Applicability of “plug-in” online file modification capabilities to STM/ATM networks and its extension

Plug-in is a powerful tool that can partially modify the executing file of communication service systems without affecting calls in service. We have evaluated the feasibility of plug-in using data obtained from our initial field environment of the personal handy phone service (PHS) and ATM switching systems. Analysis shows that plug-in is sufficiently applicable to specification changes and service feature additions, as well as almost all bug fixes. Also, it shows that plug-in is applicable irrespective of the software type (call processing, OA & M), and service type (PHS, ATM). By its function/data addition and initialization mechanisms, complicated programs can be modified. The enhanced plug-in, proposed for extending its applicability based on the current mechanism, is expected to give us a wider scope of on-line partial file modification. Thus, plug-in is expected to be the basis of file management for multimedia communication service systems