A generic and implementation independent service description model

Attractive services will be the crucial factor in the future competition of providers in the telecommunications market. While system heterogeneity and service convergence complicate the service provisioning process, there are still no common models to support early service analysis. We present an implementation and network platform independent model for service description. It consists of abstract descriptions for endpoints, communication channels and communication relations. This model can support all service development phases including requirements analysis and service architecture design. We focus on the requirement phase where a tool supported analysis could facilitate early technical and economical decisions.