Service Blending for Converged IMS Services: A BT Alcatel-Lucent Collaboration

British Telecom (BT) has set off on a 10-year journey to completely overhaul its core network that would ultimately cost them 10 billion pounds sterling. The core network will be called BT 21st Century Network (21CN). This endeavour is justified mainly on two counts; it will make BT significant cost savings and it will allow BT to deliver more innovative services rapidly. The BT customers will experience an unprecedented level of service selection. However, managing the sheer number of services, both in house and 3rd party, that will be hosted on 21CN will not be a trivial task. The process of service orchestration (i.e., service blending) is so complex that even the major standard bodeis have not been able to define a suitable method so far. One leading contender for the role of service orchestration is the Alcatel-Lucent Service Broker(TM). BT has been engaged with Alcatel-Lucent during the past year on a Proof of Concept (PoC) demonstration to test the Alcatel-Lucent Service Broker's suitability for this role of 21CN and its available features. The findings have shown that it shows great potential for rapid service creation and blending. It also has unparalleled flexibility and programmability.