Service oriented computing: enabling cross-network services between the internet and the telecommunications network
Xian‐He Sun, Vijay K. Gurbani · 2004
There are two widely deployed networks in use today: the public switched telephone network {PSTN} and the Internet. While there have been synergies between the two networks, thus far these synergies have been fashioned around one network using the other as a transport medium. The PSTN infrastructure has long been used to carry the Internet traffic, and to access the Internet through modems; conversely, the Internet is capable of digitizing and transporting a voice stream between communicating users. The next step for this convergence lies in a rich cross-pollination of ideas that will enable one network to transparently use the services of another, and for the networks to work cohesively to provide novel services that would not be feasible in isolation on either of the networks. This dissertation discusses such services in three broad areas: the service executes in the PSTN based on events occurring in the Internet, the service executes in the Internet based on events occurring on the PSTN, and application of a certain subset of services to the field of pervasive computing. First, we propose algorithms and an architecture that allow newer Internet telephony endpoints to access existing PSTN services in a transparent and scalable manner. Next, we note that the ingredient that has traditionally been missing in the PSTN is the notion of “information dissemination.” Many Internet services (including presence and availability) work best when information about users is disseminated widely. In PSTN, user information is widely available, but thus far, there has not been any means to disseminate it in a standard, secure, and scalable manner. We present an ontology to do exactly that. Finally, we use this ontology to merge the PSTN and the Internet at the services layer to construct a telecommunications smart space. A smart space in pervasive computing is an aggregate environment composed of two or more previously disjoint domains. The design and implementation of this ontology is an early effort at merging the computing discipline's web service infrastructure with the evolving Internet telephony service infrastructure.