The future of the Rich Communication Suite

Cécile Batel
Orange FT, France
cecile.batel(at)orange.com

The recent Internet revolution has changed the way we communicate. We do so with more contacts, more devices and with more types of media. The COMESI project is proposing a set of service prototypes based on clients for the Rich Communication Suite (RCS). The prototypes provide the end user with a new and enriched communication environment: multiple devices, real continuity of service, ease of use, and better control of data.

Web actors are offering more and more communication services introducing significant competition for the traditional telecom operator market. Their business model may be very attractive for customers. However, their solutions are very scattered and require many users comprising a critical mass. As a possible answer to this problem, The COMESI project prototyped a set of services made available to the user’s address book and utilized all of his devices (PC, Mobile, Tablet, TV) while remaining operator agnostic.

The COMESI prototypes

The prototyped services of the COMESI project include content sharing in the Cloud, communication with a favourite social network, and switching from one media or one device to the other with no session interruption. This functionality is available on every device, including the television. One of the key components is the address book and having it available and up to date on the network. This allo ws presence information to be available as well.

OMA, RCS standards and project ­collaboration

COMESI’s technical objectives were, on one hand, to make the most of the existing OMA CPM & CAB specification, which was, along with the enablers, developed within the RCS initiative. On the other hand, the point of the project was to go beyond the current OMA CPM & CAB specifications by proposing innovative integrated service prototypes. To reach these objectives, it was important to gather the expertise of our partners, (Telefónica, Orange), messaging platforms (Acision), presence platform (Italtel), PC software editor (Broadsoft, ex-Movial), and STB manufacturer (Pace France). Most of the partners were part of the OMA CPM or CAB work groups and RCS initiatives. Integration and service quality were ensured by SQS while the user acceptance analysis was managed by the University of Delft.

Service innovation: RCS enrichment, ­interoperability, security

COMESI services correlate additional features on the RCS client which was ported on PC, tablet and TV (through STB) in addition to the mobile. All COMESI services will be at the users’ disposal through a single application, the usual address book. Therefore, the user experience is simplified, as he can use all of his communication features through a single authentication. In addition to the services being interoperable, they will work with any user’s contacts, because the services are subscriber operator agnostic. Users will also benefit from service security and reliability granted by the operators.

User acceptance analysis

User acceptance analysis was a very important topic for the COMESI project members. A focus group was organized early on to verify that users understood the concepts and accept them. This allowed us to solicit and accept user feedback during the specification stage. In the last project year, a survey was held throughout Europe to evaluate the service features as well as an in-lab experiment. Results were very positive – the most interesting one is that the users would be interested in the COMESI services even more so after trying them.

Conclusion

The Celtic COMESI project’s prototypes are based on an innovative architecture combining the standardized OMA Converjged Address Book, OMA Converged IP messaging and OMA presence enablers. They are based on RCS (Rich Communication Suite) clients and therefore are illustrating the opportunities allowed by those standardized works when gathered in a single pan-European platform.The COMESI services improve the user experience not only through the use of multiple devices, but also through the interoperability between operators thanks to the RCS clients. In a period when people communicate more often with different services and devices, COMESI is proposing a unified and interoperable service to perform various communication activities in a safe, secure and better controlled environment.The COMESI prototypes have received very positive feedback when demonstrated at the Orange exhibition in Moldova, at the LTE platform opening in Brest, France, and at the Orange Labs Research Exhibition during the second half of 2011.

Further information is available at www.celtic-initiative.org/Projects/Celtic-projects/Call6/COMESI/comesi-default.asp