Intelligent Network

The Intelligent Network (IN ) is not a separate physical network, but a service- oriented centralized system (eg ISDN) builds on an existing telephone network. A IN extended a telephone network to intelligent network components and features. The focus is on value-added services for fixed-line telephony, mobile telephony and fax. It is not necessary that IN operator should be operators simultaneously; they can realize their offerings across existing networks.

Classic IN - technology

Numbers that lead to an IN service, are in special switches that are equipped with a feature called the Service Switching Point, entered. If such a number is called, saith the switch via the INAP protocol to an IN Service Control Point system to (a protocol to the family of the Signaling System 7). In this then the call data can with different parameters (such as the origin of the call, time of day, day of week ) and associated services are impressionable and formative flexible offered.

The classical architecture of the IN network is standardized in ITU- T Q.1200ff. defined. Variants for the mobile can be found in the specifications of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project.

Examples

Generally known value-added services of the IN are

• The MABEZ service 0137 (ground transport to specific destinations, better known as televoting from radio and television broadcasts )
• The service and emergency numbers ( 0180, 0700, 0800, 0900),
• VPN services (Virtual Private Network) for closed user groups.

Moreover, a large part of the prepaid mobile services is implemented as IN service.

Recent Developments

With the introduction of IP - based voice services and signaling protocols IN services are increasingly in the IP network, ie without connection to the Signaling System 7 realized (see also SIGTRAN ).