 We are interested in knowing what exactly forms the basis of next-generation networks. Next-generation networks have actually evolved out of the convergence of the telecommunication networks and the internet. And it is not as simple as it might sound. The convergence actually took its own toll and has resulted in the formation of certain dimensions which were initially unknown both to the telecom world and to the internet world. So let's look at the telecommunication networks and the internet networks in isolation and then understand what consequent implications both in the form of the challenges and the opportunities emerge. Telecommunication networks as we know of PSTNs, PLMNs and PDNs that is public data networks were thought to be specific that is they were specialized to offer a certain kind of service. These networks are inherently complex because the major investment is coming into the network and the end hosts are considered to be very simple. The example is of a simple PTCL telephone. You can understand that PTCL telephone is covering only a fraction or fraction of a fraction of the total activities which are taking place in the network. On the contrary in the case of internet since it is based on simplicity so the network was supposed to do simple things to the data which was coming from hosts. For instance if you look at router which is a layer 3 device is the main and the most dominating network elements at the core of the internet. So router is only layer 3 whereas end host is layer 7. So if we compare the two we can say that in the case of internet the network is very simple and the end host is expected to have all the intelligence to ensure that whatever is sent from one end is received as such on the other end. These telecommunication networks and other kinds of networks were inherently rigid because they were not meant to be flexible to cater for something else. Of course these were specialized. On the contrary if you look at internet architecture once again it is poised to be ready for convergence. Why? Because if you look at the IP layer at layer 3 all the layers above IP which conform to the services can be replaced with other kinds of services and other kinds of services. Likewise whatever access technology is available below IP specifically if you look at the broadband access side we understand that it can be changed either from wireless broadband access to wired broadband access. So it means this kind of flexibility makes the internet as the most eligible technology that would take the lead in the convergence of telecommunication and internet architecture. Now we look at some of the natural challenges which would emerge with internet architecture as the leader of the convergence. The first one is quality of service of course because internet was never meant to provide the best quality of service for its users all the time. It means that when some internet architecture is to be extended and evolved into the next generation network by integrating it with the telecommunication world then the quality of service aspects have to be catered for especially for real time voice and video communication. The next challenge emerges from the human agnostic addressing schemes that is when we look at the addressing schemes in PSTNs and in other kinds of traditional networks we see some kind of symmetry and some kind of human understandable aspect to it. But in the case of IP networks the IP addressing and the MAC addressing makes it increasingly complex and difficult to be retained by human beings. So if you look at the called and caller party one party the caller party is outside of the internet and the call party is on the inside of the internet. Now if such call is to be made then the addressing scheme as we know the dial number has to be translated into corresponding IP address. That's again a challenge and lastly if we compare the IP based network it is mostly based on in band signaling whereas the traditional networks are heavily relying on out of band signaling. So how could we cater for services such as voice over IP if we have to implement signaling. While the challenges are quite uphill there are equal and very lucrative opportunities as well. Let's look at these services in the traditional network from the value addition point of view. The value added services of traditional networks could be such for instance if you look at the television broadcast in a broadcast television network it could always be added with data because now it is coming on the internet in the best example is IP TV. Likewise if the traditional services are to be offered all these services are coming through IP so we can think about a unified billing. So instead of receiving a bill for say the television the mobile the telephone and other utilities we have a unified kind of billing that helps us from going to different outlets to pay individually.