Beyond the TINA Lesson: Distributed Processing for Integrated Fixed and Mobile Communications

Abstract

Abstract. A major keyword of the Information and CommunicationTechnology progress in the Nineties is convergence: integrated provision of telecommunications and information services, integrated management and control, provision of services above an infrastructure resulting from the interconnection of various network types, ubiquitous offering of fixed and mobile services. This paper deals with a technological enabler of convergence, namely network programmability, on a geographical scale and, eventually, on a global, worldwide level. Nowadays, the main convergence problem appears to be UMTS, defined by somebody as "the fusion of Fixed and Mobile Networking". The distributed processing paradigm of TINA as an enabler of fixed and mobile convergence is analyzed, through a timeline summarizing more than a decade of research and development. Pre-TINA solutions and post-TINA solutions are included in this timeline.