Magister Scientiae - MSc / Providing carrier grade characteristics for Internet Protocol (IP) communication applications is a significant problem for IP application providers in order to offer integrated services that span IP and telecommunication networks. This thesis addresses the provision of life-cycle management, which is only one carrier grade characteristic, for a SoftBridge application, which is an example of IP communication applications. A SoftBridge provides semi-synchronous multi-modal IP-based communication. The work related to IP-Telecommunication integrated services and the SoftBridge is analyzed with respect to life-cycle management in a literature review. It is suggested to use an Application Server in a Next Generation Network (NGN) to provide life-cyclemanagement functionality for IP-Telecommunication applications. In this thesis, the Application Server is represented by a JAIN Service Logic Execution Environment(JSLEE), in which a SoftBridge application can be deployed, activated, deactivated, uninstalled and upgraded online.Two methodologies are applied in this research: exploratory prototyping, which evolves the development of a SoftBridge application, and empirical comparison, which is concerned with the empirical evaluation of a SoftBridge application in terms of carriergrade capabilities. A SoftBridge application called SIMBA provides a Deaf Telephony service similar to aprevious Deaf Telephony SoftBridge, However, SIMBA’s SoftBridge design and implementation are unique to this thesis. In order to test the life-cycle management ability of SIMBA, an empirical evaluation is carried out including the experiments oflife-cycle management and call-processing performance. The final experimental results of the evaluation show that a JSLEE is able to provide life-cycle management for SIMBA without causing a significant decrease in performance. In conclusion, the life-cycle management can be provided or a SoftBridge application by using an Application Server such as a JSLEE. Futhermore, the results indicate that approach of using Application Server (JSLEE) integration should be sufficiently general to provide life cycle management, and indeed other carrier grade capabilities, for other IP communication applications. This allows IP communication applications to be integrated into an NGN.Providing carrier grade characteristics for Internet Protocol (IP) communication applications is a significant problem for IP application providers in order to offer integrated services that span IP and telecommunication networks. This thesis addresses the provision of life-cycle management, which is only one carrier grade characteristic, for a SoftBridge application, which is an example of IP communication applications. A SoftBridge provides semi-synchronous multi-modal IP-based communication. The work related to IP-Telecommunication integrated services and the SoftBridge is analyzed with respect to life-cycle management in a literature review. It is suggested to use an Application Server in a Next Generation Network (NGN) to provide life-cyclemanagement functionality for IP-Telecommunication applications. In this thesis, the Application Server is represented by a JAIN Service Logic Execution Environment(JSLEE), in which a SoftBridge application can be deployed, activated, deactivated, uninstalled and upgraded online.Two methodologies are applied in this research: exploratory prototyping, which evolves the development of a SoftBridge application, and empirical comparison, which is concerned with the empirical evaluation of a SoftBridge application in terms of carriergrade capabilities. A SoftBridge application called SIMBA provides a Deaf Telephony service similar to aprevious Deaf Telephony SoftBridge, However, SIMBA’s SoftBridge design and implementation are unique to this thesis. In order to test the life-cycle management ability of SIMBA, an empirical evaluation is carried out including the experiments oflife-cycle management and call-processing performance. The final experimental results of the evaluation show that a JSLEE is able to provide life-cycle management for SIMBA without causing a significant decrease in performance. In conclusion, the life-cycle management can be provided or a SoftBridge application by using an Application Server such as a JSLEE. Futhermore, the results indicate that approach of using Application Server (JSLEE) integration should be sufficiently general to provide life cycle management, and indeed other carrier grade capabilities, for other IP communication applications. This allows IP communication applications to be integrated into an NGN. / South Africa