rity for the tunnel to the highest level of encryption and sets maximum QoS to make certain the videoconference, which can tolerate little delay or packet loss, comes through clearly. When the session ends, the servers "tear down" the tunnel, notifying the policy server that the capacity is available once again. Figure 6 provides an illustration of this more complex example. These two examples illustrate the kinds of functions policy managers provide. Notice that these systems provide real time, or near real time, service delivery capability. In other words, a user can send a request for a service, have it authenticated and delivered almost instantly. Policy managers play a major role in moving network and service controls into the end user's hands, pushing intelligence from the network's core to its edge. Putting more OSS intelligence and control into the user's hands is a critical aspect of developing eBusiness for IICs. As IICs, their networks, and OSSs become better integrated, more services will become available in near real time. Policy management systems will play an increasingly important role in enabling delivery and managing customer preferences to provide customized, on- demand services. The Ultimate Guide to Building and Delivering OSS/BSS OSS IN THE CABLE WORLD As cable companies begin to roll-out Internet and voice services, they adopt many of the OSS functions and related challenges we have just discussed. They do face some fundamental differences, however. Where the basic processes and tasks for delivering services are similar, if not the same, some fundamental network components and capabilities are quite different. First, cable networks are built on a completely different kind of architecture than traditional telecom networks. They do not use switches or copper lines. The fundamental physical medium is coaxial cable and is generally linked to a high-speed optical fiber backbone (hence we have hybrid fiber-coax networks). The cable version of a central office is a head- end, and this is where the