Title: Convergence, security and quality in the NGN

Authors: Aurelio La Corte; Marialisa Scatá

Addresses: Department of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Science Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Catania, Street A. Doria 6, 95125, Catania, Italy ' Department of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Science Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Catania, Street A. Doria 6, 95125, Catania, Italy

Abstract: In recent years, information and communication technology (ICT) has been characterised by several evolving trends and new challenges. The design and management of each information system must address issues related to planning an ICT infrastructure. Communication technologies are evolving very fast, following the current trend of the time when everything is becoming digitised and the demand for new ubiquitous services is growing. This process has enabled the advent of the next generation network (NGN). With the development of the next generation network, considering the proposed infrastructure, speed, services and amount of connections will increase exponentially. At the same time vulnerability, threats, risk and quality of service (QoS), should be adequately assessed for the continuous evolution of the converged network, which will define roles and relationship in the future information and communication environment. In this paper, we propose an overview of the next generation network addressing the new challenges of the converged infrastructure and we propose a framework to assess quality of service and security features, giving an appropriate analysis method regarding certain parameters and requirements, evaluating factors of influence and general incidence of certain features of the network, to make a comparison between converged and not-converged solutions.

Keywords: information and communications technology; ICT infrastructure; information technology; next generation networks; NGN; new generation networks; NWGN; quality of service; QoS; security; convergence; confidentiality; integrity; availability; information systems; performance assessment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJITST.2012.054062

International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions, 2012 Vol.4 No.4, pp.327 - 343

Published online: 09 Aug 2014 *

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