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211 Summit Place #292 • Box 10,000 • Silverthorne, CO 80498
Office: 970-262-6100 • Fax: 407-641-9595
MKhalilian@IMSForum.org • www.IMSForum.org |
Fellow IMS Forum Members and Friends:
The IP Multimedia Subsystem, or IMS, provides a reference network architecture that enables wireless, cable and fixed line broadband providers to more quickly deliver converged services and applications. As the ‘Voice of IP Convergence,’ the IMS Forum (www.IMSForum.org) is the industry association driving interoperability for easy deployment of IMS services over any type of broadband network. To achieve this goal, the IMS Forum has developed test plans that demonstrate the interoperability of services offered by participating vendors and service providers.
IMS interoperability is furthered through our series of IMS Plugfest™ events. Our first Plugfest was held last month at the University of New Hampshire’s Interoperability Lab, and was attended by Ditech, Empirix, Ixia, Reef Point Systems, NE Technologies, Starent Networks, Tektronix, Tekelec, Sonus, Valid8, and sponsored by Empirix, Ditech, Sonus, GlobalTouch Telecom, Trendium and VoX Communications.
At its core, IMS is a set of standards and recommendations for delivering a multi-service IP network, which allows service providers to offer the appropriate quality and reliability for all applications and services – current and future. For service providers, IMS delivers a flexible network architecture that allows for the quick addition of new services, better customer fulfillment, and a reduction in operational costs. It is the seamless convergence of mobile and fixed networks that will increase customer usage of network services, improve customer satisfaction, and by extension, customer retention.
For networking and test equipment vendors, IMS offers a blueprint for the functional building blocks required to provide services. Vendors developing applications and services for businesses and consumers have started to use IMS to deliver a large variety of services. They are working on ‘classic’ voice telephony features such as enabling cell phones to work over the Wi-Fi networks we have in our homes, workplaces and cities, or delivering video to your living room, PC or cell phone. IMS is also an enabler for developing new applications such as presence, a service where the network recognizes your availability and can manage communications accordingly.
IMS benefits both business and consumer users. From simply allowing us to use our mobile devices everywhere to mass deployment of new services such as mobile video and multimedia communications, IMS is getting ready for prime time.
Another Plugfest event is planned for June 4-8, 2007. I encourage all of you to get involved. For information on Plugfest and IMS Forum Interoperability testing, visit us online at www.IMSForum.org or contact: Michael Khalilian, mkhalilian@imsforum.org, Tel: (970) 262-6100
Sincerely,
Michael Khalilian
Chairman & President IMS Forum and
CTO & BoD – Pervasip Corp
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| IMS FORUM NEWS |
• The IMS Forum is pleased to welcome the following new members: LogicaCMG, Starent Networks, Argent Networks, Tekronics, MU Security, Reef Point Systems and NE Technologies.
• The IMS Forum is pleased to announce that it will be participating in several industry events worldwide, including:
° Telco 2.0, March 27-29, London, England
° CTIA Wireless 2007, March 27-29, Orlando FL
° C5 World Forum, March 26-29, Milan Italy
° The Cable Show ’07, May 7-9, Las Vegas, NV
° Communications Developer Conference, Santa Clara, CA
° China VoIP Conference & EXPO, May 23-24, Beijing, China
° Broadband World Forum Asia June 5-8 2007, Beijing, China
° NXTComm, June 18-21, Chicago IL
(IMS Forum will host its annual member meeting at NXTComm)
° IMS EXPO 2007, September 10-12, Los Angeles, CA
° Fall VON 2007, October 29 – Nov 1, Boston, MA
• Last month, the IMS Forum was invited by the IQPC to participate and to chair the IMS Evolution Summit, in Miami, Florida. The three-day conference, held February 19-22, was dedicated to IMS convergence across wireless, wireline and cable. Manuel Vexler, IMS Forum VP Operations and Interoperability, and Conference Chairman, opened the conference by noting that theis event was a first in hosting presenters and participants from across the industry, including service providers, vendors and system integrators. Cox Cable, Verizon, Sprint, Alltel, NTT, Telecom Italia, inCode Wireless, iBasis and AT&T were joined by Ditech Networks, NexTone, Juniper and Amdocs in presentations discussing all the aspects of specifying, designing, implementing, testing and integrating IMS solutions and services. Gartner Analyst, Akshay Sharma, introduced the convergence of IMS and Service Oriented Architecture to attendees – one of the newest areas of research in IMS convergence.
While work in standards and interoperability is still in progress, it is clear that service providers are accelerating their IMS implementations to realize operational savings and to meet their strategic goals.
The IMS Forum looks forward to actively participating in next year’s IMS Evolution Summit as well. For additional information, please contact the IMS Forum: mkhalilian@imsforum.org.
• Earlier this year, The IMS Forum welcomed Scott Poretsky, Director of Quality Assurance at Reef Point Systems (www.reefpoint.com), as Technical Chairperson. As Chairperson, Mr. Poretsky will lead initiatives to ensure the highest professional standards in IMS services and applications testing and certification, maintain a clear understanding of the current and evolving IMS standards, collaborate with service providers to scope IMS requirements, provide feedback to standards bodies involved in IMS, and develop an active industry-wide multivendor IMS services and applications certification program recognized by service providers.
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| IMS FORUM PLUGFEST SERIES UPDATE |
PLUGFEST II
After a very successful first IMS Plugfest™, the IMSF is pleased to announce the 2nd Plugfest, which will be held June 4-8 at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab. Representing the second in a series of IMS Plugfests, open to both IMSF members and non-members, this event is a vendor-neutral, network-neutral test event centered on the interoperability of IMS services and applications. The Plugfest will focus on resolving critical interoperability issues, and developing and certifying an industry-recognized "stamp of approval" for IMS technology applications and services. The second Plugfest is focused on Voice services including Fixed Mobile Converged services and initial video services. A third Plugfest will be held in the fourth quarter of the year.
For information on the Plugfest, or to participate, please visit www.IMSForum.org, or contact IMSF Chairman Michael Khalilian: mkhalilian@imsforum.org.
PLUGFEST I UPDATE
The IMS Forum completed its first IMS Plugfest™ on January 19th at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL) in Durham, N.H. The event was attended by Ditech, Empirix, Ixia, Reef Point Systems, NE Technologies, Starent Networks, Tektronix, Tekelec, Sonus, Valid8, and sponsored by Empirix, Ditech, Sonus, GlobalTouch Telecom, Trendium and VOX.
To read what leading industry media had to say about the IMS Forum’s Inaugural Plugfest, please visit any of the sample articles below:
• Wireless Week: ‘Testing the Test'
• Xchange: ‘UNH Interoperability Lab, IMS Forum Plan IMS Plugfest,
• Communications Technology, ‘IMS Forum Plugfest Test Plan, Roadmap Finalized
• Cabling Network Systems Magazine, “IMS Plugfest test plan and roadmap
finalized"
• Communications Technology, ‘IMS Update: Live Learning and Plugfests"
• TMCNET, ‘IMS Forum Ready to Roll with First Ever 'IMS Plugfest' Series'
• VoIP-News, ‘IMS Forum Plugfests Target Services Interoperability'
• Mercator Capitol IP Communications Newsletter, ‘IMS Plugfest'
• Wireless Week, ‘Testing IMS Waters'
• Mass High Tech, Convergence: The name of the game in '06 and '07
• Telecommunications Magazine, ‘Reef Point Unveils IMS Security For Both Fixed
and Mobile Networks, Solution Integrates, Secures, And Ensures QoS For
Next-Gen VoIP And Multimedia Services'
• TMCNET, ‘IMS Forum's Plugfest Proves Inter-Vendor Interoperability'
• Communications Engineering & Design, ‘IMS Forum completes first Plugfest'
• Mass High Tech, ‘UNH 'plugfest' helps IMS gear makers talk'
• VoIP-News, ‘First IMS Plugfest Focuses On Gear And VoIP'
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| INDUSTRY NEWS |
Coming Soon: A Fixed-Mobile Convergence Spike
In an era of dramatic changes to telephone services, one of the hottest new market phenomena is fixed-mobile convergence.
ABI Research has found that, by 2011, some 250 million users will be making and receiving phone calls over converged fixed-mobile networks and access points, and the firm expects capital expenditure in fixed-mobile convergence infrastructure to exceed $450 million by 2011. That equates to around 10 percent of households and 8 percent of enterprises using some form of fixed-mobile convergence access point on the premises. This will include UMA and SIP-based solutions, both supporting voice call continuity.
"There are several competing technologies for fixed-mobile convergence," says ABI Research wireless research director Stuart Carlaw. "These include using UMA to aggregate traffic from femtocells and Wi-Fi access points in the home, and picocells in the office. In the longer term, IMS-based solutions will be deployed using SIP to offer rich voice sessions over converged devices."
- TelecomWeb
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Half of U.S. Households Will Subscribe to Broadband Internet Access by 2007
Residential subscriptions to broadband Internet services surged 20% in 2006 to exceed 50 million U.S. households, according to a market research study by Parks Associates. The report estimates U.S. residential broadband subscriptions will surpass 60 million households by year-end 2007, accounting for 55 percent of all U.S. households.
The study finds that providers are delivering both broadband and television services with greater emphasis on the value-added services they enable, rather than just the services themselves. Furthermore, in recent years, service providers have been partnering more closely with equipment vendors to strengthen the linkages between digital lifestyle services and the end-user products that enable them, including set-top boxes, home computers, home networks, gaming consoles, and other fixed and portable consumer electronics devices.
- Parks Associates
Increasing Growth of VoIP Services Spurs Demand in the Session Border Controller Market
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan on world Session Border Controller Markets, reveals that the market accrued revenues of $123 million in 2006 and estimates this to reach $163 million in 2013, after first peaking at $220 million in 2009.
"Carriers are increasingly turning to SBCs as they require a dedicated device to protect critical equipment, such as softswitches and media gateways, from denial of service (DoS) and other attacks," notes Frost & Sullivan Strategic Analyst Shirley Hunt. "The next-generation infrastructure market is also largely driven by carriers' focus on reducing costs to provide high profit-margin services using IP equipment."
Integration of VoIP and wireless services on a variety of platforms following the IMS architecture is creating avenues for market growth. With multimedia and wireless traffic adding enormous loads, networks require these devices to help handle various applications without degrading quality of service (QoS).
- Frost & Sullivan
Carrier VoIP equipment revenue jumps 32% in 2006
Manufacturers of service provider next-gen voice and IMS equipment had a very good year, with worldwide revenue jumping 32% between 2005 and 2006 to reach $3.3 billion, says Infonetics Research in its Service Provider VoIP & IMS Equipment & Subscribers report. The overall market is up 8% for the quarter, from 3Q06 to 4Q06.
Infonetics expects the service provider next gen voice and IMS equipment market to more than double between 2006 and 2010, when it will reach $6.9 billion worldwide.
Carrier VoIP/IMS Market Highlights
• A total of $25.2 billion will be spent on carrier next gen voice and IMS equipment worldwide during the 5-year period between CY06 and CY10
• The media gateway segment is up 2% between 3Q06 and 4Q06, and up 32% between CY05 and CY06
• The session border controller segment grew 9% in 4Q06 and up 66% in CY06
• The combined media gateway and softswitch market totaled $2.8 billion worldwide in CY06, with Nortel leading with 20% revenue share, followed by Cisco, who doubled their share in CY06 and moved up to 2nd position, passing Siemens
• The number of worldwide residential and SOHO VoIP subscribers will nearly quadruple between 2006 to 2010
• Revenue leaderboard:
• Cisco had a blockbuster quarter for trunk media gateways, with revenue up 73% in 4Q06
• Nortel leads in worldwide softswitch revenue
• Acme Packet leads in the fast-growing SBC segment
• RadiSys (Convedia) is the worldwide leader in media server revenue, followed closely by Cantata in CY06
• BroadSoft leads in voice application servers
- Infonetics Research
Verizon Calls On Landline Customers
Verizon Communications Inc. plans to discount some prices and increase
advertising to slow its huge loss of landline phone customers who are disconnecting in favor of wireless and Internet-phone service.
While Verizon's wireless and high-speed Internet businesses continued to
grow, the company lost 3.1 million residential phone customers in 2006, down 10%, ending the year with 27.8 million. The company's traditional phone business, including residential and business customers, represents about 35% of its total revenue.
Verizon has tried to sell some of its less-profitable landlines. Earlier this month, Verizon announced plans to shed its local lines in three states
in a deal with FairPoint Communications Inc. But many landline customers tend to be long-term subscribers to whom Verizon can easily market other, higher-margin services. Verizon plans to target landline customers with new advertising and this week will start offering discounted prices for customers who subscribe to both Verizon's wireless and traditional phone service.
- Wall Street Journal
Alcatel breaks 30M DSL port threshold in 2006; worldwide DSL port shipments near 100M
According to Infonetics Research’s new Broadband Aggregation Hardware and Subscribers report, the broadband boom continues unabated, as evidenced by two significant milestones in 2006: Worldwide DSL port shipments neared the 100 million mark and market leader Alcatel-Lucent shipped over 30 million DSL ports.
Meanwhile, manufacturer revenue for broadband aggregation hardware continues to battle against the downward pricing pressure of competition, suffering from a 16% drop in 3Q06 but bouncing back in 4Q06 with a 7% gain. The market ended on a high note, with a 4% gain between 2005 and 2006.
CY06 Broadband Aggregation Hardware Market Highlights
• Worldwide DSL port shipments increased 22% between 2005 and 2006
• IP DSLAM revenue is up 41% in 2006, while ATM DSLAM revenue is down 18%, as networks around the world prepare to deliver new IP services such as VPNs, VoIP, and IPTV
• Market leader Alcatel-Lucent maintains its strong #1 position, with about 1/3 of worldwide broadband aggregation hardware port and revenue market share
• Huawei is #2 in both revenue and port market share, followed by Ericsson for revenue share and port share
• The number of worldwide DSL subscribers will reach 274 million in 2009
• After a significant downturn in 3Q06, DSL shipments were back up to normal levels in 4Q06 in North America now that major mergers have been completed or approved
FCC Releases Data on High-Speed Services For Internet Access
High-Speed Connections to the Internet Increased by 26% in the First Half of 2006
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released new data on high-speed connections to the Internet in the United States.
High-speed lines increased by 26% during the first half of 2006, from 51.2 million to 64.6 million lines in service, compared to a 21% increase, from 42.4 million to 51.2 million lines, during the second half of 2005. For the full twelve month period ending June 30, 2006, high-speed lines increased by 52% (or 22.2 million lines). High-speed lines encompass advanced services lines and also include lines that deliver services at speeds exceeding 200 kbps in one, but not both, directions.
• Of the 64.6 million total high-speed lines reported as of June 30, 2006, 50.3 million served primarily residential end users. Cable modem service represented 55.2% of these lines while 40.1% were asymmetric DSL (ADSL) connections, 0.2% were symmetric DSL (SDSL) or traditional wireline connections, 0.9% were fiber connections to the end user premises, and 3.7% used other types of technology including satellite, terrestrial fixed or mobile wireless (on a licensed or unlicensed basis), and electric power line.
ADSL lines increased by 3.1 million lines during the first half of 2006 compared to an increase of 2.0 million lines for cable modem service. For the full year, ADSL increased by 6.3 million lines compared to an increase of 4.6 million lines for cable modem service.
Advanced services lines, which deliver services at speeds exceeding 200 kbps in both directions, increased by 15% during the first half of 2006, from 43.8 million to 50.4 million, compared to a 18% increase, from 37.3 million to 43.8 million lines, during the second half of 2005. For the full twelve month period ending June 30, 2006, advanced services lines increased 35% (or 13.2 million lines).
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| How to Join the IMS FORUM |
If you are interested in joining the IMS Forum, or in participating in any of the working groups or marketing programs, please contact IMSF Program Manager, Debbie Hetland, at dhetland@imsf.org, or visit: http://www.imsforum.org/member/how_to_join.shtml
Membership Benefits include:
• Verify and certify interoperability, reduce costs and accelerate time to market
• Participate in technical working groups focusing on service creation and
applications for IMS architecture framework as well as IMS deployment issues
• Gain additional visibility through the IMS Forum's Speakers Bureau, public
relations and marketing programs
• Member companies showcased at major telecom, cable, and wireless events in
North America, Asia, and Europe
• Receive current market and technology information through newsletters,
reports, and conferences
• Gain access to an informed professional network of industry consultants and
accredited experts
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| IMSF Member Q & A |
 David Hayward
Director of Marketing, Reef Point Systems
Member, IMS Forum Marketing and Business Committee
dhayward@reefpoint.com
Q. Tell us about Reef Point Systems and its products and services?
A. Reef Point exists to enable carriers to deliver competitive, high-value, VoIP and rich multimedia services to consumers "any service, anywhere, anytime on any device” with confidence. And “with confidence” means delivering those services with the utmost privacy for users, with the quality of service that they expect and with the utmost security for the carrier infrastructure.
We’ve pioneered — and are shipping — a new class of network gateway that is the lynchpin for fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) networking in general and for IMS in particular. It’s the control point between all possible access networks – mobile, wireless, fixed-line – and the carrier’s core network. This new device fulfills a very challenging role: it converges all types of access networks, it thwarts all types of security threats that IP access networks pose to the carrier core and the user’s device, and it ensures that the network delivers all forms of media in the correct format for whatever device the user may have and at the right bandwidth for whatever access network the user is on.
We’ve aptly named our product, the "Universal Convergence Gateway," or “UCG.” It enables service providers to deliver multimedia (video-on-demand, web-browsing, ecommerce, email, IM, data/video/file-sharing, etc.) and voice-over-IP services to subscribers over any network (WiFi, WiMAX, mobile CDMA/GSM, cable and DSL) and using any device (mobile phone, laptop, PC and wireless handhelds).
From a performance standpoint, it also fills a tall order: it handles all the security and network policy enforcement at very high scale (up to 500,000 users and 1 million sessions concurrently per chassis) and ensures wire speed (i.e., no degradation) through hardware-assist based on the latest field programmable gate arrays. So on many levels, the UCG offers huge CAPEX and OPEX advantages for next-generation carrier service deployments: a new kind of network device for the new network paradigm.
2. What can the IMS Forum do for your company?
FMC – our focus -- is a central theme for carriers’ business strategy, and IMS over WiFi and WiMAX are key FMC implementations. A recent analyst report from analyst firm iLocus catalogued 250 FMC trials worldwide. To provide their customers with the most freedom to access high bandwidth services, carriers will likely deploy a range of FMC access scenarios: WiFi, WiMAX, picocells, femtocells, Bluetooth, and 4G. The end-game for most carriers is a single core that feeds multiple access networks.
This is where the IMS and the IMS Forum come in. IMS will be that single core for many carriers, and the IMS Forum is a proving ground for the IMS standard. Firstly, IMS lets the carrier’s core set of service applications be agnostic to any access network (e.g., FMC). Secondly, when the IMS standards are faithfully implemented by vendors, carriers can have networks based on multivendor devices (e.g., mix and match best-of-breed). So vendors’ IMS-element interoperability is essential.
Even if a carrier settles on one major infrastructure vendor, the vendor is likely to OEM key IMS elements from innovative start-ups like Reef Point. That’s our distribution model, by the way, and proven IMS compliance for interoperability is therefore essential.
The IMS Forum is already off to a great start, with its large and growing member base of vendors, a successful first interoperability test (the recent “Plugfest”), a top-notch independent lab (the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab, or “IOL”), and clear plans for continued Plugfests. The vendor cooperation is impressive, and it shows, because and carriers are now registering their keen interest in the Forum’s activities.
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