Innovation is the motor of growth – in particular on mature telecommunications markets. Service delivery platforms (SDP) and IP multimedia solutions (IMS)are both standards and architectural principles which can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of network operators. The two concepts are completely different. But they start to get really interesting when combined to create an optimal solution.

Service delivery platforms (SDP) using a number of different concepts and methods have been around for several years now. However, in contrast to most technologies in the telecommunications industry, there are still no global or generally accepted SDP standards. On the contrary, very different concepts and architectures have developed depending on the supplier or network operator in question. All variations can be found on the market – from vertical SDPs which concentrate on specific functionalities to complex horizontal architectures which can deal with an exceptionally wide spectrum of functionalities and business models.  

The unified service portfolio is gaining ground 

All SDPs have a number of common elements. They are the IT-based platforms of network operators which are used to provide data and voice services in a complex telecommunications network. These services do not have to be developed or coordinated using a specific network architecture. The provision of general functions such as billing, rights management, or authentication is often included on the SDP platform.     

The introduction of SDPs is being driven by the provision of a growing number of data and voice services by internal and external application developers and service providers. A second driver is the need to improve efficiency and to reduce the ­costs of providing data and voice services in increasingly complex ­telecommunications networks.  

The IP multimedia-subsystem was standardized by the 3rd ­Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), and is a service architecture. It makes the provision of cutting-edge multimedia services possible irrespective of access technology. IMS is mainly based on the Internet protocol SIP and supports the integration of data and voice services on packet-based networks. Examples of IMS services are push-to-talk, presence, or IMS messaging. IMS builds on two basic concepts: it makes it possible to identify and locate a person in the network – and not just the end-user device as was the case in the past. In addition, a number of different services and applications can intercommunicate and exchange data without these services having to be integrated with each other.  

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