Note 2: No quarter results announced by Huawei & ZTE on their websites

IMS has also been adopted by ETSI and ITU as a uniform service framework. The diagram below has origins at ETSI and defines their interpration of the IMS framework:

Although IMS has a history of over a decade in standardization bodies, the deployment has been rather slow owing to

However, as ISPs/telcos plan their upgrade cycles, they are slowly bringing in IMS capable elements with a view to increase IMS based services over time. It remains to be seen how fast or slow the service uptake will be.
Wikipedia on IMS: IP Multimedia System

IMS receives a lot of attention from publications and analysts –  bringing forth the old saying about “you can love it, you can hate it; but you cannot ignore it”. Some samples are:

Tutorials and white papers are available in plenty and the official standards can be obtained from 3gpp

Meanwhile, there are reports of Bridgescale (a VC) bidding for parts Nortel.

By increasing the address field from 32 to 128 bytes, IPv6 offers the biggest advantage of large address space. As mobile devices and embedded devices proliferate, it is possible to interconnect more devices over the internet than ever before. The address space available with IPv6 seems to be adequate for a significant part of the conceivable future.

The header simplification and improved options processing, makes it easier for intermediate routers to forward IPv6 packets. Traffic flow identification to allow prioritization of different flows and handle them differently has been inbuilt into the protocol as has been the support for security via usage of IPSec.
In order to route IPv6, the routing protocols require upgrade and we have versions of OSPFv3, RIP-NG and enhanced BGP available.

Although the protocol supports auto-configuration via route-advertisements to the nearest router at startup (the address can be divided into a network specific portion that can be provided by the router and a host specific portion that is dependent on the MAC of the datalink interface on the host), support for DHCPv6 is also available to distribute addresses from a preconfigured pool.

Transitioning a network from IPv4 to IPv6 is not a simple job, even with small LANs – the complexity grows for larger network (enterprise-wide or ISP networks). The first issue is to obtain IPv6-ready hardware (ie) deploy hosts, routers and switches that have IPv6 implemented, even if the current network runs on IPv4. This can easily be done as part of the normal upgrade cycle for any organization (hence we find mandates for suppliers of network and host hardware/software to provide support for IPv6 as a criteria for purchase for the last few years). However, since IPv6 is yet to see large scale deployment, the extent of support and interoperability across vendors has to be tested in lab scenarios before live network deployments. For instance, certain network management features that are taken for granted with the current IPv4 systems, are not yet supported by all IPv6 implementations.

As the deployment level of IPv6 on the internet is not yet very significant, the current implementations are yet to undergo the test of time. The CAIDA (Co-operative Association for Internet Data Analysis) charts for the comparison of IPv4 and IPv6 deployment indicate very sparse usage currently for IPv6, although it is expected to pick up with the APAC countries leading the deployment.

At the application level, rewriting the application to use the underlying IPv6 infrastructure is necessary and hence the upgrade is an expensive process. Over time we see many product vendors announcing support for IPv6 and many standard applications today can run over IPv6 with configuration changes.

Transition technologies to ease IPv6 deployment have been in vogue as it is envisaged that IPv6 deployment is likely to grow only in pockets while the main internet backbones continue to run on Ipv4 for a long time. Some of the transition technologies have been controversial and these continue to evolve over time.

The v6ops work group at IETF continues to focus on operational issues with Ipv6 and current items for standardization include Ipv6 CPE routers and issues with router advertisements

As Ipv4 address exhaustion looms before us with a projected date early in the next decade , it is necessary for all technologists involved with IP networks and applications that run over IP to understand IPv6 and prepare for its deployment.

Wikipedia reference: IPv6

IP runs over several different datalink technologies like ethernet, WiFi, WiMAX, 3G RAN protocols etc and each of these protocol definitions include mechanisms for encapsulating IP datagrams into their packet structure.

IP is a connection-less protocol and does not require any kind of circuit set up. If an application requires an end-to-end circuit, it has to be handled at the transport layer or any of the higher layers. Consequently, IP does not guarantee delivery of packets at the destination, datagrams could travel by different routes and hence reach at different times. Missing datagrams would need to be redespatched and duplicate delivery is also possible. Packet reassembly is done at the destination and the complete packet is handed to the upper layer applications. IP is called an unreliable protocol (since there are no built-in mechanisms to ensure delivery of datagrams) and performs best effort delivery. However, the protocol is simple and robust enough to carry across the bulk of the internet traffic today.

As IP addresses are the main mechanism for identification of entities on the internet, they are an important resource and are governed by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Distribution of IP addresses to telcos, ISPs and enterprises are handled by regional registries in different parts of the globe. These providers in turn, hand over individual IP addresses (static or dynamic) to users and other entities in the network.

IP routing or transferring of packets from a known source address to an identified destination address is a complex process and there are several control protocols for performing IP routing with inter-domain and intra-domain routing handled differently. BGP is the main inter-domain routing protocol and there are several intra-domain protocols like OSPF, RIP and IS-IS.

IPv6 is the next generation of the internet protocol, but more about that in a separate discussion. Vint Cerf, who is one of the original authors of the IP protocol has also come out with a concept of interplanatary internet.

Wikipedia reference: IP

Three important parameters that define HDTV:

Technically HDTV has twice the resolution of the previous SDTV (Standard Definition Television) and hence shows greater detail of the image.

HDTV parameters are defined by ITU recommendation BT.709 . HDTV broadcast transmission is governed by ATSC (Advanced Television Standards Committee) in the US, DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) in Europe and ISDB-T ( Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting) nd other regions of the world adopt one of these standards.

Wikipedia reference: HDTV