Management of service sessions in an NGN-SOA execution environment [Next-Generation Telco IT Architectures]

Collective intelligence is the key asset behind Web 2.0. Nowadays, users can share contents and information, but they are also able to compose services thanks to new user-oriented service platforms. In this article a distributed orchestration service execution environment for converged service platforms running over next-generation networks is presented, together with its main support function, the Dispatcher, an element which carries out load balancing and policy enforcement. Taking advantage of the intelligence and support operations offered by NGNs, this kind of SEE is specifically useful for telecommunication operators entering the value added service market, because it simplifies the implementation of their service-specific security and billing policies, and additionally allows easy service execution management for non-expert end users by offering service start and stop functionalities at the push of a button.