IP Access Virtual Fridge Notes Demo

Yesterday I blogged about the Airvana HubBub demo, so someone pointed out to me the IP access demo of Virtual Fridge notes. I saw the demo in Femtocells World Summit and wasnt clear on how exactly it worked, but this Youtube video shows it quite well.





When I was discussing this app with a friend, the first question he asked was, why cant we send an SMS directly to the person rather than using the Facebook app. I think the main reason is convinience. You need an app somewhere so why not put it in a popular social networking website. There is a plan of Femtocells being available with SIM cards. In that case it maybe possible in future to have a way where you send the SMS directly to the Femto and it can relay that SMS to any unique UE that enters its range for a limited time. I am sure someone will already be working on a similar thing ;)

Vodafone R&D people start a blog on LTE & Mobile Broadband

Its good to see R&D people from Vodafone starting their own blog. Vodafone has been very active with R&D and they also do very interesting lectures. I covered about one such lecture in Telecoms area here. Few months back I also attended an interesting lecture on Mobile Healthcare about which I blogged here. I am sure this is going to be an interesting blog with lots of useful information and insights.

You can check the blog out at: http://witherwire.betavine.net/

Airvana HubBub femtocell demo at Femtocells World Summit 2009

I blogged about the demo earlier here. Here is the video showing the live demo:

3GPP Release-10 Features and Studies

New Items in Rel-10

• Network Selection for non-3GPP Access
• Network Improvements for Machine-type Communications
• Registration in Densely-populated area (RED)
• Enhanced Home NodeB / eNodeB continuation of Rel-9
• IMS Service Continuity – Inter Device Transfer enhancements
• EEA3 and EIA3 (new Encryption & Integrity EPS security algorithms)
• Study on Mobile Haptic Services
• Study on Policy solutions and enhancements
• Study on IPv6 MigrationStudy on SR-VCC Enhancements

Items moved from Rel-9 to Rel-10

• IMS aspects of Architecture for Home NodeB
• GTP-based S8 chaining
• Multi Access PDN Connectivity
• Study on advanced requirements for IP interconnect
• Study on Unauthenticated PS Emergency Calls
• Study on Study on Personal Broadcast Service
• Study on LCS support in SAE for non-3GPP accesses
• Study on System enhancements for the use of IMS services in local breakout and optimal routing of media
• Study on Intra Domain Connection of RAN Nodes to Multiple CN Nodes
• Study on IMS Evolution
• Study on enhancements to IMS border functions for IMS Interconnection of services

I will add some details as I have the information and as I get time :)

Stage 2 Specification For Voice Over LTE from VOLGA Forum now available

From our friend Martin Sauter's blog:

Regular readers of this blog probably remember that I'm a fan of Voice over LTE via GAN (VOLGA). For those who don't, have a look here on more details on why I think it has a good chance of becoming THE voice solution for LTE. It's amazing how fast the Volga-Forum is pushing out the specifications. In May, they published the stage 1 specification document, which contains a high level architecture and the requirements. Now only a month later, a first version of the stage 2 specification is available. Stage 2 specifications as per 3GPP contain a detailed architecture description and all procedures required from connecting to the network, originating and terminating calls, doing handovers, etc.

While their speed is incredible, maybe it should not be that surprising, because VOLGA is based on the already existing 3GPP GAN (Generic Access Network, i.e. GSM over Wi-Fi) specification. That's a good thing because that means that VOLGA could thus be developed quite quickly as it's likely that existing products can be modified instead of being designed from scratch. In addition, this should also mean that the first version of the standard is already quite mature as many areas were already verified during implementation and rollout of GAN in current networks.

I did a quick comparison between the two stage 2 specs and as I expected, many parts are very similar. While the GAN stage 2 specification has 126 pages, the current VOLGA stage 2 specification has 87 pages. This is probably because VOLGA is simpler than GAN. There are fewer handover procedures and most of the handover details are part of the 3GPP Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SR-VCC) specification (for IMS) so they don't have to be included in the VOLGA spec. In addition to fewer handover scenarios, handovers are a bit more simple with LTE from a VOLGA perspective, as the network takes care of it unlike with GAN, where the mobile has to force the network into a handover. Also, there's no need to support the packet switched part of the network which also significantly lowers the complexity.

Well done, I am looking forward to the stage 3 specification which will contain the details on all messages and information elements used.

I blogged about VoLGA last month here.

LTE and 4G IPR

The other day I heard from Alex GeunHo Lee about his new blog related to 4G technologies IPR. Alex has got extensive experience in IPR and patent related issues and I am sure his blog will be very useful for everyone.

Couple of Alex's presentations are embedded below which I am sure many would find interesting.

LTE Essential Patents Landscape 2009 2Q

4G Key Technologies Patent Landscape 2Q 2009

You know you're Mobsessed when...

Tomi and friends are having fun on Twitter under #mobsessed. They are challenging everyone to complete the sentence "You know you are mobsessed if..". Here are few funny ones:

You know you're #mobsessed when you think text'n'drive is for amateurs. You google and drive.

You know you are #mobsessed if while on vacation,you value a place because it's 3G network coverage

you are #mobsessed if you and your wife squabble over the phone chargers (even though you have one in every room of your house)

You are #mobsessed when you think in sentences of 140 characters or less.

You know you are #mobsessed if you wake up your children in the morning by sending them SMS text messages,

You're #mobsessed when you go to toilet just so you can #tweet legally without being seen as #twitterholic in office

You know you're #mobsessed when you can't download new apps to your iPhone without deleting old ones.

You know you are #mobsessed when dropping your phone causes a near death experience. And you can't help singing when the phone still works.

If u carry 2 phones and are considering 3rd, u are #mobsessed

Check the search results on Twitter.

LTE UE Initial Signalling example

I have added initial signaling MSC for an LTE UE at the 3G4G website here. I havent yet managed to expand on the signalling details yet but it should be a good starting point for most people.

Santosh on his Wired n Wireless site has details on LTE Attach procedure which you may find interesting here. See here.

UK: Ofcom releases 3G coverage maps

Ofcom has just released (or as The Register puts it; found under the sofa) 3G coverage maps for UK. Its useful for people who dont live in big towns but planning to take out contracts on dongles/data services. They can now quickly check which operator to go for.

These 3G coverage maps by mobile operator were prepared in January 2009. They represent the area where we have assessed the mobile operators met a minimum coverage threshold set by Ofcom (see technical notes below). The shaded areas on the maps indicate areas where customers have the possibility of making and receiving a call outside over a 3G network (but with no guarantee of being able to do so). They do not indicate areas where customers are able to access higher data rate services.

All operators produce their own coverage indicators on their websites which are likely to provide more reliable guidance to network availability in any given area. The accuracy and detail of the maps are not to the same level as the mobile operators publish. These maps show UK-wide general coverage and are not suitable for zooming in to see specific locations i.e. a particular house or street. Also they are not suitable for assessing the quality or depth of coverage within the indicated areas (e.g. different operators may be able to offer better or worse data rate services or support a smaller or greater number of users).

You can see the PDF of the coverage maps here.

Wireless Cellular Security

Arvind, an old colleague recently spoke in ACM, Bangalore on the topic of Security. Here is his presentation:

Securing Wireless Cellular Systems

View more documents from ACMBangalore.

There are lots of interesting Questions and Answers. One interesting one is:

Does number portability mean that data within an AuC is compromised?

Not really. Number portability does not mean sensitive data from old AuC are transferred to the new AuC. The new operator will issue a new USIM which will have a new IMSI. Number portability only means that MSISDN is kept the same for others to call the mobile. The translation between MSISDN and IMSI is done at a national level register. Such a translation will identify the Home PLMN and the HLR that’s needs to be contacted for an incoming call.
That’s the theory and that’s how it should be done. It will be interesting to know how operators in India do this.

You can read all Q&A's here.

I wrote a tutorial on UMTS security many years back. Its available here.