In the past, intelligence, such as features and call processing software, was located primarily at local central office switches. Today, new enhanced services being considered are likely to need network capabilities that are not necessarily located at local central office switches. The trend is evolving to provide additional intelligence in the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) and various Network Elements [10] [20]. As Intelligent Network concepts are merged into networks based on ONA requirements, the number of services requiring distributed intelligence will increase.
The distribution of intelligence will require more resources to maintain functions. Services requiring distributed intelligence are likely to introduce vulnerabilities.