IMS Forum Plugfest Test Plan and Roadmap Finalized.

IMS Interoperability Event for Services and Applications Gains Widespread Industry Support and Momentum

FREMONT, Calif. -- The IMS Forum (www.imsforum.org), the industry association recognized as the voice of IP convergence, finalized the test plan for its first IMS Plugfest scheduled for Jan. 15 - 19, 2007, at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab in Durham, N.H.

January's Plugfest is the first in a series of IMS Forum Plugfests that will run through 2008. The events will establish industry-recognized certification for IMS products and services that have achieved the highest level of interoperability. IMS Plugfests are open to both IMS Forum members and non-members.

Applications and services to be tested include voice services, fix-mobile convergence, presence, instant messaging and hosted IP PBX operating across multiple networks such as Mobile, WiFi, Wireline and Cable broadband. The tests will also focus on building the reference IMS services test network for future IMS Plugfest events described in our roadmap. The roadmap's overall objective is to provide an industry-wide validation process for IMS applications and services as applicable to the "Services and Applications Layer" of the IMS architecture.

"With the convergence of applications and services, achieving IMS interoperability is an important step toward providing next generation multimedia services to consumers and businesses," said Ed Miller, Vice President of Advanced Network Systems for CableLabs.

"The new IMS networks will be defined by service innovation and interoperability," said Akshay Sharma, Research Director for Carrier Network Infrastructure at Gartner. "Communications carriers are looking for innovation -- and that means the freedom to choose best-of-breed hardware and software solutions. The IMS Forum Plugfest portfolio of service-level conformance testing should deliver the kind of compelling end-to-end interoperability testing that carriers demand."

"Finalizing the test plan for January's event is a significant milestone and provides a solid foundation for our current IMS services interoperability in addition to future IMS Plugfests," said IMS Forum Chairman and President and Pervasip CTO Michael Khalilian.

The certification program was developed by the forum's test and interoperability study group of leading vendors and service providers. The group created a comprehensive plan that, for the first time, covered IMS services and applications running on IMS servers. The IMS Plugfest long-term strategic roadmap calls for building excellent test practices to accelerate the time to market and ROI.

The IMS Plugfest sponsors, test plan contributors and participants include among others: Ditech Networks, Empirix Ixia, InterOperability Lab/University of New Hampshire, GlobalTouch Telecom, Mu Security, NE Technologies, Inc./MARBEN, Reef Point, Sonus Networks, Tekelec, Tektronix, Trendium, Valid8, and VoX Communications.

About the IMS Forum:

The IMS Forum is a global, non-profit industry association devoted to interoperable IP Multimedia Subsystems services and solutions. Our mission is to accelerate the adoption of IMS through discussion and resolution of interoperability issues, and the development of standards-based IMS services residing in the IMS application layer. We provide consultancy to industry service providers and vendors on best practices and approaches for IMS rollouts and interconnectivity. The IMS Plugfest[TM] facilitates the industry-wide certification of applications and services interoperability. More information is available at www.imsforum.org.

IMS Forum participation contact info: Debbie Hetland, IMS Forum Program Manager [e-mail], Phone: [phone], Cell: 561-289-8353 Fax: [phone].

IMS Forum & IMS Plugfest are trademarks of the IMS Forum, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.