Evolution of Telecommunication Services: The Convergence of Telecom and Internet: Technologies and Ecosystems

337 Pages·2013·9.796 MB·English

by  Marius Corici, Julius Müller, Dragos Vingarzan, Thomas Magedanz (auth.), Emmanuel Bertin, Noel Crespi, Thomas Magedanz (eds.)

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The Convergence of Telecom and Internet:
Technologies and Ecosystems
123
Lecture Notes in Computer Science 7768
CommencedPublicationin1973
FoundingandFormerSeriesEditors:
GerhardGoos,JurisHartmanis,andJanvanLeeuwen
EditorialBoard
DavidHutchison,UK TakeoKanade,USA
JosefKittler,UK JonM.Kleinberg,USA
AlfredKobsa,USA FriedemannMattern,Switzerland
JohnC.Mitchell,USA MoniNaor,Israel
OscarNierstrasz,Switzerland C.PanduRangan,India
BernhardSteffen,Germany MadhuSudan,USA
DemetriTerzopoulos,USA DougTygar,USA
GerhardWeikum,Germany
Services Science
SublineofLecturesNotesinComputerScience
SublineEditors-in-Chief
RobertJ.T.Morris,IBMResearch,USA
MichaelP.Papazoglou,UniversityofTilburg,TheNetherlands
DarrellWilliamson,CSIRO,Sydney,Australia
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BoualemBentallah,Australia IngolfKrueger,USA
AthmanBouguettaya,Australia PaulMaglio,USA
MurthyDevarakonda,USA ChristosNikolaou,Greece
CarloGhezzi,Italy KlausPohl,Germany
Chi-HungChi,China StefanTai,Germany
HaniJamjoom,USA YuzuruTanaka,Japan
PaulKlingt,TheNetherlands ChristopherWard,USA
Emmanuel Bertin Noel Crespi
Thomas Magedanz (Eds.)
Evolution of
Telecommunication
Services
The Convergence of Telecom and Internet:
Technologies and Ecosystems
1 3
VolumeEditors
EmmanuelBertin
OrangeLabsCaen
42ruedesCoutures
BP6243
14066CaenCedex4,France
E-mail:[email protected]
NoelCrespi
Mines-Telecom
9rueCharlesFourier
91011Evry,France
E-mail:[email protected]
ThomasMagedanz
FraunhoferInstituteFOKUS
Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee31
10589Berlin,Germany
E-mail:[email protected]
ISSN0302-9743 e-ISSN1611-3349
ISBN978-3-642-41568-5 e-ISBN978-3-642-41569-2
DOI10.1007/978-3-642-41569-2
SpringerHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2013950390
CRSubjectClassification(1998):C.2,H.4,D.2,H.3,I.2,H.5
LNCSSublibrary:SL3–InformationSystemsandApplications,incl.Internet/Web
andHCI
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Foreword
Of late, we have witnessed a new and encouraging phenomenon that telecom-
munications are not confined to being a commodity, but are increasingly be-
coming an enabler for an open-ended spectrum of customizable service offers in
ever-new application domains of our daily life. The convergence of technologies
and ecosystems in telecommunications, entertainment, and Internet industries
started 10 years ago with the introduction of next-generation networks (NGN).
Wehavesinceseennewplayersarrivingonthemarket,pushinginnovativeideas
androllingoutnewproducts fasterthanever.Needlessto say,this convergence,
coupled with allied ecosystems enabled by telecommunications, unlocks unpar-
alleled growthpotential for business as well as society, be it healthcare, disaster
management, environment sustainability, or city management, to name a few.
However, this convergence also comes with its own set of challenges, both for
networkoperatorsintermsofbusinesssustainability,aswellasforsocietyingen-
eral, be it identity and security issues, infrastructure sabotage, financial fraud,
etc. Technology awareness, research, innovation, and market orientation will be
key for a successful evolution towards a new telecom ecosystem.
Inprinciple,weseefourdevelopmentsshapingourindustry:(a)shifttoall-IP,
(b)cloudification,(c)webification,(d)software-enabledproductivityincrease.It
is obvious that technology and society evolve together with transition to all-IP.
Whiletheinitialadvancesintelecommunicationswereprimarilyhardware-driven
(imagine human-operated telephone switching centers), software soon became
the key factor in Internet transmission technology, as exemplified by Internet
traffic forwarding elements like switches and routers. This has led to a separa-
tion of infrastructure from the services, giving birth to the over-the-top (OTT)
domain,where anybodywithasmartideacanofferservicesoverthe underlying
Internet infrastructure, without the need to own or control the infrastructure.
ThepopularityofGoogleChromebookanditscousins,alongwiththetransition
of most big businesses to cloud applications, speaks for itself about the benefits
of cloudification. An increasing number ofcomplex applications cannow be run
over a Web browser. A case in point is WebRTC, which provides high-quality
voice over the Web, enabling Web developers to easily create communication
applications. What once required millions of euro in communication equipment
investment, is now possible with a couple of backend servers and some smart
software code – welcome to webification! Lastly, software-enabled productivity
is increasing manifold through use of open source, software libraries and APIs.
Consider this – to produce 100 K lines of software code, the employee cost has
reduced by a factor of 8 to 10 in the last 10 years, accompanied by improved
bug fixing and shorter software cycles.
This book offers insights into this complex but exciting worldof telecommu-
nications characterized by constant evolution, and approaches it from technol-
ogy as well as business perspectives. The book is appropriately structured in
VI Foreword
three parts: (a) an overview of the state of the art in fixed/mobile NGN and
standardizationactivities; (b) an analysis of the competitive landscape between
operators, device manufactures and OTT providers, emphasizing why network
operators are challenged on their home turf; and (c) opportunities for business
modelling and innovative telecom service offers.
I feel surethatstudents, researchersandindustry executivesalikewill findit
a good investmentof their time and energy to absorbthe contents of this book.
All the best!
Dr. Heinrich Arnold,
Senior Vice President, Research & Innovation,
Global Head of Telekom Innovation Laboratories,
Deutsche Telekom
Preface
Inthe telecomworld,serviceshaveusually beenconceivedwitha specific mind-
set. This mindset has defined the traditional characteristics of these services;
servicesdistinguishedbytheirlinkagewiththeaccessnetwork,tightcontrolover
serviceuse(e.g.,authentication,billing),lackofdeeppersonalizationcapabilities
(mass services only), and reliance on standardization to achieve end-to-end in-
teroperabilitybetweenalltheactorsofthevaluechain(e.g.,operators,platform
manufacturers,devicemanufactures).Inaddition,telecomoperators–whichwe
will also refer to as “Telcos” in the following – have been used to holding a
brokering position because of their control of communication networks.
Many aspects of the telecom business model are being challenged by Web
actors– often referredto as Over-The-Top(OTT)players– who alsooffer com-
munication services, but services that are:
(cid:129) Network-independent (relying on the universal internet network and on the
web technology)
(cid:129) Loosely controlled (e.g., light authentication, credit card payment, and no
monthly billing)
(cid:129) Largely customizable (e.g., based on each user’s profile, request history,
context-awareness)
(cid:129) Non-standardized, and often without interoperability between actors
(cid:129) Where consumers may also become producers (e.g., Web 2.0 wave, Apple
‘app’ model)
TheseITactorsrelyonsharpsoftwarecompetenciesthatenablethemtoquickly
develop, test and deploy services. The Web development methods provide flex-
ibility and faster time-to-market (TTM) and thus easier integration and vali-
dation for new service deployments along with lower costs thanks to the use of
massively deployed open-source information technology (IT). Moreover, these
Web players benefit from a strong brokering position based on their key assets:
e.g., a search engine for Google, a social network for Facebook, mobile devices
and a closely linked and easy-to-use App Store for Apple.
In response to the emergence of these new players, telcos are trying to rein-
vent their organizational networks and business models in line with this emerg-
ingserviceparadigm.Thisbook surveysthe majorshifts inthe telecomservices
ecosystem,frombothtechnicalandbusinessviewpoints,andintroducespossible
responsesbytelcoswithinthreetimeframes:now(theIPMultimediaSubsystem
– IMS age), tomorrow (the post-IMS age), and afterwards (the Future Internet
age).Eachofthechapters’authorsarerecognizedexperts,workingforkeyplay-
ersinthetelecommarket:operators(DeutscheTelekom,Orange,TelecomItalia,
and Telefonica), standards organizations (ETSI), regulators (ARCEP), manu-
facturers (Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, Ericsson, and Tekelec), IT vendors (HP,
VIII Preface
SAP) and academia (Fraunhofer FOKUS, Mines-Telecom, Politecnica Madrid,
TU Berlin, and Zurich University).
The first part of the book reviews the main telco assets in terms of services
and their current disruptions, in order to better understand where the industry
is coming from and how it stands now. Chapter 1 focuses on the network and
controllayerevolution.Itfirstintroducesbroadbandnetworkevolutionasahigh-
way for services, with the Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) optical access network
andtheLong-TermEvolution(LTE)wirelessaccessnetwork.Itthendepictsthe
convergent core network evolution of fixed and mobile all-IP networks. It also
dealswiththeevolutionofthecontrollingandenablinglayer.Chapter2surveys
howthe applicationlayeris evolvingtowardsa convergenceoftelecomandWeb
services. Applications have been the main driver for the incredible growth of
OTTs. Telcos are now preparing to open up their assets to third-party service
providers to enrich their application offerings. In addition, service composition
has become a key value-added capability that enables end-users to adapt ser-
vices for their own needs. The requirements for service delivery (e.g., identity
management, service brokering, service enablers) are presented first, followed
by a survey of the various service delivery solutions, with their strengths and
weaknesses. Chapter 3 is a showcase focusing on Value-added services (VAS).
It contains an in-depth anthology of the evolution of the techniques supporting
the creation of Value-added services. This includes a break-down of the funda-
mental building blocks and how these building blocks are used to build VAS for
the evolving/future multi-access multimedia communication networks. Chapter
4 presents the current trends in the standardization landscape, from the per-
spective of a standard development organization(SDO). It describes the recent
key technical achievements, as well as the standardization process and the col-
laboration between different SDOs.
The second part highlights the new issues raised by the rise of the OTTs
and the possible medium-term strategies beyond the IMS/NGN paradigm. The
importance of an ecosystem model is emphasized, as well as the key regulation
principlesofthetelecommarketandtheirevolution.Chapter5recallsthehistory
of the VoIP standards that paved the way to many OTT multimedia communi-
cation offers. Chapter 6 comes back to the main assumptions that have driven
the construction of telecom architectures during the last ten years (with the
NGN paradigm), investigates how these assumptions were or were not realized,
and offers perspectives for the future. Chapter 7 presents an IT viewpoint on
standardization.Itespeciallyquestionswhen,why,andhowtheabsenceofstan-
dards might be a strength. Beyond standardization, it introduces the “common
platform”model andits importance for the IT mindset. Itemphasizes the main
optionsfor building suchplatforms(e.g., open-sourceor ecosystems).Chapter8
investigates the shifts in the roles of players and business models. It details the
respectivestrengthsandweaknessesoftelcosandOTTplayers,andinvestigates
whetheranecosystemmodelissuitablefortelcos.Chapter9dealswiththeshifts
in public regulation. The telecom operator business is indeed highly driven by
Preface IX
regulation. This chapter details the current regulatory trends, for both telcos
and Web players. It also addresses net neutrality issues.
Thelastpartisdedicatedtothelong-termserviceevolutiondrivenbyfuture
Internet research, especially virtualization, the Internet of Things, and service
engineering.Chapter 10surveysthe rise ofthe servicemarketplaceandapplica-
tionstores,aswellbothnativeandWebapps.Itdetailshowtelcosmaycompete
in this area with a three-screen strategy (i.e., PC, mobile, TV). Chapter 11 ex-
plainstheriseofcloudcomputingandhowtelcosmightoperatecloudservicesin
a de-perimeterized way, i.e., independently of access networks or regional mar-
kets. Chapter 12 focuses on the corresponding network function virtualization
and software-defined network trends. It introduces the new network architec-
ture models and technologies (e.g., Open Flow), and shows how telcos may ex-
ploit it for more economic service provision. Chapter 13 presents the stakes and
challenges of the emerging Web of Things by applying the lessons learned from
currentmachine-to-machine(M2M)services.Italsointroducespossiblebusiness
opportunities for telcos in the Web of Things. Chapter 14 covers the shifts in
serviceconsumption.Itintroducesthe paradigmshiftfromproductstoservices,
as well as the key concepts from service science and engineering. This chapter
providesaprospectiveviewonservicescustomizedaccordingtoindividualneeds,
along with a detailed survey of the researchon that topic.
We would like to thank all of the authors for their diligent efforts and out-
standingcontributionstomakingthisbookareality.Wehopereaderswillenjoy
reading the book and come to some fresh insights on this challenging field.
Emmanuel Bertin
Noel Crespi
Thomas Magedanz
Table of Contents
Part I: History and Perspectives on the Telecom
Standardized Assets
Network and Control Platforms.................................... 1
Marius Corici, Julius Mu¨ller, Dragos Vingarzan, and
Thomas Magedanz
Telecom Applications, APIs and Service Platforms ................... 25
Niklas Blum, Julius Mu¨ller, Florian Schreiner, and
Thomas Magedanz
Value Added Services in the Evolving Multimedia Communication
Network ........................................................ 47
Rogier Noldus
NGN Standardization as a Strength ................................ 77
Alain Sultan and Ultan Mulligan
Part II: A New Competitive Landscape between
Operators, Device Makers and OTT Service
Providers; Why Are the Operators Challenged and
How they Can Compete
A Short History of VoIP Services .................................. 90
Dorgham Sisalem, Jiri Kuthan, and J¨org Ott
NGN Shortcomings .............................................. 111
Luc Le Beller, S´ebastien Cubaud
An IT Perspective on Standards, Service Architectures and
Platforms ....................................................... 118
John O’Connell
A Review: What Matters for Ecosystem Business Strategy ............ 138
Quoc-Tuan Nguyen and Nicolai Schultz
New Regulatory Approaches in an Evolving Market Structure ......... 155
Nadia Trainar
Part III: New Opportunities, Future Battlefields
Virtualizing Devices.............................................. 182
Andr´e Paul and Stephan Steglich