The Birth of a New Network (Cont'd)

Ultimately, IMS-enabled convergence has the power to split traditional fulfillment into two roles: fulfilling network connectivity and fulfilling requests for application-level services. The first leverages existing fulfillment capabilities, while the second demands a virtually new breed of management system.

Taking advantage of IMS and the vast array of services it enhances or enables assumes an end-to-end IP network, which in turn requires pre-existing underlying connectivity. Building and managing connectivity has long been the purview of current OSS. And so it will remain. But in the world of "ready access" services, network build and basic IP connectivity can no longer be handled reactively. They must instead be established ahead of time, removing time-consuming functions from the critical path of higher-level service delivery.

But what exactly does that higher-level service delivery entail in light of pre-built, always-connected networks and an intelligent IP control plane? In the age of IMS-enabled convergence and network intelligence, service delivery is more about application control and permissions than network control and connections. It's about providing real-time subscription-based access to services coupled with the ability to add, change and remove features instantly and continuously. This is where the traditional fulfillment Operations Support System (OSS) must give way to the new Service Delivery Operations System (OS).

While traditional fulfillment solutions will lay the network foundation for converged services, supporting network build operations, the Service Delivery OS completes the real-time service environment, provisioning subscriber connectivity, service subscriptions, and service feature additions and changes. Its subscriber provisioning and application delivery capabilities manage permissions, authentication, privacy, non-repudiation, and more, while enabling subscribers to modify or personalize features (e.g., selecting unified messaging as part of a VoIP service, or setting parental controls on an IPTV). Interfacing with content servers, the IMS-enabled network, and the ever expanding host of IP terminals (handhelds, gaming consoles, smart phones), the Service Delivery OS enables an environment where services are always "at the ready" for delivery to any end point that can support them, via any network segment that can meet their requirements.

IMS heralds an age of true communications convergence that extends far beyond unified billing. It brings the genuine inter-working of IP-based services and enables those services to span long-standing boundaries - across traditional and next-generation networks, wireline and wireless domains. This combination of power and flexibility, however, requires more than conventional operations support; instead it calls for a new generation of Operations System (OS) capable of delivering 100% automation, the rapid roll out of innovative services, and ultimately increased per-user revenues and profitability in a highly demanding communications market.

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