3RD-GENERATION MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND VIRTUAL HOME-ENVIRONMENT- A PRIORITIZATION ANALYSIS

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is currently setting s tandards for the third-generation International Mobile Telecommunicati on 2000 (IMT-2000) system. This system offers its users mobile multime dia services with a global roaming capability. This capability allows IMT-2000 users to invoke the services they have subscribed to with the ir home network service provider anywhere around the globe in a manner transparent to them. The requirements for global roaming relate to th ree distinct functional capabilities of the network: mobility manageme nt, call/connection control, and service transportability. In this pap er we address the role service transportability plays in offering the virtual home environment (VHE) to IMT-2000 users. To achieve the IMT-2 000 global roaming capability, service transportability combines the c oncept of the Intelligent Network's distributed functional plane (DFP) across different IMT-2000 systems with a number of VHE implementation scenarios. We describe the IMT-2000 system and its various VHE implem entation scenarios, evaluate those scenarios, and prioritize their dep loyment with respect to criteria such as location of service control, location of service database, point of service invocation, and require d standardization effort.