AMS to the rescue

[The ITU have started working on a standard called the Advanced Multimedia System, or AMS. It is a communications protocol intended to solve some of the issues that plague today’s protocols and also enable functionality that is not easily achievable with current systems. I have asked Paul Jones, the rapporteur for the AMS expert group to provide some of his insights on this “standard under construction.”]One of the exciting things about the technology industry is that technology is constantly changing and improving. This is certainly true within the telecommunications space, where we have seen over the past decade a massive shift away from circuit-switched communication systems to IP-based communication systems, both at the network edge and within the core. We have also witnessed a significant increase in the number of mobile phone subscribers worldwide, with mobile phones subscribers exceeded 3.3 billion world-wide.

Through all of these changes, one thing that has not changed from the user’s perspective is that what the user has is a telephone: a device that he or she can use to make a voice call to another person. The Internet has the potential to enable much more than just voice, so why is it that most of the world still only uses voice? There is certainly an increased interest world-wide in video, but video is not yet widely available. In the coming years, it is certainly expected that we will see an increased use of video. But, what about other forms of communication? Will video be the last major technology? Of course not!

What we have achieved over the past decade with all of the technology changes is the introduction of a new foundation upon which all kinds of new multimedia applications may be delivered. That foundation, of course, is the Internet Protocol. Millions of homes around the world have Internet connections and, increasingly so, more and more mobile phones have Internet access. Further, bandwidth is constantly increasing, with some estimating that 4G mobile networks will offer speeds far greater than many of today’s residential broadband connections! Moreover, it is expected that Internet connectivity will be available to a wide range of various devices and there is a strong desire to enable devices to interconnect and exchange information.

So, how can we utilize this forthcoming potential to its fullest? More precisely, how can we enrich the lives of users so that a phone call is not merely voice, but actually a collection of multimedia capabilities working in concert, allowing users to share files, talk, see video, share an application, draw on a shared whiteboard, transmit streaming audio/video, or play interactive games as a part of that “phone call”?

That is precisely the challenge the ITU has recently undertaken with a new initiative it has launched called the Advanced Multimedia System, or AMS.

The ITU has a long history of creating successful multimedia communication systems. While many people do not know them by name, millions of people use them every day. In fact, people who have used software such as Microsoft NetMeeting or IBM Lotus Sametime, used technology multimedia technology developed at the ITU. If you have ever used a video conferencing system, the technology employed was likely technology developed at the ITU. The ITU was the first to finalize a standard for IP-based multimedia communications, a technology known as H.323. Today, H.323 is the most widely deployed video conferencing and VoIP system in the world, carrying billions of minutes of voice traffic every month between users. If you have ever placed an international call this year, there is a very good chance that your call was carried over an H.323 network.

The new work on the Advanced Multimedia System intends to take communication capabilities to a whole new level. Recognizing that users will have increased access to Internet capabilities and that users will have a multiplicity of devices at their disposal with various kinds of communication capabilities, the work on AMS intends to exploit those capabilities to their fullest. With AMS, users will no longer simply make a voice phone call. Of course, that will remain possible. But, users will have the ability to place a “call” and also use application sharing on a PC, see a video on a nearby LCD panel, send an instant message, or transfer files, all within the context of that “call”.

AMS will allow a user to have multiple devices that are associated with each other, or to associate with new devices at any time and to utilize those new capabilities. For example, suppose you are talking with a colleague who would like to share his PC screen with you so that you can see what he is trying to describe. You could walk over to a nearby LCD panel and have the video rendered on that screen. In effect, the video display becomes a part of your communication capabilities. As another example, suppose you are talking with your friends on your mobile phone and you would like to send them a file from your PC. With AMS, it will be possible to maintain an association between your mobile phone and your PC so that you can click on a file and send it to your friends with little effort. You would not have to know your friend’s e-mail address or other contact information: the file would be transferred as a part of your already on-going conversation.

Further, the interfaces between the various devices will be an openly published standard, enabling any developer to create new multimedia applications easily. If you can dream up the application that you would like to be able use as a part of your “phone” conversation, it can be created and can become a part of the conversation. So, in addition to defining a means of enabling two IP-based “phones” to communicate, AMS will define the procedures for application-to-application communication through the AMS-enabled network. This is something that has never been done before, but with the ITU’s proven track record of delivering successful multimedia communication systems, there is no doubt that AMS will have a potential to significantly improve the way we all communicate.

Note that the word “phone” and “call” are always placed in quotation marks above. This is deliberate. With AMS, the world will no longer be restricted to voice or voice and video communications, or perhaps a separate instant messaging exchange. Instead, all forms of collaborative multimedia communications modes are made possible with AMS, so why call it a phone? Your preferred mode might be text and video games. Or, perhaps you prefer application sharing, text, and video. Voice communication will always be possible, of course, but it is important to highlight that there is so much more possible than voice or video alone.

A final point that is always of great concern to users is that of complexity. If writing an application is difficult, who will write applications? If the user has to do a lot of work to make a “call”, why bother? In fact, the extra work required of users in order to use other forms of media has been an impediment to widespread adoption and consistent usage of such alternative forms of communication today. For this reason, great effort is being taken to ensure that the application interfaces remain as simple and focused as possible and that users can utilize multimedia functionality with the mere press of a button or by passing a mobile device in front of a device the user wants to use.

While building upon the collective experience of the multimedia communication systems of the past, recognizing the great potential that IP-enabled networks has to offer, understanding the needs of application developers to create new kinds of multimedia applications and services, and supporting the desire for users to not be burdened with complexity, the AMS work is well-positioned to make a positive, significant, and important impact on the future of communication systems and people’s lives all over the world.