The day of truly converged services cooperatively based in a telecommunications network, the Internet, a computer or a handheld device is not far off, and testing sponsored by a prominent industry group is being done over the next two weeks to bring that day even closer.

Engineers and equipment makers are gathering in the Verizon technology lab in Waltham and in labs elsewhere in North America, and in Asia and Europe to test a new system that enables incompatible services and networks to work together. It's called IP Multimedia Subsystem, and it will be at the heart of long-foretold convergence. "IMS is more than a platform; it is a system that will enable the true convergence of services, using some very interesting blends of network and Internet functions," said Mark Wegleitner, Verizon senior vice president of technology.

The biennial Global Multiservice Interoperability testing event is sponsored by the MultiService Forum, an industry group dedicated to promoting network and vendor focus on system and service compatibility. In 2006, the MultiService Forum's Global Multiservice Interoperability event promoted the refinement of IMS in today's multisupplier, multicarrier world. This year, Verizon, the National Communication System and the UNH-IOL in North America, British Telecom and Vodafone in the United Kingdom, and China Mobile in Asia will link their labs to create a global ecosystem for testing standards for a variety of service configurations, including those developed by the ATIS IPTV Interoperability Forum.

This year, IPTV is of particular interest. ATIS' IIF has been working on IPTV standards and industry implementation agreements. Currently, most IPTV implementations do not use IMS, but it is expected there would be great benefit in doing so. Non-IMS implementations create silos of proprietary infrastructure, limiting the potential for IP video to interact with other services. For example, there would be limitations on how users move video to a mobile phone or play games on multiple platforms. GMI participants will work to test early IMS-capable IPTV products, as well as IPTV service-management solutions that are able to analyze the quality of the IPTV service.

In addition, there will be substantial work on the nuts and bolts of IMS functions, including quality of service standards and inter-platform contact setup and tear-down processes. Many additional services besides IPTV will be tested as well.

Participating this year will be 22 equipment companies: Acme Packet, Alcatel-Lucent, Codenomicon, Empirix, Fujitsu, Huawei, Ixia, JDSU, Motorola, MuDynamics, NEC, Nokia-Siemens Networks, Nortel, OSI, Sonus, Spirent, Starent, Tekelec, Tektronix, Telchemy, Teles and ZTE.

Results of the testing will be published some time after the event, after which the standards for interoperability would be applied, and services created and launched.