A Business Model for a Sensors-Enabled IMS Environment

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is one of the key components of third generation (3G) networks, while Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are an emerging type of networks formed by a set of distributed sensor nodes that collaborate to monitor physical and environmental conditions. By integrating the sensing capabilities of WSNs in the IMS, a rich set of contextual information can be exploited to provide new and personalized multimedia services to IMS users. We have previously proposed a presence-based WSNs/IMS integration architecture, and discussed its design and implementation aspects. In this paper, we focus on the aspects needed for the practical deployment of this architecture. An enhanced IMS business model is proposed for the resulting sensors-enabled IMS environment, and several important support functions are elaborated, including: a two-level identification scheme, a charging model, security and information access control mechanisms, as well as WSN gateways' dynamic discovery alternatives.