The Family Portal: Combining IMS and the Web

With IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), operators can provide users with converged and advanced services. IMS lets users accessing services independently of the communicating device, hence providing real convergence of services. This paper presents an application which integrates the Web 2.0 technologies with IMS. This novel application called Family Portal facilitates an IMS Voice solution that is ubiquitously available on heterogeneous devices, fixed and mobile alike. The solution includes an innovative device, the IMS Smartdongle that allows the user to make phone call from any PC by simply inserting the Smartdongle into the USB port. The user can initiate calls using a contact list also hosted by the Smartdongle. Calls can also be made via a Web page accessed by a browser on the mobile phone. The Family Portal would hopefully improve communications between family members.