components in the 

same security domain; and the interdomain 

interface (Za) that represents 

the interface between two different 

security domains. The Zb 

(intra-domain) interface may secure 

the signaling by encapsulating it in an 

IPsec tunnel (an operator option). 

Nodes in different security domains 

connected via the Za (inter-domain) 

interface must communicate through 

a pair of Security Gateway (SEG) 

components at each domain border. 

SEGs must secure inter-domain 

exchanges using peer-to-peer IPsec 

tunnels, as illustrated in Figure 3. 

IPsec ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) in tunnel mode 

is used to provide security features. IKE (Internet Key Exchange) 

protocol is used to negotiate, establish and maintain Security 

Association (SA) and associated secured ESP tunnels. 

Figure 5: Simplified NASS Diagram 

CPE 

e1 

NASS 

NACF 

Residential 

Network- 

Customer 

Premises 

Equipment 

Service Control 

Subsystems and 

Applications 

CLF 

Access 

Management 

Function (AMF) 

CLF: Connectivity Session Location and Repository 

Function 

UAAF: User Access Authorization Function 

NACF: Network Access Configuration Function 

a2 

a1 

Figure 4: Overview of the TISPAN NGN architecture 

e2 

a4 

a3 

e2 

UPSF 

Access 

Node 

UAAF 

(PDBF) 

SLF 

NASS RACS RACS 

Access Transport 

Network 

e5 

Core 

IMS 

IP edge 

Applications 

IBCF 

Core 

Border 

Node 

IWF 

IMS 

Trunk 

GW 

Core Transport 

Network 

Border 

GW 

PSTN 

Other IP 

Networks 

TISPAN NGN Architecture 

The rationale for selecting the 3GPP IMS solution as the 

basis for the TISPAN NGN architecture is addressed by 

another article [1] in the present issue. The 3GPP IMS architecture 

has a clear split between the transport and control layers; 

it is access-agnostic, fully IP packet-based, and uses SIP 

(Session Initiation Protocol) as signaling 

for session set-up and release. 

Furthermore, the 3GPP IMS architecture 

and SIP signaling are open to 

extensions that allow the implementation 

of new services. 

3GPP combined its Core IMS control 

part with the IP Connectivity 

Access Network (IP-CAN, for the 

transfer part of the transport layer 

between the User Equipment and the 

e4 

RACS 

NASS: Network Access Subsystem 

RACS: Resource Admission Control Subsystem 

CPE: Customer Premises Equipment 

PES 

P-CSCF) and support functions such 

as the HSS (Home Subscriber Server) 

and AS (Application Server) to complete 

its architecture. TISPAN defined 

the NASS (Network Access Sub-System) 

and the RACS (Resource Admission 

Control Subsystem) for IP connectivity 

control in the transport layer. 

The HSS is redefined as the UPSF 

(User Profile Server Function) that 

still includes the IMS configuration and 

user authentication data, but substitutes 

the HLR (Home Location Register) 

with data specific to other subsystems 

such as the PSTN Emulation 

Subsystem (PES). The SLF (Subscription 

Locator Function) allows 

the location of the UPSF containing 



the required user configuration data in 

a multiple UPSF configuration. For 

interoperation with other IP networks, 

the Core IMS of 3GPP is supplemented 

with the IBCF (Interconnection Border 

Control Function) and the IWF 

(Inter-working Function). Figure 4 

provides an overview of the TISPAN 

NGN architecture [4]. 

By means of the UAAF (User Access 

Authorization Function) and its associated 

data repository PDBF (Profile 

DataBase Function) the NASS (see[5]) 

registers, authenticates and authorizes 

access of Customer Premises 

Equipment (CPE) to the fixed network. 

The NACF (Network Access Configuration 

Function) allocates IP addresses 

to CPE, and also provides it with contact 

addresses of services, e.g. the IP 

address of the P-CSCF (Proxy Call 

Session Control Function) for the IMS 

service. The CLF (Connectivity Session 

Location and Repository Function) 

binds all the NACF and UAAF information 

with the location information for 

support of RACS, Service Control Subsystems 

and Application Servers operations. 

The reference points indicated 

with “e x” in Figure 5 may be external 

and require special attention from a 

security point of view. The e2 and e5 

Figure 6 : Simplified RACS diagram 

NASS 

(CLF) 

reference points indicate the support of a proxy function in a 

visited network for CLF and UAAF respectively. 

QoS (Quality of Service) control is provided with the RACS 

(Resource Admission Control Subsystem) (see [6]) that 

provides a mechanism to reserve, allocate and release network 

resources. The RACS is session-aware but service-agnostic. 

RACS also performs service-based local policy control plus 

near-end and far-end NAT (Network Address Translation) traversal. 

The SPDF (Service Policy Decision Function) hosts 

the policy rules and communicates with different RACFs (see 

Figure 6). 

A mandatory requirement for the TISPAN NGN architecture 

is that its functions may be distributed over different administrative 

domains that belong to several service and application 

providers. This is especially valid for NASS and RACS functions. 

Nomadicity further induces the need for concepts like visited and 

home networks. Wholesale business relationships between 

providers are supported, in addition to the retail relationship with 

subscribers. 

TISPAN NGN Quick Threat Analysis 

The main intention is to keep TISPAN security as aligned 

as possible with 3GPP, extrapolating TISPAN security from 

3GPP’s approach where differences between the fixed and 

mobile architectures are identified: 

• while mobile technology allowed both the network infrastructure 

and mobile handsets to evolve in parallel, the fixed networks 

have a large installed base that is unlikely to be able 

to support complex security solutions without drastic 

e4 

Access 

CPE IP edge 

Node 

NASS: Network Access Subsystem 

SPDF: Service Policy Decision Function 

Rq 



Applications 

SPDF 

Gq' 

A-RACF C-RACF 

Re la 

Core 

Border 

Node 

RACS 

Border 

Gateway 

RACF: Resource and Admission Control Function 

RACS: Resource Admission Control Subsystem 

changes (disruptive upgrades and/or hardware extensions or 

replacement). Taking into account the installed base justifies 

the need for more security solution options to support 

these additional scenarios; 

• pure wireline solutions in the fixed networks do not have the 

same vulnerability as the air interface. This allows the introduction 

of simplified security scenarios for secured IMS 

access (access-bundled authentication) as is explained later; 

• fixed networks have to support inter-working with many sets 

of more or less secure protocol stacks, and with a wide variety 

of access technologies; 

• the user equipment (UE) vulnerability has an unpredictable 

security dimension in the fixed networks, because users can 

modify their UE without prior notice to the IMS provider, such 

as adding air interfaces (e.g., WiFi); 

• TISPAN supports several business roles that extend from the 

access and regional network providers to services/applications 

providers. Consequently, many reference points become interoperator 

interfaces. This strengthens the importance of network 

domain security in TISPAN. 

Concerning risks and vulnerabilities, operators are most worried 

about theft of service by identity theft, and Denial of Service 

(DoS) attacks. The former threatens their revenues, while 

the latter endangers service delivery and consequently their 

reputation and, again, revenues. Identity theft stresses the 

importance of authentication for access to the network and 

services. Because user identification does not prevent DoS 

attacks, specific DoS countermeasures need to be deployed in 

the network infrastructure such as described in [a], first page 

of this article. 



TISPAN NGN Security 

The overall NGN security architecture 

[7] is derived from the TISPAN 

functional architecture by splitting it 

into three views (see Figure 7): 

• access view (“first hop” or “first 

mile”) security; 

• NGN Core view (intra-operator 

domain) security; 

• interconnecting view ( inter-operator 

domain) security. 

Figure 7: TISPAN NGN Security Architecture 

Access View Security 

The access view is a difficult part of 

CPE 

the NGN architecture to secure 

because of the different access technologies 

it interconnects. It consists of 

the network attachment part and the 

service layer part. Network attachment 

includes network authentication 

between the user equipment and 

the NASS. Network authentication is 

access technology-dependent, and 

typical examples in the case of DSL 

(Digital Subscriber Line) are implicit 

authentication with the line identity, 

or explicit with, e.g., IEEE 802.1x 

(port-based network access control). 

For IMS access security, the main objective is to align with 

the 3GPP solution. This is straightforward when there is no NAT 

in the CPE: TISPAN has adopted the 3GPP solution, i.e., IPsec 

transport mode and SIP Digest AKA. This solution assumes the 

use of an ISIM application on UICC in the terminal, in the residential 

gateway, or in a split terminal (a secondary terminal 

such as a UMTS mobile connected to the first via, e.g., an air 

interface, and which performs the actual authentication). In 

cases where there is a NAT in the CPE, two solutions are being 

discussed by TISPAN with 3GPP SA3, one being IPsec-based, 

Figure 8: Simplified example of inter-operator security 

CPE 

e1 

Visited NGN 

Access Network 

A-RACF 

SEG 

SEG 

Za-type 

interfaces 

Home NGN Network 

SEG 

SEG 

Home Access 

Network 

"Zb" 

e2 

"Zb" 

CLF SEG 

SEG CLF 

"Zb" "Zb" 

a2 a4 

a4 "Zb" 

"Zb" 

e5 

"Zb" 

NACF UAAF SEG 

SEG UAAF 

(PDBF) 

"Zb" a1 a3 "Zb" 

AMF 

Zb-type 

interface 

"Zb" 

Rq 

e4 

Zb-type 

interface 

"Zb" 

NASS 

UPSF 

Applications 

Transfer Functions 

NGN Core View 

Security 

IMS 

RACS 

Other 

Networks 

and the other TLS-based. The decision is pending, but it should 

be noted that, since 3GPP may be confronted with the NAT 

issue in the future, the solution selected for TISPAN might end 

up being used in 3GPP for achieving convergence. 

Because of the existing installed base, and in order to facilitate 

IMS rollout in the fixed networks, TISPAN is also specifying 

an IMS access mechanism bundled with the network attachment 

authentication. This solution requires a trust relationship 

between the access and IMS providers. It bundles IMS access with 

implicit or explicit network access authentication. 

The intra-domain security is the sole responsibility of the 

operator but is not obvious. Protection 

at the borders of the domain is not sufficient, 

as experience has shown that 

Home Core 

Network 



Applications 

Gq' 

SPDF 

PES 

Interconnecting 

View Security 

many attacks are launched from inside 

the network. The separation principle, 

whereby information flow types (signaling, 

management and media) and node 

types are isolated and individually protected, 

will significantly decrease the 

extent of an attack. Databases need to 

be concentrated in zones that are 

highly protected with firewalls. Administrative 

rules will further control 

potential sources of internal attack. 

When needed, the operator can choose 

intra-domain security based on IPsec 

ESP tunnel mode with IKE for control 

and management layers. 

An important distinction between 

the 3GPP and TISPAN architectures is 

that the latter supports more business 

roles. These roles extend from the 

access and regional network providers 

to service providers. As a consequence, 

many reference points 



Figure 9: Security for PSTN emulation 

Legacy User 

Equipment 

(analog 

terminals and 

Private Branch 

Exchanges) 

Customer premises Operator premises 

RGW 

AGCF: Access Gateway Control Function 

AGW: Access Gateway 

AGW 

Security domain of 

a single operator 

IP Transport 

Network 

RGW: Residential Gateway 

PES: PSTN Emulation Subsystem 

become inter-operator interfaces. Both 3GPP and TISPAN are 

specifying the use of Security Gateways (SEGs) that enforce the 

security policy of a domain towards the SEG of another domain. 

Again IPsec ESP tunnel mode with IKE is a recommended option 

for mutual SEG authentication, information integrity, antireplay. 

Confidentiality is optional. Figure 8 illustrates the 

inter-operator security concept where service is fully provided 

by the home network. Other configurations are possible. 

Security for non-IMS Services 

The TISPAN NGN architecture has been conceived to provide 

an impressive list of real-time and non-real-time communication 

services, including conversational services (VoIP, 

multimedia), distributive services (Broadcast TV, VoD), presence, 

instant messaging, etc. VoIP is supported by IMS but can 

also be provided via a PES (PSTN Emulation Service) configuration 

that also implements the existing ISDN (Integrated Services 

Digital Network) Supplementary Services. PES is well 

positioned for a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) 

replacement scenario where subscribers will keep terminals and 

procedures. PES uses the ITU-T H.248 protocol between its 

AGCF (Access Gateway Control Function) and media gateways 

instead of SIP. For security aspects, a distinction must be made 

between AGWs (Access Gateways) at the operator premises 

and RGWs (Residential Gateways) in the subscribers’ home. 

No authentication is required in the first case, as AGWs have 

a one-to-one relation ship with an AGCF, and security features 

can be provisioned. The security solution for RGWs is more difficult, 

as authentication is required while the subscriber’s PSTN 

experience must be preserved. Security negotiation should be 

fully embedded in the RGW, and RGW and AGCF should belong 

to the same security domain (see Figure 9). Other services still 

require further study but undoubtedly will need to be secured. 

Conclusion 

Alcatel adheres to the TISPAN NGN architecture, and has 

been actively contributing to the TISPAN standardization effort 

in general, and to security aspects in particular. One of the 

objectives is to achieve fixed and mobile convergence, i.e., support 

for both 3GPP and TISPAN, in order to facilitate fixed and 

PES Control 

Subsystem 

(AGCF) 

mobile IMS deployment by operators. 

Alcatel is conscious of the security 

threats to which IP networks are 

exposed, and VoIP networks in particular. 

Therefore, Alcatel sees security 

as an essential feature of its IMS offerings, 

both mobile and fixed, and has 

proven its skills in designing secure 

products and regularly auditing their 

security. 

This paper has described both the 

TISPAN NGN and the 3GPP IMS architectures 

and their security approach 

and protocols. From the start, security 

has been an integral part of 3GPP IMS 

standardization work in a dedicated 

group (SA3). Alcatel supports the principle 

of re-using the 3GPP 

GSM/GPRS/UMTS security expertise, to 

further build on it and secure the 

access to fixed broadband IMS. For 

securing the first mile, standards bodies 

are working jointly together to 

achieve as much convergence as possible. IMS access security 

should converge to a common solution, even if TISPAN needs to 

define specific solutions that take into account the installed fixed 

base. Finally, significant points of convergence were identified 

in the inter- and intra-domain security domains. 

References 

[1] J. De Vriendt, G. Hanson, A. Urie, “Network migration 

Strategies towards IMS,” this ATR issue. 

[2] 3GPP, TS 33.203, version 6.8.0, “Access security for IP-based 

services,” March 2005. 

[3] 3GPP, TS 33.210, version 6.5.0, “Network Domain Security; IP 

network layer security,” June 2004. 

[4] ETSI, ES 282 001 (WI02007), “TISPAN NGN Functional 

Architecture - Release 1”, evolving draft. 

[5] ETSI, ES 282 004 (WI02021), “Network Attachment Subsystem 

- Release 1”, evolving draft. 

[6] ETSI, ES 282 003 (WI02020), “Resource and Admission Control 

Subsystem (RACS) - Release 1”, evolving draft. 

[7] ETSI, TS 187 003 (WI07017), “Security Architecture - NGN 

Release 1,” evolving draft. 

Marcel Mampaey 

is Security Team 

Manager in the CTO 


Group, Alcatel Bell, 

Antwerp, Belgium. Marcel is a 

Member of the Alcatel Technical 

Academy. 

(Marcel.Mampaey@alcatel.be) 

Alain Bultinck 

is Expert in Mobile 

Architecture, in the CTO 

Mobile Solutions Division 

(MSD), Alcatel CIT, 

Vélizy, France. 

(Alain.Bultinck@alcatel.fr) 

Daniel Hoefkens is Director, Network Consolidation in the 

CTO Fixed Solutions Division (FSD), Alcatel Bell, Antwerp, 

Belgium, (Daniel.Hoefkens@alcatel.be) 


TECHNICAL PAPER 

F. Bataille, C. Bazin, G. Dorbes 

Contributing to the adoption of IMS 

through new services. It is now 

widely agreed that in the medium 

term, all fixed-line and mobile communication 

services will be Internet-based. 

This strong tendency is already apparent 

in businesses and homes, notably with 

VoIP offers from both access and Internet 

service providers. These evolutions are 

generally based on proprietary technical 

solutions, which hardly take into account 

user mobility in terms of infrastructure, 

terminals, services, and applications. 

In this rapidly changing environment, 

Alcatel has opted for IMS (IP Multimedia 

Subsystem) as the standard architecture 

to provide a global solution to operators 

and service providers for the development 

of new VoIP and multimedia 

services. However, beyond architectural 

elements, innovation must improve everyday 

life – for example through highly 

prized features such as cost savings, 

simplicity, speed, or quality. 

Two technological approaches to this 

challenge are examined here: 

• Reachability, that is, the ability to 

manage interpersonal communication 

by optimizing criteria such as cost, 

urgency, availability, media, resource 

requirements, etc.; 

• Context for personal communication 

(network, radio, peripheral, dynamic 

personal information, etc.), as a means 

of simplifying and automating daily 

services. 

This article presents several concrete 

usage scenarios to show the benefits of 

these types of service, and how they fit 

into the IMS architecture. 

REACHABILITY AND CONTEXT 

ENABLERS FOR IMS 

Improving the experience of converging IMS services 

through reachability and context-enabling applications. 

Develop IMS services 

through reachability 

IMS has given birth to a new paradigm. 

Beyond merely reaching a terminal (a 

subscriber’s fixed-line or mobile telephone), 

today’s concept is to reach a user 

identified by a unique IMS identifier. 

IMS thus places the user at the core of the 

communications hub, and introduces the 

concept of a dynamic address book, 

where each entry can potentially be 

enriched by constantly changing presence 

information. 

The concept of “reachability” is based 

on this new paradigm and enhances it. Its 

purpose is to optimize interpersonal 

communication by taking advantage of 

a number of criteria, such as availability, 

location, available bandwidth, or 

cost. 

The following scenarios will illustrate 

the concept and advantages of reachability 

in everyday life. Later, the principle of 

reachability will be developed, and the 

reachability solution within the Alcatel 

IMS offering described. 

Reachability: a few scenarios 

How can the most appropriate person 

be automatically reached in a given 

situation? 

In line with the dynamic address book, 

it can be advantageous to reach the most 

appropriate person from a list of contacts, 

when required. Consider, for example, the 

case of a sick or disabled person faced 

with an emergency. Reachability will 

allow this person to press a single phone 

key to call automatically the closest available 

contact from a preset group, which 

may include a doctor, friends, relatives, 

and neighbors. The other members of the 

group will also be automatically informed 

of the emergency call, and the respective 

locations of the caller and called party. 

This same 

service, selecting 

the called 

party based on 

availability and 

location, can be 

applied to other 

situations such as calling a taxi. When a taxi 

company is selected from the address 

book, the service connects automatically to 

the closest available taxi driver. In this 

example, reachability combines simplicity 

and efficiency. 

Reachability and implicit presence - 

how to take advantage of a heterogeneous 

network environment 

The dynamic address book cannot be 

fully useful unless the contacts enter their 

“presence” information properly. However, 

the constant need to update this 

wealth of presence information should 

not be perceived as a constraint. The 

reachability service simplifies the user’s 

life, by helping with the implicit update 

of the user’s presence information. 

When arriving at the office with WLAN 

coverage, the mobile user’s terminal automatically 

logs on to the company’s network. 

The user’s status is automatically 

updated and switched to “available” for 

colleagues, and to “unavailable” for 

friends and family. Conversely, back 

home, the user will no longer be visible to 

colleagues, but will become available for 

private contacts. 

Reachability: savings for the end user 

The success of VoIP can be mostly 

explained by its low cost. However, for 

mobile communication in particular, for 

the next few years, it will not be systematically 

possible to establish a VoIP call 

between two users until this technology 

is adopted by the vast majority. 


REACHABILITY AND CONTEXT ENABLERS FOR IMS 

When setting up a call, priority can be 

given to a certain quality of service, or to 

low cost. For example, a call can be postponed 

to enjoy a lower tariff. The reachability 

service will display the quality and 

cost options for each call. Whenever possible, 

the service will offer an automatic 

callback option under a lower-cost tariff. 

The reachability service thus helps the 

user to reduce communications costs. 

Reachability: resolving criteria to optimize 

interpersonal communication 

Though far from exhaustive, these 

examples introduce the general principle 

of reachability: it simplifies use and, 

based on a number of criteria (location, 

type of access network, available bandwidth, 

cost), optimizes the communication 

mode between users, with a particular 

emphasis on nomadic situations. 

The common feature of the above 

scenarios is the prioritization of criteria. 

In the first example, the priority was to 

establish the availability and location of 

a group of people, to decide how to 

route the call. In the second example, the 

user’s context needed to be determined 

to establish the user’s “presence” information. 

In the third example, the primary 

consideration was the minimization of call 

costs, and the conditions for setting up an 

automatic callback. 

Reachability is thus supported by the 

use of prioritization mechanisms. It is a 

complement to Presence service. 

Reachability: a client-server architecture, 

integrated into Alcatel’s IMS 

solution 

A reachability solution is based on the 

introduction of firstly an Application 

Server dedicated to the prioritization of 

reachability criteria, and secondly a terminal-integrated 

software module 

enhancing the functions of an IMS client. 

This solution applies to both mobile and 

fixed-line environments. Compliant with 

the IMS standard, it can be easily integrated 

into Alcatel’s solution. 

Figure 1: The Reachability Server in an IMS-type architecture 

Reachability 

Application Server 

GPRS 

WLAN 

ADSL 

P-CSCF 

The terminal software enriches a 

standard IMS client, essentially by adding 

user interface elements dedicated to 

reachability services, as well as a network 

learning function. With a view to simplifying 

the user experience, reachability 

allows the user to associate a particular 

context with a specific access network, 

before updating the user’s presence 

information. 

In the specific example of a mobile terminal 

(e.g. 2G/3G/WLAN), this learning 

function also allows the subscriber to 

select the access networks to which the 

user’s terminal can log on automatically. 

In the same example, the reachability 

client makes it possible to detect the network 

environment, select the most appropriate 

radio interface, and report this 

information to the Reachability Server via 

the Presence Application Server. 

The Reachability Server prioritizes 

the previously mentioned criteria. It 

then reports the resulting reachability 

information to the Presence Server, 

redirects certain calls to the appropriate 

subscriber, sets up automatic callbacks, 

and initiates a call when the required 

conditions are met. The Reachability 

Server exchanges numerous items of 

information with the Presence Server, 

from which it gathers the information 

necessary for prioritizing the reachability 

criteria, and where it stores all the 

resulting information. Finally, it also 

acts as an interface to the terminal, for 

synchronization of the learning information. 

Compliance with IMS standards 

Through reachability mechanisms 

simply combined with an IMS applicative 

structure, it is possible to create 

value-added services that take full 

advantage of legacy network infrastructures, 

while complying with all 

3GPP or TISPAN (Telecommunications 

& Internet converged Services & Protocols 

for Advanced Networks) IMS 

standards. 

Presence 

Application Server 

P-CSCF I-CSCF 

P-CSCF 

S-CSCF 

HSS 

This is also the first use of the user 

context concept for conversational services, 

allowing high-level services to be 

implemented. A wider approach, called 

contextual services, offers different 

prospects that are discussed below. 

User context: a source of 

innovation for mobile services 

Contextual services: terminology 

Contextual services are usually 

defined as services that can be automatically 

adapted to the user context (socalled 

“user-centric” services). Such services 

are especially useful today, as most 

formerly static services have, or soon will, 

become mobile. 

The user context covers all the data 

that today’s technology is capable of collecting 

(type of terminal used and/or 

local availability, possible network coverage, 

transmission rate, biometric information, 

etc.), and that instantly characterize 

the user’s situation. 

The challenge of this new approach is 

to make these services, which are either 

“guessed” or “tailored” to the user, ever 

more flexible and simple to use, while 

respecting confidentiality. The user 

should thus always be able to control, or 

even to bar, potentially sensitive or private 

calls, and information collected and 

sent by the system. 

A few everyday scenarios involving 

contextual services 

To illustrate what these new services 

have to offer, here are a few possible 

usage cases, all of which are based on currently 

available technologies. 

Contextual services in the workplace - 

how to eliminate unproductive constraints 

In a meeting 

When an employee 

enters a 

meeting, all incoming 

calls to his fixedline 

phone are automatically 

redirected 

to his mobile phone, 

whose ringer is automatically 

switched 

to mute. At the same 

time, the meeting 

room is shown as “busy” in the company’s 

reservation system, and a reminder message 

is sent to the participants who have 

not yet arrived. 

While traveling 

Wherever the employee is, he does not 

have to worry about printer drivers or IP 

addresses in order to print on the closest 


REACHABILITY AND CONTEXT ENABLERS FOR IMS 

available printer. 

The system recognizes 

him as a member 

of the company, 

and implements a 

service and map 

showing the closest 

printer, so that 

printing can start 

right away. 

Contextual services in nomadic mode - 

how to automatically adapt calling 

conditions 

Much time is spent traveling for business 

or pleasure. Inevitably, some mobile 

calls are received in inappropriate conditions. 

For example, SMS messages cannot 

be read safely while driving. It would be 

better to have these messages read out 

loud, in hands-free mode or through an 

earpiece if privacy is required. 

Contextual services at the center of the 

consumer world 

Some users would appreciate the facility 

to receive, in a shopping environment, 

familiar and customized advertisements 

that match their consumer profile, closeness 

to a promotional display, or shopping 

history in a given context. 

From multiple scenarios to a global 

service 

These various examples and their infinite 

variations show that value can be 

added by correlating freely accessible 

information to make users’ lives easier, 

relieving them of the tedious tasks 

required by an ever richer, but also ever 

more complex world. 

The common general approach to all 

of these scenarios is based on the following 

factors: 

• the user has one or several devices that 

constantly scan their environment for 

Bluetooth sensors, WLAN (wireless 

LAN) networks, RFID (radio frequency 

identification) markers, IP network 

devices, etc.; 

• the Contextual Server considers this 

contextual information and automatically, 

or on demand, triggers the services 

associated with the contexts 

detected; 

• an Internet communication infrastructure 

is present to link the mobile device 

and the Contextual Server (e.g. GPRS 

or 3G network, WLAN); 

• services exist that will be delivered 

directly onto the user’s terminal. The 

list of potential providers and services 

(communication, business information, 

consumer services) is endless. 

Figure 2: Contextual service architecture 

Client Side 

Beyond these general principles , the 

value of such a system lies in two main areas: 

• the ability of the terminal-integrated 

scanning software to recognize all current 

and future context sources, and to 

transmit their data quickly using an 

extended SOAP (Simple Object Access 

Protocol )/WSAMI 1 (Web Services for 

Ambient Intelligence) protocol; 

• the ability of the Contextual Server to 

select the appropriate service(s) 

according to the user’s preferences 

and confidentiality rules. 

Opening contextual services 

to IMS and Web services 

Figure 2 shows that the Contextual 

Server uses two API (Application Program 

Interface) standards to link to 

third-party services: 

• a SIP API to link to the IMS infrastructure, 

in order to adapt communications 

to the context and take advantage 

of advanced functionalities. The Presence 

and Reachability Servers can be 

supplied with context information collected 

from the mobile client, which will 

allow the above scenarios to take place. 

• a SOAP API for linking to non-conversational 

services such as Web services. 

As a naturally generic mechanism 

designed to deliver all kinds of user-centric 

services, the Contextual Server helps to 

eliminate barriers between historically distinct 

services such as communication, 

information, organization, and entertainment. 

The growing tendency to connect to 

the Internet through a mobile terminal is 

a natural enabler, which will encourage the 

adoption of contextual services, along 

with IMS services. 

1 http://www-rocq.inria.fr/arles/work/wsami.html 

IP Network 

HTTPS/SOAP 

Server Side 

Services 

& Devices 

DB 

3 rd party 

applications 

and services 

SOAP 

SIP 

IMS 

Presence & 

Reachability 

Server 

Conclusion 

These examples of reachability and 

contextual services show that, when 

extended by new mechanisms, the IMS 

architecture has much more to offer 

than a simple imitation of traditional 

communication schemes. 

It is important to note that the services 

described correspond to functions that are 

only partly available with today’s network 

infrastructures and terminals. New-generation 

terminal and network devices will be 

able to accelerate the expansion of these 

kinds of service, by introducing them more 

naturally into our everyday life, and making 

them more easily accessible. 

To support all these new functions, 

Alcatel has created the Open Service 

Delivery Environment (OSDE), which uses 

a coherent approach to integrate valueadded 

enablers such as the Reachability 

Server. It will allow IMS service providers 

to offer their users tomorrow’s communication 

and information services. 

Guillaume Dorbes is a Strategic 

Project Leader in the Alcatel 

Research and Innovation Department 

of CTO, Marcoussis, France/ 

(guillaume.dorbes@alcatel.fr) 

Claire Bazin is a Group Leader in 

the Alcatel Research and Innovation 

Department of CTO, Marcoussis, 

France. 

(Claire.bazin@alcatel.fr) 

Fabien Bataille is a Group Leader 

in the Alcatel Research and Innovation 

Department of CTO, Marcoussis, 

France. 

(Fabien.Bataille@alcatel.fr) 



R. Duval, S. Hamzaoui, M. Patte (France Telecom), B. Pinatel (France Telecom) 

The France Telecom-Alcatel Strategic Partnership: a new 

mode of relationship for service and network innovation. 

Facing broad and rapid changes in telecommunications, 

(cf. figure 1) France Telecom, an integrated fixed/mobile operator, 

has been introducing bold initiatives since 2003. It has 

undertaken a major evolution of its structures, strongly reinforced 

its innovation efforts and R&D budgets, and promoted 

partnership agreements with its main suppliers aimed at 

accelerating innovation to meet new market realities. 

These partnerships are designed to be mutually beneficial: 

• France Telecom benefits from a broader scope of initiatives 

and new proposals, as well as broader market knowledge. 

• Partners benefit from France Telecom’s experience, customer 

knowledge, and ability to go to market quickly with new services. 

• Pooling the capabilities of their marketing research teams and 

R&D centers, both sides share project results and intellectual 

property on the basis of a limited period of exclusive rights. 

The France Telecom-Alcatel partnership was estab- 

Figure 1: Evolution of telecom markets & services 

The Telecom World is still organized 

around Separate Networks and Services 

Fixed network and services 

Mobile network and services 

Internet network and services 

• Access-specific terminals 

• Access-specific services 

• Independent service platforms 

• Multiple customer identifiers 

• Separate billing 

PRESENCE AND LOCALIZATION 

DATA ENABLE NEW IMS USER 

SERVICES 

France Telecom and Alcatel prototype three new-generation 

services over TISPAN/IMS for fixed networks. 

lished in March 2004. Since then, successive service and 

network projects have been carried out, involving network 

architecture, functional innovation, and fixed/mobile service 

end-to-end integration; they have also explored in a 

more futuristic way the capabilities of IMS 1 (new network 

and service enablers, 

signaling, etc.) to 

enable a new generation 

of services. 

> 

http://portal.etsi.org/docbox/ 

TISPAN/ 

This article is centered on the first Services project (S1), 

which combines a number of advanced TISPAN (Telecom 

and Internet converged Services & Protocols for Advanced 

Networks) Reachability features (Presence, Availability and 

Location) into three innovative scenarios. 

Developed by a team of France Telecom R&D and Alcatel 

engineers over a period of five months, it ran successfully for 

three months over a live network using France Telecom’s Virtual 

Private Network (VPN), with equipment in three sites 

across France. 

1 IP Multimedia Subsystem 

Digitalization of the Infoworld will 

entirely Remodel our Customer Experience/Relationship 

Fixed 

services 

Mobile 

services 

Reachability 

Presence 

Contacts list 

Identity 

Authentication 

Payments 

tools 

Internet 

services 

IP Network, Broadband, Ubiquitous Wireless, 

Multi-Access Devices and “De-layered” Infrastructure 

are the Key Discontinuities 

Service Project 

Scope 


PRESENCEN AND LOCALIZATION DATA ENABLE NEW IMS USER SERVICES 

Applying IMS capabilities to prototype 

innovative services 

A new network environment 

IMS is a SIP-based network architecture, defined by 3GPP 

(3rd-Generation Partnership Project) (cf. figure 2) to provide 

operators with a framework enabling efficient service creation 

and deployment, by avoiding each application re-creating its 

own infrastructure tools. Security between the user terminal 

and the network, and presence notification to applications, are 

two examples of the 

> www.3gpp.org 

far-reaching implications 

of that approach. 

Figure 2: 3GPP IMS architecture for core networks 

Fixed access 

Mobile access 

P-CSCF Security Cx 

I-CSCF 

P-CSCF 

ARF 

Access Node 

User data 

plane 

HSS 

Control 

plane 

Figure 3: One possible TISPAN NASS scenario 

NASS information flow: 

1. Authentication/Authorization 

2. IP@ allocation+configuration 

3. Connectivity session parameter 

register 

4. Network parameter/profile push 

5. Location info retrieval 

User Equipment 

management 

Terminal 

TE 

e3 

User Equipment 

= NASS function 

CNG 

IP configuration 

(DHCP) 

Sh 

S-CSCFs 

Enablers 

Reachability 

Applications 

AMF 

IP edge 

CLF 

I-CSCF 

Presence 

Location info 

retrieval 

e4 

CLF 

Access Location 

function+repository Connect 

Session Par. 

Register 

AAA 

proxy 

e5 

CNGCF 

NACF UAAF 

IP@ allocation+config 

e1 

Customer 

network 

gateway 

e2 

Authentication/ 

Authorization 

DHCP 

Relay 

AAA 

server 

TISPAN adds two key components for the new generation 

of fixed networks (cf. figure 3). 

The Resource Admission Control Subsystem (RACS) introduces 

functionality to support QoS (Quality of Service) 

resource admission, QoS policy control, border gate security, 

and network address translation (addressed in the Networks 

“N1” project). 

The Network Attachment Sub-System (NASS) features 

nomadicity and location information, and supports various network 

attachment and IP connectivity models (see one possible 

scenario in Figure 3); that aspect is addressed in the Services 

“S1” project presented in this article. 

UAAF 

AAA client, 

Relay agent 

Other 

Networks 

New service enablers in IMS offer 

an unprecedented opportunity for 

innovative services 

In everyday life, if John wants to call 

Catherine but has no private information 

about her (which we will generically call 

her “Presence”), he will have to try either 

her fixed or mobile number. However, 

Catherine might be unable to answer 

her phone; she may have gone home, be 

visiting a friend, or be busy. 

This scenario is a clear example of how 

additional Presence and Location information, 

together with related facilities (availability 

management, conditional call rules, 

etc.), could introduce efficiency into 

inter-personal communications, both private 

and business, and offer benefits to all 

end users. Not only would this allow end 

users to show their willingness to commu- 

Location Server AS UPSF/HSS 

Access network type, 

Geographical location/ LIF 

Network parameter/ 

profile push 

PDBF 

Access 

profile DB 

P-CSCF 

RACS 

Border node 

IMS 

QoS 

admission control, 

policy control, 

gate control, 

NAT control 



nicate, but it would also provide useful information to their contacts, 

facilitating the use of the most appropriate communication 

means at the most appropriate moment. 

Presence is a 3GPP standard for IMS networks. User Presence 

is managed by a Presence Server, which aggregates Presence 

data from different systems (network elements, applications, 

etc.) and delivers it to other presence-aware entities or 

applications. The server also provides the user with facilities 

to manage the information transmitted and collected (Contact 

list, Administrable Group, Authorization Management), through 

a Resource Lists Server (RLS). 

Nomadicity is an access network facility allowing users to 

access their subscribed network resources from any attachment 

point in their home or a visited network. Typical resources provided 

by the access network are one or several IP connectivity 

links, and associated bandwidths/QoS. 

After validation, an IP connection is set up between the terminal 

and the IP Gateway (Broadband Access Server, Edge Collect 

Router, Multimedia Access Gateway, etc.) allowing the user 

to invoke services delivered by his (home) Internet Service 

Provider (ISP). 

Reachability is a means of optimizing the interactions of 

individuals or groups in a communication system that depends 

on various personal, economic, or technical factors. 

In the context of IMS, Alcatel interprets this concept as a 

new component, the Reachability Server, that aims at prioritizing 

reachability criteria such as: 

• cost, to generate the cheapest communication; 

• quality of Service, to secure the communication; 

• emergency, to reach persons who are close and available to 

help someone in difficulty. 

The new networks will allow enhanced communication 

security for the end user 

This new communication framework involves three distinct 

and complementary layers; each is independent, and can apply 

its own user authentication, thus ensuring the required level 

of security. 

Each level of security gives access to a similar, hierarchical 

set of facilities: 

• in the access layer, it manages nomadicity and the allocation 

of resources according to the user access profile and rights; 

• in the IMS layer, it allows access to services and Presence 

management; 

• in the Application layer, it allows the subscriber to customize 

his service behavior. 

This hierarchy can however be simplified for the end user 

by coupling the three layers through a Single Sign On process 

(SSO). 

A new generation of radically innovative services 

Many user issues arise when combining a limited set of valueadded 

notions: explicit or delegated authentication, explicit or 

delegated Presence, etc. 

In some scenarios, service activation must be as simple as 

possible, needing authentication bypass or an optimized ter- 

minal, for example. The dynamics of the service may dictate 

the terminal design and service use/configuration requirements. 

Other situations may require a complex configuration of call 

set-up conditions, and a triggering by the network when the 

required context is matched. 

All scenarios need advanced configuration tools, i.e. a centralized 

repository for storing contact lists, and a management 

facility for end-user rules and filters. In the S1 project, these 

are provided by the GLMS (Group Lists Management Server) 

function associated with the Alcatel Presence Server. 

A project fully focused on innovation 

Selecting the most promising architecture options 

and defining a few convincing user scenarios to 

demonstrate them 

In the definition process, a number of default requirements 

were applied: 

• implement as completely as possible a future-oriented 

scheme for access control; 

• enable nomadicity management; 

• explore the opportunities offered by Presence and Location 

information; 

• maximize the convergence of solutions between fixed and 

mobile contexts, even though mobile users were not part of 

the project itself; 

• for a given function, explore whenever possible different mechanisms, 

to test the different possibilities offered by the IMS. 

With these objectives in mind, three scenarios were selected 

and elaborated in detail. All three rely on Presence/Availability 

and Location information data, and call for nomadicity over 

the fixed network. Service configuration uses the Internet, and 

service activation uses IMS. 

Green Key 

The Green Key service is a “safe location” feature tailored 

for a young child. It allows the child to tell family members, via 

a very simple procedure (a single press or click on a “green button”), 

that she or he is back home safely or at an “authorized” 

friend’s house after school, with a network-guaranteed certification 

of exactly where. In this case there is a service user 

(“Kid”) and a service subscriber (“Pop, Mom”). 

Red Key 

The Red Key service is an advanced and customized “alert 

call” service between a person in a potentially vulnerable situation 

(people who are very old, very young, ill, or working in isolated 

and/or perilous conditions) and a contact group. In this 

case, the user and the subscriber are normally the same person. 

With a similarly simple procedure, or through a voice command, 

a connection is set up to the nearest available person 

on a pre-defined list in the user’s network address book (the 

“Red” list). A second message is sent to all other available members 

on this list, notifying them of the alert call, and specifying 

the identity and location of the person contacted by the Red 

Key application. 

Conditional Call 

The conditional call service informs the user that a contact 

that they wish to call is now reachable at the requested location 

and/or specified time. The notification is delivered by a 

warning message, allowing the user to decide whether or not 



to make the call. 

Defining the detailed architecture and its components 

The most recent advances in TISPAN were taken into 

account to draft an overall architecture, while a continuous 

monitoring of evolutions in that body was set up. A number of 

detailed options were then analyzed and selected, based on 

experience and lessons learned in previous research projects 

(France Telecom R&D), and on IMS product prototyping and 

early releases (Alcatel). 

Access authentification 

For access authentication, user profiles and credentials are 

stored in the Access Network Database (ANDB), collocated 

with Alcatel’s Home Subscriber Subsystem (HSS). The ANDB 

performs the TISPAN Profile Database and User Access 

Authentication functions (PDBF and UAAF). The prototype 

features an enhanced user authentication method, including 

access point control in the attachment phase. It is based on a 

variant of Alcatel’s Wireless LAN Authentication System 

(WAS). The location transmitted within authentication messages 

is compared to a reference location (if present) stored 

in the user profile. The availability of reference location 

information within the user profile normally means that the user 

has no nomadic rights. This mechanism of nomadicity management, 

although still quite simple, already shows the benefit of 

introducing a user access profile, and can be enhanced in the 

future. 

ISAR 

A France Telecom prototype database called ISAR (Information 

sur le Service d’Accès Réseau) provides IMS with the 

user’s network-based location information (TISPAN Customer 

Location Function). 

ISAR provides both writing front-ends, using Alcatel’s proprietary 

OPSI (Open Policy Session Interface) protocol for 

dynamic provisioning, and reading front-ends, based on the 

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) Web service protocol, 

using proprietary methods. 

The IMS Core (P/I/S-Call Session/State Control Function) 

These are standard IMS functions that have been slightly 

adapted to support the handling and transport of location information; 

this needs interconnection to the Customer Location 

Function (CLF) to retrieve the data, and a mechanism to 

process it through the network. 

The P-Access-Network information field was chosen to carry 

the location information through the IMS network. Although 

this choice was mostly driven by the will to keep the prototype’s 

architecture simple, as this is core IMS data, in this solution 

the user location information is forwarded through the network 

regardless of whether these users are fixed or mobile. 

This is a big advantage when considering an extension to 

Mobile Users (project under definition). 

IMS Registration 

The IMS user performs a regular (3GPP) IMS registration, 

based on HTTP Digest (MD5). 

The user data required for this registration (private and public 

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) identifiers and user password) 

are stored in a file on a USB key that emulates an equivalent 

of the mobile handset’s ISIM (IM Subscriber Identity Module) 

card. The authentication decision is based on the compar- 

ison of MD5 values calculated by both the terminal and the network 

(from HSS data). 

The (Alcatel) IM-HSS used is a beta-release of a Multi- 

Access Data Server (MDS) providing a unique fixed/mobile convergent 

database containing all the user IMS data. 

The Alcatel Presence Server 

This server is used for Presence information management, 

and for storage of Location information retrieved from the fixed 

access link for later use by the various applications. 

The Presence information has been extended to carry terminal 

capability and access network identification information, 

used to reach the terminal. 

• For Presence information, the Alcatel Presence server 

behaves entirely according to available 3GPP standards. 

• For fixed network Location information, TISPAN standards for 

the data formats are not yet available; a Presence server, the 

Presence Network Agent (PNA), has been specially adapted to 

collect the information encapsulated by the P-CSCF in the P- 

Access-Network-Info field. P-Access-Network-Info is a 3GPP 

standard SIP field used for access-related information. 

Demonstrating the three scenarios 

in an operating IMS network 

Development 

The development of the project (cf. figure 4) benefited from 

France Telecom’s and Alcatel’s complementary skills and 

backgrounds. France Telecom brought its experience from: 

• previous R&D projects exploring nomadicity over fixed networks, 

related user data, and location data prototypes 

embedded in their operator Information System; 

• strong participation in TISPAN; 

• a fully fledged, proprietary PC software client, eConf, which 

was widely deployed in their early VoIP solution. It features 

an advanced SIP IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) 

capability, supported by an experienced internal development 

team to adapt it to 3GPP specificities. 

Alcatel added its own experience and products: 

• Core IMS frameworks (P/I/S-CSCF and HSS); 

• WLAN authentication subsystems; 

• Presence Server; 

• Java-based AS framework. 

Two experienced France Telecom Java SW developers, 

trained on the Alcatel A5350 IAS platform development environment, 

were very quickly able to develop autonomously the 

application software allocated to FT R&D, thus allowing the full 

parallel development of all scenarios in a shared way with the 

Alcatel R&I MOBA team in Marcoussis. 

Development of the terminal was undertaken by France 

Telecom engineers. 

Other developments to do with network products (Presence 

server, P-CSCF, WAS/HSS) were conducted by Alcatel product 

teams working in Lannion and Massy (France). 

Integration 

In a second phase, the S1 demonstrator was deployed over France 

Telecom R&D ‘s interconnecting “closed test network”(cf. figure 5). 

The equipment used was distributed between Cevennes (Paris 



Figure 4: Development work split 

TR 

GK 

RK 

IP Access connectivity 

PC 

France Telecom’s 

Terminal PC SW 

framework 

GLMS 

MODEM 

PS RS 

IMS 

Figure 5: The S1 demonstrator network 

Modem 

Modem 

Alcatel’s HSS framework 

Pre TISPAN 

PDBF/UAAF 

(modifed Alcatel WAS) 

DSLAM 

DSLAM 

DSLAM 

Pre TISPAN CLF 

A5735 

SMC (PAS) 

Access Database 

BAS 

Issy-Les-Moulineaux 

Lannion 

NASS 

IMS 

HSS 

France Telecom’s 

NASS prototype 

BAS/PAS 

A1430 WAS 

(UAAF) 

ISAR 

Paris 

P-CSCF I-CSCF P-CSCF 

A5303 Platform 

A1430 HSS 

A5350 Presence 

Server 

A5303 Platform 


VPN 

Links 

PS 

Green/Red Keys Conditional Call 

P-CSCF I-CSCF S-CSCF 

Alcatel baseline 

FT baseline 

Alcatel’s AS framework 

Alcatel’s IMS Core 

framework 

Core IMS 

Paris 

S1 joint teams 

User Profiles 

AS 

S1 Reachability 

Server


area), for the SIP application, IMS platform, and ADSL access chain 

(modem to DSLAM); Issy les Moulineaux (Paris area) for 

the broadband access server and most network management platforms; 

and Lannion (western France) for the Proxy Authentication 

Server (Proxy UAAF function), authentication relay platform, 

ISAR database (CLF), HSS/ANDB, and ADSL access chain. 

It was then integrated in four steps: 

• Step 1: Terminal Equipment, AN, NASS (excluding ISAR), 

ANDB; 

• Step 2: adding E-Conf Terminal (Registration/VoIP/PS 

Clients), Core IMS (P-CSCF, I-CSCF, S-CSCF), IMS-HSS, PS 

Server; 

• Step 3: adding GLMS Reachability Management (Terminal) 

and the three Reachability (“RS”) scenarios (Application 

Server); 

• Step 4: integration of the complete set of equipment composing 

the S1 demonstrator deployed over the real network. 

• The VPN facility allowed showrooms to be set up in Issy-les- 

Moulineaux and France Telecom’s HQ (Alleray). 

A convincing demonstration of full security in the use of 

services, and of a variety of mechanisms at work for 

advanced Reachability features 

In the demonstrator (cf. figure 6), three layers of authentication 

ensure full control of access to the network: 

• Access network attachment authorization: depending on 

nomadic rights, attachment to the access is granted or denied; 

• IMS attachment gives access to the IMS layer and to Presence 

management facilities; 

• Reachability application authentication gives access to service 

configuration facilities. 

In the scenarios themselves, various service configurations 

were explored to test the many possibilities offered by IMS 

mechanisms. The Green Key service (cf. figure 7) is configured 

by the young service user or his proxy, from any PC at any 

location via Internet, with the following facilities: 

• management of the adult community 

that receives the notification message 

(the “Green list”); 

• designation of the adult who 

receives a short voice call; 

• content of the message to be sent to 

the community verifying the user’s 

exact location. 

Service triggering is done by a simple 

single click on a green button; this automatically 

initiates the pre-configured 

multimedia communications (voice, message 

etc.). For the message mode, an 

Instant Message is used (cf. figure 8). 

For the Red Key service, the vulnerable 

person, or an assistant, configures 

the red list in the network address book 

from any terminal via the Web. This list 

is the user’s, and may include doctors, 

nurses, etc. However, to be effectively 

Figure 7: The Green Key scenario 

3 Call is 

completed 

2 

Figure 6: Authentication levels 

Service subscriber 

IMS user 

Access user 

Service management 

IMS Authentication and 

Presence Management 

Access Authentification 

and Nomadicity Control 

Services 

Application 

Server 

Services 

configuration 

IMS 

HSS 

IMS 

Profile 

Access 

ANDB 

Access 

Profile 

ISAR 

notified, each member of the red list must personally subscribe to 

the vulnerable person’s Presence information. 

Triggering is similarly done through a simple red button, initiating 

similar multimedia connections. However, a specific resolution 

rule applies to the voice connection based on 

vicinity/time to arrive (e.g. a neighbor). For the message, a 

Presence-based notification is used (a deliberate solution variant), 

indicating that an “Alert Call” has been answered at a 

given time by a given contact at a given location. 

In Conditional Call the User(cf. figure 9), the subscriber 

specifies both the desired called party and call execution criteria 

based on various conditions, including Presence status. 

When the conditions are met (e.g. the person to be reached 

arrives at a pre-defined location and becomes available for contact), 

a notification is sent to the subscriber (here, a Presence 

event was used as a deliberate third contact option to be tested 

in the project). Then a simple acknowledgement activates the 

Initiate a call towards a given available member of a group, provide him with my location info, 

and notify all other available members 

1 Service customization 

3 

IM 

Bob green 

key Call 

RS: Reachability Server PS: Presence Server 

Green Key Service 


RS+PS 

3 

IM 

IM 

PS


connection. 

Lessons learned and next 

steps 

The S1 project has, as realistically 

as possible, deployed three possible 

scenarios combining Presence and 

Location in nomadic situations over 

the fixed access network. Further 

work remains to be done in several 

areas. 

• Tailoring services to the user (“trigger 

person”), i.e. their situation (at 

home or outside), hence the access 

network (fixed or mobile) used; and 

terminal design (Green and Red 

Keys). 

• Extension to mobile users: the European 

Community’s Liaison research 

program indicates that most Red 

Key situations will require mobile 

access. Mobile Location is a completely 

different feature, requiring 

GPS quality or better. Voice activation 

may also be desired. 

• “Closest” notions for Red Key need 

to allow for travel time, hence a coupling 

to advanced traffic condition 

monitoring systems would be 

required. 

• Some target architecture candidates 

are likely to involve more elaborate 

mechanisms. 

Finally, all the scenarios would 

need to be thoroughly researched 

amongst potential users, due to the 

potential sensitivity of the Location 

and Presence information involved. 

However, there is no doubt that in 

the future there will be numerous 

new services of incredible variety, 

addressing specific user needs with 

application-specific terminals; telecom 

services will very soon enter an 

era of consumerist dynamics where 

custom features, variability and fash- 

Salim Hamzaoui 

is Technical Project 

Manager in the 

business unit of Alcatel 

Fixed Solutions Division, 

Enhanced Applications, leading the 

France Telecom Partnership project 

S1. He is based in Vélizy, France. 

(Salim.Hamzaoui@alcatel.fr) 

Figure 8: The Red Key scenario 

Initiate a call with the nearest available callee of a given group from my DAB, and inform the other available 

members of the list. 

Jim 

5 Call is 

completed 

RS+PS 

3 Urgent red key call @ 

1 Customisation 

Figure 9: The Conditional Call scenario 

2 

6 

2 

Notifications 

4 

nearest available 

red list member 

network evaluation 

Register to presence service 

of disabled subscribers 

An emergency call was issued by "sip:disabled@partenariats1.fr" 

and was answered by "sip:neighbour@partenariats1.fr", 

3 rue des Cévennes 75014 Paris 

Initiate a call when the callee is available and located at the requested self-declared location 

Joe registers 

at home 

6 

RS+PS 

Call completion 


Régis Duval 

is the Alcatel 

coordinator for the 

France Telecom/Alcatel 

Partnership. He works in 

the Area 4 team in Vélizy, France. 

(Régis.Duval@alcatel.fr) 

Bibliography 

[1] Hot Topic 2Q2005 (internal Alcatel publication) 

[2] Delivering Profitable Service with IMS (Carl Rijsbrack, March 2005) 


4 

1 

Call Joe 

when 

available 

at home 

Call 

execution 

notification 

Boris Pinatel 

works in France Telecom 

Research and Development 

as a Technical 

Project Manager leading 

the ALCATEL Partnership project 

S1; he is also involved in standards 

activities as a delegate to the 3GPP 

standards group. 

(Boris.Pinatel@francetelecom.com) 

3 

Mary registers 

at Work 

5 

Acknowledgement 

Michel Patte 

is network coordinator 

for France Telecom 

Partnerships, in France 

Telecom’s Network, 

Operator and Information Systems 

Division (ROSI). He participates in 

network-related aspects of France 

Telecom’s various Strategic Partnerships 

with major industry leaders. 

(Michel.Patte@francetelecom.com) 



A. Lemke, G. Marx, M. Nemani 

In today’s world, fixed operators are facing unprecedented 

challenges to their business. Shifts in technology along with 

hyper-competitive markets are pushing operators to seek 

new avenues for differentiation and value. Despite these 

challenges, there are significant opportunities for fixed operators 

to hold the high ground and reshape the communications 

landscape by changing the fundamental rules of the game. The 

enabling factor for operators is the technological means now 

at their disposal to propel unprecedented service innovation 

by exploiting an all-IP service base for voice, video and data 

services. The pursuit of a differentiated service proposition 

becomes the goal to deliver what Alcatel calls a “way better” 

experience, and is appropriately captured in its user-centric 

Triple Play initiative. 

This document outlines challenges and issues to be considered 

from the perspective of fixed operators when implementing 

a user-centric Triple Play network. We introduce Alcatel’s 

End-to-End Triple Play Solution as a platform for service delivery 

and innovation. While this platform is ready to address fully 

converged fixed/mobile networks, this aspect is beyond the 

scope of the present paper. 

Goals and Challenges 

Global deployments to date have been fueled in large part 

by a desire to reduce churn by offering bundled voice, video 

and data as a discounted service. The result is a boost in customer 

retention and average revenue per user (ARPU), but it 

places intense pressure on margins and erodes the prices of 

the individual services. Operators are seeking ways to build 

sustainable barriers against churn – even on Triple Play 

services – while exploring service innovations that will lure customers 

away from cable and satellite for reasons other than 

price. The answer relies on the premise that delivering a 

“better user experience” sets the foundation for building 

sustainable barriers to churn and allows for higher-margin 

services. 

The migration of telecom networks to an all-IP platform supporting 

voice, video and data offers a compelling opportunity 

for service innovations that respond to consumer demands. In 

addition, the ability of telecom’s last-mile networks to support 

higher-bandwidth, two-way communications is a distinction that 

is at the heart of service differentiation. Telecom operators have 

adopted IP protocols for nearly all parts of their businesses 

including data services, next-generation voice networks, and 

IP multimedia subsystem (IMS)-based networks. The advent 

TRIPLE PLAY: DON’T PLAY! 

MAKE IT REAL! 

Alcatel’s End-to-End Triple Play Framework is a powerful 

infrastructure for the delivery of convergent streaming, 

conversational, and Internet services. It includes an innovative 

broadband access and IP infrastructure and also a 

well-integrated service delivery environment. 

of Internet Protocol television (IP TV) offers a fourth service 

that is founded on the IP protocols common to voice, data and 

mobility-based services. With this in mind, telecom operators 

will have an IP-based unifying platform for service innovation 

that merges voice, video, and data into a service portfolio that 

can be personalized for consumers. This is the basis for a longterm 

competitive advantage by offering a better service. 

Central to this is a scalable, common service delivery platform 

supporting rich media services with different service level 

agreements (SLAs), and capable of reaching consumers 

through a variety of access points. 

Key Technologies and Design Principles 

The challenges and objectives described above can be translated 

into the following key network design principles. 

First, the access and network bandwidth available to 

each user must be increased significantly. 

Based on the currently envisioned service mix and household 

size, experience from trials shows that 20 to 100 Mbit/s 

of IP traffic capacity is required per household. It is clear that 

offerings of about 1-1.5 Mbit/s will not be sufficient to enable 

Triple Play services with attractive capabilities, like high-definition 

TV, instant channel change, multiple channel offerings 

per household, and so on. Once the service is accepted, a nonblocking 

aspect is required because video services are very 

demanding in terms of bandwidth and delay. Consequently, no 

bandwidth bottlenecks are allowed in the end-to-end network, 

from the head-end through the core and edge network, via the 

aggregation and access to the home network. Non-blocking 

service delivery in the access network can only be achieved 

through a smart fiber penetration strategy. Between keeping 

the fiber connectivity only in the Central Office, and deploying 

a fiber towards each subscriber, network providers need to 

define a “fiber to the most economical point” architecture for 

an optimal cost/performance trade-off. 

Secondly, the network needs to be service-aware, and 

intelligence needs to be distributed to various tiers of 

the network. 

For instance, this intelligence is manifested in security 

mechanisms, i.e., the ability to identify and authenticate users 

and households, isolate subscribers from each other, and prevent 

IP or MAC (Media Access Control) address spoofing. The 

network is capable of detecting the services that are enabled 


TRIPLE PLAY: DON’T PLAY! MAKE IT REAL! 

Key technologies and design principles 

• increased access bandwidth 

• service-aware access and aggregation network 

• digital rights management 

• converged architecture 

• standards-based 

• homogeneous exposure of network capabilities to service 

delivery platforms 

for individual users. The service aggregation and service routing 

functions in the network need to enforce subscriber- and 

service-aware traffic handling policies and mechanisms to 

address each type of traffic in an optimal way. For example, 

video traffic needs to be shaped in just the right way so as not 

to overflow the access and home network while guaranteeing 

delay bounds. Centralized administration of subscriber and 

service profiles must be tightly linked with subscriber self-service 

portals, AAA functions (authentication, authorization, and 

accounting), and dynamic network policy configuration. Closing 

the control loop between changing subscriber needs, applicable 

service profiles and user privileges, and available network 

support is key in enabling an interactive and user-centric 

service experience for end users. 

End-to-end quality of service is to be supported through a 

combination of service prioritization, network dimensioning 

and monitoring, and service admission control. Bandwidth 

resources are managed in a per-service manner so that one 

service cannot starve another. Four key service types need to 

be supported, but more can be added for an increased return 

on network assets. These services, from highest priority to lowest, 

are VoIP, Video (broadcast and unicast), business High- 

Speed Internet (HSI), and HSI. Each of the key nodes in the 

network needs to support prioritization schemes, traffic 

shaping, policing, and marking service schemes. 

Network assets need to provide more than transport of bits. 

To enable a wide variety of location-based and presence services, 

the network must be capable of identifying the user’s 

physical whereabouts, e.g., by using the access line on which 

the user accesses the network. 

Video content needs to be protected by a strong digital 

rights management (DRM) system from the network 

down to the home. 

This is a key requirement for content providers to agree to 

the delivery of high-value digital content in an electronic format. 

Finally, the network and service capabilities converge in 

one architecture 

To assure the cost-effective operation of the network and 

the rapid introduction of converged services, Alcatel’s Endto-End 

Triple Play Solution must have a converged architecture 

as opposed to the traditional, so-called stovepipe architecture, 

where each service runs on a different platform with 

separate interfaces, protocols, databases, and capabilities. The 

converged architecture is characterized by common network 

and service capabilities exposed carefully to other entities in 

the system. Web services play a central role in tying the subsystems 

together in exposing data, capabilities, and services 

to service delivery platforms, external applications, and 

OSS/BSS 1 systems. Other protocols such as SIP (Session Ini- 

tiation Protocol) are used in areas for which they are optimized. 

For example, SIP is used in the conversational services 

segment of the architecture, which is based on 3GPP (Third- 

Generation Partnership Project) IMS with extensions according 

to ETSI 2 TISPAN 3 , ITU 4 and ATIS 5 . Key to the converged 

architecture is the central management of identities and user 

profiles and their accessibility to all different applications. This 

is a key enabler for user-centric services. Each user receives 

a personalized service, and is not exposed to the different subsystems 

involved in running the service. 

Architecture 

Alcatel’s End-to-End Triple Play Framework is structured 

into eight well-defined segments described below (Figure 1). 

The Digital Home Segment (see Ref. [1] and [2]) 

This must be considered a key element of the Triple Play 

service delivery chain, thus, the service provider must obtain 

a certain amount of visibility and control of the home network. 

This segment goes across the access/transport, service, and 

application layers. Key elements of the Digital Home are the 

managed residential gateway and a variety of end systems. The 

residential gateway is the network termination point for 

transport and control services, and the bridge between the 

service provider-controlled WAN and the service provider-controlled 

home network. Often, the residential gateway includes 

a VoIP gateway function allowing the connection of telephone 

sets. Through management interfaces, the service provider can 

get a view of the status of the home network and help with 

troubleshooting. Another key element is the set-top box, which 

not only includes video functions, but also support for conversational 

and Internet services to enable true Triple Play applications. 

The Access Segment (see ref. [4] and [5]) 

It provides the throughput and service awareness needed 

to deliver Triple Play services to the user. To enable “fiber to 

the most economical point,” the Alcatel Intelligent Services 

Access Manager (ISAM) family offers a variety of deployment 

practices ranging from CO-based, FTTN (Fiber To The 

1 Operational Support Systems/Business Support Systems 

2 European Telecommunications Standards Institute 

3 Telecommunication and Internet converged Services and Protocols for 

Advanced Networking 

4 International Telecommunications Union 

5 Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions 



Figure 1: Logical Architecture 6 

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Operations and Business Support Systems 

Digital Home Broadband Service Aggregation 

Services 

and Routing 

Access 

Network 

NASS 

RACS 

Home 

Gateway 

7330 ISAM 

FTTN 

Node), to FTTU (Fiber To The User). To leverage existing 

copper plant in an optimal way, the network operator can 

select from many access technologies, such as (bonded) 

ADSL2plus, VDSL2, or PON. The Alcatel access platform is 

well suited for Triple Play services to all connected households 

due to a non-blocking connection between the line terminals, 

the access node switching matrix, and the IP/Ethernet 

uplinks. This, as well as the scalable packet processing 

capability and multicast support, is needed to deliver Triple 

Play services to all subscribers. 

The Service Aggregation and Routing Segment 

(see ref. [3]) 

This segment not only assures the efficient transport of massive 

IP data between the Access Segment and the service infrastructure 

and the public Internet, it also includes distributed service 

intelligence with multicast (IGMP snooping), per-service persubscriber 

traffic handling, authentication and security. A centralized 

BRAS-based architecture is no longer adequate to match 

today's requirements. The Service Aggregation and Routing Segment 

is fully based on IP-enhanced Ethernet technology. Hierarchical 

Virtual Private LAN Service (H-VPLS) improves the scalability 

and the resilience of the aggregation network. The Network 

Attachment Subsystem (NASS) is responsible for establishing 

per-subscriber policies in the network, and for the 

secure identification and authentication of the Digital Home 

owner. To assure an optimal quality of experience for the subscriber, 

and graceful network behavior in times of very high net- 

or 

7342 ISAM 

FTTU 

or 

7302 ISAM 

7450 

ESS 

5750 

SSC 

Broadband 

Service 

Aggregation 

Hybrid 

Aggregation 

1850 TSS 

5430 SRB 

Broadband 

Service 

Routing 

work load, network resources can be actively managed through 

Alcatel’s Resource and Admission Control Subsystem (RACS). 

The Open Service Delivery Environment (see ref. [6]) 

The OSDE hosts the network enablers, service capabilities, 

and applications for all Triple Play services. There are dedicated 

segments for the three dimensions of Triple Play: streaming and 

entertainment services, conversational services (IMS), and highspeed 

Internet services. In addition, there is a service orchestration 

segment supporting the concept of service-oriented 

architecture (SOA). The dedicated segments host applications 

optimized for their respective domains and use optimized protocols 

such as SIP. These segments also expose their capabilities 

and service enablers toward other segments using Web services 

as a common language for inter-domain service composition. 

The orchestration segment provides special tools for creating 

composite services from the leaf services exposed by the 

dedicated segments (e.g. entertainment, IMS). Examples of such 

composite applications are: 

• Amigo TV: Using voice conferencing 

and multimedia messaging capabilities 

from the conversational services 

segment, Amigo TV makes watching 

a television program (from the 

streaming and entertainment segment) 

a rich group experience for 

viewers from different locations. 


7750 

SR 

OSDE 

Streaming/ 

Entertainment 

VoD 

Importer 

A/D/V- 

Server Encoders 

IMS/Conversational 

Services 

HSS 

5020 

AS: 5350/8690 

Softswitch 7510 MG Amigo TV 

My Own TV,... 

High-Speed Internet 

OSS/BSS Integration 

Service 

Orchestration 

Orchestration 

Tool 

Composite 

Applications 

Leaf service: 

an elementary web 

service that cannot 

be further 

decomposed into 

other web services. 

6 The figure shows a simplified architecture. In actual deployments, network elements may be deployed at different tiers of the network – centralized or decentralized.


• My Own TV: My Own TV enables users to create their own 

TV channels, and distribute personal content to family and 

friends. Affinity groups like sports clubs and socio-cultural 

organizations can set up their own TV channels. My Own TV 

transforms people into directors and creators. 

• Communications TV: converges TV entertainment and 

IMS-based person-to-person voice and multimedia communication. 

With Communications TV, people receive visual information 

on their screen when somebody is calling, and can manage 

their phone service and even make multimedia calls via 

the TV and home entertainment system. 

The Streaming/Entertainment Segment 

This is the subsystem of the OSDE that is optimized for the 

secure delivery of broadband audio/video content and applications 

to the end-user. Alcatel and Microsoft have joined forces 

to deliver what is arguably the most advanced IP TV solution 

available. Key characteristics of this solution are a highly secure 

digital rights management system, the extensive use of Web 

services, and an instant channel change capability. Due to the 

high level of compression afforded by codecs such as WMV9 

and H.264, achieving instant channel change requires a special 

mechanism implemented in video servers (D-Servers) that 

can be deployed close to the subscribers. 

The IMS/Conversational Services Segment 

This is optimized for two-way or multi-point person-to-person 

audio, video, and data communication, based on the IMS 

Internet Protocol series: SIP and Diameter. Alcatel’s solution 

for this segment is compliant with the 3GPP IP Multimedia 

Subsystem with extensions for fixed networks, as defined by 

ETSI TISPAN and other organizations. Thus, the solution is 

future-safe, and allows service providers to introduce innovative 

services rapidly. Existing voice networks can be migrated 

or replaced, and converged into a full carrier-grade Triple Play 

network. The conversational services segment first of all supports 

voice and multimedia calls with assured quality of service 

and security. On top of this, there is a rich set of residential 

and business communication applications. More importantly, 

the segment allows the rapid introduction of new services 

by hiding and abstracting network aspects such as identification, 

authorization, nomadicity and mobility from the 

application implementer. These applications can make use of 

shared service enablers 

included in the segment 

such as presence and 

reachability. 

Segment with 

Operational and 

Business Support 

Systems (OSS/BSS). 

Triple Play is different 

from the sum of voice, 

video, and data, which 

today all have their own 

“silo” management and 

OSS/BSS platforms. 

Understanding location, 

presence and the need to 

ensure rapid service 

introduction - along with 

possibly hundreds of sub- 

scriber deployments 

and subscription 

changes per day - 

brings new challenges 

to the provisioning 

and assurance functions. 

These functions 

are impacted by infrastructure 

deployment 

and management, as 

well as by the close 

interaction with the 

application framework 

for the real-time delivery and assurance of the Triple Play 

services. Such a converged architecture, along with the large 

number of servers to manage the streaming/entertainment segment, 

brings an opportunity to converge previously disparate 

Network Operation Center groups. Alcatel’s Triple Play framework 

specifies a pre-integrated flow-through provisioning 

chain, ensuring consistent subscriber data and settings in the 

network. A self-provisioning portal allows users to subscribe 

to services and trigger service provisioning with little or no 

human intervention. Due to the reach of Triple Play all the way 

into the Digital Home, managing the residential gateway is considered 

an essential way of assuring service delivery into the 

Digital Home. The home device manager assures that the customer 

network gateway and other devices are correctly configured, 

and allow policy-based firmware management, data 

gathering and diagnostics. 

Services Integration 

Recognizing the complexity and novelty operators face in 

enabling end-to-end Triple Play solutions, it may not be worth 

while for many operators to build up in-house, in-depth knowhow, 

but instead rely on experienced partners. With its global 

presence, Alcatel is today the leader in Triple Play service 

integration and network transformation. Alcatel has been 

selected for some of the largest Triple Play projects such as 

those of SBC (see url) and Telecom Telstra. 

Based on this experience, Alcatel has created a detailed 

integration portfolio, offering a complete range of video, network 

and OSS/BSS services integration to assist with design, 

staging/validation, implementation, customization and support 

for Triple Play services. In addition, Alcatel has an eco-system 

of partners, for example in the area of video content, that 

allows it to help operators reduce time-to-market for new services, 

and makes it a safe way for service providers to expand 

into Triple Play services. 

Conclusion 

An IP-based infrastructure for Triple Play services not only 

needs service intelligence and high throughput to support the 

delivery of audio/video streams, but also data/Internet, 

voice, and multimedia services, each with the right quality of 

service, high availability, and security. Additionally, it must 

enable rapid and cost-effective deployment of user-centric 

Triple Play services to attract customers and keep churn low. 

Alcatel’s End-to-End Triple Play Framework is specifically 

designed to meet these 

requirements. The framework 

is more than three parallel 

subsystems. The Access and 

the Service Aggregation and 

http://www.alcatel.com/ 

tripleplay/sbclightspeed 

milestone.jhtml 


>


Routing segments are service-aware to guarantee that all services 

run in harmony with each other, and that each user 

receives the full services subscribed to at any time, and under 

any conditions. The Open Service Delivery Environment 

unites best-of-breed IP TV – through Alcatel's partnership 

with Microsoft – and voice/multimedia service infrastructures 

based on our own global experience and leading role in the 

application of 3GPP IMS to fixed networks. 

Key to meeting these requirements is a novel combination 

of Internet, information technology, and telecommunications 

concepts and standards. Network and service capabilities are 

exposed to the Application Framework Segment modeled 

after the concept of service-oriented architecture (SOA). This 

provides the mechanisms for composing powerful new services, 

such as Alcatel’s Amigo TV and Communications TV, from 

the service enablers and capabilities of any segment. 

Alcatel’s Triple Play solution is not only an architectural 

framework, but is also the basis for Alcatel’s Services Integrator 

initiative. Critical to the success of operators entering the 

new video space is their ability to overcome the challenges 

of the IP TV eco-system in a fast time-to-market scenario. Service 

providers around the world are relying on Alcatel, with 

its unmatched experience from more than 20 major IP TV 

projects and countless data and voice projects throughout the 

world. 

References 

[1] B. Mobasser, G. Straub: “Home networks: the new telecom frontier”, 

Alcatel Telecommunications Review, 1Q2005 (www.alcatel.com/atr) 

[2] B. Mobasser, S. Audenaert, G. Marx: “Home Gateways”, same 

issue 

[3] “Optimizing the Broadband Aggregation Network for Triple Play 

Services”, Alcatel strategic white paper 

[4] J. van Bogaert, Y. T’Joens, J-P. Lartigue: “Fixed Access Vision”, 

Alcatel Telecommunications Review 2Q2005 

[5] S. Ooghe, N. Drevon, R. Siebelink: “Supporting Quality of 

Service in Broadband Access Networks”, Alcatel 

Telecommunications Review 2Q2005 (www.alcatel.com/atr)) 

[6] F. Cuoco, D. Withington, J-C. Billard: “Alcatel open services 

delivery environment”, Alcatel Telecommunications Review, 

1Q2005 (www.alcatel.com/atr) 

Andreas C. Lemke is 

presently Director of 

Network Evolution in 

the CTO Office of 

Alcatel’s Fixed Solutions 

Division in Stuttgart, Germany. 

Andreas is a Member of the Alcatel 

Technical Academy. 

(A.Lemke@alcatel.de) 

Guido Marx is Vice 

President/CTO of the 

Alcatel Fixed Solution 

Division and is based 

in Antwerp, Belgium. 

Guido now leads Alcatel’s Open 

Path to Enhanced Networking 

(OPEN) strategy teams involved in 

the definition of VoIP and Multimedia 

solutions and related products. 

(Guido.Marx@alcatel.be) 

Nemani Murali is Director of Marketing within Alcatel 

CMO. His current focus is on business and technology 

strategies in the domain of Triple Play Services. 

He is presently based in Plano, Texas, USA. 

(Murali.Nemani@alcatel.com) 


TECHNICAL PAPER 

J. Bouwen, M. Godon, K. Handekyn 

The Triple Play Laboratory: Opportunities 

and Challenges. The Triple 

Play revolution is happening today. All 

over the world, telecom operators are 

deploying the required Triple Play infrastructure 

and are offering combined voice, 

video and data service bundles to their 

customers. The typical broadcast television 

and video-on-demand services are the 

vanguard of the new Triple Play offerings, 

as they are a prerequisite to meet competition 

from cable operators. Nevertheless, 

a Triple Play environment offers tremendous 

potential for the design and introduction 

of innovative and differentiating applications 

that go far beyond broadcast television 

and video-on-demand. To innovators, 

the emerging Triple Play environment 

looks like an exciting laboratory, a wonderful 

playground with enormous opportunities, 

but also some tough challenges. 

The first challenge is one of inspiration 

and creativity, to come up with novel 

recipes that combine the basic ingredients 

of voice, video, and data. Furthermore, the 

competitiveness of the Triple Play market 

requires an early assessment of the business 

potential of new Triple Play applications, 

based on a profound understanding 

of the interests and behaviors of endusers. 

The Triple Play application segment 

is already today exhibiting the typical 

characteristics of consumer markets: a 

pressure for the continuous renewal of the 

offering, with short life cycles governed by 

fashions and hypes. With the wider deployment 

of Triple Play services, this trend will 

only gain in strength, and fast development 

and introduction of applications becomes 

a matter of survival. 

The challenge is then to judiciously 

combine the rapid implementation of novel 

applications and supporting enablers with 

the pragmatic re-use of existing building 

blocks of the Triple Play service platform. 

INGREDIENTS, UTENSILS 

AND RECIPES FOR THE 

TRIPLE PLAY APPLICATION 

INNOVATOR 

Mixing user-centric creativity with service delivery 

platform technology: a testimonial 

This paper introduces a set of recipes and 

utensils for the Triple Play innovator that 

have been successfully applied by Alcatel 

to the creation of new products called 

Amigo TV and My Own TV. 

Some of the tools are an extension or 

fine-tuning of existing practices; others 

are still experimental in nature, and will 

mature as Triple Play application design 

and development moves ahead. 

A Guiding Vision: User 

Transformation 

Triple Play User Experiences 

The first emotion that accompanies 

innovation is one of fear, not unlike the 

paralyzing whiteness of a fresh sheet of 

paper that confronts the writer when he 

starts a new book. A guiding vision helps 

to overcome these feelings of panic and 

uncertainty, and to start exploring the 

uncharted territory. In 1999, Pine and 

Gilmore wrote the book ‘The Experience 

Economy’ [1]. Their main thesis is that 

we are leaving behind the service economy 

that has ruled for decades, and 

entering an economy where people are 

looking for – and paying for – experiences. 

Experiences are memorable; people 

cherish entertaining events like souvenirs, 

and share them with their contacts. 

Taking a user-centric view, the 

Triple Play technological components of 

voice, video, and data can be redefined in 

terms of user experience components. 

The basic pillars of a Triple Play experience 

can then be identified as ‘communication’, 

‘content’ and ‘communities’. 

Communication encompasses the complete 

verbal and non-verbal communication 

spectrum: from voice and video 

communication to text and picture messaging. 

Content covers broadcast TV 

and on-demand movies, as well as personal 

content like holiday photos and 

birthday videos. Because human beings 

live in a social context, community support 

is a key component of the converged 

Triple Play story: people talk 

about media with their friends and share 

pictures with their families. 

Transformations: from passive user to 

TV director 

In the last chapter of their book, Pine 

and Gilmore explore the question: ‘What 

comes after the experience economy?’, 

and suggest that the next step is transformation. 

An experience that exerts a lasting 

impact on people’s lives can be considered 

as a transformation. Recently, 

Alcatel has introduced broadband IP TV 

applications that tap into the potential of 

Triple Play to transform the user experience 

permanently. These novel Triple 

Play applications pull the user out of his 

passive role of TV viewer, and offer him 

the opportunity to transform himself 

into a commentator, actor, director, and 

creator, as indicated in Figure 1. This 

movement from passive viewer to active 

participant provides the guiding vision 

that led to the conception of the Amigo 

TV and My Own TV applications. 

• Amigo TV offers new modes of interaction 

between viewers when they are 

watching television, transforming traditional 

passive TV viewing into a rich 

social experience. With Amigo TV, people 

can watch a game of football or a 

game show with friends and family as if 

they were all in the same room. The 

introduction of voice conferencing and 

multimedia messaging enablers into an 

IP TV environment fuses entertainment 

and communication, and turns TV viewers 

into commentators and participants. 

• My Own TV enables users to create 

their own TV channel and distribute 


INGREDIENTS, UTENSILS AND RECIPES FOR THE TRIPLE PLAY APPLICATION INNOVATOR 

Figure 1: Transformation through Triple Play 

3. personal content 

Content portal 

TV 

Spectator 

creator 

- create own channel 

- share personal content 

- with family, friends, 

community, 

customers... 

Reality TV, Docusoaps 

personal content to family and friends. 

Affinity groups like sports clubs and 

socio-cultural organizations can set up 

their own TV channels. My Own TV 

transforms people into directors and 

creators. 

Right now, Alcatel is working on an IP 

TV application concept that further 

explores the vision of user transformation: 

Participation TV. By the addition of 

advanced video communication enablers, 

TV viewers will be able to compete in 

game shows, act as quizmaster, or be a 

member of a jury panel, all from the 

comfort of their homes. Figure 2 provides 

an impression of a Participation TV 

experience, showing how IP TV users 

can play a distributed version of the 

game of charades. 

Figure 2: Participation TV 

director 

2. communities 

- watch TV with your buddies 

- share emotions 

- communicate with your buddies 

SMS2TV 1. communication 

Participation TV Example 

"Charades" 

participant 

commentator 

From Idea to Prototype: 

The Innovation Cycle 

A phased trajectory 

A guiding vision is of the utmost 

importance in the first stages of innovation, 

when promising concepts start to 

coalesce out of a chaotic multitude of 

uncrystallized ideas. As early realizations 

of the vision, these emerging application 

concepts help to illuminate and 

fine-tune the vision, and to reach consensus 

in a research team about the interpretation 

of the guiding vision. When an 

application concept matures into a prototype 

and finally into a product, the guiding 

vision also serves as the basis for marketing 

activities. 

The typical evolution of an idea into a 

prototype is sketched in Figure 3. In the 

first phase of the innovation 

cycle, a concept is 

elaborated into a scenario, 

and illustrated with 

the means of PowerPoint 

slides and screenshots of 

the Triple Play application 

created with graphical 

software like Photoshop. 

This quick visualization 

of the concept 

highlights drives the 

researchers to materialize 

their conceptual ideas, 

and serves as a tangible 

discussion thread in 

meetings with outside 

parties. The second 

phase involves the creation 

of a mock-up, which 

further develops the scenario by the 

addition of interaction events. Flash is a 

typical technology choice, because it 

supports the fast development of a visually 

rich and interactive mock-up. The 

availability of a Flash mock-up kicks off 

an innovation marketing activity, which 

collects both internal feedback inside 

the company, and external feedback from 

telecom operator customers. Innovation 

marketing also includes the development 

of a business model supported by relevant 

market analysis, which will ultimately 

result in a business case by the time the 

concept has matured into a prototype. 

The demo: a fresh blend of new and 

existing enablers 

The mock-up also propels the research 

process into a more technical phase: the 

creation of a demonstration set-up. The 

core technical innovation takes place at 

this stage, with the development of new 

enablers that constitute the key differentiating 

components of the novel application 

concept. Both Java and .net technologies 

can be used for this purpose, and 

open source components can speed up 

the development process. However, the 

demo implementation activities do not 

only embrace the development of new 

enablers. To a large extent, the creation 

of a new user experience depends on the 

extension and integration of existing 

enablers in a new setting. In the case of 

Amigo TV, new – or enhanced – capabilities 

included a cost-efficient media distribution 

mechanism for multi-party voice 

conferencing; the extension of messaging 

components for emoticon and avatar 

emotion transfer; and enhancement of 

presence into TV channel presence. For 

My Own TV, content management solutions 

had to be customized for personal 

content management in an IP TV environment, 

and distribution policies for personal 

content needed to be introduced in 

a publication and subscription environment. 

To ensure that research efforts are 

really spent on innovation, and not on the 

re-invention of already available components, 

the Triple Play innovator works 

with a development environment that 

allows him to easily and rapidly integrate 

enablers from the Video and VoIP/IMS 

Service Delivery Platforms. Re-developing 

existing building blocks would not 

only delay the research and innovation 

process, but would also introduce interoperability 

risks during the deployment 

phase. Because the demonstrator integrates 

these new enablers with existing 

ones, the orchestration of the various 

enabling components into an original 

user experience scenario plays a central 



role in the technical innovation process. 

The system and network architecture of 

the demonstrator forms the blueprint 

for the prototype and final product implementation. 

It should by now be clear that 

OSDE characteristics like fast introduction 

of new enablers, flexible invocation 

of available components, and powerful 

orchestration of both new and existing 

enablers, are of prime importance for 

Triple Play application innovation. 

Creativity and Inspiration 

So far, we have emphasized the importance 

of a guiding vision to trigger the 

innovation process, without removing 

the shrouds of mystery that envelop the 

creative process itself. We now zoom in on 

the creative process, describing 

approaches to tap into sources of creativity 

and inspiration. Creative ideas often 

express themselves as non-obvious combinations 

of inspiration taken from remote 

domains. 

Figure 4 provides a simplified map of 

domains of activity and knowledge, and 

shows by the placement of these domains 

their proximity to the Triple Play research 

team that created the Amigo TV and My 

Own TV application concepts. Closest to 

the activities and natural interests of 

the research team is the domain of multimedia 

technologies, including trends in 

the media industry (movies, television, 

and music), on-line gaming, and multimedia 

devices. Further away are domains of 

knowledge like the social sciences, biology, 

and economics. Recognition of innovations 

and novel trends in these remote 

domains can provide the inspiring insights 

that lead to creative Triple Play application 

ideas. Multi-disciplinary teams have 

an obvious advantage in this respect, as 

Figure 4: Inspiration Domains 

Terrorism 

Crime 

Sports 

Biology 

Psychology 

Concept Idea 

Scenario 

PowerPoint 

slides 

Shopping 

Multimedia Technology 

Travel 

Gaming 

Television 

Nature 

Reflections 

Human Practices 

3 play 

Research 

Team 

Gadgets 

Figure 3: Innovation Cycle 

GRO GR1 GR2 GR3 

Mock-Up 

Flash 

the team members with their varied 

expertise cover multiple and diverse 

inspiration domains. However, perhaps as 

important as multi-disciplinary teams is 

something one could call ‘multi-background’ 

teams. For example, a personal 

interest of a team member in biology, or 

a direct link to this domain via a family 

relationship, warps the remote domain of 

biology into the inner circle of the 

research team. A personal passion for a 

topic can serve as a shortcut for the complete 

team to an otherwise alien domain. 

This is not unlike the mechanisms that 

have been observed by Duncan Watts in 

his book ‘Six Degrees: The Science of a 

Connected Age’ [2]. Although social networks 

have some kind of geographical 

anchoring, they can connect into distant 

networks via shortcuts that are the prod- 

‘Thus, the task is not so much to see what 

no one yet has seen, but to think what 

nobody yet has thought about that which 

everybody sees’ – Arthur Schopenhauer 

(1788-1860) 

Open 

Source 

Music 

Health 

Banking 

Economics 

Arts 

Utopia 

Demo 

New techn. 

Product 

architecture 

Prototype 

OSDE 

uct of personal relationships between 

geographically dispersed people. 

The title of this article is slightly misleading 

when it talks about ‘THE Triple 

Play innovator’. In practice, innovation is 

always the result of a team effort, and the 

plural ‘Triple Play innovators’ would be 

more truthful. An inspirational insight can 

be an individual experience, but the further 

development into an application 

concept requires brainstorming in a team 

setting. Creative brainstorming techniques 

as they are taught by the Centre 

for the Development of Creative Thinking 

in Belgium and the Netherlands have 

proven to be valuable tools [see URL 

insert]. 

For more information on Jacob Nielsen 

and interaction, see for instance The 

Nielsen Norman Group 

http://www.nngroup.com/ 

> 

Brainstorming techniques will only 

result in the desired effects when all the 

participants adhere to a set of basic principles. 

The openness and postponement 

of judgment that are the prerequisites for 

a successful brainstorm can create an 

uncomfortable feeling of uncertainty. The 

only way to cope with the uncertainty is 

complete trust between the participants 

and a guarantee of privacy, i.e. no ideas 

will leave the group before everybody is 

comfortable with them. 

User-Centric Design 

& Development 

User Research and 

the Innovation Cycle 

The introduction identified three 

major challenges for the Triple Play 

innovator: original and creative application 

concepts; ensuring that these application 

concepts match the needs and 

desires of the user; and fast development 

and deployment of the concepts. The 

guiding vision is seen to be helpful to 

address the first challenge, while the 

innovation cycle and the associated 

phased development activities provide 



answers for both the first and third 

challenges. This paragraph outlines a 

toolbox to tackle the second challenge: 

user-centric design. 

Figure 5 shows how, in a user-centric 

design process, a set of user research 

activities corresponds with each phase of 

the innovation cycle. Co-design is a rather 

new type of user research activity that is 

appropriate in the conceptual stage of the 

innovation cycle. It will be explained in 

more detail later in this section. 

Early User Feedback 

During the creation of the (Flash) 

mock-up, a lot of energy goes into the 

interaction design of the application. 

Interaction design focuses on the flow of 

interaction, the dialog between the user 

and the application, and moves beyond a 

merely visual approach to the Graphical 

User Interface (GUI) design. The Usability 

expert Jacob Nielsen developed the 

useful technique of heuristic evaluation 

of the user interface (see URL insert). 

> 

COCD: Centre for the Development 

of Creative Thinking 

http://www.cocd.org 

Heuristic evaluation provides a set of 

basic guidelines to evaluate a design that 

can also be applied by non-experts. 

From the moment a mock-up is available, 

it can be shown to end users. Quantitative 

methods like user surveys are of 

limited value at this stage, because the 

novelty of the application concepts 

requires a lot of explanation before the 

user can form an opinion, a time-consuming 

process that is not compatible with formats 

like questionnaires. Focus groups are 

a more appropriate format to collect feedback, 

because the respondents can provide 

qualitative information through mutual 

interaction. Wizard-of-Oz testing is a particular 

user research technique that is useful 

for applications with complex interaction 

flows during the very early stages of 

the design process. In a Wizard-of-Oz 

test, the user has the feeling he is interacting 

with a fully-fledged application, but in 

reality a hidden designer plays the role of 

the computer, feeding the user the right 

application responses. Wizard-of-Oz testing 

allows fast collection of user feedback 

in iterative design cycles with limited 

software implementation efforts. 

Trials 

The demonstrator provides a working 

implementation of the core aspects of the 

user experience, and can be used for trials 

on a limited scale. Testing in dedicated 

user research labs is of course also possible, 

but particularly in the case of 

Figure 5: Innovation Cycle and User Research 

Concept Idea 

Scenario 

PowerPoint 

slides 

Co-design 

with users 

GRO GR1 GR2 GR3 

Mock-Up 

Flash 

Interaction design 

Wizard of Oz testing 

Focus Groups 

FUT: Friendly user trials HH: Households 

Triple Play applications, testing in the living 

rooms of end users generates valuable 

feedback that is not accessible in artificial 

environments. Because some aspects of 

a commercial product may be absent in 

the demonstrator – like payment and 

authentication mechanisms – tests with 

‘friendly users’ are preferred. The prototype 

however also contains these additional 

features, and is therefore ready for 

field trials with a few hundred users, like 

the trials performed in the context of 

Alcatel’s Triple Play Connect program. 

Co-Design 

The feedback collected throughout 

these user research activities can have a 

profound impact on the researched application 

concept, leading to a complete 

redesign, or to total abandonment of the 

innovation cycle. These types of user 

Figure 6. Co-Design Methodology 

Sociology 

Contextual 

Investigation 

+Design 

Participatory 

Design 

Part 1 

FUT: Friendly user trials 

+Engineering 

Participatory 

Design 

Part 2 

Demo 

New techn. 

Product 

architecture 

Small scale trials 

(


Figure 7: Co-Design Family Event 

• In two participatory design sessions, 

families materialize their ideas (the 

result of a family brainstorm) on paper 

and with cardboard models. In this 

way, the user becomes an active participant 

in the design process, rather than 

a passive evaluator. Analysis of the 

models created by the families and 

their interactions, recorded with video 

cameras, allows the project team to 

extract the values every family is looking 

for in future application concepts, 

and to deduce drivers and requirements 

for development. 

• In a series of family events, the families 

meet each other and challenge and 

enrich their respective prototype 

designs. Figure 7 shows some photos 

of the family events. 

Although co-design is still in its infancy 

as a user research activity, very promising 

results were obtained from this first experience. 

Several ideas are finding their way 

into the innovation cycle, and will be the 

subject of friendly user tests (FUTs) with 

the families when they have reached the 

demonstrator stage. More information on 

the co-design process can be found in (see 

url of the Nielsen Norman Group). 

The Enablers Palette 

In a market environment where multimedia 

devices and applications are experiencing 

ever-shortening product life 

cycles, fast development of Triple Play 

application prototypes and products is the 

third big challenge for the Triple Play 

innovator. The innovator works with a 

palette of enablers from the communication 

and entertainment areas. Alcatel’s 

Open Service Delivery Environment provides 

him with the technological foundation 

for fast and flexible product development. 

We can extract from the previous 

pages the characteristics that a Triple Play 

innovator looks for in an OSDE: 

• simple access to a wide range of 

enablers, spanning communication and 

entertainment for the first wave of 

Triple Play applications, but also including 

mobile enablers for the next wave of 

fixed/mobile convergent applications. 

Key enablers are voice and video communication, 

messaging, rich presence 

and community management, and content 

management and distribution; 



• easy integration of generic enablers 

that are seldom included in the demonstrator 

stages, but are of prime importance 

for commercial deployments: 

user authentication, payment and 

billing, Digital Rights Management 

(DRM), and security; 

• fast introduction into the OSDE of new 

enablers developed during the innovation 

cycle, and the immediate availability 

of these novel enablers for other 

application concepts. The latter 

requires the definition of high-level 

abstractions for the services provided 

by the new enablers, for instance using 

Web services technology; 

• a service development environment that 

supports the robust orchestration of the 

various enablers into new application 

concepts, while hiding superfluous details 

of the enabler implementations. 

Conclusion 

To the adventurous Triple Play cook, 

the emerging Triple Play environment 

offers rich opportunities for innovation, 

but the pressure from the multimedia 

market for continuous innovation also 

presents him with tough challenges. He 

has to find ways to channel raw creativity 

into promising application concepts, 

to keep in intimate touch with the users’ 

needs and desires; and rapidly develop 

concepts into marketable and deployable 

products. 

The basic ingredients for user-centric 

Triple Play cooking are communication, 

content, and communities. This article 

has introduced four utensils to create 

innovative and appealing recipes with the 

basic ingredients: a guiding vision; the 

innovation cycle; user-centric design; 

and the enablers palette of the OSDE. 

• The guiding vision serves as an orientation 

in the creative phases of innovation, 

and helps to select the right application 

concepts for further elaboration. 

Currently, the visionary framework 

of “user transformation” guides Alcatel’s 

innovation, research, and development 

of Triple Play applications. However, we 

can expect this vision to undergo much 

fine tuning in the near future, as the 

other tools of the Triple Play innovator 

progressively influence it. 

• The innovation cycle draws a trajectory 

for the development of an idea into a 

prototype. The consecutive phases 

define clear milestones and objectives, 

and suggest the appropriate technologies. 

It furthermore draws attention to 

multi-disciplinary and non-technical 

skills like brainstorming. 

• User-centric design ensures the input of 

the user perspective in the design 

process during the various stages of the 

innovation cycle. The trend in user-centric 

design is to involve the user as early 

as possible, and promising results are 

observed with novel techniques like codesign. 

• For the fast development of an application 

concept into a product, the Triple 

Play innovator requires a palette of 

enablers that he can easily and rapidly 

integrate into a new user experience. 

Alcatel’s OSDE exhibits the necessary 

characteristics of a Triple Play application 

palette, and will continue to expand 

its features to satisfy the most demanding 

application innovator. 

References 

[1] Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, ‘The 

Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & 

Every Business a Stage’, Harvard 

Business School Press, 1999 

[2] Duncan Watts, ‘Six Degrees: The 

Science of a Connected Age’, W.W. 

Norton and Company, 2003 

[3] Veerle Van Rompaey, Bart Hemmeryckx- 

Deleersnijder, Bart Van Der Meerssche, 

Hans De Mondt and Marc Godon, 

‘Beyond Marketing. Applying 

Qualitative User Experience Research 

Techniques on Social Media 

Applications’, FITCE 2005, Vienna. 

Jan Bouwen is Strategic Project 

Leader for Residential Networked 

Applications (ReNA) in the Research 

& Innovation Center, Antwerp, 

Belgium. 

(Jan.Bouwen@alcatel.be) 

Koen Handekyn joined in 2002 

the Residential Networked Application 

team of Alcatel Research and 

Innovation Department, in the 

Research & Innovation Center, 

Antwerp, Belgium where he is currently leading 

the Participation TV activities. He is based in 

Antwerp, Belgium, and a Member of the Alcatel 

Technical Academy. 

(Koen.Handekyn@alcatel.be) 

Marc Godon currently applies his 

skills in the Residential Networked 

Application team of Alcatel 

Research and Innovation Department, 

in the Research & Innovation 

Center, Antwerp, Belgium where he is responsible 

for several external projects, creativity and user 

research. 

(marc.godon@alcatel.be) 



C. Besset, C. Le Drogo (Orange), C. Dumetz (Orange), R. Paquette 

As bandwidth increases for the end-user, Video on Demand 

and mobile phone television services are poised to 

become readily available for the general public. These 

services have already been deployed by over a third of all mobile 

phone operators. This percentage reaches 84% among operators 

serving over 10 million customers. 

In 2003, Orange was one of the very first operators to launch 

streaming video services (see Terminology box). Orange has 

always relied on Alcatel’s expertise for these services, initially 

based on GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), then on UMTS 

(Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), and finally on 

EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment). 

This article describes the service Orange offers to its endusers, 

and the architecture and technologies deployed by Alcatel 

and Orange for this project. It also provides some key figures 

reflecting the project’s success thus far. 

Orange video services 

Currently, Orange World offers 

three video services: 

• Video on Demand (VOD) – broadband 

reception of video clips 

between 20 sec. and 3 minutes in 

length. 

• “Live TV” – for live TV on mobile 

phones. 

• “Webcam Live” – for watching Webcam 

images. For example, this service 

can be used to view live traffic 

conditions for major thoroughfares. 

> 

For additional information about 

Orange, please visit: 

http://www.orange.fr/ 

Progressive download 

enables the user to start listening to 

music or watching a video before the 

download is completed. This 

transmission mode is used to preserve 

quality when watching a video over a 

low-bandwidth connection. 

ORANGE VIDEO PROJECT 

WITH ALCATEL 

Orange uses Alcatel technology to successfully deploy its 

video and television services on UMTS and EDGE networks. 

EDGE 

Samsung 

E350E Samsung 

SPV C600 

SGH E360E 

Samsung 

D500E 

Samsung 

D600E 

Exclusivity 

Orange ! 

The Orange video service offering 

includes: 

• A pricing structure designed to bolster 

the use of available bandwidth: for a 

€10/month subscription, customers 

gain unlimited access to TV/video 

services at weekends, and up to one 

hour of TV or video on weekdays. 

• The largest selection of TV channels 

available on mobile phones: Orange 

France is the first mobile operator to 

offer 50 TV channels that can be 

accessed from a mobile phone. In 

addition to TV delivery, subscribers 

can also access nearly 500 new programs 

through the Orange World por- 

Figure 1: A broad range of 3G and EDGE mobile handsets, starting at 39€ 

Siemens SL75 

(available jan 06) 

Blackberry 

8700 

SPV C3000 

Nokia 6680 

Motorola V3x 

(available jan 06) 

Samsung Z500 

Sony 

Ericsson 

K600 

Exclusivity 

Orange ! 

Streaming 

refers to the live 

or almost-live 

transmission of 

audio and video 

content. The data 

stream is played as 

it is being 

delivered. This 

contrasts with 

downloading, 

where the user 

must retrieve all the 

data making up a 

music or video file 

before being able 

to play it. 

Nokia N70: 

“le top du multimédia” 

Nokia 6280: 

1st 3G 

EDGE 

slider 3G 

3G 

LG 

U8210 

Exclusivity 

Orange ! 

Samsung 

SGH-Z300 

Sagem 

My W7 

SPV M5000 


ORANGE VIDEO PROJECT WITH ALCATEL 

tal each week, including almost-live delivery of Orange Ligue 

1 football matches, Top 14 rugby matches, music clips, movie 

trailers, sports scores, etc. 

• A wide range of handsets, starting from €39 (see Figure 1). 

By the end of 2006, nearly 5 million broadband handsets are 

expected to support the Orange World video service. 

• Nationwide coverage: since June 2005, 90% of the French 

population has had access to broadband services (EDGE 

and/or UMTS). 

By ensuring that all French customers 

have access to its services and 

by offering a unique multimedia experience, 

Orange perfectly meets the 

needs of the consumer market, thereby 

strengthening its leading position in 

mobile broadband services. 

Orange Video success 

story 

In 2003, Orange was one of the first 

operators to launch GPRS video services. 

Since then, the company has 

deployed these services on the UMTS 

network, in December 2004, and then 

on the EDGE network, in March 2005. 

Today, 

• 56% of subscribers to broadband 

services are “active subscribers” 

(i.e. users who watch a video or a TV 

channel at least once a month) This 

group represents more than 150,000 

active users. 

• There are over 680,000 connections 

per week every month (equivalent to 

3.5 million of video/TV connections 

per month). 

• The most popular contents are news, 

sport, music. The most viewed TV 

channels (in terms of hits) are M6, 

France 2 and RTL9/M6 Music Hits. 

• In terms of usage, an average of 

19 videos are viewed per subscriber 

to broadband services per month 

(7 videos per GPRS subscriber). 

This represents 35 minutes of viewing 

per subscriber to broadband 

services per month (10 minutes per 

GPRS subscriber) 

Which service, which 

technology? 

The video services are offered over 

GPRS, EDGE and UMTS networks, in 

streaming or progressive download 

mode (see Figure 2). 

• Video on Demand is offered in 

streaming mode in areas with UMTS 

coverage, and in progressive download 

mode on the Edge / GPRS network. 

Figure 2: Audio and video services 

Video 

handsets 

Mobile 

Network 

UMTS 

Data 

EDGE 

Data 

GPRS 

• “Live TV” requires a good Quality of Service. It is available 

in streaming mode over high-bandwidth networks. 

• “Webcam Live” is available in streaming mode, over both 

GPRS and high-bandwidth networks. 

These video services use the AVSP (Audio Visual Service 

Platform) for both streaming and progressive download transmission 

modes. AVSP is hosted by CVF, a France Telecom subsidiary. 

Packet 

Switched 

Core 

Network 

(SGSN, 

GGSN) 

GPRS/UMTS/EDGE AVSP 

Audio Video Services 

Orange 

World 

Portal 

TV Live Streaming 

Radio Live Streaming 

Webcams Live Streaming 

Video on Demand Streaming 

Video On Demand Progressive Download 

Audio Video Enablers 

Music On Demand 

Video Blog Streaming 

Video Blog Prog-Download 

UMTS GPRS ALL 

Figure 3: Alcatel AVSP as part of the Orange World Packet Service 

Video 

handsets 

Mobile 

Network 

GPRS 

Edge 

UMTS 

Video 

Streaming 

Server 

Audio Video 

Delivery 

Platform 

Live Sources 

Webcams TV Radio 

Audio Video 

Management System 

Content 

Providers 

TV Channels 

VOD 

Webcams 

VBlog 

MOD 

Radio 

Channels 

Content 

Providers 

Master 

sources 



Main components of the AVSP platform 

(see Figure 3): 

• Audio Video Management System 

which integrates the Alcatel 5942 

pvAuthor product; 

• Audio Video Delivery Platform; 

• Streaming server, which integrates 

the Alcatel 5940 pvServer product. 

To describe the features of the different 

system components, let us first 

analyze the process, from content 

creation (by a film or video publisher 

or television channel) to content viewing 

by the end user. 

Content Creation 

Submission 

Encoding 

Temporary Storage 

Validation & Publication 

VoD service: “How do 

I receive the 8 o’clock 

news summary on my 

Content Delivery 

cell phone?” 

With Video on Demand, the end 

user can view a video on a mobile 

phone less than five minutes after the 

program has been created by a content 

provider – the time needed to adapt the video format for display 

on mobile handsets (see figure 4). 

First stage: content submission, encoding and storage 

by the Audio Video Management System (AVMS) 

The content provider submits the video to the AVMS platform. 

Video formats (usually MPEG-1, WMV, JPEG, MP3) are generally 

incompatible with mobile phones. Each video is therefore encoded 

(converted) into a format supported by handsets (usually MPEG- 

4, H263, AMR - see Figure 5). The content is then stored in a database. 

Each video is stored in different formats according to the 

encoding profile. The 

> 

‹ Atomiz is a French start-up 

specializing in encoding. 

Further information can be found 

at http://www.atomiz.com/ 

Figure 4: Video on Demand Service 

parameters of an encoding 

profile are the data 

bearer (UMTS, EDGE, 

GPRS), the bit rate, the 

audio codec type, the 

display size, etc. For this 

encoding step, Orange has been using the Alcatel 5942 pvAuthor 

product (see Product box), integrated by Atomiz. 

Second stage: content validation and online publication 

by the Audio Video Delivery Platform 

Each video made available by the content provider is 

Alcatel 5942 pvAuthor provides 3GPP standard and enhanced 

audio and video encoding for wireless and wireline services. It 

encodes pre-stored and live audio/video content into MPEG-4 

and H.263 video, GSM-AMR audio. Alcatel 5942 pvAuthor runs 

on the Microsoft Windows Operating Systems, and will save the 

file to disk or transmit it for replication via transmission servers 

such as the Alcatel 5940 pvServer. Alcatel 5942 pvAuthor formats 

the audiovisual content for all major wireless networks 

including 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 802.11; and wireline networks including 

PSTN, ISDN, ADSL and corporate proxy accesses. 

Content 

Provider 

Operator End-User 

encoded and validated by the Orange team for publication to 

the on-line portal. 

Orange content animators use the Audio Video Delivery Platform 

(AVDP), which offers content management, animation and 

publishing features, and SMS or MMS alerts, alongside more standard 

monitoring, statistical and billing features, among others. 

The program schedule is dynamically adapted. The look of 

the on-line portal changes by the hour. For example, the portal 

header may show one type of content during daytime and 

another at night. 

Third stage: content delivery via the streaming server 

A user browsing the regularly updated portal can click on 

the new content. The video will then be delivered via the 

streaming server. 

This server uses the Alcatel 5940 pvServer product (see Product 

box). To all users requesting it at time “t”, it delivers video 

content in the form of a file encoded as described earlier, or as 

a “live” TV or Webcam content stream, referenced by its URL. One 

of the features of Alcatel’s pvServer is its ability to manage data 

traffic at peak times. 

Figure 5: 3GPP codecs 

Audio Video 

AMR 

AMR-WB 

SP-MIDI 

Ext. AMR-WB 

Enh.aacPlus 

EVRC 

QCELP 

SMV 

MPEG-4 CELP 

G.723.1 

MP3 

Streaming Standardized Codecs 

H.263 

MPEG-4 

AVC/H.264 

Motion JPEG 

MPEG-2 

Mandatory 

Optional 

Rcl-6 Opt. 

Image 

JPEG 

GIF 

PNG 



Alcatel's 5940 pvServer is the leading 3GPP 

standard-compliant multimedia server, providing 

streaming, downloading, and progressive 

downloading services to wireless devices. The 

Alcatel 5940 pvServer is a modular, scalable, 

carrier-class mobile media solution available 

for the Solaris, Linux, and HP-UX platforms. 

It delivers multiple streams of live and 

pre-recorded multimedia content to 3GPPcompatible 

clients. It includes interfaces for 

billing, validation, authorization, content management 

and other services. 

Figure 6: Live TV Service 

Content Creation 

Broadcast Network 

Acquisition 

Live Encoding 

Content Delivery 

Live service: “How can I monitor 

‘breaking news’ over my mobile 

phone, from live information channels 

such as LCI?” 

Here the process is simpler compared to 

Video on Demand. There is no need for realtime 

updates to the portal for occasional 

events. 

The process stages are slightly different: there is no submission, 

validation, or storage of television streams (see Figure 6). 

The analog signal from a satellite antenna is captured, transferred 

to a server using video acquisition cards, and then 

encoded to the appropriate format for transmission to a 

mobile handset (3GPP/MPEG-4). The capture and the encoding 

process are hosted by GlobeCast, a France Telecom subsidiary. 

This real-time encoding operation is executed using 

Alcatel 5940 pvAuthor. The video stream is then delivered over 

the Alcatel streaming server. The delivery process is identical 

to the one used for Video on Demand. 

The “Webcam Live” service uses exactly the same stages as 

Live TV (acquisition, real-time encoding, and delivery). 

Why Alcatel? 

Alcatel has developed a technology that significantly 

improves the user experience in a mobile environment. 

• The quality of service and transmission are optimized as a 

function of the radio environment in a user-specific fashion. 

The service provided is both unique and customized. 

SignalTrack is an error resilience method that detects and 

conceals errors resulting from packet loss or channel fading. 

• ‘Time to video’ is reduced, meaning less time between the 

moment when the user clicks on the link to view the video, and 

the moment when the first images appear. With FastTrack, 

a user can be downloading and viewing the content at the same 

time, without sacrificing any video quality. The user can also 

pause the download in progress and resume it later. 

• Orange enjoys easier handset management. DeviceTrack 

senses device capabilities and audio codec types, and reacts 

accordingly to deliver the appropriate media. 

Together, Alcatel 5942 pvAuthor and Alcatel 5940 pvServer 

constitute a key factor in ensuring good end-to-end quality of 

service and a positive user experience. 

Content 

Provider 

Operator End-User 

Conclusion 

Mobile users have shown significant interest in TV + VoD 

+ Music service packages. 

Alcatel has provided Orange with a complete set of video 

services, from content acquisition to delivery to the end user. 

Video services are popular with Orange France customers. 

56% of broadband subscribers use video services for a total of 

3.5 million connections per month. 

The service offer combining Video on Demand and television 

delivery to mobile phones is the first step towards the convergence 

of multimedia services and telecommunication networks. 

References 

For more information regarding the Alcatel Packet Video Network 

Solution (Alcatel 5942 pvAuthor and Alcatel 5940 pvServer), please 

visit: http://www.pvnetsolutions.com/ 

Claire 

Besset-Bathias 

Claire Besset is 

Innovation Manager 

in the Mobile Solution 

Division (Market Analysis and 

Innovation) of Alcatel, Vélizy, 

France, 

(Claire.Besset@alcatel.fr) 

Céline Dumetz 

is video/TV Product 

Manager, Consumer 

Marketing 

Direction, Orange, 

France. 

Régis Paquette 

Régis Paquette is Video 

& Music Product Line 

Manager, in the Mobile 

Solution Division (User 

Centric Applications Business Unit) 

of Alcatel, Vélizy, France, 

Regis.Paquette@alcatel.fr 

Catherine Le Drogo 

is responsible for 

Video/TV Product Line, 

Consumer Marketing 

Direction, Orange, 

France. 



S. Betgé-Brezetz, P. Kelley, O. Martinot 

Mobile TV is now considered as 

one of the most promising 

technologies by telecom operators, 

broadcasters, and content 

providers. Mobile broadcast technologies 

such as DVB-H 1 , S-DMB 2 and T- 

DMB 3 are entering the mobile network 

landscape and promise new business 

opportunities. The first market introductions 

took place in Asia (on DMB), 

followed by the US (on DVB-H and T- 

DMB), and trials are ongoing in 

Europe (mainly on DVB-H). However, 

at this stage, mobile broadcasting is 

perceived as either an opportunity or 

a risk for telecom operators, depending 

on the way in which telecom and 

broadcast networks will be used in 

the service delivery. The Open Service 

Delivery Environment (OSDE) 

plays a central role in this issue, 

since it efficiently combines both network technologies 

(broadcast and telecom) in the delivery of interactive mobile 

TV services (Figure 1). 

For Mobile TV, rich media is a key technology, because it 

enhances video flows with interactivity. Rich media will allow 

mobile TV to be interactive via voting, gaming, content access, 

or other communication and community services such as 

Instant Messaging (IM) or chatting. The use of rich media technology 

in the OSDE creates a synergy between the broadcast 

network and the mobile network (which is used as the back 

channel), generating new revenues as customers pay for 

interactive requests. 

In this article, after a brief overview of the mobile broadcast 

landscape, we will present examples of rich media services and 

technologies, and how the Alcatel OSDE can exploit them. 

Mobile broadcast service landscape 

Mobile broadcast is raising today a lot of interest. However, 

its business environment is already complex, with new players 

and technologies appearing in this emerging industry as the 

search for workable business models gathers pace. 

1 DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) 

2 S-DMB (Satellite-Digital Multimedia Broadcast) 

3 T-DMB (Terrestrial-Digital Multimedia Broadcast) 

RICH MEDIA SERVICE DELIVERY 

Rich media technology will turn mobile TV into a new 

media beyond “TV over mobile”. Customers will experience 

a new generation of interactive TV services, promising new 

revenues for mobile operators. 

Figure 1: Cooperation of telecom and broadcast networks for interactive mobile TV 

SP Portal 

EPG Provider 

Content Provider 

Billing systems 

Broadcaster 

Aggregator 

Service Provider 

Open Service 

Delivery Platform 

(Interactivity server) 

ISP 

ASP 

S-DMB, DVB-H,... 

1. Rich media content broadcasting 

Broadcast network 

operator 

2. Information request 

2G/2.5/3G 

WiMAX 

Mobile network 

operator 

3. Point-to-point delivery 

From the business side, several players are already involved: 

• Broadcasters who provide TV channels, 

and Aggregators who bundle 

these channels into packages. 

• Broadcast network operators who 

provide access to their own broadcast 

networks (terrestrial, satellite, 

or cable) to deliver the TV channels 

or packages to end-users. 

• Mobile operators (operating a cellular 

network) and mobile service 

providers (operating a mobile portal), 

who are currently offering 

mobile TV programs in unicast 

mode. 

• Others such as content providers 

(movie or program producers); 

advertisers; or even Access Service 

Providers (ASP) and Internet Service 

Providers (ISP), who directly 

provide content to be delivered 

through the network. 

Broadcast 

Back channel 

Dedicated 

content 

Interactive 

client 

Back channel: 

when using 

unidirectional 

delivery for the main 

stream of content 

(like classical or 

mobile TV), the back 

channel is the name 

given to the parallel 

communication 

channel (GSM, 

GPRS, 3G for 

instance) that can be 

used to launch bidirectional 

services 

(web browsing, 

download, 

communication, etc.). 



From the technology side, several aspects need to be considered: 

• The mobile broadcast technologies, which could be terrestrial 

DVB-H or T-DMB (Terrestrial-Digital Multimedia Broadcast) or 

satellite (S-DMB). 

• The frequencies that can be allocated to the mobile TV channels 

and which depend on national regulation in each country. 

Free frequencies are a critical resource that may have a 

strong impact on the selection of broadcast technologies. 

• The mobile network used for the back channel to deliver the 

requested content once interactivity is triggered. Back 

channel networks can be GPRS/EDGE, 3G, or the emerging 

WiMAX networks. 

• Other critical technologies such as Digital Rights Management 

(DRM), which is mandatory for content providers delivering 

added-value content across the network. 

At the network level, the mobile broadcast landscape is still 

evolving, but is already complex and fluid, since technical, regulatory, 

and business choices have not yet been made and could 

also be country-dependent. 

However, at the service level, the OSDE offers a solution to 

deliver end-to-end interactive mobile TV services independent 

of the underlying network technologies, via a client/server architecture 

(Figure 1). 

Rich media services and user scenarios 

Using rich media technology offers the possibility to create a 

wide range of new, attractive services in the OSDE. As an example, 

Figure 2 shows two scenarios in the context of a football 

match viewed on a mobile terminal. In scenario A, the user is 

offered the opportunity to see the results of the other ongoing 

matches (step 1). If the user presses OK, the results are overdisplayed 

(step 2). In scenario B, the user is offered the chance 

to see a goal that has just been scored in another match (step 1). 

In the same way, the goal sequence is visualized if the user presses 

OK (step 2) and, in this case, he is charged 0.3 euros. 

One key advantage of such interactive mobile services is the 

“all-in-one” concept, which dramatically reduces service usage, 

since the same device is used for both viewing the video and offering 

interactivity. Moreover, beyond the pure information request, 

interactivity can also be used for lots of other purposes: gaming, 

voting, chatting, and purchasing (music, video, etc.). 

Figure 2: Some interactive mobile TV scenarios 

Scenario A / step 1 Scenario A / step 2 

Scenario B / step 1 

Scenario B / step 2 

The OSDE can also personalize the interactivity, because 

it holds user profile information. Personalization enables 

interactive menus to be customized to the user’s profile, providing 

dedicated and relevant interactivity. Later developments 

of such services will see the convergence of fixed/mobile services, 

where both the home TV and the mobile phone will be 

involved in the interactive TV experience (visualization on the 

home TV, and interactivity via the mobile phone). As each TV 

viewer can use his own mobile for interactivity, this fixed/mobile 

TV environment will enable new community entertainment 

applications. 

Rich media technologies 

Rich media technologies allow the insertion of interactivity 

into the video content with clickable menus or images that trigger 

an action (text or video display, music download, etc.). 

A solution for interactive mobile broadcast TV comprises 

three components: 

• an authoring tool to edit the video content, and to introduce 

interactivity in it; 

• a player in the terminal for the interactive broadcast content; 

• a server-side component linking interactive content, broadcast 

channel and back channel. 

The authoring tool, player, and server must share a common rich 

media technology that provides the following features: server 

interaction capabilities; off-line and real-time editing capabilities; 

integrated DRM aspects; and broadcast enabling. 

One of the key issues, given the current diversity of terminals, 

is that of how to access a significant user base. This implies the 

provision of a terminal equipped with broadcast reception and 

communication capabilities, sufficient screen size, sufficient battery 

life, and a player compatible with the video format and rich 

media technology. Others requirements have to be considered, 

such as the lifetime of the solutions (standards are preferred), 

and regulatory constraints. In Europe for instance, public 

authorities usually choose the broadcast format. 

Among all the rich media technologies (Figure 3), three 

look promising: MPEG LASeR, MPEG4/BIFS, and Windows 

Media. They all have advantages and drawbacks. MPEG 

LASeR is ready to be used with the Streamezzo product; Windows 

Media is a de facto standard, but with proprietary technologies; 

MPEG4/BIFS is a standard, but the players for 

mobile devices are not yet mature. 

So far, the choice of rich media format is still 

open for mobile broadcasting in many countries. 

Because of this, the platform that delivers 

interactive mobile TV services will have to 

support several formats to be compatible with 

local market conditions. 

Rich media services and OSDE 

architecture 

In order to deploy rich media services, a 

new interactivity SDP (Service Delivery Platform) 

must be introduced in the Open Service 

Delivery Environment. Using a rich media technology, 

this interactivity SDP will handle the 

interactive requests (sent via the back channel), 

offer an interface with the authoring tool, 

and allow personalization of the interactivity 

(Figure 4). 



The interactivity SDP, in conjunction 

with the broadcast SDP, also relies on 

other enablers and SDP layers of the 

OSDE to fulfill the requirements of 

rich media services. The interactivity 

SDP relies on the mobile video SDP, 

whose content server and streaming 

controller are used for the point-topoint 

delivery of the content invoked by 

an interactivity request. Content adaptation 

(to the player and terminal) and 

an advanced Electronic Service Guide 

(ESG) are other necessary features of 

the mobile video SDP used by the 

interactivity SDP. Other OSDE enablers 

and services are also needed for rich 

media services, such as: 

• reachability and localization information, 

to personalize interactivity 

according to the user context (availability, 

user location such as “at 

work” or “at home”); 

• a Generic User Profile (GUP) server 

to personalize interactivity according 

to the user profile; 

• DRM to protect the content 

requested and delivered through 

the telecom network; 

• a rating server to charge for the 

interactivity requests; 

• IMS services to offer new combined 

content and communication services 

such as mobile TV chatting, or realtime 

participation in a mobile TV 

program. 

An end-to-end solution for interactive 

mobile broadcast should offer the end user value-added 

services, and must work for all of the players in the chain: telecom 

operators, broadcasters, content providers, and device 

providers. Cooperation between existing and new OSDE components 

is essential to deliver integrated services to the satisfaction 

of all involved. Work is ongoing in standardization bodies 

(DVB forum, Open Mobile Alliance) to stabilize a standardized 

architecture that meets all technical and business requirements. 

Conclusion 

Mobile TV pilot schemes are ongoing in Finland, Germany, 

and France. The first results are positive: they prove that customers 

are ready to pay for such a service, and that there are 

market opportunities for interactive mobile TV. 

The choice of rich media technology is still open, although 

several solutions already exist that offer high interactivity levels 

for a wide range of terminals. 

It is therefore critical to adopt an OSDE and interactivity 

SDP that are agnostic to the broadcast technology (S-DMB, 

DVB-H) and the rich media technology used. This is a key 

enabler for the successful introduction of new mobile services 

that exploit both the telecom and broadcast networks. 

To deploy rich media services effectively, the interactivity 

SDP has to be integrated in the OSDE with the mobile video 

Figure 3: Rich media formats, players and servers/authoring 

Formats Mobile Players Servers/Authoring 

Standard formats 

X3D (VRML) 

SMIL+SVG 

MPEG4-BIFS 

MPEG-LASER 

Proprietary formats 

Quick Time 

RealMedia 

Flash 

Windows Media 

MPEG4-BIFS Players 

EnvivioTV 

GPAC 

IBM toolkit 

BS Contact 

... 

MPEG-LASER Players 

Streamezzo 

Proprietary Players 

Windows Media 

Figure 4: Architecture for interactive mobile TV services 

Players 

Interactivity 

Video 

Back channel 

Broadcast 


Interactivity Personalization 

Modulation Encapsulation 

Content server 

Streaming 

Controller 

SDP, plus rating, reachability, localization, and other IMS services 

like mixed communication and content services. This will 

generate increased usage and revenue (ARPU) as well as customer 

loyalty. 

Moreover, the OSDE and interactivity SDP play a similarly 

key role in the delivery of content beyond live TV channels (e.g. 

data). Finally, for business models dependent on national regulatory 

decisions, adoption of a flexible OSDE architecture will 

be a critical success factor. 

Stéphane 

Betgé-Brezetz is Team 

manager in the Delivery 

of Integrated Services 

R&I project, Alcatel 

Research & Innovation Department, 

CTO, Marcoussis, France. 

(Stephane.Betge- 

Brezetz@alcatel.fr) 

Interactivity SDP 

Broadcast SDP 

Mobile Video SDP 

Localization Reachability IMS SDP 

Rating 

OSP SDP 

MPEG4-BIFS 

Envivio 

Apple Darwin 

Olivier Martinot 

is Team leader in the 

Delivery of Integrated 

Services R&I project, 

Alcatel Research & 

Innovation Department, CTO, 

Marcoussis, France. 

(Olivier.Martinot@alcatel.fr) 

Philip Kelley is Director, New Applications and Terminals, 

in the CTO of the Alcatel Mobile Communications Group, 

Vélizy, France. 

(Philip.Kelley@alcatel.fr) 

... 

MPEG-LASER 

Streamezzo 

Proprietary 

Windows Media 

Authoring 

Tool 


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Publisher: Jean-Paul BARTH - Technical Journal published by Compagnie Financière Alcatel, 

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Registered office: 54, rue de la Boétie, 75008 Paris - France 

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Legal registration: December 2005 ISSN: 1267-7167. 

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The absence of any intellectual property protection mentionings does not imply that there 

may be no protection. 

Illustrations and layout by Atelier Antoine Maiffret (www.maiffret.net) 

Cover photography: ©Peet Simard 

Printed in France by: MACON Imprimerie 

22, rue du 134e Régiment d’Infanterie - 71000 MACON. 

English Edition: 25 000 copies. 

© Compagnie Financière Alcatel

OPEN SERVICE DELIVERY ENVIRONMENT 

Editorial: Greg Patchell 

Introduction: Hervé Amossé 

■ Alcatel’s Advanced Rating Engine: a key success enabler for the OSDE 

■ Enabling MVNOs at Bell Mobility with Alcatel’s payment solution 

■ Service-Oriented Architectures: Orchestrating the OSDE 

■ Operational Support Evolution with Web Services 

■ Using Fixed/Mobile Convergence to Competitive Advantage 

■ BT Communicator: The world’s biggest SIP Deployment 

■ Network Migration Strategies towards IMS 

■ Alcatel’s User-Centric Data Repository and provisioning Architecture 

■ Security from 3GPP IMS to TISPAN NGN 

■ Reachability and Context Enablers for IMS 

■ Presence and Localization data enable new IMS User Services 

■ Triple Play: Don’t Play! Make it Real! 

■ Ingredients, Utensils and Recipes for the Triple Play Application Innovator 

■ Orange Video Project with Alcatel 

■ Rich Media Service Delivery 

B R O A D E N Y O U R L I F E 

Next Issue: 

TRANSFORMING ENTERPRISES WITH IP COMMUNICATIONS 

4 

Paper and cover chlorine-free - Cover: © Peet Simard

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