Share and share alike

The pc may be the platform of choice for sharing content over the internet, but handset makers want to change that. “We want to make available through the phone the whole social networking phenomenon – sharing music, pictures and video files,” said Jörgen Lanto, vice president for system integration at Ericsson Mobile Platforms. Ericsson believes a key technology to make this happen is IP multimedia subsystem (IMS), an emerging standard that telecom operators are assessing and starting to deploy. IMS originated several years ago as a way for mobile operators to simplify new service introductions. The standard has since emerged as a fundamental way to architect next generation fixed and mobile networks. Instead of an operator using proprietary platforms with each new service, IMS offers an open layered architecture that separates services from the network’s control and signalling. By doing so, common IMS equipment can to be reused with each added service, saving on equipment costs. Moreover, new services are introduced at the application layer, simplifying and speeding the process and aiding operator competitiveness.