Khalid IBEN YAICH

IMS opens up new perspectives for network operators. Nevertheless, some challenges need to be faced to make it a widely adopted technology.

IMS opens up new perspectives for network operators. Nevertheless, some challenges need to be faced to make it a widely adopted technology.
From a business point of view, If IMS gives the network operators a more central role to play in the business chain of value, they need to make or obtain content for their services (M. Tadault, 2004). And they need to fix new business models to base their role of in the billing of services on. New actors came to the scene with IMS like content providers and content aggregators, which means for the operators: new competitors from the internet world. The decision to deploy IMS is more a strategic decision than a technological decision.
On the technical side of the issue, IMS introduces new networking paradigms, provides only specifications, not implementation-ready solutions, and uses some recent protocols like Diameter that have not been widely deployed. Moreover, the interoperability problems aren’t fully solved.
The TISPAN IMS aim to be access agnostic. Consequently, IMS has to manage the different access related constraints imposed by different access technologies, and this makes the establishment of end-to-end QoS guarantees difficult.
Several promising technologies (e.g. P2P, VPNs, SMS and IPTV) will join IMS architecture to provide more complete multimedia services with unified network architecture.

Posted by Khalid Iben-Yaich at 04:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One aim of IMS is to make the network management easier, because an all-IP integrated network is easier to manage and leads to network administration savings. Therefore, it separates control and bearer functions to support kinds of networks and become “access agnostic” or in other words, service delivery should be independent of the underlying access technology.

IMS guidelines.
One aim of IMS is to make the network management easier, because an all-IP integrated network is easier to manage and leads to network administration savings. Therefore, it separates control and bearer functions to support kinds of networks and become “access agnostic” or in other words, service delivery should be independent of the underlying access technology.
The QoS is a critical parameter; it determines the services that can be deployed in such networks. Consequently, QoS management functionalities are integrated in the IMS architecture.
The traditional service implementations are generally “stovepipe systems”. IMS opts for a modular (easy to improve) horizontal architecture: The service enablers which are common functions are accessed and used by several services. This resources sharing perspective ease the implementation, give more flexibility to the system and allows services interaction. (Ericsson, 2004)
Business motivations
The story of IMS started with genius idea of using the underused signaling channel to send short messages. The unexpected success of SMS service proved that the market for data-based services on mobile phones is promising. Now while the average revenue per user is decreasing for network operators, these operators need to a more empowering role in service delivery, and bundle attractive services with their basic access offer. The IMS is intended to be a solution.
IMS helps the creation and deployment of new services by either the operators themselves or third parties. Therefore IMS creates new business perspectives and stimulates innovation. The revenue opportunities for an IMS operator will dramatically increase by giving the client a better set of services, which are all combined in one session, with a single sign on and unified billing.
The investment threshold will decrease, thanks to the infrastructure savings provided by the uniform service delivery platform, which will give birth to new better and richer services, specially real-time IP based communications (M. Tadault, 2004).

Posted by Khalid Iben-Yaich at 04:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a network functional architecture that is seen as a promising solution for facilitating multimedia service creation and deployment as well as supporting interoperability and network convergence. It was originally designed by the wireless standards body 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) as an architectural framework for delivering internet protocol (IP) multimedia to mobile users over GPRS, and then expanded to support other networks like Wireless LAN, CDMA2000 and fixed line.

It is commonly admitted that Internet Protocol (IP) is ubiquitous, provides interoperability at a very large scale. These characteristics are driving the internet mutation: If IP was mostly dedicated to the transport of non real time data, it is becoming the foundation of most real time application and services. IMS is using Internet protocols to merge Internet and cellular worlds, and enable rich multimedia communications.
The first version of IMS, written by 3GPP, was about the development and deployment of new services in mobile networks. The specifications were then extended by the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) (or to be more accurate by the Telecommunications and Internet converged Services and Protocols for Advanced Networking (TISPAN) standardization body) as a subsystem of the Next Generation Networks (NGNs) project.
It is important to understand that 3GPP describes the support of new applications for mobile operators, while TISPAN adds the wireline operators convergence capabilities, TISPAN defines as well other subsystems like Network Attachment Subsystem (NASS) and the Resource Admission Control Subsystem (RACS). Most of the IMS protocols are standardize by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) (E.g. the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)).
Other actors are involved in the development of IMS. For example, the Open Mobile Alliance publishes, for interoperability related operation, additional service related requirements (e.g. Push to talk over Cellular (PoC)) (Greenwell, 2007).
IMS is still being defined, and the different standards use different terminologies. If this tutorial won’t explain everything about the several interfaces, and the complex functional entities, it will set a clear overview of the complete NGN/IMS architecture.

Posted by Khalid Iben-Yaich at 04:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The similarities between the European renaissance and what we are experiencing nowadays can be too obvious if we take time to think about it. The Information Renaissance is not a concept that has been concretely defined nor is a known event in history, but still the word renaissance makes us think about knowledge sharing, about cultural and social changes, and about empowering people. All these elements are precise adjectives for what Information Technology is doing: Creating an Information Renaissance.

The similarities between the European renaissance and what we are experiencing nowadays can be too obvious if we take time to think about it. The Information Renaissance is not a concept that has been concretely defined nor is a known event in history, but still the word renaissance makes us think about knowledge sharing, about cultural and social changes, and about empowering people. All these elements are precise adjectives for what Information Technology is doing: Creating an Information Renaissance.
As the internet popularity increases, the access to knowledge is democratized, people no more rely on one authority controlling this access, and they can hear different points of view, learn different thinks and discuss different ideas.
The power of innovation in our life is so big that it shapes our society, new customs adopted or rejected in a higher pace. Even our relationships are affected, TV, mobile phones, e-mails… They all change the way we communicate with each other.
We reached a point where, not only technology helps us to deliver information to people, but have everyone deliver its own contribution to the whole world.

Posted by Khalid Iben-Yaich at 04:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Web 2.0 refers to a second generation of web-based hosted services, as social-networking sites, wikis… It aims to facilitate creativity by helping users collaborate, and share. The term originated from O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. It is important to understand that web 2.0 does not give an update to any technical specifications, it more like guidelines to how developers and end users should use web.

Web 2.0 refers to a second generation of web-based hosted services, as social-networking sites, wikis… It aims to facilitate creativity by helping users collaborate, and share. The term originated from O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. It is important to understand that web 2.0 does not give an update to any technical specifications, it more like guidelines to how developers and end users should use web.
"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform." Tim O’Reilly.
The main idea behind "Web 2.0" is to change websites from isolated information sources to interactive platforms that function like locally-available program.
Web 2.0 promotes a social element where users generate and distribute their own content, which enables users to do more online and consequently rises the economic value of the web.
Examples of web 2.0 websites are: eBay, Facebook, Wikipedia, youTube, MySpace, iGoogle...

Posted by Khalid Iben-Yaich at 04:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is no surprising to hear the word “Art” almost each time you talk about European Renaissance. If the European renaissance was a cultural movement that marked drastic changes during the Middle ages, Art is an area that was completely revolutionized. Artists incorporated perspective, using oil based paints they concentrated on light and shadow effect. We can notice the touch of ancient art on the work of some renaissance artists like Donatello, but the introduction of personality and behavior in the oeuvres was a new aspects. An aspect that was later developed by other artists like Da Vinci and MichelAngelo: the emotional expression and the physical balance.
Sculpture, painting and architecture revolution started in Italy but moved towards France, Spain and then the rest of Europe. They were the first cultural changes that broke up with the Church traditions, and by focusing on Man they empowered people, gave them back confidence and help a social break-up.

It is no surprising to hear the word “Art” almost each time you talk about European Renaissance. If the European renaissance was a cultural movement that marked drastic changes during the Middle ages, Art is an area that was completely revolutionized. Artists incorporated perspective, using oil based paints they concentrated on light and shadow effect. We can notice the touch of ancient art on the work of some renaissance artists like Donatello, but the introduction of personality and behavior in the oeuvres was a new aspects. An aspect that was later developed by other artists like Da Vinci and MichelAngelo: the emotional expression and the physical balance.
Sculpture, painting and architecture revolution started in Italy but moved towards France, Spain and then the rest of Europe. They were the first cultural changes that broke up with the Church traditions, and by focusing on Man they empowered people, gave them back confidence and help a social break-up.

Posted by Khalid Iben-Yaich at 04:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The word ‘Renaissance’ is a French word, and it means ‘rebirth’. European renaissance was the time when Europe moved from the ignorance, unfairness and the feudal system to a new era where knowledge starts to be shared, arts blossomed and the luminance of science and logic spread and paved way for new inventions and social changes.

The word ‘Renaissance’ is a French word, and it means ‘rebirth’. European renaissance was the time when Europe moved from the ignorance, unfairness and the feudal system to a new era where knowledge starts to be shared, arts blossomed and the luminance of science and logic spread and paved way for new inventions and social changes.
After the fall of Roman rule, Europe knew wars, epidemics, social unfairness, superstition and ignorance. During this era (commonly called the Middle Ages) the church hold the power and took advantage of people illiterateness, and made it worst. The major economic activity was agriculture; farmers had to give away their yields to feudal tyrants.
The environment was convenient for people to question their society. They just needed some guidance, which was provided by eastern scientists and philosophers escaping the Othmani empire, books were brought from the big library of Istanbul and other places to Italy. A new movement started, a vivid interest in knowledge pushed the Italians and very soon the whole Europe to seek answers, discuss and rebelled against the social rules. They realized that the society should be Human-centric, and they started admiring the potential of human beings. This cultural movement called “humanism” is the first aspect of Europe rebirth, sorry renaissance.

Posted by Khalid Iben-Yaich at 02:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)