Introduction to M2M and its developments in LTE

LTE Innovation Summit 2013 - Anandamoy Sen from Rohde & Schwarz on Vimeo.

An interesting video on Introduction to M2M and its developments in LTE from Rohde&Schwarz LTE Innovation Summit 2013.

The presentation is also embedded below and can be downloaded from Slideshare.

Introduction to M2M by Sierra Wireless from Zahid Ghadialy

Adaptive Video Streaming: Principles, Improvements and Innovation

An Interdigital presentation from last year explains the principle of adaptive streaming very well for those who would not know how it worked.

This process of adaptation could be improved based on the quality of coverage at any particular time.

Interdigital are proposing a further enhancement of improving the adaptation further based on the User behaviour. If for example the user is far away then the quality need not be great on the device. On the other hand if the user is very close-by, the quality should be as good as it can get. They have explained it in a whitepaper for whoever is interested here.

A video showing this method is embedded below:

Five Future Technologies (#FutureTech) we may see soon in our devices!

Remember 'Internet of Everything' rather than 'Internet of Things', here is a recent Cisco video explaining this vision:

You can read more on these topics on Cisco blogs.


Next is the self-healing technology:



Spray-on clothes
These will go very well with phones where you can spray paint phone covers and maybe if its possible to dissolve the skin and re-use it, it would be an added bonus.


Just think how the technology used to design Robots can enable flexible phones and other devices.




With sensors becoming smaller and cheaper, more of them are being put in our devices. Many years back people were saying that breath analysers could be available in mobiles but I guess there wasnt a business case for that. Also many of these sensors have come as part of Bluetooth add-ons to keep the cost/weight/size of the device down. Now there is a possibility of whole new range of sensors coming to our devices.

You can read more details on this here.


Finally, there is always one user who would ask me why is there no mention of LTE in the videos above so here is a **bonus** video.

I have to mention that this didnt sound very convincing to me as a selling point. Its like back in the year 2000, 3G was being sold as an enabler to the must have 'Video calling'.

3GPP Public Safety focus in Rel-12

Public Safety is still a hot topic in the standards discussion and on this blog as well. Two recent posts containing presentations have been viewed and downloaded like hotcakes. See here and here.

3GPP presented on this topic in the Critical Communications World that took place last month. The following is from the 3GPP press release:

The ’Critical Communications World’ conference, held recently in Paris, has focused largely on the case for LTE standardized equipment to bring broadband access to professional users, by meeting their high demands for reliability and resilience.

Balazs Bertenyi, the 3GPP SA Chair, reported on the latest status of the first 3GPP features for public safety, in particular those covering Proximity services (Direct mode) and Group call. He spoke of the need to strike a balance between more or less customisation, to make use of commercial products while meeting the specific requirements for Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR).

To ensure that these needs are met, Balazs Bertenyi called for the wholehearted participation of the critical communications community in 3GPP groups, by sending the right people to address the technical questions and obstacles that arise during the creation of work items.

A presentation and video from that event is embedded below:

LTE Standards for Public Safety – 3GPP view from Zahid Ghadialy

For more details see here.

Video: Quick summary of 3GPP Release 12 features

Ericsson recently posted a very good summary video of Release-12 features. My comments and more details are posted below the video:


You may have noticed that LTE Release 12 is also referred to as LTE-B as I posted in my blog post here. Unfortunately, this terminology is not supported by 3GPP which refers to all advancements of LTE as LTE-A. See comment on the post I just referred.

The Elevation Beamforming is also referred to as 3D-Beamforming or 3D-MIMO as I show here.

I havent written any posts on Dual connectivity and not exactly sure how it works but there is an interesting presentation on the Small Cells Enhancements in Release-12 on my blog here.

You can learn more about the WiFi and EPC Integration here.

Click on the following Direct Communications, Device to device (D2D) and Public Safety for more information on the topics.

There are many good presentations on Machine Type Communications (MTC) or M2M that are available on this label here.

Finally, I havent seen much about the lean carrier but now that I know, will add some information on this topic soon.

Related links:

• The four C's of Release-12 enhancements
• Quick update on 3GPP Release-12 progress
• 3GPP Release-12 and beyond
• New opportunities for 3GPP in Release-12

Interference Management in HetNets

Interference Management is a big topic in HetNet's. An earlier blog post here on similar topic was very popular. The above picture shows a Heterogeneous cellular network topology incorporating different forms of small cell deployments as an overlay on the macrocell network. Small cells would generally use secure tunnels back to the core network using existing broadband infrastructure. Whereas in the HCS (Hierarchical Cell Structures), different layers have different frequencies, thereby not causing radio frequency interference, in HetNets same frequencies can be used between different layers. The same frequencies can cause radio frequency Interference and necessitates the use of advanced Interference avoidance techniques.

CTTC has another interesting presentation on Interference Management in HetNets that I am embedding below as slides and video:

Interference Management in Co-Channel Femtocell Deployment from Zahid Ghadialy

What is WebRTC and where does it fit with LTE and IMS

This simple video from MWC should give an idea on what WebRTC is and can do:


So what exactly WebRTC is in technical terms. Here is a recent presentation from WebRTC Conference and Expo

WebRTC Technical Overview and Introduction from Zahid Ghadialy

And here is another presentation that explains where it fits in with the LTE Architecture.

Extending 4G Communications with WebRTC IMS and WebRTC from Zahid Ghadialy

Dean Bubley from Disruptive Analysis has writted extensively on this topic and his recent post "Is the telephony "threat" from VoIP & WebRTC about competition or contextualisation?" is an interesting read.

Iain Sharp from Netovate recently pointed out that 3GPP have 'nearly' approved a work item for WebRTC access to IMS.

It would be interesting to see how operators will view WebRTC. As an opportunity or as a threat. Please feel free to air your opinions via comments.

DAS or 'Small Cells' and What is DAS anyway?

Its been a while I posted something on DAS (a.k.a. Distributed Antenna System). The articles I have posted have been mainly from AT&T and are here, here and here.

Picture source: The IET

Recently I read something interesting from IDG here:

According to Rob Bruce, Chief Operating Officer at distributed antenna system (DAS) vendor Axell Networks, a building is an asset, and that asset wants to deliver all the services it can in the simplest and most economical way.

"You wouldn't put five separate lighting systems into a building because there are five separate tenants in that building. You would put one in, and it becomes a utility for that building," Bruce told Techworld.

"Our view of life is it's the same for cellular coverage. You put one system in which covers the building. That is then a utility for the building, and operators can then connect into that infrastructure - that's how a DAS system works."

Bruce said that small cells are very good for single operator environments, when a single operator wants to add some capability into a particular area. But if they want to put multiple technologies into that environment then they have to put in multiple small cells.

So if a company in the UK wants to put GSM, UMTS and LTE into an office block, it has to install three small cells. If it wants to make that truly operator agnostic, it will probably have to put in 12 units, because each of the four operators uses at least three spectrum bands.

Axell Wireless recently installed a multi-operator DAS in The Shard in London, using 20 remote units to cover the whole building. Bruce claimed that, if the same thing had been done using small cells, it would involve over 100 units.

"So the building owner is saying I've got 100 lumps of intelligent electronics gadgetry that is scattered all over my building, and there's 4 different operators wanting access to all those different things in private flats, hotels and offices - it's just an operational nightmare," said Bruce.

Complete article is available here.

This is an interesting point because the Small Cells are still not evolved enough so that a single one can serve multiple operators, etc. Note that I am differentiating the closed residential femtocells from the public access small cells. Maybe a service such as FaaS or 'Femto as a Service' can help solve this problem. Based on my previous sentences, some of you may say that it should be called Small Cell as a Service (SCaaS) rather than FaaS but unfortunately that term has come to mean something else as can be seen here.

While initially the in-building solutions were mainly for coverage reasons, this may no longer be the only reason. Capacity is also an issue, especially in-building. Small cells can certainly help in the capacity area much more than DAS. Fortunately as most new phones are coming with inbuilt Wi-Fi chipsets and WiFi is available indoors in plenty, the capacity issue may no longer be a problem indoors. Again this is an area where we can have lots of discussions and each party with a vested interest can argue their case.

Here are couple of interesting videos from youtube that explain DAS:




There is also an interesting presentation by NEC in the Small Cell Americas event, embedded below:

Optimising Small Cells Architectures for In-Building Solutions from Zahid Ghadialy

802.11u, Passpoint and Hotspot 2.0 (HS 2.0)

Came across this interesting Video on Youtube explaining 802.11u that is embedded below.




A bit more detailed presentation on the same topic by Ruckus is also embedded below:


Related posts:

• Wi-Fi & Packet Core (EPC) Integration
• Hotspot 2.0, Next Generation Hotspot (NGH), etc.
• Cellular-Wi-Fi Integration - technology and standardization roadmap

Technologies from Mobile World Congress 2013 (#MWC13)

If you liked the Gadgets roundup from yesterday then you would like this one as well:



You can read more about this topic here.



You can read more about this here.











You can read more about this here.


Finally:

Gadgets from Mobile World Congress 2013 (#MWC13)

Finally, if you have enough patience, here is Nokia keynote:



Related blog post:

• Dumbphones, Featurephones, Smartphones, Superphones...
• Videos from the CES 2013
• Future mobile technology with Graphene
• 5 videos showing futuristic technologies that can be used with Mobiles
• Mobile Device Testing and its Path to Commercialization

Google Glasses - take two

Picture source: Guardian

So nearly after a year of my Google Glass post, looks like Google is ready to ship some of these glasses to some competition winners for $1500. Even the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is excited and cant wait to get his hands on it.

There is also this new video showing 'How it Feels' wearing Glass and everytime I go back to youtube, the count increases by 100K. Embedded below:


My two main concerns are that I have to speak loudly to the glass which may not be convenient in public places or in front of others and the other being that when many people will have these devices, my Glass may pickup command from another user.

Sometime back there was a discussion on 'Bone conduction audio'. This will allow the user to hear from the Glass without the need of a headphone or speakers, I guess a similar kind of technology is needed in place of a mic. The Glass can sense that the user who is wearing it is talking instead of someone else. It should also solve the need to speak to speak loudly to the Glass.

Videos from the CES 2013

Gorilla glass (above) is made by a company called Corning that is much more well known for its futuristic video, see here.











Finally, this Sony Xperia Z has got over 2 million hits, not exactly sure why so I have added the video for this as well

'Small Cells' Analyst Forecasts

Interesting discussion, courtesy of Think Small Cell



If you just want to view the slides quickly, available below:

Future mobile technology with Graphene

Some days back I attended an interesting talk where the speaker showed how Graphene will revolutionise the future mobile devices. Here is what Graphene is:



Another version:



A concept phone video from Samsung



And a Nokia demo from the last MWC that uses Graphene as a sensor and also opens the possibility of using other gestures except for touch

5 videos on Augmented Reality

Looks like Augmented Reality (AR) is getting hot, just in time for Christmas. I wonder how many products will be sold based on AR. As I suggested in an earlier post, there may be 1 Billion users by 2020. Here are the videos:

Google's Ingress is an AR baased game:



Augmented Reality Book of Spells, Harry Potter experience:

Wonder when/ever it will come to a mobile near you.

LightBeam - Interacting with Augmented Real-World Objects in Pico Projections:



The next is a bit old but worth mentioning:

LuminAR from MIT


Finally, the science of Haptics will allows us to "touch" objects in a virtual world in future

Augmented Reality and Touch

Connected Lighting of the future

This is an advertisement from Philips about their personal wireless lighting system called Hue. This is also the reason why we say that in future everything would be connected and with its own IP address (though this is not the case in Hue).


With Internet of Things (IoT) becoming more mainstream, it would be interesting to see these things becoming more popular and we will hopefully see more interesting apps.

This article makes an interesting reading too.

Imagine the Future - by Cisco

Here is a video from Cisco from the last year, that I think is still relevant to help put in perspective where the future is going:




There is also a slide cast worth watching on the same topic from last month:

The Social Web of Things - Part 2

Here is the Part 1 in case you are wondering.

LTE, LTE-A and Testing

Some months back R&S held a technical forum where there were many interesting talks and presentations. They have now uploaded video of all these presentations that can be viewed on their website (no embedding allowed).

Available to be viewed here.