IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is an open international standard for Next Generation Networking. It supports the delivery of Voice over IP (VoIP) and various multimedia services. IMS is not in itself a service, but an architecture for service delivery.

IMS was originally developed by wireless carriers within the context of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in 2002. Since then, its advantages have led to the adoption of IMS by wireline carriers. IMS provides for person-to-person and person-to-content communication in a variety of modes.

Read this paper to discover why many industry observers believe it will become the standard protocol for telecommunications in the years ahead.