Past and current IMS testbed initiatives: The UCT IMS and EPC testbed

Over the last 5 years the Communications Research Group at the University of Cape Town has been actively involved in IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) testbed research initiatives. This paper aims to describe the research work that was done within this testbed. The work ranges from work on an IMS client, IMS based services such as IPTV and Advertising, as well as network management work relating to QoS, Policy and Charging Control. The paper also touches on current work that involves the evolution of the mobile core network or more specifically the Evolved Packet Core (EPC). Future work involves the integration of all past research work into this new testbed as well as investigating other areas such as enhanced QoS mechanisms and Mobility control for the EPC, and the Integration of Cognitive radios in EPC / Base Stations for UMTS/LTE.