Software development for next generation communication networks

Abstract

Even casual observes have to notice the dramatic changes in the telecommunications industry that have taken place in the last five years. Giant companies split, merge and are sometimes displaced by newer ones that did not exist a decade ago. The business of running the mighty circuit-switched telephone netwok is under constant assault on one side from packet networks and on the other side from the bewildering array of wireless networks. Service providers compete for customer sometimes with no network infrastructure at all.