The long and strenuous journey to Converged Messaging

But although first steps are already made, the final goal of a real convergence of networks and services is still a future vision. Reality shows that the approaches to reach the target are just as versatile as the individual and often oppositional requirements and problems to be solved. On the long way to an all-IP/IMS network, which is the basis for a real messaging convergence, the hurdles to overcome are considerable. Fully converged messaging – is it just a dream?

Dieter Buettenbender, SVP Sales, MATERNA Information & Communications, CXO EU

Looking at the changing communications world today and the way the topic of all-IP/IMS networks is addressed shows that there is still a gap between advertising slogans and network operator activities. All-IP/IMS networks are a hot topic since several years now, but still operators hesitate to introduce new networks without clear signals from the telecommunication industry for new clients and services. Standardization bodies as well as supplier for IMS services find it difficult to persuade Operators about investing in a new infrastructure without new compelling services. Converged Messaging is regarded as one of those services that help leveraging all-IP/IMS networks. And the vast expectations for converged messaging are still growing. But Operators are still hesitating because on the way to a fully harmonized infrastructure many competing and often non-interoperable technologies and services have to be integrated and supported. Those technology borders are sometimes appearing as an insurmountable obstacle – at least for the moment.

However, fact is, that the communications industry still believes in a harmonized network with a superior messaging experience. The vision of converged messaging, advertised with slogans such as “any network, anywhere, anytime” electrifies operators and suppliers alike. It’s understood, since today users have the choice between multiple networks with a vast pool of services to communicate such as SMS, MMS, email, Instant Messaging and many more. And each of these services requires separate clients and proprietary address formats to be used: phone number, mobile number, fax number, email address, IM address, SIP address, etc. Who don’t get dizzy from that? It’s obvious that a simplification is a must. Talking about sending a message or starting a chat using just one single user identity is a given. And history shows that simplification coupled with most convenient and intuitive technology becomes accepted by the mass market as soon as it is available at reasonable price. But the time-frame for converged messaging realization is still unclear today. The journey has just begun.

The dilemma for Operators is to strike the balance between investment into new, upcoming technology in a highly competitive market and waiting for the right moment to come in order to avoid investing in an uncertain technology. Of course first steps were already taken. Especially the convergence of fixed, mobile, TV and Internet networks with triple- or quadruple-play offerings are widely-used. But it is less a convergence of network technology, it is more the break-down of traditional company borders that allows services to be used across different networks. And more than that a new generation of clients come into the market allowing to use different communication techniques, such as phone calls, chat, file transfer and messaging with just one client, hiding protocols from the user. But most often those clients are still using silo services and interoperability with other messaging technologies are difficult or even impossible to realize. But they are showing the flavor of a new messaging experience. Aspects like personalization and presence are already used and will be standard in an all-IP/IMS infrastructure.

Converged messaging in the future is based on a holistic messaging experience. And the ways to reach this target are manifold. There is no one-solution-fits-all approach, since starting positions and strategies of fixed, mobile, TV and Internet network provider are obviously different. A reasonable strategy is a step-by-step approach, allowing to solve today’s problems with a flexible and resilient solution based on a modular and versatile architecture. Such a type of architecture helps operators deliver value added services to the end user based on consumer demand at any moment just by integrating an the appropriate modules with existing infrastructure. Moreover, this key feature of being interoperable with existing mobile solutions provides network operators with an extensive range of provisioning methods.

The award-winning TRILINK technology by MATERNA paves the way for converged messaging. As a highly modular and flexible platform TRILINK offers messaging solutions fitting into any existing infrastructure with a basis setup, solving current convergence problems. Due to its modular approach, new service can easily be introduced as soon as required by the operator. MATERNA Communications developed the innovative TRILINK messaging technology that delivers not only converged messaging between services and networks but also performs preference driven messaging by obtaining information on user presence.

The TRILINK makes allowance for person-to-person as well as application-to-person messaging. While TRILINK supports established and widely-used messaging services it is also IMS ready and enables network operators to introduce new service while maintaining the experience of existing services and guaranteeing interoperability between new and existing infrastructure.

As the TRILINK grows with the customer, it can individually be scaled up to a fully converged messaging platform in a harmonized infrastructure. With the new technology from MATERNA, it becomes exceedingly simple to envision the future of converged messaging.