* IMS: it may not just be a question of when, but if.
IP Multimedia Systems is not a slam-dunk, according to a group of industry analysts that gathered at the FierceMarkets IMS executive Summit conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to discuss the future of IMS.
IMS is an architecture, based on an open standard, that defines how wireless and wireline IP networks should transport voice and data sessions regardless if the traffic travels over the Public Switch Telephone Network or a 3G wireless network. IMS allows a carrier to centralize application servers that can be accessed by all customers.
IMS holds many promises such as cost savings, making more services available to all customers, which should result in new revenue streams for carriers. For end users the promise is a better array of applications that can be accessed from a landline or wireless device.
There are only a handful of products available today that actually support the standard, which makes it difficult to say IMS is a definitive network architecture of the future, says Tom Valovic, program director for VoIP infrastructure at IDC. “IMS shouldn’t be considered a given.”
The timing of when usable products hit the market and the complexity that IMS introduces to a carrier’s network are two things Valovic cites as troublesome. “A lot… has to happen on the road to IMS’ success.”
In fact, all five analysts on the panel agree the IMS standard, as it is today, is not complete, ready for the market or ready to support interoperability. The analysts were asked to grade IMS on all three areas and the technology received, on average, a solid D.
But there was some optimism. “[IMS] will happen,” says Bob Johnson, senior analyst of the telecom practice at Venture Development, a market research firm. “But in what form? It will be a gradual adoption over time, over 24 months to 10 years.”
Other challenges include the incompleteness of the standard and the unclear driver fueling IMS’ deployment in carrier networks. “The driver has to be competition more so than cost reduction” for carriers, says PK Prasanna, practice director at wireless consulting firm inCode.
But competition is heating up, even this early in the IMS game.
Service providers are testing the architecture, in fact Ari Banerjee, senior analyst for telecom software strategies at Yankee Group says there are 100 IMS trials underway around the world today.
Cingular Wireless, a joint venture between AT&T and BellSouth (which AT&T is in the process of acquiring) announced last year that it will deploy Lucent IMS gear as it upgrades its network to support the new architecture. Like its wireless joint venture, AT&T is committed to IMS. The carrier says it is replacing its Siemens Call Control Element server with an IMS Session Controller from Lucent this year to support new VoIP features and services.
Verizon Wireless is clearly in agreement with the analysts that the IMS standard is incomplete and is working on additions to make the specification more suitable. The wireless service provider has been working with Cisco, Lucent, Motorola, Nortel and Qualcomm for the past year to develop a framework, called Advanced to IMS. The extensions are designed to better support non-Session Initiation Protocol devices, applications, services, end-to-end security and wireless VoIP QoS.
The industry is also trying to address the interoperability issue. The Global Multiservice Forum is planning an interoperability test in October that will span about 10 days. The interoperability event is hosted by a handful of vendors and service providers including BT, Nortel, NTT, Verizon and Vodafone.
According to the group’s Web site 27 vendors will participate in the testing. The vendors include Alcatel, Cisco, Leapstone Systems, Lucent, MetaSwitch, Samsung and Tekelec.
