Introduction to NGN Functional Architecture

Summary form only given. The proposed tutorial session offered by Mr. Morita, who is one of the technical leaders of the architecture working group in FGNGN, begins by describing the target NGN services whose main focuses are session-based telephony and multimedia communication. Then it moves on to the high-level architecture, which will be divided into several functional entities. They are session-related control functional entities that provide a roaming feature over the fixed network. On top of them, multiple application platforms are expected to provide a wide variety of services ranging from emulation of legacy IN services to new 3rd party applications. At the transport stratum, multiple gateway functions are identified to interwork with existing networks as well as to protect the NGN itself. Following those functional level explanations, typical interactions between the functional entities are shown. Network configuration examples are also mentioned. Session border controller and multiple access network configurations are candidate examples. These examples will help bridge the abstract functional descriptions in the ITU-T Recommendations to actual network configurations and equipment. This comprehensive talk based on the latest documents from FGNGN will give the audience a realistic NGN picture and encourage detailed design of operation and management functions, which really need wider interests of contributors to accelerate the deployment of NGN and facilitate its management