A FLEXIBLE MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE FOR THE SUPPORT OF ADVANCED BUSINESS MODELS IN 3G MOBILE SERVICE PROVISION

3rd generation mobile communication networks (3G) have been heralded as a paradigm shift that will irreversibly change the structure of the telecommunications industry. In an ideal "3G world", users will be offered ubiquitous access to an abundance of value-added services (VASs), which will be typically the result of co-operation between many contributing market players in the frame of innovative business paradigms. The path to the realization of this vision, though, will not be easy, as also indicated by the mediocre success of current pre-3G data services based on technologies like WAP and GPRS. It is commonly recognized that the creation of a dynamic marketplace in the emerging 3G era, where complex inter-domain interactions will be commonplace, will substantially raise the bar on the respective management frameworks. The present contribution deals with service provision aspects in 3G network environments and particularly focuses on advanced business models involving multiple entities and their support by mediating service management platforms. We identify the potential of service management frameworks in the context of 3G mobile services and provide a high-level presentation of such a distributed framework that we have designed and developed. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the latter is able to be a catalyst for flexible, adaptable service provision over 3G networks and beyond, while supporting sophisticated business paradigms.