Communications service providers are in transition towards unified IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architectures, with the purpose to reduce operational costs, increase competitiveness and at the same time enable fully convergence at all operational layers; bundles of all services available (voice, data, Video), fixed/wireless operations, delivery platforms and mixed postpaid/prepaid payment methods.

By its nature, the IMS platform enables the flexibility required for rapidly launching new converged services without being dependent on the exhausting long processes of adding new operational “hard” switch based silos, but rather configure the network elements in a “softer” way through software-based technologies by using the IMS framework for interfacing with the relevant network elements. In its foundation, IMS is based on SIP - the new signaling standard, and Diameter that has become the base protocol in IMS for AAA, charging and credit control.

In IMS environment, where billing and OSS need to procure the data in real-time, active mediation and charging take more important roles to enable the real-time exchange of charging information for control over calls, sessions and events. That requires billing and customer care solutions, which are “closer” to the network and where built from bottom up to support real time mediation and operations. Such solutions require integrated functionality for prepaid services, including everything from Diameter protocol support, full SIP call control and IVR functionality to advanced rating, billing and CSR functions.

By adding the MINDBill SIP Application Server and Diameter AAA capabilities to its industry-proven MINDBill Billing & Customer Care system, MIND CTI provides a powerful end-to-end solution for service providers transitioning to IMS or IMS based Greenfield operators.

The solution is perfectly suited for fast deployment of advanced call control-based services in SIP-based networks, including VoIP-phone, softphone and 3G mobile IP services. Prepaid applications supporting simultaneous usage of multiple IP services are supplied and ready for deployment, while new applications can be configured and deployed on the same platform in the future.

Leveraging its active mediation and provisioning solutions, Using SIP signaling for network connectivity on one end and a Diameter interface for AAA and Credit Control on the other, the MIND’s IMS SIP Application Server is designed to cope with the requirements of Next Generation Networks (NGN), thus providing greater flexibility, quality of service and seamless integration with other network elements.

The solution supports full redundancy and automatic fail-over for maximum reliability and can be easily scaled up as your network and business grow.

The advantages of the MINDBill SIP Application Server solution for service providers are:

• Fast deployment of value-added services in IMS networks, without the need to buy or integrate any other 3^rdparty equipment.
  
• Seamless and proven interoperability with leading CSCF vendors, enabling either a proxy or a re-direct mode of operation.
  
• Providing prepaid services for permanently registered subscribers as well as casual calling card owners.
  
• Providing interactive IVR-based services in both native and foreign languages with flexible per-subscriber / per-service language selection options.
  
• Generating and managing permanent subscriber accounts, calling card lots and voucher batches.
  
• Defining flexible multi-dimensional rating schemes, discounts and promotions.
  
• Service Creation Environment - enabling the development and deployment of new call control-based services on the same platform (e.g. postpaid calling card, conferencing, voice mail).
  
• Scaling up and extending the platform as the business and network grow to generate more revenue with minimal capital investments.
  
• Monitoring and managing the platform and its components in real-time; quickly discover and fix problems; generate detailed reports on network and service usage; generate interconnect reports for reconciliation with partners.