Address translation problems in IMS based next generation networks

Abstract

The development of packed based multimedia networks reached a turning point when the ITU-T and the ETSI have incorporated the IMS to the NGN. With the fast development of mobile communication more and more services and content are available. In contrast with fix network telephony both the services and the devices are personalized in the “mobile world”. Services, known from the Internet - like e-mail, chat, browsing, presence, etc. – are already available via mobile devices as well. The IMS originally wanted to exploit both the benefits of mobile networks and the fancy services of the Internet. But today it is already more than that. IMS is the core of the next generation telecommunication networks and a basis for fix-mobile convergent services. The fact however that IMS was originally a “mobile” standard, where IPv6 was not oddity generated some problems for the fix networks, where IPv4 is used. In this article I give an overview of these problems and mention some solutions as well.