Fixed and mobile broadband networks are constantly under transition. The Internet influence, namely the all-IP transition has led to major changes in the control and service protocols and platforms. The resulting fixed and mobile NGNs are being rolled out globally today and their current evolution is inspired by Over-The-Top (OTT) multimedia services and emerging M2M services. The convergence of different networking domains demands for standardized solutions in order to enable an open “plug&play” multivendor environment.

The Future Internet is globally considered a hot research topic leading to even more drastic changes in these network architectures and technologies. In order to stimulate research and development in these complex environments and the prototyping and validation of new concepts, algorithms, protocols, services open testbeds and experimentation platforms, as well as open source software tools are of key importance.

ONIT is an established and vivid international community, which has been sparked by the Open IMS project in the context of NGN in 2009 and has evolved with the related developments, such as OpenEPC for mobile broadband networks and the upcoming OpenMTC toolkit for emerging M2M platforms. As these pioneering testbed toolkits are just examples, there is much more available around the globe, which should be captured by the ONIT workshop.

The 4th Workshop on Open NGN and IMS Testbed workshop 2012 (ONIT@Globecom 2012) will give insights into the state-of-the-art technologies concerning open Next Generation Fixed and Mobile Broadband Packet Core Networks and testbeds at an international scale. The objective is to evaluate and share the experience on the quality and impact of such testbeds in order to improve current offerings and position them for future challenges. Therefore methodologies, mechanisms, concepts and research results, which address the design, deployment, prototyping and evaluation of Next Generation Fixed and Mobile Broadband Packet Core Networks, their evolution towards Future Internet and related application domains are target.

Especially, the role of and requirements from open source software for Next Generation Fixed and Mobile Broadband Networks testbeds, as well as how such software and infrastructures can provide the required middleware between radio technologies like GSM, UMTS, HSPA, LTE, WiMAX or Wireless LAN and Future Internet as well as Machine-to-Machine communication networks, shall be discussed in depth.

Also in scope will be the latest developments into standardization and research on topics related to Next Generation Broadband Networks, like the integration between IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and new all-IP converged network technologies as Evolved Packet Core (EPC) based networks, with special insight on how cost- effective and accelerated R&D on Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) can happen on traditionally difficult fields with the help of open testbeds.

Areas of Interest include but are not limited to:

Fixed and Radio Access Networks
- Long-Term-Evolution (LTE)
- Sensor, GSM, UMTS, HSPA and WiMAX, Wireless LAN technologies
- Core Network Evolution
- Fixed Broadband Access Networks
- Future Access Networks
- Low cost testbed radio access points

Evolved Packet Core Architectures
- 3GPP and IP Mobility
- Flow Mobility and Multi-Path Solutions
- Heterogeneous Access
- Always Best Connected and ANDSF evolution
- QoS and Traffic Monitoring
- Synergies Between Policy Control and Mobility
- Efficient Routing of User-Plane Data
- Scalability and Performance Issues
- Convergence between 3GPP and non-3GPP Access Networks
- Interactions with Application Functions

Open Source IMS/NGN/Mobile Broadband Network Components and Core Development
- Open Source software as a driver for cost efficient testbeds
- Using and enhancing Open Source software in a telecom environment
- Solving Common-IMS convergence issues with open source components and testbeds
- Interoperability and Standardization
- Security and Management Aspects

Machine-to-Machine Communication
- Impact of M2M on the (mobile) system infrastructure
- M2M Service Platforms
- Integrating M2M with 3GPP IMS and EPC
- Cloud support for M2M systems and applications
- Mobility management for M2M
- Protocols and Specific Extensions

Over-the-top (OTT) applications
- Voice over LTE (Volte)
- Telco Web services and Service Delivery Platforms (SDP)
- Web TV versus Internet TV and P2P video streaming
- Mobile Applications
- Future Applications
- Service Control Mechanisms

NGN to Future Internet
- Cross Layer Composition and Future Internet Core Networks
- Future Fixed and Mobile Core Networks Concepts
- Next generation transport
- New architectures (evolutionary vs. clean slate)
- Virtual and overlay networks

Accepted paper authors will be invited to optionally perform short on-site or remote demonstrations (5-10 minutes)