RCS-e

Converged Messaging

The growth of messaging in the internet age has been unprecedented. Digital devices as diverse as mobile phones, netbooks, PCs, set top boxes and game consoles are integrating messaging and presence services to enable richer communications and add value.

Converged communications are creating opportunities for building and launching many new generation services. With Metaswitch’s Colibria Converged Messaging solutions, operators can enable new generation SIP instant messaging and SIP presence services with IMS and pre IMS based infrastructure. The solutions are compliant with the requirements of the Rich Communication Suite (RCS).

Metaswitch is leading the drive to extend instant messaging and presence applications across IP networks, enabling users to access familiar messaging and presence services from any IP-based device and enabling additional services.

The Colibria solution provides seamless interworking to existing SMS and IMPS messaging environments, combined with compliance to OMA SIP/SIMPLE standards to ensure that our products integrate seamlessly in a number of differing solutions including:

• Carrier VoIP services: providing presence and messaging enhancements to existing VoIP deployments.
• Rich Communication Suite (RCS): social presence and Chat are fundamental services within the RCS solution.
• Presence routing services: allowing the operator to route calls according to the most likely destination of the user based on presence information. 

Rich Communication Suite (RCS)

The Rich Communications Suite (RCS) is a suite of applications and services being defined within the GSMA that will enable interoperable, enriched communications including Enhanced Phonebook, Enhanced Messaging and Enriched Calls. RCS services can be accessed from mobile and fixed networks across mobile handsets, netbooks and PC devices, providing a truly converged feature set.

Metaswitch is partnering with key RCS vendors to integrate our SIP Messaging (SIP IM) Server, Presence Server, and Network Address Book within their overall RCS solutions.

Key features of our RCS solution include:

Enhanced Messaging: allows the user to see and trigger all communication (SMS, MMS, IM) in a threaded conversational view, simplifying the user experience. Messaging supports both one to one conversations and one to many ad hoc group messaging. Large messages are supported including pictures and file transfer. The Colibria SIP messaging platform is fully compliant with the requirements of RCS today.

Enhanced Address Book: integrates presence information into the phone book interface, providing those in your address book with willingness and best method of communication. The address book initially allows backup and restore of contacts to a network repository, but will move to a full network address book implementation in later phases. The Colibria presence platform and Network Address Book meet the requirements of RCS specifications today.

Mobile Content Sharing: sharing of video or still images is supported, during or independently of a voice call. This mode of transport is supported directly by the handset manufacturers.

RCS-e

RCS-e ("e" for enhanced) is an initiative taken by five of the leading European mobile operators to achieve an early launch of RCS-like features. It is a simple and interoperable evolution of voice and text which enables subscribers to send instant messages, chat and exchanges multimedia files, such as images and video, with their contacts directly from their device's address book. By removing the presence integration in the service offering, as well as introducing reliability and multi-device handling improvements of the RCS Release 2 specifications, RCS-e simplifies and accelerates the deployment of rich communication services for mobile operators and other service providers.

Metaswitch's carrier-grade Colibria IM server supports all the features necessary for an RCS-e deployment, and we were among the very first server application vendors to provide a commercially available RCS-e product just a few weeks after the RCS-e standard specifications were finalized. In addition, the major RCS-e client and handset vendors have been utilizing the Metaswitch Colibria IM server for interoperability testing, and Metaswitch is actively partnering with leading client vendors to provide an end to end RCS-e solution.

Network Address Book

The move to multi-device access of single services through mobile phones, PC applications and browsers is driving the need for a common Network Address Book which is independent of the terminal used. This provides the operator with an opportunity to offer value add services like mobile phone address book backup combined with an always up-to-date address book. This enhances service while reducing subscriber churn.

Metaswitch’s Colibria Intelligent Network Address Book (INAB) meets the emerging needs of converged networks for one repository for contact information. This allows the user to access their services from any device and still see their contact list in a familiar layout. In addition, changes to a contact need only be made once. Thereafter the changes are visible to all contact lists that contain that contact.

Carriers now also want to aid the user in managing their multiple social networks and instant messaging communities by integrating information such as status into the address book. The INAB can easily import existing contacts from external communities, such as social networks and public IM communities, into a user's address book. The INAB user is sure that all of their contacts from various sources are aggregated into one dynamic address book that is automatically kept up-to-date.

The solution utilizes Colibria’s leading edge XDMS technology, allowing centralized storage of contact lists and users public / private profiles. It can be deployed in pre IMS, IMS and RCS (Rich Communication Suite) networks. Profiles can be synchronized from traditional mobile handsets using SyncML or from SIP clients and devices using an XCAP interface. A client adaptor layer allows diverse data formats to be unified into one common format, limiting client interworking issues.

Presence

Once perceived as a simple availability indicator for IM, presence is now seen as an enabler for key services and is very much at the heart of next generation communications including the GSMA's Rich Communication Suite.

Innovative applications include cable companies who wish to promote messaging between their subscribers by allowing them to show friends what they are currently watching on TV. Meanwhile, the Fixed-Mobile Convergence Alliance (FMCA)'s Open Presence trial is exploring commercial models for presence-enabled services in areas such as unified communications, VoIP, mobile IM, IPTV, social networking, content sharing services, networked gaming and wholesale services.

Metaswitch’s Colibria Presence Server provides operators with the capability to extend presence well beyond the boundaries of service silos and networks to become a fully integrated enabler for today's communications.