The future of telecommunications is based on two themes: mobility and multimedia.
Today, an operator is either a PSDN/ISDN operator or a PLMN (mobile) operator, and if the same company provides both services there are political pressures for separating the two services, in addition to the fact that the mobile service was conceived, standardized and installed as a separate network.
In the near future, tendencies toward deregulation will permit operators to offer multiple services. For example, PSTN operators want to offer television, cable TV operators want to offer telephony, and mobile operators want to offer basic telephone service using radio technology.
In addition, the presence of multiple network operators creates problems for the user. For example, a screening list of calling line IDs which should receive "Do not Disturb" service should follow the user and be applied to whatever terminal is being used, on whatever network.
This means that service providers need a single infrastructure able to offer multiple services in a seamless way.
This evolution of the switching platform is guaranteed by two key themes:
This evolution leads to a concept which is called Universal Personal Telecommunications, or UPT.
UPT means that the user will use wired or portable terminals depending on the situation, and will move freely from one service provider to another. The terminals will certainly able to communicate using more than one radio interface depending on the base stations they are near. And as the user moves around, all the services move with him/her.
Italtel is the prime contractor in a European ACTS project called EXODUS, EXperiments On the Deployment of UMTS. The purpose of this project is to use ATM nodes to offer mobile multimedia services.
In the future with UPT, the corporate network will mix PABXs, centrex service from the public network provider with DECT access, and GSM access from another service provider, all stitched together in a seamless whole with billing and management information. Personnel can take their dual DECT/GSM terminals home and use them as both personal or business phones. For example, they can call a client six time zones away at a more convenient hour, charging the call to the corporate Virtual Private Network. And when a colleague calls the office from another far-away place, the call can be offered first to the office DECT terminal which happens to be at home, then to the home phone, then to the central messaging service.
All this flexibility is due to the evolution of the Intelligent Network.
The key elements which permit this kind of integration are:
Italtel is currently implementing the Personal Communications Services by introducing into the Italian network new SCP nodes having the current set of IN functions aligned with Capability Set 1 plus some mobility functions based on its experience with GSM. This new SCP constitutes an HDB (Home Data Base) and an AUC (Authentication Center) for a mobility service based on DECT access and offered from the normal local telephone exchange, not from a dedicated overlay network.
This pre-standard version of PCS was made possibile by the fact that the world's first implementation of the IN according to ETSI models (with open interfaces) was already functioning in the Italian network with hundreds of Linea UT exchanges running the SSP function.
This PCS will evolve in order to follow the CTM (Cordless Terminal Mobility) standards activity.
Multimedia services, those needing more bandwidth than narrowband ISDN, will be based on ATM switching.
Today, Italtel has installed the UT-XC ATM node, which provides Virtual Circuit and Virtual Path services. These are essentially cross-connect services, that is, the connection is created by administrative commands.
Now that the signaling standards Phase 1 are ready, these are being implemented to bring to market the first phase of true Broadband ISDN.
Italtel is also involved in field trials with Video on Demand for the home market, based on the UT-XC node.
The IN is that intelligent part of the network which adds value to a basic service. Whether we are talking about high-speed LAN interconnect, or multimedia to deliver home entertainment, or mobile radio service for voice and/or data, operators have discovered that basic service is no longer sufficient. In competitive situations, the operator with more sophisticated services will have an edge over the competition.
Italtel Societa' Italiana Telecomunicazioni Spa
Claudio Chiarenza, BUCT BPM
Comments to author:Claudio.Chiarenza@settimo.italtel.it
Contact for Information: Claudio Chiarenza - BUCT BPM
All contents copyright (C) 1995.Italtel S.p.a. All rights reserved. Revised: August 30, 1995