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Next Generation Service Delivery Networks: A Strategic Approach Involving

Architectural Planning and Design, from a Business Perspective

Conference Paper · May 2009

DOI: 10.1109/AICT.2009.74 · Source: DBLP

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Pre-print:
N. Kryvinska, C. Strauss, “Next Generation Service Delivery Networks: A Strategic Approach Involving Architectural Planning and Design,
from a Business Perspective”, The Fifth IEEE Advanced International Conference on Telecommunications (AICT 2009), WebTel 2009, May
24-28, 2009 - Venice, Italy, pp. 410 – 415, ISBN: 978-0-7695-3611-8.

Next Generation Service Delivery Networks: a Strategic Approach Involving

Architectural Planning and Design, from a Business Perspective

Natalia Kryvinska, Christine Strauss

Department of eBusiness, Faculty of Business, Economics and Statistics, University of Vienna,
Bruenner Strasse 72, A-1210 Vienna, Austria
e-mail: natalia.kryvinska@univie.ac.at, christine.strauss@univie.ac.at

Abstract—The crucial challenge that communications industry
has been wrestling with is the issue of how the underlying
technologies should evolve and be used to help service
providers remain competitive in an environment that for many
years has been marked by increased rivalry and deregulation.
Next Generation Network with its decomposed architecture
addresses this challenge by taking full advantage of
sophisticated technologies both to offer new services that
increase service providers’ revenues and to reduce the
providers' operating costs. A strategy for evolving smoothly
from modern networks to this new network structure is
essential in order to minimize the required investment during
the transition phase. However, any steps that are taken during
this transition must make it easier for the networks to
ultimately evolve to the NGN. The migration strategy proposed
and explored in this paper enables the development of a
capable concept of changes in the way networks are structured,
and pays particular attention to the business needs of diverse
service providers and network operators in doing so.
Keywords- Next Generation Network (NGN), Service
Delivery Platform (SDP), Migration Schemes, Evolutional
Framework, Modeling Process, Planning Methodology,
Evolution Strategy.
I. INTRODUCTION
Next Generation Networks (NGNs) is a concept that
brings together the collection of changes taking place in the
way networks are structured. It is a direction for the industry
to take, with the speed of deployment depending very much
on the specific business needs of differing organizations.
The most important principle of the NGN is flexibility.
The flexibility that is needed by established operators to
adapt their networks to the changing marketplace, the
flexibility that new operators need to set up viable and
profitable businesses, and the flexibility needed to provide
business users with fixed and mobile services that will
enhance the way they work and residential users with a
whole raft of leisure services.
Similarly important is the pronounced need among end
users for an ever greater variety of new services and
applications, including multimedia, the majority of which
were not even envisaged when modern networks were
established. From the operators’ viewpoint, transport no
longer provides sufficient profits, so in future they will need
to offer end users an extensive range of useful and easy-to-
use services in order to remain competitive. Consequently,
the NGN must be service-driven, providing all the means
needed to offer new services and customize existing ones in
order to generate future revenue.
The evolution towards NGN has now started to be
possible, because the principles of service creation platforms
and the separation of service logic are readily extendible to
NGN. The cost-effective enabling technologies that can
make NGN a reality are now commercially available.
Moreover, market dynamics are putting pressure on
operators to react to flat or declining revenues and margins
on converged services.
It is true that NGN is based on complexity. However, the
modern global network is one in which numerous
generations of switches coexist, in which circuit and packet-
switched networks operate alongside one another, and in
which fixed and mobile networks work together uneasily.
From this viewpoint, NGN thus looks less complex than
modern networks and also offers considerable savings in
operating costs [1, 2, 3].
II. MIGRATION SCHEMES TO THE NEXT GENERATION
NETWORK
The guidelines for evolving smoothly from modern
networks to the new network structures are essential in order
to minimize the required investment during the transition
phase, while taking early advantage of the qualities of NGN
architecture [5].
A. Decomposing NGN architecture into layers
The NGN architecture, as shown in Figure 1,
decomposes the monolithic blocks of traditional switches
into individual network layers, which interwork via standard
open interfaces. The basic call processing intelligence is
essentially decoupled from the switching matrix hardware.
This intelligence now resides in a separate device, called a
softswitch (also known as a media gateway controller or call
agent), which acts as the controlling element in the new
architecture. Open interfaces towards new application
servers facilitate rapid service provisioning and ensure short
time-to-market.
At the media layer, special media servers implement a
variety of functions, such as providing dialing tones or
announcements. The media servers' more advanced functions
include interactive voice response and text-to-speech or Thus, the process of advanced technology modeling must
speech-to-text conversion [4, 6]. be broken down into three parts that may be applied
sequentially or in isolation. The first part considers the
Softswitch
applicability of the technology. The second part considers
different abstractions of the technologies. The third part
evaluates the technology using a range of perspectives [8, 9].
Network
Network service
service layer
layer

Control
Control layer
layer
A. Applicability
Media
Media layer
layer This part considers a set of factors that determine
PSTN CO
Access
Access and
and transport
transport layer
layer
whether the technology should be deployed. The
applicability constraints of a particular model organize the
status of a technology and specific factors to facilitate
comparison and representation. Some of the identified
Enterprise
Enterprise
Remote
Remote office
Small
office
Small office
office
Residential
Residential Mobile
Mobile applicability constraints include:
customers users users
customers Home office
Home office
users users
• timeliness - the time needed by technologies to
mature and stabilize must be evaluated and taken into
Figure 1. Decomposed NGN architecture. consideration in migration and evolution strategies;
• installed network base - the applicability of a
B. Defining the advantages of new technologies technology is dependent on the existing network
Open interfaces at each network layer enable a network infrastructure and its capabilities. The installed
operator to select the best vendor for each layer. Packet- network places constraints on future technologies and
based transport allows flexible bandwidth dimensioning, and introduces interoperability requirements;
thus makes the management network structures easier. Fewer • financial - the cost of technologies in relation to
but more powerful call control entities in the network allow possible returns will determine whether or not they
more efficient upgrading of the software in the nodes that are acceptable. Financial calculations can be
control the network, thereby reducing operating expenses. performed, combining service revenues, investments,
Going beyond the technological issues, deregulation has running costs and general economic inputs to obtain
a considerable influence on an operator’s mode of suitable financial reports.
functioning. Through a process known as “local-loop • marketing - technologies are only applicable if there
unbundling”, government regulators around the world are is an existing or perceived demand for the services
forcing incumbent operators to open their doors to rival being offered;
companies. Once inside the exchange, these alternative • geographic - the physical deployment of a technology
carriers should be able to compete for local customers by has bearing on its applicability [8, 10].
taking direct control over the “last mile” of copper. This
development is leading to increased competition between
incumbent operators operating outside their traditional B. The abstraction
regions and new network operators who all want to win the This part represents different conceptual abstractions of
most valuable customers with the highest spending on the same technology or network. Abstractions provide a
telecommunication services. NGNs are well suited to support reference to compare architectures:
the network architectures and business models enabled by • functional - represents an abstract view of the
deregulation [4, 5, 7]. functional relationships and interfaces without regard
for physical implementation;
• physical - represents an abstract view of the elements
III. EVOLUTIONAL FRAMEWORK AND MODELING or building blocks and their connections and
PROCESS FOR THE NGN protocols;
An architectural evolution involves both technical and • implementation view - views the complete application
technology management issues. At the technical level, of the technology with regard to the relevant physical,
complex problems come out in interfacing equipment, connection, dimensioning, and geographic
interworking between protocols, and adaptation between information [8, 11].
architectures. At a technology level, network operators face
increasingly complex issues when assessing emerging C. Perspectives
technologies for providing advanced services. Making
comparisons of competing technologies and understanding This part organizes the characteristics of a technology for
the interrelationships and dependencies between consideration on an Abstraction. The perspectives are related
complementary technologies are extremely important for the to the information represented in an abstraction. For
design and modeling of the framework. example, the signaling perspective isolates technologies
responsible for signaling from technologies performing other
functions. With regard to the particular case of advanced
service provision, some of the identified perspectives
include:
• management - applied to a technology is representing
the management requirements, which is sub-divided
into network and service management concerns;
• service control - contains entities that perform
intelligent processing and database access;
• call control - represents all entities responsible for
end-to-end network provision;
• protocols - are concerned with representing the
protocol stack. The entities are mapped to reasonable
representations of the OSI software model;
• signaling - has a relationship to the management,
service control and call perspectives, between each of
these perspectives, reference points are established
across which protocol and signaling consistency must
be maintained;
• network - represents all entities responsible for end-
to-end network provision [8, 12].
in application and network layer protocols. Intelligent
endpoints have the potential to enable tremendous innovation
in the types of features and functionality available to the
user. This potential is especially compelling when the
endpoint integrates many different services (Figure 3).
The move to push intelligence to the boundaries of the
network, up to the level of the terminal, had started even
before the arrival of the Internet. Telephone sets were
enhanced by adding memory to store frequently dialed
numbers and to support features such as last number redial.
Advanced functions such as an integrated answering
machine or fax were added later and were even followed by
such features as a web browser, e-mail, etc. However, this
evolution does not necessarily imply that all intelligence is
removed from the network core. On the contrary, many new
features can only be realized through a combination of
intelligence in the terminal and in the network.
Intelligent Service Session Layer

IV. MANAGEMENT/CONTROL IN NGN AND NETWORK Service

Service Service
Service Service
Service
INTELLIGENCE FOR FEATURES FUNCTIONALITY Session
Session Agent
Agent Session
Session Agent
Agent Session
Session Agent
Agent

The call processing and services development API API

environments define the intelligence, flexibility, and
interoperability that have been driving services, reliability,
Intelligent
Intelligent Intelligent
Intelligent Intelligent
Intelligent Intelligent
Intelligent
and thus, the revenues. terminal
terminal terminal
terminal terminal
terminal terminal
terminal

Intelligent Call Control Layer

Service Logic Services Plane:
Voice
Voice Services
Services Logic
Logic Distributed platform
Data
Data Services
Services Logic
Logic
Mutimedia
Mutimedia Services
Services Logic
Logic
Converged
Converged Services
Services Logic
Logic
Figure 3. Next generation network intelligence architecture.
Call Logic Call Control Plane:
A similar tendency can be observed in the IT world.
Signaling
Signaling and
Service
and Call
Call Control
Control Although PCs were originally designed to operate in a
Service Access
Access Function
Function
standalone mode, most of them are now connected to a
network in which intelligence is distributed between the PCs
Switching Logic Connection Control Plane: and different servers. In this case, intelligence has not been
Connection
Connection Negotiation
Transcoding
Transcoding
Negotiation removed entirely from the network: many functions still
Bearer
Bearer Switching
Media
Switching reside on the network servers. Examples include security
Media Control
Control
servers (firewalls, admission control, etc), fileservers,
version management of application software on the clients
Figure 2. The generic open call control architecture. (e.g. automatic and remotely controlled upgrading of
applications such as browsers, virus scanners, etc), and so
The NGN underlying packet-switching hardware is on. The key to this evolution is minimum or zero
independent of the call control logic (Figure 2). Likewise, administration using the power of the clients, under the
the call control logic is highly flexible and provides open control of the network operator, while minimizing
interfaces that enable the development of services (Figure 3). configuration and administration costs.
Call control logic and its application programming The examples presented above show that service
interfaces (APIs) have now become flexible enough to intelligence in the terminal should not be thought of as
support services that transcend voice telephony and separate applications, but rather as an integral part of a
encompass data, unified messaging, and multi-media distributed service platform that is largely driven by
services [13, 14]. functions in the network.
In the circuit-switched telephone network, the The requirements with accordance to an extension of
intelligence for feature functionality was provided by service intelligence from the network to the terminal are:
network switches and other servers. The evolution of • control of communication functions on the terminal
functionality has been slow in such networks. On the other by service provider;
hand, IP is based on intelligent endpoints that can participate
 • intelligent terminal adaptation to the characteristics of servers, to enable NGN services on an ubiquitous unified
the terminal on which it runs, as well as to its network infrastructure [17, 18].
environment;
• flexibility to plug in or upgrade application
components and communication protocols; VI. METHODOLOGY FOR THE EVALUATION AND
• intelligent terminal placed in a platform for value- PLANNING
added services and applications; A methodology for planning the evolution and the
• definition of APIs for communications between strategy of a network or services is a requirement when
intelligent terminal and the network [13, 15, 16]. evaluating the high technologies. This methodology is
captured and represented as a process, which is depicted in
Figure 4.
V. SEPARATION OF FUNCTIONS AND DOMAINS IN NGN It is possible to perform an evaluation of specific
As implied by Table 1, NGN has both similarities and circumstances, using this methodology, as there are a
differences with PSTN/IN, as well as with the Internet. But, number of considerations that may significantly influence a
NGN requires a clear separation of functions and domains technology’s feasibility. The initial steps involve the
with the maximum degree of reuse built into the architecture identification and definition of the technical capabilities that
and its components. The three major domains constitute the a technological implementation will deliver. Separately, but
NGN: in parallel, a set of generic business benefits are generated.
• service domain - encompasses the service-related Carefully selected technical application cases can then be
aspects of data and logic, and provides coherent end- developed and analyzed to determine how a particular
to-end functionality to the customer; scenario may further accentuate a potential business benefit.
• transport domain - provides the connectivity As the technical scenarios take place in an existing
requested by the service domain with the required environment, an investigation must be undertaken of both
QoS and within specified policy constraints; market conditions/considerations and of the available
• distributed processing environment (DPE) domain - technology base. These stages provide information for the
provides a ubiquitous middleware infrastructure for assessment of relationships and interactions. Following the
the distributed components of the service and completion of this assessment, the final stage of the process
transport domains to communicate with each other. evaluates the opportunities and threats associated with each
scenario. The feedback arrow indicates that the process is
iterative. For example, further development of technical
TABLE I. THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE PSTN/IN, INTERNET, AND NGN scenarios could provide more information on technical
capabilities [8, 11, 12].
PSTN/IN Internet NGN
QoS-enabled Yes, voice No Yes
Network intelligence Yes No Yes Generic
Generic business
business Technical
Technical capabilities
capabilities
benefits
benefits identification
identification identification
identification
Intelligent CPE No Yes Yes
Semi-
Service architecture Ad hoc Distinct
distinct
Mapping
Mapping capabilities
capabilities
Integrated control and to
to benefits
benefits
No Yes Yes
management
Service reliability High Low High feedback
Technical
Technical
Association
Association potential
potential
Service creation Complex Ad-hoc Systema-tic application
application
benefits
benefits with
with cases
cases
Ease of use of services Medium High High applications
applications development
development
Evolvability/
Low Medium High
modularity Market
Market Investigation
Investigation Technology
Technology
Time to market of conditions
conditions and
and relationships
relationships
Long Short Short Base
Base
services considerations
considerations and
and interactions
interactions
Architecture openness Low High High
Opportunities
Opportunities and
and
threats
threats evaluation
evaluation
The two types of customers (residential and business) are
each depicted as having their own internal networks, with
gateways connecting them to the service provider’s Figure 4. The methodology of evaluation process.
infrastructure. Business networks could also contain servers,
which can be thought of as third-party servers. A. Development of business model(s) for planning
All four types of relationships (e.g., residence-residence, purposes
residence-business, business-residence, and business- Inside of a service engineering approach (Figure 5),
business) need to be supported, with the service provider business modeling is used at two distinct levels: at the
directly or indirectly supplying and supporting components planning level (as input to business design and service
of all three domains, as well as the application content planning) and at the requirements level (as input to service
design, acquisition and management). We evaluate here the business modeling is to understand the detailed requirements
development of business models for planning purposes. for service design [20].
Furthermore, we want to establish why it is important to
build up a business model before new project planning.
In an interview with CIO magazine, Geoffrey Moore VII. CONCLUSIONS
provides a few strategic thoughts from his recently published The vision of information and communication anytime,
book “Dealing with Darwin” [19]. Moore argues that IT anywhere and in any form comes into focus as major players
needs to support the business strategy by providing different begin to position themselves for the radical transformation of
kind of systems and services to support different capabilities, their network and service infrastructures. It has become
according to how each capability is seated within the increasingly clear that a prerequisite realizing such a vision
business strategy. Moore proposes a set of issues that assist is the convergence of the current multiple networks - each
in establishing the enterprise strategy. These are basically employing different transport and control technologies - into
issues involving capabilities and goals. He sets out a few a unified, multiservice, data-centric network offering
questions that have to be answered before every business services at different qualities and costs on open service
modeling begins: platforms. The evolution toward such a vision is undeniably
• What is the most critical thing/goal in every influenced by the growing trends of deregulation in the
business/enterprise? telecommunications industry on one hand, and the rapidly
• Does every team member know that it is the most evolving technological convergence between distributed
critical thing/goal for his enterprise? computing and communications on the other [21, 22].
• And what percentage of time does every team Thus, the evolutional strategy proposed and explored in
member spend on it? this paper enables the development of a proficient concept of
transformations in the way networks are planned, strongly
Service Planning Business Modelling Business Design
considering the business needs of diverse service providers
and network operators.
Ecosystem
Ecosystem Ecosystem
Ecosystem Ecosystem
Ecosystem
Service
Service Plan
Plan Business
Business Modeling
Modeling Business
Business Strategy
Strategy

Enterprise
Enterprise Enterprise
Enterprise Business
Business Platform
Platform
Service
Service Plan
Plan Business
Business Modeling
Modeling Strategy
Strategy REFERENCES
Domain
Domain Domain
Domain Customer
Customer Service
Service
Service
Service Plan
Plan Business
Business Modeling
Modeling Strategy
Strategy
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