IMS - IP Multimedia Subsystem

It’s a buzzword you might have started seeing around: IMS, or IP Multimedia Subsytem [wikipedia], which wikipedia defines as “… a standardised Next Generation Networking (NGN) architecture…” that will be the base for all types of Internet-based services including IM (Instant Messaging), SIP-based VoIP, FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence) for cellular services (such as push-to-talk over cellular), and more. (Video over IMS may play a lesser role.) These services will all be quantized under the IP framework, so it allows providers to offer them over the Internet as well as bill for them.

IMS was originally intended for converging wireless and mobile networks and and is already spawning various hardware and processors. It’s an architecture that some people believe will become the dominant one for VoIP services. A Gartner, Inc., report indicates that of the US$5B that will be spent in 2010 on VoIP call control layer equipment, about 77% will be on IMS.