(July 20, 2007) - IBM Internet Security Systems (IBM ISS) and the Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC) have officially expanded their existing collaboration into the field of IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) with a year-long contract to explore the security of IMS architecture beginning July 1, 2007. IMS is the next-generation standard in telecommunications network architecture, enabling a leap forward for voice, video, data, and multimedia applications.

The IBM ISS contract is the formal agreement between IBM ISS and GTISC to conduct research into the security of the IMS infrastructure, and will be carried out through sponsored research at the Georgia Tech IMS Lab.

"This project is important for GTISC because it extends our purview further into new territory, making GTISC one of the few security research groups that is doing not only traditional network and system security research, but also applying advanced technical knowledge to this 'new media' arena." said Michael Hunter, a GTISC research scientist who will be actively managing the effort.

Mustaque Ahamad is the primary investigator and will oversee the project. Russ Clark, principle researcher of the IMS lab, will contribute as an IMS infrastructure expert, and Frank Park, Ph.D. candidate, will be a lead researcher along with another graduate student to be named.

Chris Rouland, CTO of IBM ISS and IBM Distinguished Engineer and Peter Tosto, Director of Product Development at IBM ISS will represent IBM ISS's interests.

The IMS lab is operated by the Georgia Tech Mobilesphere under a partnership with the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC). The lab includes a fully operational IMS core and numerous enabling services such as Presence, Push-To-Talk Over Cellular and various media gateways. The lab is connected to both the GT campus WiFi network and the AT&T cellular network, and brings the students and faculty of Georgia Tech an opportunity to gain early, first-hand access to the latest telecommunications application architecture. The lab is already supporting several research efforts including a Student Research Competition. where students compete for prizes while creating new mobile applications. Two new courses were created to leverage the lab for students and bring new telecommunications technology into the curriculum.