The year of 2006 represents an important turning point for network convergence, with convergence having made critical breakthroughs in a number of fields. In pace with newly emerging services, increasing integration and penetration of technologies, convergence, as a top telecom technology, promises new opportunities for the industry. At the same time, as the future control layer of the next generation converged network, IMS is quickly approaching its deployment stage.

Getting Ready for the Future with FMC
The telecom industry is confronted with an overwhelming revolution brought by the development of a number of key technologies, especially IT and IP technologies, as well as the integration of some industries such as, telecom, IT, media, and electrical appliances. The coming three to five years will be crucial for telecom transformation. The main trends are and will continue to be broadband, packet, mobility and convergence. 

In terms of network, FMC based on ALL-IP architecture is the objective for network development. By then, tremendous changes will take place in almost every layer of the telecom network, from the service network to the access networks and terminals. Even the carriers' positioning and business modes may change.

The ALL-IP trend will transform the present "vertical network", which is separated by technologies and services, into a "horizontal network." A flattened architecture will be the key feature of the next generation network. To enhance the experience of subscribers is the prime driving force behind the development of the FMC. Through the FMC, a subscriber can enjoy quality seamless services anytime, anywhere via any terminal device. Two other attractive features are lower operating cost and improved overall efficiency. The FMC involves many aspects such as, convergence of industries, services, networks, operating support system and convergence of terminals. It is not merely a simple technique or feature.

FMC based on the ALL-IP structure entails not only revolution and advancement in network, operation support and terminal capability, but also changes in carriers' positioning and business modes. Therefore, it requires a comprehensive and integrated approach to analyze the FMC.

Meanwhile, FMC networks based on ALL-IP pave the way for carriers' strategic transformation to becoming integrated information providers, offering customers integrated multimedia telecommunication service and information media services. In this process, value chain needs to be extended; information services need to be aggregated, while new business modes focusing on interest parties should be constructed.

IMS: the Strongest Support for FMC
The realization of FMC is not possible without sufficient key technological support. It is widely agreed in the industry that IMS is the most critical technological drive for FMC. Being a sub-system of the NGN architecture, IMS will inevitably be the base for future converged network's control layer.
With the network becoming more and more standardized and open, networks combining switch, control and services cannot meet the requirements for future development. IMS leads the way of core network's future development. It is also an important method to realize FMC and achieve the universal control layer.

IMS, based on SIP architecture, supports fixed access and mobile access simultaneously and implements seamless switching between different networks. More importantly, it could help operators deploy services quickly, and thus reduce costs and lead the value chain.

IMS helps carriers to keep their platforms as the first choice for subscribers to access communications, media, content and services. In addition, this evolution helps carriers to continuously provide new services and content to subscribers. It also manages the expanding service environment efficiently.
In addition to network architecture convergence, IMS also features open network and service capability, which can offer carriers more flexibility in new service provision and further realize intelligent control over the network.

However, it should be noted that pure IMS technology is not sufficient. Instead, an ALL-IP structure is vital for the realization of FMC.

IMS will greatly influence network convergence in the future.
Firstly, compared with traditional telecom operation modes, IMS is quite revolutionary. It will usher in a brand new and challenging business mode. International carriers currently engaging in merge and restructuring, all desire to provide services in various areas, to promote their brand and market competitiveness worldwide. However, their CAPEX and OPEX will be very high if they remain entrenched in the traditional vertical and scattered network structure. It would be different in the case of IMS as it divides the network into the visit domain and home domain in order to achieve a complete sharing of network resources. Therefore, carriers who choose IMS will be able to implement universal services on a global scale, and thus greatly lower costs.
Secondly, IMS is capable of sharing service capabilities and combining them to create new services. Furthermore, carriers can also lease basic service capacities like Present, IM and Group, to SPs, to avoid being bypassed as mere channel providers.

Furthermore, IMS provides a flexible billing mode, ensuring market advantages for service providers and network owners. Furthermore, IMS enhances QoS and security, which promotes e-commerce and e-voting. Separate from access networks, IMS is also a key activator for FMC development.

Leading the development trend of the future telecom market, IMS has aroused attention from telecom carriers and equipment vendors worldwide. This year marks a critical point in achieving worldwide commercial deployment of IMS.

Inheriting Existing Strength, Huawei Sets Sail for IMS
The Huawei IMS solution focuses on network convergence, and is able to support fixed and mobile access simultaneously. The solution also fully complies with all international standards, providing open and standard interfaces for all core parts. In addition, Huawei's IMS solution is able to provide rich multimedia services such as, Sharing X, video conference, gaming, and so on.

At the same time, Huawei will launch its service-integrated platform, ENIP (Enhanced Network Intelligence Platform), which can help operators to deploy new services quickly, and thus satisfy market demands.

IMS can co-exist with the Softswitch in the same network, playing different roles. Softswitch is a mature solution to provide integrated voice services, while IMS is more applicable to multimedia services. It is commonly accepted now that IMS will co-exist with the Softswitch for a long time. They will share the experience in terms of IP, QoS, security, reliability, and large-scale networking. As Huawei Softswitch shares the same hardware platform with IMS, the Softswitch can easily converge and upgrade into the IMS-based network.

 Huawei Softswitch products are already in large-scale commercial applications. From those applications, we have gained rich experience in ensuring IP QoS, IP security and IP operation and maintenance. Huawei is currently one of the leaders in the mobile Softswitch field, topping others in terms of its share in the global market. At the research and development stage, we have taken future development of IMS into consideration. Hence, Huawei Softswitch can be easily integrated into the IMS network through software upgrade. In this way, we are able to help carriers save in overall investment, while ensuring service continuity. And these advantages in Softswitch will be inherited and enhanced in our IMS solution. Moreover, Huawei's in-depth understanding of IP technology will bring even greater advantages and competitiveness to our IMS solution.

Huawei actively creates an industry-wide IMS value chain
Huawei got an IMS contract from T-Mobile and T-Com, which is so far the largest IMS project worldwide. The success can be directly attributed to our innovation capability and high-quality products and services.

More importantly, Huawei IMS solution truly realizes FMC in both fixed and mobile networks, which share unified IMS network equipment based on the same platform. With end-to-end capability, such a solution can provide rich services and enable Magyar telecom to implement its convergence strategy and win an edge in future competition with efficient and timely multimedia service provision.

In this project, Huawei will supply a full set of IMS network equipments, rich IP multimedia services and applications, integrated services and diversified terminals. Integrating IP telecom technologies, the solution guarantees end-to-end QoS.

Huawei began research on IMS as early as 2001 and took an active part in the activities of various standard organizations. As of the end of 2005, Huawei has submitted nearly 300 proposals to the ITU-T, 3GPP/3GPP2, TISPAN and OMA. 

Understanding the value of the IMS network and the importance of creating an industry-wide IMS value chain, Huawei has been actively engaged in IMS business partnership programs. Huawei is widely seeking cooperation and partners such as, terminal manufacturers, media server providers and ISV (Independent Service Vendors).

Huawei advocates "Cooperation Creates Value", emphasizing especially the construction of the IMS ecosystem. By integrating all parts of the IMS network into our IMS system, we construct an IMS ecosystem for carriers, which is increasingly improved and expanded. In addition, we have set up a cooperation lab for IMS services in order to provide interfaces for our partners, making it easier for partners to access Huawei's network and conduct IOT tests.

At the moment, the FMC strategy of Huawei is being carried out on a full scale. Considering carriers' different environments, Huawei FMC solutions are tailored to their needs. Currently, we are working with a number of world-leading carriers in the FMC field. We hope to assist carriers in setting up an IMS industrial chain and promote the network convergence through extensive cooperation.