IMS/NGN Forum 'Plugfest' Eyes UC

In a way, it's not surprising that the sixth IMS/NGN Forum interoperability "plugfest," and the first to be held since the organizations formerly merged this week, will drill down into the unified communications (UC) space.

IMS, after all, is the IP Multimedia Subsystem protocol that's the foundation of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) and NGN is the Next Generation Network that will focus on delivering those converged services. On the other hand, past plugfests, which are run at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab in Durham, N.H., have pretty much focused on making the networks operate seamlessly, not how end users will experience the convergence. Things have been changing and will change again when the lab and the forums gear up their interoperability drills in January 2009.

"We started with plugfest 5 to start to look at unified communications. Really sooner or later the two networks have to come together and unified communications is still in the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) domain, not quite getting the whole benefit of an IMS network, not quite getting the benefits of presence," said Manuel Vexler, technical chair of the IMS/NGN Forum.

Much of the forums' work -- separately and now together -- has focused on delivering mechanisms for telecommunications service providers, including, from the NGN point of view, tier two and below operators who moving more slowly into IP and FMC than their tier one brethren. The next plugfest, which will hold the attention of such member companies as Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and Nortel, will look at how IMS can advance UC within an enterprise and will include such participants as Intel, Tekelec, Sonus Networks, Mu Dynamics, NE Technologies/Marben, Aricent, Wipro and Mavenir.

"I'm one single person and I use one single calendar and am only in one place at a time," said Vexler. "These things are not yet addressed by IMS as a set of standards; they are not addressed by UC as a set of guidelines. This is what we're trying to put together; get service consistency so when a telco or an OSS provider offers this service, they can offer an end-to-end service regardless of where you are."

Right now, Vexler said that Avaya is leading in UC when combining voice and the enterprise but "the real problem is if you are a service provider -- who are you going to interconnect and move the services so they can go transparently between different locations?" said Vexler.

A user, he said, might have a company-provided mobile device like an iPhone or BlackBerry that "has to go with you in every situation of the day, work or home. Whatever you want to do with it, you want to have one view of the service. That's what we're looking at, how to combine all of this."

About the Author

Jim Barthold is a freelance technology reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • abstract illustration of a glowing AI-themed bar graph on a dark digital background with circuit patterns

    Stanford 2025 AI Index Reveals Surge in Adoption, Investment, and Global Impact as Trust and Regulation Lag Behind

    Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) has released its AI Index Report 2025, measuring AI's diverse impacts over the past year.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Launches Claude for Education

    Anthropic has announced a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

  • lightbulb

    Call for Speakers Now Open for Tech Tactics in Education: Overcoming Roadblocks to Innovation

    The annual virtual conference from the producers of Campus Technology and THE Journal will return on September 25, 2025, with a focus on emerging trends in cybersecurity, data privacy, AI implementation, IT leadership, building resilience, and more.

  • From Fire TV to Signage Stick: University of Utah's Digital Signage Evolution

    Jake Sorensen, who oversees sponsorship and advertising and Student Media in Auxiliary Business Development at the University of Utah, has navigated the digital signage landscape for nearly 15 years. He was managing hundreds of devices on campus that were incompatible with digital signage requirements and needed a solution that was reliable and lowered labor costs. The Amazon Signage Stick, specifically engineered for digital signage applications, gave him the stability and design functionality the University of Utah needed, along with the assurance of long-term support.