Providing middleware support for the control and co-ordination of telecom mashups

The emerging Web 2.0 marketplace presents an important opportunity for Telecom operators to sell their own capabilities and content as services. Operators have a wealth of content associated with their network as well as core network enablers, e.g. call control, presence and messaging, which could serve as potential new revenue streams in a Web 2.0 world. Moreover, with the looming threat from Internet companies, there is an increasing need for operators to make both core and value-added functions reusable and mashable. To this end, operators are gradually embracing the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and looking at developing next-generation of SIP-based applications that can be mashed up in innovative ways. However, to do so, IMS/SIP-based services need to be empowered with the necessary co-ordination capabilities required in a mashup environment. This, in turn, implies protocol-level control to be rendered to the mashup developer - an issue that has not been sufficiently addressed by the community. We highlight the need for middleware support in facilitating the co-ordination of Telecom mashups, and describe an architecture that provides the necessary runtime control and mediation in an IMS-based operator network.