Project MACS

Finished Project

MACS

Multimedia Communication Service

Project Coordinator	Project Consortium
Daniel Marec France Telecom R&D France e-mail: daniel.marec (at) orange-ft.com	T-Systems, DE	Philips, FR
	Nokia, FI	Ericsson Spain, ES
	France Telecom R&D, FR	Telefonica I+D,ES
	Nokia, FR	Universidad de Valladolid, ES

This is a “Celtic” project;

Project Key Information
Start date	End date	Budget (total)	Effort (total)	Project-ID
July 2004	October 2006	10.4 MEuro	77.7 PY	CP1-030

Abstract

Market study and requirements for residential fixed MM Communication Services
High level specification and pre-competitive production of SIP terminals (e.g. videophones).
Development of NGN elements for an open standard platform, enabling scalable and multi-vendor solutions

Focus areas

Services: platform for seamless usage of new interpersonal services
Terminals: multimedia terminals that interoperate with NGN architecture and protocols. Terminals will be SIP based
Network: provide guaranteed quality of services, resource management, security, privacy, etc.

Expected outcome

The goal of the Multimedia Communication Service (MaCS) project is to experiment a new Broadband Telephony Service for the residential market.

This service-driven project will develop, experiment and assess user acceptance of new Multimedia Communication Services such as Videotelephony, Multimedia Messaging, Presence Management, Follow me, etc. and provide business relevance analysis for Next-Generation-Network based Multimedia Communication Services.

For the network aspect, the MaCS project will rely on emerging Next Generation Network infrastructures. The NGN is a converged packet network currently under standardization in ETIS and ITU, with an open standard layered architecture, Guaranteed Quality of Service, security mobility, flexible service platform, etc.

For the terminal aspect, the MaCS project will foster the development of pre-competitive multimedia terminals such as videophones, videobox, Webtabs, PDAs and soft clients for PCs.

The MaCS project will use an end-to-end NGN solution, and will set up and operate a pan-European service lab, where services are developed, tested and submitted to human factors analysis. This pan-European Lab, includes major European operators, network and terminal providers, and will handle interoperability issues and therefore hasten market maturity with the emergence of pre-competitive interoperable network infrastructures and terminal equipment.

Finally, the MaCS project will foster a consensus view in the European industry, will provide inputs to standardization and will create the technical and business momentum for Multimedia Communication Service mass market commercialization in 2006 and beyond.