Bruce Morse, IBM Software Group vice-presidentbelieves that the ability of a telecommunication network to display a presence of users “in the next decade will became so widespread and usual that it practically becomes our second nature”.
Up to date, one can use presence capability in a phone network only as a value-added service. However, under the SI conception, it is an integral part of the communication protocol. SI client software automatically displays a presence of users in a contact list.
Following the SI protocol, a contribution of the called user to a session initiation consists in a declaration of readiness to receive a call. SI server records this status allowing other users, which have an access to public names of the user, see his or her readiness in a form of a color marker near a name of the user.
The differences and advantages of the SI approach to a presence capability result from supporting a multi-address public user identification and the special scheme of readiness to receive a call indication.
As the user can selectively indicate readiness to receive a call for one or more public addresses then only users, which has the address with readiness set on will see the user “present” in a network.
The user can easily indicate a readiness to receive a call for every address in his or her address space. On the other hand, the user may do not indicate a readiness on any of his or her SI address. In this case, the user will be hidden from other users but still able to communicate.
The SI technology allows stating a readiness to receive a call not only for users but also for information and entertainment resources. In this case, a user terminal displays the public name of a service or resource with a “presence” indicator. Presence capability support for information resources is very useful for the user, because it allows him or her to monitor an actual state of information, entertainment and advertising databases at the access moment.
Another special feature of SI approach to a presence capability is the ability to indicate communication type and facilities for which the user is available now. The user may indicate a readiness status for all available communication types or choose appropriate ones. At the same time, a calling user may choose the most suitable communication type from the indicated set of available to the called user.
SI client may also provide the user with information about exact location of other users, which are connected to fixed access points or using GPS-enabled terminals.
With the SI technology and multiplicity of own public addresses, the user has much more abilities for flexible management of his or her presence indication than only the ability to set invisible (offline) status for single account available in most communication systems. |
