Cannes, France, may not be on cable's radar screens this week, but several cable-related announcements have emanated from the 3GSM World Congress conference being held there.
Nortel Networks Corp. announced that it is teaming up with IBM Corp. to create a converged multimedia platform, while the International Packet Communications Consortium debuted a new working group to define reference architectures in order to provide seamless mobility across wireline and wireless networks.
The working group was founded by Alcatel, Brooktrout Technology Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Convedia Corp., eLEC Communications, Sonus Networks Inc., Tekelec, Time Warner Telecom and UTStarcom Inc.
Its goal is to provide reference designs linking digital-subscriber-line, fiber and cable platforms with 2.5G, 3G, Wi-Fi and WiMAX platforms.
Nortel said its “Converged Multimedia Solution” is designed to streamline the integration, testing and launching of new multimedia services, while IBM will supply its service-delivery platform and professional-services capabilities.
Consumers "will be able to launch a video conference during a voice conversation, or access a personalized VOD [video-on-demand] service not just from their home TV, but online from a laptop, a hotel room or from a mobile phone," Nortel said in a release.
The company said its CMS portfolio includes an “IP Multimedia Subsystem,” “Multimedia Domain” and PacketCable-standards-compliant networking products. The CMS uses session-initiation protocol to link the core network and the application-service layer.
