Reducing complexity for converged voice/data networks and services architecture

The telecommunications industry today is facing an increasing degree of complexity due to the proliferation of available technologies and separate implementations of voice and data networks and services Recent trends in the industry toward a convergence of telephony/computer technologies, networks, and services create an opportunity for reducing complexity in the converged voice/data network. The converged telecommunications network will be packet based, providing integrated voice/data/video services with third-party programmability to any subscriber anywhere, over any access media. This paper describes an architectural approach to meet these challenges. A set of guiding principles is formulated and used for developing the converged network and service architectures. These principles, which provide an overall framework for partitioning network and service functions into components, are illustrated using the planned 7R/E(TM) Packet Solutions system and service architectures to build component-based converged voice and data services with interfaces to operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning (OAM&P) frameworks for industry-grade reliability, availability, and security.