The Evolution of Open Broadband Network Service Platforms

Today, when broadband Internet and mobile network services have come to the forefront, it is important to be able to create innovative new applications and get them onto the market in timely fashion. To this end, broadband network control functions that up to now have belonged to carriers must be opened to third parties as well (third-party vendors, or ISVs: Independent Software Vendors). This concept of open networks-not only for carriers but also other service providers-in turn enables them to expand their service portfolio, offering a richer variety of services to customers. Global standardization bodies such as the Parlay group and JAIN^TM were formed with the aim of specifying and promoting Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for a wide range of network functions, based on this concept. In this session, representatives of carriers, third-party vendors, and ISVs who support this concept will present and discuss the possibility of the evolution of broadband network service promoted by OpenAPIs.

Chairperson:

Kiyoshi Ueda, Senior Research Engineer, Supervisor, Network Service Systems Laboratories, NTT, was engaged in the research and development of digital switching software, especially in designing the Distributed Switching Node management software from 1989 to1998. He was also active member of ITU-T SG11 and SG7 where he contributed to Open Distributed Network Management Architecture. He is currently responsible for research and development of peer-to-peer network service software. He is a member of IEEE.

Speakers:

Byung-Sun Lee, Director of BcN (Broadband convergence Network) Core Technology Group, ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute), has developed digital switching systems including ATM switching system and softswitch as a project leader for 20 years.. He is currently the member of Board of Directors of the Multiservice Switching Forum (MSF). His research interests include real-time system, software fault-tolerant computing, model-driven development, and open service architecture for the next-generation network.

Fuchun Joseph Lin, Active Executive Director and Chief Scientist, Mobile Networking Research Department, Applied Research of Telcordia Technologies, leads the Mobile Networking Research Department of Telcordia Applied Research in developing research programs for both internal and external customers. Dr. Lin joined Applied Research of Telcordia Technologies in 1992 after four years of work experience at Bell Labs. He currently he is a member of ACM and IEEE.

Roberto Minerva, Manager, Telecom Italia Lab, is responsible for the Competence Area Wireless Network Architecture of Telecom Italy Lab within the Function Network Innovation. Currently his search activities include: the realization of platforms and related middleware components (such as User Profile, Netwok Identity) based on the OSA architecture, the study of programmability solutions for the data architecture of 3GPP (IMS), the study of programmable solutions for controlling the QoS.