Roles of the network in next generation IP services

IP services are expanding in scope from server-based services, such as email and WWW, to end-to-end communication services, such as instant messaging and IP telephony. This trend indicates the potential for the emergence of new services and new forms of communication. However, there are new issues to be solved if we are to provide secure, easy-to-use, and convenient end-to-end communication. These issues relate to security, service specifications and quality. This paper identifies the need for and role of network functions for supporting end-to-end communication. It then proposes session control (using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)), related technologies, and a network architecture that takes advantage of this session control to offer solutions to the identified issues.