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SOA-based offering promises to cut multimedia services costs

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A Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software product developer and a service oriented architecture (SOA) provider are jointly developing tools aimed at lowering the cost of multimedia services deployment.

The integrated offerings will also enable telecom service providers and mobile device developers to accelerate product rollout, according to Ottawa-based Atreus Systems Inc. a supplier of provisioning software for Internet-based communications and BEA Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif. said.

The two companies, which announced an alliance earlier this week, said they would employ two key tools:

• Liquid Services Framework (LSF), an SOA-based service delivery system from BEA, will be used to develop IT interfaces for traditional telecom carriers;

• Atreus xAuthority, an IP provisioning tool, will provide a carrier-grade operations support system (OSS) that enables developers to automate the activation of multiple IP services ideal for business, consumer and hosted applications.

Several telecom providers have invested heavily in voice telephony systems, and need help developing IP-based services, according to Chris King, senior director for worldwide telco markets, BEA Systems.

He said the biggest orders today are for IP oriented services that require speed and bandwidth. "However, most telco systems are not designed for this."

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LSF, King said, is the ideal system for bridging this gap. "Liquid services will tie the old world to the new."

According to King, telecom engineers have unique skills but not many of them are familiar with IT concepts.

The SOA features inherent in LSF, he said, provides "modules of code that turn into understandable interfaces for "telecom IT personnel and programmers.

xAuthority provides a set of tools to enable developers to create applications and composite IP services, according to Ken Workun, director, business development, Atreus Systems.

"The concept is to allow the interconnection of various services so we can eliminate islands of information."

Using xAuthority, developers can create "seamless" instant messaging, video and VoIP services, he said.

For instance, in a proof-of-concept project, Atreus and BEA developed a unified messaging system that connected short message service (SMS) to a home security system.