Consortium To Define Architectures For Telecom ConvergenceConsortium To Define Architectures For Telecom Convergence

CANNES, France — The International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC) has established a working group to define reference architectures. The aim is to provide feature transparency and seamless mobility across wireline and wireless networks.

The initiative was announced Tuesday (Feb. 15) at the 3GSM World Congress.

Initial members include Cisco, Alcatel, Brooktrout, Sonus, Tekelec, Time Warner Telecom and UTStarcom.

"We are at an inflection point in our industry as various packet wireline and wireless networks are converging," said Michael Khalilian, IPCC chairman and president. "We established this working group to foster industry collaboration in order to find the best solutions in these critical areas in the least amount of time."

The working group will initially focus on mobile hand over between 2G/3G and Wi-Fi/WiMAX and IP Multimedia Subsystem within 3GPP. It will also investigate potential efficiencies in operations and capital costs.

The group has also begun working with standards bodies, including the DSL and WiMAX forums, to prevent overlaps in the proposed reference architecture.

IPCC said other companies are likely to join the fixed-mobile convergence effort later in the year.