Provision of VHE services to roaming users

Towards the deployment of 3rd generation systems, Virtual Home Environment (VHE), stemming from 3GPP, appears to be a powerful concept advocating the provision and delivery of personalized services to roaming users across network and terminal boundaries. This paper aims to expose the pathway for materializing the VHE concept, via the specification, implementation and evaluation of a prototype. Core aspects for realizing the concept such as the business and roaming models are presented, while a VHE enabling architecture utilizing key technologies (OSA/Parlay, MExE, and USAT) is introduced. The proposed architecture has already been evaluated by performing an initial trial demonstration. Currently it is being extended to support VHE service provision to roaming users, an aspect to be addressed by the final trial.