The IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) is an open, standardized, operator-friendly, next-generation multimedia architecture for mobile and fixed IP services. This report discusses an array of perspectives on IMS and examines relevant services that the Internet provides to customers worldwide.

Service provider organizations have experienced the high costs and disruptions caused by customer churn, since users usually go with better service deals from competitive providers. This book cover various topics related to strategies and experiences on quad-play service design and delivery.

Discusses Internet protocol television (IPTV) and multimedia networks. This book points out the differences between this novel revolutionary technology and regular cable and satellite television services. It provides knowledge and design principles needed for the delivery of IPTV, along with examples from more than 25 technological companies.

Heterogeneous wireless networking, which is sometimes referred to as the fourth-generation (4G) wireless, is a new frontier in the future wireless communications technology and there has been a growing interest on this topic among researchers and engineers in both academia and industry. This book will include a set of research and survey articles featuring the recent advances in theory and applications of heterogeneous wireless networking technology for the next generation (e.g., fourth generation) wireless communications systems. With the rapid growth in the number of wireless applications, services and devices, using a single wireless technology such as a second generation (2G) and third generation (3G) wireless system would not be efficient to deliver high speed data rate and quality-of-service (QoS) support to mobile users in a seamless way. Fourth generation (4G) wireless systems are devised with the vision of heterogeneity in which a mobile user/device will be able to connect to multiple wireless networks (e.g., WLAN, cellular, WMAN) simultaneously. This book intends to provide a unified view on the state-of-the-art of protocols and architectures for heterogeneous wireless networking. The contributed articles will cover both the theoretical concepts and system-level implementation issues related to design, analysis, and optimization of architectures and protocols for heterogeneous wireless access networks.

The increasing diversity of Infonnation Communication Technologies and their equally diverse range of uses in personal, professional and official capacities raise challenging questions of identity in a variety of contexts. Each communication exchange contains an identifier which may, or may not, be intended by the parties involved. What constitutes an identity, how do new technologies affect identity, how do we manage identities in a globally networked infonnation society? th th From the 6 to the 10 August 2007, IFIP (International Federation for Infonnation Processing) working groups 9. 2 (Social Accountability), 9. 6/11. 7 (IT rd Misuse and the Law) and 11. 6 (Identity Management) hold their 3 Intemational Summer School on "The Future of Identity in the Infonnation Society" in cooperation with the EU Network of Excellence FIDIS at Karlstad University. The Summer School addressed the theme of Identity Management in relation to current and future technologies in a variety of contexts. The aim of the IFIP summer schools has been to introduce participants to the social implications of Infonnation Technology through the process of infonned discussion. Following the holistic approach advocated by the involved IFIP working groups, a diverse group of participants ranging from young doctoral students to leading researchers in the field were encouraged to engage in discussion, dialogue and debate in an infonnal and supportive setting. The interdisciplinary, and intemational, emphasis of the Summer School allowed for a broader understanding of the issues in the technical and social spheres.

Starting with the imminent roll-out of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and fourth-Generation networking technology, Next Generation Networks (NGN) are gradually becoming reality, with charging and Quality-of-Service (QoS) issues as two of the key drivers for the evolution toward the convergent all-IP network of the future. Therefore, the 6th International Workshop on Internet Charging and QoS Technology (ICQT 2009) was devoted to discussing the most recent approaches, models, and mechanisms in this highly interesting and important research area. The present volume of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series includes those papers presented at ICQT 2009—collocated this year with the IFIP Networking 2009 conference—taking place on May 15, 2009, in Aachen, Germany and hosted by the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH Aachen). For the commercial success of future QoS-enabled communication services, the emergence of viable business models, pricing schemes, and charging and accounting mechanisms is of paramount importance. Problems in this domain can only be addressed through a broad interdisciplinary approach linking together a variety of technical and economic perspectives, which are constantly driving a plethora of relevant research t- ics for application developers, business architects, network providers, service providers, and customers. Within the current trend toward a convergent NGN architecture, compe- tion modeling, pricing mechanisms, and the economics of inter-domain traffic are of specific importance and urgency. Thus, they determined—in the form of three technical sessions—the core of the ICQT 2009 program.

This book commemorates Prof. Dr. René Wagenaar and illustrates the impact he had on research and discussions on research topics. It is divided into four parts, each part relating to a specific area of Prof. Wagenaar’s career and also more or less reflecting the work he did at the three universities that played a role in his career, i.e. Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Free University of Amsterdam and Delft University of Technology. The first part of the book describes how Prof. Wagenaar started working on EDI and inter-organizational systems at Erasmus University. At the Free University, his research coincided with the Internet growth and hype, and he became focused on e-Commerce and the role of Virtual Merchant, as discussed in part two. In 2001, he assumed his position at Delft, and refocused his research on e-Government, and on infrastructure and service-related projects. At Delft, socio-technological designs have a prominent position in both education and research. His involvement in and impact on research and education starting from a socio-technical approach are discussed in contributions in part three. In part four, some contributions are bundled that address a number of issues in which Prof. Wagenaar was interested and left his marks on, like mobile technologies, business models, privacy issues and standardization.