A request broker framework for intelligent network (IN) services

Abstract

The Intelligent Network (IN) world is very dynamic and can be expected to be in a constant state of evolution and flux, especially as it relates to IN services. Specific service demands and their customizations are highly varied and quite difficult to predict. Software is at the heart of a majority of IN services. Over the past few years, several new ideas have been put forth to overcome the well-known challenges of software engineering. This presentation describes how two of the new software ideas were adapted to successfully develop IN services. Quick development of IN services requires an architecture that provides elasticity sufficient to encompass a potentially huge family of products, facilitates reuse, and offers sufficient performance to meet real-time demands. The Service Request Broker Architecture (SeRBA), is based on CORBA concepts, but was developed to address these needs in a simpler model more useful to IN software service developers. This presentation first defines SeRBA which forms the basis for an entire IN family of products and which enables these products to be deployed over a variety of platforms. It then illustrates the underlying design and organizations patterns which made this architectural framework flexible, communicable, and, most of all, successful.