BASKING RIDGE, N.J.—Verizon Wireless and a group of industry network suppliers have set out what they see as a path to advance mobile network architecture and transition networks to IMS, or Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem.
The companies involved in the Advances to IMS, or A-IMS, architecture task force include Cisco Systems Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc., Morotola Inc., Nortel Networks Ltd. and Qualcomm Inc.
According to the group, the A-IMS architecture “provides solutions to implement next-generation services in current networks, as well as creates a foundation for the efficient rollout of both SIP- and non-SIP-based services in future networks.”
Dick Lynch, executive vice president and chief technical officer for Verizon Wireless, said that as the task force began planning for IMS implementation, “it become apparent that there are some practical, real-world issues that need to be addressed if we are to transparently and completely deploy and maximize the use of this new architecture.”
According to commentary by Ovum analysts: “Regardless of how this will play out in the next couple of years, by supporting both SIP and non-SIP applications, A-IMS focuses on seamless service migration during the evolution of the core network architecture. It represents a very good example of what could be expected from carriers wishing to move to VoIP using an IMS-compliant evolutionary path.”
“Adding A-IMS on top of IMS will help ensure better compatibility between networks and more operator flexibility in handling applications along with Quality of Service, accounting functions, mobility demands, security and packet flow optimization,” said industry analyst Andrew Seybold of Outlook4Mobility.
