While there have been tremendous efforts to develop the architecture and protocols to support advanced Internet-based services over 3G and 4G networks, IMS is far from being deployed in wide scale. Effort to create an operator controlled signaling infrastructure using IP-based protocols has resulted in a large number of functional components and interactions among those components. Thus, the carriers are trying to explore alternative ways to deploy IMS that will allow them to manage their network in a cost effective manner while offering the value-added services. One of such approaches is self-organization of IMS. The self-organizing IMS can enable the IMS functional components and corresponding nodes to adapt them dynamically based on the features like network load, number of users and available system resources. This chapter introduces such a self-organizing and adaptive IMS architecture, describes the advanced functions and demonstrates the initial results from the prototype test-bed. In particular, we show how all IMS functional components can be merged and split among different nodes as the network demand and environment change without disrupting the ongoing sessions or calls. Although it is too early to conclude the effectiveness of self-organizing IMS, initial results

Abstract-In an effort to provide seamless mobility support in IMS/MMD networks, operators need to choose a specific IPbased mobility protocol. However, there are several micro-and macro-mobility protocols available that the operators can choose from. Operators often face the challenges of selecting the appropriate mobility protocol that can provide the most cost efficient solution under a specific operating environment. Thus, it is important to analyze the effectiveness of these protocols before they are actually deployed in the IMS/MMD networks. In this paper, we analyze a number of candidate mobility protocols and conduct a performance analysis of some of these using a prototype implementation in an IPv6-based IMS/MMD testbed. These analyses provide us with some guidelines in terms of the applicability of these protocols when operators plan to deploy their IMS/MMD networks.

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