The role of open ims testbeds in complex service delivery platforms

Network convergence and the multimedia service provisioning platforms within next generation networks (NGN) are subjects of huge complexity and the required architecture is extremely expensive to implement. Network operators will find it difficult to commit the necessary capital expenditure unless the NGN architecture has been thoroughly tried and tested. To ensure early adoption of this convergence platform, low cost testbeds are needed to bring together various parties to research and develop the necessary architectures. The IP multimedia subsystem (IMS), defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) represents today the global service delivery platform (SDP) standard for providing multimedia applications in NGN. Knowing that the full potential of the IMS can only be revealed by the early non-discriminant provisioning of IMS know-how and related technologies to the different market players the Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS launched the "Open Source IMS Core" in November 2006, which is based on extensions to the SIP express router (SER) that cope with the SIP extensions specified by 3GPP. This paper describes the Open IMS Playground and the activities in progress and cooperation works between FOKUS and the University of Cape Town for establishing joint works on open issues within IMS research and development.