Open Services Delivery Platform for Converged Network

Abstract:
The telecom industry has rolled out several value-added service platforms, such as short messaging value-added service platform, mobile Internet browsing platform, etc. However, many of the operator’s assets are implemented as large application silos, the so-called legacy systems within the telecom operator’s domain. These applications often use unique data formats, proprietary interfaces, and may exist on multiple platform technologies. They are difficult to be changed and integrated with other systems. Therefore, the recent activities of the standardization bodies, such as 3GPP, ETSI SPAN, and Parlay, show an increased interest in OSA (Open Services Access). OSA is a mechanism to facilitate third party application development to access core telecom network capabilities in open, secure and standardized manner. Meanwhile, web services have been advocated in telecom service architecture of OSA/3GPP and Parlay, although there still lacks clear inherent view. In this paper, OSPAC (Open Service Delivery Platform for Converged Network) is presented. OSPAC builds an open service delivery environment for telecom operators to open their network capabilities and for VASPs (Value-added service providers) to access these capabilities, with enhanced manageability and automation capabilities. The key issues of the platform are discussed in this paper, including service publishing and discovery mechanism, service subscription and provisioning, policy based security management, service level agreement management etc. The platform is built on SIP/converged network, providing a valuable reference model to demonstrate the feasibility of web service enabled open service delivery.