INFORMATION DELIVERED

Technology provides the foundation for the communications industry, but sometimes it can get in the way of a great idea.

To help communication service providers (CSPs) integrate and orchestrate IP-based multimedia services across disparate network domains, an architectural framework called IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) was introduced to the communications industry. However, while this new technology continues to mature, highly successful internet players—such as Google, Skype, Facebook, and MySpace—have taken the lead in service innovation and are raising customer expectations about integrated functionality and high-quality customer experiences.

So how can traditional, enterprise-level CSPs compete with these internet leaders and deliver services that hit the mark? Oracle offers CSPs a way to deliver new IP multimedia and converged services incrementally, so they can increase revenue now and grow toward a complete IP Multimedia

Setting the Stage for IP Multimedia Services

Using a Service Delivery Platform and Standards-Based Information Technology

Successfully Competing with the Internet Players

Communication service providers need IMS to gain a competitive advantage. However, because the immediate and pressing priority for CSPs is to create ways they can compete effectively with more-nimble and innovative internet players, making a clear business case for a full IMS implementation can be difficult. CSPs need solutions that accelerate their time to market for IP-based multimedia capabilities and services. They need to foster the multiparty ecosystems that can drive service innovation. And they need a way to deliver carrier-grade advantages to the mix—advantages that internet players will struggle to match.

Oracle Service Delivery Platform is a standards-based software environment that helps CSPs define a clear path to revenue and reduce implementation risks in the short term. Oracle Service Delivery Platform can also help establish a strong business case for full IMS implementations in the long term.

The Upside and Downside of IMS

Over the next five years, IMS will dissolve the boundaries between wireless and wired networks so that network domains no longer matter. CSPs are using IMS to deliver carrier-grade networking, reliability, accounting, and security to a range of multimedia services. The plan is to deliver an “industrial strength” platform on which global enterprises and consumer-content providers can build their future strategies. In the short term, however, CSPs are facing accelerated competition from the internet—competition that is threatening their ability to capitalize on the long-term opportunities that IMS is intended to create.

Time-to-Market Pressures Persist

IMS is a highly complex architecture that could introduce significant risk and expense if it were rushed into production to tackle short-term market challenges. Essentially, IMS was designed as a long-term solution based on a complete implementation. It is an all-or-nothing approach; there is no short-term “killer application” to justify making its development and deployment a top priority.

In addition, critical aspects of IMS still need to be fleshed out and tested. For example, aspects of the service-layer functions, such as creation, delivery, and orchestration, are not specifically defined. Also, interoperability among components is a documented problem.

Because IMS is still immature, it doesn’t yet benefit from the economies of scale exhibited by

“As a leading provider of communications services in Korea, KTF prides itself on rapidly delivering innovative new services that make customers excited about doing business with us. To achieve our goals, we require great flexibility, scalability, and the ability to evolve our offerings quickly and with high quality. With the release of Oracle Communication and Mobility Server, Oracle Service Delivery Platform provides these capabilities in a well-crafted, standards-based platform.”

HyungSik Kim

Director

The Internet Surges Ahead

The reality in the communications industry today is that strong internet players, such as Google and Skype, have already moved ahead of CSPs by

• Providing innovative and exciting services

• Driving massive uptakes of new services in short periods of time • Delivering services across communications network domains

The Pace of Change Is Accelerating

Google, YouTube, and Skype have already taken the lead in a number of ways. These internet businesses are able to create and launch new services quickly because they aren’t held back by fragmented, legacy IT infrastructures. S E R V IC E P R O L IF E R A T IO N S E R V I C E R E V E N U E S

CSPs

Figure 1: Agile internet players have become a formidable competitive force for more-traditional CSPs.

These internet businesses are able to create and launch new services quickly because they aren’t held back by fragmented, legacy IT infrastructures. In contrast, CSPs (like many other long-established companies) rely heavily on separate siloed solutions and fragmented information systems. These legacy systems hinder a CSP’s ability to adapt rapidly and compete successfully.

In addition, a reliance on numerous technology silos drives up business costs. Product and customer information is spread across redundant IT infrastructures that aren’t merged effectively—and this disconnected, siloed information makes doing business even more difficult. In the meantime, CSP customers are expecting bundled products; integrated, personalized services; and a pleasant customer experience that is based on a complete understanding of their preferences, buying habits, and service history.

Meeting the Competition

Thriving internet players are successfully delivering cross-domain, multimedia services that do not require a sophisticated signaling and orchestration infrastructure. They are also proving that corporations are willing to use internet-based communications services when the functionality and price are right. Unfortunately, this success diverts potential revenue away from tried-and-true CSPs.

For example, Google can deliver nearly all of its services on internet-capable mobile handsets such as the iPhone. And an increasing number of businesses and individuals are using Skype to access inexpensive global communications, both PC-to-PC and PC-to-telephone. Skype integrates voice, instant messaging, presence, and video-conferencing capabilities into one simple and accessible application, and has now moved into the mobile domain.

In addition, internet video is exploding across all channels. YouTube video clips are now commonly seen on network television broadcasts, even though YouTube was conceived with user-generated content in mind. Organizations such as the English Premiere League, the National Basketball Association (NBA), NBC News, and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have made their content and programming accessible over the internet, with and without paid subscriptions. NBA games and Premiere League matches—once limited to broadcast, cable, and satellite television—are now available anywhere in the world via the internet.

Retake the Lead with Quality, Reliability, and Security

With all the multimedia services available on the internet today (and all the services available for free or for an extremely low cost), CSPs cannot wait for IMS to rescue their businesses from internet competition. The competition is here today; it is real and needs to be met head-on with comparable or superior offerings.

CSPs have an opportunity to attract and build highly valuable partner ecosystems that will help them innovate beyond the current leading internet businesses. By matching the kinds of services that internet companies provide and then adding telecommunication services that the internet leaders can’t match, CSPs can retake the lead. But to do this, they must incorporate quality, reliability, security, content protection, and accounting/billing into their offerings.

Reclaiming the Leadership Position

By matching the kinds of services that internet companies provide— and then adding telecommunication services that the internet leaders can’t match—CSPs can retake the lead.

Bringing the Interactive, Multiservice Vision to Market

Traditional CSP infrastructures need a standards-based, easily accessible service layer that makes key underlying capabilities—such as presence, location, charging, and messaging— available so that partners can incorporate them into their own offerings. This standards-based service layer—ideally built on a proven and preintegrated service delivery platform (SDP) infrastructure—must be practical enough to be delivered rapidly and with minimal risk. It should leverage the networks, IT infrastructures, and skill sets that CSP organizations already have, and it must also provide a fast path to revenue that justifies the business case. At the same time, the service layer must highlight the advantages it brings as a long-term services strategy and a mature IMS technology base.

Creating a Network-Agnostic Service Layer

An effective service layer cuts across product silos, building on them and pulling them together without actually merging or migrating them. The goal is to transform the service layer before implementing IMS so that services are no longer network-specific, but rather are “network-agnostic” and able to traverse IP-based domains fluidly.

Figure 2: With an SDP-based service layer, CSPs can bridge silos to unify their products and service offerings.

In addition, the service layer must draw upon the capabilities, or enablers—including subscription management, charging, logging, quality of service, policy enforcement, and security—that are embedded in the IT infrastructure. Because these capabilities are not inherent to internet-based solutions, they are critical competitive differentiators for CSPs.

Today’s Reality

Vertical Networks (single service)

Tomorrow

Horizontal Network (multiservices)

Services

Transport, Switching, and Access Networks Services Access PARTNERS CONTENT Access Access M O B IL E FI X E D FI X E D W LA N S E R V IC E S E N V IR O N M E N T IP M U LT IM E D IA N E T W O R K

Taking Advantage of the Power of Enablers

Enablers are the building blocks of compelling, integrated services. Enablers use a simple Java or Web-services interface to shield other systems that call on them from the complexities of the underlying network. By managing services as sets of enablers, developers can create services that use and rely on network capabilities—a key approach to “future-proofing” service development. Managing services as sets of enablers also isolates services from network specifics, allowing more-sophisticated, cross-domain services than can currently be found on the internet.

A well-defined enabler brings underlying network technology features and settings into a component that can be tied into a service and delivered predictably. Enablers help stabilize application development by providing developers with a common way to use the capabilities of the component—regardless of which protocol extensions are being used. This common way of using the capabilities enables migration at the network level. It also allows integration with existing and future network elements to be carried out incrementally without the wholesale replacement of silos.

By supporting a broad range of Java, Web-based, or even C-based application programming interfaces (APIs), enablers offer many integration scenarios—from in-house development to integration with third parties. CSPs have the option of either implementing a particular feature in-house or outsourcing it.

Enablers that encapsulate commonly required capabilities allow operators to consolidate and share operational support system/business support system (OSS/BSS) functionality across multiple services. Consolidation across multiple networks and multiple network technologies is critical for the convergence of wireless, wired, and broadband networks. Having a unified view of the systems for identity management, charging, subscriber profiles, customer relationship management, and partner relationship management makes migrating services across network technologies and vendors significantly more cost-effective than service-centric or silo-based approaches.

Liberate Services from the Underlying Network

Enablers abstract underlying network characteristics into a ready-to-use component that can be tied into a service and delivered predictably, which helps to

• Expose the network capabilities

to application developers in a common way

• Stabilize application development

with respect to underlying network technology

• Conduct integration with

existing and future network elements incrementally

Empowering the Partner Ecosystem

Industries that develop the world’s most compelling content and applications—industries such as broadcasting, music, film, gaming, and software—will be attracted to services that

• Allow them to secure their intellectual property

• Let them target and profit from their products through new, market-of-one channels • Offer the quality and reliability they want to associate with their brands

Open, Standards-Based Technology Eases the Way

An SDP-based service layer must be built on standards (for example, a common technology such as J2EE) to make it easily accessible. As a result, partners can easily leverage the capabilities of the service layer to create new services. The simpler this process is, the faster new revenue streams can be built, and the sooner CSPs can bring new products—products that are superior to those currently found on the internet—to market.

In addition to a standards-based service layer, CSPs must also embrace service-oriented architecture (SOA) concepts. With an open SOA, core capabilities (such as those shown in Table 1) are made available to third parties as well-defined, reusable components that can be called upon as needed.

Multichannel messaging Web and mobile access

Presence Charging

Call control Device management Application routing Policy execution Media server control Unified user profiles

Voice access Location

Table 1: CSPs must make core capabilities available to their partners using an open platform approach.

With an open, standards-based platform, partners can combine their own content and applications with specific underlying capabilities that users can request, configure, and interact with on demand. In addition, partners can create and quickly take to market well-defined, SOA-based services—because the services already incorporate key business and technical requirements such as charging, policy execution, and device management.

Giving Users Real-Time Interaction

Service approaches that allow components to be used individually can be helpful to both consumer and enterprise services. For example, Korea Telecom Freetel (KTF) used this component approach to deliver its multimedia instant messaging service, which combines a real-time buddy list with text and video chat, file transmission, and video-sharing capabilities. With KTF’s video sharing, up to four users can open simultaneous video channels for real-time video chatting. While chatting, users can send each other images and video files, and share real-time video with buddies. This video-sharing capability uses application routing and media server control.

BT is also pursuing an SDP-based service-layer approach. To maximize the value of its 21st Century Network (21CN) program, in which it has invested significant resources, BT is implementing its Innovation Platform to provide a single service-development and deployment environment for both internal groups and external partners. The company is recruiting independent application developers by using a well-defined, standards-based approach that allows developers to access core carrier-grade capabilities such as billing and provisioning. By instituting a common design process built on reusable service components, BT can deploy network-agnostic applications that cross domains and are not limited or affected by ongoing network transformations.

The Enterprise Angle

While companies such as KTF often focus on the consumer services market, the service-layer strategy also has significant applicability for the enterprise. Increasingly, enterprises are deploying communications-dependent technologies that enable commerce, improve supply chains and distribution channels, and generate and collect revenue.

Consider, for example, mobile logistics applications that leverage messaging and location capabilities. Such applications could tap into remote radio frequency identification (RFID) scanners that actively track products or inventory throughout a logistical process—driving just-in-time inventory for manufacturers and enabling end-to-end delivery tracking for major retailers. Companies such as UPS have spent billions to build this kind of functionality for themselves, and CSPs are now in a position to provide these capabilities as well.

Deploying Network-Agnostic Applications

BT’s Innovation Platform is based on Oracle Service Delivery Platform, and is designed to maximize the value of BT’s 21CN program. This allows the company to

• Create a single

service-development and deployment environment for both internal groups and external partners

• Institute a common design

process built on reusable service components

• Provide developers with access to

core carrier-grade capabilities such as billing and provisioning

Delivering Realistic IMS

Oracle provides the standards-based and preintegrated technology components that allow CSPs to

• Deliver converged, interactive,

multimedia services in advance of IMS network deployments

• Tap into multiple innovation

streams to boost the productivity of new services

• Use the entire concept-to-cash

value chain to drive better business performance

Better Billing, Charging, and Usage Data

CSPs can gain tremendous value from billing, charging, and usage-data-collection infrastructures. Although the advertising model works for a company such as Google, it’s only one approach. Accounting for service usage, measuring and identifying user traffic, and modeling user preferences based on historical data can also be extremely valuable to all business partners. For example, consider that television advertising rates are based on Nielsen ratings that collect only a rough statistical sample from a limited number of homes. A billing-and-usage-measurement infrastructure, however, can provide insight into individual user needs, providing significantly more value for sponsors and advertisers. In addition, billing and charging capabilities encourage interactive advertising and product purchasing.

Value in Secure Transactions

Location, presence, security, application routing, policy execution, and usage accounting provide the basis for new forms of embedded transactions and secure commerce—beyond what the internet offers. With a rapidly growing number of point-of-service terminals, ATMs, e-wallet applications, self-help kiosks, public digital advertising, and biometric surveillance devices, there is a need for secure financial, logistical, and personal data transactions across global network infrastructures.

Relieving the In-House Technology Burden

Many companies are increasingly reliant on IT capabilities for their daily business, so they have a great need to relieve the burden placed on in-house technology departments. A CSP using an SDP-based service layer can attract businesses in this situation by offering services that provide clear and measurable business value. Relieving the burden for today’s in-house technology groups is an area where internet players are competing poorly or not at all, giving CSPs an edge and helping them add depth and value to their service offerings.

From Concept to Cash with Oracle

Oracle delivers the standards-based, preintegrated technology components necessary for a pragmatic, SDP-based service-layer strategy for CSPs. Based on a concept-to-cash approach (see Figure 3), Oracle helps CSPs follow a six-stage process that includes

• Concept creation • Service design • Campaign execution • Service fulfillment • Usage charging

• Billing and accounts receivable Oracle in the

Communications Industry

Top companies around the world use Oracle Applications, including all 20 of the top 20 CSPs.

2 3 4 5 6 1

All You Need from a Single Vendor

Only Oracle provides all the components necessary to create a revenue-focused and pragmatic approach to competing and succeeding in the world of converged, interactive, multimedia services. Oracle offers CSPs the right combination of capabilities to suit their needs, including enterprise resource planning; customer relationship management; billing and revenue management; business intelligence and analytics; service fulfillment; open application integration architecture; leading middleware; a carrier-grade framework; and a proven, preintegrated SDP platform.

Oracle delivers business strategies that reflect our experience in operations, customer service, and service delivery. In addition, Oracle provides CSPs with IT strategies, applications, and support. Oracle solutions for communication service providers deliver the innovation and economies of scale that let you successfully compete with internet players—not only in today’s market, but in the markets of tomorrow.

Oracle Corporation Worldwide Headquarters 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood Shores, CA 94065 U.S.A. Worldwide Inquiries Phone