The MultiService Forum (News - Alert) (MSF) has announced the full list of carrier, government, and academic laboratories that will host the latest Global MultiService Interoperability (GMI) 2008, a worldwide interoperability test event for next generation networks (NGNs).

 

In Q4 this year, Verizon, NCS and UNH-IOL in the USA will work with BT/Vodafone in Europe and China Mobile and ETRI (News - Alert) in Asia to create a “real world” global network to verify the interoperability of critical NGN elements in a range of practical scenarios.

 

Building on the success of GMI 2006, this year’s event includes additional test laboratories, enhanced test scenarios and a wider range of service capabilities including end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS), location management, IPTV, and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

 

”We are delighted to welcome onboard China Mobile and the USA’s National Communications System (NCS) for GMI2008,” commented Roger Ward, Office of the CTO, BT Group (News - Alert) and President of the MSF. “As NGN technology matures, carriers are increasingly focused on the details of multi-vendor interoperability and GMI 2008 will provide a unique opportunity for suppliers to demonstrate their ability to develop products that meet this challenge in real world networks.”

 

GMI 2008 is based on the MSF R4 architectural framework that encompasses an IMS network along with NGN components such as call agents/softswitches for handling earlier VoIP infrastructures. The open interface reference points within the MSFR4 architecture are documented as MSF Implementation Agreements, which are based on, and are endorsements of, the relevant specifications from 3GPP and other international standards organizations.

 

Six key scenarios, defined by the MSF Technical Committee, will be validated in the event. Scenario one will focus on end-to-end session control across all supported access networks. Scenario two will test end-to-end QoS in both the access networks and across the core architecture. In scenario three, IPTV (News - Alert) is added as a highly demanding IMS based application — the first such industry demonstration of its kind.

 

Scenario four builds on Scenario two by adding location-based services and incorporates work done in TISPAN NASS and IETF to enable precise location information to be used with emergency calls, location based routing and prioritized call queuing. Scenario five adds a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) service layer to demonstrate how a SIP/IMS-core would interoperate with Web based services. The sixth and final scenario focuses on the performance management of IPTV services and remote management of the IPTV CPE devices.