I don’t do much “go read this” stuff here when I’ve little to add, but the short article on feature interaction by Carl Ford is a very important thinking point.
The world of the “stupid network” HTTP-based Web is rather different from the “stupid network” faux-circuit SIP-based VoIP. In the former, you have one end point (e.g. a PC) interacting with one service (e.g. Amazon.com). Although we have the technology to, for example, federate identity and profile amongst web sites, the number of real-world examples between public sites is pretty small.
There are different dynamics at play with voice. A 3-way call, or a transferred call, are very natural interactions that potentially span multiple parties and applications or service providers. Yet any small change in the nature of one service could ripple through to have unintended consequences for other users. A trivial example might be that call forwarding and find-me/follow-me end up causing circular behavior between services. With the PSTN, the limited functionality, long deployment and absence of innovation mean these problems are generally cracked.
The conclusion is that we may end up involving intermediaries to orchestrate multi-party off-net rendezvous and messaging. Although the problems may in principle be solvable “at the edge”, the vast installed base of the PSTN and mobile networks makes that impractical if ineroperability outside VoIP islands is desired.
If someone can build a marketplace for users to go assemble the features they want, maybe even IMS would suddenlty find a role for itself? It’s a totally different world to the one in which IMS is used to meter and ration connectivity; rather, users voluntarily route their calls via intermediates because it is of benefit to them to do so. The middleman would ensure smooth functional interoperation and perform whatever accounting and settlement procedures the market wants from offering advanced services. Whether the idea of the customer owning the middleman, and not the converse, will ever fly in telco boardrooms is another matter…
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Feature Interaction from Aswath Weblog
Carl’s guest post on Feature Interaction has prompted Alec and Martin to post their thoughts on this matter. Carl has responded to their posts. In this post I respond to Alec’s claim that “feature interaction is a boogeyman”....
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Martin,
Thank you. I am responding on Jeff'f Blog. The fear I have is that the PSTN and SKYPE may in the end be exactly the same - closed networks with small points of interconnection and little interoperability.
Kind Regards,
carl
PS Can You tell I don't blog well. ;<)
Posted by: at June 5, 2006 09:39 PMMartin, thank you for summing up my point on the value of next gen service providers ;-)
Their value is not in providing a basic call. You can you that peer to peer on the Internet. The value is in establishing trust, and complicated services that may need to interwork my SIP client with someone else's (who said SIP is a standard is sorely mistaken).
Posted by: at June 7, 2006 11:29 AMBy tradition the so-called middlemen were the traditional telco's or incumbents nowadays. In the Web-world only software giants like Microsoft could reach a similar status, but they want to dominate the software being used, not the networking. So it all boils down to who want & will ensure the multiple interworkings between Webservices and the IN/IMS/SIP-arena? It's not about technology, but about the industry structure, call it "Bellhead versus Nethead 2.0" if you like. My guess is that the dominant Access providers will be decisive: wholesalers with regulation (mostly incumbent Telcos), Cable companies and the moble operators (not the MVNO's though). Skype and other peer2peer parties will be absorbed by them or shifted back to a facilitating role on services level or niche markets (e.g. for Ebay). Don van Riet mgt Consultant ICT /former KPN (VANS-area)
PS Another way of looking is which kind of people you need gettings things around communication well organised, while the Web favours chaos and free development. Interworking is nitty-gritty and that's the world were Telco people still come from: they know how and are eager to solve this.