Using Roles with Types and Objects for Service Development

,.-0/21 354!687 /:9;35Due to increasing user expectations, ICT convergence, de-regulation and the vast possibilities of the ubiquitous Internet, the ability to quickly develop and deploy new services will become an increasingly important competitive factor in the future. Whether the solution will be a “smart” or a “stupid” network may be debated to lengths, but there is no question that flexibility to provide an open range of services will be a key feature. Considering the wide range of multi-media services enabled by new technology, safe and rapid service development will pose a formidable challenge. Even in traditional “single services networks” where “services” are seen as features of a basic service, e.g. the basic telephone call, this has been difficult to achieve. “Intelligent Networks” were introduced to improve the service flexibility in such networks, but are inherently constrained by the basic call assumption, and not well suited for the emerging “open services network”. An open-ended approach where service modules can be developed and combined in very flexible ways, by different suppliers, to accommodate completely new multi-media services is needed. This paper is about achieving open ended-ness and flexibility using roles, types and objects.