Wednesday 3 March 2010
Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) in Release-9
The following is an extract from 3G Americas white paper, "3GPP Mobile Broadband Innovation Path to 4G: Release 9, Release 10 and Beyond: HSPA+, SAE/LTE and LTE-Advanced,":
In response to the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act passed by Congress in 2006, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) to allow wireless service providers who choose to participate, to send emergency alerts as text messages to their users who have CMAS capable handsets.
The FCC established a Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee (CMSAAC) for the development of a set of recommendations for the support of CMAS. The CMSAAC recommendations were included as the CMAS Architecture and Requirements document in the FCC Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) which was issued in December 2007. In 2008, the FCC issued three separate Report and Order documents detailing rules (47 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] Part 10) for CMAS. The FCC CMAS First Report and Order specifies the rules and architecture for CMAS. The FCC CMAS Second Report and Order establishes CMAS testing requirements and describes the optional capability for Noncommercial Educational (NCE) and public broadcast television stations distribute geo-targeted CMAS alerts. The FCC CMAS Third Report and Order defined the CMAS timeline, subscriber notification requirements for CMSPs, procedures for CMSP participation elections and the rules for subscriber opt-out. The FCC also issued a CMAS Reconsideration and Erratum document.
The CMAS network will allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to accept and aggregate alerts from the President of the United States, the National Weather Service (NWS), and state and local emergency operations centers, and then send the alerts over a secure interface to participating commercial mobile service providers (CMSPs). These participating CMSPs will then distribute the alerts to their users. between the issuance of the second and third Report & Order documents.
As defined in the FCC CMAS Third Report and Order, CMSPs that voluntarily choose to participate in CMAS must begin an 18 month period of development, testing and deployment of the CMAS no later than 10 months from the date that the Government Interface Design specifications available. On December 7, 2009, the CMAS timeline of the FCC CMAS Third Report and Order was initiated with the announcement by FEMA and the FCC that the Joint ATIS/TIA CMAS Federal Alert GW to CMSP GW Interface Specification (J-STD-101) has been adopted as the Government Interface Design specification referenced in the FCC CMAS Third Report and Order.
Participating CMSPs must be able to target alerts to individual counties and ensure that alerts reach customers roaming outside a provider’s service area. Participating CMSPs must also transmit alerts with a dedicated vibration cadence and audio attention signal. Emergency alerts will not interrupt calls in progress. CMAS supports only English text-based alert messages with a maximum displayable message size of 90 English characters.
For purposes of CMAS, emergency alerts will be classified in one of three categories:
1. Presidential Alerts. Any alert message issued by the President for local, regional, or national emergencies and are the highest priority CMAS alert
2. Imminent Threat Alerts. Notification of emergency conditions, such as hurricanes or tornadoes, where there is an imminent threat to life or property and some immediate responsive action should be taken
3. Child Abduction Emergency/AMBER Alerts. Alerts related to missing or endangered children due to an abduction or runaway situation
The subscribers of participating CMSPs may opt out of receiving Imminent Threat and Child Abduction/AMBER alerts, but cannot opt out from Presidential Alerts.
The following figure shows the CMAS Reference Architecture as defined in the FCC CMAS First Report and Order:
Reference Point C is the secure interface between the Federal Alert GW and the Commercial Mobile Service Provider (CMSP) GW. The Reference Point C interface supports delivery of new, updated or canceled wireless alert messages, and supports periodic testing of the interface. This interface is defined in the J-STD-101, the Joint ATIS/TIA CMAS Federal Alert GW to CMSP GW Interface Specification.
Federal Government entity (i.e. FEMA) responsible for the administration of the Federal Alert GW. FEMA will perform the function of aggregating all state, local, and federal alerts and will provide one logical interface to each CMSP who elects to support CMAS alerts.
For GSM and UMTS systems, wireless alert messages that are received by CMSP GWs will be transmitted to targeted coverage areas using GSM-UMTS Cell Broadcast Service (CBS). The CMAS functionality does not require modifications to the 3GPP-defined Cell Broadcast Service.
The ATIS WTSC-G3GSN Subcommittee is developing the CMAS via GSM-UMTS Cell Broadcast Service Specification. The purpose of this standard is to describe the use of the GSM-UMTS Cell Broadcast Service for the broadcast of CMAS messages. The standard includes the mapping of CMAS application level messages to the Cell Broadcast Service message structure.
The ATIS WTSC-G3GSN Subcommittee is developing the Cell Broadcast Entity (CBE) to Cell Broadcast Center (CBC) Interface Specification. The purpose of this standard is to define a standard XML based interface to the Cell Broadcast Center (CBC). The CMSP Alert GW will utilize this interface to provide the CMAS Alert message information to the CBC for broadcast via CBS.
The ATIS WTSC-G3GSN Subcommittee has developed the Implementation Guidelines and Best Practices for GSM/UMTS Cell Broadcast Service Specification and this specification was approved in October 2009. The purpose of this specification is to describe implementation guidelines and best practices related to GSM/UMTS Cell Broadcast Service regardless of the application using CBS. This specification is not intended to describe an end-to-end Cell Broadcast architecture, but includes clarifications to the existing 3GPP CBS standards as well as “best practices” for implementation of the 3GPP standards. CMAS is an example of an application that uses CBS.
J-STD-100, Joint ATIS/TIA CMAS Mobile Device Behavior Specification, defines the common set of requirements for GSM, UMTS, and CDMA based mobile devices behavior whenever a CMAS alert message is received and processed. A common set of requirements will allow for a consistent user experience regardless of the associated wireless technology of the mobile device. Additionally, this common set of requirements will allow the various local, state, and Federal level government agencies to develop subscriber CMAS educational information that is independent of the wireless technology.
CMAS VIA LTE/EPS
In order to comply with FCC requirements for CMAS, CMSPs have a need for standards development to support CMAS over LTE/EPS as it relates to the network-user interface generally described as the “E-Interface” in the CMAS Reference Architecture. The intent of ATIS WTSC-G3GSN is to build upon LTE text broadcast capabilities currently being specified by 3GPP for the Public Warning System (PWS).
3GPP STANDARDS
3GPP TS 22.268. Public Warning System (PWS) Requirements, covers the core requirements for the PWS and covers additional subsystem requirements for the Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) and for CMAS. TS 22.268 specifies general requirements for the broadcast of Warning Notifications to broadcast to a Notification Area that is based on the geographical information as specified by the Warning Notification Provider. This specification also defines specific CMAS requirements based on the three Reports & Orders issued to date by the FCC.
3GPP TS 23.401. GPRS enhancements for E-UTRAN access, specifies the Warning System Architecture for 3GPP accesses and the reference point between the Cell Broadcast Center (CBC) and Mobility Management Entity (MME) for warning message delivery and control functions. This TS identifies the MME functions for warning message transfer (including selection of appropriate eNodeB), and provides Stage 2 information flows for warning message delivery and warning message cancel. The architecture and warning message delivery and control functions support CMAS.
3GPP TS 29.168. Cell Broadcast Center interfaces with the EPC – Stage 3, specifies the procedures and application protocol between the Cell Broadcast center and the MME for Warning Message Transmission, including the messages, information elements and procedures needed to support CMAS.
3GPP TS 36.300. E-UTRA and E-UTRAN – Overall description – Stage 2, specifies the signaling procedures for the transfer of warning messages from the MME to the eNodeB. The signaling procedures support CMAS operations.
3GPP TS 36.331. E-UTRA Radio Resource Control (RRC) – Protocol specification, specifies the radio resource control protocol for UE-to-E-UTRAN radio interface and describes CMAS notification and warning message transfer.
3GPP TS 36.413. E-UTRAN – S1 Application Protocol (S1AP), specifies the E-UTRAN radio network layer signaling protocol between the MME and eNodeB, and describes the warning message transfer needed for CMAS.
3GPP participants are working to complete these specifications and other UE procedures for supporting PWS and CMAS.
ATIS WTSC-G3GSN will develop a Standard for a CMAS via LTE Broadcast Capability Specification. This Standard will map the CMAS application level messages to the LTE warning message transfer protocol (i.e. for CMAS).
This ATIS WTSC-G3GSN effort has an anticipated completion date of December 31, 2010. This takes into account the time needed for completion of the ongoing 3GPP standards development on warning message broadcast for LTE.
ATIS WTSC G3GSN and TIA TR45.8 Subcommittees in conjunction with FEMA will also be jointly developing a testing certification specification for the Reference Point C interface between the Federal Alert GW and the CMSP GW based upon the requirements defined in J-STD-101. This specification has an anticipated completion date of December 31, 2010.
Tuesday 2 March 2010
Practical innovation, Radical innovation and Incremental innovation at the Mobile World Congress
There has been a lot of coverage of mobile world congress. I have said before that the event was a success and also that we, as an industry are adding value when there is so much economic chaos around us. GSMA also validates this trend by their statistics and attendee numbers GSMA Releases Congress Visitor Stats
If there was an underlying theme for the event, then I think it was 'practical innovation' i.e. innovation designed to solve problems. This is a more interesting trend which I genuinely like. However, there is also space for radical innovation and also incremental innovation. Hence, I will discuss innovation in these themes below. By 'incremental innovation', I mean changes that take a few years to manifest but are significant. Most changes in the devices, networks and infrastructure will be in this space. The challenge for incremental innovation is: Customers may be overtaken by more nimble/sometimes imperfect. And then, there is radical innovation which may be a game changer
I will provide a series of links to announcements that caught my eye in the show (and afterwards). But first, a note of caution: Let's not forget what happened to Palm AFTER the MWC. Last year, Palm was an 'innovator' with much talk of its 'comeback'. Today, there is an overall doom and gloom around Palm. . Palm's products may be good .. But does it matter when the industry is moving so fast and customers have so much choice? Will developers continue to support a waning platform? Today, we see excellent new devices from Samsung, Microsoft, HTC and others which were not present a year ago. All this means that the rate of change has increased. This is a matter for optimism but also caution as the woes of Palm demonstrate.
Firstly, before we discuss further, some of the big announcements. Again, I provide links so that I don't duplicate much of what we have seen before.
Major announcements
Carriers Connect to Rival Apple's App Store
Moblin + Maemo + Linux Foundation = MeeGo
VOIP and Skype. See the white paper written by me and Chetan on the tipping point for VOIP
Wholesale Applications Community
Vodafone calls for tiered mobile-bandwidth pricing
Also see my talk as well: Is Twittter the glue for the Internet of things?
Practical innovation
Orange Healthcare joins the mHealth Alliance to develop mobilehealth solutions in west africa
GSMA Announces Winners of the 15th Annual Global Mobile Awards
RIM to offer free BlackBerry Enterprise Server
mHealth potential: More questions than answers
Radical innovation
Access SIM-Based Services Just by Tapping or Shaking the Mobile Phone
An Accelerometer 1,000x More Sensitive Than the iPhone's
Growvc launches with an innovative model for mobile startups
Incremental innovation which could be pointers to bigger trends
DEVICES
Huawei and Acer add high-end phones to Android mix
Microsoft to let you install apps on memory card sticks
Huawei unveils first HSPA+ Android phone
Adobe joins LiMo Foundation, adds Flash support to LiMo platform
10 things the iPhone can learn from Mobile World Congress
Qualcomm's Dual-Core 1.5GHz Snapdragon: Smartphones Are About to Go Hyperspeed
The best phones, stunts, and demos of Mobile World Congress
LG Licenses Push Email from Good
Layar Looks to Create the App Store of Mobile Augmented Reality
Nokia chief: we want to be all things to all consumers again
Vodafone To Sell Sub-$15 Phone in Developing Countries
RIM shows off the new WebKit-powered BlackBerry browser
Gallery: Biggest Smartphone News From Barcelona
LG: No plans for a proprietary OS
The Puma phone
Samsung's Wave Is Bada-Full
Samsung's About to Own More of the TV Market Than Any Company in 60 Years
NETWORKS
Alcatel-Lucent beefs up carrier apps strategy
Gemalto Innovation: Gemalto Launches "Device Service Link" to Facilitate Access to Mobile Broadband
OneAPI Gains Momentum as GSMA Announces Commercial Pilot with Leading Mobile Operators in Canada
LTE-Advanced specs to be published in 2011
Huawei show first triple-mode LTE modem
GSMA Outlines Progress with RCS Initiative
40 Companies Back GSMA's Voice Over LTE Fix
OneAPI Standardizes Carrier Billing APIs Across Networks
Monday 1 March 2010
GSM-UMTS Network migration towards LTE
A reported 130 operators around the world have written LTE into their technology roadmaps. In December 2009, TeliaSonera launched the world’s first LTE networks in Norway and Sweden and an estimated 17 operators are expected to follow in its footsteps in 2010.
Sunday 28 February 2010
BBC and Ubiquisys stream multiple videos over a femtocell at MWC 2010
Friday 26 February 2010
Femtocells for LTE
Meanwhile, the femto players are looking ahead to LTE, where there are many indications from operators that tiny cells will play a big part in the strategy. The devices will be used from day one by some carriers - to offload data from the macrocell or to provide indoor coverage in high frequencies like 2.6GHz. They could also add capacity to deployments in low frequencies like 700MHz and even be used as a starting point for greenfield providers, which could then add macro networks later, explained Simon Saunders, chair of the Femto Forum.
Continuous Computing has been eyeing the femto market for several years from its heartlands in protocol stacks, core networking and traffic shaping. At MWC, it worked with picoChip and Cavium Networks to show the first complete LTE femtocell reference design. Available immediately, this includes the LTE modem, RF and packet processors, protocol software, intelligent router functionality and a complete Evolved Packet Core (EPC) simulator.
"The demand for LTE femtocells is unquestionable. We are already seeing operators asking for small cell access points to start testing in the second half of this year. Femtocells represent the key to avoiding the difficulties surrounding the first 3G deployments where roll-outs cost too much, took too long and did not meet user expectations," said Mike Dagenais, CEO of Continuous.
Thursday 25 February 2010
Wednesday 24 February 2010
Projector Phones are the future
Tuesday 23 February 2010
Codec's for LTE
- Step 0. The SIP session is negotiated with the full set of codec rates and independent of network level congestion. The use of ECN has to be negotiated separately for each media stream (e.g. VoIP).
- Steps 1 and 2. After ECN has been successfully negotiated for a media stream the sender must mark each IP packet as ECN-Capable Transport (ECT). Two different values, 10 and 01, have been defined in an IETF RFC106 to indicate ECT. However, for MTSI only 10 shall be used.
- Step 3. To free up capacity and allow more VoIP calls and/or to improve VoIP coverage, the eNodeB sets the ECN field to Congestion Experienced (CE) in an IP packet that belongs to an IP flow marked as ECT. Note that the ECN-CE codepoint in an IP packet indicates congestion in the direction in which the IP packets are being sent.
- Steps 4 and 5. In response to an ECN-CE the receiving MTSI client issues an RTCP message to trigger a codec rate reduction.
- 3GPP S4-070314, Rate-Adaptive Real-time Media, Reply Liaison from SA4 to RAN2, 2007 (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/TSG_SA/WG4_CODEC/TSGS4_43/Docs/S4-070314.zip)
- IETF RFC 3168 (09/2001), The Addition of Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) to IP. (http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3168)
- 3GPP TS 23.401: General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enhancements for Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) access (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.401/)
- 3GPP TS 36.300: Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2 (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.300/)
- 3GPP TS 26.114: IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS); Multimedia Telephony; Media handling and interaction (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/26_series/26.114/)
- Westerlund, M., et al., Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) for RTP over UDP, draft-westerlund-avt-ecn-for-rtp-02, work in progress (ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/internet-drafts/draft-westerlund-avt-ecn-for-rtp-02.txt)
- 3GPP TR 23.860: Enabling Coder Selection and Rate Adaptation for UTRAN and E-UTRAN for Load Adaptive Applications; Stage 2 (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.860/)
- 3GPP TS 26.071: Mandatory speech CODEC speech processing functions; AMR speech CODEC; General description(http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/26_series/26.071/)
- 3GPP TS 26.171: Speech codec speech processing functions; Adaptive Multi-Rate - Wideband (AMR-WB) speech codec; General description (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/26_series/26.171/)
Monday 22 February 2010
Femtocells update from Mobile World Congress 2010
Among a host of announcements, the leading silicon supplier for this segment, picoChip, was working hard to maintain its headstart as Qualcomm and others gear up to enter the market. It announced no fewer than six new customers, many coming from the Taiwanese ecosystem that is so vital to the mass adoption and price competitiveness of any emerging consumer product.
The new customers are Alpha Networks, Argela, Askey, C&S Micro, Contela and Zyxel, all of which will use the UK firm's PC302 picoXcell system-on-chip for HSPA(+). This is designed to reduce cost and time to market for vendors, and now has over 20 adopters, including Vodafone's femto supplier Alcatel-Lucent, and AT&T's, Cisco/ip.access.
Meanwhile, the femto players are looking ahead to LTE, where there are many indications from operators that tiny cells will play a big part in the strategy. The devices will be used from day one by some carriers - to offload data from the macrocell or to provide indoor coverage in high frequencies like 2.6GHz. They could also add capacity to deployments in low frequencies like 700MHz and even be used as a starting point for greenfield providers, which could then add macro networks later, explained Simon Saunders, chair of the Femto Forum.
Continuous Computing has been eyeing the femto market for several years from its heartlands in protocol stacks, core networking and traffic shaping. At MWC, it worked with picoChip and Cavium Networks to show the first complete LTE femtocell reference design. Available immediately, this includes the LTE modem, RF and packet processors, protocol software, intelligent router functionality and a complete Evolved Packet Core (EPC) simulator.
"The demand for LTE femtocells is unquestionable. We are already seeing operators asking for small cell access points to start testing in the second half of this year. Femtocells represent the key to avoiding the difficulties surrounding the first 3G deployments where roll-outs cost too much, took too long and did not meet user expectations," said Mike Dagenais, CEO of Continuous.
The reference design used a picoChip modem, mezzanine RF card and PHY software; Cavium's Octeon Plus multicore processor; and Continuous' Trillium LTE Layer 2/3 protocols, eNodeB reference application and EPC emulator.