Martin – Page 228 – WirelessMoves

3GPP Mindsets: Voice and Data – Past and Present

Quite often I discuss with colleagues and friends what went right and wrong over the years in 3GPP standardization. We usually agree that the first version of UMTS didn't get the data part quite right and that the first version of LTE has a serious problem with missing voice capabilities. Recently a friend said 'When 3G was designed, data was forgotten. When 4G was designed, voice was forgotten'. At first, I agreed to this but after some more reflection I think it doesn't quite hit what's happened.

I still remember vividly that when the 3G UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Interface) was first designed, it was done with the purpose to add data capabilities beyond what was possible with 2G GPRS at the time. From that point of view, 3GPP has succeeded, because the 384 kbit/s downlink speed reached by first networks was an order of a magnitude higher than what was possible with GPRS at the time. However, the mindset at the time was still very much focused on dedicated channels on the air interface. So this was the method of choice for data transmissions despite the rest of the network being packet switched. Unfortunately, this lead to a very inefficient use of the air interface for packet data transmission such as web browsing with the resulting limitation in speed and number of simultaneous users. The situation was eventually fixed with the introduction of high speed shared channels, known as HSPA today.

Fast forward 10 years and we are now in the days of E-UTRAN, aka, LTE standardization. This time, the mindest was on packet switched only, at any cost. The cost was the 'down to earth – works out of the box' voice capability, which is sadly missing so far. I am sure there are quite a number of reasons for this but I think one of the main ones is that a majority of the companies in 3GPP are pushing for IMS and have been vehemently against any other form of voice capabilities. Other companies have made good suggestions, such as connecting the MSC to the E-UTRAN but so far the suggestion went nowhere.

Well, I guess it will be as in the case of UTRAN: A second round might be required before LTE can truly succeed UMTS.

My Latest Book is Available Now!

After a year of hard work, it's a great pleasure to be able to announce the general availability of my latest book "Beyond 3G – Bringing Networks, Terminals and the Web Together". If you are a regular reader of this blog you can probably already guess what it is about. While the topics discussed in the book are similar to those I write about here, a book offers the opportunity to discuss them in much more detail and show the interactions between them.

O.k. so what's it about?

I start with giving a sound technical introduction to 3GPP LTE and SAE by explaining the decisions taken during standardization while also examining the likely competition for LTE such as HSPA+ and WiMAX. Capacity considerations follow. Then, I describe the latest mobile device developments, voice and multimedia services and the mobile web 2.0. Throughout the book, I do not only analyze how the systems, devices and software work but also the reasons behind why they are designed in this particular way. How these elements strongly influence each other is discussed as well as how network capabilities, available bandwidth, mobile device capabilities and new application concepts will shape the way we communicate in the future.

Some More Details

I examine current and next-generation network technologies such as UMTS, HSPA+, WiMAX, LTE and Wifi
Performance and capacity in practice are analyzed as well as future capacity requirements and how they can be fulfilled.
You get an Introduction to the current cellular telephony architecture and to voice over IP architectures such as SIP, IMS and TISPAN.
I look at mobile device hardware and mobile operating system evolution.
And finally, I examine the major global wireless standards for application development and the latest state of the mobile web 2.0.

Where Can You Get it?

If I've aroused your interest and you are thinking about picking up a copy, there are many places to get it. It's available at Amazon.co.uk for next day delivery and Amazon.com in the U.S. will start shipping it in the next couple of days. You can also order it directly at my publisher John Wiley & Sons, their worldwide shipping department is very efficient. You can of course also go to a book store and give them the title and the following ISBN number: 978-0-470-75188-6.

Browsing The Book Online

For more details, Amazon offers a 'look inside the book' function and a keyword search which brings up a list of all pages where the word is mentioned. From there you can jump to a page and also see a couple of follow up pages.

There we go! If you like this blog, then this book is definitely something for you! As always, I am glad about feedback and I wish you happy reading!

Those Were the (GPRS) Days in Graz

This week I was in Graz/Austria for a couple of days and stayed in a place where I have already been a long time ago. Well, actually it was only 5 or 6 years ago but from a connectivity point of view, it could not have been more different. It must have been 2003/2004 and at the time, my Siemens S45 mobile phone with an O2 UK prepaid SIM connected me to the Internet with a couple of kbits/s. Quite a treat with a notebook. These days, a dongle dock and an E220 HSPA USB modem connected all my devices at multi-megabit speeds to the Internet and a prepaid data SIM from Mobilkom Austria (A1) makes it affordable. We have definitely come a long way since then!

LTE Field Performance

Ericsson has published an interesting article in their Ericsson review (3/2008) on their latest LTE development state. Both lab and outdoor trials were done and the article together with the many graphs and pictures is an interesting read. Highly recommended! While you read, however, you should keep the following things in mind:

Unlike the setup recently used by T-Mobile and Nortel in Germany, only a single base station site was used, i.e. their measurement results do not reflect a typical network deployment, were neighboring cell interference will have an impact on the throughput.

When looking at the graphs, it should be kept in mind that according to this article by Agilent's Moray Rumney, 90% of the users will not experience a signal to noise ration (SNR) of more than 15 dB. 50% of the users will be below 5 dB. So make sure you have a look at the graphs at those locations.

Figure 8 shows nicely, that 64QAM modulation only makes sense at an SNR of more than 15 dB. In other words 90% of the users will not benefit from such high order modulation. However, if you can place your LTE receiver (e.g. your dongle dock) near the window in the direction of the next base station for stationary use the system will be able to server you a lot better than indoors.

4×4 MIMO is nice but I doubt that we will see this implemented in base stations or real mobile devices anytime soon.

Despite these things, however, the graphs and experiences made by Ericsson should make for a nice experience in practice once LTE gets deployed and mobile devices are available.

The Red Button As A Multitasking Killer

When I see one of my non-tech friends having bought a new mobile I always ask them a lot of questions about their new toy to figure out what works and what doesn't. Recently, one of my friends bought a Nokia N78, following my advice, as he wanted to have a nice phone, a good camera and mobile Internet connectivity. Also following my advice, he installed OperaMini, all by himself, I might add, and has figured out how to use the built in Wi-Fi to browse the web at home. Not bad I would say. But here are a some basic things he has not figured out by himself:

Multitasking: He always used the 'red' button to end an application instead of the Symbian menu button. When I showed him he was very surprised and asked me how he could have known this. Right, how could he have known this!? But he was very happy about it because he immediately saw the value of just sending the browser and other applications to the background and returning to it later.

GPS: He wasn't aware that GPS is only working outdoors. Therefore he was not sure if his GPS was working or not and a bit displeased with Nokia Maps for not showing him were he was. At least, the APN for the A-GPS was configured automatically so if he had tried it outdoors it would have worked. Maybe a notice when starting up Nokia Maps for the first couple of times to try it outdoors would help.

E-Mail configuration: He asked me if he could also receive is personal e-mail on the phone. Sure you can I said, let's configure it together next time we see each other and you have all the required configuration information (pop, smtp server, etc.) Hm, the right answer would have been: Sure no problem, just type in your e-mail address and password and the phone figures out the rest. To this end, I think Nokia has made great progress already, as it worked pretty much like that on the Nokia 5000 when I was tested that device a while ago.

Idle screen configuration: To start OperaMini he always went to the menu, selected applications and scrolled down to the OperaMini icon instead of putting it as a small icon on the idle screen for fast selection.

If I remember right, Nseries mobiles have a kind of "First Steps" application to inform new users about the capabilities of the device and maybe to teach them some tricks. However, I don't have it on my own device I must have probably deleted it. In any case, he did not use it, not sure why. So it might help to put that application into a more promiment place, add some more basic tips and tricks and maybe to ask the first couple of device startups if the application should be started. Or how about a discovery mode where tips&tricks are shown until the user turns it off? For the moment, I've sent him this link for further advice.

LTE Performance Simulations

Two pointers today to performance simulations performed in 3GPP for LTE and comparison to baseline HSPA:

3GPP R1-072580: Liaison statement with an overview of the results of LTE performance simulation in uplink and downlink.
3GPP R1-071956: Simulations performed by Ericsson on the downlink (referenced in the document above)

The result is that 2×2 MIMO and 4×4 MIMO bring a tremendous benefit for the average cell throughput, with average cell spectral efficiency for 2×2 MIMO at 1.58 bits/s/Hz and for 4×4 MIMO at 3.04 bits/s/Hz under the same radio conditions.

Even baseline HSPA with a theoretical peak data rate of 14 MBit/s in a 5 MHz channel has a peak spectral efficiency of 2.8 bits/s/Hz which comes close to what the report say can be done only with 4×4 MIMO (who's peak spectral efficiency is even higher). So if the channel has a SNR high enough for 3 bits/s/Hz (about 8db) why doesn't basline HSPA reach this speed as well?

Hm, what am I missing? One thing might be that those users very close to the base station or an external antenna enjoying an SNR higher than 8db can push the average data rate by having a much higher transmission rate than the average. But is that alone enough for such a difference?

Paying with the Mobile at the Vending Machine – Yes, Really!

It must have been 10 years ago when I first heard that soon we will be able to pay with our mobile phone at vending machines in train stations and other places. However, until today I've never seen it anywhere. And now this: In the Austrian countryside I've seen the vending machine shown in the picture on the left where you can actually pay with your (Austrian) mobile phone and if you are subscribed to paybox.at.

It works as follows: You send an SMS with the code of the vending machine to the SMS number shown on the vending machine. After a couple of seconds, the machine displays our paybox balance that you can then use to get that candy bar, soft drink or cigarette pack. Nice, simple and works with every phone.

What I haven't quite figured out yet is how much the service costs per transaction. I've had a look at the paybox web site but I couldn't find anything. The yearly subscription is 19 euros, which I think is a bit high for mass market adoption. But there are other applications as well such as money transfers, paying for parking in major cities and paying for high way tools.

The paybox website also mentions that when having a post paid mobile subscription with one of the major Austrian network operators, the paybox yearly subscription fee is already inclusive. In that case no registration seems to be required and that candy bar is yours without any additional steps to be taken before using it the first time. A very beneficial cooperation for both paybox and the mobile network operators. I wonder how paybox managed to bring them all into the boat!?

Also, this means that paybox enabled vending machines must be connected to the Internet, or some sort of Intranet. So I guess there are some synergy effects, such as the vending machine being able to report when it runs out of candy bars so it is only serviced when it is really necessary. I wonder how the vending machine is connected. GPRS maybe?

Flickr Camera Statistics December 2008

I last checked the Flickr camera statistics back in January 2008 and at the time, the Nokia N95 was the most used camera phone from which pictures were sent to Flickr, with the iPhone in hot pursuit. At some point in 2008, however, the iPhone has clearly surpassed the N95. While the graphs don't show absolute numbers the manufacturer statistics do and it's worth taking a look:

From the Nokia N95, about 1100 users upload pictures daily. Whether that is directly from the phone or via a PC can't be seen. When taking the numbers of all Nokia models together, there are about 3500 users uploading pictures daily. The total number of pictures uploaded with the N95 is around 3.6 million.

From iPhones (Flickr does not distinguish different models), there are about 3000 users that are uploading pictures daily. Again, it's not distinguishable if this is directly from the phone or via a PC. The total number of pictures taken with an iPhone and stored on Flickr is around 6 million these days.

Now let's compare that with the most popular non mobile phone camera, the Canon Digital Rebel XTi DSLR:

From the Canon Digital Rebel XTi, there are about 6800 users that are uploading pictures daily. The total number of pictures on Flickr from that camera are 51 million, and one should probably also add the 60 million pictures taken with the Digital Rebel XT.

Sounds like a lot more!

But then, when looking at point and shoot cameras from Sony, Panasonic, Canon, etc., the picture once again changes a bit. Even the Sony Cybershot DSC-W55 has 'only' 770 users uploading pictures daily. In all fairness, one should add the number of users uploading pictures for the other leading Sony cameras in the statistic and then compare that with the N95 and the iPhone. The numbers become quite equal then.

And again from a different perspective: When looking at 'all brands' sorted by most popular brands, Nokia is in 9th place, Sony Ericsson in 10th, and Apple beyond 30. Unfortunately, the statistics don't take into account how long a model has already been on the market (a disadvantage for Apple I suppose) and it's also not stated over which timeframe the numbers were summed up. It would be interesting to see the statistics over all cameras for 2008 only, I think they would look quite different. For the moment, however, I would say that 'stand alone' cameras are still more popular than mobile phones for pictures uploads to Flickr. Let's see how the statistics look a bit later in the year.

3G at the Fireplace

Very nice to see how 3G coverage has become pretty much ubiquitous in Austria these days. I am on vacation at the moment in Styria (Austria) for some skiing. When the sun goes down at 5 p.m. you feel like at the end of the world in that little outback village where I am staying, the feeling heightened by the use of a firewood oven for warmth. Small village or not, but it is covered by three UMTS networks and my 3G dongle dock in the corner creates a Wi-Fi bubble for the notebooks and other Wi-Fi devices. Even in the ski resort 15 minutes away by car, 3G is everywhere.

Good to see these operators do not think it's not economical to deploy 3G almost everywhere in the country, despite the countryside not being very densely populated. And that's not only true near skiing resorts but also elsewhere without any tourist attractions nearby where I happen to be from time to time.

Back to the vacation thread: It's nice to be able to start the block heater of my car at the top of the mountain with a phone call before the final run into the valley. Wouldn't that be a nice scenario for a BMW or Mercedes TV spot to advertise their next car Internet connectivity package? Only to be topped by making a Wi-Fi hotspot out of the car. Just park it in front of your hut or hotel and fire up your notebook…

And now back to the oven to throw in some more firewood.

New Java JSR required for Touch Screens?

As a follow up to yesterday's post on touch I've been wondering if Java programs have any means today to make full use of a touch screen with existing JSRs available on mobile devices or if support of a new JSR is required for that? I've been browsing a bit trough the list of APIs of the Nokia 5800, but as a non-Java developer it doesn't tell me a lot. It would be good if programs such as OperaMini that are used on devices of a great number of different manufacturers would have the possibility of using a standardized API. Anyone out there aware of what is (already) available/possible?