File Access

The RCS (Rich Communication Suite) Initiative is a collaborative effort to speed up and facilitate the introduction of commercial IP Multimedia System (IMS)-based rich communication services. (IMS is a common service architecture being deployed by the world’s network operators to support the rapid and inexpensive development and deployment of services on wireline and wireless networks.)

 

The RCS Initiative was established May 16, 2007 and is supported by more than 30 companies, including such major industry players as network operators (France Telecom/Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, and TeliaSonera), network infrastructure vendors (Ericsson and Nokia Siemens (News - Alert) Networks) and mobile device vendors (Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung).

 

The RCS Initiative isn’t out to create new standards, or even specify a particular user interface or device implementation. Instead, it focuses on interconnection and interoperability requirements tied to a core feature set of rich communication capabilities that can be implemented by leveraging standards already defined by standards bodies (e.g., 3GPP, ETSI (News - Alert), OMA, GSMA).

 

Since the IP Multimedia Subsystem is an important architecture for bringing new services and capabilities to consumers quickly and cost effectively, the participating RCS member companies are partnering to ensure that IMS’ capabilities will be available on any handset and any network, and have agreed upon a feature set originating from profiled IMS standards as well as implementation guidelines with the intention of having interoperable rich communication services available as soon as possible.

 

Consumers are now beginning to experiencing the benefits of converged and rich communication such as instant messaging, video sharing and buddy lists, and they increasingly expect that these capabilities will be available on any type of device and that there will be open communication between devices and networks. With the Rich Communication Suite (RCS) these customer expectations can be fulfilled, and these continually-evolving services can be offered to further enhance the user’s experience. The core feature set of RCS includes the following services:

 

• Enhanced Phonebook, with service capabilities and presence enhanced contacts information. It allows “guaranteed” communication through capability enhanced contacts. Moreover, Enhanced Phonebook means that communication can be initiated from the Phonebook by selecting a communication type (e.g., calling or messaging).

 

• Enhanced Messaging, which enables a large variety of messaging options including chat and messaging history. Enhanced Messaging allows the possibility to view and trigger all communication (including calls, SMS, MMS, instant messaging) in a “conversational view”, where the user can see the communications history. This conversational view resembles the instant messaging services chat history. It provides for a simplified communications experience and makes available the richest possible messaging services for continuing communications dialog.

 

• Enriched Call, which enables multimedia content sharing during a voice call. The Enriched Call experience initially provides the capability to share multimedia content during a call. The forms of multimedia sharing available at a given time between the communicating parties are shown to the call participants to eliminate unpleasant errors when either party can not share chosen multimedia (e.g., when not within 3G coverage).

 

The RCS Initiative has developed implementation guideline specifications for an interoperable IMS-based communications suite. They have also developed reference implementations of the Rich Communication Suite for commercial devices, and members are able to validate the underlying requirements and technical specifications for service interoperability. Interoperability testing in multi-vendor environments is performed to ensure and verify the maturity of the RCS feature set. If the interoperability tests indicate the need for further standardization or corrections to the existing standards, then these facts will be documented and communicated to the associated standards organizations.

 

ABI Research (News - Alert) predicts that RCS should help boost IMS deployments significantly, and in a recent report (“IMS Core Networks: A Dynamic Service-Based Architecture”) forecasts that capital expenditure on IMS will start to grow sharply in 2010, reaching $23 billion in 2013.

 

“RCS will enable interoperable rich communication regardless of device or network and will include in-call multimedia sharing, conversational messaging and presence-enhanced contact management for mobile and fixed customers,” says ABI Research senior analyst Nadine Manjaro.

 

The fruits of RCS will start to appear as parts of selected devices and services in 2009. IMS is the underlying technology supporting RCS and a core component in LTE (News - Alert) architecture. IMS is also deployed in legacy wireless networks and wireline networks.

“Part of IMS is aimed at improving converged services,” continues Manjaro. “The Rich Communication Suite, which aims to standardize the user experiences across multiple types of handset, will facilitate that. For example, IMS might be used for synchronization of contact lists between handset and computer, and to inform a caller as to the recipient’s availability, similar to the facility commonly found in instant messaging. It can facilitate multiple simultaneous forms of communication such as combined video and voice calling.”

 

Thus, the RCS Initiation will ensure that even the most advanced and feature-rich communication services, as well as more pedestrian voice and messaging, will be available to consumers on both wireless and wireline devices, as service interoperability continues to be maintained despite rapid advancements in technology.