A Novel Scalable Architecture for Efficient QoS to Cater IMS Services for Handheld Devices Based on Android

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) known for its prominent service delivery is paving way for applications like Video Voice over IP (VVOIP) on handheld devices too. Android, a software platform from Google, pioneering in middleware and applications domain of handheld devices does not offer support for IMS services by design. Motivated by these observations, we present novel scalable architecture to cater IMS based services on Android. First, we discuss few related works to investigate and analyze the IMS and the role of SIP in IMS services. Second, we discuss few characteristics of android architecture and detail constraints associated with middleware sub-system to cater IMS services. Consequently, we describe the proposed architecture addressing inherent challenges like QoS, Extendibility and Security encountered while offering IMS based services. The architectural framework design reduces time-to-deployment by using a layered approach encompassing three layers, namely: QoE Engine, Advanced IMS Service Core (A-IMS) and Application Services Engine (ASE). The A-IMS core is responsible to provide End-2-End efficient service delivery of IMS services like VOIP. We point out the benefits of using the ASE and generic media management and control interface (GMMCI) to ensure smooth and swift portability onto different flavors of android. Finally, we conclude by detailing some cases of future IMS services like Video Sharing/Video Recording in an on-going Video Telephony Call.