Service-oriented architecture and web services penetration in next-generation networks

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is being touted as the technology of choice for next-generation service delivery platforms for converged services. Web services concepts and technologies, initially developed in the information technology realm as a solution in the Internet world for business-to-business and consumer-to-business services, have recently been leveraged to streamline enterprise internal process interactions. Web services now approach the traditional world of telecommunication networks at a time when that world in turn is trying to revolutionize itself through next-generation standards and architectures. This paper looks at the SOA model and at trends in Web services standards in an attempt to assess how they apply to converged next-generation networks. (c) 2007 Alcatel-Lucent.