Service-oriented architecture (SOA) uses services as the baseline for developing new architectures and applications, as networks are built specifically to satisfy service requirements. Most services are currently handled over different networks, but newer services will soon require cross-network support. Architecting the Telecommunication Evolution: Toward Converged Network Services outlines the challenges of providing crossover services and the new architectures and protocols that will enable convergence between circuit- and packet-switched networks. Taking a standards-based approach to converged services, this book lays a foundation for SOA in telecommunications. The authors begin by outlining the development of Internet telephony, focusing on how to use the respective benefits of the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) and the Internet to create and implement more value-added services. These two eminent specialists first examine services that originate in the Internet and take advantage of PSTN services, and then explore how discrete events on the PSTN can be used as an impetus to creating services on the Internet. They conclude with a discussion on how this convergence creates smart spaces in the telecoms domain. Including eight valuable appendices that will aid in the implementation of converged services, Architecting the Telecommunication Evolution is the first book of its kind to offer a survey as well as a practical roadmap to integrating modern networks to achieve better performance and new functionality.</P>