Hybrid composition of telecom and Internet services: The telecom operator perspective

The evolution of the Internet toward the `Internet of Services´ has created the need to explore new platforms that support the creation and the execution of Composite Services, i.e., of applications that combine services. In this paper we explore Service Composition in three different domains, namely in the domain of telecommunication networks, in the Internet domain, and in hybrid Telco/Internet domains. We devote our attention to Telcos and more specifically to the Telco Service Delivery Platform (SDP), which is gradually incorporating support to Service Composition and to the cooperation with services in the Internet domain. We first propose a classification of the existing Service Composition approaches based on the role covered by Telcos in service delivery and then compare the Telco view, according to which the Composite Services are executed by the SDP, against the Internet view, according to which the Composite Services are executed by a platform operated by an external service provider located in the Internet. Finally, we describe the architecture of a scalable Service Composition engine integrated with the Telco SDP.