UMA is not Dead
February 4, 2010 by admin
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I did not hear about UMA for long time and i was starting to think that this would be one of the dead technologies that never saw the light of the day. I was wrong. It was pointed out to me by a colleague that T-Mobile (U.S.) recently announced Hotspot @ home that will allow UMA access to the Mobile while within a WiFi coverage area.
Note: UMA or Unlicensed Mobile Access is no longer called UMA but by its new name GAN or Generic Access Network
T-Mobiles GAN service lets users make phone calls over their in-home WiFi networks or over T-Mobile’s national cellular network, depending on whether the customer is inside a T-Mobile HotSpot or not. The big problem with UMA, though, is that users must use dual-mode phones. T-Mobile’s HotSpot@Home plan currently costs $10 a month after the purchase of a dual-mode phone and WiFi router, if one isn’t owned already.
AT&T (again U.S) is also planning a similar move but its going the FemtoCell Way. Industry sources have revealed that AT&T has filed a request for proposal (RFP) to suppliers that may be interested in participating in AT&T’s in-home femtocell service, according to wireless trade publication Unstrung. Femtocells are access points that act as repeaters to strengthen cellular communication signals inside homes, offices, and underground areas like subways. T-Mobile is trying to accomplish a similar task with its HotSpot@Home service, which brings better call quality to subscribers through the use of WiFi routers.
Although AT&T’s femtocells would likely require a broadband internet connection, femtocells don’t use the WiFi routers that most people already have in their homes. Instead, users would need to buy a new plug-and-play unit that could cost in the area of $200. Companies like picoChip currently develop reference designs for units that could be used by AT&T or its suppliers.
Because femtocells do not use WiFi signals, they don’t require dual-mode handsets, which opens up the market to customers that don’t want to ditch their current phones just to get the benefits of a stronger in-home signal. Meanwhile, potential T-mobile HotSpot@Home customers can only choose between two phones (the Nokia 6086 and Samsung T409), which means existing customers have to ditch their current mobile phones for a dual-mode device. Blackberry 8820 will soon be available in U.S. which has support of UMA.
Meanwhile Kineto Wireless, the innovator and pioneer of UMA, recently joined femtoforum. In addition to the promotion of femtocell deployment, the forum is focused on addressing several key technical issues, including radio planning and control, provisioning and management, and device-to-core network connectivity. As the core network technology behind a growing number of large-scale, dual-mode handset deployments, the 3GPP UMA standard is now being recognized as the de-facto standard for device-to-core network connectivity in the femtocell market as well. Recently, Kineto initiated interoperability testing between femtocell access points and its industry leading UMA Network Controller (UNC), and has already completed testing with Ubiquisys, the number one femtocell access point vendor.
“The femtocell industry is starting to appreciate the three year head startOne thing to remember here is that not all mobiles supporting WiFi will support UMA. On the other hand all phones that support UMA will support WiFi.
UMA has over proprietary approaches being proposed for device-to-core network connectivity,” said Patrick Tao, Kineto’s vice president of technology. “As the
technology behind successful l dual-mode handset services, such as unik from
FT/Orange and T-Mobile’s Hotspot @Home, the 3GPP UMA standard has already identified and addressed the real-world deployment issues operators face in
bringing femtocells to market. These issues include security, device
authentication, access controls, handover, regulatory compliance, as well as
scalability to support millions of endpoints.”
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MBMS Enhancements in Release 7
February 2, 2010 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
[#2: Edit Options>MightyAdsense>Adsense Code]
MBMS will be undergoing enhancements in Release 7 and this work item is seperate from E-MBMS or Enhanced MBMS which is part of 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE).
MBMS is being enhanced in Release 7 and IMS will be able to use MBMS transport. The advantage of this approach is:
- MBMS reception is possible over IP accesses (e.g. I-WLAN)
- Higher MBMS bit rate services possible (e.g. HDTV)
- Support for adaptation of MBMS to the QoS resources provided by the access network(s)
- MBMS services will be available regardless of access technologies and other services will be able to usse MBMS transport
This MBMS Enhancement is still under development and the following is being investigated:
- Radio Interface Physical Layer: Introduction of new transmission schemes and advanced multi-antenna technologies
- Layer 2 and 3: Signalling optimisations
- UTRAN Architecture: Identify the most optimum architecture and functional splits between RAN network nodes
3GPP website lists some of the aims and objectives of these MBMS enhancements but theey do not look correct. They are copied from the LTE requirements documents. I will be revisiting this topic when more information is available
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Solving the LTE voice dilemma
January 31, 2010 by admin
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[#3: Edit Options>MightyAdsense>Adsense Code]
Continuing the discussion from LTE World Summit, this is something that has been discussed in the past by myself and other blogs as well. We know that there is no out of the box solution for voice calls in Release 8 but there are some solutions that are being standardised for this problem. Dr. Howard Benn, Director of Cellular Standards, Motorola Mobile Devices gave an interesting presentation on this topic titled, “Voice –how to talk over LTE”. Here is the summary of his presentation along with some more information:
As we know, IMS was introduced in Rel 5 but even till today, there has been no major IMS rollouts. There are some operators working on deploying the IMS solution but in reality its not been as successful as it should have been. If IMS is available then the problem of voice call on LTE goes away. The problem can be solved using Voice Call Continuity or VCC. Infact there is a bunch of specifications on IMS Centralized Services (ICS) and network Centric VCC for solving this and other similar problems.
So with IMS not being available, the first alternative for this problem is Circuit Switched Fallack (CSFB). In this, as can be seen from the MSC above, the user is attached to an LTE network. MSC can send Paging to the UE and if the user accepts the voice call then he is handed over to 2G/3G network. The big problem with this approach is additional time required to establish the voice call and the PS services might get disrupted, depending on how its handled.
The second solution is to have a Generic Access Network (GAN… previously known as UMA) based solution. This is similar solution to the ones used by some Femtocells. This would mean that the UE’s would require GAN chipsets and GAN is known to be power hungry so it can impact the battery life significantly.China Mobile’s, Bill Huang in a recent interview mentioned that “We could carry voice over UMA” and “We will have an LTE network that supports voice…”. He was referring to this approach mentioned above.
Finally there are always proprietary options like Skype that can be used along with the data services to solve the voice problem.
Finally there are always proprietary options like Skype that can be used along with the data services to solve the voice problem.
Infact a service like Vonage, modified for mobiles, can solve this problem easily. You can connect a VoIP client from your phone or device to Vonage and you are given a landline number that you can pass to others. When calls are received on this number, the client in the mobile rings and you answer the call normally.
Nick Yamasaki from KDDI mentioned that KDDI will roll out LTE with CS fallback option for voice initially but then SRVCC (Single Radio VCC) solution will be adopted in future.
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3GPP Selects Femtocell Architecture
January 27, 2010 by admin
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Picked this up from Dean Bubley’s post on his blog.
The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has adopted an official architecture for 3G femtocell home base stations.
The 3GPP wants to have the new standard done by the end of this year, which appears to be an aggressive time schedule given the fact that vendors had various approaches to building a femtocell base station. The agreed upon architecture follows an access network-based approach, leveraging existing standards, called IU-cs and Iu-ps interfaces, into the core service network. The result is a new interface called Iu-h.
The architecture defines two new network elements, the femtocell and the femtocell gateway. Between these elements is the new Iu-h interface. This solution was backed by Alcatel-Lucent, Kineto Wireless, Motorola and NEC.
All of the femtocell vendors must go back and change their access point and network gateway equipment to comply with the new standard interface.
All femtocell vendors will have to make changes to their access points. Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, NEC, and those that already use Kineto’s GAN approach, such as Ubiquisys, will have the least work to do.
Kineto Wireless, Inc., announced its full support for the 3GPP agreement reached last week on the Home NodeB (HNB) architecture for femtocell-to-core network connectivity. Recognizing that a standard is needed for the mass-market success of femtocells, Kineto took a lead role in developing consensus among the contributing companies. Having an agreed architecture marks a major milestone towards the completion of a global 3G femtocell standard.
The agreed 3GPP HNB architecture follows an access network-based approach, leveraging the existing Iu-cs and Iu-ps interfaces into the core service network. The architecture defines two new network elements, the HNB (a.k.a. Femtocell) and the HNB Gateway (a.k.a. Femto Gateway). Between these elements is the new Iu-h interface.
- Home NodeB (HNB) – Connected to an existing residential broadband service, an HNB provides radio coverage for standard 3G handsets within a home. HNBs incorporate the capabilities of a standard NodeB as well as the radio resource management functions of a standard Radio Network Controller (RNC).
- HNB Gateway (HNB-GW): Installed within an operator’s network, the HNB Gateway aggregates traffic from a large number of HNBs back into an existing core service network through the standard Iu-cs and Iu-ps interfaces.
- Iu-h Interface: Residing between an HNB and an HNB-GW, the Iu-h interface includes a new HNB application protocol (HNBAP) for enabling highly-scalable, ad-hoc HNB deployment. The interface also introduces an efficient, scalable method for transporting Iu control signaling over the Internet.
With an agreement on an underlying femtocell architecture, 3GPP has now transitioned to the phase of developing detailed specifications. This work is targeted for completion by the end of 2008.
More Info:
- 3GPP Picks Femtocell Standard – Unstrung
- The 3GPP Home Node-B (HNB) Standard FOR FEMTOCELLS – Kineto
- 3GPP TR 25.820 – 3GPP
- 3GPP workshop on Home Node B’s in, Jeju, Nov. 2007
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OMA seeks to ease mobile TV pain
January 25, 2010 by admin
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The Open Mobile Alliance’s recently-unveiled BCAST Enabler specification is designed to create a ‘write once, run anywhere’ environment’ for broadcasters and other content providers. The spec – if widely adopted – could have significant implications for the concept of mobile TV ‘roaming’.
In theory, it means broadcasters will be able to deploy their programming across the whole gamut of broadcast mobile TV platforms – DVB-H, DVB-SH, DMB, DAB-IP, ATSC-M/H etc – with little or no tweaking.
Because it works with any IP-based content delivery technology BCAST Enabler can also be used for the delivery of programming across cellular systems like 3GPP MBMS, 3GPP2 BCMCS and mobile unicast streaming systems, such as 3G streaming.
What benefits will OMA BCAST offer broadcasters and broadcast network operators?
• The specification enables broadcast-only mode for delivering services. It also allows broadcast-only terminals and free-to-air content with service and content protection capability.
• The specification is agnostic to access network meaning that the same service offering can be delivered over broadcast channel, interaction channel or both. Being agnostic to underlying architecture allows integration of the broadcast offering with operators or independent delivery over the interaction channel, which is controlled by broadcaster.
• Service interactivity is well specified and caters for broad range of services including interactive and direct feedback from viewers. Also, the service interactivity is not bound to the cellular channel – WLAN or a similar network can also be used. The use of the interaction channel allows personalization of services and service guides.
• The Service Guide enables the broadcaster to associate broadcast
programming with on-demand content. In addition, it supports both broadcast and on-demand delivery of the Service Guide itself.
programming with on-demand content. In addition, it supports both broadcast and on-demand delivery of the Service Guide itself.
What benefits will OMA BCAST offer terminal manufacturers?
• The Mobile TV Enabler specifies features for a common TV & video service layer that are currently not addressed by other specifications but still needed to ensure interoperability for large-scale terminal availability.
• Enables economies of scale by leveraging same technologies for both
broadcast and interactive channels. This means vendors can build an
economically viable terminal base that can be used by operators/carriers or broadcasters or jointly by both.
broadcast and interactive channels. This means vendors can build an
economically viable terminal base that can be used by operators/carriers or broadcasters or jointly by both.
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