The Core Network and its Add-on Components

With the official release of the Open Source IMS Core during the 2nd FOKUS IMS Workshop held in November 2006 in Berlin, FOKUS has once more contributed to the international IMS research community.

The IMS Core source code is ready for download since the 16th of November 2006 under a GNU General Public License on the FOKUS BerliOS (The Open Source Mediator) platform at www.openimscore.org. The system can be freely complemented or extended with own developments.

Joint work with the industry has led to the development of IMS components inline with industry standards and a comprehensive interoperability framework for component testing.  Network operators using the Open IMS Playground can perform interoperability and benchmarking tests on their components while developers creating IMS applications can gain proof-of-concept experience through the numerous available programming platforms. With the release of the Open Source IMS Core the possibilities for joint collaboration have escalated; via the BerliOS platform industry and academia alike can download the source code for the IMS core components and create their own localized IMS platforms as shown in the figure below.  This Open Source approach increases the pool of developers involved in the project and stimulates academia and industry to explore and enhance NGN/IMS technology. The eventual interconnection of these emerging NGN testbeds would further provide skills exchange and would address the globalization of markets.

The FOKUS Open IMS Playground Concept

Currently, we observe network convergence in terms of bandwidth, services and signalization. Similarly, convergence tendencies can be identified between the Internet and mobile networks if we look at VoiP (Voice over IP), or analogously between the Internet and Cable Networks if we look at IPTV (Internet Protocol Television).
“All-IP” networks as key evolution in telecommunication core and access networks are forming a single network that transports all information and services over the Internet Protocol thereby merging the traditional telecom networks with the Internet.

The idea of the FOKUS Open IMS Playground with its Open Source heart beat is that partners can instantiate their own NGN/IMS test environment based on a reasonable Open Source solution fuelled with our add-on components such as IMS clients for mobile and fixed terminals, SIP Applications Servers, and Parlay X Gateways. Additionally, FOKUS provides consulting based on the 5 years experience in NGN and IMS to help partners in experiencing the benefits resulting from the NGN/IMS approach.

Around the Open Source heart beat of the Playground, FOKUS has developed a number of add-on components that are needed for advanced testing scenarios. They are introduced on the component sites.

In addition to our own developments we have integrated several partner components into the Open IMS Playground which can be used for interoperability testing and benchmarking.