Much more recently, why do all of the tier-one wireless carriers in the USA refer to their fourth generation (4G) cellular service offering as LTE (Long Term Evolution)?  How many consumers know what LTE means (that’s it’s the name of a cellular standard) or would even care if you explained it to them?

Why did T-Mobile USA refer to the HSPA standard (that they were rolling out) as “4G” before the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) designated it as a 4G technology?

Why was this “LTE” terminology so important that there could have been litigation?

The answer is: Branding and Market Positioning

The point is that the wireless carrier ecosystem is fiercely competitive and the mobile network operators have learned over the years that capturing “mindshare” or the hearts and minds (so to speak) of their customers (and potential customers they can steal from competitors) is very important.

Each carrier wants to position its own brand in the marketplace as being the most up-to-date, best value, fastest, most reliable, easiest to use, etc.

Even more recently, we have Samsung claiming to be developing 5G technology to be available in 2020.

What will it be like?  The company claims that using its new adaptive array transceiver technology, such bands can work for high-speed cellular networks, and that the technology allows it to transmit data in the millimeter-wave band at a frequency of 28 GHz at a speed of up to 1.056 Gbps to a distance of up to 2 kilometers.

That would represent a considerable leap above current 4G bandwidth.  However, the reality is often much different than the theoretical and 2020 is a long time from now.

In marketing terms, what is important is not the actual speed so much as being considered as being the best service provider.

In this regard, the carriers better be careful, because our research indicates that the smartphone and application store era is causing end-users to start to identify more with their application, content, and commerce providers more than their communications providers.  Even worse, with the advent of the so-called over-the-top (OTT) VoIP and messaging providers, the communications providers are not even the carriers.  The carriers are relegated to providing only raw (e.g. non-value-added) data providers.

This all underscores the need for carriers to be very careful to do the following:

1. Be VERY careful how they define/position themselves
2. Develop mobile value-added services (MVAS)
3. Develop a variety of MVAS including content, commerce, communications, and applications
4. Develop strategic partnerships with trusted third-parties
5. Maintain a developer program for the non-trusted parties
6. Continue to open up the network via various API interfaces
7. Finally, coordinate #’s 5 and 6 above so that certain core capabilities are available to trusted parties

For more information see:

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/MobileVAS2013.php

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/SDM_2012-2017.php

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/TelecomAPI_2012-2016.php

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/TelephonyAPI_EcoValuBusModMktOpp.php

The 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) developed 3G systems for efficient data support. The 3GPP2 first introduced the HRPD (high rate packet data) system that used various advanced techniques optimized for data traffic such as channel sensitive scheduling, fast link adaptation and hybrid ARQ, etc.

The fourth generation (4G) of cellular via the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard was introduced in 3GPP Release 8 as the next major step for UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). It provides an enhanced user experience for broadband wireless networks. LTE supports a scalable bandwidth from 1.25 to 20MHz, as well as both FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex).

GSM

The GSM standard was developed as a replacement for first generation (1G) analog cellular networks, and originally described a digital, circuit switched network optimized for full duplex voice telephony. This was expanded over time to include data communications, first by circuit switched transport, then packet data transport via GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution or EGPRS).

W-CMDA

Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the International Telecommunications Union IMT-2000 standard set and compares with the CDMA2000 standard set for networks based on the competing cdmaOne technology. UMTS uses Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency and bandwidth to mobile network operators.

HSPA

High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile telephony protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), that extends and improves the performance of existing 3rd generation mobile telecommunication networks utilizing the WCDMA protocols. A further improved 3GPP standard, Evolved HSPA (also known as HSPA+), was released late in 2008 with subsequent worldwide adoption beginning in 2010. The newer standard allows bit-rates to reach as high as 168 Mbit/s in the downlink and 22 Mbit/s in the uplink.

TD-SCDMA

Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) or UTRA/UMTS-TDD 1.28 Mcps Low Chip Rate (LCR), is an air interface found in UMTS mobile telecommunications networks in China as an alternative to W-CDMA. Together with TD-CDMA, it is also known as UMTS-TDD or IMT 2000 Time-Division (IMT-TD).

D-SCDMA was developed in the People’s Republic of China by the Chinese Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT), Datang Telecom, and Siemens AG in an attempt to avoid dependence on Western technology. This is likely primarily for practical reasons, since other 3G formats require the payment of patent fees to a large number of Western patent holders.

CDMA-2000/EV-DO

CDMA is a “spread spectrum” technology, allowing many users to occupy the same time and frequency allocations in a given band/space. CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) assigns unique codes to each communication to differentiate it from others in the same spectrum. In a world of finite spectrum resources, CDMA enables many more people to share the airwaves at the same time than do alternative technologies.

The CDMA air interface is used in both 2G and 3G networks. 2G CDMA standards are branded cdmaOne™ and include IS-95A and IS-95B. CDMA is the foundation for 3G services: the two dominant IMT-2000 standards, CDMA-2000 and WCDMA, are based on CDMA.

WiFi

Wi-Fi is a popular technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data wirelessly (using radio waves) over a computer network, including high-speed Internet connections. The Wi-Fi Alliance defines Wi-Fi as any “wireless local area network (WLAN) products that are based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) 802.11 standards”. However, since most modern WLANs are based on these standards, the term “Wi-Fi” is used in general English as a synonym for “WLAN”. A device that can use Wi-Fi (such as a personal computer, video-game console, smartphone, tablet, or digital audio player) can connect to a network resource such as the Internet via a wireless network access point. Such an access point (or hotspot) has a range of about 20 meters (65 feet) indoors and a greater range outdoors

Due to WiFi’s growing popularity carriers are now also beginning to integrate it with their own cellular networks. Carrier WiFi can be owned and operated directly or indirectly by the carrier. WiFi is becoming a key focus for mobile carriers as more and more wireless carriers are considering it as a cost effective solution for tackling skyrocketing consumer data demand (and cable carriers wishing to expand their fixed broadband market appeal).

WiMAX

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a wireless communications standard designed to provide 30 to 40 megabit-per-second data rates, with the 2011 update providing up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations. The name “WiMAX” was created by the WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformity and interoperability of the standard. The forum describes WiMAX as “a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL.

Mobile WiMAX was a replacement candidate for cellular phone technologies such as GSM and CDMA, or can be used as an overlay to increase capacity. Fixed WiMAX is also considered as a wireless backhaul technology for 2G, 3G, and 4G networks in both developed and developing nations.

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

LTE or Long Term Evolution, marketed as 4G LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using a different radio interface together with core network improvements. The standard is developed by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and is specified in its Release 8 document series, with minor enhancements described in Release 9.

It is the next step in mobile technology evolution, created to improve the 3G phone standard to cope with future demand and faster data services. Amongst its objectives includes improving spectral efficiencies, lowering costs, making use of newly available spectrum, creating the possibility to re-farm, and reallocate spectrum opportunities, and integration with a host of open standards, including those related to Internet Protocol.  LTE uses OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) in the downlink and SCFDMA (Single Carrier-Frequency Division Multiple Access)/DFTS-FDMA (Discrete Fourier Transform Spread-Frequency Division Multiple Access) in the uplink. The system supports multi antenna technologies, whose architecture is called EPS (Evolved Packet System), and is comprised of the E-UTRAN (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) on the access side, and Evolved Packet Core (EPC) on the core side.

Small Cells

Small cells is an umbrella term for low-powered radio access nodes that operate in licensed and unlicensed  spectrum that have a range of 10 meter to several hundred meters. These contrast with a typical mobile macrocell which might have a range of up to several tens of kilometers. The term covers femtocells, picocells, microcells and metrocells

Small cells provide improved cellular coverage, capacity and applications for homes and enterprises as well as metropolitan and rural public spaces.

Small cells also facilitate a new breed of mobile service that exploits the technology’s ability to detect presence, and connect and interact with existing networks.

For more information see:

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/WirelessInfrastructure_2012-2017.php

Square now processes $10 billion in annual mobile payment transactions. More than 2 million U.S. businesses and individuals use the firm’s services, including its signature Card Reader, which enables user to swipe credit and debit cards through a dongle plugged into Apple iOS and Google Android smartphones and tablets.  Square already offers Square Directory, an online site that recommends local merchants that accept its mobile payment services.

Mobile commerce is expected to attain an annual compound growth rate of 39 percent over the next five years. This growth is driven by the introduction of the tablets and the next generation smartphones. Mind Commerce predicts that the location commerce will be one of the key initiatives across the mobile/wireless value chain within the next three years.

For more information see:

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/MobileLocationCommerce_2012-2017.php

AT&T’s project Velocity IP (VIP) represents the deployment of more than 40,000 small

Bill Smith, president of network operations at AT&T, was recently heard to say that with VIP, AT&T is deploying both small cells and distributed antenna systems, or DAS.  This year the company is focusing primarily on indoor deployments such as shopping malls and hotels, which will make for a better customer experience, particularly VoLTE.

The associated savings in both CAPEX and OPEX, together with higher throughout rates make WiFi and small cell deployments make WiFi and small cells a necessity for Carriers worldwide. Mind commerce, thus expects that Carrier WiFi and small cells infrastructure market will grow at a CAGR of nearly 37% over the next five years eventually accounting for nearly USD 9 Billion in revenues by the end of 2017.

Meanwhile, there is downward price pressure on voice services and even basic data service.  There is an increasing awareness of Internet Protocol (IP) being cheap source of transport, and hence more people becoming aware of VoIP, and therefore Over the Top (OTT) VoIP alternatives.

However, simply deploying VoLTE will not be enough for the carriers.   All bearer services (voice and data) are becoming marginalized due to market expectations, economic conditions, and a coming supply side expansion in terms of network capacity. Incumbent carriers leverage IMS, SDP, and other NGN technologies to offer their own differentiating capabilities and service offerings. Network operators must leverage IMS, SDP, and other NGN technologies to offer their own differentiating capabilities and service offerings.

For more information see:

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/CarrierWiFi_SmallCells_2012-2017.php

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/MktOpp_VoLTE_CallContinuity.php

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/MktOpp_FreeVoIP_VoLTE.php

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/IMS_BeyondVoLTE.php

China Mobile is testing a GSM version of the City Site, but Ericsson says the small cell can also support 3G and LTE. Depending upon the frequency band and coverage and capacity requirements, the City Site can cover anywhere from 50 meters to 200 meters.

Carrier WiFi and Small Cells Value Chain

A Qualcomm executive recently said that Qualcomm’s vision of the wireless future includes consumer electronics devices that integrate small cells, which could be used for sharing bandwidth with other nearby mobile users. The small cells would be part of a deployment model Qualcomm calls “Neighborhood Small Cells.”

For more information about our research in small cells and WiFi, see:

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/CarrierWiFi_SmallCells_2012-2017.php

Enterprise Corporate Dashboard

The notion of a Corporate Dashboard is a key ingredient to the success of RCS in an enterprise environment as the company can control the following:

• Presentation Environment: The look and feel of the interface
• Integrate all Important Applications: Full corporate integration of voice, text, email and CRM tools such as Salesforce.com
• Presence and Location: Enable tracking of sales force and corporate assets (vehicles, equipment, inventory, etc.) allowing for improved coordination of work activities. 

Enterprise Corporate Dashboard

For more information, see:

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/MktOpp_RCS.php

Telephony API Management

For more information, see:

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/TelephonyAPI_EcoValuBusModMktOpp.php

• Coaxial cables
• Splitters
• Taps
• Attenuators
• Filters
• Terminators
• Circulators
• Couplers

The number of antennas to use and the output power are important parameters that must be planned carefully and will be very dependent on the kind of environment. Both in single cell and multi-cell environments, DAS using an efficient power control increase capacity and reduce interference.  It is interesting to compare the performance of DAS with a system using a single antenna to evaluate the interest of such an approach.

Active DAS is unlike passive systems which do not require use of electronic component active DAS use different active elements:

• The master unit
• Remote unit
• Cable

The passive components are not needed any more, which is why the installation of an active system is easier. Indeed, the losses are automatically compensated by the master unit and the remote unit: there is no need to choose splitters and attenuators to adjust the losses, and no need to measure accurately the length of the cables.

Some other solutions combining passive DAS and active DAS have been installed. The idea is to connect the remote units via fiber optic, but to use passive coaxial cabling to link these remote units to the antennas. The combined method has the advantages of covering a long distance thanks to the fiber optic connection, and a cheaper price due to the passive components. Hybrid DAS can also combine different systems with different frequency bands. Due to the simplicity of radio over fiber installation, there are many possible solutions, such as combining the distributed antenna system with repeaters.

Passive systems are less expensive but the initial setup is costly due to the coaxial cabling. In fact active systems provide better performance and easier installation but more expansive. The advantage of passive systems is that there no electronic system has to be installed or power supplied. Hybrid DAS is a good compromise however it requires installation of coaxial cables.  One good advantage of active systems is that it’s easier to manager because of the automatic diagnostics and alarms are integrated into the remote units, which makes the system failure problems easier to solve.

This technology is ideal for covering long narrow spaces. The main advantage of the radiating cable is that the energy is well distributed. For example, in a corridor, it provides homogeneous coverage all along the cable compared with the use of numerous base stations along the corridor, where the energy is distributed around the base stations. With a radiating cable, a single base station may be able to provide coverage over a large area, reducing the cost of system implementation. A disadvantage is the difficult and expensive installation. The installation is time consuming and it is not always easy to find the available space to install it. The cable must be aligned perfectly so that the slots can leak with minimum loss. Moreover the cable must not be installed directly against a wall but some space must be left, thanks to some special adapters  Finally, especially inside tunnels (for example with trains making dust), the dirt degrades the performance of the cable. Therefore the cable must be regularly cleaned.

Self Organizing Network (SON) functionality is typically geared towards managing base stations (macro, pico or femto) in cellular networks. DAS coverage solution networks are often provided by vendors besides the vendors providing the RAN. These coverage solution networks are often managed by an EMS separate from that managing the RAN.

For more information, see:

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/SON_ChallOpp_2013.php

End-users will be able to store music, pictures videos, games, etc. in the cloud and access them anytime, anywhere and share them with others.  The question for the end-user is: “how can I have more room, that’s also safe and isn’t tied to my phone or tablet?”

A debate remains what type of company should provide the storage.    As a case in point, Verizon Wireless offers “Verizon Cloud” as a competitor to pure play companies such as Drive, Dropbox, SkyDrive, Evernote, Mega, etc.

RCS is uniquely positioned to both be a single-point of interface for all stored content and a multi-media, multi-modal dashboard for all content and applications.

For more information, see:

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/MktOpp_RCS.php

Stages of M2M

Data Acquisition

The process of M2M communication begins with taking data out of a machine so that it can be sent over a network and analysed. The data may be output of a sensor of any type.

There’s a major difference in monitoring an intelligent machine and so-called dumb machine. The intelligence of a monitored machine may be as simple as a temperature sensor, level indicator or contact closure, or it may be an industrial computer system with a Modbus communication port. Monitoring a “dumb” machine may mean directly connecting to and monitoring one or more limit switches, contact closures or analogue outputs. With an intelligent electronic device, it may be possible to simply connect to the equipment’s serial port and ask for the data.

The goal of the M2M hardware is to bridge the intelligence in the machine with the communication network. An intelligent wireless data module is physically integrated with the monitored machine and programmed to understand the machine’s protocol (the way it sends and receives data).

If the monitored machine is configured as an intelligent master device, it may treat the M2M device as a simple wireless modem, loading it up with data and then instructing it to transmit that data to the network. If the machine is just a collection of switches and sensors or is an intelligent slave device, the M2M device can act as the master device. In this mode, it takes charge by periodically polling the device by reading the sensors and switches or by sending data requests through the serial port.

In a high end application like a major electric utility substation, it may be necessary to send a constant stream of real time data describing the machine or process. But in many cases, this is not necessary or worth the cost. In these cases, the M2M device should minimize the amount of data to be sent by constantly reviewing the data, comparing it against programmable alarm limits or set-points, and then only transmitting real time information when a reading is out-of-limits.

In addition the application will typically be programmed to send complete data updates on a time scheduled basis or anytime upon request from the web server.

Data Transmission

The data collected has to be transmitted through a communication network. There are several good options for transporting data from the remote equipment to the network operation center. The cellular network, telephone lines, and communication satellites are all common solutions.

The telephone may be the best choice if a line is already installed and the cost can be shared with other uses. Its disadvantage is usually the on-going monthly cost and sometimes the cost and difficulty of installation. Satellite may be the most expensive solution, but is often the best or only solution for monitoring equipment in very remote areas.

The wide spread coverage of the cellular network is the main reason M2M is getting so much attention these days, and it’s usually the method that fits best. There are several methods of sending data over the cellular network. GSM, CDMA and GPRS are widespread and their coverage areas continue to grow. The advantage of these systems is the ability to send large amounts of data frequently. The costs continue to drop.

Connecting to the cellular or satellite network typically requires the use of a gateway. A gateway receives data from the wireless communication network and converts it so that it can be sent to the network operation center, often over the Internet or by a frame relay (phone line) connection. Data security features such as authentication and access control can be managed by the gateway and the application software.

The gateway also has an important role when the flow of data is reversed, going from a network to the machine for data requests and remote control. The gateway still functions as a protocol converter, but this time it takes high-bandwidth Internet protocols and converts them to low-bandwidth wireless protocols so the data is optimized for transfer over a cellular network.

Data Analysis

Data from a company’s networked machines usually shows up in one of two places: in enterprise software application the company already uses, or in a standalone system designed specifically for M2M.

Today’s deployments tend to favour standalone systems for applications such as remote monitoring because most M2M application providers specialize in providing these and there can be additional costs involved with integrating new data into existing systems.

Still, the vast majority of opportunities for M2M revolve around taking data out of machines and integrating it with operational data. For example, remote monitoring data can be incorporated into customer relationship management systems for logging service and maintenance history.

Whether the application is standalone or part of a larger system, the common goal is to automate a business process by automating the flow of data to the people and systems that does the analysis. The technology should enable sending the right data to the right place in the right way depending on the circumstances. It should also present data to individual users based on their specific function in the business process.

Of course, none of this technology is specific to M2M; the whole purpose of business software is to keep people from having to do everything manually. The new element that M2M brings to the picture is that now companies have new data to work with, data that is central to the way they operate and the value they provide.

For more information, see:

http://www.mindcommerce.com/Publications/MNO_M2MStrategies.php