Methods of addressing the interactions of intelligent network services with embedded switch services

A key factor in the transition of the existing network to an intelligent network (IN) environment is the need to partition the network intelligence and to ensure the coexistence of the embedded switch services with the externally controlled services. If the network intelligence can be defined by entities (e.g. access control and routing, connection control, basic call control, feature control, etc.), then the issue is how to manage their distribution over the evolving network elements (NEs). The authors focus on the early phases of the IN, during a 1991-2 time frame, when these features must interwork with the existing features (e.g. those within the Centrex service). They provide an overview of the features interactions and arbitration policies prevailing in today´s network. They then describe the framework for both single- and multinode networked features models. The issues of call control distributed over the NEs of the IN are treated as extensions to the concepts and interfaces needed to provide networked services like areawide Centrex and private virtual networks. A model for offering IN/1+ services is described.<>