Provision of services in a communication system

摘要

A method and arrangement for providing services for clients (3) associated with a data communication network is disclosed for use in a system where the services are provided by at least one external service provider (11-13). In the method offers are signalled from said at least one external service provider to an interface entity (2) associated with the data network (1), said offers associating with services provided by said service provider. The offers are processed at the interface entity in order to make a decision regarding the acceptance of the offers. Accepted services are then included into a register of services that are available for the clients. When a client wishes to use a service, a request for the service is signalled to the interface entity. The request is processed by the interface entity to find a matching service from the registered services. If a matching service is found, said service is requested from an external service provider providing said service. The request is communicated to said external service provider based on an appropriate protocol that enables initiation of a service provisioning session. The protocol is preferably such that the session may be initiated without any beforehand defined interfaces between the interface entity and the external service provider.