3Q 2010 • info@IMSForum.org • www.NGNForum.org • www.IMSForum.org

Dear NGN IMS Forum Members and Colleagues,

Apps. play a huge role in network evolution and IP transformation. A new generation of Apps has arrived thanks to the introduction of the iPhone and the increased demand for video applications on mobile networks.

At the CTIA show in March the NGN/IMS Forum™ announced its new Technical Working Group for Applications running on fixed and mobile broadband networks (e.g. 3G/4G/LTE, wireline and cable networks). This Technical Working Group (TWG) will help accelerate the availability of IMS-based applications by providing additional tools and resources to foster the ecosystem of application developers, content creators, network operators, and telecommunications vendors (i.e. network equipment, handset, ICT, and original equipment manufacturers). This working group will play an integral role in our next Plugfest.

Mobile handsets are becoming the platform on which a wide variety of applications can be run. Today’s mobile handsets are not only used for web browsing and email but, increasingly, are becoming sophisticated computing devices that run a wide variety of data applications such as social networking applications, applications to share user-generated content, multi-user games, and music and video streaming. Traditionally, each of these capabilities has been provided by siloed platforms. As mobile networks migrate to 4G/LTE, additional applications will be possible and end users will be looking for a common experience between their fixed and mobile broadband networks.

As carriers deploy IMS networks, applications can be enhanced to create new end user experiences by simultaneously blending voice, data, video and multimedia. This new generation of applications will be able to take advantage of elements of the IMS network, such as QoS and Voice-over LTE (VoLTE), to deliver end-user experiences (e.g. Multi-play: Triple Play, Quadruple Play, M-Play) that are consistent across both fixed and mobile networks.

Because of the explosion of applications, this Working Group and our upcoming Plugfest 9 will concentrate its efforts on application developers to help them better internetwork web 2.0 applications with IMS networks and BSS/OSS systems (including billing, charging and security). These efforts will bring the same level of interoperability enabled by our Plugfests from the realm of protocols, network architectures, hardware and devices to the software and applications space by including Application Programmable Interfaces (APIs) that expose network capabilities such as VoIP, group management, presence and instant messaging.

Our next IMS Plugfest™ and NGN Plugfest™ interoperability test event, which will focus on many of these topics and others, will be held in the fourth quarter of 2010 at the InterOperability Lab (UNH IOL) in Durham, NH. Registration for this Plugfest and Working Group is now open for any service providers, integrators and vendors who would like to participate (www.imsforum.org/Plugfest). For additional information please contact admin@ngnforum.org

Regards,

Michael Khalilian
President
NGN Forum and IMS Forum

Market Research Corner

New Estimate Sees Mobile App Revenue Reaching $11 Billion in 2014

Smartphone users are downloading increasing numbers of apps, and more of the apps they download come at a price. The result is a supercharged mobile app gold rush that's shattering Yankee Group's previous revenue estimates and reaching a whopping $11 billion by 2014.

In their report, "The Mobile App Gold Rush Speeds Up," Yankee Group sees several factors--increased smartphone shipments, more app stores and more expensive apps--combining to nearly double forecasted mobile app revenue, from $537 million to $1.6 billion in 2010 alone.

While most app developers and store owners will garner a share of the riches, users of Apple's iPhone and AT&T's network download the most apps and generate the most revenue. "Apple's innovative one-click technology and AT&T's exclusive deal for the iPhone put them ahead for now," says Carl Howe, director at Yankee Group and author of the report. "But strong results from T-Mobile suggest that Android will be the next breakout smartphone app platform."

Key findings of the report include:

• Paid apps are on the rise. Nearly a third of all apps downloaded today are purchased, compared with just 18 percent a year ago.
• Average price per app is up. The overall average paid app costs $2.85, up from $1.99 a year ago.
• AT&T and iPhone users download the most. Apple iPhone users download 60 apps per year, three times the average, while AT&T users download 27 apps annually, or 42 percent more than average.
• T-Mobile and Android are a close second. T-Mobile, the closest thing to an Android pure play, comes in second for all carriers, with its users downloading more than 18 apps per year on average.
• Verizon has the most paid apps. Two-thirds of apps downloaded by Verizon users are paid, the most of any carrier.

New Announcements in the Marketplace
           
BT offers IP telephony service in U.S.
Network World, 7/6/10
On the same day Verizon announced it was planning to launch a hosted unified communications and collaboration service based on Cisco's solution, BT also announced plans to extend its hosted IP telephony service to business customers in the United States. The BT service, initially launched in the UK in December 2009, also allows businesses to bring converged services to the desktop using BT and Cisco's cloud computing-based technologies.

Cisco to pay up to $112 million in Power-over-Ethernet patent case

Foundry, Extreme, Enterasys, 3Com also settle with patent acquirer in PoE case
By Jim Duffy, Network World
July 19, 2010 03:30 PM ET
Network-1 Security Solutions, an acquirer and licensor of intellectual property, says it has settled its Power-over-Ethernet    patent infringement case against Cisco and five other companies. The litigation was initiated in February 2008 by Network-1 against Cisco and its Linksys division, Foundry Networks (now Brocade), Extreme Networks, Enterasys, 3Com (now HP), Adtran and Netgear. At issue was alleged infringement of Network-1's Remote Power Patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,218,930. Read More.

Mu Studio enables customers to quickly automate testing of any IMS deployment scenario, no matter how complex, even at scale.
Mu Dynamics held a complimentary webinar on July 29th at 10am PDT.

Each IMS deployment scenario is unique; service offerings are highly personalized, the number of protocols involved is huge, with many proprietary extensions, and the number of end user devices continues to expand. As providers aim to deliver value-added applications on their IMS infrastructures such as revenue-critical services (like voice), carriers are faced with a challenging test situation. Today’s test tools tend to be based on specifications, but all the interesting services are highly customized. Test tools based on standards are less relevant over time, and waiting for test equipment vendors to deliver test content means delays in rolling out new services. As a result, testing for interoperability, resilience and scale in an IMS deployment is a labor-intensive, expensive and, above all, time-consuming process – time that carriers and their vendors do not have if they want to compete in today’s fast-paced market.

Mu’s unique approach to testing replicates complete service functionality by accurately emulating new devices and flows based on real network traffic. Mu Studio uses actual service interactions to test IMS services, using its patent-pending Active Service Replication (ASR) technology. It automatically transforms complex multi-host, multi-layer service interactions, taken from live traffic captures, into test scenarios. This approach is ideal for testing complex deployment scenarios such as those within IMS.

Mu Studio has built-in protocol intelligence for key IMS protocols like H.248, HTTP, SIP and Diameter, as well as the ability to model multi-protocol and multi-host scenarios. For the first time, your tests can intelligently interact with applications exactly as an actual system would, providing unprecedented depth and breadth of coverage.

Mu hosted this complimentary webinar on July 29th at 10:00am (PDT). Please listen to this webinar to learn why Mu Studio is the only solution to accurately test your complex services for interoperability, resilience and scalability.

Click here to register to view the recorded version of this webniar: http://www.mudynamics.com/forms/scale-webinar.html

NGN Forum Q & A

Q & A with Suresh Bhandarkar, Tech Mahindra

Please provide us with some background on your company?

Established in 1986, Tech Mahindra is a global solutions provider and systems integration (SI) company focused on servicing the converged communications industry. We leverage our SI thought leadership, global experience, vendor partnerships and repository of industry best practices to accelerate the rollout of NGN applications and M-Play NGN services to enable service providers to quickly benefit from the delivery of quadruple play voice, video, internet and mobile services over broadband via wireless, cable and fixed networks. Our business transformation services covering IT (B/OSS and applications), IT Operations, Networks, Security and BPM help service providers generate growth, enhance operational and cost efficiencies, increase customer retention and improve new service innovation.

What IMS services and products does your company offer?

For product companies, Tech Mahindra develops applications (session control, presence and seamless mobility), SDK/API (OSA/Parlay-X), orchestration logic, IVR, Media Servers, CTI, AAA (RADIUS, DIAMETER), and IMS clients. We also offer services like, interoperability testing and migration from HLR to HSS.

For service providers, we offer services like, E2E interoperability testing, Service Design, IP Network Design, IMS ITT vendor evaluation, NIT model design, NIT for Business VoIP, Design validation, Test specs for inter-CS (SIP/SIP-I), H.248 test specs for CS-MGW / MSAN, Signalling interworking test design, CPE interoperability testing, MVCT, Model build and E2E BB Test execution (NIT).

How can the IMS Forum’s Plugfest benefit Tech Mahindra and your customers?

The primary goal of the Plugfests is to ensure that products are compliant with the standards and can interoperate. These quarterly test events bring together leading IMS vendors from around the globe who exchange ideas to promote the adoption of IMS. Here, competing vendors collaborate to build real, full-featured, IMS networks.

For product vendors, these events save product and service development time through access to multi-vendor interoperability test beds, leading test equipment, IMS cores and applications, and multi-protocol engineering expertise; reduce time-to-market and acceptance testing cycles by pinpointing bugs and conformance issues, and validate services and products in a respected third-party lab.

For systems integrators like us, these events help gain early access to, judge the maturity of, and understand the ease with which products and technologies can be integrated into our customers’ networks.

For our service provider customers, these events provide proof-points about the interoperability among different product vendors. The “IMS Report Card” resulting from these events addresses myths that have held back the widespread adoption of standards-compliant IMS solutions. The Report Card recounts several commonly held myths in the industry and provides proof-points based on the experience of the companies participating in the Plugfests that disprove these myths.

How does a verification and certification process aid the development of IMS interoperability/standards?

Enforcing conformance to standards is a great way to march towards interoperability.  But in reality, standards are not always clear about what they meant to say. It is also necessary to understand the importance of what the standards do not say. Multiple interpretations of standards result in multiple implementations. Even similar interpretations of standards often result in multiple implementations. Verification and certification via Interoperability testing is therefore required to verify both the standard and its implementation.

Plugfest events can be leveraged by the participants to share their views on standards and industry best practices and to identify shortcomings, areas that need clarity, areas that need additional coverage and areas that do not need any coverage.

What has your membership in the IMS Forum accomplished for your company?

Our goal is to provide our customers with solutions by integrating products that are compliant with industry standards. Membership in the IMS Forum has helped us validate that these products are compliant with the standards and that the products from different vendors interoperate at network-level, signalling and control-level, applications-level and B/OSS-level. Participation in regular meetings of the forum has exposed us to multiple players in this space and their views and insights on IMS standards and technologies. This forum has provided us an excellent platform to get industry exposure and it has also provided us an opportunity to demonstrate our solutions and services. This is a great place to learn and share knowledge and best practices.

Who are some of Tech Mahindra customers and what IMS services are they deploying?

Our customers are global service providers (fixed line, wireless and cable operators), telecom equipment vendors and telecom software vendors. Most of our service provider customers are deploying IMS to be able to offer converged IP services, including VoIP, IPTV and FMC. Our cable customers are upgrading their networks using PacketCable2.0/IMS architecture. Some of our wireless customers are deploying IMS in preparation for rolling out LTE networks.

What are some areas of IMS where you have found challenges for operators?

Operator challenges can be classified into 3 categories: Business, Technical and Operational.

On the business front, it’s a challenge to introduce a paradigm shift by way of creating a new architecture that flattens the legacy network architecture and defines a common service control layer across all types of networks, supporting all types of services.

On the technical front, continuously evolving standards, SCP/AS integration issues and security issues remain a concern.

On the operational front, operators are concerned about operations and management related to integration of OSS, BSS and NMS systems with IMS.

Are there any other critical benchmarks that need to take place in this IMS evolution?

Whether deployed for next-generation services, or as a replacement for legacy network technologies, IMS works across network equipment from different vendors and supports a growing number of real-time applications, including VoIP, video, interactive conferencing, and other mission-critical data applications.

All these varied services come with a very high degree of expectation from the user community in terms of user experience and accompanying service-level agreements. To meet these expectations, service providers need end-to-end network performance management and visibility, which helps them to ensure high-quality, reliable services to their customers, independent of the composition of the underlying network infrastructure. In order to do performance management, critical benchmarks are required to be executed to collect measurements such as fail rate, response times or round-trip delays within an IMS network. Additionally, they can be used to identify scalability or usability problems of the IMS network under heavy load conditions. Benchmarks should be defined for both IMS as a whole as well as its various subsystems and should include metrics that are related to interoperability and metrics that are related to end-to-end quality of service. QoS should take into account factors such as multiple services, multiple technologies and real-time admission control.

What are some of the key factors for IMS success in the industry?

IMS holds great promise to be the technology of choice for offering multimedia services over 3G networks. But it is too complex and costly.  Efforts are needed to simplify it and reduce its cost. Costs will go down if there are key drivers that will result in a strong market growth. Move towards convergence between fixed and mobile networks is a big driver for adopting IMS. Another big driver lurking on the horizon is the migration towards LTE as the technology of choice for 4G networks. Voice over LTE networks using IMS will result in greater adoption of IMS. Thus, IMS success is closely associated with the uptake of LTE network deployments worldwide.

To have your company considered for a profile in the Q & A section of this newsletter send an email to pr@ngnforum.org.

NGN Forum IMS Forum Technical Working Groups Update

B/OSS
In addition to founding the new Applications over Broadband Working Group, we have finalized three new Working Group Papers, which are summarized below:

• Interoperability Challenges in Diameter Implementations, and
• IMS AAA Architecture: The Diameter Advantage
• BSS/OSS & Security for Services in NGN/IMS Paradigm Guidelines for Implementation

Interoperability Challenges in Diameter Implementations                
The main purpose of the first white paper is to explain the advantages of this protocol and the reasons why this protocol fits with AAA functionalities. What are the main concepts that are involved by the Diameter protocol? Where is this protocol used inside the IMS architecture? The answer to this latter question will demonstrate the importance of the protocol in next generation communication infrastructures. As Diameter is designed as an improvement of the RADIUS protocol, a lot of advantages of this protocol are based on the design of the protocol itself.

IMS AAA Architecture: The Diameter Advantage
Diameter is an AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) protocol for applications such as network access or IP mobility. It has been embraced by 3GPP and ETSI standard bodies as the foundation for AAA functionalities in the Next Generation Networks based on IP Multimedia Subsystem, thereby designing a multitude of applications and interfaces on it. With the advent of Wimax and LTE Diameter is becoming the obvious choice of the network providers to implement in these architectures.  However, different interpretations and implementations of new standards may lead to incompatibilities between vendors. Also, evolving standards may require altering implementations to keep up with specification changes.
This white paper focuses on the interoperability issues and challenges observed in diameter implementations in NGN networks. It encompasses the various practices and concerns related to diameter usages and interworking such as, cross-release issues, contradictions and ambiguity in the specifications thereby leading to different implementations, inconsistent rules and guidelines for defining new diameter applications, backwards incompatibility, version handling, etc. in the deployment and realization of any diameter based interface/applications in IMS/NGN architecture. It also delves into examples of diameter parameter interpretations and handling in various features and the current and best practices followed for the same.

BSS/OSS & Security for Services in NGN/IMS Paradigm Guidelines for Implementation

BSS/OSS solutions for a next generation landscape must work as one with the network while unifying critical business functions to better manage and effectively monetize NGN services and the next generation subscriber experience.   This will call for solutions that are open and keep the customer experience at heart while adhering to industry standards and providing the much needed flexibility to accommodate new requirements.  The BSS/OSS reality for most operators today is one of multiple, discrete systems that each have their own ways of looking at and managing data requiring both timely and costly integration while hindering marketing agility and the customer experience.  

Innovation in this next generation world will need to be driven not only by network advancements but also via an open and flexible BSS/OSS infrastructure that will allow CSPs to realize operational efficiencies in terms of new service introduction and customer management.  Thus the BSS/OSS strategy will need to be aligned with the network strategy.  This Working Group Paper provides guidelines for implementation of BSS/OSS and Security Services in an NGN IMS Architecture. It also suggests best practices in the following areas:

• Security and Reliability          
• BSS/OSS Unification
• Migration to IP Networks       
• Deploying an IP Multimedia Subsystem network     

• IMS/NGN Rating & Charging Impacts          
• Online vs. Offline Rating/Charging    

           
To receive a copy of these Working Group documents please contact: admin@ngnforum.org.

NGN Forum Calendar of Events

See the NGN/IMS Forum at the following 2010 events:

• September 12-15: COMPTEL, Dallas
• October 4-6: Internet Telephony Conference & Expo, Los Angeles, CA, Board/Working Group Meeting
• October 4-6:    4G Wireless Evolution
• October 6-8: CTIA Wireless Fall, San Francisco
• Oct. 14-15: Fraunhofer FOKUS, Berlin**
• October 19-21: 4G World, Chicago; Board/Working Group Meeting
• October 22, 2010: IIT VoIP Conference, Chicago, speaker
• November 4-5: IIR IMS World Forum, Brussels
• November 9-11: Management Forum Americas, Orlando
• February 14 – 17: Mobile World congress, Barcelona

Payam Maveddat, Vice President - Next Gen Wireless Switching Solutions, Mavenir Systems and Michael Khalilian, Chairman and President, NGN IMS Forum at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2010.

** This year Fraunhofer FOKUS has set up a unique program giving newcomers and experts from all over the world an overview and update on the state of the art and recent developments in the challenging field of converging telecommunications, Internet and entertainment. The theme for the upcoming International FOKUS conference is Business and Technical Challenges of Seamless Service Provision in Converging Next Generation Fixed and Mobile Networks. Please note that the number of seats is limited to 290-300 people in order to preserve the "family atmosphere" that makes this event stand out from others.

Showcase Your Expertise and Leadership: Call for Speakers

The NGN Forum and IMS Forum invite members to join its exclusive Speakers’ Bureau. Member companies have an excellent opportunity to market their companies and senior executives while representing the Forum at future trade shows and conferences. Simply contact us with a copy of the proposed speaker’s bio and indicate any specific NGN and IMS-related speaking topics and expertise. Speaking topic abstracts of one or two paragraphs are especially helpful. Please send to: pr@ngnforum.org

NGN/IMS Forum in the News

The following highlights some recent press coverage of the NGN/IMS Forum:

Recent NGN/IMS Forum Press Releases

Why Join the NGN Forum or IMS Forum?

The NGN/IMS Forum's mission is to accelerate the interoperability of NGN and IMS applications and services, enabling enterprise and residential consumers to quickly benefit from the delivery of quadruple play voice, video, Internet and mobile services over broadband via cable, mobile and fixed networks.

NGN/IMS applications and services comprise residential VoIP, entertainment including IPTV and gaming, IP Centrex / IP PBX and unified communications for business including fixed-mobile converged services, videoconferencing and web-collaboration. NGN and IMS networks include DSL, Cable, GSM, UMTS, Wi-Fi and WiMAX implementations.

The NGN/IMS Forum Plugfests, typically held every 3 to 4 months, bring together dozens of industry-leading NGN and IMS vendors from around the world, all of whom build real, full-featured, NGN and IMS networks during the test event.

If you are interested in joining the NGN/IMS Forum, Plugfests or in participating in any of the working groups or marketing programs, please contact the NGN/IMS Forum.

All are invited to participate in the industry's first open NGN/IMS Community where Forum members, those involved in various NGN and IMS working groups, the IMS Linkedin group, our industry and colleagues around the world can participate in active, mutually beneficial discussions. Take a moment to register now.

Our members are shaping the future of the NGN and IMS. Joining the NGN/IMS Forum enables members to:

• Verify and certify interoperability, reduce costs and accelerate time to market
• Participate in technical working groups focusing on service creation and applications for NGN/IMS architecture, framework and deployment issues
• Gain additional visibility through the NGN/IMS Forum's Speakers Bureau, public relations and marketing programs
• Showcase member companies at major telecom, cable, and wireless events in North America, Asia, and Europe
• Receive current market and technology information through newsletters, reports, white papers and conferences
• Gain access to an informed professional network of industry consultants and accredited experts

Have a request? We welcome your feedback on this newsletter.
Press Contact: pr@ngnforum.org

1Q 2010 • info@IMSForum.org • www.NGNForum.org • www.IMSForum.org

NGN/IMS Plugfest 9 Launch and New Technical Working Groups in 2010

Dear NGN Forum / IMS Forum members and colleagues,

Happy holidays to all and looking forward to a successful 2010 year for all.

The NGN and IMS Forums' Plugfests are the industry's premier interoperability events covering NGN services over wireless 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMAX, wireline xDSL, cable, fiber optics broadband and IMS architectures.

We are pleased to announce that the Diameter and Control plane TWG and interoperability group successfully completed their initial guideline documents and testing/IOT activities at Plugfest 8 in October, 2009. The forum technical and business group is now progressing to the next stage of releasing all the test documentation and planning for the next Plugfest event. Our next IMS Plugfest™ and NGN Plugfest™ interoperability test event, Plugfest 9, will take place in the first week of June 2010 at the InterOperability Lab (UNH IOL) in Durham, NH.

The NGN Forum & IMS Forum themes for this Plugfest are NGN Network and IMS Rich Applications deployment. Topics under consideration will include:

• IMS core, CSCF, AS, HSS, Policy
• Inter and intra network testing area of key interest, billing services interdomain scenarios, roaming users, visited networks scenarios, applications presence, voice, video, user agents
• SDP / Rich Communications Services (RCS) / Voice Features and IMS Applications
• VoIP / SIP / QoS
• Security and Reliability
• Billing - off-line charging and on-line charging
• Control Plane and Diameter
• Voice over LTE/4G
• IP Video (IPTV)
• Wireless and Smart Grids
• Messaging, IP traffic, presence, IM and termination, integration
• Implementation of Convergence: integrating legacy to NGN
• Transition 3G to 4G LTE and WiMAX
• Metrics for standard sets of SIP call flows in IMS and NGN
• IPv6, and
• others

We will define network topologies based on the participants’ requirements for these tests. We are also excited about the soon to be released IP BSS/OSS and security architecture guidelines to be released in January 2010.

Planning is well underway at the NGN Forum technical working groups (TWG), which have been holding regular joint sessions for the planning of Plugfest 9.

The latest addition under review to the technical working groups plan for 2010 is going to be in areas of EPC (includes Packet Core, AAA, Policy, DPI etc.), VoIP/LTE, Service Delivery Platform (SDP), IP Video/IPTv, IMS BSS, NGN Security and 4G Technical and Business Marketing Working Groups. The groups launch will be announced early 2010. Companies interested in TWG participation and demo / interoperability PF9 testing should contact Admin@NGNForum.org.

Starting 2010, the working groups are meeting every other week to define TWG objectives and Plugfest/IOT planning.

The NGN Forum and IMS Forum are the only industry associations dedicated to interoperability and certification of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Next Generation (NGN) applications and services for fixed, mobile and cable networks. Participation in NGN IMS Plugfests and Technical working Groups is open to all companies. We look forward to your participation in our 2010 Working Groups and in Plugfests. For more information please contact Info@NGNForum.org or visit www.NGNForum.org, www.IMSForum.org.

Regards,
Michael Khalilian
NGN Forum, IMS Forum, ISC, IPCC, VoIP Forums, IP Multimedia Forums

Market Research Corner

According to a November 4 Wireless Week article, “Operator Heavyweights Throw Support Behind IMS”, several industry big wigs including AT&T, Orange, Vodafone and Ericsson have voiced their support for IMS to handle voice and SMS traffic on LTE networks. IMS is the protocol of choice by the 3GPP standards body but proponents of alternate protocols argue that an interim technology is needed to handle voice and data over LTE before IMS is adopted. One of these interim technologies, voice over LTE via generic access (VoLGA), has pushed the industry to adopt VoLGA as an interim measure. So far, that effort has only attracted one operator: Germany's T-Mobile.

Infonetics Research: VoIP services bring in $21 billion for service providers in 1H09; strong demand continues Market research firm Infonetics Research recently released its biannual VoIP and UC Services and Subscribers report, which tracks business and residential/SOHO voice over IP services and includes a North America Business VoIP Services Leadership Matrix that analyzes and ranks the top service providers in the VoIP business services market.

Demand for residential and business VoIP services continues to grow even as spending in other communication areas tightens. For the first half of 2009, the worldwide VoIP services market grew to $20.7 billion. Residential VoIP services remain healthy, comprising the majority of worldwide VoIP services revenue, and subscribers are up 14% from the end of 2008. On the business VoIP side, while managed IP PBX revenue growth has slowed in line with IP PBX shipments, Infonetics is expecting IP Centrex and hosted UC service revenue to grow 26% year-over-year in 2009.

Key findings of the report include:

• IP connectivity services currently make up about a third of total VoIP business service revenue, growing to 40% of the total by 2013 (managed IP PBX services and hosted VoIP and UC services make up the balance)
• The current sweet spot of the North American IP Centrex market is small business (those with fewer than 100 employees)
• Roughly two-thirds of all IP Centrex seats sold in the first half of 2009 went to small businesses
• While the largest VoIP services opportunities are in North America and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), demand for VoIP services is growing fast in Asia Pacific and Central and Latin America. For the first half of 2009, Japan's NTT, France Telecom, and Comcast in North America retain their leadership as the world's largest residential VoIP service providers, together holding nearly 20% of the world's VoIP subscribers
• The number of residential/SOHO VoIP subscribers is forecast to top 225 million by 2013

Infonetics' VoIP and UC services report provides worldwide and regional market size, forecasts, and analysis of residential VoIP services, business VoIP and UC services, and residential/SOHO VoIP subscribers. Business voice services tracked include managed IP PBX services, hosted VoIP and unified communication services (IP Centrex by business size, UC applications, UC telephony), and IP connectivity services (VoIP VPN/IP access, SIP trunking, IP integrated access). For more information visit: http://www.infonetics.com/login.

NGN Forum Q & A

Q & A with Alice Bartram, AVP Marketing, Billing & Active Customer Management, Comverse

Please provide us with some brief background on your company?

Comverse is the world’s leading provider of software and systems enabling value-added services for voice, messaging, mobile Internet and mobile advertising; converged billing and active customer management; and IP communications. Comverse’s extensive customer base spans more than 130 countries and covers over 500 communication service providers serving more than two billion subscribers. The company’s innovative product portfolio enables communication service providers to unleash the value of the network for their customers by making their networks smarter. Comverse’s solutions support flexible deployment models, including in-network, hosted and managed services, and can run on circuit-switched, IP, IMS or converged network environments. Comverse is a subsidiary of Comverse Technology, Inc. (CMVT.PK).

What IMS and NGN services and products does your company offer today and what are some of the key differentiators for your company in this market? What are your future product plans?

Comverse is one of the only vendors to provide the entire services value chain: network elements, rich communication services and converged ordering, provisioning, billing and customer management, providing a one-stop shop while ensuring maximum interoperability. Our objective is to make operators’ networks smarter by creating a Communication Environment which features solutions for BSS, value added services, and IP communications based on a holistic platform, truly enabling the network and billing to effectively work as ONE.

Just as IMS promises to converge and unify networks under a common platform operators’ BSS/OSS environments need to be comprehensive enough to support any network, any service and any payment type, ensuring that next generation services and bundles can be accurately provisioned, ordered, rated, charged and billed. BSS/OSS capabilities – from marketing, sales and customer management through to charging and billing – need to be provided as a unified whole. This means a single code base, with all functionality built around a single data model, supported by a single product catalog and with a single operations, maintenance and security approach across the whole solution. This approach to BSS must also sit firmly in the network – to the level of call/session control.

The Comverse ONE Billing & Active Customer Management solution is the only converged BSS solution to unify marketing, sales, ordering, customer management and billing around a single data model and product catalog. The solution supports next generation charging interfaces such as Diameter and SIP and can support next generation business models with an ability to support any network, any service, and any payment type. Built on a strong market proven heritage of both in-network engineering as well as IT based financial systems Comverse ONE supports BSS needs today and more importantly in a next generation world by providing:

• One complete real-time subscriber view.
• Multi-dimensional policy management (beyond network & service allocation, addresses authorization, rating, charging, identity management (enterprise v. personal) and financial liability management).
• Financial control.
• Marketing agility.

Comverse also is continuing investments in IMS and Telco 2.0 to enable Telcos to open their networks to develop 3rd party applications via APIs.

How do the NGN and IMS Forum’s Plugfests benefit your company and its customers?

The Plugfest(s) benefit Comverse by enabling us to validate our solutions – demonstrating to operators that our products are interoperable with other vendor solutions, especially with regards to Diameter. Our customers benefit from being assured that they have bought into products that can work well in a multi-vendor environment. Additionally it enables us to prove that Comverse ONE is a future-proof solution truly capable of handling any network and service.

How does a verification and certification process aid in the development of NGN and IMS interoperability/standards?

The verification and certification processes provide a framework to our potential customers for evaluating interoperability claims. It also gives an indication of our overall strategy regarding interoperability and of our willingness to reach out to potential partners. Ultimately the process uncovers issues which can be fed back into the standardization bodies, while establishing best practices and common terminology.

Who are some of your customers and what NGN and IMS services are they deploying?

Over twenty of our customers are utilizing UMTS networks. UMTS is 3G; however it is the underlying technology being developed into 4G. Some of our customers that utilize UMTS networks and the advanced services they are offering are detailed below:

• Play (Poland) offers video, video calling and media content
• MTEL (Montenegro) video calling, call completion and roaming services
• GTEL (Vietnam) offers ringback tones, GPRS, Messaging, call back and USSD menu browsing
• Smart Communications (Phillipines) offers video calling, video mail, high-speed mobile internet access, GPRS and call completion

What are some areas of NGN and IMS where you have found challenges for operators?

Communication Service Providers (CSPs) continue to focus mainly on applications and enabling networks with little thought or strategy formulated around the provisioning, rating, charging, ordering, fulfillment and customer care aspects associated with NGN services and the NGN customer experience. The main challenges from a BSS perspective are charging flexibility, quality of service control and bundling flexibility across multiple services.

One of the fundamental requirements behind any IMS and NGN services strategy should be whether the BSS environment can effectively monetize such investments, while also ensuring end-to-end quality of service to maximize the subscriber experience meaning that in-network capabilities and a real-time, holistic view of the subscriber are essential.

So while a fast, effective and up-to-date network certainly plays its part in providing the subscriber with a “next generation” experience, converged billing and interactive customer management are vitally important factors which will ultimately determine how effectively operators will monetize network investments and NGN services. Carriers need to understand in real-time who is using which services and applications - across product families and devices - to personalize real-time offers based on profiles and consumption levels, in order to tailor pricing, or even monitor usage to limit financial exposure.

Today, operators’ eco-systems remain a patchwork of discrete, service-specific systems – all having their own way of interpreting and managing data, creating inefficient business processes, duplication, and both causing and preserving capability gaps while keeping long term cost of ownership high. This approach does not allow effective bundling nor does it allow accurate charging thus most CSPs are relegated to proceed with the flat-rate business model, which does not allow them to fully extract service value.

Are there any other critical benchmarks that need to take place in this IMS NGN evolution?

Critical benchmarks include: wide spread interoperability, end-to-end quality of service control– if you commit a certain QoS to a subscriber, the operator will need to ensure that the QoS is followed through the entire network – and seamless service transitions across networks and devices. This of course will need to be supported by a comprehensive BSS solution – with an ability to support multiple dimensions of convergence – that is network facing and can blend customer information such as profile, usage and status, with network knowledge. So when a customer is accessing multiple services within a single session, the BSS infrastructure would be updated and know how to charge accordingly. Or if a subscriber is in a low bandwidth area and is trying to download a video, the BSS would know and offer alternatives to prevent the subscriber from having a poor service experience.

What are some of the key factors for NGN and IMS success in the industry?

Operators need to build a business case centered on the customer experience when planning NGN and IMS strategies. CSPs need to ask themselves:

• Is my existing BSS environment capable of supporting a holistic customer experience across all of my services? Across all touch points: Web, IVR, call center, device?
• Can I support personalized real-time marketing?
• Can I offer spending control and payment flexibility?
• Does my BSS environment effectively support seamless service transitions across networks, devices and payment types?
• Can my BSS environment support real-time policy management, rating and charging for all or some targeted services?

Without a holistic view of the customer, and the ability to quickly provision and accurately rate, charge and bill any service across any network or device, the success of IMS and NGN investments is weakened. To ensure a high-quality and seamless user experience, BSS/OSS capabilities – from marketing, sales and customer management through to charging and billing – need to be provided as a unified whole. Only this approach enables Active Customer Management: the ability to manage all customers consistently in a real-time interactive manner regardless of how the customer chooses to pay for services or interacts with the operator. Delivered through a set of unified applications that support an operator’s sales, marketing, fulfillment and customer management and self-service needs, this new paradigm provides data consistency ensuring one complete view, accessible by both the operator and the end-user, regardless of customer touch point.

To have your company considered for a profile in the Q & A section of this newsletter send an email to pr@ngnforum.org.

NGN Forum IMS Forum Technical Working Groups Update

The NGN Forum would like to thank Plugfest 8 participants, contributors, advisors, sponsors and the test management of the following companies for a successful test event in October 2008:

Comverse • HP • MU Dynamics • Marben Products/NE Technologies • NTT-AT • RADVISION • Tekelec • NICT (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology of Japan) • US Government Communications Groups (NCS/DHS) • Sonus Networks • Tektronix • Testing Technologies GmbH • Alcatel-Lucent • Acision • Aricent • IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) • UNH-IOL • T-Mobile • Intel • T-Mobile • Intel • Billing & OSS World • CTIA • GSMA • Informa • NGN Magazine (TMC) • Supercomm • TMF and Trendsmedia.

The IMS / NGN Diameter and Control plane interoperability group successfully completed their testing and IOT activities at Plugfest 8. The group is now progressing to the next stage of releasing all the test documentation and planning for the next Plugfest event. The group was formed in 2008 and chaired by Bruno Deslandes (Marben-Products). Some of the member participants included Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Aricent, HP, Mu Dynamics, Radvision, Sonus, Testing Technologies, Wipro, Data Connection Ltd (DCL).

Technology and business marketing working groups completed the draft release of IP BSS/Security documents, Plugfest 8 test plan and are launching the Plugfest 9 IOT group in January 2010. Also, the new working groups will be launched by February 2010. Any company who is interested in partnerships, research or interoperability testing is welcome to contact the Forum for more information. Starting January, the working groups will meet every other week to define objectives and Plugfest planning. The following Working Group meetings were held since Plugfest 8 in October 2009:

• Plugfest 9 initial planning meeting at PF8 event, Presentation is available, send request to (admin@ngnforum.org)
• Plugfest 8 event (test report plan for Jan 2010)
• IP BSS/OSS & Security (on-going, initial document plan for Jan 2010)
• Control plane/Diameter (completed the initial testing and documents)
• Supercomm09 technology board meetings (Oct 2009)
• IIT VoIP (Oct 2009)
• Tele-management OSS meetings (Dec 2009)

NGN Forum Calendar of Events

In addition to moderating panels at the Internet Telephony and 4G shows this fall The NGN IMS Forum also participated in:

· Oct. 21, 2009: Supercomm, Chicago, IL, Special Session#1: IMS Forum Presents: Results from Plugfest 8 - Interoperability for IP Applications & B/OSS and Charging in Converged IMS & NGN networks

· Oct. 22, 2009: Supercomm, Chicago, IL, Telecom Goes Hollywood - Networks for the Digital Age

· Oct. 23, 2009: Supercomm, Chicago, IL, Panel Session: No Strings Attached - Wireless Networking Growth & Challenges

· Oct. 29, 2009: VoIP Conference & Expo at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, NGN Networks - Transitions and operations and VoIP and NGN Networks Mini-conference

· Dec. 8-10, 2009: TMF, Orlando, FL

Calendar of upcoming conferences:

· Jan. 20-22, 2010: Internet Telephony Conference & Expo, Miami, FL

· Jan. 20-22, 2010: ITExpo/4GWE, Los Angeles, CA

· Jan. 27-28, 2010: TMF, Singapore

· Feb. 15-18, 2010: Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain

· March 14-17, 2010: CompTel, Nashville, TN

· March 23-25, 2010: CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment 2010, San Diego, CA

· April 10-15, 2010: NAB, Las Vegas, NV

· May 11-13, 2010: NCTA, Los Angels, CA

· June 9-11, 2010: Billing & OSS World 2010, Washington, DC

· June 9-11, 2010: VON Conference & Expo 2010, South Beach, FL

· June 15-18, 2010: CommunicAsia 2010, Singapore

Showcase Your Expertise and Leadership: Call for Speakers

The NGN Forum and IMS Forum invites members to join its exclusive Speakers' Bureau. Member companies have an excellent opportunity to market their companies and senior executives while representing the Forum at future trade shows and conferences. Simply contact us with a copy of the proposed speaker's bio and indicate any specific NGN and IMS-related speaking topics and expertise. Speaking topic abstracts of one or two paragraphs are especially helpful. Please send to: pr@ngnforum.org.

NGN/IMS Forum in the News

The following highlights some recent press coverage of the NGN/IMS Forum:

Recent NGN/IMS Forum Press Releases

Why Join the NGN Forum or IMS Forum?

The NGN/IMS Forum's mission is to accelerate the interoperability of NGN and IMS applications and services, enabling enterprise and residential consumers to quickly benefit from the delivery of quadruple play voice, video, Internet and mobile services over broadband via cable, mobile and fixed networks.

NGN/IMS applications and services comprise residential VoIP, entertainment including IPTV and gaming, IP Centrex / IP PBX and unified communications for business including fixed-mobile converged services, videoconferencing and web-collaboration. NGN and IMS networks include DSL, Cable, GSM, UMTS, Wi-Fi and WiMAX implementations.

The NGN/IMS Forum Plugfests, typically held every 3 to 4 months, bring together dozens of industry-leading NGN and IMS vendors from around the world, all of whom build real, full-featured, NGN and IMS networks during the test event.

If you are interested in joining the NGN/IMS Forum, Plugfests or in participating in any of the working groups or marketing programs, please contact the NGN/IMS Forum.

All are invited to participate in the industry's first open NGN/IMS Community where Forum members, those involved in various NGN and IMS working groups, the IMS Linkedin group, our industry and colleagues around the world can participate in active, mutually beneficial discussions. Take a moment to register now.

Our members are shaping the future of the NGN and IMS. Joining the NGN/IMS Forum enables members to:

• Verify and certify interoperability, reduce costs and accelerate time to market
• Participate in technical working groups focusing on service creation and applications for NGN/IMS architecture, framework and deployment issues
• Gain additional visibility through the NGN/IMS Forum's Speakers Bureau, public relations and marketing programs
• Showcase member companies at major telecom, cable, and wireless events in North America, Asia, and Europe
• Receive current market and technology information through newsletters, reports, white papers and conferences
• Gain access to an informed professional network of industry consultants and accredited experts

Have a request? We welcome your feedback on this newsletter.
Press Contact: pr@ngnforum.org

3Q 2009 • info@IMSForum.org • www.NGNForum.org • www.IMSForum.org

Dear NGN Forum Members and Colleagues,

Preparations are well under way for our eighth NGN and IMS Plugfest™ which will be held next week, October 5 thru October 9, 2009 at the InterOperability Lab (UNH IOL) in Durham, NH. Plugfest 8 participants and contributors will include: Comverse, HP, Mu Dynamics, NTT-AT, Radvision, Sonus, Tekelec, Tektronix, Testing Technology, US Government Communications Groups, Japan NICT (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology). Sponsors of Plugfest 8 include T-Mobile, Intel and Radvision. Media Sponsors include CTIA, GSMA, Informa, Supercomm 2009, TMC/NGN Magazine, and Virgo Publishing.

We will announce the results from our Plugfest 8 at Supercomm in a panel session on Wed, Oct. 21 4:15pm-5:00 pm, entitled: Exploration Theater Special Session#1: IMS Forum Presents: Results from Plugfest 8 - Interoperability for IP Applications & B/OSS and Charging in Converged IMS & NGN networks. Panelists will include senior executives from the IMS Forum Plugfest 8 participants. Please contact us if you are a registered Plugfest 8 participant and you would like to be on this panel.

The NGN and IMS Forum's Plugfests are the industry's only interoperability events covering NGN services over wireless 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMAX, wireline xDSL, cable, fiber optics broadband and IMS architectures. The IMS/NGN Forum Plugfest™ is the most frequent interoperability event in the industry. Plugfest 8 will mark another important milestone - setting the testing for interoperability testing for roaming and visiting subscribers.

Plugfest 8 will focus on Interoperability for voice and multimedia applications, IP BSS/OSS and Security inter and intra networks including the following:

• End-to-end interoperability testing for IMS and NGN applications and services
• Interoperability of the Control Plane and the Diameter Protocol
• Charging functions impacts on BSS

Examples of test topics for Plugfest 8 include:

• Application and Feature Testing across the Control Plane
• Online & offline charging (Billing) scenarios for IMS events and sessions
• Interface Compliance testing; The 3GPP standard interfaces that use Diameter
• Topology hiding scenarios; IMS/NGN Control Plane interoperability including border controllers, legacy network gateways, service location function, and policy control elements
• Multi-domain scenarios covering user-to-network and network-to-network IMS interoperability
• Further study of IPsec on the Gm interface
• Inclusion of IPv6 within the core network
• Reliability and Availability Network Security

The list of IMS/NGN services to be tested ALSO include: VoIP (RCS, MMTel and Centrex), IPTv (ATIS and ETSI), presence services, security, billing and OSS/BSS support. Test plans for Diameter and control plane are also offered.

Participation in NGN IMS Plugfests and Technical working Groups is open to all companies. We look forward to your participation in our Working Groups and in Plugfests. For more information please contact info@ngnforum.org or visit www.NGNForum.org, www.IMSForum.org.

Regards,

Michael Khalilian
Chairman and President
NGN Forum and IMS Forum

Market Research Corner

LTE's Five-Year Global Forecast: Poised to Grow Faster than 3G

The number of Long Term Evolution (LTE) subscriptions worldwide will grow at a Compound Average Growth Rate (CAGR) of 404 percent from 2010 to 2014, a pace faster than any previous mobile standard including 3G, according to the latest report from Pyramid Research (www.pyr.com), a telecom research subsidiary of the Light Reading Communications Network (www.lightreading.com).

LTE's Five-Year Global Forecast: Poised to Grow Faster than 3G identifies the main technical and business drivers, as well as the challenges for the LTE platform, and analyzes its market opportunity in comparison with earlier mobile technologies in their first few years of commercialization. The 19-page report provides Pyramid Research's five-year outlook on LTE adoption, highlighting the largest LTE markets, and comparing adoption rates in emerging and developed markets. It also examines the LTE-related products, demos, and announcements of six of the largest vendors worldwide, including an analysis of how they compare with one another in terms of time to market and customer wins.

For the first time, most of the major players, operators, and vendors alike, are behind the same mobile standard, notes Daniel Locke, analyst at Pyramid Research and author of the report. "By using LTE's more efficient and cost-effective flat IP architecture, mobile operators can transfer the savings to end users in the form of lower prices for access, faster data rates, and higher traffic allowances for a wider adoption of mobile data services," he says. "To date, 27 mobile operators worldwide have publicly committed to deploying LTE, with 12 of them expected to roll out commercial services in 2010 and the remainder during 2011 and 2012," he adds.

Pyramid expects LTE to grow more rapidly than preceding mobile standards in terms of subscriptions. "While it took nearly six years for UMTS/HSPA to reach 100 million subscriptions, Pyramid predicts that LTE will take just over four years to reach the same milestone," explains Locke. "The number of LTE subscriptions worldwide will grow at a CAGR of 404 percent from 2010 to 2014 and reach 136 million by year-end 2014," he says.

"The majority of LTE subscriptions in the early stage will come in developed markets, where most of the first LTE deployments will occur – with the US and Japan leading," Locke says. "However, LTE will grow 30 percent faster in emerging markets than developed ones; subscriptions in emerging markets will account for 43 percent of the LTE total in 2014, up from 5 percent in 2010," he adds. Fueled by vendor support of TDD-mode, growth in emerging markets will be driven largely by China with 36.1 million subscriptions in 2014.

For more information about Pyramid Research's products and services, please visit www.pyr.com.

NGN Forum Q & A

Q & A with Dave Kresse, CEO, Mu Dynamics

Please provide us with some brief background on your company?

Mu Dynamics’ testing solution boosts the effectiveness of testing IP services 10x with better time to market, lower cost and higher quality. The award-winning Mu Test Suite is deployed at more than 100 locations, primarily at leading global service providers, government agencies, and product vendors. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, more information on Mu’s products, customers and solutions are online at http://www.mudynamics.com.

What IMS and NGN services and products does your company offer today and what are some of the key differentiators for your company in this market? What are your future product plans?

Mu’s Test Suite provides the only adaptive testing solution on the market today. Both operators and vendors test their IP service development and deployments with the highest degree of quality and confidence. Key points of IMS/LTE/4G differentiation:

• Accurately reflecting the logic of complex, changing services
  
  • A single LTE service component is a complex system of protocol interactions, devices, sequences, etc.
  • To date, testing approaches for NGN deployments have gone after individual elements of a service, and not looked at the system-level requirements for testing the service.
  • Mu uniquely creates stateful testing of LTE-based services (e.g. location-based applications) and simulates real usage and unexpected requests on application data sets.

• Quickly drive multiple types of data through the service
  
  • Every NGN service is unique, custom and often changing based upon user and service parameters.
  • To date, testing solutions have used only vendor supplied content – nothing unique and custom that accurately reflects the NGN service offering.
  • Mu offers operators and vendors a test case choice of using Mu content, customer specific content, and third party content to provide the most accurate representation of the different variations of how a service is used.

• Leverage a single testing solution to enable multiple aspects of testing (functional, interoperability, security, resilience)
  
  • The NGN service needs to be tested along multiple dimensions.
  • To date, testing approaches often limited to transaction volume or load have used disparate tools to test a single testing aspect, which means lots of time, money spent with a disjointed results.
  • Mu allows customers to rapidly create a best fit test process once and leverage that across multiple testing types (e.g. vendors can create an IMS test suite to pass along to operator customers as a baseline for LTE service deployments).

How do the NGN and IMS Forum's Plugfests benefit your company and its customers?

Mu has participated in nearly every NGN/IMS Forum Plugfest and gained invaluable knowledge on the creation and deployment of real-time LTE and 4G planned service offerings. The Plugfest format offers Mu a real-world view on capturing actual service-level traffic on which to base our own content development efforts. As a result, both operator and vendor customers have access to LTE/4G pre-compiled test suites as well as the new ability to create their own test cases using the newest release of the Mu Test Suite.

How does a verification and certification process aid in the development of NGN and IMS interoperability/standards?

With the complexity of real-time 3G and IMS-based service offerings, operators and their vendors need to be assured that provisioned services perform as planned. The time to market requirements of products for the LTE/4G ecosystem necessitate that vendors produce solutions that work the first time in operator environments. Mu has actively worked in the verification and certification process with adaptive testing solutions that ensure reliable and secure products for operator customers.

Who are some of your customers and what NGN and IMS services are they deploying?

Publicly-referencable Mu Dynamics' customers include Cox, Juniper Networks, Starent, F5, Motorola, Ericsson-Redback, Veraz and Verizon. Mu is uniquely positioned to help our mix of 100 customers develop and deploy adaptive testing solutions for their NGN/IMS development and service deployment needs. Our customers are building some of the world's largest LTE and 4G service deployments. In fact, Mu customers represent the vast majority of North America's IP service development and service deployment offerings including many operators with bundled service offerings on the newest customer devices. The complex interactions between building and deploying IP services is a natural fit for Mu's testing solution.

What are some areas of NGN and IMS where you have found challenges for operators?

Every operator's deployment of NGN and IMS is unique, with most containing custom pieces. Because of this, Mu operator customers find it challenging to ensure that the services they are deploying will be of the highest quality with the best functionality, interoperability, reliability and security - taken together to ensure high service quality. The reality is that vendors are not delivering solutions that have been tested for the specific operator's specifications. Nor are they testing for all of their functionality, interoperability, resilience, and security needs.

Are there any other critical benchmarks that need to take place in this IMS NGN evolution?

Yes, vendors developing products for this fast growing market need to ensure their products are functionally sound, fully interoperable, and resilient in changing operator networks and secure against unexpected access. Since operator deployments of bundled LTE services are starting to roll out, the quality of the IP service to end customers will now increasingly be publicly tested. Ultimately users will vote with their wallets and average revenue per user (ARPU) will become a critical operator benchmark that trickles down to their vendor suppliers with new contracts.

What are some of the key factors for NGN and IMS success in the industry?

Mass adoption will only occur when end users are confident that the IP service they are accessing is functionally sound, interoperable, resilient, and secure. Whenever a new type of service is introduced by their operator, the initial focus is always on features/functionality. However, quality and user experience follow close behind and it is only when these two latter obstacles are addressed that mainstream LTE or 4G adoption occurs. When NGN and IMS operators and vendors embrace IP service testing as a critical aspect of their business to speed quality products and services to market, this adoption will occur.

To have your company considered for a profile in the Q & A section of this newsletter send an email to pr@ngnforum.org.

SUPERCOMM provides a foundation for the communications industry to explore the technological transformation created by Broadband innovation. By creating a world-class platform where global brands showcase the entire broadband continuum, large and small service providers, and enterprise and institutional communications buyers have the ability to identify the solutions designed to enhance their networks and monetize their investment in Broadband. From enabling technologies to content delivery and next generation applications, SUPERCOMM is the forum where the vision of broadband technology comes to life. SUPERCOMM 2009. October 21-23, 2009. Chicago, Illinois. For more information or to register visit http://www.supercomm2009.com/ims1

NGN Forum Working Groups Update

Planning is well underway at the IMS Forum technical working groups, which have been holding regular joint sessions for the planning of Plugfest 8. The participants in the Diameter and Control plane Working Group together with the OSS/BSS and the Interoperability and Test Working Groups are meeting now every week with the participation of the three groups and the UNH IOL lab management.

The Diameter and Control plane interoperability group recently achieved an important milestone -the release of the complete test matrix and plan. The group was formed late last year and chaired by Bruno Deslandes (Marben-Products). Participants included Prof. Carol Davids at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and participants from companies such as Aricent, HP, Mu Dynamics, Radvision, Testing Tech, Wipro, and Data Connection Ltd.

The importance of Plugfest 8 cannot be underestimated. Together we will address some of the most challenging issues facing the progress of IMS in service provider networks: network-to-network interoperability, exercising the control plane along the Diameter interfaces and verifying that OSS/BSS with focus on billing and charging functions. That's a lot to do even for a forum with a track record of having the most frequent IMS/NGN interoperability events in the industry.

NGN Forum Calendar of Events

The NGN IMS Forum spoke and moderated panels at the following shows this Fall:

· Sept. 1-3: Internet Telephony Conference & Expo, Los Angeles, CA

· Sept. 1-3: ITExpo/4GWE, Los Angeles,.CA

· Sept. 15-18: 4G World, Chicago

· Sept. 21-23: VON Conference & Expo 2009, South Beach, FL

See the NGN/IMS Forum at the following events:

· October 5-9: IMS/NGN Plugfest 8, UNH-IOL, Durham, NH

· October 6-9: CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment 2009, San Diego, CA

· October 11-14: CompTel, Orlando, FL

· October 21 at 4:14 PM: Supercomm 2009, Chicago, IL - Exploration Theater Special Session#1: IMS Forum Presents: Results from Plugfest 8 - Interoperability for IP Applications & B/OSS and Charging in Converged IMS & NGN networks. Panel of Plugfest 8 participants.

· October 28-29: VoIP Conference & Expo, Illinois Institute of Technology, Wheaton, IL, IMS Forum President and Forum member executives to speak and review state of NGN telecom industry.

· October 25-30: Cable Connection, Denver, CO

Showcase Your Expertise and Leadership: Call for Speakers

The NGN Forum and IMS Forum invites members to join its exclusive Speakers' Bureau. Member companies have an excellent opportunity to market their companies and senior executives while representing the Forum at future trade shows and conferences. Simply contact us with a copy of the proposed speaker's bio and indicate any specific NGN and IMS-related speaking topics and expertise. Speaking topic abstracts of one or two paragraphs are especially helpful. Please send to: pr@ngnforum.org.

NGN/IMS Forum in the News

VoIP Conference & Expo at IIT

October 27-29, 2009

Join us for 2-3 days of VoIP at the Fifth Annual VoIP Conference and Expo at Illinois Institute of Technology on October 27-29, 2009, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Visit http://www.cpd.iit.edu/voipconference09 for details.

Recent NGN/IMS Forum Press Releases

Why Join the IMS Forum

The NGN/IMS Forum's mission is to accelerate the interoperability of NGN and IMS applications and services, enabling enterprise and residential consumers to quickly benefit from the delivery of quadruple play voice, video, Internet and mobile services over broadband via cable, mobile and fixed networks.

NGN/IMS applications and services comprise residential VoIP, entertainment including IPTV and gaming, IP Centrex / IP PBX and unified communications for business including fixed-mobile converged services, videoconferencing and web-collaboration. NGN and IMS networks include DSL, Cable, GSM, UMTS, Wi-Fi and WiMAX implementations.

The NGN/IMS Forum Plugfests, typically held every 3 to 4 months, bring together dozens of industry-leading NGN and IMS vendors from around the world, all of whom build real, full-featured, NGN and IMS networks during the test event.

If you are interested in joining the NGN/IMS Forum, Plugfests or in participating in any of the working groups or marketing programs, please contact the NGN/IMS Forum.

All are invited to participate in the industry's first open NGN/IMS Community where Forum members, those involved in various NGN and IMS working groups, the IMS Linkedin group, our industry and colleagues around the world can participate in active, mutually beneficial discussions. Take a moment to register now.

Our members are shaping the future of the NGN and IMS. Joining the NGN/IMS Forum enables members to:

• Verify and certify interoperability, reduce costs and accelerate time to market
• Participate in technical working groups focusing on service creation and applications for NGN/IMS architecture, framework and deployment issues
• Gain additional visibility through the NGN/IMS Forum's Speakers Bureau, public relations and marketing programs
• Showcase member companies at major telecom, cable, and wireless events in North America, Asia, and Europe
• Receive current market and technology information through newsletters, reports, white papers and conferences
• Gain access to an informed professional network of industry consultants and accredited experts

Have a request? We welcome your feedback on this newsletter.
NGN/IMS Forum Press & Newsletter Contact: pr@imsforum.org