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Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) in Release-9

I have blogged about Public Warning System and covered CMAS as part of that earlier.

The following is an extract from 3G Americas white paper, “3GPP Mobile Broadband Innovation Path to 4G: Release 9, Release 10 and Beyond: HSPA+, SAE/LTE and LTE-Advanced,”:

In response to the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act passed by Congress in 2006, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) to allow wireless service providers who choose to participate, to send emergency alerts as text messages to their users who have CMAS capable handsets.

The FCC established a Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee (CMSAAC) for the development of a set of recommendations for the support of CMAS. The CMSAAC recommendations were included as the CMAS Architecture and Requirements document in the FCC Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) which was issued in December 2007. In 2008, the FCC issued three separate Report and Order documents detailing rules (47 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] Part 10) for CMAS. The FCC CMAS First Report and Order specifies the rules and architecture for CMAS. The FCC CMAS Second Report and Order establishes CMAS testing requirements and describes the optional capability for Noncommercial Educational (NCE) and public broadcast television stations distribute geo-targeted CMAS alerts. The FCC CMAS Third Report and Order defined the CMAS timeline, subscriber notification requirements for CMSPs, procedures for CMSP participation elections and the rules for subscriber opt-out. The FCC also issued a CMAS Reconsideration and Erratum document.

The CMAS network will allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to accept and aggregate alerts from the President of the United States, the National Weather Service (NWS), and state and local emergency operations centers, and then send the alerts over a secure interface to participating commercial mobile service providers (CMSPs). These participating CMSPs will then distribute the alerts to their users. between the issuance of the second and third Report & Order documents.

As defined in the FCC CMAS Third Report and Order, CMSPs that voluntarily choose to participate in CMAS must begin an 18 month period of development, testing and deployment of the CMAS no later than 10 months from the date that the Government Interface Design specifications available. On December 7, 2009, the CMAS timeline of the FCC CMAS Third Report and Order was initiated with the announcement by FEMA and the FCC that the Joint ATIS/TIA CMAS Federal Alert GW to CMSP GW Interface Specification (J-STD-101) has been adopted as the Government Interface Design specification referenced in the FCC CMAS Third Report and Order.

Participating CMSPs must be able to target alerts to individual counties and ensure that alerts reach customers roaming outside a provider’s service area. Participating CMSPs must also transmit alerts with a dedicated vibration cadence and audio attention signal. Emergency alerts will not interrupt calls in progress. CMAS supports only English text-based alert messages with a maximum displayable message size of 90 English characters.

For purposes of CMAS, emergency alerts will be classified in one of three categories:

1. Presidential Alerts. Any alert message issued by the President for local, regional, or national emergencies and are the highest priority CMAS alert

2. Imminent Threat Alerts. Notification of emergency conditions, such as hurricanes or tornadoes, where there is an imminent threat to life or property and some immediate responsive action should be taken

3. Child Abduction Emergency/AMBER Alerts. Alerts related to missing or endangered children due to an abduction or runaway situation

The subscribers of participating CMSPs may opt out of receiving Imminent Threat and Child Abduction/AMBER alerts, but cannot opt out from Presidential Alerts.

The following figure shows the CMAS Reference Architecture as defined in the FCC CMAS First Report and Order:


Reference Point C is the secure interface between the Federal Alert GW and the Commercial Mobile Service Provider (CMSP) GW. The Reference Point C interface supports delivery of new, updated or canceled wireless alert messages, and supports periodic testing of the interface. This interface is defined in the J-STD-101, the Joint ATIS/TIA CMAS Federal Alert GW to CMSP GW Interface Specification.

Federal Government entity (i.e. FEMA) responsible for the administration of the Federal Alert GW. FEMA will perform the function of aggregating all state, local, and federal alerts and will provide one logical interface to each CMSP who elects to support CMAS alerts.

For GSM and UMTS systems, wireless alert messages that are received by CMSP GWs will be transmitted to targeted coverage areas using GSM-UMTS Cell Broadcast Service (CBS). The CMAS functionality does not require modifications to the 3GPP-defined Cell Broadcast Service.

The ATIS WTSC-G3GSN Subcommittee is developing the CMAS via GSM-UMTS Cell Broadcast Service Specification. The purpose of this standard is to describe the use of the GSM-UMTS Cell Broadcast Service for the broadcast of CMAS messages. The standard includes the mapping of CMAS application level messages to the Cell Broadcast Service message structure.

The ATIS WTSC-G3GSN Subcommittee is developing the Cell Broadcast Entity (CBE) to Cell Broadcast Center (CBC) Interface Specification. The purpose of this standard is to define a standard XML based interface to the Cell Broadcast Center (CBC). The CMSP Alert GW will utilize this interface to provide the CMAS Alert message information to the CBC for broadcast via CBS.

The ATIS WTSC-G3GSN Subcommittee has developed the Implementation Guidelines and Best Practices for GSM/UMTS Cell Broadcast Service Specification and this specification was approved in October 2009. The purpose of this specification is to describe implementation guidelines and best practices related to GSM/UMTS Cell Broadcast Service regardless of the application using CBS. This specification is not intended to describe an end-to-end Cell Broadcast architecture, but includes clarifications to the existing 3GPP CBS standards as well as “best practices” for implementation of the 3GPP standards. CMAS is an example of an application that uses CBS.

J-STD-100, Joint ATIS/TIA CMAS Mobile Device Behavior Specification, defines the common set of requirements for GSM, UMTS, and CDMA based mobile devices behavior whenever a CMAS alert message is received and processed. A common set of requirements will allow for a consistent user experience regardless of the associated wireless technology of the mobile device. Additionally, this common set of requirements will allow the various local, state, and Federal level government agencies to develop subscriber CMAS educational information that is independent of the wireless technology.

CMAS VIA LTE/EPS

In order to comply with FCC requirements for CMAS, CMSPs have a need for standards development to support CMAS over LTE/EPS as it relates to the network-user interface generally described as the “E-Interface” in the CMAS Reference Architecture. The intent of ATIS WTSC-G3GSN is to build upon LTE text broadcast capabilities currently being specified by 3GPP for the Public Warning System (PWS).

3GPP STANDARDS

3GPP TS 22.268. Public Warning System (PWS) Requirements, covers the core requirements for the PWS and covers additional subsystem requirements for the Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) and for CMAS. TS 22.268 specifies general requirements for the broadcast of Warning Notifications to broadcast to a Notification Area that is based on the geographical information as specified by the Warning Notification Provider. This specification also defines specific CMAS requirements based on the three Reports & Orders issued to date by the FCC.

3GPP TS 23.401. GPRS enhancements for E-UTRAN access, specifies the Warning System Architecture for 3GPP accesses and the reference point between the Cell Broadcast Center (CBC) and Mobility Management Entity (MME) for warning message delivery and control functions. This TS identifies the MME functions for warning message transfer (including selection of appropriate eNodeB), and provides Stage 2 information flows for warning message delivery and warning message cancel. The architecture and warning message delivery and control functions support CMAS.

3GPP TS 29.168. Cell Broadcast Center interfaces with the EPC – Stage 3, specifies the procedures and application protocol between the Cell Broadcast center and the MME for Warning Message Transmission, including the messages, information elements and procedures needed to support CMAS.

3GPP TS 36.300. E-UTRA and E-UTRAN – Overall description – Stage 2, specifies the signaling procedures for the transfer of warning messages from the MME to the eNodeB. The signaling procedures support CMAS operations.

3GPP TS 36.331. E-UTRA Radio Resource Control (RRC) – Protocol specification, specifies the radio resource control protocol for UE-to-E-UTRAN radio interface and describes CMAS notification and warning message transfer.

3GPP TS 36.413. E-UTRAN – S1 Application Protocol (S1AP), specifies the E-UTRAN radio network layer signaling protocol between the MME and eNodeB, and describes the warning message transfer needed for CMAS.

3GPP participants are working to complete these specifications and other UE procedures for supporting PWS and CMAS.

ATIS WTSC-G3GSN will develop a Standard for a CMAS via LTE Broadcast Capability Specification. This Standard will map the CMAS application level messages to the LTE warning message transfer protocol (i.e. for CMAS).

This ATIS WTSC-G3GSN effort has an anticipated completion date of December 31, 2010. This takes into account the time needed for completion of the ongoing 3GPP standards development on warning message broadcast for LTE.

ATIS WTSC G3GSN and TIA TR45.8 Subcommittees in conjunction with FEMA will also be jointly developing a testing certification specification for the Reference Point C interface between the Federal Alert GW and the CMSP GW based upon the requirements defined in J-STD-101. This specification has an anticipated completion date of December 31, 2010.

GSM-UMTS Network migration towards LTE

Femtocells for LTE

Picture Source: Continuous Computing

Codec’s for LTE

Sometime back I mentioned about Orange launching AMR-WB codec which would result in ‘hi-fi quality’ voice (even though its being referred to as HD voice by some). Since then, there has been not much progress on this HD-voice issue.

CODEC stands for “COder-DECoder,” but is also known as an enCOder-DECoder and COmpression-DECompression system when used in video systems. Codec’s are important as they compress the voice/video data/packets so less bandwidth is required for the data to be transmitted. At the same time it has to be borne in mind that the capacity to withstand errors decrease with higher compression ratio and as a result it may be necessary to change the codecs during the voice/video call. This calls for flexibility as in case of AMR (Adaptive Multi Rate) Codecs.

The following is from Martin Sauter’s book “Beyond 3G – Bringing Networks, Terminals and the Web Together“:

Voice codecs on higher layers have been designed to cope with packet loss to a certain extent since there is not usually time to wait for a repetition of the data. This is why data from circuit-switched connections is not repeated when it is not received correctly but simply ignored. For IP sessions, doing the same is difficult, since a single session usually carries both real-time services such as voice calls and best-effort services such as Web browsing simultaneously. In UMTS evolution networks, mechanisms such as ‘Secondary PDP contexts’ can be used to separate the real-time data traffic from background or signaling traffic into different streams on the air interface while keeping a single IP address on the mobile device.

UMTS uses the same codecs as GSM. On the air interface users are separated by spreading codes and the resulting data rate is 30–60 kbit/s depending on the spreading factor. Unlike GSM, where timeslots are used for voice calls, voice capacity in UMTS depends less on the raw data rate but more on the amount of transmit power required for each voice call. Users close to the base station require less transmission power in downlink compared with more distant users. To calculate the number of voice calls per UMTS base station, an assumption has to be made about the distribution of users in the area covered by a cell and their reception conditions. In practice, a UMTS base station can carry 60–80 voice calls per sector. A typical three-sector UMTS base station can thus carry around 240 voice calls. As in the GSM example, a UMTS cell also carries data traffic, which reduces the number of simultaneous voice calls.

The following is an extract from 3G Americas white paper, “3GPP Mobile Broadband Innovation Path to 4G: Release 9, Release 10 and Beyond: HSPA+, SAE/LTE and LTE-Advanced,”:

Real-time flows (voice/video) based on rate adaptive codecs can dynamically switch between different codec rates. Codec rate adaptation allows an operator to trade off voice/video quality on one side and network capacity (e.g. in terms of the number of accepted VoIP calls), and/or radio coverage on the other side. Operators have requested a standardized solution to control the codec rate adaptation for VoIP over LTE, and a solution has been agreed upon and specified in the 3GPP Rel-9 specifications, which is provided in this paper.

CODEC RATE ADAPTATION BASED ON ECN

Given previous discussion in 3GPP (3GPP S4-070314) it was clear that dropping IP packets was not an acceptable means for the network to trigger a codec rate reduction. Instead an explicit feedback mechanism had to be agreed on by which the network (e.g. the eNodeB) could trigger a codec rate reduction. The mechanism agreed on for 3GPP Rel-9 is the IP-based Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) specified in an IETF RFC. ECN is a 2 bit field in the end-to-end IP header. It is used as a “congestion pre-warning scheme” by which the network can warn the end points of incipient congestion so that the sending endpoint can decrease its sending rate before the network is forced to drop packets or excessive delay of media occurs. Any ECN-based scheme requires two parts: network behavior and endpoint behavior. The first part had already been fully specified in an IETF RFC106 and merely had to be adopted into the corresponding specifications (3GPP TS 23.401 and 3GPP TS 36.300). The network behavior is completely service and codec agnostic. That is, it works for both IMS and non-IMS based services and for any voice/video codec with rate-adaptation capabilities. The main work in 3GPP focused on the second part: the endpoint behavior. For 3GPP Rel-9, the endpoint behavior has been specified for the Multimedia Telephony Service for IMS (MTSI – 3GPP TS 26.114). It is based on a generic (i.e. non-service specific) behavior for RTP/UDP based endpoints, which is being standardized in the IETF.

Furthermore, it was agreed that no explicit feedback was needed from the network to trigger a codec rate increase. Instead, the Rel-9 solution is based on probing from the endpoints – more precisely the Initial Codec Mode (ICM) scheme that had already been specified in 3GPP Rel-7 (3GPP S4-070314). After the SIP session has been established, the sending side always starts out with a low codec rate. After an initial measurement period and RTCP receiver reports indicating a “good channel,” the sending side will attempt to increase the codec rate. The same procedure is executed after a codec rate reduction.


Figure 6.8 depicts how codec rate reduction works in Rel-9:

• Step 0. The SIP session is negotiated with the full set of codec rates and independent of network level congestion. The use of ECN has to be negotiated separately for each media stream (e.g. VoIP).
• Steps 1 and 2. After ECN has been successfully negotiated for a media stream the sender must mark each IP packet as ECN-Capable Transport (ECT). Two different values, 10 and 01, have been defined in an IETF RFC106 to indicate ECT. However, for MTSI only 10 shall be used.
• Step 3. To free up capacity and allow more VoIP calls and/or to improve VoIP coverage, the eNodeB sets the ECN field to Congestion Experienced (CE) in an IP packet that belongs to an IP flow marked as ECT. Note that the ECN-CE codepoint in an IP packet indicates congestion in the direction in which the IP packets are being sent.
• Steps 4 and 5. In response to an ECN-CE the receiving MTSI client issues an RTCP message to trigger a codec rate reduction.

Note that ECN operates in both directions (uplink and downlink) entirely independent and without any interactions. It is very well possible to trigger codec rate adaptation in one direction without triggering it in the other direction.

ONGOING WORK IN 3GPP

A new work item called, Enabling Encoder Selection and Rate Adaptation for UTRAN and E-UTRAN, has been created for 3GPP Rel-10. Part of this work item is to extend the scope of the codec rate adaptation solution agreed in Rel-9 to also apply to HSPA and non-voice RTP-based media streams.

Further Reading:

• 3GPP S4-070314, Rate-Adaptive Real-time Media, Reply Liaison from SA4 to RAN2, 2007 (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/TSG_SA/WG4_CODEC/TSGS4_43/Docs/S4-070314.zip)
• IETF RFC 3168 (09/2001), The Addition of Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) to IP. (http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3168)
• 3GPP TS 23.401: General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enhancements for Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) access (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.401/)
• 3GPP TS 36.300: Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2 (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.300/)
• 3GPP TS 26.114: IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS); Multimedia Telephony; Media handling and interaction (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/26_series/26.114/)
• Westerlund, M., et al., Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) for RTP over UDP, draft-westerlund-avt-ecn-for-rtp-02, work in progress (ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/internet-drafts/draft-westerlund-avt-ecn-for-rtp-02.txt)
• 3GPP TR 23.860: Enabling Coder Selection and Rate Adaptation for UTRAN and E-UTRAN for Load Adaptive Applications; Stage 2 (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.860/)
• 3GPP TS 26.071: Mandatory speech CODEC speech processing functions; AMR speech CODEC; General description(http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/26_series/26.071/)
• 3GPP TS 26.171: Speech codec speech processing functions; Adaptive Multi-Rate – Wideband (AMR-WB) speech codec; General description (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/26_series/26.171/)

LTE Conformance Testing Logs

I have added some LTE Conformance Testing Logs and Description on the 3G4G website at http://www.3g4g.co.uk/Lte/ConformanceTests/

Self Organizing Networks and Enhancements

I have blogged about SON earlier here and here. The following is an update from the 3G Americas Whitepaper on Mobile Broadband:

UICC and USIM in 3GPP Release 8 and Release 9

In good old days of GSM, SIM was physical card with GSM “application” (GSM 11.11)

In the brave new world of 3G+, UICC is the physical card with basic logical functionality (based on 3GPP TS 31.101) and USIM is 3G application on a UICC (3GPP TS 31.102). The UICC can contain multiple applications like the SIM (for GSM), USIM and ISIM (for IMS). There is an interesting Telenor presentation on current and future of UICC which may be worth the read. See references below.

UICC was originally known as “UMTS IC card”. The incorporation of the ETSI UMTS activities into the more global perspective of 3GPP required a change of this name. As a result this was changed to “Universal Integrated Circuit Card”. Similarly USIM (UMTS Subscriber Identity Module) changed to Universal Subscriber Identity Module.

The following is from the 3G Americas Whitepaper on Mobile Broadband:

UICC (3GPP TS 31.101) remains the trusted operator anchor in the user domain for LTE/SAE, leading to evolved applications and security on the UICC. With the completion of Rel-8 features, the UICC now plays significant roles within the network.

Some of the Rel-8 achievements from standards (ETSI, 3GPP) are in the following areas:

USIM (TS 31.102)
With Rel-8, all USIM features have been updated to support LTE and new features to better support non-3GPP access systems, mobility management, and emergency situations have been adopted.

The USIM is mandatory for the authentication and secure access to EPC even for non-3GPP access systems. 3GPP has approved some important features in the USIM to enable efficient network selection mechanisms. With the addition of CDMA2000 and HRPD access technologies into the PLMN, the USIM PLMN lists now enable roaming selection among CDMA, UMTS, and LTE access systems.

Taking advantage of its high security, USIM now stores mobility management parameters for SAE/LTE. Critical information like location information or EPS security context is to be stored in USIM rather than the device.

USIM in LTE networks is not just a matter of digital security but also physical safety. The USIM now stores the ICE (In Case of Emergency) user information, which is now standardized. This feature allows first responders (police, firefighters, and emergency medical staff) to retrieve medical information such as blood type, allergies, and emergency contacts, even if the subscriber lies unconscious.

3GPP has also approved the storage of the eCall parameters in USIM. When activated, the eCall system establishes a voice connection with the emergency services and sends critical data including time, location, and vehicle identification, to speed up response times by emergency services. ECalls can be generated manually by vehicle occupants or automatically by in-vehicle sensors.

TOOLKIT FEATURES IMPROVEMENT (TS 31.111)
New toolkit features have been added in Rel-8 for the support of NFC, M2M, OMA-DS, DM and to enhance coverage information.

The contactless interface has now been completely integrated with the UICC to enable NFC use cases where UICC applications proactively trigger contactless interfaces.

Toolkit features have been updated for terminals with limited capabilities (e.g. datacard or M2M wireless modules). These features will be notably beneficial in the M2M market where terminals often lack a screen or a keyboard.

UICC applications will now be able to trigger OMA-DM and DS sessions to enable easier device support and data synchronization operations, as well as interact in DVB networks.

Toolkit features have been enriched to help operators in their network deployments, particularly with LTE. A toolkit event has been added to inform a UICC application of a network rejection, such as a registration attempt failure. This feature will provide important information to operators about network coverage. Additionally, a UICC proactive command now allows the reporting of the signal strength measurement from an LTE base station.

CONTACT MANAGER
Rel-8 defined a multimedia phone book (3GPP TS 31.220) for the USIM based on OMA-DS and its corresponding JavaCard API (3GPP TS 31.221).

REMOTE MANAGEMENT EVOLUTION (TS 31.115 AND TS 31.116)
With IP sessions becoming prominent, an additional capability to multiplex the remote application and file management over a single CAT_TP link in a BIP session has been completed. Remote sessions to update the UICC now benefit from additional flexibility and security with the latest addition of the AES algorithm rather than a simple DES algorithm.

CONFIDENTIAL APPLICATION MANAGEMENT IN UICC FOR THIRD PARTIES
The security model in the UICC has been improved to allow the hosting of confidential (e.g. third party) applications. This enhancement was necessary to support new business models arising in the marketplace, with third party MVNOs, M-Payment and Mobile TV applications. These new features notably enable UICC memory rental, remote secure management of this memory and its content by the third party vendor, and support new business models supported by the Trusted Service Manager concept.

SECURE CHANNEL BETWEEN THE UICC AND TERMINAL
A secure channel solution has been specified that enables a trusted and secure communication between the UICC and the terminal. The secure channel is also available between two applications residing respectively on the UICC and on the terminal. The secure channel is applicable to both ISO and USB interfaces.

RELEASE 9 ENHANCEMENTS: UICC: ENABLING M2M AND FEMTOCELLS
The role of femtocell USIM is increasing in provisioning information for Home eNodeB, the 3GPP name for femtocell. USIMs inside handsets provide a simple and automatic access to femtocells based on operator and user-controlled Closed Subscriber Group list.

Work is ongoing in 3GPP for the discovery of surrounding femtocells using toolkit commands. Contrarily to macro base stations deployed by network operators, a femtocell location is out of the control of the operator since a subscriber can purchase a Home eNodeB and plug it anywhere at any time. A solution based on USIM toolkit feature will allow the operator to identify the femtocells serving a given subscriber. Operators will be able to adapt their services based on the femtocells available.

The upcoming releases will develop and capitalize on the IP layer for UICC remote application management (RAM) over HTTP or HTTPS. The network can also send a push message to UICC to initiate a communication using TCP protocol.

Additional guidance is also expected from the future releases with regards to the M2M dedicated form factor for the UICC that is currently under discussion to accommodate environments with temperature or mechanical constraints surpassing those currently specified by the 3GPP standard.

Some work is also expected to complete the picture of a full IP UICC integrated in IP-enabled terminal with the migration of services over EEM/USB and the capability for the UICC to register on multicast based services (such as mobile TV).

Further Reading:

• Business perspective and Mobile service offer through Future SIM – Telenor (http://www.ux.uis.no/atc08/workshop/Larsen.pdf)
• The role of the UICC in Long Term Evolution all IP networks – Gemalto (http://www.gemalto.com/telecom/download/lte_gemalto_whitepaper.pdf)
• Technical White Paper: Smart Card in IMS – 3G Americas (http://www.3gamericas.org/documents/GEM_WP_IMS.pdf)
• 3GPP TS 31.101: UICC-terminal interface; Physical and logical characteristics (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/31_series/31.101/)
• 3GPP TS 31.102: Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) application (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/31_series/31.102/)
• 3GPP TS 31.111: Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) Application Toolkit (USAT) (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/31_series/31.111/)
• 3GPP TS 31.115: Secured packet structure for (Universal) Subscriber Identity Module (U)SIM Toolkit applications (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/31_series/31.115/)
• 3GPP TS 31.116: Remote APDU Structure for (U)SIM Toolkit applications (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/31_series/31.116/)
• 3GPP TS 31.220: Characteristics of the Contact Manager for 3GPP UICC applications (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/31_series/31.220/)
• 3GPP TS 31.221: Contact Manager Application Programming Interface (API); Contact Manager API for Java Card™ (http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/31_series/31.221/)

3G Americas Publishes New Report on Technology choices for Mobile Broadband

UMTS-HSPA is the world’s leading 3G technology and is the preferred choice for the majority of wireless operators and subscribers today and into the future. The global demand for wireless data services continues to drive the rapid growth of HSPA technology with 303 commercial HSPA networks and over 454 million UMTS-HSPA subscriptions reported at the end of 2009 by Informa Telecoms & Media. Informa has further projected that by year-end 2012, worldwide subscriptions to UMTS-HSPA will reach nearly 1.4 billion; by year-end 2013, global UMTS-HSPA subscriptions are expected to exceed 2 billion, rising to 2.8 billion by the end of 2014. GSM-UMTS-HSPA subscriptions provide the foundation for future evolutions to 3GPP Release 9, Release 10 and beyond with HSPA+, LTE and LTE-Advanced.

“Wireless data consumption is increasing faster now than ever before,” said Adrian Scrase, 3GPP Head of Mobile Competence Center. “Smartphone usage is experiencing higher volumes and the superior user experience offered by such devices is resulting in quickly rising demand and escalating use of wireless data applications. This is consequently driving the need for continued innovations that are supported by the efficient and successful 3GPP technology path.”

3GPP Mobile Broadband Innovation Path to 4G: Release 9, Release 10 and Beyond: HSPA+, SAE/LTE and LTE-Advanced, is a comprehensive resource intended to assist members of the wireless industry as well as interested members of the general public in understanding details of the work in 3GPP on Release 9 and Release 10. In addition, the report further describes the features of Release 8 that were closed in March 2009.

Release 9, which is targeted for completion by March 2010, will provide increased feature functionality and performance enhancements to both HSPA and LTE. The report reviews additional multi-carrier and MIMO options for HSPA and features and enhancements to support emergency services, location services and broadcast services for LTE. Other Release 9 enhancements include those to support Home NodeB/eNodeB (i.e. femtocells), Self-Organizing/Self-Optimizing Networks (SON) and the evolution of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture.

LTE will serve to unify the fixed and mobile broadband worlds. As an all IP-based technology, LTE will allow expansion of the Internet experience on mobile devices and deliver multimedia content to the screen of choice. The vast majority of leading operators, device and infrastructure manufacturers support LTE as the mobile broadband technology of the future and, according to Informa Telecoms & Media, 130 global operators have announced trials or intentions to evolve their networks to LTE. Two commercial networks have already been launched in Norway and Sweden by TeliaSonera in 2009 and as many as 20 will be launched in 2010.

“All roads lead to LTE – for GSM, CDMA, newly licensed and potentially even WiMAX mobile operators,” Pearson added. “The appeal of the 3GPP technology roadmap is no longer suited for only GSM operators.”

While work for Release 9 is nearing completion, significant progress has already been made in 3GPP on work for Release 10, which includes LTE-Advanced. In fact, 3GPP already submitted a proposal in October 2009 based on LTE-Advanced for the IMT-Advanced evaluation and certification process led by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The ITU has defined requirements that will officially define and certify technologies as IMT-Advanced, or 4G, and is expected to evaluate submitted proposals by standards organizations for potential certification in the 2010 timeframe; certified 4G/IMT-Advanced technology specifications are projected to be published by early 2011.

As part of Release 10, some of the key LTE-Advanced technology enhancements include carrier aggregation, multi-antenna enhancements and relays. Assuming LTE-Advanced is certified to be IMT-Advanced compliant, 3GPP targets completion of the Release 10 specification by year-end 2010.

“The white paper by 3G Americas provides an excellent overview of the work by 3GPP in determining the standards on the path to 4G,” Scrase said.

The popular white paper, 3GPP Mobile Broadband Innovation Path to 4G: Release 9, Release 10 and Beyond: HSPA+, SAE/LTE and LTE-Advanced, was written collaboratively by members of 3G Americas and is available for free download here.

Informa LTE Awards 2010 at the LTE World Summit

Last year I covered the Femto Forum Awards at the Femtocells World Summit and have in past also covered the LTE World Summit in quite details. This year I will again be attending the LTE World summit and will hopefully be able to cover the LTE Awards in detail.

Nav4All chiude i battenti a causa di Nokia?

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Riteniamo sia una grande perdita data la portata del progetto che, ricordiamo, vanta quasi 30 milioni di utenti per circa 57 lingue coperte, ed una grande quantità di piattaforme [...]

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