T14: IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS): Evolution to New Capabilities Presenter: Vijay Varma, Telcordia Technologies, Inc.

Abstract

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) has become the defacto platform of choice for providing a unified session control on top of multiple access network technologies for realizing flexible multimedia applications. Initiated by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), IMS is now embraced by a number of other standards bodies. Fueled by the notion of Common IMS that consolidates all IMS core standardization in 3GPP, IMS is evolving rapidly with new features and capabilities including ability to anchor calls/sessions in IMS even when the calls are originated/terminated from/to legacy networks, interworking with legacy messaging, multimedia session continuity, support of emergency services, to name a few. IMS architecture and procedures are evolving to support these developments. This tutorial will start with a brief introduction to IMS vision and its evolution from GSM/UMTS. It will then discuss IMS concepts, architectures, procedures, protocols and services. As communications networks are evolving towards packet-based infrastructures with IMS control, consistent provision of services from different access networks becomes a major challenge, particularly during the transition period from circuit-switched networks. The tutorial will discuss how the 3GPP is addressing this challenge with its on-going work on IMS centralized services (ICS), Combined Circuit-Switched and IMS (CSI), Service Level Interworking of Messaging Services, Multimedia Session Continuity, and IMS Session Continuity. The tutorial will conclude with a discussion of IMS interoperability, IMS test beds, and a survey of field trials and deployments of IMS networks.

Biography

Vijay K. Varma received the M.Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and the Ph. D. degree from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, both in Electrical Engineering. He is a Senior Scientist in the Wireless Systems Research Department of Telcordia, Red Bank, NJ. He has over 20 years experience in wireless communications and has been involved in various systems issues, including speech coding, signaling and call control protocols, wireless data, mobility management protocols, and wireless network architectures. His current research interest includes IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) enhancements, wireless system architecture evolution, location-based services (LCS), and IMS testbed development. He attends 3GPP standards meetings relating to IMS, SAE, and LCS. Dr. Varma has published several papers in the area of wireless communications, given numerous tutorials, organized workshops, and given and chaired panel sessions at various IEEE conferences. He was the technical program vice chair for the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking conference in 2005. He is an associate editor for the IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine for Mobile Networks. Dr. Varma is a Senior Member of the IEEE. He received the Frederick E. Terman award in 1985.