Cloudifying the 3GPP IP multimedia subsystem for 4G and beyond: A survey

Today, Ukraine is actively working to implement 4G and 4.5G technologies on networks of mobile operators. However, due to inaccuracies in forecasting the development trends of this type of networks, a situation has arisen whereby 2G and 3G networks will be used to service all voice traffic for a long time. As the research results show, one of the necessary conditions for the normal functioning of networks of mobile operators is the introduction of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as the main element of the management level. One of the main requirements for the IMS system is the requirement for the reliability of its operation. Since the requirements for reliability are very high, their fulfillment is impossible without the use of reservation methods. Therefore, the paper discusses possible reservation methods for the IMS system. The main elements of the IMS system were determined, models for assessing the reliability of operation with various reservation methods were developed, and a comparative assessment was made.

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) has been considered to be exclusive to big players of the telecommunication world. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) has been standardized by IETF and solutions based on it have been in the market at least for a decade. It is also an essential part of the IMS, as it is the control protocol of IMS. Recent development of the Linux platform and the Open source IMS system has lead to a situation where the IMS is also an affordable solution for smaller telecommunication companies. The obvious question has been whether the level of performance with Open source IMS is really suitable for business usage. ETSI-TISPAN has unified IMS performance measurements by defining a common framework which to follow in measurements. The paper presents comparisons between IMS and SIP based networks in call and messaging performance. the Open IMS solution by the Fraunhover Focus Institute is compared with the OpenSIPS, an open source SIP server. The number of users in our measurements was chosen to be 100 000, a large enough number to be considered as a suitable number of users for small or moderate business usage needs. Our study shows that both of the systems are able to handle this many users and, in the case of OpenSIPS, with a clear margin. It was also discovered that both systems are reliable and are suitable for small and moderate business usage.

This chapter describes the support for IP based multimedia services on Third Generation (3G) wireless cellular networks. While earlier cellular networks offered only basic IP connectivity on a best-effort basis, 3G networks provide explicit support for real time multimedia services with guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS). As a result, they can offer traditional voice telephony, rich telephony services and multimedia streaming over IP, both inside a 3G network and in conjunction with external networks such as the Internet, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). In fact, 3G networks will deploy for the first time in a large scale technologies such as IP version 6 (IPv6) and policy based IP QoS, spearheading the introduction of such technologies into the Internet. The two most important aspects of 3G networks with respect to IP based multimedia services are the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and the Multimedia Broadcast / Multicast Service (MBMS). The IMS enables complex IP based multimedia sessions to be created with guaranteed QoS for each media component. Example applications include voice telephony and video conferencing. The IMS interoperates with both traditional telephony services and external IP based multimedia services. The MBMS provides native IP broadcast and multicast support in 3G networks, allowing high bandwidth services to be economically offered to multiple users. Example applications include video streaming via multicast and location based services via broadcast. The MBMS interoperates directly with IP multicasting. While both the IMS and the MBMS are IP based, their standardization is proceeding independently. It is however clear that their combination would allow numerous new services to be provided. The outline of this chapter is as follows. In Section II we give an overview of cellular networks and their evolution, while in Section III we describe in detail a specific 3G network, the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). Section IV presents an introductory description of the features and services provided by the IMS and the MBMS. In Section V we provide the details of the IMS, including service architecture, session setup and control and interworking issues. Section VI describes the MBMS in the same manner as for the IMS. Finally, Section VII discusses the QoS issues for IP based multimedia services, describing the overall QoS concept, the policy based QoS control scheme and its application to IMS sessions. At the end of the chapter, Tables II and III list the acronyms used. An extensive UMTS vocabulary is provided in [1].

The latest experiences hint that the QoS (Quality of Service) approaches adopted by IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) technologies are still suffering from a primary containment factor due to the nondifferentiation between IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) video components. IMS system also cannot ensure high IPTV data transfer due to the limitation of available cellular bandwidth. In this paper, we try to merge the advantage of high bandwidth assigned to LTE (Long Term Evolution) and a new PHB (Per-Hop Behavior) that classify and differentiate between IPTV sub traffics by using IPv6 Flow Label. This new architecture permits high-quality IPTV video components with the capability to prioritize the sub traffic according to the network administrator policy. The proposed architecture is implemented using OPNET software. The results show that IPTV users receive high-quality video data with a change in quantity according to data priority.

Although the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Web Serviceshave been developed on the basis of different Service Delivery Platforms (SDP), opportunities for new services have emerged from converged access to IMS and Web Services. Researchers are focusing on finding means to develop converged access architectures for IMS and Web Services while preserving the benefits they provide and not overburdening the end users' terminals. In this paper, we classify the existing converged access methods for IMSand Web Services into four categories, compare them and identify their drawbacks. To address these drawbacks, we have designed a hybrid thin client-based novel architecture for converged access to multimedia services provided by a combination of IMS and Web Services. The proposed solution limits the impact of platform heterogeneity and resources by relinquishing the complexity of signalling and session management to an intermediate virtualization server, which in turn acts as a client for network-based services.

As the next generation networks promise network convergence with services for both static and mobile networks, the research focus is converging towards standardizing a common infrastructure for all-IP networks. IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a recent initiative, which outlines a service delivery platform (SDP) framework. A flexible and robust QoS management system for IMS is essential to ascertain the achievability of service quality on these converged networks. As Triple and Quadruple Play services are the most celebrated services of IMS in the near future, the necessity of QoS assurance is becoming an imminent need of the hour. Multimedia services delivery in converged IP networks using IMS, concentrates on ensuring capabilities to ensure the best QoS. To meet these requirements, we have designed a set-top box which provides feedback in IMS management architecture to ensure end-toend QoS as well as enables the functionalities of Regional Gateway for the Home Network. Results of the simulation confirm the improvement of performance parameters and the quality of service.

In past few years, the concept of mobile servers has emerged dramatically. That means the mobile nodes have now gained such extraordinary processing powers and storage capacities that they can actively play a role of service delivery platforms in the service oriented paradigms. Recently, a concept of Mobile Application Servers (Mob-ASs) has been introduced by the research community in order to promote M2M (Mobile-to-Mobile) service networks over the telecom operator networks. Such joint-venture of IT and Telco systems will bring a plethora of new M2M applications in the market. This paper presents the design and evaluation of an M2M chat service framework for an existing Mobile Server Platform (MSP). The existing MSP has the capacity to register itself as a Mobile Application Server (Mob-AS) and a Mobile Application Client (Mob-AC) in the operator's IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) network. Featuring the MSP with the chat service framework will facilitate the mobile users to exchange short and long text messages and multimedia files over the operator network without using any third-party services.

The Internet has experienced tremendous expansion in the past several years. Demands for IP multimedia services are emerging. The third-generation (3G) wireless networks aim to support mobile users with numerous Internet services. 3G standards organizations are developing IP multimedia subsystems (IMS) to achieve seamless integration between Internet and 3G networks. Moreover, the collaboration between IETF, 3GPP, and 3GPP2 is essential to the development of IMS for next-generation networks. This article first provides an overview of 3GPP and 3GPP2 IMS and illustrates the IMS requirements, architectures, and functional models. We then discuss potential scalability issues in IMS. This article provides guidance for constructing a robust and scalable IMS.

Todaypsilas user wants exciting new services at reduced costs. Legacy ldquovoicerdquo services are considered to be bare minimum. To satisfy their customers and be competitive, Telecom service providers are pressured to provide converged and differentiated services at reduced cost. IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) is touted to be next generation telecom architecture that enables service providers to achieve this requirement. IMS architecture allows service providers to offer a variety of multimedia services in the service layer. Service providers today are building an eco-system with partner vendors to offer new services in this layer. With the success of person-to-person and person-to-content services in the Internet world, it becomes more compelling for mobile device manufactures and service providers to reach out to developer community to create more innovative applications with IMS infrastructure. This paper describes how ldquoservice creationrdquo focus is being shifted from operators and mobile device vendors to third party developers. It explores the benefits of having a service creation platform to aid in developing such services. It outlines the elements of software development kit (SDK) which will help in maximizing productivity and enables developers to focus on creativity. This paper analyzes the need for a complete simulated setup for developers to create and test their services before deploying into real network. There are different service creation environments that are available like service delivery platforms (SDP), JAIN SLEE, and OSA/Parlay etc. In this paper the primary discussion is on the usage of standards based API in IMS/SIP SDK. It dwells more into JSR API for client development and application server development. It also touches upon how SIP SDK can be interfaced with Web 2.0 components.

The IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) standard is being widely adopted by both wireline and wireless service providers to support the next wave of multimedia communication applications. As currently defined, that IMS standard proposes a detailed architecture for the transport and control layers of the next-generation telecommunication networks, but leaves many questions unanswered on how the application layer should be structured. A more structured approach to service delivery will be required in order to deliver new multi-media applications in an efficient and cost-effective way. An approach based on service delivery platform (SDP) proposes a layered service architecture, with a strong emphasis on re-use of common service enablers and on open APIs. This paper describes work being undertaken within HP's IMS Experience Center to validate a horizontal service delivery architecture for next-generation IP multimedia applications.

The emerging paradigm of network function virtualization (NFV) technology promises an efficient solution for optimized service deployment in the cloud computing environment thanks to its ability to dynamically add or remove virtual resources when there is a change in workload. Nevertheless, telecom providers are still facing a challenging issue in efficiently adopting NFV to deploy Web real-time communication (WebRTC) service on top of IP multimedia subsystem (IMS). Providing WebRTC service increases the inherent complexity of the IMS system in terms of the number of service nodes as virtual network functions (VNFs) and the way they interact, both of which play significant roles in the problem of optimally allocating resources. This paper proposes a virtualized interworking system between IMS and WebRTC called NFV-based interworking architecture, and describes the mechanism for VNFs to exchange messages with each other. We present an analytic system model considering the constraints of resources, quality of service (QoS), and service costs. A real-time Markov approximation-based resource allocation algorithm (RIDRA) is then designed allowing a provisioned resource at service nodes to be reconfigured in time to meet performance requirements. The proposed solution is evaluated on the large scale by simulation and on the small scale by our developed testbed. Experimental results reveal that our algorithm effectively responds to fluctuating service demands with a service cost reduced by 19% via efficiently allocating virtual resources while maintaining QoS requirement.

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is an enabling technology that are designed to provide multimedia services over heterogeneous networks. In IMS based heterogeneous networks the placement of gateway plays a vital role in enhancing the Quality of Service (QoS) and the enhanced Packet Data Gateway (ePDG) is being considered in interworking. The ePDG is realized at the edge of the network where IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) interacts with Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave access (WiMAX). Also, the performance of network has been enhanced by allocating priorities to mobile Stream Control Transmission Protocol (mSCTP) on per stream basis. Hence the proposed interworking system considers the impact of IMS with mSCTP and ePDG. In this paper, the performance of the network has been evaluated in terms of throughput, delay and retransmission attempts and the performance comparison is made against the conventional Transport Control Protocol (TCP) over the same network conditions. The performance evaluation shows that the proposed QoS approach improves delivery of multimedia services over heterogeneous IP access.

All-IP wireless networking infrastructures, such as those based on Internet Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), are becoming increasingly important due to the variety of applications they support, which include Voice over IP (VoIP) and real-time streaming multimedia. These applications are imposing specific requirements on network and wireless systems in terms of session (call) setup time. Call setup time is particularly important for interactive applications, such as gaming and push-totalk communication, where the user experience of time that takes to start or join a session directly translates in user perception of QoS. In this paper, we present a comprehensive approach to analyze the call set up time in IMS systems deploying Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for signaling and CDMA2000 Evolution Data Only Rev. A (EV-DO-A) standard for wireless link transmission. Our model is based on practical assumptions for the system design parameters, including radio link delays, IMS processing and signaling properties. We derive important numerical results and present methods to improve the call setup time. Finally, we discuss directions for further research.

The third-generation partnership project (3GPP) and 3GPP2 have standardized the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) to provide ubiquitous and access network-independent IP-based services for next-generation networks via merging cellular networks and the Internet. The application layer Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), standardized by 3GPP and 3GPP2 for IMS, is responsible for IMS session establishment, management, and transformation. The IEEE 802.16 worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMax) promises to provide high data rate broadband wireless access services. In this paper, we propose two novel interworking architectures to integrate WiMax and third-generation (3G) networks. Moreover, we analyze the SIP-based IMS registration and session setup signaling delay for 3G and WiMax networks with specific reference to their interworking architectures. Finally, we explore the effects of different WiMax-3G interworking architectures on the IMS registration and session setup signaling delay.

In this paper we propose a novel architecture for converged multimedia SIP (session initiation protocol) services in wireline and 3G networks. The work on the future evolution of 3G systems is taking momentum with ongoing research on access to the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) from any broadband access network. In particular WLAN (wireless local area network) access to the 3G services located in the IMS is being standardized though major points still need to be addressed. Wireline access to 3G services is not yet standardized and no deployable solution exists today. We propose in this paper a new architecture that allows an xDSL (digital subscriber line) access to 3G SIP based services, enabling a new generation of converged fixed/mobile services. This would also allow network operators to mutualise equipments and therefore reduce costs. In this paper, we analyze the high level requirements of this architecture, and we propose to introduce two new functional entities in the xDSL network: a SIP proxy and a border gateway. We study the impact of this new architecture with several transversal requirements: connectivity, QoS and security