Telecommunications research has changed in recent years due to network convergence in Next Generation Networks (NGN) and the influence of internet technologies. Time to market and innovation speed of network technologies have increased and are heavily influenced by the focus on services and service…
Telecommunications research has changed in recent years due to network convergence in Next Generation Networks (NGN) and the influence of internet technologies. Time to market and innovation speed of network technologies have increased and are heavily influenced by the focus on services and services delivery platforms. The increasing competition in international research and development requires an early evaluation of ideas, concepts and principles in terms of prototyping and testing. In this regard open NGN testbeds are of essential importance. In contrast to closed vendor testbeds, open testbeds can efficiently realize prototype scenarios and professional setups with reasonable effort, time and cost. Therefore, they are seen as catalysts for development in industry and academia.
The IP Multimedia System (IMS) plays a central role as common service signalling middleware in face of multiple access networks and their convergence. In this context, we can witness an increasing number of testbeds promoting an open IMS infrastructure to implement new seamless multimedia applications. This workshop shall give insights into the state of the art concerning open NGN and IMS testbeds at an international scale. The objective is to evaluate the quality and impact of such testbeds in order to improve current offerings and position them for future challenges. Especially, the role of open source software such as open source IMS implementations for testbeds, as well as how such infrastructures can be provided in line with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) concepts shall be discussed in depth.