Service Delivery Platforms as IT Realization of OMA Service Environment: Service Oriented Architectures for Telecommunications

This paper presents a new definition of service delivery platform based on recent industry standard activities at OMA (open mobile alliance): the OSE (OMA service environment). The proposed blueprint is consistent with NGN (next generation networks) as well as legacy networks. The SDP blueprint discussed in this paper follows SOA (service oriented architecture) principles and basic IT technologies and principles. It clarifies many aspects misunderstood or confused in the telco industry like: How to develop faster and at lower cost competitive telco services; What is SOA for telcos; How do Parlay and IMS relate; How to characterize or implement the IMS service layer; How do IMS, Vanilla SIP and other SIP service deployment relate; What is SCIM and how to implement it; How to accommodate legacy, new and future network technologies; how to achieve true convergence across multiple networks; How to support third party content and service providers, etc. The paper also discusses options to realize a SDP. In particular, it analyzes J2EE readiness for telco deployments, discusses SDP implemented as J2EE realization of OSE. The paper concludes with a recommendation to base SDPs on J2EE middleware and provides some prediction of the evolution of the platform to provide mobile, voice and communications capabilities to enterprises as well as telcos.