Courtesy of David Isenberg, author of “Rise of the Stupid Network,” I stumbled upon some interesting comments on IMS (which might be described as “Quest for the Smart Network”) by John Waclawsky. Waclawsky is a member of the Mobile Wireless Group at Cisco Systems involved with standards activities, product requirements and architectures.
While much of Waclawsky’s article in Business Communications Review was fairly technical, his comments at the start and end of his piece discussed industry strategy. Amidst the current debate over network neutrality and “two-tiered” Internet strategies, Waclawsky’s comments seemed worth citing:
Out of the wireless standards consortium called 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) comes a slow-growing and complicated collection of carrier network functions and processes that collectively are referred to as IMS, which stands for the IP (or Internet) Multimedia Subsystem. The IMS standards promise an operator-friendly environment for real-time, packet-based calls and services that not only will preserve traditional carrier controls over user signaling and usage-based billing, but also will generate new revenue via deep packet inspection of protocols, URI and content.
IMS was conceived for the evolution of cellular telephony networks, but the benefits of user signaling and billing controls have attracted the endorsement and involvement of wireline network operators and standards makers…In the U.S., cable multiple systems operators (MSOs) are also showing interest in IMS as part of the recent CableLabs PacketCable initiative, and network operators recently approached the WiMAX Forum’s Network Working Group, asking that IMS be included in its forthcoming reference architecture.
IMS is part of a huge 3G gamble by the mobile telephony operators around the world, with assistance from traditional telephony vendors, to obtain control of the vast new Internet medium and monetize it.
…IMS is complex and costly, provides very little (if any) end user value, offers little (if any) in the way of new applications…and plans to use several new and unproven technologies…on a grand scale. There are performance concerns already.
Perhaps most ominously for IMS, there is no end-user (consumer) pull similar to what the market experienced with cell phones or Wi-Fi. In other words, IMS is a VERY high-risk strategy.
…the release schedules of the 3GPP’s IMS and TISPAN’s…even with their delays, are still faster than the traditional carrier networks and their suppliers can implement, yet much slower than the ongoing actual evolution of technologies and business models. In other words, and as always, real innovators are outside the “standards process.”
Clearly, however, IMS is part of a grand plan of sorts by incumbent network operators and supported by entrenched telephony vendors…This is the emerging, consensus view: That IMS will let broadband industry vendors and operators put a control layer and a cash register over the Internet and creatively charge for it. It is this monetization of the Internet that makes IMS extremely appealing to all communications operators.
Mitch Shapiro at 11:48 PM|Comments(1)
Mitch, thanks for flagging this article. It is a must-read for anybody in the communications business because IMS is such a hot yet vague topic. This article provides a concise (although be forewarned techie) walk-through of IMS for those of us who are somewhat confused about what IMS is and what it can do.
What I find interesting is that John Waclawsky is a mobile wireless technology expert and yet he disses IMS while at the same time conceding that it will become common across the wired telephony world despite its drawbacks. I wonder if that's the case. It seems like such a problematic technology for wired networks and Waclawsky may just be cynical at this point watching everyone get hepped up about IMS.
Posted by: Cynthia Brumfield at May 19, 2006 7:53 AM
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