Presence management in next-generation networks

The popularity of instant messaging highlights the power that the addition of presence information can bring to communications. Instant messaging systems combine multi-party communications with active presence notifications, allowing users to monitor the presence status of others. We describe several ways presence information can enhance next generation telephone communications and how integration can actually improve instant messaging as well. In addition, we will describe some of the issues associated with implementing and deploying such services, including privacy, data ambiguity and inter-system compatibility.