Service architecture for next generation networks

The current trend in the telecommunications industry is to re-define the use of the wireless spectrum for the 3rd generation and beyond by focusing on the services available to the end user. The adoption of Internet Protocol (IP) technology provides cellular networks with the means to integrate traditional wireless telecommunication services (e.g. voice) with a wide range of IP multimedia services available in today's IP data networks, and to build new services, thanks to the synergies created with this merging. With respect to this vision, current attempts to evolve the cellular service infrastructure have simply tried to apply the existing service concepts and services to basic cellular services, e.g. voice services, without considering the importance that service integration will assume shortly. In this study, we consider integrated multimedia services in proposing a flexible IP-based service architecture that meets the demands of the next generation cellular networks while satisfying the requirements of the current service architectures.