The IN nodes are typically owned by telecommunications service providers such as a telephone company or mobile phone operator.
This core would then provide a basis upon which operators could build services in addition to those already present on a standard telephone exchange.
This made for long release cycles as the software testing had to be extensive and thorough to prevent the network from failing.
The use of standard protocols allows different manufacturers to concentrate on different parts of the architecture and be confident that they will all work together in any combination.
The biggest variant was called Customised Applications for Mobile networks Enhanced Logic, or CAMEL for short.
[4] GR-1129-CORE provides generic requirements for an ISDN-based protocol which connects the SCP to the Service Node via the SSP.
[5] While activity in development of IN standards has declined in recent years, there are many systems deployed across the world which use this technology.
More attention is being paid to the use of APIs in preference to protocols like INAP, and new standards have emerged in the form of JAIN and Parlay.
From a technical viewpoint, the SCE began to move away from its proprietary graphical origins towards a Java application server environment.
The meaning of "intelligent network" is evolving in time, largely driven by breakthroughs in computation and algorithms.