An IMS Based Inter-working Solution for Multimedia Service in a Converged Network

In the evolution of traditional telecom network towards a converged next generation network, inter- working is always challenging due to different name spaces and routing mechanism across communities. Most existing Inter-working solutions are made at the terminal side. It requires mobile phone or PC users to install multiple client-side applications, such as, Google talk client, Skype client, and MSN client, etc. In order to avoid too many client applications running on mobile terminals, a network solution is desired. An IMS based Inter-working solution for multimedia services is proposed. It enables an IMS subscriber make use of a single SIP user agent to communicate with the other users who might have communication means other than IMS based devices. The solution consists of two parts: one is the conference like service; the other is the Inter-working gateway service. The detailed technical description of the proposed solution is described hereafter. The corresponding use cases are present. The solution can also be applied to "group communication", e.g. ad-hoc group or predefined group multimedia service (chat, instant messaging, voice/video conference, etc.). The benefits of the proposed solution for end users and operators are discussed.