The Open IMS Playground in the Spotlight

In face of current and upcoming European testbed projects and initiatives such as PII (Pan European Laboratory Infrastructure Implementation), OneLab2 (Open Federated Networking Laboratory) and the FIRE (Future Internet Research and Experimentation) Initiative, the importance of extensive testing of emerging telecommunication technology platforms, paradigms and services, even in early design stages, is beyond doubt.

Overview of IMS and NGN at FOKUS

The Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS, known as a leading research institute in the field of open communication systems, has launched the “Open IMS Playground” in July 2004.

The FOKUS Open IMS Playground is a testbed that brings together all major IMS core components (especially the FOKUS Open Source IMS Core), originating from own developments and major industry players. The Playground is a unique open and vendor-independent NGN/IMS test environment that can be used as a testbed by academic and industrial institutions for early prototyping of new NGN/IMS related components, protocols, and applications, as well as for testing and benchmarking of components.

Also, the interconnection to other IMS testbeds worldwide is currently in process in order to allow the experience of IMS concepts and IMS services to be shared with partners.