Yankee_IONA_report

www.yankeegroup.com Telecom Software Strategies by Paul Hughes and Arindam Banerjee February 2006 YANKEE G R O U P Integration Challenges in Triple-Play Service Delivery Internet multimedia subsystem (IMS) is a framework for true wireline-wireless network convergence that enables service providers to deliver a full spectrum of communications services over a single network. In this Report, we discuss IMS architecture as well as current trends in web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA). Executive Summary As technologies converge, telecommunications companies face many challenges resulting from the market shift (see Exhibit 1). However, convergence also creates opportunities for application integration and new products or services. Foremost among these new services is the triple play, which brings voice, data and video/TV to homes via a telecommunications network rather than a specialized line. The triple play can help to maintain and strengthen the customer relationship by enabling telecom companies to carry new types of traffic and offer new products. Exhibit 1 Three Core Business Challenges for Today’s Telecommunications Carriers Source: Yankee Group, 2006 Battle for the Customer Competition comes from several fronts. Quest for New Service Revenue Competition forces service providers into new areas for revenue protection and growth. Better Margins Next-generation architectures reduce capital expense and operating costs. This custom publication has been funded by IONA Technologies. © Copyright 1997-2006. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved. This Yankee Group Consulting Report is published for the sole use of Yankee Group clients. It may not be duplicated, reproduced or transmitted in whole or in part without the express permission of Yankee Group, 31 St. James Avenue, Boston, MA 02116. For more information, contact Yankee Group: info@yankeegroup.com; Phone: 617-956-5005. All rights reserved. All opinions and estimates herein constitute our judgment as of this date and are subject to change without notice. Telecom Software Strategies February 2006 Table of Contents I. II. Triple Play Is a Necessity for Telecom Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 IMS Helps Telecom Companies Satisfy Customer Demands and Business Needs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Integration and Service Delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 III. Integrate Proprietary OSSs and IT-Based BSSs with MTOSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 IV. Impact of Web Services and SOA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 V. ESB Can Slash Integration Costs and Complexity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Vendor Strengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 VII. Conclusions and Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Recommendations for Carriers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Recommendations for Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 VIII. Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 VI. Vendor Analysis: IONA Helps Telecom Companies Realize the Potential of IMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 I. Triple Play Is a Necessity for Telecom Companies he triple play the bundling of voice, data and video/TV services on a broadband connection has become a market imperative for telecommunications companies, competitive carriers and cable operators worldwide. Business drivers behind this market shift fall into three main areas: • New service revenue: Competition dramatically affects the revenue derived from traditional voice services, forcing carriers to new areas for revenue protection and growth. Due to increased competition, service providers cannot simply maintain their share of consumer communications and entertainment spending; they must improve their revenue. New revenue is tied directly to communication services such as basic internet access, PSTN telephone, IPTV, pay-per-view, gaming, music, home networking, messaging and mobility. T • Battle for the customer: Communications companies face competition on several fronts. Alternative carriers are joining traditional competitors on the playing field. Incumbent vendors must reduce customer churn by offering additional services. • Better margins: Ultimately, IP-based, next-generation architectures will reduce the capital expense of service provision and will reduce operating expenses. Triple-play service bundling is possible due to the convergence of technologies. Every Tier 1 and Tier 2 carrier recognizes the opportunity bundling presents and is scrambling to offer seamless service to its customer base. 2 © Copyright 1997-2006. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Telecom Software Strategies February 2006 IMS Helps Telecom Companies Satisfy Customer Demands and Business Needs C ustomers’ demands for new service bundles are more sophisticated. To make matters more difficult, timescales for offering new products and service improvements are limited. No telecom company can afford to take years to research, develop and roll out a new service—but this was the norm in all industries only a few years ago. The challenge now is to quickly deliver new services to the market. This raises many IT challenges, including speed of development and deployment, pay-asyou-go investments, reusable code, getting the best from legacy system investments and conformance to standards. From an IT manager’s point of view, these business needs require the integration of applications. Integration is rarely done for its own sake. Instead, it occurs when business drivers force an immediate need for integration or there are compelling IT architecture improvements. Cost reduction and new product introductions are the two most important drivers for integration. To meet customer demands and business needs, major telecom companies identify IMS and service delivery platforms (SDPs) as strategic initiatives to develop and deploy services efficiently while preserving investments. IMS can be summarized as “any service over any medium.” As illustrated in Exhibit 2, IMS is a framework for true wireline-wireless network convergence. It enables service providers to deliver a full spectrum of relevant communications services—voice, e-mail, instant messaging, data transfer, short-messaging service (SMS) and a broad spectrum of audio and video communications, including TV—over a single network. IMS architecture consists of three logical layers: • Session control layer: The application servers at the IMS core make Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) services possible. This layer contains two key elements: call session control function (CSCF), which registers user devices, routes SIP signaling to the application servers and manages QoS; and home subscriber server (HSS), which manages user profiles/authentication/ authorization, provisioning and charging/billing. • Application layer: This layer is a subset of the session control layer, which supports the application servers. • Interworking (or gateway) layer: This layer connects an IMS to other IMSs, the PSTN and other legacy networks, as well as to a service provider’s operational support system (OSS) and network management infrastructure. The key elements of this layer are multimedia resource function (MRF), which shares common media operations across applications, and media gateway function (MGF), which manages SIP signaling between applications, gateways, IMSs, the PSTN or other networks. Exhibit 2 IMS Delivers Any Service over Any Medium Source: Yankee Group, 2006 Triple- (Quadruple-) Play Services Provisioning Billing Third-Party Service Developers Content Service Delivery Platform IT Domain SIP Converged Networks IP Network Backbone SIP SIP SIP SIP Network Domain Hundreds of IMS trials are in progress around the world. The foremost example of a revolutionary approach to IMS is BT’s 21st Century Network (21CN), which has invested in a new architecture to support convergent services. Others, such as Verizon, are making serious investments for an all-IP multimedia network world. Gateway Wireline Gateway Wireless Gateway Broadband Gateway Fiber © Copyright 1997-2006. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved. 3 Telecom Software Strategies February 2006 II. Integration and Service Delivery hen implementing triple-play services, the SDP layer is often introduced to enable the rapid creation, development, testing and provision of value-added services across a variety of network components and back-office OSSs/billing support systems (BSSs). SDP efficiently brings together video, voice and data platforms that constitute a triple-play strategy. OSS/BSS functions need to integrate with each other by using the generic service delivery interface of SDPs. SDPs orchestrate the capabilities of each service platform into integrated services. SDPs provide both a service creation and a service control environment for the definition, deployment and control of integrated services. This includes: • Service management: Creates service catalogs, service definition, package management and support for management, which enables providers to create discounts and special bundles • Subscriber management: Stores subscriber profiles and subscriber relationships to multiple vertical services, resources, serving areas and other subscriber groups • Service activation and suspension: Enables service providers to activate or deactivate subscriber services for multiple vertical services for individual subscribers or groups of subscribers Many mainstream infrastructure providers such as BEA, IBM and Microsoft offer SDP products (see Exhibit 3). W SDPs help telecom companies avoid the situation illustrated in Exhibit 4. By introducing a mediating platform between the service platform and the existing OSS/BSS, SDPs reduce the number of direct interfaces that must be built between various service platforms as well as between service platforms and the many OSSs/BSSs. SDPs provide the orchestration and integration that enable each service platform to present the end user with a seamless service delivery. Service providers cannot independently develop all of the services the market demands. Therefore, they need a simplified way for third-party suppliers to “plug in” new services as easily as software frameworks accommodate plug-in modules. Yet, when opening their systems to externally developed services, most service providers do not relegate themselves as an open channel or wholesaler that links third-party providers to its subscriber base. Service providers must manage billing, customer care and marketing. In addition, they must interact with subscribers daily as they access and consume services. Exhibit 4 Complex Triple-Play Service Delivery Source: Yankee Group, 2006 Ordering Provisioning Fault Management Performance/ SLA Billing and Rating Customer Care Exhibit 3 SDPs Provide Service Creation and Control Source: Yankee Group, 2006 Service Delivery Platforms Service Creation Service Control Video Platform Voice Platform Wireless Platform Data Platform New Services Video Platform Voice Platform Wireless Platform Data Platform 4 © Copyright 1997-2006. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Telecom Software Strategies February 2006 Consequently, there is a need for an SDP consisting of a service delivery and a service control platform working in tandem (see Exhibit 5). Due to market changes, SDPs evolve daily. In addition, various software vendors define an SDP differently, depending on the strengths of their particular offerings. However, Yankee Group defines four layers where the action takes place in SDPs (see Exhibit 6). Full-featured SDPs should deliver 10 specific processes and capabilities: • Provisioning: This manages service deployment of all types in the SDP as well as service delivery to users. • Device management: This provides processing for content delivery across various devices. Personalization enables users to customize non-core service features. • Digital rights management (DRM): Today, this is most widely referenced in the context of music download services. DRM enables content and service providers to control access, usage and copying of content through digital encoding schemes that are roughly analogous to software “kill switches.” • Access control, identity management and user-profile management: This provides user-, account- and servicespecific authentication and authorization of services across domains (as well as across multiple IMSs and service providers). • Policy and resource management/traffic detection: This tracks service traffic flows and controls object configuration to regulate resource access and usage. • Service and revenue assurance: This manages QoS similarly to how service-level agreement (SLA) management systems monitor telecom network QoS in PSTNs. It also monitors for the correct and complete billing of services to prevent revenue leakage. • Services catalog: This is the equivalent of a telecom product and services catalog in the PSTN. In this instance, it manages a service provider’s IMS service portfolio. • Content management and charging: This manages the lifecycle of all content traversing the IMS and charges for services according to value. • Promotion management: This provides for service promotions targeting specific users and groups. • Content partner management: This manages business relationships between service providers and third-party content suppliers. In effect, this is the IMS version of carrier-to-carrier settlement in the PSTN. Exhibit 6 SDP Layers Source: Yankee Group, 2006 Layer Service-Enabling Functions Layer Description - Functions a service provider exposes to third-party service developers via application program interfaces (APIs) implemented in middleware gateways - Enables third-party service developers to access network functions while isolating them from underlying network complexity and protocols - Where the services and the service creation tools reside in the SDP - SDP processes that deliver, manage and charge for services - Common mechanism avoids forcing service providers or third-party developers to reinvent the wheel for each new service - Accelerates ramp-up of new services - Governs how and when a service uses SDP processes and manages runtime issues such as distribution and deployment Application Layer Common Framework Layer Exhibit 5 SDPs in a Complex Telecommunications Environment Source: Yankee Group, 2006 Ordering Provisioning Fault Management Performance/ SLA Billing and Rating Customer Care Service Orchestration Layer: Service Logic Execution Environment (SLEE) Service Delivery Platforms Service Delivery Service Control Video Platform Voice Platform Wireless Platform Data Platform ThirdParty Service Developers © Copyright 1997-2006. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved. 5 Telecom Software Strategies February 2006 III. Integrate Proprietary OSSs and IT-Based BSSs with MTOSI he ability to communicate with services, software and systems using both established and emerging protocols—namely, SIP and multi-technology operations support interface (MTOSI)—rounds out the IMS picture. SIP is vital to the services side of IMS. SIP and H.323 are signaling protocols currently deployed by service providers rolling out VoIP services. These protocols are not limited to voice communication, but can also carry text, video and all types of data services. SIP was designed to provide a superset of call processing functions and features present in the PSTN—such as number dialing, ringtones, ringback tones and busy signals—so users would be as comfortable using SIP-based services as they are using the telephone. SIP also implements SS7-style, advanced call processing features; although SIP implements them at communications endpoints while SS7 does so at the network core. However, when it comes to systems integration with existing OSS software, network equipment and network element management systems (EMSs), MTOSI—created by the TeleManagement Forum in collaboration with participating vendors—is a welcome development. T Building on the successful multi-technology network management (MTNM) CORBA/IDL interface, MTOSI proponents leveraged practical, real-world input to develop a complete and proven standard. This standard defines a methodology and a framework to map domain-specific business activities to well-defined next-generation OSS (NGOSS) contracts according to SOA principles. MTOSI’s greatest benefit is it provides a single management interface with a common information model that supports all transport technologies. As a result, there are fewer interfaces to develop, integrate, deploy, maintain and adhere to NGOSS principles such as the separation of business concerns from message exchange patterns (MEPs). With MTOSI, the underlying support structure can be changed without changing the business interactions. The payoff for service providers includes: • Improved vendor interworking • Loosely coupled applications • Lower integration costs • Shorter deployment timescales • Reduced deployment risk MTOSI incorporates an interface language called Web Services Description Language (WSDL) that defines the input and output message for each operation in XML. At the simplest level, this means there is an XML definition of each input and output message to and from an OSS. However, existing OSSs do not expect to receive requests formatted in XML or issue responses or other outgoing requests in XML. They were written before XML became a popular way to define messages. In fact, most OSSs use CORBA middleware to integrate the many components that constitute a single OSS. It’s natural for them to present CORBA interfaces to the applications that run above. This isn’t a major difficulty because a WSDL/XML layer can be layered on top of CORBA. An XML layer can be put in front of a new or existing OSS to make it conform to MTOSI. 6 © Copyright 1997-2006. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Telecom Software Strategies February 2006 More challenging is the fact that although MTOSI uses WSDL/XML to define interfaces to an OSS, it doesn’t expect an OSS to accept and send XML messages. This would tie MTOSI to a single messaging technology and won’t do much for the long-term futureproofing of the interface to an OSS. In addition, XML messaging has advantages (e.g., messages are self-describing) and disadvantages (e.g., messages are larger and more expensive to process in contrast to those of middleware). Instead, MTOSI uses XML to define the data each message contains. But an OSS can choose the middleware to carry messages during transmission. The “multi-technology” part of MTOSI defines an interface to an OSS independent from the underlying middleware technology that carries the messages. One MTOSI-conformant OSS could use CORBA and another could use Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Ideally, an OSS should be independent of the choice of middleware. One OSS should be able to use different middlewares depending on technical requirements (such as speed) or the preference of a particular telecommunications company. The latter is important because each telecom company prefers the middleware it has licenses for and its staff can manage at runtime. It is also an advantage to ISVs, which can develop an OSS (or part of one) once and allow telecom companies to decide how to deploy it. IV. Impact of Web Services and SOA o help deliver the MTOSI benefits, telecommunications companies and ISVs are adopting a new integration architecture called SOA. Web services—the cornerstone of today’s SOA deployment—can enable business applications to share common transport protocols, interfaces and transaction models internally as well as across customers, partners, suppliers and other associated entities. This changes how business is done, resulting in faster service deployment, shorter time-to-revenue, lower TCO and adaptability. T What is SOA and what can it mean to your business?: • SOA comprises a virtual platform that is equally relevant and available to any other platform, and provides a full separation of services. • In the SOA universe, interfaces rule. They must be universally available to all providers and consumers. Interfaces may be invoked regardless of: — Whether they are local (within the system) or remote (external) — Which protocol or infrastructure components are required to make the connection — Whether the requested service is local (inside the same application), on a different system inside the same company or remote (on a customer/partner/ supplier’s system) • Requesting messages must be descriptive, not instructive, because the service provider is responsible for fulfilling the request, not the user or requesting system. Message schema and syntax must be specified to ensure that service providers can understand user requests. This is analogous to SLAs in the carrier environment, specifying what the user can expect down to the level of availability to avoid conflicts and major financial givebacks by the service provider later. • The system must accommodate rapid changes without full-scale rewrites to ensure that the company and its business partners can quickly react to or anticipate changes in business and technology environments. • The system must empower users and consumers (or requesting systems) to discover multiple service providers that can supply the desired service. • SOA has open standards and simple protocols with no single point of failure. • SOA has lightweight endpoints that enable the network (not the application developer) to handle security, monitoring and policy. © Copyright 1997-2006. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved. 7 Telecom Software Strategies February 2006 V. ESB Can Slash Integration Costs and Complexity S ystems integration costs are unavoidable in any software infrastructure project. No OSS stands alone, and until now the cost of integration was higher than the cost of the OSS components—sometimes twice as high. For IMS to be successful, it needs a new strategy that surpasses the problems associated with OSS integration. OSSs should be a priority for wireline service providers because they face declining prices and revenue, competition from cable MSOs and wireless operators, and mandates to cut costs and increase margins. Thus far, cost cutting has focused on layoffs. However, the only way to reduce costs further is to eliminate redundancy and replace manual processes with automation. The enterprise service bus (ESB) is an integration platform designed to support SOA. An ESB ties in to legacy assets by replacing proprietary integration brokers with open communication layers that manage distributed services and business processes. ESBs simplify the integration and flexible reuse of components by eliminating the expensive, time-consuming customization other middleware technologies require. They can smooth the deployment of new services and evolve, scale and extend them as networks and markets change. By isolating development from underlying networks and runtime issues, ESBs enable developers to modify one or more services without disturbing other running services. ESBs also provide tools that streamline development such as a data transformation engine, intelligent message routing and a management interface that supports real-time monitoring, exception handling and the deployment and management of services. As shown in Exhibit 7, an ESB completes the IMS picture, functioning as the intermediation driver between the SDP and the existing OSS/BSS infrastructure. To deliver MTOSI, the ESB must be multi-technology. This means a number of things, including: • The services on the ESB should be able to use any middleware within their implementations. • A client of a service should be able to use a different middleware than the one used by the service. The ESB should translate whatever is required to enable the two to interoperate. • There should be a free choice of the middleware or mix of middleware used to carry messages between clients and servers. Different parts of the enterprise can make various choices depending on the technical needs or preferences of the development and maintenance staff. Multi-technology ESBs will influence how integration is done in all industries, but they play a special role in telecommunications because of the MTOSI standard and the need to integrate multiple OSSs from different vendors. Exhibit 7 ESB Completes the IMS Picture Source: Yankee Group, 2006 Ordering Provisioning Fault Management Performance/ SLA Billing and Rating Customer Care Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Service Delivery Platforms Service Delivery Service Control Video Platform Voice Platform Wireless Platform Data Platform ThirdParty Service Developers 8 © Copyright 1997-2006. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Telecom Software Strategies February 2006 VI. Vendor Analysis: IONA Helps Telecom Companies Realize the Potential of IMS M icrosoft, BEA and IBM are the marquee names in the IMS market, supplying SDPs to companies moving to IMS. We expect them to continue to build domain and brand recognition in this technology area. Alongside the large players is a smaller player, IONA Technologies, a top provider of ORBs and enterprise CORBA solutions. IONA’s product line encompasses elements that are necessary to realize the potential of IMSs: • Orbix: This is IONA’s enterprise CORBA product. • Artix: Launched in 2003, this ESB targets enterprise IT organizations and integrates multiple generations of business applications, technologies and architectures to form the basis for SOA. • Celtix: Introduced in November 2005, this open source Java ESB is hosted in the ObjectWeb community. • Mobile Orchestrator: Introduced in 2002, this webservices-based process integration broker improves mobile workers’ productivity by accessing enterprise applications and data regardless of internet connectivity. Vendor Strengths IONA has achieved success and has solid growth prospects for a number of reasons: • Extensible ESB offerings position IONA at the heart of SOA and should enable it to rise with the IMS updraft, especially because both areas play to its strength in the telecom market. • IONA’s technological agility can whisk customers from CORBA to web services or from mobile to mainframe. Solutions are built on the same software microkernel for forward and backward compatibility across the product line. This agility and compatibility result in futureproof solutions that are not always the hallmark of small or midsize software companies, or even some larger ones. • IONA complies with the leading IMS, OSS-to-EMS and CORBA protocols and standards: SIP, MTOSI and the several flavors of Parlay. • IONA is a telecom veteran whose offerings have been tested in the most challenging IT environments. Its software is deployed in demanding OSS applications such as service provisioning and service assurance. • With a client base of 170 comprising 83% of telecom carriers in the Fortune 500 and 75% of those in the Global 500, IONA has a customer base unparalleled by any comparable vendor. © Copyright 1997-2006. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved. 9 Telecom Software Strategies February 2006 VII. Conclusions and Recommendations A s service providers shift business strategies to become more operationally efficient, they cannot independently develop all the services the market demands. Therefore, we expect to see a slow but steady proliferation of next-generation architectures to simplify the way new services launch. Although many carriers may hesitate to open their systems to externally developed services to facilitate service creativity, most service providers don’t relegate themselves as an open channel or wholesaler that links third-party providers to their subscriber base. We expect SDP and IMS platforms to help facilitate this, but carriers still need to manage billing, customer care and marketing functions— potentially massive volumes of daily system interactions as subscribers access and consumer these services—as well as relationships with these third-party vendors. Recommendations for Vendors • Both large and small vendors are leading the SDP/IMS revolution; therefore, a development or integration strategy with these existing vendors should be a priority. Many vendors in this space are showing impressive traction. Small ISVs such as IONA have demonstrated that it’s not necessary to be a giant to gain a foothold. • Vendors focusing on best-of-breed integrations should watch multi-technology ESBs closely because they will make a huge difference in how integration is done in all industries. Enterprise application integration (EAI) tools and ESBs will play a special role in telecommunications because of the need to integrate multiple OSSs from different vendors. VIII. Further Reading Recommendations for Carriers • Carriers need to focus all upcoming OSS/BSS projects on technology efficiency. Next-generation architectures based on IP technology will ultimately reduce the capital expense of providing services and will lead to reduced operating expenses. IMS and SDP architectures are at the forefront. • Carriers should focus SDP/IMS investments on the management of billing, customer care and marketing functions. The end goal should be creating seamless access to data and unifying back-office infrastructure. Yankee Group DecisionNotesSM BPM Software Takes Center Stage in the US Telecom Industry, December 2005 Does SOAP or REST Make a Better Choice for a Web Services Protocol?, November 2005 10 © Copyright 1997-2006. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Telecom Software Strategies February 2006 Did You Know ? Yankee Group... YANKEE G R O U P Is the world’s most trusted name for communications and networking research and consulting, focusing on strategic planning assistance, technology forecasting and industry analysis. Has unmatched expertise across telecommunications, wireless/mobile communications, IT business applications and consumer technologies. Was founded in 1970 as the first research and advisory services firm. Maintains research staff in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe/Middle East/Africa. Employs approximately 150 skilled professionals. 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