Preserving Integrity inTelecommunication Networks Opened bythe Parlay Service Interface

Abstract: This Master’s Thesis in Electrical Engineering concerns the introduction of a Parlay gateway in Skanova’s public circuit switched telephone network, what network integrity problems this brings, and how to preserve the integrity of the network. There is a rising demand from the market on Skanova to be able to offer integrated and useful services via their network. Examples of such services are Web Controlled Call Forwarding and Virtual Call Centres. Until now, these services have been implemented with the Intelligent Network concept which is a technology for concentrating the service logic in the telephone network to centralised service platforms within the network operator’s domain. Developing new services in this environment is expensive and therefore, Skanova wants to open the network for third party service providers. The opening of the network is enabled by the introduction of a gateway implementing the open service interface Parlay. The crucial point when opening the network for third party service providers is to maintain the integrity of the network. Parlay is an object oriented Application Programming Interface that enables a third party service access to core network resources in a controlled manner. The authors’ definition of network integrity is: “the ability of a network to steadily remain in a safe state, while performing according to the expectations and specifications of its owner, i.e. delivering the expected functionality and providing means to charge for utilised network resources”. The thesis describes a few services implemented via the Parlay interface and points out examples of activities in these services that may jeopardise the integrity of the network. The described activities belong to one of the two categories: Call Control Functionality or Lack of Charging Instruments. The thesis also describes two important methods for addressing encountered integrity problems. The methods are: Parlay Service Level Agreement and Policy Management.</p> Finally, the solutions are compared and the conclusion is that Policy Management is a conformable and flexible method for addressing lots of integrity problems and that these are important qualities, since new integrity problems will arise all the time.