Virtualized Rich Multimedia Clients the Novel Enabler for a New NGN Service Delivery Concept

The convergence between grid environments and QoS-enabled networks, in particular in the context of next generation networks (NGN), gained research interest in the direction of combining NGN capabilities and IT assets for the creation of future services. Following the ETSI NGN grid standardization activities, this work proposes an OGSA standard compliant NGN grid subsystem architecture to act as a mediator between grid middleware and NGN service stratum. The novel step of this subsystem is the virtualization of NGN endpoints via grid services. We show that the enhancement of the NGN service delivery platform by the integration of grid technologies enables a new way of introducing distributed multimedia services.