Provision of the broadband video conference service via the integration of the IN and B-ISDN paradigms

This paper deals with the integration between the intelligent network (IN) and the B-ISDN for the support of advanced multimedia services. The focus of the paper is the proposal of a new role of the IN that, in a closed interaction with the B-ISDN, furnishes control functionalities to handle complex service configuration. In order to assign such a role, we distinguish different domains of control into the IN architecture and we propose functional models suitable to IN to cooperate for a global service provisioning. Some different options for an IN/B-ISDN interaction are discussed; in particular, architectural issues on the distribution of the IN control logic between the service control function and the service switching function are assessed. Finally we consider an actual multimedia service, the broadband video conference, supported with the proposed approach, and we present some performance aspects.