Author: Martin

Mysterious Mobile Web Surfing Slowdown In Orange’s Network

I've been in France over the past couple of weeks and during that time I've noticed that Opera Mini on my Nokia N95 behaves very slowly in Orange's 2G and 3G network. Over Wi-Fi at home everything was as snappy as ever. I changed between HTTP and Socket connection in the OperaMini settings but it didn't help much. At times, it took more than 10 seconds before the request for a new page was even processed. Web browsing on the PC on the other hand with a full web browser was fast as ever over their 3G network. So maybe it was just my imagination? No, it was not, I just returned to Germany and Opera Mini now reacts as fast as ever in T-Mobile's network. So what is going on, I am really puzzled!? I can't imagine Orange would specifically throttle OperaMini, as it's exactly the kind of program they should like for mobile web surfing, as it compresses the pages before downloading. A real mystery to me. Oh how I would like to connect a network analyzer to Orange's network to figure out where the packets get stuck. So hello, anyone from Orange, there's something wrong, please have a look, especially in the metro!

WirelessMoves 2008: Devices That Made A Difference

This is post two on my reflections on what happened in 2008 and looks at the mobile devices I bought/used this year that made a difference:

3G USB Dongles

Many people rightly say that 2008 was the year of HSPA with cheap 3G USB dongles appearing on the market and, depending on the country, people have started using them extensively during meetings, at home, at the airport and at Starbucks 🙂

My HSPA history dates back to March 2007, when I first used a Sierra Wireless PCMCIA 1.8 MBit/s category 12 HSPA card. One and a half years ago I wrote that the 500 MB offer TIM had at this time was sufficient for me. Well, one and a half years later my expectations have changed. With prepaid offers for several GB for a couple of Euros, I use about 200 MB a day now when traveling abroad for up- and downloading large files and Voice over IP. So the 500 MB would be gone in 2 or 3 days now. I've also upgraded my hardware and instead of the 1.8 MBit card, I now use a 3.6/7.2 MBit/s Huawei E220 USB dongle which has proven to be rock solid in all of the networks I have used this year. There are newer and smaller models on the market but I made some bad performance experiences with one in networks other than for the one it was originally sold and had to return it to the shop.

Dongle Docks

In the previous post I've noted that a lot of people are looking for information on how they can share their 3G connection with other people. It's possible to do that with Windows XP and other OS'es but it's a bit of a hassle to set it up. So I am quite happy that in some countries, one can now buy 3G to Wifi bridges such as the Huawei D100 for a reasonable price. Makes 3G network sharing with other people of your family or during meetings child's play.


The Nokia N95

Having been quite happy with my N93 I waited for quite a long time before I upgraded to the N95 earlier this year. But at some point the memory limitations of the N93 were just not bearable any longer. I didn't look back for a minute since then with the N95 being vastly superior to previous models. I use the built in SIP VoIP client every day over Wi-Fi and the improvement over previous (non Nokia) models is stunning. Nokia has 'forgotten' to include the SIP clients in some Nseries models this year but I remain hopeful that the N97 will have it again.

Prepaid SIM cards

The best mobile devices are not a lot of use without a network subscription. So I am quite happy that this year, the number countries in which operators have decided to offer mobile Internet access via prepaid SIM cards has markedly improved. The Prepaid Wireless Internet Wiki has grown to an impressive size in 2008.

So, those are the devices that made a big difference for me this year. If you like, leave a comment which devices made the difference for you in 2008.

WirelessMoves 2008: Top Five Posts

Another year comes to its end and like many others I feel the need to reflect a bit of what happened during this year in my personal world of wireless. I've decided to look at it from a couple of different angles and put each in a separate post.

One of the things that keep amazing me is the top 5 most read blog entries. For some of them I would have never thought they would make it to the list, but people out there in the Internet seem to think different:

  • Number 2: Nokia Smart Maps review. When I look at the Google searches that lead to this topic I often find the word "crack" and "license key". Hm, not quite what this post was about…

and

The list is quite interesting from several points of view:

  • None of these posts is from 2008.
  • The topics are very diverse. So despite this blog being a niche blog, it seems to serve quite a number of different niches.
  • I've written follow up posts in 2008 on most topics on the top 5 lists. For Wifi network tracing, I've written a post describing how to use an eeePC for the purpose, I've written extensively about 4G topics, air interface technologies, etc. but still, these older posts got more hits than those. I wonder if the Google search algorithm has something to do with it.

So, in case you can remember, which was your favorite post on this blog this year?

Old Centrinos Speak WPA2, too!

After it has now been shown that WPA can be a bit broken, I decided to upgrade and reconfigure my devices to only use WPA2's CCMP together AES encryption. When I wanted to switch a notebook with the very first Centrino chipset to WPA2 (the 802.11b only Intel Pro Wireless LAN 2100) I noticed that I actually couldn't, the options for it are missing in the configuration dialog box. So I looked around on the Internet if a driver update from Intel would fix the problem. Unfortunately, not even Google seems to know. So after a while I decided to just give it a try and installed the Windows XP WPA2 hotfix from Microsoft. After a reboot, WPA2 is now supported even on the old chipset and WPA2 with AES works just fine. In case you want to upgrade as well and don't see WPA2 after the upgrade, you might want to update the driver for the 2100 chip itself, which I did the last time back in 2006 after the malformed Wi-Fi packet exploit showed up. With all my devices running with WPA2 now, I could finally switch the access point to WPA2 only mode.

First 3GSM / Mobile World Congress 2009 Preparations

Good preparation is everything, especially for the 3GSM / Mobile World Congress in Barcelona 2009. I am sure there will be lots of events happening again in and around the congress/exhibition. As always it will be a bit difficult to keep track of all of them and select the interesting ones, so I re-opened the Wiki I created last year for everyone to share information about events, parties, job offers/seekers, apartment sharing, etc., etc.

It's open for everyone, no registration required for editing. If you like the idea, bookmark the site and check regularly. If you know of an event or if you are an event organizer, consider leaving a note and link on the Wiki. If you organize an event but don't want to create a web page for it feel free to create a new page on the Wiki for the details.

I already have one job seeker whom you might be able to help out:

Booth Hostess / Event Organizer

A friend of mine is looking for a job as booth hostess, event organizer, or similar during the congress. She's fluent in English, French, Italian and German. She's a proficient Internet and wireless technologies user so she'll be able to represent your company in a professional manner. In addition, she has previous experience with booth management at the Mobile World Congress from previous years. For details send me an email to gsmumts (at) gmx.de

Oh yes, and before I forget the Wiki has RSS feeds for new and updated pages which makes keeping track easier.

If you like the idea, please spread the word on your blog, by eMail, word of mouth, etc. 🙂

Introduction to Next Generation Wireless Backhaul

As data rates and mobile Internet use is increasing one of the big challenges of mobile operators is how to keep pace with adding capacity in the backhaul network, i.e. the network that connects the base station to the rest of the network. Currently, many operators still use slow and expensive 2 MBit/s E-1 and T-1 links that don't scale well at all with the rising wireless data rates that a single base station can provide.

This article in the 3/08 edition of the Ericsson review gives a great overview of next generation IP based backhaul and how to get there. Despite only being a few pages long, it touches a lot of different topics. Here are some examples:

  • In practice, the radio access network is split in two parts: The last mile to the base station and the aggregation network to the border node to the core network. For both parts, the article explains the different technology choices.
  • For the aggregation layer, different architectures are described from VDSL, microwave Ethernet and fiber.
  • An introduction to Quality of Service, latency, jitter and circuit emulation are also not missing.
  • And finally, a migration path from current E-1 centered access networks to hybrid networks in which a base station has both E-1 and IP connectivity to full IP connectivity with pseudo wire capabilities is also inside.

Definitely, a recommended read!

Paris and the Mobile Internet: That was Last Year

It looks like the fire in French operators about mobile Internet access has pretty much vanished for the moment. Last year at this time, there were posters such as this one everywhere, advertising how one could use a mobile phone to access the Internet. Nothing of the sort can be seen in the streets of Paris this year.

Also, no 3G USB dongle advertisements, most likely due to the lack of interesting pricing compared to those in countries such as Austria, the U.K., Sweden, Italy, Germany, etc.  Also, no iPhone advertising, no eeePCs with 3G dongles, just an E71 mobile e-mail advertisement by Bouygues.

Together with Orange's recent announcement that they will hold out on LTE for the moment, quite a bleak picture. But with their current data pricing, it's unlikely they will get any kind of real load on their 3G networks anytime soon anyway. Looks like French operators have gone into some sort of combined hibernation once more while the rest of Europe is moving forward at a rapid pace.

Am I too pesimistic?

3GPP Femto Specifications

The post on Femtospots a couple of days ago had some good feedback and one reader pointed me to TS 22.220 where 3GPP currently lays the ground for an end-to-end femtocell architecture, or Home NodeB architecture in 3GPP talk. Thanks for that, quite an insightful document! Here's a link to the document after the latest 3GPP meeting (December 2008) which hasn't yet made it to the official specification server. While still being a somewhat early draft today, it nevertheless gives some interesting insight into which directions operators want to go with femtos.

I've had a look at the contributors to the document and from the operator side, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Softbank, SK Telecom, and NTT-Docomo seem to be the most enthusiastic ones. On the vendor side, I've seen input from RIM, ETRI, Qualcomm, NEC, Alcatel, Huawei, Nortel and Marvel. The lists are not exhaustive but show that there is a lot of interest in the topic.

Here are the some of the highlights of the document:

Open and Closed Operation

3GPP TS 22.220 is a requirements specification so it will serve as a guideline for future stage 2 and stage 3 documents which will contain the implementation details for those requirements. So while trying to stay realistic, the document tries to explore the topic in as wide a range as possible and to keep as many options open as possible. Three operating modes are specified for femtos / Home NodeBs (UMTS) or Home eNodeBs (LTE) and I use the terms interchangeably below: The first one is called open, which means all UEs (user equipment in 3GPP talk or mobile devices) of an operator are allowed to use the cell. The second mode is called Closed Subscriber Group (CSG), which means only selected UEs, for example those belonging to a household, are allowed to use the cell. The third mode is called hybrid and combines the first two. I imagine that in hybrid mode, CSG users might potentially get higher priority and access to the local network.

Local IP Access

Speaking of local network access, the requirements specification also contains a chapter on allowing the UE access the the users home network. No specifics are mentioned yet as to how this should be implemented in practice or what kind of services could be used over such a connection. I expect that the 'how' will be clarified in stage 2 and stage 3 documents while the 'what' will be left for other standards bodies to clarify. The document says that both operator and users will have a say which users are part of the CSG and which users will be allowed to have access to local resources.

Local IP Access to the Internet

A so far empty chapter is present for how to connect to the Internet via the local network therefore bypassing the operators core network. I can hardly wait to see if this chapter will be filled with text or removed in later versions of the document.

MBMS and Mobile TV

Some parties also seem keen to use the Home NodeB for mobile TV and would like to see MBMS specified for femtos.

IMS

Further, there seem to be operators or vendors who would like to have some parts or all of an IMS implemented in the femto in a transparent way for the UE to potentially bypass the circuit switched network. I don't quite yet fully get the concept and purpose of this feature but I am sure some more text will be added to this chapter as the document evolves.

The Achilles Heel : Pre-Release 8 UEs

In my opinion the biggest overall issue for femtos used in closed subscriber group (CSG) mode is how to prevent mobiles not belonging to the CSG trying to reselect to the femto. For future 3GPP Release 8/9 compliant UEs, things can be standardized to avoid unnecessary cell reselections and signalling. TS 22.220 gives some general guidance on how that could be done by adding femto related information on the broadcast channel of the cell. For today's UEs, however, any solution has to work with what is already in place. 3GPP TR 25.280 gives a number of potential solutions in Chapter 6.2. Personally I think the Equivalent PLMN solution has a lot of merrit, but no definite recommendation of how to solve this is given yet.

The SIM Card Family Pack

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I guess it is no secret that in the supermarket, the space in front and alongside the cash register is great for selling those small things you can grab and consume on the way, which you would probably not pick up if you saw them somewhere else. These days, German supermarkets sell SIM cards this way. Only have 3 already? Why not pick up another one? The offer shown in the picture on the left must be the latest step in this direction: How about getting 4 SIM cards in a single family pack from Edeka Mobil, an MVNO using the Vodafone network, and distribute them to your family members!?

All yours for 30 euros, with 10 euros of credit already on each SIM card. For 3 euros a month, talk 10 hours between the SIMs of the MVNO. 9 cents a minute to fixed and mobile phones in Germany and 9 cents per SMS. Who could say no? Probably only your kids who already have SIM cards with community options to text their friends 🙂

It's an interesting trend to observe. The first no-frills but cheap MVNOs were launched by mobile operator e-Plus (KPN) about two years ago. O2 has been a bit quicker with MVNOs but their prices were not very competitive until e-Plus stirred up the market. Since then, all mobile operators have followed and even incumbents like T-Mobile and Vodafone are now offering no-frills prepaid SIMs via MVNOs with competitive prices for voice and SMS.

The same is now happening with mobile Internet access. Again e-Plus was first to offer competitive prices for small screen web browsing and now O2 is offering all post-paid Internet access plans also on their own prepaid SIMs. Let's see how the story continues in 2009.