Mobility in long-term service architectures and distributed platforms

This article focuses on the convergence of two technical streams of current interest: (1) service architectures as an innovative, integrated solution to the problems addressed by intelligent networks and telecommunications management networks; and (2) mobile communications systems and related software for their control and management. Its main objectives are to: (a) introduce the state of the art in long-term service architecture (SA); (b) identify the potential benefits of using SA concepts in the design and deployment of mobile communications systems; (c) indicate principles for inclusion of personal and terminal mobility aspects in the SA; and (d) consider the implications of mobility on the distributed processing environment underlying a set of services built according to the SA. The technical content of the article partly reflects work being carried out in international cooperative fora, particularly within the global initiative TINA and selected projects of the European research program ACTS. However, most views expressed here are the result of original evaluation and synthesis carried out by the authors. The timing validity of the article is in the medium to long term, since it targets the development and deployment process of systems that may not be in operation until the turn of the century.