Alcatel-Lucent's Rapport Framework Re-Architects IMS

Alcatel-Lucent introduced a fully re-architected version of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) software to provide large enterprises and service providers a new, and much more flexible way to deliver communications and collaboration services.

Alcatel-Lucent is positioning its new Rapport software as a platform for innovation, enabling the creation of new ‘contextual communications’, where fundamental services such as voice, chat, video conferencing and sharing become functions available to any application, website or connected object. These services can then be accessed by application developers using open application programming interfaces (APIs) and simple software development kits (SDKs).

“Rapport liberates large enterprises from the communications technology silos and proprietary vendor offerings that IT departments need to contend with. It also removes the barriers for service providers to offer more engaging communications services to their customers, which can be delivered seamlessly using any device and across any network,” stated Bhaskar Gorti, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Platforms business.

The basic concet is that the Rapport software will be deployed in a private cloud, into which large enterprises can plug in best-of-breed apps to help meet the needs of employees for the latest services, whether in the office or on the move. Rapport will also help enterprises better serve their customers by building communications services into applications, websites and products.

Rapport strengthens the communications business case for service providers by enabling them to support VoLTE/mobile, fixed, and WiFi services with a single, more agile cloud communications platform, significantly simplifying and reducing the cost per subscriber to deliver these services. Rapport uses a network functions virtualization (NFV) approach, and works with NFV platforms such as Alcatel-Lucent’s CloudBand to launch VoLTE and new services rapidly to both consumers and businesses and scale dynamically as subscriber demand dictates.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/solutions/communications-collaboration