IMS service enhancement layer: A quantitative value proposition: Research Articles

A key advantage of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is that it promotes the development of innovative multimedia services. Alcatel-Lucent's service enhancement layer is an improvement to the standard IMS core implementation, having functional elements for service coordination, data integration, and policy enablement. This layer is instrumental in enhancing the IMS core capabilities through mediation of service interactions, data consolidation and federation, and knowledge of user state and preferences, and thus personalization of services offered over diverse network elements. Elements in this layer are key differentiators for Alcatel-Lucent against the competition. Several papers have been written to describe the elements in this layer from a feature and functionality viewpoint. In this paper, we capture the quantitative value of this layer, from the perspective of an operator. We present a technoeconomic analysis for an IMS-enabled “blended lifestyle” implementation of selected services, comparing the results for implementation with and without the service enhancement layer. © 2007 Alcatel-Lucent.