An Industrial Introduction to Femtocells

The presentation is available to download from here.

A Day Made of Glass... - 2 Videos on the vision of future by Corning

Qualcomm eMBMS Demo from MWC 2012

Augmented Future

Couple of very interesting videos on how the future may look like:

UICC and ISIM (IMS SIM)

I have mentioned before that UICC is the physical card and 2G SIM/USIM/ISIM are applications on the UICC card. The IMS SIM holds data provided by the IMS Operator, generally the same operator that would provide USIM services that would allow to camp on the 3G or LTE network.

Private User Identity: This identifies the user uniquely with the IMS operator and is used when the user registers with the IMS network. This is used by the operator to check the subscription and which services the user can avail of.

Public User Identity: A user can have multiple public identities that can be used for different services. To avail a particular service, user has to register with the particular public identity that has been allowed for that service.

Security Keys: Security keys are used for authentication to the IMS Network.

Home Network Domain Name: This is the name of the entry point that the user uses to register. This makes sure that a users request is sent to the Home Network.

Access Rule Reference: This is used to store information about which personal identification number needs verification for accessing a particular application

Address of P-CSCF: If it is not possible do dynamically find the Proxy-Call Session Control Function then this address is helpful

Administrative Data: Some of this could be operator specific proprietary information

Vuforia™: Qualcomm's Augmented Reality (AR) Platform

As I mentioned yesterday, while some people think that Augmented Reality is losing its charm, Qualcomm certainly thinks that things are looking up for AR and it can only get better. They have branded their AR platform as Vuforia. A recent presentation from Cambridge Wireless event is embedded below:

Using AR Apps to Change How We Shop, Learn, Play & Interact

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy

There are some interesting video's on Augmented Reality using the Vuforia platform on Youtube. Some of them as follows:












All presentations from the CW event are available here.

Augmented Reality on the 'Peak of Inflated Expectations'

In a recent event in Cambridge Wireless, one of the topics of discussion was where does 'Augmented Reality' sit on the Peak of Inflated Expectations. While one of the speaker thought that it was on the Peak going towards Trough, most of the others thought that it had already passed the trough and is now going up.

Some six months back I put a picture up from the Gartner Hype Cycle that showed that the Augmented Reality is at the peak going towards the trough.

What do you think? Any opinions?

Interesting interview by Small Cell Forum's Andy Germano from MWC 2012

Via Ubiquisys blog.

6 ways NFC will change your world

Orange Business Services - 6 ways NFC will change your world

View more presentations from Orange Business Services

Will it? What do you think?

Operator Services Roadmap

Problems with 800MHz in UK and Spectrum to be auctioned

Even though 800MHz provides far better coverage than 2.1GHz (as shown above), it is going to be difficult to rollout LTE on 800MHz in the short term. The main reason being that there are quite a few other devices that use the frequencies or the frequencies neighbouring the 800MHz band and the interference may stop them working. A chart of the users is shown below.

It would be interesting to see when the rollouts in 800MHz would happen.

According to Ofcom, the following spectrum will be available in the UK:


• 250MHz of spectrum:
    • 2x30MHz paired at 800MHz
    • 2x70MHz paired at 2.6GHz
    • 50MHz unpaired at 2.6GHz
• (Also 2x15MHz of 1800MHz spectrum to be divested by EE)
• Starts to become available from Jan 2013
    • 800MHz expected to be available across whole of the UK by end of 2013
    • 2.6GHz across majority of UK by end of 2013 with remaining areas asap thereafter

All these topics were recently covered in a Cambridge Wireless event on Mobile Broadband SIG: Mobile Broadband in Rural Areas. The presentations are available here to view and download.

Dilbert Humour: Too many technologies to cope with!

Source: Dilbert.

'Blue Tick' for better RF performance

Last year I blogged about 'Antennagate'. From what I hear, iPhone 4S has left this problem far behind and have a much better RF performance than other rivals.

The Australian operator Telstra operates a scheme where it gives a 'blue tick' to all mobiles that have superior RF performance than other average mobiles.

The following is an interesting comment from their Crowdsupport site:


Telstra offers three classes of coverage, A B and C.


C Class coverage is Blue Tick coverage. These phones are designed in such a way that they will outperform other phones in coverage. That is ,they will hold onto a signal further than B or A class phones


Most smartphones due to the way they are manufactures are B class, because of their thinness and materials (such as glass and plastic)


The Atrix and Defy are Blue Tick because the plastic chassis that houses the antenna stops your hand from attenuating the signal.


The iPhone 4S is Blue Tick because the dual antenna design intelligently switches antennas if one gets attenuated.


Blue Tick phones do not assist with high traffic areas. They only assist users in low coverage areas. So a phone in the Melbourne CBD would behave much like any other Telstra phone. Whereas a Blue Tick phone out in rural areas would have better signal coverage than a B or A class phone.


Telstra empirically tests all it's phones because we reach more of the population and many rural people rely on mobile phones with each passing year.


It may be a good idea that operators in other countries start supporting a similar scheme so users who get very little reception in their houses or places of work can get a phone with better RF capabilities.

Any similar schemes operating in other countries?

Heterogeneous network deployments in LTE: The soft-cell approach

Heterogeneous network deployments in LTE

View more documents from Zahid Ghadialy

Available to download from here.

LTE Evolution - Soft Cell

Mobile Broadband: The Future Vision Document 2

Vision Paper incorporating comments and opinion from the online discusions on #MBBFuture

Mobile Broadband: The Future Vision Document 2

View more documents from Nokia Siemens Networks

Available to download from slideshare here.

Small Cells Market Forecast - Feb 2012

• Informa Telecoms & Media expects the small market to experience significant growth over the next few years, reaching just under 60 million femtocell access points in the market by 2015. The following chart illustrates Informa’s forecasts (February 2012) for femtocell access point shipments.

• Mobile Experts published a new forecast claiming that 70 million small cells will be shipped by 2017, including femtocells deployed by mobile operators and picocells used for high-capacity urban networks. LTE small cells are a major part of the forecasted growth over the next five years, with more than 2/3 of small cells deployed in 2017 devoted to LTE-FDD or TD-LTE (Mobile Experts, February 2012).
• In-Stat predicts that due to skyrocketing demand for mobile data services the sale of small cell devices will hit $14 billion in retail value by 2015. These devices will include femtocells, picocells and microcells in areas where “macrocells would be overkill”. (In-Stat, January 2012)
• Mobile Experts published a report on small cell backhaul, claiming that more than 1.8 million small cell wireless backhaul unit shipments during 2016. (Mobile Experts – October 2011)
• IDate estimates that worldwide femtocell access point market will reach a cumulative total of 39.4 million deployed units by 2015, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 71% between 2011 and 2015. (IDate – September 2011)
• Infonetics anticipates that femtocells will gain mass-scale traction in 2012, at which point the year-over-year unit growth rate will jump to over 100%, and will stay at tripledigit levels in 2013. (Infonetics – September 2011)
• ABI Research estimates that Enterprise femtocells are to make up 36% of shipments by 2016 which relates to 50% of security gateway revenues (ABI Research – August 2011)
• Infonetics estimates that total global revenue from femtocells used in consumer, enterprise, rural and public spaces grew 45% during the past 4 quarters. (Infonetics – June 2011).
• Visiongain expects femtocell revenues will reach US $27 Billion in 2016 and that femtocells have entered into the growth stage of their lifecycle during 2011 (Visiongain – May 2011).
• Juniper Research predicts that Wi-Fi and femtocell networks will play a significant role in easing data traffic by carrying 63 percent of data traffic, or almost 9,000 petabytes by 2015 (Juniper Research – April 2011).
• Infonetics Research predicts that rapid acceleration in the market will happen during 2012, when femtocell shipments should exceed 5 million worldwide, driven by a diversification from the consumer and enterprise segments to rural and public spaces. (Infonetics Research – March 2011).
• Cisco expects that by 2015, over 800 million terabytes of mobile data traffic will be offloaded to the fixed network by means of dual-mode devices and femtocells. Without dual-mode and femtocell offload of smartphone and tablet traffic, total mobile data traffic would reach 7.1 exabytes per month in 2015, growing at a CAGR of 95 percent. (Cisco – February 2011)


Source: Small Cells Market Status from Small Cell Forum.

LTE Evolution - CoMP

LTE connections by frequency band by 2016

From Huawei whitepaper here.

Voice over HSPA (VoHSPA) and CS over HSPA (CSoHS)

4G Americas has recently released a whitepaper entitled, "Delivering voice over HSPA". This paper describes the technological features that are being developed to make Voice over HSPA (VoHSPA) a reality. It describes the two potential options for VoHSPA. The first option leverages IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) technology developed in conjunction with Long Term Evolution (LTE), and is referred to as IMS Voice over HSPA or simply IMS Voice. The other option delivers voice by modifying existing circuit-switch based techniques so that those communications can be transmitted over an HSPA infrastructure, and is referred to as CS Voice over HSPA (CSoHS). Both the options are shown in the picture above. Note that there is no discussion about Over the top (OTT) type voice services like Skype, etc. 

The chief among benefits anticipated from VoHSPA are increases in the spectral efficiency of mobile networks. With these new techniques, voice calls can be delivered more efficiently from a spectral standpoint over Packet Switched (PS) rather than Circuit Switched (CS) networks freeing up radio resources for additional data traffic.

The 4G Americas report defines work completed by the GSMA for a minimum mandatory set of features defined in existing 3GPP Release 8 specifications (IR 58: IMS Profile for VoHSPA) that should be implemented in order to insure an interoperable, high quality, IMS-based telephony service over an HSPA radio access layer. In the white paper, 4G Americas recommends additional features, above the minimum mandatory features in IR 58, for VoHSPA either under an IMS or a CS approach, in order to minimize packet losses and variations in packet arrival times that can impair the quality of voice communications.

The whitepaper is available to download from here.

RAN priorities during beyond Release 11 - Video from 3GPP

RAN priorities during beyond Release 11 from 3GPPlive on Vimeo.
An interview with Takehiro Nakamura, 3GPP RAN Chairman, filmed December 2011.

-RAN priorities during early Release 11 work
-Workshop on Rel-12 and beyond, to Identify key requirements
-How does LTE-Advanced change things ?

Related links:

• Quick preview of 3GPP Release-11 Features and Study items
• Quick update on LTE Release 11 Work and Study Items - Nomor research
• Further Enhancements for LTE-Advanced - NTT Docomo

Video: TD-LTE: A separation from LTE FDD

'Mapped Security' Concept in LTE

When a UE registers on a network in 2G/3G or LTE, it has to perform Authentication. The Authentication Vectors are located in the USIM for the device and in Authentication Center (AuC) in the network. Once the Authentication is performed successfully, then the Keys for Ciphering and Integrity are derived and used during the call.

As I showed in my earlier post here, It is possible that the same AuC is used for 2G/3G and LTE networks. In this case if the UE has recently performed Authentication in one network then unless the keys are old, there is no need to perform the Authentication again in the other radio access technology (RAT). The Security keys (Ciphering and Integrity key) would be derived based on the keys in the previous RAT. 3GPP TS 33.102 and 3GPP TS 33.401 gives the details on how to derive the key from the previous RAT while in the new RAT using this mapped security concept.

High level view on how SMS works in LTE

The following is from E\\\ whitepaper available here:


In 2010, 6.9 trillion text messages were sent globally and this figure is expected to break the eight trillion mark in 2011. This represents USD 127 billion in revenue for operators. LTE provides the same basic SMS features, such as concatenated SMS, delivery notification and configuration. However, the SMS delivery mechanism is somewhat different. A VoLTE device can send and receive text messages encapsulated within a SIP message. To receive a text message, the encapsulation process is invoked by an IP short-message-gateway in the IMS domain, and the gateway converts traditional Signaling System Number 7 (SS7) Mobile Application Part (MAP) signaling to IP/SIP.


To ensure that text messages are routed via the gateway, the home location register (HLR) of the recipient needs an additional function to return a routable gateway address back to the SMS-C on receipt of an SMS-routing request.


When a VoLTE device sends a text message, it should perform the encapsulation. The gateway extracts the text message inside a SIP MESSAGE signal before passing it on to the SMS-C.


However, if the VoLTE device is configured to not invoke SMS over IP networks, text messages can be sent and received over LTE without the need for any SIP encapsulation. A received text message will reach the mobile switching center server (MSC-S) of the mobile softswitch system in the same way as it does today. The MSC-S will page the device via the SGs interface with the Mobile Management Entity (MME) of the EPC system. Once a paging response is received, the MSC-S will pass the SMS on to the MME, which in turn tunnels it onto the device. Due to the support for SMS delivery and IP connectivity provided by LTE/EPC, MMS works seamlessly.


For more technically minded people, there is a whitepaper that covers SMS in detail available here.

R&S Whitepaper: LTE Transmission Modes and Beamforming

Interesting technical whitepaper from R&S:

LTE Transmission Modes and Beamforming

View more documents from Zahid Ghadialy

Available to download from here or here.

Softbank Japan's Ultra Wifi 4G (a.k.a AXGP)

In Japan, they love to re-brand the standard technologies into something more interesting to attract people's attention. In a way they are right as they want to offer a service rather than a technology. Couple of years back NTT Docomo launched its Crossy service, that was offering LTE with upto 75Mbps dl speeds. Yesterday, I read about Softbank launching their 4G service that is based on AXGP format.

I did blog about XGP many years back but AGXP, which stands for Advanced XGP may not be very well related to XGP. According to ZTE Technologies magazine:

In November 2011, Japan’s third largest mobile operator, Softbank, made AXGP commercially available. AXGP is similar to TD-LTE, and has been deployed in Japan in conjunction with ZTE and Huawei. Two thousand base stations were built in the fi rst phase, and there will be up to 10,000 base stations built in the second phase. Ninety-nine percent of the Japanese population will be covered by 2012. So far, the Softbank network is the largest commercial TD-LTE network in the world. Wang Jianzhou, chairman of China Mobile, said, “If in the past the TD-LTE network was just a stratagem on paper, now it has turned into a reality.”

The following are some more details edited from a Japanese website (translation via Chrome):


High-speed data communication service Wireless City Planning of the SOFTBANK Group (Wireless City Planning, WCP) will be scheduled after February 2012, adopted a new communication method AXGP is, in excess of up to 100Mbps downlink high-speed communication is a feature . It was an opportunity to use the test machine prior to the start of service for general users, to report a sense of its use. 


 "AXGP" was developed inherit the "PHS" next generation of Willcom

 "AXGP" high-speed data transmission technology WCP employs a technology that was originally planned to use the 2.5GHz band has been assigned from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Willcom to deploy as "PHS" next generation. Had to expand the limited service area and some intended for users under the name of "WILLCOM CORE XGP" PHS is then the next generation, business is XGP is "Wireless City Planning" of Softbank subsidiary company under the reorganization proceedings of Willcom inheritance. Provide the service as "AXGP" form of communication is an evolved version of XGP in WCP.


 AXGP, in addition to the XGP also hand while inheriting the "micro cell" was characteristic of PHS, PHS has been developed as the next generation, that have become compatible with the method of TD-LTE. Including China and India, that are compatible with the TD-LTE system is expected to expand in many parts of the world, the benefits can be expected that international expansion is expected. 

 Service is initially started up to 76Mbps. The first bullet is the mobile router products

 AXGP is at present, but services have been provided for users in a small part had been using the service test XGP Willcom old, since the February 2012 service "SoftBank 4G for general users as MVNO Softbank Mobile plans to start ". The communication speed up to 110Mbps downstream and 15Mbps and maximum upstream and downstream speeds in excess of 100Mbps for speed has become a feature.


 At the start of service, the mobile router will "101SI" made of (SII) will be released at the same time Seiko Instruments. However, 101SI has become a maximum 76Mbps to 110Mbps falling down is the theoretical value of the service, at the start of the service is not provided in the full spec. Terminal is planned to also provide support AXGP Then, in the year 2012 is also powered smartphone will be compatible with AXGP. In addition, "101SI" to support (42Mbps maximum downlink, 5.7Mbps uplink maximum) "ULTRASPEED" Softbank mobile. 




Ultra-high speed in the area. Hope to plan area at the time of service and rates

 Although a measurement with the outdoor area was limited, with respect to communication speed was very good results with the results fit. Most favorable conditions and even the user does not exist before the start of the service say that already provide services as high-speed data communication, "Xi" of NTT DoCoMo, Inc., or UQ Communications 37.5Mbps, which is the maximum theoretical value of outdoor (Kurosshi~i) It was also a number greater than the maximum 40Mbps "UQ WiMAX" of is very encouraging.


 However, the decisive factor in mobile data communications is not only communication speed, three elements of the communication charge is important and easy-to-use, deployment area, including "ease of connection." In the area at the moment of some are very fast and are limited in the Yamanote Line, but is a matter of course in order before the service, ease of connection of the fact there are many parts of the still unknown. Also, I'd be anxious and services are provided in the fee structure what.


 SoftBank is to introduce a flat-rate voice among their users ahead of any other mobile phone operators so far, campaigns expand the iPhone however any inexpensive flat-rate packet. Further has a track record of just made me started to increase subscribers by the "straight-line with anyone" WILLCOM has also continued to decline in subscribers. Softbank Mobile also be deployed as a MVNO, at the time of release of the service that you want to use the AXGP expect a bold expansion of unique services and Softbank WCP, which is the same group Softbank.


Softbank's website is billing this as 'Ultra Wifi 4G' and will be launched to public this Friday, just in time for MWC12.

Insights into Mobile Telecoms in Africa

Insights into Mobile Telecoms in Africa

View more presentations from Jon Hoehler

Fast Dormancy Timings

Nearly a year and half back, I posted a blog about Fast Dormancy here. This issue has surely been fixed in most of the devices and the networks are able to handle the issue even if the handsets have not been fixed. I found an interesting table in a Huawei journal that shows the timings used by different devices that are being reproduced for people who may be interested.

Discussion on 'Offload' and 'Onload'

An interesting discussion on Twitter about Offload and Onload that is reproduced below. Discussions have been edited for clarity:


@StevenJCrowley: Exhibit 1: In last year's VNI, Cisco estimated that in 2014, 23% of US mobile data would be offloaded. It's close to 50% today.


@dmavrakis: it depends how you define offload. Some of this 50% may be simple WiFi access rather than offload.

@StevenJCrowley: From what I see I'd suggest Wi-Fi (or femto) access is offload if the device is 2,3,4G capable but does not access a macrocell


@dmavrakis: So if I buy a SIM-only handset and not even put a SIM in and use WiFi, it's considered offload?


@StevenJCrowley: Seems to me that's not considered offload because without a SIM it's not a 2,3,4G capable device.


@StevenJCrowley: BTW my old AT&T iPhone 3G won't work as a Wi-Fi-only device without an old inactive SIM still in it. Don't know about iPhone 4.


@disruptivedean: I agree with @dmavrakis . Most smartphone WiFi use if "private WiFi", not offload. Some may even be onload (or "OTT WiFi")

@disruptivedean: Easy way to think of it: anything you'd do on an iPod Touch isn't offload WiFi if you do the same thing on iPhone


@disruptivedean: Other example: if I use WiFi to connect my phone to my printer (or corp WLAN) = traffic never destined for 2G/3G


@simonchapman: app downloads (500MB+ for some games), AirPlay etc are much greater than 2/3/4G use. Where is 50% figure from? 


@SteveLightley: the actual presence of decent connectivity encourages higher capacity activity. Is that offload?


@disruptivedean: I refer to extra use as "elastic". See chart on p18 of my Carrier WiFi paper http://www.scribd.com/doc/61910980/Disruptive-Analysis-Carrier-WiFi


@StevenJCrowley: Decent connectivity / more use is offload, as 3G4G w/o Wi-Fi is onload. U.S./FCC/Cisco perspective


@StevenJCrowley: I define "onload" as a 2nd operator capturing traffic via WiFi, eg Vodafone handset + O2 WiFi app


@dmavrakis: Also core network onload via WLAN gateways without local breakout.


@disruptivedean: A thought about "offload". I only "onloaded" to 3G data on my PC in the first place because WiFi wasn't everywhere I needed it. Now it is.


@StevenJCrowley: 50% rough estimate. AT&T said 40% of iPhone traffic on Wi-Fi in early 2010. Its Wi-Fi network data tripled since


@StevenJCrowley: Does not include femto offload. See also "#2" from this blog post bit.ly/wxHvRl


@StevenJCrowley: AT&T recently said macrocell data growth down to 40% a year.


@StevenJCrowley: I like Dean's chart. Offloading important in U.S. from 4G spectrum requirements issue.


@StevenJCrowley: And here spectrum debate is more political than technical, thus broad brushes.


@StevenJCrowley: It's basically, "We need spectrum to stream NetFlix." "No, you're inside and can use Wi-Fi."


@StevenJCrowley: Dean's and Ofcom's analyses are the types of things current FCC should be doing but doesn't


@disruptivedean: The whole spectrum reqts issue likely to take a hit as data growth << expected on many networks. S-curve not exponential


@disruptivedean: To be fair, Cisco is between a rock & a hard place with VNI. Scared people into making sure it didn't come true. Self-denying


@Gabeuk: To everyone discussing offload on my Twitter today, the premise seems wrong... connectivity & access is the start point. Will elaborate l8er


@SteveLightley: I struggle to understand how if it would never have happened how it can be classed as offloaded


@SteveLightley: a VoIP call on an ott or mno app IS offload but Netflix in Starbucks over wifi is not


@SteveLightley: looking forward to gabe's view on access etc when he gets here! 


@TMFAssociates: AT&T seems to have changed its tune over the last year as well http://gigaom.com/broadband/atts-vanishing-spectrum-crisis/


@StevenJCrowley: AT&T will spin it. "If only we had more spectrum we could have sent more data." Etc.


@dmavrakis: Arguably spectrum is the MNO's most valuable possession. Isn't it natural that they want more?


@StevenJCrowley: More spectrum than needed is an idle asset that costs the company money.


@TMFAssociates: But if you corner the market then you can foreclose the possibility of competition


@dmavrakis: I agree conditionally. Twitter is again not the best medium for this discussion

Couple of interesting posts related to the above:

• Watch out for dodgy offload & optimisation claims and stats - Dean Bubley (@disruptivedean)
• What to make of AT&T’s vanishing spectrum crisis

What is your opinion?

LTE Devices Chart: 269 products from 57 manufacturers as of Jan. 2012

Via: GSA

Men are like Bluetooth, Women are like...

One for the weekend:

Is this true?

Evolution towards ALL-IP Single RAN (SRAN)

Presented by Matthias Sauder and Dr. Volker Sebastian, VodafoneD2 GmbH in the 2nd FOKUS FUSECO Forum 2011, Berlin 17-18 Nov. 2011

Adding new dimensions to the future phones - Smell

I am going to be involved in two events in the coming months to discuss about Evolution of Devices in the future. The first of them is the LTE World Summit that I have been going to for years and have recommended to lots of clients, colleagues and friends. In there I will be discussing about 'The Future Device' in the Breakfast briefing. In June I am chairing a session on 'Where Next For Devices' in The Future of Wireless International Conference. As a result I would be discussing some ideas on the blog with the intention of getting some valuable feedback and comments.

Smell has been associated with the mobile devices for a long time. There are two concepts floating around. The first is a phone that can smell the environment for certain odour or harmful gases and depending on what it smells, alerts the user or some authority. An example of this are the phones being developed by US Department of Homeland Security to smell poisonous gases. Another example is the e-nose concept developed by Imec, Belgium. There are other concepts being developed around m-health to help people with Asthma.

The second of these concepts are the devices that can emit smell. The simplest form of this would be like the Sony phones that emit fragrance for a few months and then a new sheet can be inserted for them to keep emitting a fragrance. A while back it was reported that Samsung has filed a patent for something similar.

Nokia had shown years back the 'Scentsory Concept' mobile that can transmit smell based on the environment to the other party who can get the feeling of where the other person is. Since then they have shown other concepts but I dont recall seeing much on smell. The 'HumanForm' concept I blogged about last year showed that we would be able to feel the environment but it was surprisingly quiet about smell part.

There is an interesting TEDx video in which Jenny Tillotson, who would be presenting her latest research in the Future Wireless conference mentioned abaove, is explaining some of these concepts on transmitting smell electronically. Video embedded below:



I would be very interested in hearing more on this topic from the readers.

The intelligent pipe and next-generation billing

Presented by Marc Price, VP of Technology, CTO Americas in the LTE North America 2011 conference

See also the earlier posts on Policy and Charging here and here.

More on Policy and Charging in LTE

Continuing on the Policy and Charging in LTE from the previous post here.

Presented by Erik P. Neitzel, DMTS, Technology Development Group, U.S. Cellular in the LTE North America 2011 conference

Standardisation on M2M at ETSI M2M platform

Standardisation on M2M at ETSI M2M platform

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy

Presented by Marylin Arndt, ETSI TC M2M Vice-Chairman in the 2nd FOKUS FUSECO Forum 2011, Berlin 17-18 Nov. 2011

Webinar: Bridging the gap between LTE and 1xEV-DO

Interesting webinar from Rohde & Schwarz



There are another couple of interesting Video from R&S from the LTE North America 2011

VoLTE and Audio Quality Test

SMS over IMS Verification

Diameter Infrastructure Required for LTE (Data) Roaming

Diameter protocol seems interesting especially since we are moving to All IP Networks. This old post gives a comparison of SS7 and Diamater protocol.

You can learn more about Diameter at the Diameter Learning Center.

Introduction of HSS in the LTE

Click on the pic to enlarge

Interesting slides from E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co. KG presented in FUSECO Forum 17th-18th November 2011, Berlin.

LTE Base station equipment

If interested, more details available in the NTT Docomo whitepaper here.

LTE Policy Control and Charging

What is coming next after LTE and IMT-Advanced

Interesting presentation from NSN

What is coming next after LTE and IMT-Advanced

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy

Other related posts:

• Next Mobile Network (NMN)
• 4G Mobile Broadband Evolution: 3GPP Release-10 and Beyond

Funny: How phone users view other phone users

One for the weekend!

HSPA vs LTE

Interesting report to remind the differences between HSPA and LTE available here.

Next Mobile Network (NMN)

Next Mobile Network

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy

Couple of presentations on 4G/LTE and Femtocells

Do LTE and Femtocells Need One Another?

View more presentations from pnjarich

Femtocells in the Broadband Home – Will 4G Solve Current Challenges?

View more presentations from Altran_Marketing

Overview of LTE Handovers

From the NTT Docomo Technical journal:


The LTE handover is broadly divided into a backward handover (PS handover) and forward handover. In the former, the network performs cell switching and notifies the mobile terminal of the destination cell, and in the latter, the mobile terminal performs autonomous switching to pick up the destination cell.


To control packet loss due to a momentary cutoff at the time of radio switching, PS handover supports a data forwarding process that transfers undelivered data from the switching-source eNodeB to the switching-destination eNodeB and a reordering process that corrects sequencing mistakes between forwarded data and new data.


The forward handover can be classified into Release with Redirection triggered by a cutoff signal from the network and Non Access Stratum (NAS) Recovery in which the mobile terminal autonomously performs a NAS recovery, either of which is accompanied by data loss due to a momentary cutoff. From a different perspective, handover can be classified in the following two ways according to whether it is accompanied by Radio Access Technology (RAT) or frequency switching or by eNodeB or EPC switching (Figure 7).


1) Intra-RAT handover: This is a handover that occurs within the LTE system in which node transition occurs between sectors within an eNodeB, between eNodeBs within an EPC switch, or between EPC switches. 


A handover between eNodeBs within an EPC switch may be an X2 or S1 handover. In an X2 handover, signal processing is performed by the X2 logical interface between eNodeBs, while in an S1 handover, signal processing is performed by the S1 logical interface between an eNodeB and the EPC switch. There is a tradeoff between the cost of maintaining an X2 link and the cost incurred by an S1 handover, and operations are configured accordingly.


Handover can also be classified by whether the center frequency is the same before and after handover, that is, whether the handover occurs within the same frequency or between frequencies.


2) Inter-RAT handover: This is a handover that occurs between RATs either as a transition from LTE to 3G or from 3G to LTE.

A detailed post on LTE to 3G Inter-RAT handover is available here.

Testing and Optimising LTE

JDSU: Testing and Optimising LTE

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy

An interesting presentation from JDSU

IEEE standards impacting the future home

Interesting graphic from IEEE-SA depicting various IEEE standards impacting the home - via Steven Crowley on Twitter

Release 12 study item on Continuity of Data Sessions to Local Networks (CSN)

LIPA was defined as part of Release-10 that I have already blogged about. Imagine the situation where a user started accessing local network while camped on the Home eNode B (aka Femtocell) but then moved to the macro network but still wants to continue using the local network. Release 12 defines this feature and is called Continuity of Data Sessions to Local Networks (CSN). This study item was originally part of Release 11 but has now been moved to Rel-12.

From SP-100885:

Justification

Basic functionality for Local IP Access (LIPA) has been specified in Rel-10.

LIPA signifies the capability of a UE to obtain access to a local residential/enterprise IP network (subsequently called a local network) that is connected to one or more H(e)NBs.

The current study item investigates extending LIPA functionality to allow access to the local network when a UE is under coverage of the macro network and provide related mobility support.

LIPA allows a UE to work with devices in the local network – e.g. printers, video cameras, or a local web-server. If the local network offers services that enable exchange of digital content (e.g. UPnP) LIPA allows the UE to discover supporting devices and to be discovered.

Examples for services that become available by LIPA are:

·         The pictures stored in a UE’s digital camera may be uploaded to a local networked storage device or printed out at a local printer.

·         A portable audio player in the UE may fetch new content from a media centre available on the local network.

·         A UE may receive video streams from local surveillance cameras in the home.

·         A local web-server in a company’s intranet may be accessed by the UE.

·         Support of VPN.

LIPA does not require the local network to be connected to the Internet but achieves IP connectivity with the UE through one or more H(e)NBs of the mobile operator.

In Release 10  3GPP has only specified the support of LIPA when the UE accesses the local network via H(e)NB.

On the other hand an operator may, e.g. as a chargeable user service, wish to provide access to the local network also to a UE that is under coverage of the macro network. Access to the local network when a UE is under coverage of the macro network should be enabled in Rel-11.

In Rel-10 it had been required for a UE to be able to maintain IP connectivity to the local network when moving between H(e)NBs within the same local network.

However, access to the local network may be lost as a UE moves out of H(e)NB coverage into the macro network, even if other services (e.g. telephony, data services, SIPTO) survive a handover to the macro network and are continued. This may result in an unsatisfactory user experience.

The current study item will allow continuation of data sessions to the local network when the UE moves between H(e)NB and the macro network.

Therefore, in Rel-11, the 3GPP system requires additional functionality to allow

·         A UE to access the local network from the macro network

·         A UE to maintain continuity of data sessions to the local network when moving between a H(e)NB and the macro network

Objective:              to propose requirements and study feasibility for the following scenarios:

Provide a capability to the mobile operator to allow or restrict

­        Access to an enterprise/residential IP network when a UE is under coverage of the macro network, assuming that the IP address of the local IP network (e.g. residential/enterprise gateway) is available to the UE.

­        Continuity of data session(s) to an enterprise/residential IP network when a UE moves between a H(e)NB in an enterprise/residential environment and the macro network.

The support of Continuity of Data Sessions to Local Networks should be an operator option that may or may not be provided by individual PLMNs.

Service Aspects

The user should be able to decline access to the local network from the macro network. The user should also be able to decline continuity of data sessions to local networks when moving between H(e)NB and the macro network (e.g. in the case when data sessions to local networks is charged differently if accessed from macro coverage or via the H(e)NB).

A difference in QoS may be noticeable by the user when the local network is accessed from the macro network or via the H(e)NB.