Personal communications services through the evolution of fixed and mobile communications and the intelligent network concept

New telecommunications services tend to consider fixed network subscribers' requirements as well as mobile network subscribers' requirements. On one hand, subscribers of fixed networks would like to benefit from the mobility offered in mobile networks. On the other hand, mobile subscribers would like to access to services inherent in fixed networks. Personal communications services (PCS) meet this trend while allowing fixed and mobile convergence. In this environment, the application of intelligent networks (INs) to fixed and mobile networks is very convenient to realize PCS. Thus, the natural advancement of telecommunications systems (fixed and mobile) consists in the definition of new telecommunications architectures which take into account technologies from both fixed and mobile environments. This article studies how the IN is used to support mobility and interworking for PCS. Although mobility management already exists in cellular networks like GSM, it is desirable to use the IN concept to introduce flexibility. In addition, the IN allows the introduction of new supplementary services in PCS. Furthermore, the IN concept can be utilized to provide necessary networking functions for the integration of fixed and mobile networks. This article also highlights the involvement of IN in the definition of the global communications systems such as Telecommunication Information Networking Architecture (TINA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and International Mobile Telecommunications in the year 2000 (IMT2000).