Web Services security in data service delivery platform for telecom

The major requests for telecom network are efficiency, security, and reliability of service. Data service, running on the telecom network, is a most prominent revenue source for telecom operators. But traditional interface for data service delivery platform cannot completely meet these requirements. Web services, as a promising distributed computing technology, is regarded as the best candidate to design these interfaces. However, whether Web services technology can satisfy the telecom major requirements, especially security request, is still a question for telecom operators. This paper discusses the multiple aspects of Web service security, provides Web service security performance experiment results based on data size and different security policies, and gives suggestions on how to apply Web service security technology to data service delivery platform interface design

1. Introduction

Data Services are becoming the most prominent source of growth for world-wide telecom operators, especially Asian operators. Data service is defined as a broad family of services to provide comprehensive digital content and application over bearer networks, such as GSM, GPRS and wireless LAN [1]. The data service examples include Short Messaging Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Wireless Application Protocol, Email, OTA server [1]. Currently, Asian operators are striding into new markets, and try to provide more new data services to generate lucrative profit. Their data service working model is that operators provide integrated infrastructures and interfaces, while 3^rd party service providers design and provide innovative data services to their subscribers through Data Service Delivery Platform (DSDP), and both of them share data service revenue, so 3^rd party service provider is also called value added service provider (V ASP).