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Ericsson Review
Combinational services—The pragmatic first step toward all-IP
Written by: Ulf Olsson, and Mats Nilsson
Download PDF file
For a long time, it has been virtually impossible to read a telecommunications trade magazine without being told that the Internet protocol (IP) is the way to the future. Although this article is no exception, it introduces a slight twist: we examine the problems IP is designed to solve, and then go on to look at what is needed or missing in order to build telecommunications networks and products. With these limitations in mind, we describe how Ericsson intends to assist operators in evolving their networks. The evolution will take place in carefully orchestrated steps. In this article, we describe the first phase—combinational services; in a later issue, we will describe the remaining steps or phase in the evolution toward all-IP.
In general, the focus is on multimedia services. That is, in addition to the voice-only person-to-person communication capabilities of today, Ericsson is introducing the ability to add images, video, browser data, game board information, and so on. One notable voice complement already in existence is the tremendously successful short message service (SMS). When building the next generation of data-oriented services, Ericsson will glean all it can from its experience of this service.
Given that the final goal is a unified IP-based environment, the industry needs to approach this goal in a controlled and economically sound fashion, maintaining good business sense along the way. For a while, it seemed as if the players in the market upheld "IP nirvana" as a goal in itself, giving little concern to the actual challenges. The recent market slowdown, however, has given us all pause to step back and rethink the entire IP issue. Might it be possible to provide all, or most, of the promised benefits without discarding everything and starting over? Indeed! This article describes the near- to medium-term steps that the industry must take to reach all-IP.
[First published in Ericsson Review no. 02, 2003]
Download PDF fileFor a long time, it has been virtually impossible to read a telecommunications trade magazine without being told that the Internet protocol (IP) is the way to the future. Although this article is no exception, it introduces a slight twist: we examine the problems IP is designed to solve, and then go on to look at what is needed or missing in order to build telecommunications networks and products. With these limitations in mind, we describe how Ericsson intends to assist operators in evolving their networks. The evolution will take place in carefully orchestrated steps. In this article, we describe the first phase—combinational services; in a later issue, we will describe the remaining steps or phase in the evolution toward all-IP.
In general, the focus is on multimedia services. That is, in addition to the voice-only person-to-person communication capabilities of today, Ericsson is introducing the ability to add images, video, browser data, game board information, and so on. One notable voice complement already in existence is the tremendously successful short message service (SMS). When building the next generation of data-oriented services, Ericsson will glean all it can from its experience of this service.
Given that the final goal is a unified IP-based environment, the industry needs to approach this goal in a controlled and economically sound fashion, maintaining good business sense along the way. For a while, it seemed as if the players in the market upheld "IP nirvana" as a goal in itself, giving little concern to the actual challenges. The recent market slowdown, however, has given us all pause to step back and rethink the entire IP issue. Might it be possible to provide all, or most, of the promised benefits without discarding everything and starting over? Indeed! This article describes the near- to medium-term steps that the industry must take to reach all-IP.
[First published in Ericsson Review no. 02, 2003]
