What is IMS?

Why need IMS? History of IMS. IMS Architecture: a) Device Layer, b) Transport Layer, c) Control Layer & d) Service Layer Benefits Applications Conclusion

Stands for is the principal communications protocol used for relaying packets across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite. *Multimedia is the integration of multiple forms of media includes text, graphics, audio, video, etc. *Subsystem group of interconnected and interactive parts that performs an important job or task as a component of a largersystem.

*IP ( Internet Protocol )

 Set of specifications that describes the Next Generation Networking (NGN) architecture for implementing IP based telephony and multimedia services.

Defines a complete architecture and framework that enables the convergence of voice, video, data and mobile network technology over an IP-based infrastructure.
Fills the gap between the two most successful communication devices, cellular and Internet technology.

Situation that operators were facing right before the IMS was not encouraging at all. Operators found it difficult to make profit from voice calls.

Operators were not making much money from them either.

To increase the use of packet switched domains operators attracted users to the mobile internet.

...In this way IMS was born.

 Initially defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership

Project (3GPP ).

First introduced in 3GPP Release 5.

Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) was chosen as the main protocol for IMS in NOV 2000. Further enhanced in Releases 6 and 7 of 3GPP to include additional features. Like presence and group management, interworking with WLAN and Fixed Broadband access.

 Supports a wide range of services that are enabled based on SIP protocols. Divided into four layers: 1.Device Layer, 2.Transport Layer, 3.Control Layer & 4.Service Layer

 Provides a variety of choices for users to choose end-point devices. Computers, mobile phones, PDAs, and digital phones are able to connect to the IMS infrastructure via the network.

Traditional analog telephone phones are not able to connect to an IP network directly. Are able to establish the connection with these devices via a PSTN Gateway.

 Responsible for initiating and terminating SIP sessions.

Providing the conversion of data transmitted between analog/digital formats and an IP packet format.

IMS devices connect to the IP network in the transport layer via a variety of transmission media including WiFi,

Cable, SIP, GPRS, WCDMA etc.

Allows IMS devices to make and receive calls to-and-from the PSTN network via the PSTN gateway.

 Call Session Control Function (CSCF) handles SIP registration of the end points. *Process SIP signal messaging of the appropriate application server in the service layer.

Home Subscriber Server (HSS) database that stores the unique service profile for each end user. *The service profile may include a user's IP address, telephone records, buddy lists, voice mail greetings and so on.

 Allow service providers to offer a variety of multimedia services. Application servers are responsible for hosting and executing the services.
Provide the interface against the control layers using the SIP protocol. Reduce the workload of the control layer. A single application server may host multiple services. e.g., telephony & messaging services run on one application server.

1. Provides multimedia services with Quality of Service (QoS) enablement:

The bandwidth of a particular connection can vary significantly over time.

Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms were developed in order to provide certain guarantee levels of network bandwidth during transmission instead of the so called "best effort".
Improve and guarantee the transmission quality.

2. IMS allows Rapid service Creation for service providers:

IMS aims at reducing the time it takes to introduce a new service. In the past the standardization of the service and interoperability tests caused a significant delay.

The IMS reduces this delay by standardizing service capabilities instead of services.
i.e. Provides standardized platform and reusable components.

3. Allows operators to charge multimedia session appropriately:

If a user uses videoconference over the 3G cellular network, there is usually a large data transfer that consists of audio and video which is usually expensive. Provides information about the service type being invoked by the user.
Allows the operators to determine how to charge the users based on service types. They can choose to charge user by the number of bytes transferred, by the session duration (timebased), or perform any new type of charging.

4. Allows all services to be available irrespective of the users' location:

A typical, and particularly annoying problem when working with cellular technology is that some of the services will not be available when the user is roaming in another country.

IMS uses Internet technologies and protocols in order to allow users to move across the countries and still be able to execute all the services as if they were from their home networks.

 Video conferencing

Push to talk Instant messaging

Video call
Online gaming

IPTV etc.

 IMS is a state-of-the-art technology toolkit for the Telecom industry.

IMS uses Internet technologies to provide vast services and mobile technology to provide ubiquity. IMS is, and will continue to be an important part of the Telecom industry.