COMGENERATION – Project Objectives

Currently, the deployment of customised communication processes is very time- and cost extensive. Therefore, the distribution of specific tailored multimedia services is low. This applies for business-to-business services (B2B) as well as for individual user applications, which are, even in the web 2.0 sector, limited to simple services. As a result, a lot of possibilities remain often unused in today's multimedia networks. To accelerate the introduction of new multimedia services new approaches are recommend

  1. orchestrate value-added services via reusable components, I.e. assembled, and

  2. develop value-added services agilely, i.e. enhance and advance them in a continuously way.


Examples are service orientated architectures (SOA), which are often based on the composition of web services, but, conceptually, not limited to that. For the service orchestration special service creation environments were recommended to support the service developer. Testing the new developed services remains a challenging problem. Especially since the services facing a growing complexity combined with a shorter time-to-market, it is becoming more important. However, it is still not clarified, how formal test procedures can be integrated in the service development, and especially in the service creation environment, in a systematic way.


The agile and constant enhancement of services has two important consequences for the service-deployment. First, it must be able to update service-components at runtime and second, the services have to survive in a variable environment with changing service components. This requires services and service components supporting autonomic properties and mechanism for self-configuration, self-healing and self-optimisation.


The project will develop an integrated solution supporting the complete life-cycle of a service, by simplifying the development, the test and the deployment of multimedia-services and by reducing time- and cost expenses.


The strategic target of this project is to create mechanisms for an efficient and constant service- creation and deployment. Thereby, the service creation is not considered as a unique, but as a continuous process where value-added services will be enhanced for new and changing requests from customers' side. The development process will make use of existing components.


For the first time, the efficient and reliable deployment of services will be supported by this project through the following four-step plan:


  1. definition of test-friendly concept principles for the service components

  2. development of a test environment with automatised generation of test procedures (test-last)

  3. development of a test-driven service creation environment (test-first)

  4. automatic deployment and adaptation of services in next generations networks


This project will analyse, how tests can be integrated from the beginning of the development through a service creation environment, for the first time. From the software engineering sector, different models are known for considering tests within the development process. However, it is not clarified if and for which segments these models can be used for the development of services. For example, if the development happens continuously in small steps, agile development methods with the iteration of short requirement-development-integration-test-cycles can be convenient. This way the provided test procedures grantee a backward compatibility enhancement of the services.


Here, within a first approach, the service creation environment will build on the future control layer for communication systems, the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem). For the first time, the IMS offers the possibility to provide services over heterogeneous networks (mobile radio, WLAN, landlines) and outside of the home network, in a consistent way. It offers a consistently support for mobility, quality of service, security and service specific fee determination. To regard the seminal decentralized approach of peer-to-peer communications, in a second approach the development and deployment of services will be based on the mechanisms of the this technologies. Both cases will, focusing on the future transport technologies, base on IPv6.

Possible proceeding for the service development, starting with the test (test-first)
Possible proceeding for the automatized service development, starting with the service (test-last)

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