Supplementary services in telecommunication next generation networks

Over the neat few years the public-switched telephone network (PSTN) will evolve into next-generation networks (NGN), in which data and voice will share a common packet-switched network. The NGN introduces new concepts and networking protocols for the 'everything over IP' strategy. The Softswitch, the media gateway and the signaling gateway are the basic elements of the current NGN architecture. In this paper we show that these elements do not meet the requirements of some SS7 ISUP supplementary services that are widely used in telecommunication networks. The major drawbacks of the current NGN implementations that are based on those services are investigated. To overcome these drawbacks we propose a new element in the NGN architecture, called multi-service mediator (MSM) and describe an interworking scenario with other currently defined NGN elements, especially with the Softswitch. We investigate requirements for controlling and management of MSM in NGN. Additionally we propose a building block for simulation of the NGN architecture, including MSM.