Service-centric networks

At present, competition and the latest network technologies threaten the profit margins of telecommunications providers. New services, however, represent an important prospect for increased revenue. To capitalize on this opportunity, new services must appeal to users and be capable of rapid introduction and scaling to meet demand. Moreover, cost-effective service introduction requires independence from the underlying access technology. This paper discusses today's service delivery methodology and introduces the theme of service-centric networks - the uncoupling of services from access networks. It also delineates an architecture approach for implementing service networks and describes our experiences with the Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture (TINA), which employs this approach.