Parlay takes practical step forward - Technology Information

CommunicationsWeek International, Dec 13, 1999 by Jeremy Scott-Joynt

As carriers prepare to open up the heart of their telephone networks to third-party intelligent network developers, a group of vendors and operators is attempting to thrash out the practical details of how they will work together in practice. The new work group, created within the Dallas, Texas-based Intelligent Network Forum, has been formed ahead of the next version of the Parlay system due for release in January.

Parlay, sometimes dubbed as "Windows for the PSTN," promises to open up interfaces to public networks so that third parties or corporates can build their own intelligent network applications.

But work to date has concentrated on developing theoretical application programming interfaces, rather than practical implementation details.

London-based consultancy Schema Ltd. has been asked to help define what is described as the business model for Parlay. "There's a lot of people out there who would like to get into the Parlay Group but can't," said Robert Pratten, managing consultant at Schema and one of those responsible for the project. "As with all of those groups, the more members you invite to the party, the slower it goes."

The work group says it needs to work out how different vendors' equipment can interface with the overall Parlay specification before developers can get to work with it.

CSELT-the research arm of Telecom Italia-network equipment vendor Dialogic Corp., of Parsippany, New Jersey, and Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based Ulticom Inc., a founding member of the Parlay Group that oversees the standard's development, have formed the group.

The aim is to support the Parlay Group's work on cross-platform APIs, and nail down the details of its feasibility. Parlay is designed as a way of giving independent applications developers and service providers access to the network, whether PSTN, wireless or IP-based, in a way that has not been possible before.

"This is a valuable add-on," said Ralf Rieken, vice president of network technology strategy for Siemens AG in Munich, Germany. "The [Parlay] Group specifies the APIs that can be used by external developers, but it doesn't specify how it's to be implemented or how it can interface with different equipment. That's up to vendors."

This second-tier work is vital, said Schema's Pratten, because without Parlay, network operators have to retain hands-on control of the applications offered by third-party service providers.

Proprietary equipment that cannot interoperate is the norm, especially in the public switched network, and that has meant delays and inefficiencies.

"Currently, we can't give control away," said Martin Heath, BT's commercial manager for service provider interfaces, "We have to manage control functions for [third-party companies], with a lot of manual processes. Even if that just means someone at the other company e-mailing us, it's still a slow process."

Parlay-based systems, which are intended to allow third-party applications to communicate transparently with core network functionality, still leave overall control in the hands of the network operator.

The Parlay Group originally consisted of BT, Ulticom, Microsoft, Nortel Networks and Siemens. Five more joined for Phase 2 in June of this year: AT&T, Cegetel, Cisco, Ericsson, IBM and Lucent.

Once the version 2 specification is unveiled at the January trials, to be held in the United Kingdom and the United States under the aegis of IBM and AT&T, the Group may consider expanding its membership.

Without the extra work of the new working group, though, the business case for Parlay is weaker than it might otherwise be.

Even at BT, a founder member of the Parlay Group, a final decision on rolling out Parlay has yet to be made, at least as far as the PSTN is concerned. "The PSTN has to be backwards engineered, and that's expensive," said BT's Heath. "It's a question of how much that's going to cost compared with how much it's going to make. The downside is relatively clear, even though the numbers aren't yet."

One alternative to offering it on the PSTN might be to build it into voice-over-IP networks, which-being a greenfield rollout-could well work out cheaper.

The main API players

Parlay is by no means the only game in town as far as network APIs are concerned.

One of the initiatives competing for carrier's attention is the Java-based JAIN (Java APIs for Integrated Networks). The project is headed by Mountain View, California-based Sun Microsystems Inc., which makes no secret of its desire for its platform-agnostic programming system to embed itself in the telecoms landscape.

The overall aim is similar: to create an environment where applications do not have to be tailored to specific networks, but can run seamlessly across network borders.

To call them competitors, though, could be something of a misnomer. JAIN's adherents include operators France Telecom, Japan's NTT DoCoMo and the Netherlands' KPN, as well as Finnish vendor Nokia Oyj. But four groups cross the boundary: IBM, Sweden's L.M. Ericsson AB, U.K. carrier BT and AT&T of the United States are all Parlay Group members and supporters of JAIN.