Wednesday 14 May 2008

Femto femto everywhere


Femtocell is in spotlight again for various reasons. In an earlier blog, I had expressed my doubts regarding femto cells but my opinion is changing after talking to some experts in this area.


ABI Research has predicted that this year only 100,000 cells will be sold and but by 2010 the shipment will be tens of millions of units. There are around 20 femtocell development underway.



I saw this interesting blog on Femtozone services. I am sure providing these additional services in femtozone areas like sending SMS when kids are home or they leave home can be releif for parents.

Some of the questions that remain unanswered at the moment (and I have to admit i did not search hard enough for the answers) are as follows:
  • Many people have complained of the harmful effects of WiFi in their home or office will these complains increase? How much research has been done on the safety of these devices?
  • Most of these will use IP backbones, I assume we need to have broadband for these, what speed of the connection is required?
  • Will this have impact on the ISPs? Would they be able to cope with the increased traffic? What about so many ISPs offering cap on the data, how will it cope in that case?
  • How can I get hold of femtocell? How much does it cost? Is it available online?

Finally if you want to read some papers on Femtocells, check this picochip paper on "The case for home base stations". You can also find out who is working on femtocells here and here. Picochips library of articles here. This article from computer world is good for beginners.

Tuesday 13 May 2008

Mobile TV Technologies comparison


Saw this new book on Mobile TV "Handbook of Mobile Broadcasting".

Mobile TV has been discussed for long time now but its surprising to see that none of the actual broadcast technologies is being actively used. There are small pockets here and there but no proper deployment. Here is UK, Mobile TV is actually TV on demand which is streamed onto our mobiles. Is it much different in other places? I did write a blog earlier titled '2008 may finally be the year of Mobile TV'.

The book mentioned above gave an interesting comparison of the 4 main technologies which is shown above. I would have liked it to expand it slightly by including DVB-SH and S-DMB.

Finally, heard that ALU trying to do some work on DVB-SH. See this.

Monday 12 May 2008

GPS Phones to become norm


GPS phones are sent to become common with Nokia announcing that it plans to sell 35 million GPS phones in 2008.

"We expect to ship about 35 million GPS-enabled Nokia devices in 2008, which is equal to the entire GPS device market in 2007," CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told the annual shareholders' meeting.

Nokia's $8.1 billion acquisition of U.S.-based navigation firm Navteq, which is still pending regulatory approval in the European Union, is a good deal, Kallasvuo said.

"When we look at it with the eyes we have now, when regarding pedestrian navigation, map services, digital maps, we are even more excited about the opportunities than when making the decision," Kallasvuo said.

Most phones sold this year go to customers who already have a phone, and Nokia CEO said: "Globally, we expect replacement sales to represent more than 70 percent of the industry's volume in 2008."

The Finnish cellphone maker said recently it is set to introduce many new phone models through U.S. carriers in coming months to grab a bigger share of the market there.

Kallasvuo said he sees better times ahead for Nokia in the United States, where according to the research firm Strategy Analytics its market share has collapsed from 20 percent to 7 percent over the past two years.

This compares with Nokia's own estimate of a 39 percent global market share in the first quarter.

Another report from ABI research says that 550 million GPS handsets will ship by 2012:

In the wake of personal navigation devices’ success, cellular carriers have started to offer on-board and off-board navigation solutions, as well as a range of LBS (Location Based Services) such as friend finder and local search on GPS handsets. Community and social-networking-related functionality, such as the sharing of POIs (Points of Interest) and geo-tagged pictures, is also becoming popular and is expected to boost GPS-enabled handset uptake as carriers, handsets manufacturers, and service providers look to capitalize on the LBS trend.

“While most CDMA handsets are already GPS-enabled and GPS is set to become a standard feature in GSM smartphones, GSM feature phones are next on the agenda to be equipped with GPS technology,“ says ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte. “GPS chipset vendors increasingly target handsets, looking for new markets and spurred on by the recent dramatic growth of personal navigation devices.”

However, as GPS begins to penetrate lower-end phones, the cost, power consumption, and footprint of GPS chipsets will have to be further reduced. This will be made possible by single chipset technology and the emergence in 2009 of combination chips integrating GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi all on one die. Major silicon vendors such as Broadcom, NXP, and Atheros are well positioned to develop such solutions following the acquisition of GPS chipset vendors Global Locate, GloNav, and u-Nav, respectively.

At the same time, the thorny issue of indoor GPS coverage has to be addressed, since handset-based LBS services are frequently used in challenging environments with reduced GPS signal strength. Network-assisted A-GPS and high-sensitivity GPS-receivers are becoming key requirements to reduce the time necessary to acquire fixes and to improve location accuracy.

ABI Research’s report,
GPS-Enabled Mobile Devices, examines the market landscape and future potential for GPS-enabled mobile phones. It discusses critical business and marketing issues, as well as market opportunities and challenges for handset vendors, mobile operators, semiconductor vendors, and other industry players who address the GPS-enabled handset market.

This report forms part of two ABI Research Services:
Mobile Devices and Location Aware Services, which include a variety of Research Reports, Research Briefs, Market Data, Online Databases, ABI Insights, and Analyst Inquiry Support.

Lets hope we dont see too many people with similar problems everywhere.

For more info on GPS see:

Conserving power on 4G Phones

While we can see that the technology in mobile phones have advanced significantly, its still lagging on the battery front and there is no 'Duracell' solution for phones yet.

There is a cambridge (UK) based company called Nujira that is working on doubling the battery life for 4G phones. Here is an extract from Electronics weeely:

Nujira originally designed its RF power modulation technology to increase the efficiency of 650W power amplifiers in 3G mobile basestations. It is now working on a lower power version which should reduce cost and improve power efficiency in next generation 3G LTE (long term evolution) mobile phones.

According to Haynes, the company’s technology, known as HAT (high accuracy tracking), could more than double the time between charges for next generation mobile phones.

After a period when handset battery life has steadily increased with more power efficient designs, the situation could be reversed with the next generation of 3G LTE multimedia handsets.

According to Haynes, there are as many as 14 frequency bands - ten FDD frequency bands and four different TDD frequency bands - defined in 3GPP that can be used for LTE, and it is likely that more bands will be added to this list such as 700MHz in the US.

As current power amplifiers (PAs) can only efficiently cover one or two bands a large number of amplifiers will be needed in a multi-band 4G handset. “Already 3G handsets can have as many as five power amplifiers,” said Haynes.

“So a cost effective wide-band RF power amplifier is a key enabling technology for the creation of 4G handsets and our technology will make it possible to replace five or six narrow-band PAs with just one or two wide-band power amplifiers,” said Haynes.

The technology has already been proven in the basestation market where Haynes said the company has contracts with 10 basestation OEMs. For basestations Nujira has designed a high efficiency, high power DC-DC converter module.

For the handset market, which is potentially much higher volume, Haynes said the company will look at an IP (intellectual property) approach which will see its technology designed into more integrated silicon designs.
Haynes also said the company was developing a version of the power modulator for use in DVB digital broadcast transmitters.

Haynes expects to have its IP-based power modulator for handsets on the market by Mobile World Congress next February.

Thursday 8 May 2008

Top 100 Telecom Blogs



Found this link for Top 100 Telecom Industry blogs. Surprisingly this blog was at No. 60 (atleast when I saw ;)). There are other interesting blogs which may interest you. Have a look here.

Friday 2 May 2008

All about F-DPCH

Fractional DPCH was added in Rel-6 to optimise the consumption of downlink channelization codes. When using HS-DSCH (High Speed Downlink Shared Channel), the main use for DL DPCH (also known as A-DPCH where A stands for Associated) is to carry power control commands (TPC bits) to the UE in order to adjust the uplink transmission. If all RBs (Radio Bearers) including SRBs (Signalling Radio Bearers) are mapped on to HS-DSCH then the DL codes are being wasted. SF 256 is used for A-DPCH and so every code being used by a user is seriously depleting the codes available for other UE's. To overcome this F-DPCH is used so that multiple UE's can share a single DL channelisation code. The limitation is 10 UEs in Rel-6.
For several users, the network configures each user having the same code but different frame timing and, thus, users can be transmitted on the single code source. The original timing is thus retained which avoids the need to adjust timings based on Release 99 power control loop implementation.

During slots where the DPCCH is not transmitted, the NodeB cannot estimate the uplink signal-to-interference ratio for power-control purposes and there is no reason for transmitting a power control bit in the downlink. Consequently, the UE shall not receive any power control commands on the F-DPCH in downlink slots corresponding to inactive uplink DPCCH slots.

There are some restrictions for FDPCH. It is not usable with services requiring data to be mapped to the DCH, such as AMR speech calls and CS video. Also, the lack of pilot information means that a method like feedback-based transmit diversity (closed loop mode) is not usable. The use of closed loop diversity is based on user-specific phase modification, wherein pilot symbols would be needed for verification of the phase rotation applied. On the other hand, when utilizing the F-DPCH, SRBs can benefit from high data rates of HSDPA and reduce service setup times remarkably

Finally, as you may have already figured out, by using F-DPCH the cell capacity has been improved and at the same time for same number of users, the interference has gone down significantly.

In Release 7, Rel-6 limitation has been removed. In R6, for a given UE in soft handover the TPC from all F-DPCH had to have the same offset timing. In R7, F-DPCH (TPC bits) can have different timing from different cells. This is possible due to introduction of 9 new F-DPCH slot formats (slot format 0 is the legacy F-DPCH slot format). The RRC signalling is done seperately for slot formats from the RNC to each of the cells.

You may also be interested in this Ericsson paper titled "The effect of F-DPCH on VoIP over HSDPA Capacity". Available here.

Tuesday 29 April 2008

3GPP Release-9 Features

HSPA+ in Release-7 and Release-8

Thought of adding this while I am in mode of making lists. So whats in HSPA evolution in Rel-7 and Rel-8. Lot of people are unaware that HSPA+ was big enough to finish off in Rel-7 and was definite to spill over in Rel-8

HSPA+ Features in Release 7

  • Higher Order Modulation Schemes

    • Advantages and weaknesses of higher order modulation
      - Interference Sensitivity
      - QPSK
      - 16-QAM, 64-QAM)
      - Consequences
      - Behavior in Time Variant Mobile Radio Channels
      - Behavior of a time variant mobile radio channel
      - Effect of amplitude variations
      - Effect of phase variations

    • 16-QAM for the S-CCPCH (DL)
      - MBSFN only
      - Interleaving
      - Modulation
      - Scaling factors

    • 64-QAM for the HS-PDSCH (DL)
      - Interleaving
      - Constellation Rearrangement
      - Modulation
      - Related UE Categories

    • 16-QAM for UL (4-PAM for the E-DPDCH)
      - HARQ Rate Matching Stage
      - Interleaver
      - Modulator
      - UE category

    • Overview Advantages and Disadvantages
      - Higher peak data rate
      - Better resource utilization
      - Blind choice of modulation scheme
      - High SNIR requirement
      - More TX power requirement
      - Low range
      - Small cell environment
      - Restrictions of use for high UE moving speeds

    • Channel Estimation Algorithms
      - Normal Algorithm
      - Gathering pilot information
      - Channel estimation
      - Data detection
      - Advantage
      - Disadvantage
      - Advanced Algorithms
      - Shorter channel estimation window
      - Moving channel estimation window
      - Adaptive detection
      - Turbo detection
      - Advantages
      - Disadvantages

    • Performance16-QAM in the UL
      - Performance on Link Level 16-QAM in the UL
      - Performance of BPSK compared to 4-PAM
      - Influence of non-linearity of the power amplifier
      - Performance on System Level
      - Behavior with increasing load
      - Maximum versus average throughput

    • Higher Order Modulation Testing
      - Test Setup for 16-QAM in the UL
      - RF components
      - Discussion of the setup
      - Selected Performance Requirements for 16-QAM in the UL
      - BPSK vs. 4-PAM
      - Effect of RX diversity
      - Effect of high degree of multipath
      - Effect of high UE moving speed

  • MIMO

    • Introduction to MIMO Technology
      - The Basics: Signal Fading Physics between TX and RX
      - Scattering
      - Refraction
      - Reflection
      - Diffraction
      - Multiplexing Dimensions
      - The Multipath Dimension
      - MIMO General Operation

    • MIMO Feedback Procedure (PCI)
      - Motivation of Spatial Precoding
      - Plain MIMO
      - Multiple rank beamforming
      - Spatial Precoding
      - Codebook, PCI and CQI Loop
      - Codebook
      - PCI and CQI loop

    • MIMO Algorithms
      - Linear MIMO Algorithms (Preparation work, Equalizer at the end of the processing chain,
      - Equalizer at the beginning of the processing chain), Non-Linear MIMO Algorithms

    • MIMO Performance
      - MIMO Performance on Link Level (SISO vs. SIMO, SIMO vs. MIMO, 2x2 MIMO vs. 4x2
      - MIMO, 16-QAM vs. 64-QAM), Performance on System Level (MIMO vs. SIMO, 50% vs.
      - 75% power allocation, 0% vs. 4% feedback errors)

    • MIMO Tests
      - Official Test Setups (Test NodeB, Fading simulator, Noise generator, UE under test, Single stream test setup, Double stream test setup), Quick and Easy Test Setups (The
      easiest test setup, A more reliable test setup: The MIMO circle), Selected Performance
      - Requirement Figures (Conditions, 64-QAM performance, Dual stream MIMO
      performance, Single stream MIMO performance)

  • Continuous Packet Connectivity (CPC)

    • Basic features
      - Uplink Discontinuous Transmission (DTX), Downlink Discontinuous Reception (DRX)

    • RRC message ID’s
      - DTX and DRX Information

    • CPC Timing
      - Uplink CQI transmission

    • Example for Uplink DPCCH Burst Pattern for 10 ms E-DCH TTI
      - Uplink DRX, Downlink DRX

    • Uplink DPCCH preamble and postamble
      - Uplink DPCCH preamble and postamble for the DPCCH only transmission, Uplink DPCCH preamble and postamble for the E-DCH transmission, Uplink DPCCH preamble and postamble for the HS-DPCCH transmission

    • Example of simultaneous Uplink DTX and Downlink DRX

    • CPC and Enhanced F-DPCH
      - Timing Implications for CPC + Enhanced F-DPCCH

  • Upgraded L1 Signaling

    • HS-SCCH Review of Rel. 5 and 6
      - HS-SCCH Frame Structure, HS-SCCH Part 1 and 2 Forward Error Coding Chain, UE
      specific masking of Part 1 and Part 2, HS-PDSCH Code Allocation through Part1 of HSSCCH,
      - Transport Block Size Determination – TFRI Mapping

    • HS-SCCH of Rel. 7
      - HS-SCCH Overview of Rel. 7 (HS-SCCH type 1, No HS-SCCH, HS-SCCH type 2, HSSCCH
      type 3), HS-SCCH Type 1 (HS-SCCH Type 1, HS-SCCH Type 1 for Configured 64-QAM Operation, HS-SCCH Orders, 64-QAM Constellation Versions), HS-SCCH Type 2 (for HS-SCCH less operation) (Use of the HS-SCCH-less operation, Procedure HSSCCH-less operation), HS-SCCH Type 3 (HS-SCCH Type 3 Overview, Modulation and
      Transport Block Number , HARQ Process Number, Redundancy Version and
      Constellation Version)

    • HS-DPCCH of Rel. 7
      - HS-DPCCH ACK/NACK (ACK-NACK of primary TB in R5, Preamble and postamble in
      R6, ACK-NACK of 2 TB’s in R7), HS-DPCCH PCI and CQI type A and B (CQI in case of
      no MIMO operation, PCI and CQI in case of MIMO with 1 TB (CQI type A), PCI and CQI
      in case of MIMO with 2 TB’s (CQI type B))

    • E-AGCH and E-DPCCH
      - Changes in the E-TFCI tables, Changes in the AG tables, Changes in the SG tables

  • MAC-ehs Entity versus MAC-hs

    • UTRAN side MAC-hs Details – CELL_DCH only
      - Flow Control, Scheduling/Priority Handling, HARQ, TFRC selection

    • UE side MAC-hs Details – CELL_DCH only
      - HARQ, Reordering Queue distribution, Reordering, Disassembly

    • UTRAN side MAC-ehs Details
      - Some advantages of MAC-ehs compared to MAC-hs , Flow Control, HARQ, TFRC
      selection (~ TFRI), LCH-ID mux, Segmentation

    • UE side MAC-ehs Details
      - HARQ , Disassembly, Reordering queue distribution, Reordering, Reassembly, LCH-ID demultiplexing

    • Differences in the MAC-ehs and MAC-hs Header
      - MAC-hs Header Parameter Description
      - MAC-hs SDU , , MAC-hs Header of MAC-hs PDU), MAC-ehs Header Parameter Description
      - MAC-ehs Header Parameter Details
      - HARQ Process Work Flow in UE – MAC-hs / MAC-ehs
      - Split HS-DSCH Block Functionality
      - Practical Exercise: MAC-hs contra MAC-ehs
      - MAC-hs / MAC-ehs Stall Avoidance
      - Timer-Based Scheme
      - Window Bases Scheme
      - MAC-(e)hs Reordering Functionality – Timer / Window based

  • Flexible RLC PDU Sizes

    • The RLC AMD PDU – Rel. 7 Enhancements
      - The Poll (POLL) super-field
      - RLC AMD Header Fields
      - Release 7 Enhancement of the HE-Field and LI

    • Comparison of RLC-AM between Rel. 6 and Rel. 7
      - RLC-AM Overhead using fixed or flexible PDU size
      · RRC State Operation Enhancements

    • Transport Channel Type Switching with HSPA in R6
      - Transport Channel Combinations between UL and DL, Radio Bearer Multiplexing Options in Rel. 6

    • Operation of UTRA RRC States in Release 7
      - UE Idle mode, CELL_DCH state

    • HS-DSCH Reception in CELL_FACH and XXX_PCH
      - Overview (UE dedicated paging in CELL_DCH, CELL_FACH and CELL_PCH, BCCH
      reception in CELL_FACH, FACH measurement occasion calculation, Measurement
      reporting procedure), (1) Operation in the CELL_FACH state (DCCH / DTCH reception in
      CELL_FACH state , User data on HS-DSCH in Enhanced CELL_FACH state), (2) Operation in the CELL_FACH state – Cell Update, (3) RRC Idle to transient CELL_FACH
      (Common H-RNTI selection in CELL_FACH (FDD only), H-RNTI selection when entering
      Connected mode (FDD only) ), Operation in the URA_PCH or CELL_PCH state (Data
      Transfer in CELL_PCH with dH-RNTI, State Transision from CELL_PCH to CELL_FACH
      to CELL_DCH, CELL_PCH and URA_PCH enhanced Paging Procedure)

HSPA+ Features in Release 8

  • Overview of HSPA+ Related Work Items in R8

    • Requirements for two branch IC

    • CS voice over HSPA

    • Performance req. for 15 HSDPA codes

    • MIMO + 64-QAM

    • Enhanced DRX

    • Improved L2 for UL

    • Enhanced UL for CELL_FACH

    • R3 Enhancements for HSPA

    • Enhanced SRNS relocation

  • MIMO combined with 64-QAM

    • New UE Categories
      - Data Rate, Soft IR memory

    • L1 Signaling of MIMO and 64-QAM
      - Modulation Schemes and TB Sizes (Signaling on the HS-SCCH type 3, Dilemma to signal
      on the modulation schema and TB number field, Solution), CQI Signaling, CQI Tables
      used


Interested readers can refer to Alcatel-Lucent presentation in HSPA+ Summit here.

There is also an interesting Qualcomm paper titled, "Release 7 HSPA+ For Mobile Broadband Evolution" available here.

3GPP Release 8 Features

Many people are surprised to hear that the Rel-8 of 3GPP is much more than just LTE/SAE. Here is a list of features:


  1. Maintenance of TISPAN documentation
  2. FS on 3G Home NodeB
  3. FS on Multimedia Session Continuity
  4. FS on CS Domain Services over evolved PS access
  5. FS on Transferring of emergency call data – in-band modem solution
  6. FS on Improved network controlled mobility between LTE and 3GPP2/mobile WiMAX radio technologies
  7. FS on IMS Application Server Service Data Descriptions for AS interoperability
  8. FS Restoration Procedures
  9. Registration in Densely-populated area
  10. Lawful Interception in the 3GPP Rel-8
  11. IMS Enhancements for support of Packet Cable access
  12. Study on Non 3GPP access NSP
  13. Support of Service-Level Interworking for Messaging Services
  14. Feasibility Study of Mobility between 3GPP-WLAN Interworking and 3GPP Systems
  15. Study on Requirements for seamless roaming and service continuity between mobile and WLAN networks
  16. Study on Stage 2 aspects of IMS Service Brokering
  17. Study of Requirements of IP-Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Convergent Multimedia Conferencing
  18. Study on support of a Public Warning System (PWS)
  19. Study of VCC support for Emergency Calls
  20. Study on centralized IMS services
  21. Study on centralised IMS service control
  22. Consumer protection against spam and malware
  23. 3G Long Term Evolution
  24. GERAN support for GERAN - 3G Long Term Evolution interworking
  25. Local Charging Zone Requirements
  26. Enhancements to BS30 Bearer service for Videotelephony
  27. IMS Enhancements Rel-8
  28. NDS Authentication Framework Extension for TLS
  29. Study on Value Added Services for Short Message Service
  30. Value Added Services for Short Message Service
  31. Study on Paging Permission with Access Control (PPAC)
  32. Paging Permission with Access Control
  33. GAN Enhancements
  34. Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System
  35. FS on Extended Support of IMS Emergency Calls
  36. Study on System enhancements for the use of IMS services in local breakout
  37. Study on Services Alignment and Migration
  38. Study on A-interface over IP
  39. Study on Multi-User Reusing-One-Slot
  40. Study on Optimized Transmit Pulse Shape for Downlink EGPRS2-B
  41. Study on InterWorking Function between MAP based and Diameter based interfaces
  42. Study on Evaluation of the inclusion of Path Loss Based Technology in the UTRAN
  43. LCS for 3GPP Interworking WLAN
  44. All-IP Network (AIPN)
  45. 3GPP System Architecture Evolution Specification
  46. CT aspects of System Architecture Evolution
  47. FBI Phase 2
  48. Rel-8 Feasibility Studies
  49. IMS Centralised Service Control
  50. IMS Multimedia Telephony and Supplementary Services
  51. MTSI Video - Dynamic Rate Adaptation/Signalling of Image Size
  52. eCall data transfer Phase 2: Comparison of alternative in-band modem solutions and standardization of one in-band modem solution
  53. Requirements and Test methods for Wideband Terminals
  54. Extending PSS and MBMS User Services for optimized Mobile TV
  55. IMS initiated and controlled PSS and MBMS User Service
  56. Storage and easy access of ICE numbers on USIM
  57. IP Interconnection of Services
  58. Network Selection for non-3GPP Access
  59. Charging for multi-phases services
  60. Home NodeB / eNodeB
  61. 3GPP2 Input to Common IMS
  62. Rel-8 Improvements of the Radio Interface
  63. OAM&P 8
  64. OAM&P Rel-8 Studies
  65. Study of Element Operations Systems Function (EOSF) definition
  66. Study on SA5 MTOSI XML Harmonization
  67. Study of Common Profile Storage (CPS) Framework of User Data for network services and management
  68. Study of Management for LTE and SAE
  69. Study on Charging Aspects of 3GPP System Evolution
  70. Study of System Maintenance by Itf-N
  71. Study of Self-Organizing Networks (SON) related OAM interfaces for Home NodeB
  72. Study on Self-healing of Self-Organizing Networks (SON)
  73. Personal Network Management (PNM)
  74. eCall Data Transfer – Requirements
  75. IMS System enhancements for corporate network access
  76. IMS Service Brokering enhancements
  77. Network Composition
  78. FS on Scope of future HSPA Evolution for 1.28Mcps TDD
  79. FS on Synchronised E-DCH for UTRA FDD
  80. Study on Dual-Cell HSDPA operation
  81. (FS on) Service continuity between mobile and WLAN networks
  82. I-WLAN NSP
  83. Interworking Wireless LAN Mobility
  84. Multimedia Priority Service
  85. Multimedia interworking between IMS and CS networks
  86. Conferencing enhancements for Mp interface
  87. Enhancements for VGCS Applications
  88. Contact Manager for 3GPP UICC applications (formerly ""Enhanced USIM Phonebook"")
  89. Charging Management small Enhancements
  90. Harmonization of Gq'/Rx for Common IMS
  91. IMS Service Continuity
  92. Interworking between User-to-User Signaling (UUS) and SIP
  93. Support of Overlap signalling
  94. OSA Rel-8
  95. Rel-8 RAN improvements
  96. Combination of 64QAM and MIMO for HSDPA (FDD)
  97. Security Enhancements for IMS
  98. Generic Bootstrapping Architecture Push Function
  99. Support of (G)MSC-S – (G)MSC-S Nc Interface based on the SIP-I protocol
  100. IMS Stage-3 IETF Protocol Alignment
  101. New multicarrier BTS class
  102. Support of Customised Alerting Tone Service
  103. Facilitating Machine to Machine Communication in GSM and UMTS (M2M)
  104. SI on AS-MRFC media server control protocol
  105. AS/MRFC stage 2 and 3 work
  106. (Small) Technical Enhancements and Improvements for Rel-8

Thursday 24 April 2008

US MME Industry to cross $6 Billion by 2012


Revenue from mobile media and entertainment (MME) services in the US will more than double during the next five years, according to the latest research from Analysys. US MME services (excluding messaging, and mobile browsing and data charges) generated US$3.1 billion in revenue in 2007, and Analysys Research forecasts that revenue will grow to $6.6 billion in 2012, at a compound annual growth rate of 16.3%. The strongest growth will not occur until after 2010, as the technical and market environment for MME services improves, according to the latest Analysys report, Mobile Media and Entertainment in the US: forecasts 2007-2012.

Key trends that are driving market growth include:
  • Improvements to service accessibility: mobile Web browsing platforms will improve and facilitate access to off-deck content, and presentation of off-deck content will become more streamlined and user friendly.
  • Wider availability of content, driven in part by higher-generation network and device penetration: "As 3G, 3.5G and Qualcomm's MediaFLO network coverage increases, a greater range of services will become available to a wider audience, and off-deck content markets (both operator-billed and non-operator-billed) will develop," said Katrina Bond, co-author of the report. "Non-operator-billed revenue from MME content and services will increase significantly during 2007-2012, and will account for $1.3 billion, or nearly 20%, of MME revenue by 2012."
  • Improvements to service usability: providers have not focused enough on the end-user experience for MME services, and users' frustration when the experience does not meet their expectations has inhibited the growth of some services.
  • Simplified and more attractive pricing of MME content and applications, as well as mobile data access: complex pricing, high data charges, and unfavorable revenue-sharing arrangements for content providers have inhibited growth in the MME market.

Analysys Research forecasts that MME services will account for 12.3% of non-voice service revenue in the US by 2012. Mobile TV and VoD services will experience the highest growth rate of any MME service during the next five years. When combined, broadcast and unicast TV and video services will account for 36% of MME revenue by 2012. By contrast, revenue from personalization services will decline from 47% of total MME revenue in 2007 to 17% in 2012.


"Operators, content providers and device manufacturers will have to work together to increase subscriber awareness of MME offerings and to ensure straightforward pricing, and simpler purchase and delivery processes,"said Alexandra Rehak, co-author of the report. "It is also critical that the user experience of MME services be compelling and complementary to the subscriber's experience of entertainment across other media."