AMS or IMS? Peaches or apples?

By Tsahi Levent-Levi

Categories: Standardization

June 5th, 2008

Last week, Paul Jones explained on VoIP Survivor the basic concepts behind AMS. The name might ring a bell to those familiar with IMS, but there is no real connection (besides the unfortunate use of a similar acronym). While IMS is an ongoing work, AMS is just beginning.

There are many people out there engaged today in one way or another with IMS. They come from different companies and participate in various organizations (IETF, 3GPP, IMTC, IMS Forum, TISPAN, Cable Labs, WiMAX Forum to name a few). The result is a system built around SIP and several other protocols that enables the deployment of communication services. To date, IMS is the only standardized IP-based communication solution that a service provider can select and deploy - it is also one he can monetize on. Anything else will be proprietary.

My guess is that this is also the reason why there are those who are against IMS - or for that matter, against any standardized phone system. I think a standard is necessary for the industry to grow, even if at a crawling rate. Proprietary solutions serve as great opportunities to leap ahead, and once this is done standardization can kick in.

AMS brings something new and fresh. It takes a good look at today’s networks and communication habits of people while also taking into account current standards and proprietary solutions, weighing their advantages and disadvantages, and then moving away from the requirements and hopefully get to the specification and implementation stages to bring a solution that is suitable for future needs without trying to stitch and patch current protocols.

Frens Jan Rumph was the first to compare AMS and IMS. He definitely nailed that charging and billing stuff. There are those who believe that IMS is a network designed to make money, while AMS is a network designed to provide services to users.

As AMS is still in its infancy, there is no real way of comparing it to IMS in any fair way. AMS is a chance at fixing future problems that will most definitely arise when current standards meet their limits.

To read more about AMS, I suggest starting from the requirements document.