Overview
Overview
The IMS architectural blueprint introduced the concept of a Service Capability Interaction Manager (SCIM) within the "SIP Application Server" domain. Whilst the 3GPP Release 6 specification outlines the general need for the capability, it does not strictly define and bound the role of SCIM. It signposts the need for capabilities to address a problem that is common in telecommunications: the orchestration and control of the interaction between "capabilities" in the IMS network. The telecommunications service layer can be conceived as a set of logical, packaged capabilities – or objects – that can be used as building blocks to build a complete service. This broad concept will be familiar to software developers, of course.
In fact, there is no reason to restrict this ability to IMS services; traditional IN equipment performs this task and the deployment of multiple network technologies and Network Elements (NE) provides many opportunities for cross-technology service interaction.
OpenCloud have adopted the term Service Interaction SLEE (SIS) to denote the wider application of the IMS SCIM concept to include “IN” SS7-based circuit-switched network technologies. Rhino SIS provides IN/ SS7 SIS and IMS/SIP SIS capabilities.
The Rhino IMS SIS provides service of IMS services. The Rhino IN SIS provides service interaction of IN switched services.
Regardless of the network and protocol being used to deliver the services, Rhino SIS services may be local (i.e. deployed in the Rhino Service Interaction SLEE) or they may be resident on external platforms – such as a traditional IN Service Control Point (SCP). The physical location of the services is transparent to the SIS.
This approach allows service combinations that have not been possible in the past to be created easily using existing network assets. This means that it now becomes commercially viable to innovate in TDM IN services – creating variants of existing IN services that are targeted as various segments of the customer case.
New service offers can be created from combinations of existing services – be they IMS services or existing IN-based services. The approach also facilitates the migration of existing services onto the Rhino platform.
Using Rhino SIS reduces the operating costs of the network. It uses existing network resources more efficiently and allows existing network resources to be used in new ways.
Using Rhino SIS means that new services may be implemented as pure JAIN SLEE services or as combinations of existing services. Such an approach provides better interaction management and supports the evolutionary adoption of new services and migration to an IMS-based infrastructure.
Migrating Service Platforms
Rhino SIS provides telecommunications operators with a very useful stepping-stone to aid migration from TDM networks to IMS-based networks. It allows the creation of “logical services” which are in fact realised in one or other network. Over time, the actual services can be transitioned from the IN SCP, for example, to an IMS SIP Application Server:
Migration Enabled by Combined IN and IMS SCIM
Existing operators have a combination of different network environments. The illustration shows how the Rhino IMS SCIM provides a mechanism to manage the interaction of new and existing services deployed in IN or IMS networks to be used with all networks.