Overview
Next Generation Networks
Next Generation Networks (NGN) are next-generation broadband IP networks operated by communications carriers based on IP technology. NGNs incorporate real-time multimedia communications and service quality management functionality, providing high-quality video, videoconferencing, and high-reliability communications services for enterprises in addition to existing fixed and mobile telephone service. The ability to provide all services on a single network makes it easy to provide services like Triple Play, Quadruple Play, and fixed mobile convergence (FMC).
NGNs also provide service delivery platform (SDP) functionality, allowing communications carriers to offer application-building functions to third parties (service providers, enterprises, and individuals). Enterprises and individuals will be able to use the SDP to develop services that incorporate NGN functionality, unleashing new and more diverse ways of using the network and service formats to offer services that meet a broad range of user needs.
NGN standardization efforts are already well underway in Europe and North America, and the ITU-T is working to create international standards for the technology based on the standardization proposals circulating in those regions. Even as the ITU-T moved to finalize some NGN standards in July 2006, advanced communications carriers worldwide were already pushing forward with efforts to build NGNs in anticipation of their impending standardization.
Differences with conventional networks
NGNs differ from their conventional counterparts in both architecture and services.
The following diagram summarizes the architectural differences. While conventional networks comprised a series of vertically integrated independent networks, each designed specifically for a separate service (telephone, mobile, leased line, broadcast, etc.), NGNs pair a network service control layer with a network layer that handles the actual transfer of data to create a hierarchical architecture that can be shared by multiple services. The Internet has not been integrated into this NGN architecture because designers envision a separate Internet that exists alongside NGNs.
The difference in the services provided by these two network architectures lies in the fact that NGNs allow use of communications carriers' data and communications processing functionality via an API, whereas conventional communications carriers offered primarily audio and data transmission services.
Figure1 Comparison of NGN and Conventional Networks
When networks change, so do the ways people use them
When networks change, naturally so do the ways people use them. When the ways people use networks change, people and companies will seize the opportunity to build new business models and competitive advantages. With NGN, networks become more than simple tools for connecting individuals, gaining the ability to facilitate a variety of services for the individual. As companies and individuals rush to take advantage of this new channel before their competitors do, they may succeed in acquiring the novel competitive advantages of a new era.
Glossary
- Service quality management functionality
- Mechanisms for evaluating and managing quality as experienced by users.
- Real-time multimedia communications functionality
- Functionality for transmitting video as used in videophone and videoconferencing applications, audio, and data in real time.
OKI's NGN initiatives
OKI has been contributing to the development of communications services since the dawn of the telephone network architecture in Japan 125 years ago. Today we have been playing the role of market leader for over 10 years in the development and popularization of IP phone network systems, activities that have pioneered the transformation of communications networks with IP technology. OKI is committed to taking full advantage of its experience and technology as we make good on the trust of our customers by bolstering the quality and reliability of conventional networks, supporting efforts to expand the scale and capacity of networks, and delivering products with the functionality required to implement new services.
Figure2 Next Generation Networks overview
