Fixed-mobile convergence–the convergence of wire line and wireless devices into a single telecom network–promises to enable service providers to reach a greater number of potential customers with a wider range of service offerings. Service providers in the telecommunications industry are looking to multimedia to increase revenues by allowing them to add video to their traditional voice services, thus enriching the end-user experience and making the services more attractive to their subscribers. For example, adding video content to a traditional voicemail application enables a new level of personalization. Users can be greeted with a subscriber's personal video, humorous clip, or cartoon animation. This level of personalization is particularly appealing to the teenage subscriber base.

Greater levels of personalization are being provided via new revenue-generating services such as video color ringback and video caller ID. For example, with video color ringback the subscriber can replace the standard ring tone that the caller hears with a personalized video message. Imagine seeing and hearing the person you are calling running toward the phone yelling, "I'm coming…." IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) from the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defines media servers as part of its next-generation network architecture for multimedia solutions. Similarly, in the enterprise, multimedia solutions are being investigated in conjunction with IP technology as a means of reducing operating expenses while improving worker productivity and customer satisfaction.

Intel NetStructure^® Host Media Processing Software simplifies the development of multimedia telecommunication applications: supporting new capabilities such as video is simple and straightforward.

The move toward IP-centric solutions can represent significant changes in the way media servers and applications are modeled. Intel is committed to protecting our customers' investments. Existing applications that run on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) delivered with Intel NetStructure Host Media Processing Software can easily migrate from a traditional PSTN environment to an IP-based next-generation network. At the same time, Intel embraces emerging and evolving open industry standards in architectures, protocols, and interfaces.

The powerful combination of Intel Architecture processors and chipsets, innovative platform technologies such as dual core, Hyper-Threading Technology¹ (HT Technology) and Intel^® EM64T²; and software technologies such as Intel IPP and Intel NetStructure Host Media Processing Software, will meet the demanding performance requirements of media signal-processing applications. By supporting these technologies with a wealth of available development, test, and performance-tuning tools, Intel offers an exceptional signal-processing platform for building next-generation media servers with the lowest total cost of ownership.

As new and innovative technologies such as multi-core and Intel Virtualization Technology become available, Intel platforms will provide more end-user value through new features and improved performance.

These Intel products and technologies are used to deploy services in a media service network. A media service network is a network through which media services are provided to an end user. We start our discussion with a description of the components that make up a media service network using three representative network configurations. We then take a top-down approach to discussing the Intel technologies used to build a next-generation media server. We start by taking a look at Intel NetStructure Host Media Processing Software, and how it makes developing interactive multimedia applications straightforward and cost effective. We walk through the steps involved in developing a simple voice application using Intel NetStructure Host Media Processing Software APIs. We then examine what is involved in adding video capabilities to the application, demonstrating how developers can add features to existing applications while retaining their investment in existing code.

At the heart of an Intel-based media server is the Intel Architecture processors, chipsets, and Intel IPP. In the subsequent sections we show how these technologies can offer outstanding performance of media processing algorithms such as codecs. In the last sections we look at how developer tools like the Intel C++ Compiler and VTune^™ Performance Analyzer can be used to produce high-performance application code.