A reuse-driven approach for rapid telephone service creation

The ability to differentiate a telephone service offering quickly, reliably and cost-effectively can give service providers and network operators a competitive edge, attracting more customers and revenue. Customers can also improve their own telecommunications productivity depending on their business needs, thereby increasing their revenues and reducing costs. This paper advocates a reuse-driven service creation environment (SCE) in which the service independent building block (SIB) concept will be of great benefit to all the participants of the advanced intelligent network (AIN)-the telephone companies, the customers, and the equipment vendors. It discusses the easiness and flexibility of the SIB approach in helping service designers and also service subscribers with different skill levels in rapid service definition, creation and customization. The effectiveness of the SIB approach is demonstrated by the empirical results of the new telephone services developed in our SCE. To achieve the goals of AIN, additional works in producing a commercial grade SCE are also presented.<<ETX>>