OpenFMC™ lab: The convergence platform for next generation applications development

Fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) is the term used to describe a wide range of mobile services that converge elements of fixed communications infrastructure to complement the core mobile service. IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) is the approach towards merging the fixed and mobile worlds together with the Internet. It enables the efficient provision of an open set of highly integrated multimedia services, combining Web browsing, instant messaging, presence, VoIP and multimedia content delivery etc. over a heterogeneous access network and technologies. Unfortunately, the adoption, support and interest on IMS are still protracted among various players such as operators, service providers, device manufacturers and developers. We believe these players were generally trapped in a vicious circle and hence felt uncertain on adopting IMS, besides having to accommodate the high setup cost, lack of proven business models and further was overshadowed by the web technologies. As the national research institute in Malaysia, we have taken the challenge to set up the OpenFMCtrade lab in Malaysia as to break the vicious circle and to develop an IMS Center of Excellence (CoE) ecosystem through opening up an IMS testbed for all parties to conduct their application development, R&D experiments and interoperability tests. This paper describes the objectives and benefits of establishing our OpenFMCtrade lab, our approach to break the vicious circle, our proposed IMS ecosystem program, the details on provisioning of lab equipments/components, and network topology.