| The purpose of this book is to give some practical insight into how public telecommunications networks have advanced from the old days of offering just simple telephony services to becoming today’s ‘intelligent’ networks. Telephone companies now operate in an intensely competitive environment, and so they have to constantly struggle to find more ways to encourage customers to make ever more use of the installed network equipment. Network operators are therefore constantly looking for new services that will make the telephone system more attractive, easier to use and perhaps even more indispensable for its users. The overall goal is of course to increase the revenue-producing ability of the existing phone systems. The aim of the ‘intelligent network’ (IN) has always been to help the telephone companies achieve just this, but in a rigorously standard manner, so that network equipment from different suppliers can work together. IN seeks to provide the internal network rearrangements that give the agility and flexibility needed to bring almost any new services into life very quickly.
The intended audience for this book is really anyone who has an interest in this subject without necessarily yet having any significant level of expertise in intelligent networking. The background to IN is formal and complex, because its fundamental driver is a set of agreed interfaces between different functions provided in different vendors’ computing and telecommunications equipment. This book therefore takes pains to give what is hoped to be an easily understandable account of IN for readers who are unfamiliar with the background detail.
A typical target reader might therefore be a student or engineer with background knowledge in computer hardware and software, but with little specialist experience in IN. The book will have succeeded in its aim if it enables such a reader to assimilate the essentials of the subject of IN with reasonable speed. Because of the potential complexity, we have aimed to keep the text reasonably economical, and to focus primarily on explanation and illustration of the principles rather than the presentation of comprehensive coverage. For further information we have in general referenced out to the plethora of background and specialist supporting documents that are available from the international and regional standards organisations and elsewhere. |