Normally, you don't write the Abstract until you have actually done the thesis. Go figure. But I have decided to give it a jab and put something down for the time-being. Obviously, I will be returning every now and again to shape it up, but this is what I have in mind for now:
Abstract -- The next generation network (NGN), as specified by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), seeks to guarantee that the network of the future will provide users of telecommunication systems with seamless access across disparate networks, to the applications and services they need and use in everyday life. The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as defined by standards bodies such as the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), ETSI (European Telecommunication Standards Institute) and others, is an important part of the NGN, particularly from the perspective of providing the services architecture that executes and delivers services based on user requests. The decomposition of these services into their constituent parts provides IMS engineers with the advantage of code re-usability and a more flexible platform upon which to develop complex services. Work in this area has led to the definition (outside of the standards) of a service capability interaction manager (SCIM) and a service broker which are responsible for handling the interactions between service components and managing access and third party exposure to these components respectively. The aim of the work related in this thesis has been to investigate in detail the service architecture of the IMS and to identify and validate the shortcomings, if any, of the current architecture for the delivery of complex services through service orchestration. The work applies only to the composition of services that are hosted on SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) application servers which is one of the three target environments specified by IMS. In agreement with related work, this thesis finds that the current architecture is not fully supportive of these functions without some extra interventions. A novel architecture that extends the currently proposed model is subsequently presented using the Mobicents platform which is based on the JAIN SLEE standard that, unlike related work, re-uses existing IMS standards and mechanisms and is compared and contrasted with contemporary designs such as Parlay X, GSMA One API and OMA NGSI.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Innovation Awards - IntelliDesk CRM System based on Open Source Software
Summary-- The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) in South Africa is an agency of the Department of Science and Technology that seeks to support young innovators in scarce-skills disciplines such as natural sciences, engineering and information technology. A bi-annual competition is held at all the tertiary institutions where independent panels choose three of the best proposals in each institution. Successful competitors are then sent to a two-day crash course where they are taught the basics of how to write a business proposal and are mentored by experts in business administration. In the last stage of the competition, the national stage, the innovators must compete against others for the chance to win ZAR 300,000 (USD 41,000) as the winners of the National Innovation Competition.
Two of my colleagues and I entered the competition late in 2009 with two hopeful business proposals. One proposal was for a "Mobile Trainer" that combines an application that interfaces with a mobile phone's GPS and accelerometer to track the training progress of an athlete. The information that is generated would also be posted onto a website and help create an online community that provides support and comparative statistics to help novice or recreational athletes.
The second proposal that we came up with was "IntelliDesk" which is the proposal that would end up earning us second position in the first round of the competition. IntelliDesk is a telephony-enabled, web-integrated customer relationship management software that is based on open source software that generalises to many business cases. The basic idea is to create an online master database that stores customer profiles. The main way this database is created is through a person interacting with a website that allows them to store information about themselves and also to determine which business entities are allowed to have access to their information.
A local installation of IntelliDesk is setup at the premises of our customers that allows them to download and store user profile information and match these details against the callerid (or sms) of a calling user. The information is put up on a web interface so that the agent at the business side can briefly scan through the information before answering the call. This information is important in dealing better with the user and helps the agent offer a customised service to their clients.
In South Africa, and indeed in other parts of the world, such systems already exist. However, more often than not, these are in-house systems that are installed at call centres or restaurants that serve the interests of that business only. What IntelliDesk offers is a general purpose interface to user profiles that can be utilised by several businesses so that the user does not need to create a 'presence' at each conceivable call centre or restaurant, but one set of information can be shared across many businesses and the power is in the hand of the user who dictates who can access and who cannot access their information.
The System
IntelliDesk is built from open source software. The telephony portion is handled by Asterisk, an open source PBX. The website is hosted on an Apache web server and PHP files are used as a scripting language for both Apache and Asterisk (through Asterisk AGI support).
Photos of national trials
Two of my colleagues and I entered the competition late in 2009 with two hopeful business proposals. One proposal was for a "Mobile Trainer" that combines an application that interfaces with a mobile phone's GPS and accelerometer to track the training progress of an athlete. The information that is generated would also be posted onto a website and help create an online community that provides support and comparative statistics to help novice or recreational athletes.
The second proposal that we came up with was "IntelliDesk" which is the proposal that would end up earning us second position in the first round of the competition. IntelliDesk is a telephony-enabled, web-integrated customer relationship management software that is based on open source software that generalises to many business cases. The basic idea is to create an online master database that stores customer profiles. The main way this database is created is through a person interacting with a website that allows them to store information about themselves and also to determine which business entities are allowed to have access to their information.
A local installation of IntelliDesk is setup at the premises of our customers that allows them to download and store user profile information and match these details against the callerid (or sms) of a calling user. The information is put up on a web interface so that the agent at the business side can briefly scan through the information before answering the call. This information is important in dealing better with the user and helps the agent offer a customised service to their clients.
In South Africa, and indeed in other parts of the world, such systems already exist. However, more often than not, these are in-house systems that are installed at call centres or restaurants that serve the interests of that business only. What IntelliDesk offers is a general purpose interface to user profiles that can be utilised by several businesses so that the user does not need to create a 'presence' at each conceivable call centre or restaurant, but one set of information can be shared across many businesses and the power is in the hand of the user who dictates who can access and who cannot access their information.
The System
 |
| Poster depicting IntelliDesk architecture for the national competition |
Photos of national trials
 |
| The venue for the national competition taken from the taxi (Moses Mabidha stadium, one of the World Cup stadiums) |
 |
| The IntelliDesk setup: Asterisk interface on laptop, two wifi phones, a wifi AP and an analogue phone connected to the Asterisk server (behind the white box) with a Digum card installed |
 |
| I was basically the eye-candy for our demo stall |
 |
| Fred and Z showing someone how the system works |
 |
| Fred (right) showing the Director General of Science and Technology (left) and the chairperson of the Technology Innovation Agency (middle) how the system works |
 |
| Our consolation prize for not winning the competition |
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)