Support of Third Generation Services using UMTS in a Converging

Transcription

Network Environment
UMTS
Forum
Report 14 from the UMTS Forum
Support of Third
Generation Services
using UMTS in a
Converging Network
Environment
 UMTS Forum, 2002
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This report has been produced by the UMTS Forum, an association of
telecommunications operators, manufacturers and regulators. The UMTS Forum
comprises IT and media industries interested in broadband mobile multimedia that are
active both in Europe and other parts of the world and who share the vision of UMTS
(Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). These are key industry members of
the Forum and have contributed significantly to this report. In terms of a technology
platform UMTS will move mobile communications forward from today’s environment to
the Information Society incorporating third generation mobile services that will deliver
speech, data, pictures, graphics, video communication and other wideband
information direct to people on the move. UMTS UTRA (Universal Terrestrial Radio
Access) is a member of the IMT-2000 family of standards.
This report has been generated by one of the UMTS Forum Working Groups, the
Information and Communication Technologies Group (ICTG), which addresses the
issues of Services and Applications, Devices, Billing & Charging and Content for the
deployment of UMTS / Third Generation networks.
Report 14 is one of the family members of UMTS Forum reports. It deals with “Support
of Third Generation Services using UMTS in a Converging Network Environment”.
Other outputs from the Forum cover technical aspects, economic conditions, and
licensing issues.
The views and conclusions in this Report are purely those found and expressed
during the work of creating this document and exempts National Administrations who
are UMTS Forum members from being bound to them.
Version 11
Copyright  UMTS Forum, 2002. All rights reserved. Reproductions of this publication in part
for non-commercial use are allowed if the source is stated. For other use, please contact the
UMTS Forum Secretariat, Russell Square House, 10-12 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EE,
UK; Telephone +44 20 7331 2020. Web: www.umts-forum.org
All possible care has been taken to assure that the information in this report is accurate.
However, no warranty of any kind can be given with regard to this material. The UMTS Forum
shall not be liable for any errors contained in the report or for incidental consequential
damages in connection with the use of the material.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY......................................................................................... VII
1.1
2.
BACKGROUND .........................................................................................................1
2.1
2.2
3.
SERVICE CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS ...................................................................... VII
CONVERGENCE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES ...........................................................1
A MARKET PERSPECTIVE OF A FUTURE CONVERGING W ORLD ........................................1
CONTENT FRAMEWORK ARCHITECTURE ...........................................................4
3.1 SERVICE TYPES ............................................................................................................4
3.2 CONTENT QUALIFIERS...................................................................................................4
3.3 CONTENT AGGREGATION, DISSEMINATION AND CONSUMPTION ARCHITECTURE ...............5
3.4 FROM DESCRIPTIONS TO CONTENT................................................................................6
3.5 THE USE OF METADATA ................................................................................................7
3.6 PRESENCE TECHNOLOGY ..............................................................................................9
3.7 PRESENCE AND ITS EVOLUTION ...................................................................................10
3.8 MULTIMEDIA CODECS..................................................................................................12
3.8.1 Multimedia Architectures ..................................................................................12
3.8.2 General Multimedia Codecs.............................................................................12
3.8.3 Web Codecs.....................................................................................................13
3.8.4 Multimedia CD-ROM and Presentation Codecs ..............................................13
3.8.5 Hardware and Capture Codecs........................................................................13
3.8.6 Audio Codecs ...................................................................................................14
4.
ACCESS AND NETWORK ASPECTS ....................................................................15
4.1 MOBILE NETWORKS ....................................................................................................15
4.2 FIXED W IRELESS NETWORKS ......................................................................................16
4.3 BROADCAST NETWORKS .............................................................................................16
4.4 SHORT RANGE SYSTEMS ............................................................................................16
4.5 NETWORK SCENARIOS ................................................................................................20
4.5.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................20
4.5.2 Content Sharing ...............................................................................................20
4.5.3 A Return Channel using UMTS........................................................................21
4.5.4 Network Sharing and Terminal Integration.......................................................23
4.5.5 DxB as an Extension to UMTS/3G...................................................................23
4.6 LEGAL ASPECTS .........................................................................................................23
4.6.1 Legal Aspects for Cellular-Broadcasting Convergence ...................................23
4.6.2 Questions Raised on Terminals .......................................................................24
5.
APPLICATIONS AND SERVICES...........................................................................25
5.1 THE COMPONENTS OF A 3G APPLICATION....................................................................25
5.1.1 Basic Elements.................................................................................................25
5.1.2 Privacy and Security.........................................................................................27
5.1.3 Authentication, Authorisation and Accounting .................................................31
5.2 EXISTING STANDARDISATION W ORK ............................................................................33
5.2.1 Main Standardisation Bodies and Specification Providers...............................35
5.2.2 Open Items in Standardisation.........................................................................38
5.2.3 High-Level Requirements on Standards ..........................................................38
5.3 APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS .....................................................................................39
5.3.1 Application Platforms........................................................................................39
5.3.2 Operating Systems...........................................................................................40
5.3.3 Design and User Interface ...............................................................................40
6.
APPLICATION AND CONTENT DELIVERY MODELLING ....................................44
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6.1 INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................44
6.2 SAMPLE APPLICATION MODELS FOR A MUSIC-ON-DEMAND SERVICE .............................44
6.3 PROPOSAL FOR A REFINEMENT OF THE ANALYTICAL APPROACH....................................47
6.3.1 Levels of Signalling ..........................................................................................47
6.3.2 Differentiation between Audio and Visual Content...........................................49
6.4 3G TRAFFIC ASYMMETRY............................................................................................49
7.
LOCATION-BASED SERVICES..............................................................................52
7.1 INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................52
7.2 VALUE AND INFORMATION CHAINS ...............................................................................52
7.3 MULTIPLICITY OF POSITIONING METHODS ....................................................................54
7.4 IMPACT ON NETWORKS ...............................................................................................57
7.5 IMPACT ON TERMINALS................................................................................................58
7.6 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POSITIONING TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES .........................59
7.7 STANDARDISATION REQUIREMENTS FOR INTERFACES ...................................................60
7.8 SERVICE CLASSIFICATION ...........................................................................................61
7.8.1 Mobile Equipment-Initiated Location Services .................................................62
7.8.2 Third Party-Initiated Services ...........................................................................62
7.9 SERVICE USAGE SCENARIOS .......................................................................................63
7.9.1 General User Perceptions ................................................................................63
7.9.2 Usage Scenario for Navigation Services..........................................................63
7.9.3 Usage Scenario for Friend Finder Service .......................................................64
7.10 CHARGING MODELS ....................................................................................................65
7.11 LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR 3G LOCATION SERVICES .......................................................66
8.
BILLING & CHARGING ...........................................................................................67
8.1 INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................67
8.2 CHARGING AND BILLING PRINCIPLES ............................................................................67
8.2.1 What are the Services that UMTS will Enable? ...............................................67
8.2.2 What are the Charging Attributes to be Used? ................................................69
8.2.3 When is the User Notified of the Charge?........................................................72
8.2.4 What are the Bundling Options? ......................................................................73
8.2.5 How are the Payments Made?.........................................................................74
8.2.6 How is the Revenue Distributed?.....................................................................77
8.3 MOBILE RETAILING (M-TAILING) ...................................................................................77
8.3.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................77
8.3.2 Processes.........................................................................................................78
8.3.3 Value Chain......................................................................................................83
8.3.4 Rating and Charging Attributes ........................................................................84
8.3.5 Standardisation Requirements.........................................................................85
8.4 LOCATION-BASED SERVICES .......................................................................................85
8.4.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................85
8.4.2 Processes.........................................................................................................86
8.4.3 Value Chain......................................................................................................87
8.5 BROADCASTING ..........................................................................................................88
8.5.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................88
8.5.2 Processes.........................................................................................................88
8.5.3 Value Chain......................................................................................................92
9.
ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY......................................................................94
10.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................106
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1: Service Scenarios........................................................................................................ viii
Figure 2.1: The Gateway Concept for Service Delivery Convergence ............................................ 1
Figure 3.1: Examples of UMTS Service Types................................................................................ 4
Figure 3.2: Content Aggregation, Dissemination and Consumption Architecture ........................... 6
Figure 4.1: Comparison of Bit Rates and Delivery Mechanisms ................................................... 15
Figure 4.2: Content Sharing and Re-Purposing............................................................................. 21
Figure 4.3: Return Channel with Integrated Terminal.................................................................... 22
Figure 4.4: Return Channel with Separate Terminals ................................................................... 22
Figure 5.1: Main Standardisation Bodies....................................................................................... 35
Figure 5.2: Organisational Relationships in Standardisation......................................................... 39
Figure 6.1: MP3 Downloads in Europe .......................................................................................... 44
Figure 6.2: Music-on-Demand – Streaming Mode......................................................................... 45
Figure 6.3: Levels of Signalling...................................................................................................... 49
Figure 7.1: Information Chain for Location-Based Services .......................................................... 53
Figure 7.2: Role of the Locator ...................................................................................................... 54
Figure 7.3: Classification of Positioning Methods .......................................................................... 56
Figure 7.4: Standardised and Non-Standardised Interfaces ......................................................... 61
Figure 7.5: High-Level Procedures for Friend Finder Service ....................................................... 65
Figure 8.1: Vending Communication via UMTS Network .............................................................. 79
Figure 8.2: Vending Process.......................................................................................................... 80
Figure 8.3: Vending Communication with the Mobile Device via a Local Network........................ 82
Figure 8.4: Vending Machine Scenario.......................................................................................... 83
Figure 8.5: Vending Machine Scenario Value Chain ..................................................................... 84
Figure 8.6: Restaurant Locator Process Example ......................................................................... 86
Figure 8.7: Location-Based Services Value Chain ........................................................................ 87
Figure 8.8: Broadcast Processes................................................................................................... 89
Figure 8.9: Pay per View Scenario ................................................................................................ 90
Figure 8.10: Pay per Session Scenario ......................................................................................... 91
Figure 8.11: Recurring Charge Scenario ....................................................................................... 92
Figure 8.12: Broadcast Value Chain.............................................................................................. 93
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.1: UMTS/3G Service Categories ........................................................................................ix
Table 3.1: The Six Dimensions of UMTS Content Qualifiers........................................................... 5
Table 3.2: Multimedia Codecs ....................................................................................................... 13
Table 4.1: Bluetooth Profiles.......................................................................................................... 18
Table 4.2: Comparison of Key Technical Parameters for Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 and HomeRF
(SWAP) ........................................................................................................................ 19
Table 5.1: European Standards Development Organisations ....................................................... 33
Table 6.1: Requirements of Content Delivery Models ................................................................... 47
Table 6.2: Estimates of Traffic Asymmetry in UMTS Networks..................................................... 51
Table 7.1: Advantages and Disadvantages of Positioning Methods ............................................. 57
Table 7.2: Relationship between Positioning Technology and Services ....................................... 60
Table 8.1: Broadcast Payment Models .......................................................................................... 92
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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1
SERVICE CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS
In the near future, any content will be able to reach cellular, Internet or broadcasting
users regardless of the transport path and delivery mechanism. This will create a
single, seamless mass medium that will combine the reach, quality and emotion of
information with the needs of the network user. Increased agility for multimedia
services including those offered on the Internet and other third party sources is what
people are looking for. The challenge is driving multiple data streams over
complementary networks to different types of devices.
Much of the emphasis in this Report is on the convergence of technologies and the
impact on Services, Applications, Content, Devices and Charging. A single killer
application has not yet been identified but it is probable that there are a large number
of them in the market. It is up to the network operator to find the unique one – if at all.
There are two different aspects to future media convergence:
!
New, enhanced services and applications that may be enabled not only by the
joint use of telecommunications and broadcasting networks but also by seamless
and overlapping environments (remote office and virtual homes);
!
Co-operation of broadcasting and telecommunications networks including its
impact on technical, economic, commercial and regulatory aspects.
The same applies to convergence technologies in the access area. Content of
services must appeal to price-insensitive users, but the price must also make them
affordable and attractive to a significant number of price-sensitive consumers. Current
business models for value capture have assumed traditional services that flow linearly
from the network to the user and revenues that flow in the opposite direction. Pricing
(the price the “end customer” pays), charging (the consolidated overall cost of the
product or service to be billed for) and rating (the application and location of product or
service charges, varied by parameters derived independently from both user and
service-specific variables) are going to develop in new and perhaps unexpected ways.
Young people who have grown up surrounded by digital information think about and
seek information differently than their parents. They expect interfaces to be intuitive.
They are accustomed to pointing and clicking, not typing. They want the answers in
packets that are concise, intelligent, and readable from their devices. So information
needs to be smart, concise and loaded with value!
The trend of re-purposing information also means that copyright, as we know it, is
going to get stretched and pulled far beyond its current shape. How do we deal with a
generation of information consumers that is accustomed to freely sharing audio files,
open-source code, and shareware? Do we insert a digital watermark on all data and
then hope to surface it later, when material has been incorporated into an entirely
unanticipated application? Do we try to limit access to copyrighted material? Some of
these issues have been addressed in this Report but a number of questions remain to
be answered.
Compelling services and applications will add value, embed many useful features, and
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be easy to use. All this should be immediately apparent to any consumer. Services
and applications also need to be seamless, intuitive, universal and intelligent. Again,
over-expectation should be avoided.
UMTS should not be an embarrassing over-estimation of both technical capabilities
and consumer appetite.
With the help of a few examples the feasibility of services is described in this Report.
The aim is to stimulate discussion and raise issues in all areas in order to be well
prepared for the mass deployment of UMTS services and the future co-operation
between networks.
The UMTS Forum recently published a new Market Study (UMTS Forum Report 13)
which indicates that there are revenue opportunities of up to US$1 trillion
(approximately Euro 1.15 trillion) to be made in UMTS/3G over the next decade. This
cannot happen overnight and will have to be well planned for a graceful ramp-up,
starting with a few common services and gradually moving to the ultimate offerings.
2.5 G
2G
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
UMTS
√
√
Unified
Communications
Instant/Unified
Communications
Ap
pli
Interactive
Se
catGames
rvi
ion
Interactive
s ce
Multimedia
& s
√
Advertising
√
LocationBased
Services
√
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 1.1: Service Scenarios
The current delivery speeds and tariff rates of GPRS services might not be
appropriate for many future applications. The mobile operator must be able to deliver
an appropriate package of services that will work in a roaming environment, both
nationally and across borders. It’s about being first to develop an end-to-end system,
ultimately targeting mobile devices, which allows provisioning of previously
unavailable services and content to an extraordinary growth market. Most market
studies are based on today’s knowledge combined with a forecast of future
opportunities. It is therefore, important to analyse services, applications and content to
ensure that network capabilities and resources can cope with the delivery of the
predicted services.
It is very important that the evolution from 2G/2.5G to 3G (Figure 1.1) incorporates:
!
A minimum set of services that will work;
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!
Revision levels of software across different networks to guarantee interoperability;
!
A sound understanding of rating and charging challenges with appropriate
systems installed.
The UMTS Forum Market Study results show that service offerings will depend on
country specifics and cultural differences. It is important to understand not only how
each market embraces technology but also its approach towards work and lifestyle.
The main service categories identified in the market study are presented in Table 1.1.
Service Category
Rich Voice Simple
Rich Voice Enhanced
Location-Based Services
Multimedia Messaging Service
(Business)
(Consumer)
Mobile Internet Access
Mobile Internet / Extranet Access
Customised Infotainment
Segmentation
Data in:
Business + Consumer
B+C
B+C
B
UMTS Forum Report 13
UMTS Forum Report 9
C
UMTS Forum Report 9
C
B
C
UMTS Forum Report 9
UMTS Forum Report 9
Source: UMTS Forum
Table 1.1: UMTS/3G Service Categories
This report covers four important categories of service offerings and looks at a
framework from which service capabilities could derive. It is not meant to predict the
benefits of any one service or application over another. The intention is to allow for
space to further develop these areas until a better understanding of the market has
been achieved. Two services have been used as examples: 1) Location-based
services, and 2) Broadcasting content. These two give a comprehensive overview that
is relevant to other service offerings as well.
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2. BACKGROUND
2.1
CONVERGENCE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES
Convergence between telecommunications, media, entertainment, IT and computing
is being driven by the undisputed importance of the Internet to the running of business
in the 21st Century. What is less certain is the pace of convergence and the degree to
which it will take place. One can perceive two distinct types of convergence.
The first is understood to be largely due to the rapid convergence between computing,
content and consumer electronics. But it also involves creating new requirements for
the different network platforms that carry the various types of content, for example,
voice, data, audio or video. This convergence within the market place will have an
associated impact on technology, leading to a functional divergence in the core
entities and both functional and technological convergence to some extent over time
in the access area.
Several access and delivery technologies are evolving and emerging in addition to
second and third generation mobile communications systems. Broadband WLAN
systems such as HiperLAN2 and IEEE 802.11x as well as broadcasting systems such
as DAB and DVB exist or are becoming available.
The second convergence type is understood to be on a purely service level, since
heavy network investments have been made in infrastructure and operators and
enterprises will be reluctant to abandon their investments until they have been fully
recovered. However, to be successful in providing converged communications
services, service providers must be able to combine the best of all worlds in terms of
up-time, connectivity, reliability and high quality of service. Both seamless services
and highly competitive tariffs need to be offered.
In all cases major challenges lie in the development and availability of devices. The
process of technological and service convergence in telecommunications, information
technology, and the broadcasting and multimedia industries also poses a number of
significant regulatory challenges.
From a user perspective the main advantage is service delivery at an affordable cost
by the most appropriate available network. Relevant factors include speed of delivery,
content and ease of use.
This Report considers some of the elements required to enable the delivery of mobile
multimedia, services and applications in an increasingly convergent environment. The
report first outlines some of the network environments under consideration. It then
goes on to discuss specific areas, highlighting both technical and legal challenges.
2.2
A MARKET PERSPECTIVE OF A FUTURE CONVERGING WORLD
Driven by the fact that multimedia-capable UMTS/3G networks will be inseparable
from rapid growth in data traffic, operators will seek revenue density to offset capital
costs. As well as enhanced services and applications playing an important role in 3G,
there will also be third party sources of content that meet users’ needs.
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Today, telecommunications and broadcast technologies are very successful and both
are playing an important role in society. The media industry is working towards
content distribution over all possible networks and the emerging UMTS/3G network
could be one of them. If UMTS/3G were to offer the wireless return channel then
Terrestrial Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-T) and UMTS would be complementary in
terms of service offerings.
However, only a specific set of services could be properly supported. In economic
terms, using cellular networks for multicasting or broadcasting networks for unicasting
may not be an optimal solution. Regulations in certain regions may not allow
unicasting to mobile devices within current broadcast spectrum allocations. The merits
of DVB-T lie in dense areas where it enables efficient usage of spectrum and fixed
networks. In low density areas, it can help in delivering personal services at a limited
deployment cost. This implies that regulations may need to evolve to allow DVB-T
broadcasters to transmit to mobile devices and so enable the delivery of personal
services in low density areas.
Figure 2.1 illustrates an example of a
level between DVB-T and UMTS/3G
Gateway connected to existing content
format to either delivery network. The
other functionality such as:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
first step towards convergence on a service
networks. With the use of a Convergence
platforms, content could be linked in the right
gateway could also be upgraded to support
Protocol translators and re-purposing of formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-7, MPEG-21);
QoS brokers;
Security, including digital rights management;
Scalability;
Encryption and decryption;
Signalling and positioning (terminal profile);
Screening of content.
The user devices for receiving the DVB-T and UMTS content could be separate but
linked devices.
A further enhancement could be DAB services directly connected to the gateway. This
offers a unique combination and an opportunity for all parties involved to ramp-up their
revenue stream.
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Content
Aggregation
LBS
User
DxB
UMTS
Forum
UMTS
Convergence
Gateway
MHP
Portals
Internet
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 2.1: The Gateway Concept for Service Delivery Convergence
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3. CONTENT FRAMEWORK ARCHITECTURE
3.1
SERVICE TYPES
UMTS networks will be used for many different content types and purposes. The
mind-map diagram in Figure 3.1 shows a non-exhaustive list of possible areas in
which UMTS devices and services may be deployed.
Guide me to
a place
Getting
somewhere
Plam a
route for me
bank
transaction
Vitual Private
Networks
voice call
private
Politics
company
Sports
beacon
Weather
News
manage
bank
accounts
personal
finance
ticketing
price hunt
Emergency
General
Information
mcommerce
shopping
parking fee
automatic
payment
Tourism
information
Book
making
Weather
Local
News
Content types suitable
for mobile devices
drive-in
shopping
FInance
Points of
Interest
Hotels
Traffic
data
transmission
charging toll
Commer
-cial Info
Commer
-cial Info
Local
Information
Tourism
Traffic
Ticketing
Public
Transport
Timetable
have fun
communicate
News
Info
real-time
delayed
voice call
Intenet life
messages
e-mail
video call
listen to
music
SMS
Fax
playing
games
Surfing
voice mail
broadcast
stream
Internet
chat
listen to words
Karaoke
watching video
download
broadcast
stream
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 3.1: Examples of UMTS Service Types
3.2
CONTENT QUALIFIERS
In order to derive requirements for head-ends, devices and services, it is essential to
categorise service content types in technical terms. Such a categorisation of content
qualifiers involves six dimensions (Table 3.1):
1.
Firstly, services will use different content types, such as video, general audio,
voice-only audio, formatted text, unformatted text, still pictures or a combination.
2.
This will lead to the second dimension: the choice of an appropriate coding
scheme or codec.
3.
A third dimension is the quality of the service, which depends not only on the
service and content types but also on the codec used. For example a “high”
quality for general audio material can be achieved by using MPEG-1 Layer 3
(MP3) at 128 kbit/s or MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding at 96 kbit/s or less. For a
video coding scheme, the quality of the service could be described by the
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resolution (x times y pixels), the frame rate, the colour depth and the compression
factor, resulting in a bit rate.
4.
A fourth dimension is how much delay can be accepted before the service
becomes unusable or, even, unpleasant. For example an emergency call will
need to be handled immediately whereas an off-line email can be allowed to
travel for some time.
5.
The fifth important dimension of content qualifiers is the question of whether rights
are governing the content or service and which digital rights management (DRM)
system is used to enforce these rights.
6.
Finally, the sixth dimension is the scalability of content information.
Qualifier
1.
Content Type
2.
Coding Scheme
(codec)
3.
Content
(Quality of Service)
4.
Acceptable Delay
5.
DRM
6.
Scalability
Examples
General audio
Voice-only audio
Still pictures
Moving pictures
Unformatted text
Formatted text.
MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3, for audio)
MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding (for general audio) and AAC3
HTML (for formatted text)
JPEG-2000 (for still pictures)
MPEG-4 Visual Main Profile (for moving pictures)
MPEG-7 (for metadata)
MPEG-21 (Streaming Framework).
Bit rate 100 kbit/s (for audio and video material)
Frame rate 25 fps (for moving pictures)
Picture size 100 x 200 pixel (for still and moving pictures)
Colour depth: 24 bit (for still and moving pictures)
Mono (for general and voice-only audio only).
Immediate / real-time
Delay < 3 seconds
Delay < 1 minute
Delay > 1 hour
Content may be lost without much harm.
No rules attached
Rules attached, no technical enforcement
Rules attached, technical enforcement
Regional coding.
Zooming of data information between the users and the server (vector
graphics)
Scalability of images irrespective of source type
Bit map and vector formats that allow scalability of level of detail of the
presentation.
Source: UMTS Forum
Table 3.1: The Six Dimensions of UMTS Content Qualifiers
3.3
CONTENT AGGREGATION, DISSEMINATION AND CONSUMPTION ARCHITECTURE
Figure 3.2 shows a generic Content Aggregation, Dissemination and Consumption
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Architecture. In order for a service to be deployed a service provider needs to ensure
all elements of this framework are working together seamlessly. Some important
aspects of this architecture are:
1. Content authoring — encoding the content into formats understood by mobile
devices and providing the content for streaming and downloading;
2. Content asset management — acquiring metadata for the content elements (e.g.
descriptive metadata and rights associated with the content) and offering such
data to the end user (or his intelligent automated agents);
3. Content re-purposing — automatically selecting the right content elements for the
right device (e.g. selecting a black and white film for a monochrome device while a
device with a colour display will, at the same time, receive a multi-chrome version
of the same content);
4. Edge network delivery — sending the content from the service head-end to the
mobile device and back and asserting that streams are delivered on time;
5. Interaction with content on the mobile device — rendering the content in
accordance with content rights, capabilities and end-user preferences;
6. Digital rights management — ensuring that content is always used in accordance
Edge Network Delivery
Re-Purposing
Asset Management
Content
Content Authoring
with the rules that content owners have established.
Interaction
on Mobile
Device
Digital Rights Management
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 3.2: Content Aggregation, Dissemination and Consumption Architecture
3.4
FROM DESCRIPTIONS TO CONTENT
MPEG-4 is a standard for multimedia applications that supports the creation of rich,
reusable, interactive, and transport-transparent multimedia content. MPEG-4 enables
the coding of (pictorial) objects and provides a better quality at low bit rates, compared
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with MPEG-2. MPEG-4 provides authors with standardised tools for creating content
with far greater reusability. It provides network service providers with transparent
information that can be interpreted and translated into the appropriate native signalling
messages of each network with the help of relevant standards bodies; and it provides
users with higher levels of interaction with content, within the limits set by the author.
MPEG-4 XMT provides a textual representation of MPEG-4 content, easing the
presentation using Synchronised Multimedia Integration Language, Extended Virtual
Reality Modelling Language and MPEG-4 players.
3.5
THE USE OF METADATA
In a telephone call, for example, Calling Line Identification (CLI) is a type of metadata;
encoded and transmitted in various and differing ways, with various controls on the
type of information sent and received. CLI is a good way of showing how the provision
of metadata can itself become an important driver that changes the user experience in
the day to day usage of a system. With the advent of IP telephony, and the ongoing
work towards text-based addressing, common user profiles and profile servers,
location-based services, and online directory services, the need for rich and extensible
meta-information at the call set-up phase is becoming more and more important. CLI
within the UMTS environment could take a metadata-driven approach where
information can be provided by the caller, extended or modified by the network, and
provided to the end-user’s handset.
The ongoing work in the MPEG-7 standard to create a system of content descriptions
is about enriching the content with metadata – information about the information that
is being provided to the user to describe the context of the information. The MP3
standard, for example, provides a metadata structure allowing the user to see the
name, album, year, track number, licensing information, comments and other
additional information provided as a part of the MP3 ID metadata.
Taking existing content and providing this to millions of users over a network such as
the Internet, for example, is easy. But finding relevant information has become more
difficult. Search engines usually offer thousands of query results if a user provides
popular or generic keywords; a large part of that problem is that it is still rare for
individuals to describe HTML-page or multimedia content adequately. Data about the
information in a resource, also called metadata, can allow the proper search and
processing of web pages. Metadata shifts the description of the content from the
string-matching level, where one can’t make decisions about a resource’s relevance,
to a conceptual level, where users can semantically describe what they are actually
looking for.
If the user wishes to make further decisions then rich metadata allows the user
interface to provide context and meaning, and deliver additional information. It is vital,
therefore, to ensure that the three fundamental purposes behind providing metadata
are present at every level of UMTS to ensure that content is easily searched for, easily
discovered, and easily identified.
So, metadata, or meta-information, can be defined as information about information. It
can be used for:
•
Abstracting and/or summarising the meaning of data,
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•
•
•
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Providing out-of-band information that can be used to allow users to search for the
data,
Allowing users to determine if the data is what they want,
Giving information that affects the use of data (legal, conditions, size, age, etc.),
Indicating relationship with other resources.
When talking about metadata, it’s important to talk about two different aspects. The
first, and most difficult part of the task is ensuring that metadata can be embedded at
every level of operation. There are standards for metadata encoding; for example, the
W3C has developed the Resource Description Framework (RDF), a type of XML
document, which can be used to describe an information object. The RDF format, a
simple and straightforward way of describing what is known as a “directed graph”, is
one of many formats used to store metadata. From this have come applications of
RDF technology such as RSS, a content format allowing the viewer to get “headlines”
from major websites using RDF-enabled applications without actually going to that
website with their web browser. RDF is flexible, adaptable, easily parsed and easily
generated.
The integration of metadata, however, is often technology specific. MP3, being a
binary format, allows for the introduction of information blocks. In this case, metadata
is stored in what is known as an IDv3 block – a metadata structure that, like RDF, is
expandable, but which exists at the beginning of the MP3 to allow for the metainformation to be sent first during streaming, before the audio data. It is specific to
audio and can contain lyrical and various other forms of information.
Unlike RDF, which is a generic technology used to encode any meta-information, the
IDv3 format is both a technical solution and a vocabulary of standard metadata fields.
The second and most important part of the task is to describe the metadata
information required; metadata is inherently application-driven. In order for metadata
to be successful, applications have to know which metadata they can process and
what the intended use of that information is. In the case of standards such as the MP3
IDv3 tags, the information encoded there is specific to audio, and tailored towards
providing interoperability, standardisation, and ubiquity. In a broader sense, one of the
most important initiatives on this front has been the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative1 –
expressible in a wide range of technologies. The Dublin Core is a foundation of
descriptors universal to many types of content and standardised across many different
areas. Information from the title, creator, publisher, down to language and rights
information are a part of the standard ‘dictionary’ of metadata elements and are
designed to be the core foundation behind any content-specific metadata initiative.
Ratification of a standard for using the Dublin Core elements within an RDF document
is imminent.
In the case of call set-up, for example, the caller could provide information as to his
name, company, job title or other personal information (such as that supplied in a
vcard), or supply the public key of the calling individual during authenticated calls. A
text-based addressing system might pass on not only the caller’s number and/or
1
www.dublincore.org
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location, but also the address text which the user actually dialled, allowing calling
systems to process and act on that information in a context-sensitive manner. The
many applications of metadata represent an important and fundamental improvement
in the usability of UMTS.
Like call set-up, each application within the UMTS environment should be examined to
discover and describe which types of metadata are applicable and useful. It is advised
that UMTS functionality, applications, services, and content use a uniform metadata
standard that can be interpreted and used by the end user in a reliable way. Doing this
means examining each of the protocols and services in use and deciding upon how
metadata information can best be provided, transported, and preserved (in the case of
persistent content).
Creating a standard for all metadata descriptors (the content fields themselves) as
well as the technologies used to deliver that metadata to handsets and the end user
must be immediately undertaken to ensure that delivery of meta-information is
possible within all UMTS functionality.
It is recommended that, wherever possible, RDF be used to represent content to
ensure forward and backward compatibility with schema changes. Where RDF cannot
be used easily, standard formats should be preferred which allow for forward and
backward compatibility of information.
It is recommended that standard metadata schema be created for each application
grouping to ensure that a broad set of standard metadata is available from every
application and handset.
MPEG-7 aims at normalising audio-visual (AV) content description in order to facilitate
information search (by query and/or by filtering). MPEG-7 compliant descriptions are
associated with the content they describe, to allow fast and efficient searching for and
filtering of material that is of interest to the user.
MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 standards will be used for content and description
representation, however, there is a need for further description tools (description of
synthetic objects) in order to provide new functionality allowing the authoring of more
generic and powerful content.
MPEG-J is a set of APIs by which MPEG-4 media players can inter-operate with Java
programs. The idea is that content creators should be able to embed programs with
their media data to enhance the audio-visual session, much as scripts are now
embedded in web pages.
3.6
PRESENCE TECHNOLOGY
Presence Technology is seen as one of the key technologies of the future. Beyond the
rudimentary notion of “on/off” presence associated with Instant Messaging (IM), “Rich
Presence” is technically defined as the subscription to and notification of changes in
the dynamically changing state of a user. The user state consists of the device state
and capabilities, communication addresses, willingness to communicate and
preferences, and the location and status of the user. The concept of Rich Presence
can bring about the ultimate personalisation in communication and has the potential to
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radically change the way we have communicated for hundreds of years. The following
sections describe the state of Presence Technology.
Rich Presence will represent a disruptive technology in the immediate future.
3.7
PRESENCE AND ITS EVOLUTION
In technical terms, “Presence” is defined as the subscription to and notification of
changes in communication states of a user, where the communication states consist
of a set of communication means, such as communication addresses, willingness,
preferences and the status of the user. As indicated in the previous section, Presence
was first introduced as a necessary prerequisite of IM.
However, capturing a user’s communication state in one network and communicating
it to other networks became a major issue due to the lack of interoperability between
IM vendors. This was one of the main reasons why the IM vendors realised the
necessity for a common and standardised protocol for communicating presence and
related session initiation information. During the last two years several initiatives have
been created to ensure IM interoperability, of which the following four are noteworthy.
!
SIMPLE – SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging (SIMPLE) is a
working group formed in May 2001 within the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). SIMPLE is dedicated to producing interoperable standards for services
compatible with the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Common Presence and
Instant Messaging (CPIM). SIP was initially proposed by the IETF group for real
time VoIP activities, such as initiating auto-conferencing between telephones and
computers, and forwarding phone calls to multiple devices including IP devices
such as laptops. Recently SIP was identified to be also used for communicating
presence information by enhancing the SIP standard.
!
PAM Forum – Lucent, Bell Labs and Novell formed this consortium in March 2000
with the objective of establishing and promoting the Presence and Availability
Management (PAM) Forum as an industry standard enabling advanced
communications and messaging services seamlessly across various telephony
and IP networks.
!
IMUnified – IMUnified is a coalition formed in July 2000 to generate a technical
specification to enable functional interoperability and open standards for IM. The
founding members include AT&T, OpenWave, Odigo, Yahoo!, Prodigy and MSN.
The coalition intends to support the IETF developed protocols such as SIP.
!
Wireless Village – The Wireless Village initiative was formed in April 2001 by
Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola to build a community around mobile Instant
Messaging and Presence Services (IMPS). The focus of this initiative is to ensure
definition and interoperability of wireless messaging services. The Wireless Village
initiative wants to support the IETF drafts and build upon the IETF’s work.
It is important to point out that although these forums were all formed with messaging
related interoperability issues in mind, the emphasis on presence technology
increased chronologically with each effort. The IETF concentrates on the protocol
definition that can leverage presence, whereas the PAM forum is focused on the
Application Programming Interface (API) definition for presence, keeping privacy and
availability in mind. IMUnified wants to define the functional interoperability between
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IM vendors and Wireless Village is dedicated to mobile messaging and presence
technology, including location-based services.
Some companies in the presence space have begun to extend the work of these
organisations with the concept of “Rich Presence,” which is distinguished from the
more rudimentary form of “on/off” presence associated with IM. Rich Presence is
critical to effective communications. In its fullest sense, Rich Presence represents the
aggregation and manifestation of the many attributes of changing user state over fixed
and mobile networks and over many different kinds of communication terminals (e.g.
PCs, PDAs, cell phones, pagers, STBs, ITVs) for use by a host of different
applications (e.g. IM, alerts, interactive gaming, location-based services and unified
communications).
Analysing industry trends in presence, the following conclusions are emerging:
!
!
Rich presence Is critical – With the growing number of devices per user, for
example PCs, PDAs, cell phones, and the choice of communication means, for
example email, SMS, IM, voice calls, rich presence is becoming essential. In short,
the following are some of the main characteristics of rich presence:
− Providing dynamic user state across multiple networks and multiple devices;
− Interfaces with mobility related applications and management systems;
− Automatic sensing and update of user state and subscription information;
− Ensuring privacy and user control;
− Attaining carrier class scalability and maintainability across a large number of
devices and subscribers;
− Assembling the elements and capturing the context of a user.
Presence is unnoticed – Presence is an enabler of applications such as IM, unified
communications and location-based services. The focus of the companies that
own these applications is on the application itself, rather than the infrastructure
that enables it. Most companies do not notice presence, or ignore it because they
consider it as a threat.
!
Presence has the potential to answer the fundamentals – Science is all about
finding answers to six main questions in life: Who, What, Where, When, How and
Why. Today presence technology is attracting attention because it attempts to
answer all these six questions in the communications arena. From the
characteristics described in the previous section, it can be concluded that rich
presence information manifests itself through the elements of user preferences,
profiles, access control, device contacts, dynamic buddy lists and willingness to
communicate.
!
The abstraction capability – Presence has tremendous applicability besides
messaging services and next generation communications. In fact, in the future,
presence technology will influence most aspects of our day-to-day life because of
its power to sense and signal the context, state and willingness to communicate.
This potential of being abstracted and reused across several applications is one of
the key characteristics of any disruptive technology.
!
Rich Presence is the ultimate personalisation in communications – As described
above, Rich Presence provides its biggest value in finding the right person to
communicate with, and the right type of content to communicate, at the right time
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and in the right format. This maximises personalised communication mechanisms
far beyond any existing technology.
3.8
MULTIMEDIA CODECS
There is no single set of standardised solutions for multimedia distribution. Multimedia
distribution takes place:
•
•
On-line – such as broadcasting, on-line on-demand over various discrete
telecommunication systems or over the Internet.
Off-line – such as tape, CD, DVD or minidisk.
Many of the distribution technologies require their own solutions for content coding
and compression. The technologies in use are partly official standards, partly
proprietary solutions. Some of the technologies most used are listed below. Hopefully
market forces will select a small number of solutions, which will simplify the design of
multimedia devices.
3.8.1 Multimedia Architectures
!
QuickTime: multi-platform, industry standard, multimedia software architecture. To
synchronise video, audio, graphics, text, VR and 3D media for distribution over the
Internet, CD, DVD, etc.
!
RealSystem (RealAudio, RealVideo, RealPlayer): focusing on delivering media
over the Internet.
!
Microsoft Windows Media, DirectShow/ActiveMovie, Video for Windows:
− Windows Media: system for media delivery over the Internet;
− DirectShow: built on DirectX architecture for playback over the Internet, CD
and DVD;
− Video for Windows (AVI): primarily for playback of CD-ROM.
MPEG: as MPEG-1, MPEG-2.
!
!
TrueMotion (VP3): client/server media distribution and streaming technology
(broadband Internet).
3.8.2 General Multimedia Codecs
Table 3.2 lists the various types of multimedia codecs.
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ITU-T H.323 (v3, 9/1999)
Packet-based multimedia communication systems
(see also H.225 and H.245)
ITU-T H.225.0 (v3, 9/1999)
Call signalling protocols and media stream
packetisation for packet based multimedia
communication systems
ITU-T H.245 (v5, 9/1999)
Control protocol for multimedia communication
ITU-T H.261
Low-quality videoconferencing
ITU-T H.263 / I.263
Medium-quality videoconferencing
Y.poif (ITU-T draft) Global Information Infrastructure Reference Points for Interconnection Framework
(GII)
ITU-T H.450.1 (1998)
Generic functional protocol for the support of
supplementary services in H.323
ITU-T H.450.2-6 (1998-9)
Supplementary services for H.323 (call hold, call
transfer, call waiting, …)
MPEG-4
High-quality and low-quality video and audio
VP3
High-quality variable bit rate video
JPEG
Photographic images (also used in DV standard in
sequential form)
Source: UMTS Forum
Table 3.2: Multimedia Codecs
3.8.3 Web Codecs
!
Sorensen Video: high-quality www video;
!
RealVideo: primary video codec for RealNetwork format;
!
Windows Media Video: primary video codec for Windows Media;
!
ITU-T H.261: low-quality videoconferencing;
!
ITU-T H.263, (I.263): medium-quality videoconferencing (and multimedia);
!
ISO/IEC MPEG-4: high-quality (www) video;
!
VP3: high-quality variable bit rate video;
!
ISO/IEC Photo JPEG: photographic images.
3.8.4 Multimedia CD-ROM and Presentation Codecs
!
Cinepak: medium-quality CD-ROM video (works on older computers as well);
!
Sorensen Video: high-quality CD-ROM video, requires fast computers;
!
Indeo 3: medium-quality CD-ROM video (works on older computers as well);
!
Indeo Video Active (4.5): high-quality CD-ROM, requires fast computers;
!
MPEG-1: high-quality CD-ROM video, requires special hardware or fast
computers;
!
MPEG-2: high-quality CD-ROM video, requires special hardware or fast
computers.
3.8.5 Hardware and Capture Codecs
!
Media 100: codec allows files to be used without capture hardware;
!
VideoVision Studio: codec allows files to be used without capture hardware;
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!
Avid Media Composer: codec allows files to be used without capture hardware;
!
Truevision: codec allows files to be used without capture hardware;
!
DV: new format where digitising is done by the camera or A/D converter and
software;
!
Apple Component Video: for capture on systems without JPEG hardware;
!
MJPEG (Motion-JPEG): general-purpose video editing and storage.
3.8.6 Audio Codecs
!
MP3 (MPEG layer III audio): high-quality (e.g. www) music;
!
Qdesign Music Codec: high-quality (e.g. www) music at low data rates;
!
RealAudio: several inter-related codecs for www audio;
!
Windows Media Audio: high-quality www music;
!
IMA: 4:1 compression (CD-ROM);
!
Qualcomm PureVoice: speech at 14.4 kbit/s modem data rates;
!
ITU-T G.723: standards-based speech for videoconferencing.
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4. ACCESS AND NETWORK ASPECTS
Available wireless networks can be categorised into four main areas: mobile networks,
fixed wireless networks, broadcast networks and local wireless networks, here called
short range systems. In many ways these could all be considered as candidates for
co-operative and complementary working.
- Portable & Mobile Pla tforms
DA B
Hi gh
mobil ity
Medium
to low
mobility
DV B-T
Mobility
GSM
DV B-S
Portable
to
residential
GPRS
GSM Edge
3G
DECT
WL AN
802.11
BlueTooth
10
100
1000
10000
100000 kbi t/s
Source: ITU WP8F
Figure 4.1: Comparison of Bit Rates and Delivery Mechanisms
Figure 4.1 shows the relationship between mobility and bit rates in the different
networks. Different networks are suitable for different situations. No one network
covers all situations.
There is a case for considering the options for co-operation between mobile networks,
fixed wireless networks, broadcast networks and short range systems to achieve the
best service to the user with the most cost-effective delivery mechanism to the
operator.
The different categories of networks are considered below.
4.1
MOBILE NETWORKS
This category contains networks such as GSM, PCS and IMT-2000/UMTS. These
networks are licensed networks. They have the ability to offer one-to-one connections
with mobility. They have limited cell broadcast mechanisms, one-to-many. Where
personalised information is required, these networks offer an excellent way of
providing this information. However, where large amounts of data are required or
where the same sort of data is required by many people, these types of network may
not offer the most efficient delivery mechanism.
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Currently 3GPP is specifying enhancements to the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
Network (UTRAN) collectively known as High Speed Download Packet Access
(HSDPA). These have the goal of enabling packet data transmission in the downlink
at theoretical speeds of up to 10 Mbit/s. Different methods are under discussion, such
as Advanced Modulation and Coding Schemes (AMCS) or using multiple antennas to
improve signal quality and thus increase achievable data rates. Since some HSDPA
methods are being specified as part of Release 5, it is likely that a commercial
deployment would occur in the 2005-2007 time frame.
HSDPA will have a significant impact on terminals and networks and may be more
feasible in larger devices such as PDAs and laptops. The most likely deployment
scenario will be in hot spots in pico- and microcells.
4.2
FIXED WIRELESS NETWORKS
Wireless local loop, fixed-to-multipoint and point-to-point are some of the networks
that fall into this category. There may be some scope for co-operation between these
networks and UMTS, particularly where UMTS offers a return path.
4.3
BROADCAST NETWORKS
In some countries broadcast systems could have a complementary part to play in the
delivery of content, and UMTS, in turn, could offer a wideband interactive back
channel. Digital broadcast networks will provide distribution services not only for video
and audio (e.g. TV), but also for data (e.g. electronic newspapers, electronic
programme guides, enhanced Videotext).
Migration to digital broadcasting will be a major trend worldwide over the next 10
years. Both digital television and digital radio networks are now available in a number
of countries. Being digital networks, they are capable of delivering a wide range of
content to end users. Depending on the transport medium, high data rates can be
achieved over these networks, for mobile use up to about 15 Mbit/s in 8 MHz.2 They
can deliver to fixed or mobile receivers. Broadcasting networks have generally been
engineered for distribution, i.e. delivering the same content to many users. They may
not, therefore, be effective for use in delivering highly personalised information to a
user in a specific location which requires the addition of a return channel.
4.4
SHORT RANGE SYSTEMS
HiperLAN, Bluetooth, HomeRF, etc. are also seen to be adjunct technologies for
UMTS. Some of these short-range wireless technologies (especially wireless LANs
such as IEEE 802.11x) have sometimes been seen as a competing and sometimes as
a complementary method to UMTS.
Even though WLAN base stations (rather known as “access points”) are inexpensive,
significant acceptance problems by the general population are already merging.
2
For wide area coverage, however, more spectrum would be required for interference-free reception.
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Additionally, WLANs operate in licence-exempt spectrum (e.g. the ISM band at
2.45 GHz), meaning that any operator would need to share the available spectrum
with any other operator, impacting issues such as quality of service and billing.
Furthermore, usage of licence-exempt spectrum for commercial purposes might
require review by regulators.
Wireless LANs are likely to be complementary to UMTS rather than competitive.
Such short-range wireless networks also allow users to intelligently forward voice and
data calls to multiple devices (i.e. ad hoc), including fax machines, voice mailboxes,
and email boxes depending on the user’s location.
Bluetooth technology provides instant wireless connections among devices including
mobile phones, handhelds, laptops and desktop computers. Originally designed as a
cable replacement technology, it has become much more. While wireless phones are
not necessarily part of a Bluetooth network, they fit well, acting as the network
connectivity link (from the briefcase, for example, while the laptop sits on the table). In
the initial Bluetooth phase, the consumer can expect to see wireless data transfer
between mobile phones, PDAs, headsets, MP3 players, game consoles, cameras,
and in-car systems, to name but a few. In the future, Bluetooth will enable consumers
to “hot-wire” their home, office and car to allow constant wireless data transfer and
synching between devices. This means that the user will be able to automatically
access information on a preferred device in a specific location, be it the television
while in the living room, the in-car system while driving to work, the pocket PC while
standing in the elevator, the desktop while in the office, or the wireless earplug while
running in the park. Bluetooth is a natural fit with m-commerce and digital wallet
models as well.
The technology operates in the 2.45 GHz frequency band, designated for Industrial,
Scientific, Medical (ISM) applications and non-industrial applications, which has
become an almost globally available band for short-range licence-exempt operation.
Bluetooth technology is able to transfer data at speeds of up to 721 kbit/s in a
10 metre radius and is designed to avoid interference with other wireless technologies
by implementing high speed hopping schemes (1600 hops/s) and associated power
level control. However, observations at trade shows have indicated conflicts with
802.11 and 802.11b networks.
Bluetooth supports three power levels:3 the lowest power level covers a very small
area around devices (connection between PC and keyboard, mouse, scanner, etc.).
The medium power level provides a range within a room and a higher power level
covers a broader area such as a house. A single Bluetooth network is known as a
“piconet” which consists of a “master” device and up to seven “slave” devices.
Individual piconets can join together to form scatternets in environments such as
airport lounges. But short-range wireless security protocols do not exist and risks of
3
Bluetooth specifies three different classes for transmitting power. Class 1 allows +20dBm maximum output power
and provides up to ≅ 100m reachable distance. Class 2 allows +4dBm maximum output power and provides up to ≅
10m range. Class 3 allows 0dBm maximum output power and provides 1~2m range. Most Bluetooth chipsets support
Class 2 and 3 output power without an external power amplifier. For Class 1, an additional power amplifier is required.
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viruses and “promiscuous” networks are real.
There are currently 13 profiles defined for specific Bluetooth applications with an
additional 13 under development (Table 4.1).
Profiles already available
Generic Access Profile (GAP)
Service Discovery Profile (SDP)
Intercom
Cordless Telephony
Serial Port
Headset
Dial-Up Networking
Fax
LAN Access
Generic Object Exchange
Object Push
File Transfer
Synchronisation
Profiles under development
Radio2
Automotive
Personal Area Network (PAN)
Wireless LAN (WLAN)
Audio-visual
Still image
Printing
Extended SDP
Local Positioning
Unrestricted Digital Use
Wake Up
Human Input Device (HID)
Video Streaming
Source: UMTS Forum
Table 4.1: Bluetooth Profiles
Bluetooth carries the potential risk that the full system performance cannot be
guaranteed due to the possibility of causing interference amongst all devices in the
ISM band.
The IEEE 802.11 specification is a wireless on-premises LAN standard developed to
specify over-the air connectivity between a mobile device and an access point, and
connectivity among mobile devices. Like Bluetooth, 802.11b operates in the 2.45 GHz
frequency band (ISM), but is capable of providing speeds of up to 11 Mbit/s over a
radius of 50 to 100 metres. Access points are small radio base stations through which
users wirelessly connect to standard networks, and thus to Internet and intranet
content. The access point provides the same functionality as a base station in a
traditional cellular network, but is much smaller and usually only provides coverage of
50 to 100 metres. The form factor for 802.11b devices is currently limited to either a
PCI card or Type II PCMCIA card. In ad hoc networks, mobile devices are brought
together “on-the-fly” without connection to a wired backbone.
These technologies are based on best effort delivery and as such are very difficult to
bill.
Operators willing to use wireless LANs as extensions to UMTS may do so in licensed
bands to guarantee QoS. In this case licence conditions and spectrum allocations
would need urgent regulatory action.
HomeRF focuses on standardising communications between PCs and consumer
electronic devices and has developed the Shared Wireless Access Protocol (SWAP),
a specification for wireless connectivity within a home environment. It is based on a
combination of protocols from DECT for voice communication and IEEE 802.11 for
data communication. SWAP enables users to set up a wireless home network to
share voice and data among PCs, peripherals, PC-enhanced cordless phones and
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new devices such as portable, remote display pads. The technology is capable of
providing theoretical data rates of up to 11 Mbit/s within a range of 50 to 100 metres.
HomeRF SWAP operates in the 2.45 GHz frequency band (ISM) and uses frequency
hopping spread spectrum technology with 50 hops per second (compared with
Bluetooth at 1,600 hops/second). SWAP network technology can either be configured
on the fly as an ad hoc network of mobile devices or as an infrastructure network with
a fixed connection point that provides the gateway to the PSTN. In an ad hoc network,
only data communication is supported and all devices are considered peers, with
control of the network distributed based on demand and availability. At any point in
time, a HomeRF network can support up to 127 devices consisting of a mixture of
connection points, data devices, and combined voice and data devices.
A summary of the key technical parameters for Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 and HomeRF
(SWAP) is presented in Table 4.2.
Parameter
Peak data transfer rate
Frequency band
Modulation scheme
Dedicated voice channel
Peak transfer distance
Peak power or current
consumption
Primary modulation
Access control scheme
Security architecture
Bluetooth
IEEE802.11
HomeRF
(SWAP)
1 Mbit/s (effectively
721 kbit/s)
2.45 GHz
Frequency hopping
spread spectrum
(1600 hops/s)
Yes (CVSD or
logarithmic PCM
encoding)
~100m (Class 1)
~10m (Class 2)
1-2m (Class 3)
30mA (TX), 0.3mA
(standby)4
GFSK (Gaussian
frequency shift keying)
None
Standard (certification,
encryption)
2 Mbit/s (11 Mbit/s in
IEEE 802.11b)
2.45 GHz
Direct spread and frequency
hopping spread spectrum
0.8 Mbit/s and
1.6 Mbit/s
2.45 GHz
Frequency hopping
spread spectrum
(50 hops/s)
Yes (ADPCM
based on DECT)
None
~100m (~30m in IEEE
802.11b)
~50m
1W maximum
Not disclosed
BPSK/QPSK and GFSK
GFSK
CSMA/CA
Optional
CSMA/CA, TDMA
Standard
(encryption)
Source: UMTS Forum
Table 4.2: Comparison of Key Technical Parameters for Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 and
HomeRF (SWAP)
Bluetooth, HomeRF and IEEE 802.11 all work in the 2.45 GHz band, which may
become a bit crowded due to unlicensed general purpose spectrum usage. An
alternative for this problem is the 5 GHz band. Different allocations in the 5 GHz band
have been assigned in different countries around the world. The openness of the
unlicensed spectrum to any user makes interference a serious problem, one not faced
by systems operating in clean licensed bands.
If future convergence is to take place the uncertainties and regulatory issues both in
4
The consumption is based on a Class 3 device.
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licensing and spectrum may need examination.
4.5
NETWORK SCENARIOS
4.5.1 Introduction
To illustrate the issues surrounding the various types of convergence and network cooperation a number of network scenarios are considered below. These are based on
broadcast networks, however the scenarios could equally apply to other networks.
Many scenarios can be considered for the co-operation between UMTS and DxB5
networks. These range from the simple sharing of content through to the sharing of
spectrum. The following scenarios are considered:
!
Content sharing (broadcast content over UMTS);
!
UMTS as back channel for interactive broadcast services (TV, data);
!
Network sharing and terminal integration;
!
DxB as an extension to UMTS.
4.5.2 Content Sharing
Content providers are usually, or are becoming, agnostic over what technologies and
networks their content is distributed over. The main drivers for this have been the
encoding of much content into digital format and the growth in the number of
distribution channels available to them. Broadcasters are, in many cases, major
content providers themselves. The sharing of content amongst networks is the most
fundamental level at which convergence or co-operation takes place. From a technical
perspective the main area of consideration is the re-purposing of content so that it is
appropriate to the network requesting it. Figure 4.2 shows this type of scenario.
5
Digital Audio Broadcasting and Digital Video Broadcasting.
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Repurposing
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DxB
UMTS
Content
Provision
Return
Channel
Network
Request
Processing
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 4.2: Content Sharing and Re-Purposing
4.5.3 A Return Channel using UMTS
The use of UMTS as a return channel offers a relatively high bandwidth mobile
interactive channel. ETSI has already specified a number of return channels for DxB
networks; these are GSM, PSTN and ISDN supporting interactive broadcast services.
Work has also been carried out on return channels based on UHF return paths, for
example the return channel terrestrial (RCT).
In this scenario, the UMTS channel allows the user to respond to the information
received via a DxB network. This does not necessarily have to be within the same
terminal. For example, the user may wish to send a short video of themselves for
inclusion in a programme being transmitted via DVB-T or they may wish to take part in
a music vote, via their 3G terminal, taking place on a DAB radio station. Another way
that users interact with programme content is for the broadcast programmes to include
URLs to websites for the viewer to follow. Although the DxB receiver and terminal
could be integrated into the 3G terminal it would equally be possible to enable these
applications on separate receivers. These two scenarios are shown in figures 4.3 and
4.4.
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Content
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DV
B- T
Mobile Network
Operator
S
M T Integrated DVB-T –
-U
UMTS Terminal
G
3
Return Channel
Processing
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 4.3: Return Channel with Integrated Terminal
Content
Broadcast
Network
DVB-T
Mobile Network
Operator
3G - UMTS
Return Channel
Processing
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 4.4: Return Channel with Separate Terminals
A UMTS/3G return channel has a number of advantages over other return channels:
!
It has a relatively high bandwidth; this allows the user to send back multimedia
content if desired.
!
It is an always-on service; this avoids the need for call set-up and allows for
instantaneous interaction.
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It is mobile; the mobile nature of the service allows for a user to interact with DxB
services wherever they are received.
Figure 4.3 shows the case where UMTS/3G and DxB services have been integrated
into a single terminal. Aspects of terminal integration are discussed in UMTS Forum
Report 15.
4.5.4 Network Sharing and Terminal Integration
Applications can be designed in such a way as to share the resources of a UMTS
network and a broadcast network. UMTS is used for all personalised information
(point-to-point communication, return channel), whereas the broadcast network is
used for that information which is suited for distribution (one-to-many). In principle,
broadcast networks can also be used for unicasting (download for one of multiple
users) as well, however the DxB resources for unicasting are limited. This would allow
valuable UMTS resources to be available for other revenue earning opportunities.
4.5.5 DxB as an Extension to UMTS/3G
There are a number of ways of looking at this area. DxB (especially DVB-T) could be
considered as an extension of UMTS, where it provides information download that is
in high demand by users, for example this could be electronic newspapers, software,
guidebooks or maps. This would relieve the demand for resources within UTRA.
Another scenario is for the UMTS/3G and DxB networks to share spectrum.
In the extension case, bandwidth intensive information could be routed via a DxB
network for download to a terminal. There are no differences between this scenario
and Figures 4.3 and 4.4. In both cases there is co-operation between the two
networks, but the air interfaces remain separate.
In the spectrum sharing case, the mobile operator would deploy DxB technology
within its network.
4.6
LEGAL ASPECTS
When discussing co-operation between traditional broadcasting services and
forthcoming 3G applications under convergence aspects, complex legal issues need
to be given consideration. Such issues and the potential solutions for legal problems
may differ greatly from one country to another. The UMTS Forum has initiated
respective studies with the aim to provide guidance for consideration and possible
solutions. It will publish the resulting material in due course.
4.6.1 Legal Aspects for Cellular-Broadcasting Convergence
If the two networks, DxB and 3G two-way, are properly co-ordinated, one can say that
from the user's point of view, there is only one service provided. However, from the
regulatory point of view, the two networks were granted two different service
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authorisations.6 There could also be two infrastructure and two spectrum
authorisations. There is a potential risk that the characteristics of these authorisations
do not fit with the unforeseen new service.
If the 3G return channel were to be used for requesting a point-to-point video the
service rendered to the user should be considered as VoD and therefore considered
outside broadcasting. However, such a VoD mechanism does not seem to be what is
sought for in present convergent services.
If the 3G return channel is simply employed by the user to send a short personal clip
or a vote to the broadcasting entity, this does not seem to modify the broadcasting
nature of the downlink service. Also, clip senders, once their clip has been broadcast
by the broadcasting entity, cannot reasonably be viewed as a broadcaster although
they provided content which, in the end, was broadcast in the downlink.
Although the broadcasting nature of the DxB network is unchanged, in theory some of
the rights or obligations it carries as a broadcaster could be called into question. A
check of the usual categories of provisions in broadcasting authorisation regimes
against those of telecommunications shows that many points require further study.
The conjunction of the broadcasting legal regime and the cellular regime could leave
unsolved, or improperly solved, issues affecting the newly created hybrid service and
the two associated networks. This should be studied further.
4.6.2 Questions Raised on Terminals
Pure broadcasting receivers may have a regulatory regime different from
telecommunications (two-way) terminals, both concerning their placing on the market
and their use. However, in the case of separation the broadcasting receiver is still a
broadcasting receiver, and the two-way radio terminal is still a two-way radio terminal.
So no regulatory problem should arise.
6
These could be either explicit individual service authorisations ("individual licence"), or implicit authorisations under
which, on the one hand, nothing is requested for starting installation or operations, but which on the other hand,
impose various obligations and grant rights to the operating entities ("general authorisations" in EU law).
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5. APPLICATIONS AND SERVICES
The UMTS architecture supports a wider range of content types and distributed
content provisioning architectures than was previously practical or viable for 2G or
even 2.5G networks. This is achieved mainly through exploitation of the higher data
capacities available to the user and the associated service offerings available in 3G
networks. This enables 3G mobile devices to access network-connected applications
with levels of performance and interaction not possible with previous networks. It is
also reasonable to expect that 3G devices will be able to process and present richer
content through the use of improved device technology, processing performance,
displays, codecs, batteries, etc. While the processing of this content will mostly be
done locally within the device, some media re-purposing or transcoding may be
provided by a network service, often in conjunction with third-party services, thereby
allowing for multiple versions or quality levels of applications to be provided to end
users.
Some of the rich content that will be delivered to third generation devices has
traditionally been delivered over broadcast mechanisms. Some of this content,
especially pay-per-view and subscription services, has been protected by various
means to ensure only subscribers to that particular service can access the content.
The emerging network-based “electronic distribution” of audio and video as
alternatives to the purchase of CDs and tapes, etc., has led to the control of access by
the content owner or originator being investigated through control mechanisms such
as Digital Rights Management (DRM). In traditional 2G and 2.5G solutions,
applications have been mainly user managed, though the emergence of WAP
services and network portals has led to service provider controlled or influenced
content for users.
5.1
THE COMPONENTS OF A 3G APPLICATION
5.1.1 Basic Elements
The device – without these there are no users. The device may be a simple phone or
a smartphone or a data access device for much more sophisticated end-user
terminals like notebook computers or PDAs. The capabilities of handheld devices
such as notebook computers, PDAs, smartphones and phones is increasing rapidly
and shows little signs of slowing down. More information is provided in UMTS Forum
Report 15.
The application service – comprising some form of application server and any other
components necessary to deliver the service’s content such as databases, access to
location information, live information or streamed content.
The network connection between the device and the application service – this
includes many elements, for example:
•
•
•
Over-the-air wireless link;
Network fixed backbone;
Network core components, e.g. MSC, SGSN + GGSN;
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Fixed network between network core and service environment, which may include
one or more intranet or Internet segments.
There are also secondary elements that support the provision of services to users:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Authentication (e.g. HLR/VLR or AAA (Authentication, Authorisation and
Accounting) functions);
Authorisation (e.g. HLR/VLR or AAA functions);
Accounting (AAA or billing subsystem components);
Security;
QoS management;
Location-aware services;
Media gateways;
NATs;
Proxies.
The first four secondary elements are discussed in more detail later in this section. Let
us consider the remainder.
QoS management mainly concentrates on the over-the-air (OTA) segment, the
wireless network backbone, and the Internet or intranet segments of the line between
the device and the application or content server. In practice all of these are required.
The mechanisms to establish QoS through the wireless or fixed network elements are
either well known or being specified.
There is a need to perform some QoS management of applications, application
services and device QoS capabilities.
Location-aware services are considered a significant business opportunity not only for
3G networks but also 2G and 2.5G networks. Location can be determined by a variety
of methods including device only (e.g. GPS), network only (e.g. triangulation), and a
combination of the two (e.g. GPS combined with sensing of multiple base stations
using network services to resolve conflicts). Regardless of the technical mechanisms
for achieving location there are number of non-technical issues. These mainly involve
privacy and preclude network operators or other organisations that determine a user’s
position from freely giving that information away to third parties without the user’s
express permission. The same rules might even apply to the use of location
information by the party determining the position.
The implementation of an abstraction layer at the point of translation of addressing
information at edge network boundaries allows new services to be constructed which
operate by inspecting information about the caller – position, metadata, customer
profile or supplied destination – and supply an appropriate address. This kind of
implementation, which has enabled much of the functionality end users see today on
the Internet through load-balancing, scalability, and content distribution, could be used
tomorrow to provide new kinds of location-based services, alphanumeric or text-based
addressing, and provides a foundation for constructing new services. Standardising on
an abstraction layer for translating a call request through an application which then
provides the actual data to be used to the end user (in a clean API which is simple to
understand and use) will empower application developers to construct new
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applications and use addressing in new ways.
The field of text-based addressing, currently being pursued by several players, is one
of the most important areas in which abstraction technology can be used to provide a
unique experience to users. This will enable next-generation services, in the same
way that modern content distribution systems utilise the ability of DNS-like servers to
provide an abstraction layer between physical addressing and end-user addressing.
Media gateways are used to convert from one media to another. The most common
media gateway would be a voice codec (e.g. conversion from analogue to digital or
inter-digital standards) or redefining video, etc. from the source standards to those
suitable for the device. There are many other types that either exist today or will
emerge.
The possible use of IPv4 in initial 3G networks and the requirement to be able to fall
back to 2.5G networks, which may also use IPv4, will raise the issue of the use of
NAT (Name and Address Translation) devices. While initially these do not seem to
present application sensitive issues, they have knock-on effects for applications in that
they manifest a consistent mobile device identification since the NAT hides the
device’s real identity. Some embodiments of end-to-end transport layer security are
problematic if not impossible with NATs. The alternative is the use of Proxies but
these have to be application specific, the most commonly deployed proxies being for
Internet traffic using HTTP.
5.1.2 Privacy and Security
5.1.2.1 Privacy
Privacy is defined as “the state of being private and undisturbed” or “a person’s right
to being private and undisturbed” or “freedom from intrusion of public attention.”
Privacy is a right in many cultures, and one that is increasingly being covered by
legislation. The legislation aims to protect a person from other people or organisations
collecting information about that person and using it or giving it away without consent.
It would also cover any information held for the user as this information is considered
private and therefore can only be released with the user’s consent.
Network operators and service providers have the ability to collect significant amounts
of information about users, some of which is needed for the services they provide.
This might include what phone calls were made, to where and when, how much data
was consumed, and perhaps which services were used. Collecting data to determine
improvements in services through data mining techniques demands care unless it is
done anonymously. Using the information for other purposes without express
permission from the user may fall foul of one or more aspects of privacy legislation.
For example the location of a user is considered private information and so the use of
a user’s position to target unsolicited information such as adverts is likely to be
problematic. Similar considerations apply to the release of position information to a
service provider without the user’s authorisation.
Privacy legislation is not universal. The EU, USA, Australia and others have enacted
legislation in this area. The implications for local operators are obvious but for roamed
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users they are less easy to determine.
Privacy is relevant to 3G operators, service providers associated with operators and
any other service provider that can be reached via the network. The scope of control
for the network covers all the information that the operator of that network holds about
the user.
Privacy and security are often confused. Data being sent between two end points can
be secure (e.g. by the use of encryption) but the fact that data is passing between the
two is not private if the addresses of the end point can be determined. Hence even a
user’s phone number is considered private information and only released with
consent, even if that consent is the default when a user subscribed to a service (e.g.
phone directory listings, calling line ID). IP host names and addresses can be resolved
which could jeopardise a user’s identity or location and many other items can be
considered private when discussing privacy in the context of 3G or any other network.
Standards organisations are working on specifications to meet the needs of privacy
legislation. These come in two parts: the privacy enforcement mechanisms
themselves and the enforcement of policy using those mechanisms. Organisations
such as the W3C, the P3P effort, and others (e.g. XNS) are working on means to
achieve privacy for content but it will be up to network operators and service providers
to ensure that policies meeting local and roamed users’ rights are implemented and
enforced.
5.1.2.2 Security
The provision of security (e.g. encryption of data) is a requirement whenever there is a
need to provide confidentiality.
There are a number of means to achieve the confidentiality or security of transmitted
data including hop-by-hop security and end-to-end security.
5.1.2.2.1 Hop-by-hop security
Hop-by-hop security is security applied to one or several of the hops from device to
application server and to any additional service processes in between such as location
servers. Consider the sort of security that may be available in any part of the chain
from device to application service:
Device – A device may maintain security of content by requiring a PIN for access and
may require further user identification and authentication at other times. Today’s
mobile phones usually require a simple PIN to gain access to the device – the
equivalent of a power-on password. However a notebook computer or PDA often has
further security to identify a user, thereby permitting multiple users or a single user
with multiple personas to use a single device.
Clearly in the first case all information and data stored on the device is considered to
be owned by the device and therefore available to any user or persona with access to
the device. In the latter case the information is much more selective.
There may also be information in the device itself, pertinent to the manufacturer or
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network or service operator, which should not be accessible by device users.
It is anticipated that 3G devices will emerge supporting all these options.
Over-the-air – Radio link encryption is a means of achieving confidentiality for all
information transmitted between network elements such as base stations, base station
controllers or even the core network and the device. Clearly this is desirable to stop
miscreants from eavesdropping on over-the-air communications.
Network – Within the network (e.g. the backbone, within core functions, inter-roaming
links and right up to the edge-of-network interfaces) there is a need to provide
confidentiality of content wherever there is cause for concern from miscreant
eavesdropping. Many protocols used within network elements avail themselves to the
use of transport level security through mechanisms such as tunnels.
Network to host / origin server / services – The communications between the edge-ofnetwork and the services may also need security. This can be achieved using security
established for user access or, more likely, through the establishment of secure
tunnels of adequate capacity to allow all user traffic to flow in the tunnel between
network and services.
Host / origin server / services – A services environment, whether a single host or
origin server or even a complex of machines providing the service, needs to be secure
from attack by miscreants from both outside and within the service environment. Often
the weakest link is easy access to service machines and the information they contain
by people entrusted with access. Clearly having the means to achieve and audit
access control to vital information is key. Protecting content from miscreant attack or
even accidental change is a given.
Hop-by-hop security needs to be applied wherever there is a need but it is not a
substitute for end-to-end security. There are well known examples of hop-by-hop
security not meeting the needs of businesses for whom security and risk aversion is a
priority, for example applications provided by financial institutions. Any holes in end-toend security will not satisfy the requirements of such users and so end-to-end security
is often if not always required in addition to any hop-by-hop security.
5.1.2.2.2 End-to-end security
End-to-end security is the only way to provide the security levels demanded by the
most critical services, usually those where financial transactions are undertaken such
as applications provided by financial institutions or medium to high value online
purchases. Consider the following options:
Transport layer security – Transport layer security is exemplified by TLS and SSL for
access to content over the Internet. Here a secure interface is provided for
applications at both end points (client and application server) and all content streamed
through this interface is encrypted and transported between the two end points.
Irrespective of the infrastructure between the two end points the data is secure and
any keys exchanged or used to establish the encrypted link are known only to the two
end points. While it is possible for a miscreant to monitor the initial exchange of
information used to establish the tunnel, this should not in itself be enough to
compromise security especially when sophisticated means are used such as
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Kerberos.
Transport layer security may be used by the device and application server or for the
establishment of tunnels for other parts of the link where hop-by-hop security is
provided, even in addition to the end-to-end encryption.
Tunnels are used for at least two common purposes. Firstly they are used to secure a
single hop. The two end points will establish the secure session and all traffic sent
through the tunnel will be encrypted regardless of whether it was already encrypted.
Where a tunnel is being used to carry multiple user traffic the users’ data packets are
wrapped by the packet structure of the tunnel and the payload is encrypted. The
receiving end simply decrypts and removes the wrapper before sending the packet to
its destination.
Secondly the term is used to describe the operation of an HTTP proxy when being
used to handle HTTPS requests on behalf of clients. The standard operation of a
proxy is to take the request, make the resulting HTTP fetch for the client, then return
the response to the client. It is considered important to do this, firstly because this can
be a means to allow users of an intranet to access the Internet, shielding the intranet
from attack when used in conjunction with a firewall. Secondly, because the fetched
content might be cached for performance reasons. However such a process is
undesirable for secure content and so HTTPS directs the proxy not to use its standard
behaviour but to tunnel the data between client and server without alteration. Hence a
client can establish a secure and unique connection to the server through a proxy and
firewall.
PKI – Public Key Infrastructure is a means of providing certificate management and
verification for services. PKI is a complex process. By using PKI and the managed
issuing and verification of certificates a client can verify the server is who it claims to
be and vice versa. This is becoming an increasingly important ingredient of
transactions involving payment or non-repudiation.
IPSec is a technology for encrypting IP packets. It differs slightly from the transport
layer security described above which presumed the TLS or SSL was using TCP/IP.
IPSec can therefore be used by any service operating over a UDP/IP or TCP/IP
transport and offers similar security. IPSec is an additional feature for IPv4 but a
standard feature of IPv6. IPSec has a requirement for an associated PKI.
Issues on end to end security – There are some issues associated with the
establishment of end-to-end security using various network elements.
The use of NATs has well documented strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses
arise from the scalability and impact of end-to-end security.
While proxies are widely used as an alternative to NATs to permit access to the
Internet from intranets guarded by firewalls they are application specific. Hence HTTP
proxies are common but equivalent proxies for other protocols such as Telnet or
SMTP are less common. HTTP proxies have the capability for secure communications
using HTTPS while the secure versions of other protocols are either not specified or
not widely deployed.
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5.1.3 Authentication, Authorisation and Accounting
Authentication, Authorisation and Accounting (AAA) servers have been used in
networks for many years, often being used to fulfil functions with other names such as
HLR. 3G networks will see widespread deployment of AAA servers but the function
may become split or become proxied if the scalability of the network is to cope with
the predicted volumes. This is most likely as the need to combine the complexity and
granularity of the users’ preferences, the management of service access rights, and
charging for services, time and data volume becomes more apparent.
5.1.3.1 Authentication
Authentication is the process of verifying that a user or entity is who they claim to be.
For example a user verifies his or her identity to a SIM using a power-on PIN. The
phone or device is authenticated to the network using the IMSI, etc. So why go to all
this trouble?
Users and operators would not want a device to be used by anyone other than the
owner or a person trusted by the owner, mainly for reasons of billing accountability.
The network operator would not want too many calls repudiated by users. The
power-on PIN achieves this. However the PIN is not sufficient to identify a persona or
user identity. This is beyond most current wireless network and device technology
specifications. So there is a need for authentication beyond the simple relationship
between the device and the PIN.
Authentication is necessary to establish the identity of the user unequivocally for the
purposes of accountability and non-repudiation. Authentication may be needed for the
following cases:
!
User – The identity of the user may be required. This may be assumed to be the
current situation with the presumption of a one-to-one relationship between device
and user. Clearly the user identity is required for subscribing to services,
especially personalised services.
!
Caller – This may be the person calling the user of a mobile device from outside
the network. There may be good reasons for identifying callers but issues of
privacy may preclude this.
!
Persona – A user’s persona may depend on where they are at any given time, for
example at work or at leisure. For many users there may be a single one-to-one
relationship between user and user persona. But for users of more intelligent
wireless devices there may be at least two persona, for example work and leisure
with PIM, address books and many other functions including services and access
to VPNs, depending on the active persona. Again, identifying the persona being
used is critical for subscription and delivery of personalised services.
!
Pre-subscribed – Pre-subscribed access to network and content services may be
directly related to authentication. For example, any user belonging to a user group,
whether closed or open for general subscription, may have a set of services
available as a direct consequence of belonging to that user group.
!
Organisation – This is very similar to the pre-subscribed case except the
‘organisation’ establishes a set of services for all members of that organisation, for
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example access to the organisational intranet or VPN. Such cases do not preclude
the ability to use the same subscriber management systems to enable additional
general services outside those of the organisational intranet or VPN. When there
are multiple personas or identities and organisational issues to be managed there
needs to be a means to switch from one to another. For example, in normal
working hours it may be reasonable to have a ‘working’ persona established. But if
the user is out of context, say in working hours but not at work, then there may be
several options such as working but away from the normal location, on holiday, or
away sick. The switch from one to another may be by:
− Locale – for example at the office, away from the office, near home or
somewhere remote. It is possible that a network agent can be used to help
manage this based on profiles.
− Time – for example working hours or outside working hours.
− Active selection – the user may choose to switch from one identity to another.
5.1.3.2 Authorisation
Authentication involves checking the identity of the user. Authorisation involves giving
express permission for a user to use one or more services.
For example, mobile users normally require the ability to make and receive voice calls.
When a user wants to make a call his authorisation to do so is checked before the call
is processed. Similarly a user may elect not to receive incoming calls for some reason.
An incoming call to the user’s number could be checked to see whether the user has
authorised this in a profile before the call is established. Similarly for data calls or
sessions.
As networks become more content services centric rather than bearer services centric
similar authorisation becomes necessary for these services. Service level
authorisation may be on a per-service basis, or a per-service destination basis (e.g.
URL domain) or any one of many other options.
Where quality of service is deployed the user may be authorised every time a request
for a demanded quality of service level is given by the user’s device. The authorisation
may depend on available capacity, the user’s tariff basis or status (e.g. low tariff basis
but a loyal and trusted user) or any other criteria.
Authorisation may be used to achieve both affirmation of availability of service to the
user or to block or screen a particular service from a user, for example gambling from
under-age users or those who have expressed a desire to have such services
blocked.
While authorisation is likely to be mostly applied to a user’s request to access services
it can also be applied in reverse, for example a service confirming a user’s access or
continued access to available services.
There may be situations where an operator or an agent does not apply authorisation,
such as for services provided with a default authorisation for all users. However the
general case for higher value services is expected to involve authorisation and where
the services involve third parties there may be several authorisation processes, for
example user to access the service provided by the service provider or service
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provider to network operator to ensure payment for such services.
As mentioned in the section on authentication it is the authenticated user that is
authorised and not the device. This allows differentiation between different persona
and billing for services through the knowledge of the persona and the billing
information.
5.1.3.3 Accounting
The Accounting portion of the AAA, or its equivalent function, is vital as it collects the
usage information in readiness for billing.
With authentication and authorisation taking place the scope for repudiated usage is
remote. However, accounting records that generate good audit trails will minimise
risks still further. Of course the accounting function involves storing a user’s usage,
which is personal information and therefore subject to privacy legislation discussed
earlier.
Where services are identified by URLs it is important that these are checked during
the authorisation process as it is possible for miscreants to intercept addresses
resolved using names alone. This is one reason for the best practice of using real IP
addresses in URLs for critical purposes even though this has its drawbacks in terms of
service flexibility.
Roaming is an issue especially where the AAA of the visited network is being used for
accounting purposes and then these records are transferred to the home network.
Services may be charged differently depending on whether they were completed
successfully, partially completed, not completed at all or reverse charged. An example
might be a Yellow Pages directory lookup. The cost for no service may be nothing, the
cost for a successful lookup in the directory but with no hits matching the user’s
criteria may be an apportioned charge, and for a completely successful search a full
charge may apply. Reverse charging may result from an advertisement sent to a user
of a particular service or could be used as a mechanism to credit the operator from the
service provider where such business models are employed. Using such approaches
the same accounting portion of the AAA can service all the operator’s accounting for
service billing and crediting for users or service providers.
5.2
EXISTING STANDARDISATION WORK
This section focuses on global Standards Development Organisations (SDOs).
Regional organisations are mentioned only when there is no appropriate reference to
a global body. The official regional standards development organisations in Europe
are listed in Table 5.1 with reference to the appropriate global body.
European SDO
ETSI
CENELEC
CEN
Relevant global body
ITU-T/R
IEC
ISO
Source: UMTS Forum
Table 5.1: European Standards Development Organisations
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ETSI allows for direct company membership and participation, whereas CEN and
CENELEC only allow national standards organisations to participate, whose delegates
are mostly people from the industry.
Technical development and specification provision is increasingly performed by fora
and consortia that submit specifications to standards development organisations for
the final standards making process.
Standards are generally technical specifications that the relevant market players have
mutually agreed to use. In most cases this is to ensure interoperability between
various networks and services. GSM and UMTS fall into this category. A number of
other standards are in place to avoid disturbance between services and to ensure
safety of use.
In traditional telecommunications systems for voice and data all standards were based
on standardisation work done in ITU-T/R and regional standards bodies. These
systems were mainly based on point-to-point communication of voice and data. The
standards basically included specifications on transport, signalling, management and
voice coding with well-specified quality of service. Standards for data transport over
the voice communications systems were also developed. A data transport standard
generally includes references to all standards in the end-to-end solution.
In the media distribution world of radio and TV, better known as broadcasting, a much
broader standardisation work was necessary. This included chromatography,
photography, various signal coding and compression systems, and standards for a
number of different distribution systems and receiver equipment. The standardisation
work was not confined to one standards body but involved almost all standards
organisations.
The Internet is a new transport system that has its own, different standards. These are
mainly developed in IETF and W3C.
Figure 5.1 shows the main standardisation bodies in the media end-to-end system.
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ISO
JT C1
IEC
(ITU)
ISO
JTC1
IEC
JTC1
ISO
IEC
IT U
W3C
WAP
MHP
IEO/JTC1
ITU
IET F
DVB
DA B
JTC1
ISO
IEC
ITU
IEEE
ITU
IETF
D VB
D AB
UMTS
Forum
ITU
IET F
DVB
DA B
Tr an sp ort
Vid eo
C opy righ t
Billin g
Ch ar gin g
Priv acy
Ot her
“da ta ”
Inte grity
Serv ice
Inte r face
In tern et
GSM
HT ML
U MT S
WA P
TV
XM L
Rad io
Qu ick T im e
F ixed W
Loca l
Are a
N etw ork
Blu eto oth
WLA N
Us er
Inter face
Co din g
Pic ture
G ra phic
Co m p re ss ion
Sec urity
Saf ety
Us er
E q uip me nt
Au dio
P ow e rl.
1 3 94 P OF
Et c .
F ixe d WL
Power l.= power line
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 5.1: Main Standardisation Bodies
5.2.1 Main Standardisation Bodies and Specification Providers
5.2.1.1 Telecommunications
The ITU is the global body for telecommunications standardisation. The main regions
of the world have their own standardisation bodies, such as ETSI for Europe. In
general a telecommunications standard includes the full end-to-end system with
interworking standards for the various carriers. The necessary codecs are often
specified by the ITU although available standards from bodies such as ISO, JTC1 and
IEC may be adopted. These are often given their own ITU numbers but with a
reference to the original.
In order to create a global set of 3G standards, where commonalities and
harmonisation are considered as far as possible, the regional standardisation bodies
have set up a joint development platform; 3GPP – The Third Generation Partnership
Project.
5.2.1.2 Broadcasting
Standardisation work in the broadcasting and audio-visual sectors often specifies the
entire end-to-end system. There may be many components related to various types of
content in one data stream, for example video, audio, service information related data
and other data. The reference list may become rather large in such cases.
The reference standards are often from content pick-up, the data and transport signal
processing, the transport itself and the receiver specification. Due to multiple service
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modes, a standard generally consists of a set of standards for the various options.
Global interoperability standards have been developed to ensure global content
distribution and exchange of source material between content creation, wholesale
servers and broadcast content service provision.
5.2.1.3 Content-related standardisation
A number of standards have been developed to ensure portability of content.
Standards on basic technologies such as cinematography, photography and acoustics
are developed and standardised by ISO.
Digital media uses a number of signal coding, compression and presentation systems
and technologies, which are developed by the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee,
JTC1. JPEG, MPEG, MHEG are examples of these. Standards for magnetic media,
optical disc systems and interconnection of IT equipment are other examples.
5.2.1.4 Internet-related standards
The Internet is, in general, not officially standardised. Internet specifications are
developed in a number of groups. The Internet Engineering Task Force develops the
various Internet data transport mechanisms, content and data processing parameters,
etc. The specifications are issued as RFCs (Request For Comments). If they prove to
be accepted they achieve a fixed status, otherwise they are usually cancelled.
Users normally access the Internet via a graphical user interface. Standards groups
such as W3C and the WAP Forum develop the techniques and standards for handling
content from the Internet and its presentation to the user. Examples of such standards
are HTML, XML and SyncML.
The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers organisation
(ICANN) deals with the distribution of Internet related names and numbers. Each
region has its own agency related to ICANN and most countries have a national
organisation, NIC, for dealing with the distribution of such names and numbers.
5.2.1.5
General standards
There are a numerous standards that are non-technical by nature. Examples are
ergonomics (ISO) and graphical symbols (IEC).
5.2.1.6 Transaction-related standardisation
Transaction-related standardisation includes data security and privacy standards.
Electronic data transport, Edifact, electronic signatures, etc. fall within the ISO
domain. In addition to CEN there is an open workshop structure, ISSS, open to all
market players to participate in creating new technologies, mostly related to the CEN
working area.
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Components and subsystems
A number of standards related to components and sub-assemblies are in the IEC
domain such as LCD, CRT, fibre optic components and systems, and connectors.
5.2.1.8
Receivers, recording and related equipment and audio subsystems
A large number of standards are available for terminals, recording systems, audiovisual subsystems, cable systems, colorimetry, etc.
5.2.1.9
Programming languages, operating systems and APIs
5.2.1.9.1 Programming languages
Many programming languages are in use today. Some of these languages such as
Java are standardised. Most of this category of standardisation work belongs within
ISO.
5.2.1.9.2 Operating systems
In principle there are no standardised operating systems. Most products use
proprietary operating systems, but an increasing number of systems are based on
open source code, which allows for proprietary operating systems based on open
source. In order to run applications independent of the operating system, standardised
service-specified APIs are used, which again may be standardised. An example is the
DVB MHP.
5.2.1.9.3 APIs
For joint utilisation of services and networks, a number of new standardised APIs and
interworking systems have to be developed. These are often related to data transport
across network boundaries and hence belong to the ITU/ETSI domain. In some cases
they only specify the data conversion but for more complex systems they also include
content scalability and conversion specifications.
5.2.1.10 Regulatory use of standards
At the time they are adopted by standardisation bodies standards are applied on a
purely voluntary basis. However, once adopted, some standards can be made
mandatory by regulatory authorities. For example, the TV Directive states that when a
fully digital television system is used it has to comply with a standard adopted by a
recognised European standardisation body.
Other standards on products, while not made mandatory by any authority, can have a
"regulatory use" in the following sense: If a product is conformant to the standard the
product is automatically assumed by authorities to be conformant to the regulatory
requirements. An example is the RTTE Directive which sets the regulatory
requirements of radio or telecommunications terminal equipment in non-technical
terms (in natural language) and creates a mechanism for formally referencing a
number of technical standards translating these "high level" requirements in precise
technical terms.
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However, in principle, manufacturers are allowed to design their own proprietary ways
of fulfilling the directive level requirements, provided they establish a convincing
technical file and consult the relevant authorities.
At the world level, IEC-65 is an example of technical requirements on electrical safety
for consumer electronics products. IEC-950 performs the same role for IT equipment.
Another example is standards for EMC and immunity, including specifications on
measuring methods. These standards have been adopted by ETSI and CENELEC
and are now European Norms labelled EN-50065, 50950, 50013 and 50020.
5.2.2 Open Items in Standardisation
In addition to sector specific standardisation there is a need to specify requirements
set by the convergent use of services over and across different networks such as
UMTS, DVB, DAB, WLANs and home bus systems. Standards for content, local
storage systems, etc. also need to be considered.
5.2.3 High-Level Requirements on Standards
The convergence and joint utilisation of multimedia capable networks and services
requires new approaches in technical development and standardisation in order to
allow for seamless service portability and end-to-end interoperability.
Requirements have to be set for content and service scalability to match user
equipment requirements, seamless multimedia roaming between different networks,
and new approaches to optimise spectrum usage for joint utilisation.
Top level dialogue between relevant market players needs to be established involving
participation by organisations such as the European Commission, regulatory
authorities, UMTS Forum, GSM Association, DigiTAG, EBU, DVB Project and EICTA.
Global aspects must be taken into consideration as services become more global.
This is also true for the rapidly growing use of the Internet and other IP-based
solutions, where IP issues urgently need to be addressed.
The organisational relationships between the different standardisation organisations
are illustrated in Figure 5.2.
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BCDF
W3C
IETF
Standards
Organisation
- ISO
- IEC
- JTC1
UMTS Forum
DAB
DVB
3GPP
Media technologies
WAP
Forum
MPEG
MHEG
MHP
Applications/
service
industry
User equipment
manufacturer
MSF
Infrastructure
manufacturer
- ITU-T/R
- ETSI
- ARIB/TTC
- ANSI T1
etc.
MWIF
Network/
telecom service
operators
Billing
E-commerce
Copyright
Safety
etc.
Products / Applications
Internet technologies
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 5.2: Organisational Relationships in Standardisation
5.3
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
5.3.1 Application Platforms
The new generation of cellular systems, UMTS, will not achieve the same coverage as
existing cellular infrastructure overnight. For a period of time there will be gaps in the
coverage offered by the new UMTS service. To alleviate this problem many device
manufactures will adopt a hybrid solution incorporating a combination of GSM, GPRS
and UMTS technologies within the same product.
Adopting this solution will provide a viable means of filling the gaps in the coverage of
UMTS. This solution will have some impact on power consumption, complexity and
size of devices. However, during this time period proof of concept for data services
(applications) utilising GSM or GPRS can take place while UMTS completes coverage
and deployment of higher data rates.
To provide these data applications an applications processing environment must exist.
There are several approaches that can be adopted. One is to use a proprietary
software solution.
A second approach would be to use a de facto standard approach such as Java
(J2ME). Java can provide an easy route to application development, an element of
hardware independence and a wide base of application developers to create
applications programs.
Too many application platforms will lead to a less rich choice of services for the
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consumer.
5.3.2 Operating Systems
The Operating System (OS) is the core of a wireless device. The operating system
software runs at the lowest level, integrating applications and hardware much the
same way as a Windows NT or Unix system integrates a desktop computer's
hardware with its software applications. The operating system provides six main
functions:
!
Control of the display;
!
Control of the keyboard or keypad;
!
Integration of applications and application programming interface (API);
!
Power management;
!
Allocation of memory resources;
!
Provisioning of processor time.
While there are several operating system players on the market, three major vendors
are driving development and amassing dominant market share. Microsoft is promoting
its WinCE operating system targeting handheld PCs, PDAs, and auto PCs, while Palm
remains focused on its proprietary Palm OS platform for PDAs and smartphones.
Symbian, a joint venture between Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Matsushita (Panasonic),
and Psion Software is promoting its EPOC OS targeting smartphones, communicators
and PDA devices.
As devices start to converge we expect competition in the operating system
marketplace to increase – and ultimately far greater standardisation as the industry
matures. Heterogeneity at the operating system level has so far contributed to the
slower-than-expected adoption of mass-market wireless data services. Yet the
operating system is only a low value add on compared with the applications that run
on it. Again, the key in the operating system marketplace is to develop a robust
standardised platform with a well-defined API that will spur the emergence of broad
support from third-party application developers.
5.3.3
Design and User Interface
There are three key functions that are critical to an engaging user experience on a
mobile device: the operating system, the display and the manner of user interaction.
The operating system is at the core of the device and manages performance and
applications integration. The display is probably the most essential component to the
user, in terms of screen size, graphics, and the ability to run full-colour applications.
The last critical element is the user interface, which includes voice, keyboard, mouse
or track wheel, and/or stylo pen.
5.3.3.1 Application execution platform
Requirements for transportable application environments (write once, use many times)
include provisions to allow basic security, PKI, inclusion of a privacy environment,
multimedia support, graphic and audio loaders, support for personal information
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managers and synchronisation software.
5.3.3.2 Operating systems
Real time operating systems and non-real time operating (threading) systems for
application software (EPOC, Palm OS, WinCE, etc.) must support user application
software whilst managing the complex real time UMTS processes. This means that it
is unlikely that a real time operating system could cope in the early phase of discrete
terminal construction.
5.3.3.3 Content rendering (xHTML, XML, etc.)
HTML is focused on displaying documents not manipulating data. Just as HTML
“made the web the world’s library,” eXtensible Markup Language7 (XML) is proving to
be the language of choice for m-commerce software development and is particularly
powerful in applications with the following characteristics:
•
•
•
Requiring data to be constructed once and presented in multiple formats for
different devices;
Requiring heterogeneous databases and operating systems to communicate in
EAI, transactions, and messaging;
Requiring detailed search results.
Given the pervasive influence of enterprise IT spending on network and applications
build out, and given that personalised, location-specific mass market m-commerce will
at some stage explode across the data landscape within the next couple of years –
XML adoption is a critical component to the wireless build out.
The ability to query databases and manipulate information in XML makes it key to ecommerce. Unlike HTML, content in XML documents is flexible and can be displayed
in multiple ways. This is because content structure in XML is separated from
presentation – an XML document only describes content or sets its structure. The
ability to give meaning to content distinct from its presentation is a key advantage of
XML over HTML. By identifying content through XML’s more descriptive tags (or with
new, customised tags), content is effectively given meaning and can then be more
usefully stored, transmitted and filtered by databases. An adjoining file called a style
sheet determines XML’s formatting. Two types of style sheet languages can be used –
CSS (Cascading Style Language) which is more versatile and only used with XML, or
SGML. Once a style sheet is attached to an XML file it can be translated to HTML and
displayed over the web.
The ability to create and define new tags makes XML a meta-language like its parent,
SGML. As a result, different sectors such as the financial and automotive industries
can decide on customised XML tags specifically used to describe their own products.
Putting this in the right context to run over a network and be delivered to a user’s
satisfaction on his device is a major challenge.
7
A markup language presents data or content through a series of tags, which are essentially presentation instructions.
Tags are used to “mark up” content, through which content can be identified and formatted.
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!
Some schemes allow existing Internet material created for use in the current
Internet hardwired world to be reused in the wireless world on terminals with
different display characteristics. The microbrowser is similar to a Netscape
Communicator or a Microsoft Explorer but different in that it is optimised for
handheld devices with limited power, memory, and processing resources. While
most operating systems generally provide a related microbrowser, the trend
towards open standards has forced manufacturers to allow different browsers to
run on their platform. There are currently four main manufacturers of
microbrowsers: Openwave, Microsoft, Nokia and Neomar – three of which also
provide a wireless Internet gateway in conjunction with WAP services. The
existence of different microbrowsers raises the issue of limited, segmented mobile
content. This in turn is linked to the limitations of WAP and the interim status of
stripped-down wireless markup languages such as WML, HDML, and c-HTML,
whilst the broader Internet is being driven by sophisticated e-commerce demands
into the more powerful XML. A number of exciting enterprise-oriented private
companies are moving to an XML/Java platform.
!
The biggest question at this point in the microbrowser wars is whether to focus on
traditional Internet-based standards such as HTTP and HTML or something else.
Currently xHTML provides a bridge to an XML-based functionality.
!
VoiceXML or VXML (Voice eXtensible Markup Language) is a markup language
designed to make resources on the web accessible by phone. A content developer
could use VXML to retrieve an audio file and play it. The basic idea is to let users
query web servers and access web content using phones and their voices. One
dials into sites and uses a voice browser to interact with Internet or intranet
applications hosted on web servers. The browser uses speech recognition in order
to interpret the request, which it then translates into the relevant URL. The web
server responds with a VXML page, the browser interprets this page and plays the
relevant audio file.
5.3.3.4 DxB related applications
Digital Audio Broadcasting and Digital Video Broadcasting form the basis of the next
generations of radio and television systems. 3G cellular systems could provide a
mobile return path to enable interactive TV or radio adding the dimension of ecommerce.
5.3.3.5 Automotive applications
3G cellular systems have the capability to provide not just voice and data
communications links to vehicles but also positional information. Many services could
be provided to subscribers.
5.3.3.6 Applications-enabled plug-in devices
The use of PC cards or other plug-in peripherals can provide additional functionality
and enable new services and applications to be created.
5.3.3.7 Toolkits
There are many toolkits available and this does not satisfy the overall objective of
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having a harmonised user interface. The use of standardised toolkits could make life
easier.
5.3.3.8 Input / output capabilities
5.3.3.8.1 Ad hoc or intermittent connectivity
Terminals will require the synchronisation of information with existing office and
personal data. Access can be provided through a variety of technologies and the use
of personal information management (PIM) application programs.
5.3.3.8.2 Peer to peer
In the future it will be possible to share information and resources with other cellular
users in the network and with those connected to the Internet or intranet using peer to
peer techniques. Local peering could use IrDA, Bluetooth and wireless LAN to share
with other non-wireless devices.
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6. APPLICATION AND CONTENT DELIVERY MODELLING
6.1
INTRODUCTION
It is important to understand the different possible mechanisms for the implementation
of applications and the delivery of content in order to advocate a range of rich
applications and services.
Many different models can be thought of for giving end users control over applications
and content. Specific business models may drive some of these models; in any case,
they will place varying requirements on device capabilities and on signalling protocols
used for communications between the terminal and the UMTS network.
The following example is used to help clarify this point.
6.2
SAMPLE APPLICATION MODELS FOR A MUSIC-ON-DEMAND SERVICE
The UMTS Forum has identified entertainment and in particular, music on demand, as
one possible application to be offered over UMTS.
Many handset vendors are toying with ways to include MP3 download capabilities in
terminals. Figure 6.1 illustrates that this is seen as a potential source of revenue.
40%
37%
2,5
33%
32%
32%
Number of music downloads via Internet
in Europe in millions
2,2
1,2
0,6
24%
1,4
23%
Surfers in percentage
9,5
20%
18%
0,7
14%
1,9
1,9
2,0
2,1
Spain
Russia
Portugal
Sweden
Germany
Poland
Holland
Italy
France
UK
Source: 20/01/Focus
Figure 6.1: MP3 Downloads in Europe
When designing how such a music-on-demand service could be offered to the end
user the following options for content delivery could be considered:
1.
The user has only the ability to listen to a music clip and does not have the ability
to store it in his device. The user could be charged a very small usage fee or
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could retrieve the clip free of charge in exchange for listening to an
advertisement. The content delivery model described here could be denoted as a
"streaming mode" since data is only streaming into the terminal and is not being
stored permanently.
2.
The user has the ability to download music clips and to store them permanently in
his terminal. In this case the user would pay a price that is equivalent to the value
of a clip on a CD (e.g. 2 Euro8). This can be considered a normal mobile
commerce transaction and the content delivery model could be denoted as a
"download mode". The user could perhaps listen to the clip while it is being
downloaded although this would be a device-specific feature.
3.
Another option would be for the end user to purchase the clip via a normal
transaction but to leave the music file on the service provider's server. The
purchased clip could either be retrieved later at the user’s convenience or could
be stored permanently with the service provider being always available wherever
the user is located. The delivery model is a "streaming" mode in this case but the
business model is clearly different to the one identified in option 1 ("purchasing"
instead of "renting").
4.
The last model is a combination of options 1 and 2. A user-friendly feature of a
music-on-demand service could be to allow the end user to listen to extracts of a
music clip or to listen to the entire clip free-of-charge (but only once). While the
user is listening to samples of music clips, the streaming model applies. The
device does not permanently store the music files and is not allowed to do so.
Once the user has chosen a clip and paid for it the download model applies; the
device is then allowed to store the file permanently.
Listen Only
Service Model
Streaming
Business Model
Downloading
Rent
Free-of-charge
Free-of-charge
Buy
Select Clip
Terminal Authentication
(I assure that I shall not store your data)
Audio Stream
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 6.2: Music-on-Demand – Streaming Mode
8
20.00 Euro could be considered a typical price for a CD. If a CD contains 10 titles then the price for one title (or one
clip) is 2.00 Euro.
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These different delivery models and combinations have different requirements on
technologies and standards:
1.
The pure streaming mode illustrated in Figure 6.2 has a low requirement on the
device's storage capability. However, the streaming model must somehow be
"enforced"; in other words, some form of device authentication is required
whereby the device asserts to the network that it will not permanently store the
music file. This is a very specific application-driven requirement on signalling
protocols used between the terminal and the network.
2.
The download mode may have large requirements on the storage capacity of the
device. The device would probably need to signal to the server how much storage
capacity it has. This would allow the server to revert to option 3 (storage in the
server for later retrieval) if the user's device should have insufficient capacity.
Here the signalling of very specific device-related information to the network is
required. Even though this is application-level signalling, such signalling must be
standardised in order to allow the user to choose different content providers
(much as it is easily possible today to tune into different radio stations).
3.
The third model has the least requirements on devices and signalling. Once the
user has purchased a clip he can listen to it whenever he wants and the device
does not need to worry whether it is running out of capacity or not. Furthermore,
the requirements on the local storage capability of the device are comparatively
low.
4.
The fourth and last model has the most complex requirements. At first, when the
device is operating in streaming mode only, the device must assert to the server
(via a form of device authentication) that it will not permanently store the incoming
music file. Furthermore, the user himself must be authenticated to the server (e.g.
based on the user's IMSI) in order to ensure that the user is not abusing the
service (listening to a sample several times). Next, the server must be able to
inform the device when it must operate in streaming mode and when it is allowed
to operate in download mode. Finally, the device must have the ability to inform
the server that it is running out of local storage capacity and to revert into a
"server-based storage mode".
Table 6.1 summarises these special requirements. In the table, macro-payment refers
to the purchase of a product (eventually via credit card), whereas micro-payment
refers to the payment of very small amounts (of the order of cents) which would be too
expensive as credit card transactions for the service provider.
These are very different models for the delivery of content which depend on the
business models being pursued by service providers. If service providers cannot
agree on a common model to use (which is very likely), a specific signalling of the
content delivery model to the device will be required.
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Feature / Model
Terminal
Authentication
User
Authentication
Capacity Limit
Signalling
Macro-Payment
Micro-Payment
Streaming Mode
Download Mode
Model 1:
"Listen Only"
Model 2:
"Buy and
download"
Model 3:
"Buy and don't
download"
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Model 4:
"Try and buy"
Mandatory
-
-
Mandatory
-
-
-
Mandatory
-
Optional
-
Optional
Mandatory
Mandatory
-
Mandatory
Optional
Mandatory
Mandatory
Mandatory
-
Mandatory
Mandatory
Mandatory
Source: UMTS Forum
Table 6.1: Requirements of Content Delivery Models
The content delivery models used by service providers could very well depend on the
capabilities of devices for the first generation of devices. As an example, it may be
expected initially that lower cost terminals will have only limited local storage capacity,
which would mandate a streaming mode delivery model (options 1 and 3). Over time,
as terminal capabilities and audio compression technologies improve, service
providers may evolve into more complex forms of content delivery such as the one
described in option 4.
Current devices are designed for voice and data is being ‘forced’ on them. It can be
expected that devices will change in nature and become more of a platform either with
resident applications or just enough logic to trigger or download what is required. The
next generation of devices will become much more powerful in their capabilities.
Issues that have an impact on the application and content delivery models being
considered include display size (pixels) and power consumption. Such device-specific
parameters will also influence which client/server models to adopt (should the device
be a thin or fat client, and how thin or fat should it be?) and the operating system or
middleware platform necessary in order to realise the applications.
The way streaming applications are being implemented today on the Internet is
unlikely to be applicable to the "mobile Internet" world. Within the confines of the fixed
Internet a multitude of proprietary applications exist for the delivery of multimedia
content. These require dedicated plug-ins loaded into the fixed user's browser
software (e.g. Real Network's RealPlayer, Vivo Player, Microsoft's Media Player).
Certain applications (e.g. audio streaming) require a basic set of features that need to
be standardised. Any additional application-specific features could be downloaded
onto the device, for example in the form of appropriate Java applets.
6.3
PROPOSAL FOR A REFINEMENT OF THE ANALYTICAL APPROACH
6.3.1 Levels of Signalling
Different levels of signalling protocols can be identified which have a varying impact
on standardisation requirements. Specifically the following levels can be identified:
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!
Network-level signalling refers to communications between the device and the
network that are necessary for transmission of data, for example setting up radio
bearers or specifying the QoS to be used over the air interface. Standardisation
work at this level is primarily undertaken by 3GPP.
!
Application-level signalling refers to the signalling necessary between the mobile
device and an application server residing in the network. Note that at this level, the
application server could be owned and managed by the mobile operator or it could
be owned by a third party content or service provider (e.g. a bank in the case of a
mobile banking service). At this level, the signalling could either be standardised
or proprietary. The latter option would be facilitated by the fact that applications
may be downloaded onto the device via a 3G network. The terminal could
download an application from the network that has been specifically developed by
the content or service provider; the communications between the client and the
server would and could then be proprietary. In this case, it would be important for
the application to be able to access device and network-specific information via
standardised APIs.
For individual functions the required signalling could be proprietary or
standardised. Under such circumstances it may be desirable to have a common
application execution environment.
!
GUI (Graphical User Interface) control refers to service features which can be
directly controlled by the end user, for example via interaction over a web page
using an appropriate GUI. As an example, "indication of charge" is a feature that
could be stored as part of the user's personal profile to enable the user to receive
charging information. This is a feature that could (and should) be enabled and
disabled by the user. This could be done via specific buttons implemented on a
web page. This form of control does not require any specific standardisation since
the control information being transmitted from the mobile device to the application
server is embedded as a payload in standard HTTP messages (or whatever
application layer protocol for content transport is being used).
In a similar way other types of signalling can be foreseen for content QoS and
interoperability.
Application and network-level signalling are hidden from the user whereas the user
can control user-level signalling. Application-level signalling might require
standardisation whereas user-level signalling does not require standardisation in
general. See Figure 6.3.
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Application Server
[+ Content Database]
GUI control
GUI
Application-level signalling
(standardised/proprietary)
Application
APIs
Network
UMTS
Network-level
signalling
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 6.3: Levels of Signalling
The following question needs to be answered for every feature in order to determine
the specific level of signalling required: "Is feature xyz a feature that the user should
be able to control, or is this a feature that must be under the control of the network or
application server?"
6.3.2 Differentiation between Audio and Visual Content
Most future 3G services will be data services and will require the display of content in
visual format (text, pictures, video) via an appropriate GUI in order to enable the user
to interact with the service. However, some 3G services could be offered in voice-only
format (including delivery of web-based content using new forms of content formatting
such as VoiceXML) which would be more appropriate for drivers of vehicles for
example. The level of control a user can exercise over service features using audioonly control is likely initially to be more limited than by using visual means. This leads
to the necessity for differentiation of both forms of content delivery while analysing
signalling requirements. The following concrete example demonstrates this.
Translation services (including translation of web-based content) will be a key feature
of future mobile Internet services, especially relevant for roaming users. A user
logging on to a foreign network for the first time could be offered several language
options. Such an approach is hardly feasible for an audio-only service. To improve the
chance of the user understanding the audio content, the application server of the
foreign network could determine the user's origination country using their IMSI. This
would require the application server to gain access to network specific information.
While the first option does not require standardisation (the choice of language is
implemented via "GUI control") the second option may (e.g. definition of an API that
allows application logic stored in the terminal to access the user's IMSI and to
communicate it to the application server).
6.4
3G TRAFFIC ASYMMETRY
3G environments enable a wide range of applications, which have very different data
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traffic profiles. 3G systems allow asymmetric services far beyond those possible in
previous systems. The symmetry and capacity demand for these services will also
vary from market to market and network to network in different regions. Knowledge of
3G traffic asymmetry will assist in refining future spectrum utilisation calculations and
will also give industry guidance on new compression and software optimisation
techniques required. Signalling, delay tolerance, resource management and QoS in
the network and transmission paths also need to be taken into consideration.
Some examples of 3G data traffic:
!
Messaging – conventional simple messaging applications such as SMS text,
through to full multimedia messaging applications;
!
Internet Browsing – access to Internet content from established WAP or basic
HTML browsers can be extended to the rich experience of the workstation or PC
with the limiting factor being that of the device’s user interface.
The number and range of applications, coupled with the richness of user experience
available for those applications, gives a wide range of likely data rates and volumes
that are required. Many of these applications are very asymmetric. There are
scenarios for typical envisioned applications, which can be evaluated with respect to
data traffic flows. Many applications described have a very high ratio of data traffic to
the device but very low data traffic from the device. Knowing this ratio, and the likely
distribution of applications with similar traffic patterns, is important for network element
capacity planning and may also have handset design implications.
Traffic associated with originated or received data is not the only data traffic that must
be considered. If security and authentication mechanisms become common in usage,
complex, and possibly verbose this may well add to the data traffic profile and affect
the up/down ratio. Estimates of traffic asymmetry in UMTS networks are presented in
Table 6.2.
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Application
description
Richness
Messaging
Browsing
Examples of typical data up /
down for each application
Simple text
M*160 chars / N*160 chars; M, N low
for most applications / messages
Rich text
<2 Kbytes / <5 Kbytes / message e.g.
email
Multimedia
< 1 Kbytes / <10 Kbytes / or vice versa
per message e.g. email + attached
small thumbnail image etc.
<1 Kbytes / 1.5 Kbytes per
transaction; <0.5 transaction / sec;
text browsing
WAP v2
Simple HTML
<1 Kbytes / 10 Kbytes per transaction;
<0.5 transaction / sec; text + limited
graphics
Rich HTML
<1 Kbytes / 30 Kbytes per transaction,
< 0.5 transaction / sec; text + graphics
Sound download
e.g. MP3
<1 Kbytes / 1 Mbytes/min of sound,
typically 2.5-3.5 MB for pop music
Multimedia clips
Simple
< 1 Kbytes / 75 Kbytes; consumption
of ~5Kbytes/sec
Rich
<1 Kbytes / 300 Kbytes; consumption
~ 20 Kbytes/s
Low quality
<10 kbit/s / <10 kbit/s
High quality
>40 kbit/s / >40 kbit/s
Basic
(whiteboard, etc.)
Very dependent on mode of
collaborative working.
Estimate: between low quality and
high quality video format
Videophone
Collaborative
working
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Asymmetry up /
down; rate
1:1 typical;
Expected range 0.2:1
- 5:1
Rate: low
~0.4:1
Rate: low
Range 1:10 < 10:1
Rate: low
1:1.5
Rate: frequent during
session
1:10
Rate: moderately
frequent during
session
1:30
Rate: moderately
frequent during
session
1:2500+
streamed content or
download
1:75 via download or
streaming
Rate: infrequent
1:300 via download or
streaming.
Rate: infrequent
1:1
Rate: infrequent –
continuous during
video format sessions
1:1
Rate infrequent –
continuous during
video format sessions
1:1
Rate: infrequent –
approaching
continuous during
sessions
Source: UMTS Forum
Table 6.2: Estimates of Traffic Asymmetry in UMTS Networks
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7. LOCATION-BASED SERVICES
7.1
INTRODUCTION
Previous sections have covered general capabilities such as security and content
coding that UMTS applications will need to provide. A large number of future 3G
applications will make use of additional network capabilities, the most prominent being
the use of location information. The wide range of possible location-based services
and the complexity of the implementation of such services warrant specific
consideration, which is the scope of this section.
According to research from numerous market analysts, location will be among the key
functionalities supporting future GPRS and 3G service offerings. 3GPP has done
some work in identifying possible methods to enable networks and terminals to
acquire positioning information. However, current standards are still far from being
able to provide a complete solution from which location-based services can be built.
This is especially the case when independent third-party service providers provide
location-based services, since 3GPP's work is rather network operator focused.
This chapter highlights the negative impact different co-existing positioning
technologies is likely to have on networks, devices and services, and the benefits to
all parties of global standardisation of positioning technologies and the interfaces
between the various parties involved.
7.2
VALUE AND INFORMATION CHAINS
For long-term success, UMTS will need to provide the same level of open access to
services as the Internet currently does for fixed services. Freedom of choice has been
a major success factor of the Internet, as well as a strategic choice made by NTT
DoCoMo when launching its i-mode service. This lesson should also be applied to the
way location-based services are enabled by network operators.
While operators might offer their own location-based services (including applications
that have been developed in-house), they will find that selling positioning information
to third-party service providers could represent an additional source of revenue.
Indeed, some operators may opt not to provide such services themselves, because
they lack the necessary resources and skills, and may choose to outsource service
delivery to an external provider and agree on appropriate revenue sharing schemes.
The value of location information (i.e. its 'price') delivered to service providers will be
influenced by the enhanced value of the service as well as by the cost of substitute
technologies such as more expensive GPS-enabled handsets or street-level
positioning based on information entered by users themselves.
Usage of location information by network operators for commercial purposes must
abide by local regulation. Some regulatory environments require the user to give
consent to the network operator for such use of location information. End users could
be motivated to give their consent by being offered “special deals” such as reduced
tariffs for voice calls or other services.
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#
Location-based
content/service
Bearer
Services
Location
Information
Locator
'
%
$
UMTS
Forum
Service
provision
Network
Operation
&
Billing/Usage of
network resources
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 7.1: Information Chain for Location-Based Services
The value chain for location-based services (sale of location information from network
operator to service provider) focuses on revenue streams between the different
participants. The information chain depicted in Figure 7.1 highlights what type of
information needs to be exchanged between the participants of that value chain.
In Figure 7.1 content provision and aggregation are understood to be within the
service provision domain. The information chain should be interpreted mainly from a
functional perspective; for example, network operation and service provision could be
performed by one and the same commercial entity. The interfaces required within the
service provision 'domain' are not specific to location-based services, but locationbased services do place specific requirements on the interfaces between mobile
equipment, network operation, service provision and locator.
Whereas the network operation function provides bearer services to the mobile
equipment, the service provision function provides the actual content or service. The
information chain also contains an element specific to location-based services, the
locator function. This function is responsible for performing the necessary radiospecific measurements (and therefore requires access to elements of the network
infrastructure) and provides the results of the computation of these measurements to
the service provision function in the form of location information.
Traditionally, it would be expected that the locator function is embedded into the
network infrastructure and is therefore part of the network operation function.
However, the locator function could be implemented as a separate commercial entity.
Such a company would install and manage additional hardware in several mobile
networks and sell the positioning information to the associated network operators.
This would have the advantage that several base stations from different network
operators could be used for positioning measurements (sharing of infrastructure) and
network operators would negotiate the delivery of location information with one single
company. This locator function would be particularly relevant for the OTDOA9
positioning method, since in Assisted GPS and Cell ID one base station is sufficient
9
Observed Time Difference of Arrival.
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for the provision of the service.10
Network
Operator 2
Locator
Network
Operator 1
Network
Operator 3
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 7.2: Role of the Locator
An open access model to services requires the definition of interfaces and message
flows between the various participants of the information chain – illustrated in Figure
7.2. Procedures such as authorisation and charging are required between the
operator and the provider, whereas exchange of location and measurement
information may be required between the terminal and network. The specific
requirements on standardisation are detailed in Section 7.6.2.
The open distributed model described in this section might raise some concerns with
regards to the handling of users’ privacy rights. Sophisticated mechanisms might need
to be put into place to ensure that the end-user’s privacy is not breached.
7.3
MULTIPLICITY OF POSITIONING METHODS
UMTS Forum Report 11 discusses a number of technologies by which the position of
a mobile terminal can be obtained. Positioning generally consists of two main
functions:11
!
Measurement Function (MF) – whereby either the terminal or a number of base
stations measure radio-link specific parameters (e.g. signal strength, time of
arrival); alternatively, the terminal may scan for and detect GPS signals and
extract required information from the beacons of at least four GPS satellites.
10
A-GPS uses one base station to provide differential data to the mobile terminal, whereas the position of the terminal
in Cell ID is determined based on the ID of one cell, i.e. base station.
11
Note that these functions are generally irrelevant to Cell ID, since positioning based on Cell ID is an intrinsic feature
of cellular networks.
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Position Calculation Function (PCF) – where some functional entity either in the
network or in the terminal uses the signal measurements to produce a position
estimate of the terminal.
The multitude of methods that are being proposed, promoted by individual companies,
and standardised generally can be classified according to where signal measurements
and position calculations are executed. This leads to the following categories of
positioning methods (Figure 7.3):
!
Mobile Station (MS)-based – the terminal performs both signal measurements and
position calculations and so is able to determine its position independently of any
network operator. Examples of terminal-based positioning methods include GPS
and Assisted GPS (A-GPS); in the latter case, the required assistance data is
provided over a non-3G network (e.g. the information could be broadcast as part
of Non Programme Associated Data (NPAD) in a DAB "ensemble"12).
!
Network-assisted – most of the position determination process is implemented in
the terminal, however, the terminal gets support from the network. An example is
Assisted GPS where the terminal receives correctional data via the network from a
reference GPS receiver; this data enables the terminal to take into account the
deviation of the terminal's internal clock from the clocks in the GPS satellites in
order to improve positioning accuracy. Another example is OTDOA (Observed
Time Difference of Arrival) where the network provides the terminal with the
necessary information to account for the fact that internal clocks of different base
stations may not be synchronised.
!
MS-assisted – the position calculation function is implemented in the network and
signal measurements are performed by the terminal. Typical examples are E-OTD
(Enhanced Observed Time Difference) for GSM and OTDOA (Observed Time
Difference of Arrival) for UMTS.
!
Network-based – all functions related to positioning are implemented in the
network. The best known example is Cell ID, which actually does not require
signal measurements since it is an intrinsic feature of mobile networks. The
accuracy of Cell ID decreases with increasing cell size from several 100 metres to
several kilometres. The location accuracy of Cell ID may be improved by using
sectorised antennas. Some location-based services such as location-based billing
have already been implemented using Cell ID. Another example of a networkbased method is TOA (Time Of Arrival) where the time of arrival of access bursts
from a terminal are measured at three different base stations.
12
A DAB ensemble contains audio programmes, data related to the audio programme (PAD – Programme Associated
Data) and optionally other data services (NPAD – Non Programme Associated Data).
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Terminal
MS-based
Network -assisted
MF
MS-assisted
MF
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Network
GPS, A-GPS
OTDOA, E-OTD
PCF
Network-based
MF
PCF
TDOA
PCF
TDOA, Cell ID, AOA
MF: Measurement Function
PCF: Position Calculation Function
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 7.3: Classification of Positioning Methods
Many different ways exist for determining the position of a terminal and many methods
show similar performance in terms of accuracy. As discussed in Section 7.5, some
methods have significant impact on terminal complexity and hardware. Other methods
have a more significant impact on network infrastructure (Section 7.4). The existence
of a multiplicity of positioning methods is likely to be an inhibitor rather than an enabler
of the market for location-based services, for the following reasons:
•
•
Unless manufacturers and operators agree on common standards, which should
preferably minimise the number of solutions, the multitude of different methods will
not enable manufacturers to achieve the economies of scale necessary to be able
to offer low-cost solutions to consumers. As a result, positioning technologies will
either not be deployed or will be deployed for niche markets, due to the high cost
of the technology.
True global roaming will be inhibited if too many solutions exist in the market. A
frequently quoted example of a typical location-based service is the "Tourist
Guide" service. Naturally, it can be assumed that most users of the Tourist Guide
service will come from a foreign network. If the visited network does not support
the same technologies as the home network, and the user has a terminal
implementing only those solutions deployed in the home network, the user
logically will not be able to use the Tourist Guide service. Global roaming will
therefore be inhibited.
It should be further noted that most UMTS networks are likely to provide only limited
national coverage. This has an impact on the way location services are delivered
since a close relationship exists between the positioning technologies deployed and
the radio access technology used. Service continuity between 2G and 3G networks
has been recognised by standardisation bodies as a key requirement that needs to be
fulfilled. This should also be applied to location-based services.
The future success of location-based services will depend strongly on agreement
within the industry (mainly manufacturers and operators) on a common set of
solutions for positioning.
In the market for location-based services two scenarios will exist. In the first scenario,
operators and manufacturers agree on a common solution for positioning which
means that some technologies will ultimately lose. In the second scenario the
multiplicity of solutions will remain, which will mean that most players in the market for
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location-based services will lose. The second scenario will require these players to
provide services designed for multiple positioning methods, thereby incurring
additional development costs or delivering different quality of service.
7.4
IMPACT ON NETWORKS
All the positioning methods described above have advantages and disadvantages,
which are listed in Table 7.1 for those methods that have been identified by 3GPP as
valid options for UMTS.
Method
Cell ID
OTDOA
A-GPS
Advantages
Disadvantages
Minimum upgrades required in the
network.
Eventually no upgrades required in the
terminal.
Cheap way of getting reasonable accuracy
in pico-cells.
Operator has full control on ownership of
location information.
Higher accuracy possible than with Cell ID.
Minimum impact on terminal (mainly
additional software required).
Network operator has stronger control over
ownership of location information than in
A-GPS case.
High accuracy when line-of-sight with GPS
satellites is possible (outdoor).
From users’ and third-party service
providers’ perspective, position information
is not owned by network operator.
Accuracy decreases with increasing cell sizes,
and may vary typically between a few hundred
metres to several kilometres.
Significant upgrades required in the mobile
network infrastructure.
Variable accuracy depending upon location of
base stations, location of the user and timevariable radio propagation effects.
Operator has no control over ownership of
Increased complexity in mobile terminals.
Low accuracy in indoor environments.
Accuracy may also be limited in urban areas
with high-rise buildings.
GPS may not always be free-of-charge or
available.
Source: UMTS Forum
Table 7.1: Advantages and Disadvantages of Positioning Methods
!
Cell ID has the lowest impact on networks since it is already a feature of cellular
networks. Upgrades may only be required to establish the necessary applications
architecture to handle the cell-ID-based location services. Its most significant
disadvantage is its low accuracy compared with other methods. Note, however,
that many location-based services (particularly general information services) might
not require high positioning accuracy (see also Table 7.2). Note also that 3G cells
will be smaller than GSM900 cells and could even be deployed as pico-cells with
coverage of a few hundred metres to provide access in areas of high traffic density
(hot spots).
!
Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) has a more significant impact on
networks. In many cases, software upgrades will be required in almost every 3G
network element. In some cases new hardware might also be required, such as
Location Measurement Units (LMUs) to measure time of arrival at a reference
receiver located at a known position and Gateway Mobile Location Centres
(GMLCs) to handle positioning requests from outside the 3G network (e.g. from a
third-party service provider). However, OTDOA enables the operator to better
control what happens with positioning information than in the case of A-GPS.
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Assisted GPS (A-GPS) has the highest degree of accuracy, as long as the user
has direct line-of-sight with at least four GPS satellites. Accuracy reduces
dramatically in indoor environments. The impact on the network is also minimised.
Operators might only have to install a few reference GPS receivers to produce the
correctional data required by the terminals and upgrade software to handle the
signalling required to transfer this information to the terminals.
But the operator has less control over what happens with the positioning
information. Once the terminal has determined its position using the correctional
data, it could transmit it transparently (i.e. without the knowledge of the operator)
to a third-party service provider for further processing. "Selling" correctional GPS
data might not be a workable business model, since this data could be also gained
– eventually free-of-charge – by other means (e.g. using DAB).
7.5
IMPACT ON TERMINALS
Positioning methods based on GPS have the most impact on terminals. GPS
integrated terminals are already available in Japan. Most of these do not contain a
separate GPS antenna but use the cellular antenna to receive GPS signals. If there is
a requirement for an extra antenna (for reception of signals being broadcast in the
L-band at 1.2 GHz and 1.5 GHz) costs will increase.
The need for an extra GPS chipset has the following impact on terminals:
!
Higher cost – with a current average price of 25 to 30 Euro per GPS chipset the
cost of a 3G terminal could easily increase by 100 Euro to include GPS receiver
functionality.
If the chipset includes GPS core architecture the cost increase will be less. Cost
increases of less than 5 Euro have been predicted, especially if the chipsets are
produced in volume.
!
More space is required to embed the GPS chipset into the terminal.
The space issue will become less important as chipsets increasingly integrate key
architectures. Power consumption is the biggest issue.
!
Higher battery consumption resulting from the need to scan the GPS satellite
signals and power the GPS receiver. Higher battery consumption may lead to the
need for a larger battery, which again would increase the size of the terminal.
Higher power consumption will require more sophisticated battery technology with
higher cell density and longer battery lifetime. The battery industry is expected to
come up with new battery technologies.
!
The risk that the GPS system could be switched off by the satellite operator should
be considered.
Should a dedicated GPS antenna be necessary it would have serious implications on
the design of handsets. An additional antenna for receiving GPS signals could be
required since the handset might be communicating with the network while it is
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scanning for GPS signals. This would lead to requirements for a minimum separation
between antennas to reduce inductive effects.13 Such a requirement can impact the
usability of the handset.
Network-based positioning methods such as cell ID and OTDOA clearly have less of
an impact on terminal hardware and mostly require additional software capabilities.
The impact of cell ID on terminals is minimal, even non-existent.
A standard WAP browser may be sufficient to access many location-based
information services.14 Such services could also easily be provided using SMS as a
bearer.
3G terminals with a GPS receiver are likely to address high-end users in the medium
term. The cell ID and OTDOA location methods will address the mass market in the
near and medium-terms, respectively.
7.6
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POSITIONING TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES
The existence of multiple positioning technologies and their likely future co-existence
will have a major impact on the way location-based services are being offered by third
party providers, unless some very strong standardisation efforts are made at a global
industry level.
There are two main aspects to be highlighted when considering the relationship
between different positioning technologies and services.
!
Certain services can only be offered if a minimum level of accuracy is available.
Even if the same location-based service can be offered via different positioning
technologies, that service, its quality of service and its perception by the end user
are clearly influenced by the positioning technology being used.
!
In order to enable the availability of services across multiple network operators
and platforms, interoperability between network operators’ and service providers’
infrastructure is a necessity. This leads to the need for a standardised protocol
between service provision and the locating entity15 covering functions such as
exchange of location information, authorisation and billing.
Some classes of services have clear requirements on location quality of service (such
as accuracy) and so can only be enabled by specific positioning technologies (see
Table 7.2). Even if the same location-based service can be offered via different
positioning technologies, the service's quality and the end-users’ perception of the
service will be influenced by the technology used. For some services, the higher
precision of a positioning method may lead to a higher perceived value of the service
13
The electromagnetic field of a sending antenna induces an electrical current in the neighbouring antenna, leading to
a disturbance of the received signal in the second antenna.
14
W@P 2.0 or later version will replace the present version in order to improve the quality (accuracy and reliability) of
location-based information services.
15
The locating entity could be part of the 2G/3G network, or in the terminal, or could be operated by a separate
commercial entity (e.g. for infrastructure sharing for location services, as discussed in Section 7.2).
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by the end user. On the other hand, some positioning technologies are not adequate
at all for certain services.
Cell ID
Tourist Guide
Yellow Pages
People Management
Traffic Information
Weather Information
Localised Advertising
Friend Finder
Maps
Navigation
Pet Finder
Employee Safety
Family Safety
Anti-theft
Road Assistance
16
H
H
H
H
H
H
L
H
L
OTDOA
A-GPS
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
L
H
H
H
H
L
H
H
L
L
H
H
H
L
H
L
H
17
Source: UMTS Forum
Legend: H: Service supported in most cases by the technology; L: Service supported only with restrictions.
Table 7.2: Relationship between Positioning Technology and Services
In some cases service providers can overcome the limitations of positioning
technologies by actively involving the end user in the positioning process. For
example, in the case of proximity searches,18 users may play an active role by
determining themselves which is the nearest POI (Point of Interest) to which they are
close. Location-based service providers can then provide very accurate proximity
searches since the location of POIs are known with precision and certitude. This selfdetermining approach to positioning can be performed by users at an early stage of
the location-based service (i.e. as soon as they access the service) or after the
proximity search has been performed, as part of a refinement process.
7.7
STANDARDISATION REQUIREMENTS FOR INTERFACES
The fact that multiple positioning methods exist (and are expected to co-exist) will
require service providers as well as all other participants in the value chain – device
manufacturers, network operators and infrastructure providers – to cope with such
diversity, including all the associated costs. Such diversity generates the need for
defining a location protocol for the interface between the locator and the service
provider that is agreed at an industry level; this protocol should enable multiple
networks, service providers and devices to inter-operate effectively. This requirement,
in addition to other requirements for further standardised interfaces, is illustrated in
16
Cell ID can be more precise when the cells are smaller, especially in urban areas.
17
A-GPS is available within buildings either with significantly reduced accuracy or not at all (due to signal attenuation).
18
Proximity searches, also called spatial searches, identify items of interest in the service provider's database based
on user-specific criteria in an area around the user's position, based on end-user input (e.g. street name, house
number). The size of the area is generally defined by the service provider, sometimes with the assistance of the end
user.
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Figure 7.4.
Locator
Service
provision
Network
Operation
Standardised
Not Standardised
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 7.4: Standardised and Non-Standardised Interfaces
The interface between the device and service provision function need not be
standardised since the required communications will depend on the service usage
contract between the service provider and the subscriber. In any case, access to
location-based services could be performed by already available standardised
information retrieval systems (e.g. WAP browser) or by special programs such as
Java applets implementing the necessary communications with the provider's
application server. Since Java applets can be downloaded to the terminal there is no
need for standardisation of communications between device and service provider.
7.8
SERVICE CLASSIFICATION
3GPP has identified the following categories of location-based services:
•
•
•
•
Value-added services which could be provided by an independent third-party
provider. This category includes information, navigation and tracking services.
PLMN operator (internal) services whereby the operator uses location information
to perform internal tasks, including network management, traffic and network
planning, and optimised handover.
Emergency services.
Lawful interception services.
Value-added services will represent the biggest part of the location services market,
since they are the actual revenue generators. Individual services possible within this
category are limited only by the human imagination. They can range from simple
services such as local yellow pages using cell ID to services as complex as navigation
assistance. A more thorough classification of value-added location services is
necessary to identify requirements on standards.
Generally, this category of services can be subdivided into two major sub-categories,
depending upon the source of the invocation of a location-based service. This leads to
the following classification:
•
Mobile equipment-initiated services – including information and navigation
services.
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Third party-initiated services – including value-added services such as tracing and
tracking services, and location-based advertising.
These services are described in more detail in the following sections and are followed
by usage scenarios for some of the identified services.
7.8.1 Mobile Equipment-Initiated Location Services
7.8.1.1 Information services
The user requests information about specific items close to his current location, for
example restaurants or cinemas that are located in the vicinity. Eventually, this could
be implemented as a map showing the user's current location as well as the location
of items requested by the user. The implementation of such a service could be
considered comparatively straightforward, especially if cell ID is used as the basis for
position estimates. Typical content will include geographical mapping information as
well as yellow pages information (company names, phone numbers, addresses).
Location-based information services could also be augmented by information on
specific items of interest, for example the history of the building right in front of the
user.
7.8.1.2 Navigation services
Navigation services cover the case where a user wishes to be guided by his terminal
to a specific destination. This could be implemented by providing directions to the user
or by displaying the user's current location on his terminal (e.g. a blinking point on a
map). In either case, navigation services may require delivery of the user's position to
his terminal at regular intervals, and maybe also to the service provider, until the user
has reached his destination.
Note that the usage scenarios and the requirements on standards might be different
depending upon whether the service is being used by pedestrians or by car drivers.
Generally, not even A-GPS could provide the required accuracy for car drivers
travelling at high speeds; in this case, additional information might need to be supplied
by the car's telemetry and navigation systems.
In current systems, in-car navigation systems consist of a GPS receiver, a local
database containing mapping information (stored on one or more CD-ROMs) and an
MMI displaying the user's location on a map.
However, the value of providing a location-based service to car drivers using the
location determining capabilities of the UMTS network might be rather limited.
7.8.2 Third Party-Initiated Services
7.8.2.1 Tracing and tracking
Tracing and tracking value-added services generally allow a third party – a physical
user or maybe an application server – to track the current location of a mobile user or
to trace the user's past movements within the network based on location information
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that has been stored in an LCS server. The following sample services fall into this
category:
•
•
7.9
Fleet management – whereby a company is always aware of the current location
of a fleet of vehicles. This application has already been implemented using GPS
as a positioning method and does not necessarily require high bandwidths.
Find friends – whereby friends find each other by locating each other on a map.
SERVICE USAGE SCENARIOS
The analysis of service usage scenarios is an important first step in identifying specific
requirements on protocols and interfaces. These scenarios depict the most likely
sequence of events a user might undergo to achieve a specific end by using a service.
The service usage analysis can be extended to identifying high-level procedures
required within the network to fulfil the user's requirements.
7.9.1 General User Perceptions
In order to ensure end-user satisfaction, the users’ perception of a service must be a
critical factor in service creation and in the evaluation of appropriate positioning
methods and their impact on services.
Positioning accuracy depends not only on the positioning method but also on factors
such as the topology of the landscape, the precise position and distance of base
stations available for signal measurements to the mobile terminal, and whether the
user is located inside a building or not. Accuracy therefore depends on the user's
actual location as well as on other time-variable radio propagation effects. The service
should be designed in such a way that the quality of service is influenced by the
variation in accuracy only in exceptional cases.
7.9.2 Usage Scenario for Navigation Services
In general there are two methods by which navigation information can be supplied to
the user:
1.
Voice – for example a spoken message such as "at the next crossing, turn left";
2.
Information displayed via a Graphical User Interface (GUI) – for example the
user's location highlighted on a map.
A combination of both interaction mechanisms is also likely – the user selects a
destination via a GUI and is guided by voice messages. In the case of the voice
interface, once the user has defined his destination he will proceed according to the
information that is being delivered to him by voice. This information is delivered as
soon as new information is required (after he has "reached the next crossing", he
needs to "turn left"). Since the information is delivered automatically, the network must
track the user's position at regular intervals to determine when new guiding
information needs to be delivered.
In the case of the GUI-only interface, the usage scenario is different. First, the user
will determine his current position by requesting a map and his location on that map.
Once the user has selected a destination, he will choose a direction according to the
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information he has interpreted from the map. He will proceed and check his position at
possibly irregular intervals on the map to make sure he is on the right track – the
irregularity stems from the simple fact that the user cannot keep his eye constantly
fixed on the GUI! In this scenario, it does not make much sense for the network to
regularly send position updates to the terminal, since the user may not be looking at
the GUI just at these times. Instead, it would make more sense for the user to simply
press a "refresh" button that triggers the network to inform him of his current location.
From a technical standpoint this usage scenario is very similar to the usage scenario
for a location-based information service, with the exception that information on local
amenities is not delivered to the terminal (only a local map).
In some other service models the network may want to determine the terminal's
position at regular intervals even when the user is using only a GUI as means of
interaction, which may require dedicated communications with the terminal. One
service model could consist of providing the user with current information about local
events occurring while the user is walking along. If an accident occurs two blocks
away, leading to a closure of the road, the service provider could warn the user via an
acoustic signal, and display on the user's terminal his current location as well as the
location of the unexpected event.
From this analysis of usage scenarios, the following requirements can be derived:
•
•
Voice-based user interfaces for navigation require regular position updates.
GUI-based user interfaces for navigation may require regular position updates,
depending on the service model being implemented.
If the terminal is able and has been configured to determine its location with minimum
support from the network (i.e. signal measurements and location calculations are
performed in the terminal), then the terminal will be required in this “local events”
service model to communicate its position estimate at regular intervals to the service
provider. This leads to the following requirement:
•
Appropriate signalling mechanisms will need to be put in place to enable the
service provider to communicate specific requirements to the terminal in terms of
information the terminal needs to deliver to the service provider ("service
configuration signalling"). Whether such signalling mechanisms need to be
standardised or not needs to be studied.
7.9.3 Usage Scenario for Friend Finder Service
In a configuration phase, a user who wishes to be located by his friends will need to
update his personal privacy exception list, essentially instructing the network about the
phone numbers or email addresses of users that are allowed to track his location.
3GPP has already identified the need to cater for the privacy needs of end users and
has identified the requirement to establish a privacy exception list to be stored in the
3G network (as part of the LCS server functionality). The privacy exception list
identifies which LCS clients are allowed to request position estimates to locate the
user.
Once a group of friends have updated their lists (which could be presented in a userfriendly fashion as a "buddy list", similar to AOL's instant messenger software) a user
may request his service provider to determine whether his friends are close by (e.g. by
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pressing a button "find friend xx"). The service provider would typically send back a
map of the local area of the user and would be responsible for determining the
location of the other users, who may be located in different networks than the first
user's home network (see Figure 7.5). For this purpose, the service provider will issue
a location request to the appropriate networks according to the procedures defined by
3GPP and will act as an 'external LCS client'. Once position information has been
delivered to the service provider, this information will be forwarded further to the user
who issued the original request. The positions of the user's friends could then be
displayed on the local map as dots or areas with names, as graphical items or even as
small pictures of his friends (depending on the application).
F3
Network
Operator 2
$ LocationRequest/Response [F2, F3]
F2
Content
Database
Network Operator 1
Service Provider
F1
# FindFriends [F2, F3]
$ LocationRequest /Response[F1]
% Content: XML[Map + Position of F1 - F3]
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 7.5: High-Level Procedures for Friend Finder Service
Positioning information sent from the service provider to the user who initiated the
positioning request should in general be transferred transparently through the
network. Usually this would be information formatted in an appropriate markup
language. XML appears to be particularly advantageous, as the service provider
would need to send only the positioning information to the user, instead of sending an
entire map formatted in HTML together with the description of the location of the
user's friends. This would be especially useful if the user already has a current map of
the local area stored in his terminal and only requires updated information on the
location of his friends.
Note for clarification that there are essentially two ways by which the terminal may
gain access to positioning information:
•
•
Directly from the network – for which an appropriate API function needs to be
defined to allow the application to gain access to this information.
Directly from the service provider – which would mean that some other form of
information formatting would be required. This is the application scenario where
the use of XML would appear to be advantageous.
7.10 CHARGING MODELS
There is no benefit to a network operator in providing positioning information free-ofcharge to a third-party provider. Therefore, a specific issue that needs to be resolved
is when and for what the operator should charge the service provider when providing
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One approach would be for the operator to charge the service provider for every
position information update being sent to the service provider during a navigation
service session. This would be particularly feasible in the following cases:
•
•
For pure information services where location information is delivered only once per
usage session.
For navigation services that require regular position updates but whose frequency
is controlled by the users. Whenever the user wishes to view his current location
on his map, he would accept a small (eventually very small) fee for this service.
There are some issues to consider, however, which may render this charging option
rather unattractive when regular position updates are required for the provision of the
service (e.g. in the case of a voice-based navigation service):
•
•
This approach could slow down the response time of the location-dependent
service. Whenever the terminal or the service provider's application software
requests an update of the terminal's position from the network operator, the
delivery of this information would have to be preceded by a charging transaction
between service provider and network operator. This would contribute to the
overall delay in providing this information to the terminal and service provider. This
delay might become obtrusive if the user has to wait a noticeable amount of time
until his new position has been updated on the map displayed on his terminal.
It would become very difficult for the end user or service provider to control the
cost of the service. If every location information update were to be charged, the
same service would be more expensive for users requiring more frequent position
updates. Of course, in the case that regular position updates are required, the
frequency of updates could be an end-user controlled parameter. However, this
would reduce the user friendliness of the service.
From this discussion, some design criteria for message flows and protocols between
the various entities of the value chain can be identified.
One major design criteria for message flows and protocols should be to minimise the
response time of the service, i.e. the duration from the request for the service until the
content has been displayed on the user's terminal. Minimising response time will help
improve the end-user's experience of the service and improve the user's overall
satisfaction with the service. Another design criteria should be to reduce the amount of
required signalling over the air interface.
7.11 LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR 3G LOCATION SERVICES
When discussing location-based services complex legal issues need to be given
consideration. The UMTS Forum has initiated respective studies with the aim to
provide guidance for consideration and possible solutions. It will publish the resulting
material in due course.
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8. BILLING & CHARGING
8.1
INTRODUCTION
This chapter concentrates on the Charging, Billing and Payment aspects of 3G
services. Charging, billing and payment cannot be divorced from the technology used,
nor the business models in place, so the chapter is structured to take account of these
aspects.
The first section deals with the generic principles of charging and billing and discusses
the types of services, charging attributes, timing considerations and payment options.
To illustrate these principles, three major types of services have been chosen to
explain the processes required, the value chain, and how the charging and payments
will take place. These examples are by no means exhaustive but are chosen to
highlight the major charging and billing issues. They represent examples of the six
major service categories identified in UMTS Forum Reports 9 and 13. The examples
chosen are:
!
Mobile Retailing (M-Tailing) – an example of the issues of transaction-based
services.
!
Location-Based Services – an example of the issues related to the position of the
user and business partner relationship management.
!
Broadcasting – an example of services converging with UMTS services.
8.2
CHARGING AND BILLING PRINCIPLES
8.2.1 What are the Services that UMTS will Enable?
UMTS brings several new enabling facilities to the mobile world. The main areas are:
!
The use of packets – enabling data to be sent efficiently over the networks. This
makes mobile networks an extension of any IP network, be it the Internet or
corporate intranets or extranets.
!
Increasing bandwidth – enabling new types of services that require the
transmission of large amounts of data to be transmitted such as high-resolution
pictures, graphics and video.
!
International roaming – so that these new services can be accessed anywhere in
the world in which the UMTS networks are available.
!
Personalisation – in the new world each individual will want to tailor their services
to the specific ones they are interested in and only pay for those specific services.
So in the UMTS world, mobile telecommunications will be used not only as a
communications device, but also as a personal gateway to order or consume a large
proportion of the products and services available. Predominantly this will not be by
voice but by the use of data transfer. The way that the user pays for each of these
products or services will vary, not only by the type or service but also by the personal
preference of the user.
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Some examples of the types of services that could be offered, with some ideas on
how they may be charged and paid for, are discussed below.
8.2.1.1 Communications
Voice calls – these might still be paid for by the minute but could be included as
subscription services.
Messaging – for example email and SMS. Email will be much more than just text and
become more like ‘electronic postcards’, sometimes called Multimedia Messaging
Services (MMS). So these may not only be charged by subscription or event but also
on the volume of data transmitted.
8.2.1.2 Videoconferencing
Videoconferencing requires high bandwidths so may be charged by ‘quality of service’
parameters such as peak or average bandwidth and latency, as well as by duration.
8.2.1.3 Gaming
A different type of ‘communication’ where users interact with a third-party content
source to play games with any other user, wherever they are in the world. A simple
form would be a ‘chat room’. Charging is likely to be by subscription and application
usage.
8.2.1.4 E-commerce
Using the mobile as a means of initiating a transaction – for example buying a book or
CD or shares, or booking a concert or theatre ticket. Further examples include placing
a bet or making a deposit on a holiday. Here there is not much data being sent. It is
the value of the transaction that is important. There may be many different business
models deployed here, ranging from deferring the risk to the credit card companies,
through to the UMTS operator billing the user and making a margin on the transaction.
8.2.1.5 Information retrieval
Examples include Internet surfing, use of search engines, yellow pages, directories
and maps. Information retrieval is likely to be charged on subscription plus usage.
Simple forms of information retrieval such as access to sports results and news
headlines are likely to be charged on a subscription basis. Some services will include
location-based services such as ‘where is the nearest garage?’
8.2.1.6 ‘Push’ services
For example, changes in share price, or offers or information based on your location –
such as local weather or traffic reports. Probably charged on subscription.
A variation on the above is the transmission of marketing messages. As the user
enters a shopping mall they may be sent offers or discounts on merchandise in some
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of the shops there. This would not be charged to the user but to the marketing
company or shop.
8.2.1.7 Advertising
The user may be sent various type of advertising, based on his profile or his location
or his preferences. It is unlikely that the subscriber will pay for this. The network
operator will charge the marketing or supplier company.
8.2.1.8 Streaming services
For example listening to MP3 music or video clips. Potentially there could be many
charges made in this example. The user may be charged either directly or indirectly
for the content. He may also be charged for the use of the network for the delivery of
the service, based on duration or quality of service parameters. The network operator
may collect the money on behalf of the content provider and pay it back less a margin.
The content provider may have to pay royalties for use of the material.
8.2.1.9 Downloading
Data transfer, for example music, video, spreadsheets or pictures – anything to be
used later or transferred later to other devices. Likely to be based on the volume of
data transmitted but some quality of service parameters, for example latency, do not
apply here.
A subset of this may be ring tones or cartoons. These do not require a large
bandwidth so may be very cheap. The cost may well be by event but for very small
amounts of money (micro-payments). They are unlikely to be shown individually on
any type of bill or statement.
The above examples are just some of the types of services that will become available.
There will be many more types. But these examples serve to illustrate the diversity of
services and products that have to be supported as well as the diversity of charging
and payment options that will be required. The various types of rating, charging and
payment options are explored in the following sections.
8.2.2 What are the Charging Attributes to be Used?
The main parameters used to determine the price for the service, or delivery of the
service, are discussed below.
8.2.2.1 Subscription
Many of the services will be subscription based – payment of a recurring charge that
gives unlimited access to a specific service. This is normally a straightforward monthly
charge made in advance but can include pro-rating for services provided for part of
the month.
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8.2.2.2 Duration
This is a rate applied to a length of time associated with the delivery of a service.
Duration charging is very easily understood by the user and is used predominantly in
circuit-switched networks. It may still be relevant where a high bandwidth is required,
for example with videoconferencing.
8.2.2.3 Destination
Destination charging is the application of different rates depending on where the
access is ‘terminated’. This is used in circuit-based networks to charge higher rates for
long distance or international calls – it is unlikely to be used in UMTS data
communications. However, where the access is to third party content the destination
may well be used as a differentiator – for example by Access Point Node (APN) or by
Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
8.2.2.4 Location
Location is essentially the ‘cell identifier’ of where the access to the network is being
made. There can be a range of these as the user may well be travelling through many
cells as the access is being carried out. Location charging can be used to give
preferential (or non-preferential) rates to access in certain areas, for example in city
centres or near a user’s home.
8.2.2.5 Volume
Volume will become one of the most important parameters. Any service that utilises
the transfer of significant amounts of data may be subject to charging by the volume of
data transmitted. For example streaming services and downloads. The ‘volume’ figure
to be used is open to discussion. It could be number of packets, but these can be of
various sizes. It could be number of bits or bytes or octets, but these can include
header and routing information and can include re-transmitted packets.
Whereas ‘volume’ is well understood in the corporate market this is not true in the
residential market. A user downloading a video clip will understand the concept of an
‘event charge’ for doing this, but not necessarily the fact that it was a transmission of a
number of megabytes.
8.2.2.6 Network
A UMTS user should be able to roam in many networks. Not all will offer the same
services and some may not be UMTS networks at all. There may well be different
rates applied by the particular network being accessed.
8.2.2.7 Device capabilities
Billing systems should be able to allow service providers to charge based on the
capabilities of devices, especially with regard to the amount of data the terminals can
typically download.
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8.2.2.8 Quality of service
Quality of service can mean different things to different people. A simplified definition
of the network version of ‘quality of service’ contains five elements:
1.
Peak Bandwidth – the maximum bandwidth achieved.
2.
Average Bandwidth – the average bandwidth achieved.
3.
Delay (Latency) – how quickly the packets arrive after each other.
4.
Reliability / Error Rate – how much had to be re-transmitted.
5.
Priority / Precedence – whether packets received priority over other users.
Different services require different levels of these quality of service parameters. An
‘email’ requires low error rate. ‘Voice’ requires a low latency but not necessarily high
bandwidth. ‘File transfers’ of significant volumes require a high average bandwidth but
not necessarily a high peak bandwidth. ‘Videoconferencing’ requires high peak and
average bandwidth, low latency, low error rate and high priority.
These quality of service parameters may not only be applied at the time of usage, but
also at the time of provisioning. For example the user may be charged for a quality of
service that can support videoconferencing, and be given a rebate if this wasn’t
achieved.
8.2.2.9 Service termination indicator
There will be instances where a service is terminated abnormally. The user could then
be given a rebate, or as a minimum, a customer service representative could be made
aware of the termination. An example of this is when a user moves out of network
range. So it is important to collect information where an abnormal termination of
service occurred.
8.2.2.10 Event
Many new services will be supplied as an event. This may be an email, a short
message, or a short sequence of communications that result in an order being made.
Some of these events may be major ones involving significant value to the user – see
transaction type, value and content below. Others may be minor – for example short
messages or downloads of ring tones – where the user can be charged based on the
number of each type of event.
8.2.2.11 Transaction type
The rating of a service by the ‘type of transaction’ brings us more into the area of
rating by value than by cost. The purchase of a number of shares over a secure link in
an agreed time frame may well be worth more to the user than the purchase of a
book. So where transactions are being charged by ‘event’ there may be the need to
differentiate what types of transaction are being priced, typically by the third party
being accessed.
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8.2.2.12 Transaction value
Especially in e-commerce usage, the ‘value’ of the transaction can be used as a rating
parameter. This is particularly true where the network operator is billing on behalf of a
third-party content provider. The main example is where a user buys goods over the
UMTS network and is billed for the goods by the UMTS operator. Either the network
operator will receive a wholesale charge from the content provider and mark this up as
a retail charge, or will receive and bill a retail charge and retain a margin. There may
well be volume discounts received by the UMTS operator here.
8.2.2.13 Content
Probably the most challenging parameter involves the use of the actual content being
accessed as a rating parameter. For example, in downloading an MP3 file there may
be a variable charge based on the artist; or a user may pay more for a share price
less than five minutes old rather than 20 minutes old. In both examples the amount of
data transmitted, the quality of service, and probably all other parameters are identical
– it is the actual content of the information being sent that is a differentiator.
8.2.3 When is the User Notified of the Charge?
Whatever the method of rating for a particular service or product, the rates may need
to be applied at various times within a transaction or session. There are basically
three types as outlined below.
8.2.3.1 Before the service or product is purchased
This is particularly appropriate for high value services. For example, if the user is
buying a holiday, a set of concert tickets, or about to start a long conference call, there
is an element of risk that the user will not pay. Different business models will mitigate
this risk in different ways – there are two main ones:
•
•
The UMTS network operator takes no part in the transaction other than delivery –
all the risk is put back to the content provider on a credit card.
The UMTS operator takes the risk, either by billing on behalf of the content
provider, or because the transaction is pure network usage (as in the
videoconference example).
Either way, whoever takes the risk will want to ensure that adequate funds are
available before the service is consumed. This will involve ensuring that the identity of
the user is confirmed and ensuring that the user is authorised to consume the service.
In addition the user may want to confirm that they are willing to spend the price
presented (for high value purchases), for example by signing a digital certificate or
similar. Finally, the risk needs to be offset either by the authentication of a credit or
debit card, or by ensuring funds are available with either a pre-paid balance or an
agreed credit limit.
8.2.3.2 During the consumption of the service or product
This applies where extensive use is made of the network, either with voice or
videoconferencing, data downloads, or streaming services.
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There are normally five aspects:
1.
Evidence that sufficient funds are available to start the service – either pre-paid or
a credit limit.
2.
Management of simultaneous services – for example there may be a voice call,
an Internet access and a purchase all taking place at the same time.
3.
Monitoring of the service against the balance – this requires the ‘rating’ of the
service as it is being consumed and regular balance checking.
4.
The trigger of alarms as the balance becomes ‘low’ – this could be via voice
messages, email or SMS.
5.
Termination of the service if the balance available is exhausted.
This is analogous to pre-paid voice systems in circuit-switch based systems like GSM.
One of the challenges to the UMTS operator will be how to deploy this type of
charging when the service is downloading an MP3 or video clip, where receiving half
the transmission may be worthless.
8.2.3.3 After the event
This is akin to the rating of the service prior to the creation of a post-paid invoice or
bill. In the UMTS world this is unlikely to be in paper form. More likely it will be
electronic presentation available on the Internet either by fixed or mobile. This can be
either directly to the UMTS operator or via billing consolidation suppliers. In all cases,
a user will want to be presented with usage summaries on a regular basis.
8.2.4 What are the Bundling Options?
UMTS services will not be ‘standard’ services where the user is offered a set of
services and products on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis. Increasingly, users will be
demanding personalised services allied to their own preferences and requirements.
UMTS providers will also want to be seen as a provider of many types of service, not
simply access ones. So we can expect a whole host of bundling and discounting
options; some are outlined below.
These options can be offered individually or as combinations.
8.2.4.1 Bundling of various services
We can expect the subscriber to be offered a series of services when subscribing to a
UMTS operator. For example, one bundle may be for access charges only, another for
access plus use of a variety of content services.
8.2.4.2 Included usage
In the same way that a usage amount is often bundled into today’s circuit services, we
can expect this to be continued into the use of UMTS networks. The difference is that
today this is offered as a number of minutes, in the future it may be for minutes, data,
quality of service, etc.
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8.2.4.3 Third-party discounts
We can expect the UMTS operator to work together with third parties to provide
innovative discounts. For example, a subscriber may by offered a discount ‘voucher’
on his device as he enters a mall for a particular clothes shop. Or vice versa be
offered ‘cyber currency’ to use on the UMTS network when buying goods in a
supermarket.
8.2.4.4 Volume discounts
One would expect that to encourage usage, there will be options to decrease the rate
for charges as usage increases. This will become complex. For example there may be
a certain rate for the first n megabytes of data transferred, then a smaller rate for the
next m megabytes. Or it could be by money – a certain rebate if the total charge or a
defined subset of the charge exceeds a specified limit. Or discounts, rebates or
refunds depending on the number of times a specific content or service is accessed.
Combinations of these and many others are possible.
8.2.4.5 Cross-product discounts
There may be considerable collaboration between UMTS operators and content
providers and part of this could be in the provision of discounts between products and
services. For example, half-price cinema tickets if more than n megabytes are
transferred in a month.
8.2.4.6 Loyalty discounts
Churn will be as common in the UMTS world as it is today. There are likely to be more
licences granted than today and we will see the rise of ‘virtual’ operators. So expect to
see many loyalty plans, covering discounts once a particular period of subscription
has been reached, or loyalty schemes giving ‘air miles’, ‘beanz’, etc.
8.2.5 How are the Payments Made?
Just as users will demand personalised services, so will they demand various ways to
pay for these services. Some of the options are covered below.
8.2.5.1 From a pre-paid account
Pre-paid is where the services are only supplied providing there are funds already
paid in advance. In most countries this is already the most popular way of buying
circuit-based switched voice services and there seems no reason why this shouldn’t
also apply to data or content services. It is used where a residential subscriber wishes
to be anonymous, but also increasingly for budgetary use, for example parents paying
for children or companies authorising some private use for employees.
There are two components to pre-paid which will continue into the UMTS world:
•
The first is a way of moving funds into a balance account prior to using services.
This can be by direct debit, by credit card, or by voucher or ‘scratch’ card. This will
continue with UMTS using whatever banking facilities become available.
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More difficult is the service logic to rate the consumption of services and prevent
access to the service if funds are unavailable. With circuit-based switched services
where rating is usually based on duration this can be handled by IN or service
node solutions, where the relevant calls can be controlled from the switch in real
time. As the call progresses, triggers are raised as the balance becomes smaller
and is finally exhausted – the call can then be terminated. There are already
problems with this method with short messages or GPRS – these services are
currently CDR-based. Hence there may be a significant amount of rated usage
after the pre-paid balance is exhausted. Over UMTS there will be many new types
of rating and some of the services will be used simultaneously. So to handle prepaid, it becomes essential to add real-time rating servers to the network that will
be able to raise alarms and terminate service as the pre-paid balances diminish.
8.2.5.2 Credit account (post-paid)
Post-paid is currently the traditional method of payment when the service is
consumed; it is rated and invoiced and presented to the subscriber as a bill. The bill is
paid by direct debit, credit card, cheque or cash depending as much on the culture of
the country as anything else.
Post-paid will be a valid payment option in the UMTS world. Factors that need to be
considered include:
•
•
•
The content of the bill – as described elsewhere in this report, there may be many
types of service billed by the UMTS operator, ranging from network usage through
to third-party services and content.
Bill presentation – paper bills are likely to be phased out and be replaced by
electronic invoicing. Residential and company bills will be posted on a network, for
example the Internet, and viewed and paid by fixed or mobile access. The ‘site’
where the bill is posted will be either that of the UMTS operator or third parties –
for example ‘bill consolidators’.
Balance management – increasingly, where UMTS operators are using post-paid
billing they will want to monitor the charges being made, to prevent fraud. Credit
limits may be assigned to subscribers or groups of subscribers and services
terminated when this limit is reached. This then becomes an identical scenario to
that of pre-paid, but with an initial threshold of the credit limit, rather than zero. So
similar systems as for pre-paid need to be in place.
8.2.5.3 Credit and debit cards
The use of credit and debit cards will continue to be a significant payment method in
areas where the UMTS operator wishes to defer the risk, or where the subscriber
chooses this method as a personal preference. Credit and debit cards can be used in
any of the payment scenarios, normally where the value of the service is ‘significant’.
So they could be used for topping up a pre-paid account, paying a bill, or for paying
for a high value service on-line before the service is consumed.
8.2.5.4 e-purse and e-wallet
An e-purse or e-wallet is in some ways similar to a pre-paid account, where funds are
transferred to a separate account and this account used to pay for services
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consumed. There are two main differences:
•
•
Micro-payments – the e-purse or e-wallet is likely to be used to pay for very small
amounts, where other forms of payment are not sensible. For example, the
subscriber may be charged a few pence for downloading a cartoon or ring tone
and neither the UMTS operator nor the subscriber is interested in seeing every
individual transaction itemised on an invoice. It is analogous to paying small
amounts by cash in a shop for newspapers or confectionery.
Storage of the balance – could be in many forms. On a server similar to pre-paid
but held by a third party. Or within the mobile device or USIM card (as used by
early forms of pre-paid). There could also be ‘smart’ cards, which hold a balance
and can be topped up through credit or debit cards at ATM machines or whatever.
We could also see the use of technologies such as Bluetooth, where mobile
devices and shop teller machines are connected at the point of sale and most of
the payment processing conducted in real time between network devices.
8.2.5.5 ‘Cyber currencies’
We are already in a world where goods and services can be bought using elements
other than money. Examples are ‘air miles’ that are given free when consumers buy
certain goods or use a particular credit card for payment of goods. Another is the
concept of ‘beanz’, which are given typically when consumers purchase goods on
specific Internet sites. In the UMTS world we could see a proliferation of this concept,
where there are many types of ‘counters’ given away as incentives to buy, and
subsequently used to pay for other services.
An overriding concept in how the subscriber pays is that of subscriber choice. The
UMTS operator is likely to offer many different ways for the subscriber to pay for
services, depending largely on the value of the service. The variety of these options
will be a differentiator between operators and will affect which operator a subscriber
chooses. On the other hand, the subscriber will want to decide himself how he wishes
to pay, and this can be dependent on many things:
•
•
•
•
The subscriber – some will prefer credit cards, some pre-paid, some post-paid
The service – ‘cheap’ services may be paid by e-wallet, ‘normal’ services by bill
and ‘expensive’ ones by credit card.
Company or private – a subscriber may pay for personal services by pre-paid but
company service on a company credit card or bill.
Others – there can be many other options. A subscriber may pay for goods by
buying pre-paid vouchers early in the month but switch to credit card later in the
month as he runs out of money prior to getting his monthly salary.
So we may have a subscriber using his UMTS network for several uses in a single
context and paying for each service differently. He may send several emails and pay
these as part of his subscription. He may buy a concert ticket and charge this to his
personal credit card. He may download a large business file and charge this to his
company credit card. He may make several voice calls and charge these to his prepaid account. He may call a videoconference and have this charged to him or his
company on a bill. He may play some shooting games and use some ‘cyber currency’
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to buy more bullets.
8.2.6 How is the Revenue Distributed?
As the UMTS operator offers a single point for offering many different types of service,
many from third-party content providers, he will also ‘bill’ for many of these services.
Much of the revenue collected will not be his to keep but will be distributed to many
others. Some examples are as follows:
8.2.6.1 Billing on behalf of others
A UMTS operator may offer services from a third party but charge the subscriber
himself. A subscriber buying a book or CD using the UMTS network could be charged
by the UMTS operator using his pre-paid account or via a post-paid bill. Here the
UMTS operator will collect the retail charge and pay the wholesale charge back to the
book or CD vendor. This gives rise to a variety of new business models, some of
which are described in more detail within this report.
8.2.6.2 Revenue sharing
The UMTS operator may provide a service himself but have to pay back some of the
money to a third party that owns some of the intellectual property rights of the service.
For example, royalty payments may be payable for some musical ring tones.
8.2.6.3 Taxes
The application of taxes becomes complex. Taxes are normally applied and charged
to a subscriber by a vendor and paid back to the vendor’s local government. Normally
the services are consumed or paid for in the vendor’s country but there are many
exceptions. We can have scenarios where a subscriber subscribes to a network in
one country, roams in another, uses a service provided by a content provider
registered in a third and provided by a server in a fourth. This is a specialised area
and is not covered in this report.
There are numerous other scenarios where a UMTS operator will either make
payments or receive payments from a third party. For example giving volume
discounts to content providers or charging for advertising. These all depend on the
business models being used and some are covered in other areas of this report.
8.3
MOBILE RETAILING (M-TAILING)
8.3.1 Introduction
M-commerce is a name applied to a whole host of commercial transactions that are
carried out using a mobile device. Here we give a specific example to illustrate the
major concepts. We have chosen an m-tailing example.
M-tailing includes commerce scenarios such as:
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!
Obtaining a consumable product from a vending machine using value (money or
other value measure) which has been derived from the mobile device;
!
Receiving a service (such as shoe polishing or haircut) from a provider and paying
by transferring value to them through a mobile device which reports receipt of
payment to the provider’s mobile device;
!
Obtaining a set of physical goods from an e-tailer (such as clothes or hard-copy
books) using the mobile device for user authentication, authorisation and payment;
!
Exchange of content or software, such as e-pets, between handsets, which is
settled at an agreed amount by e-cash. The e-cash is transferred between the
mobile handsets.
The transfer of value (or “payment”) will be delivered through one of many payment
options (or methods).
The following lists some of the specific options in m-tailing that could be used to “pay”
for the service or commodity delivered:
•
•
•
•
•
Users’ service provider managed balance (either pre-paid or post-paid);
Service providers’ bonus or loyalty points;
Global, but non-monetary, unit such as Internet ‘beanz’, directly from bank (debit)
account;
Credit card account;
E-cash from users’ remote or device based smartcard.
There are many parties involved in these transactions and money of some form will
flow between them.
The options available for payment and for revenue collection will depend on a number
of factors. These include the type and capability of the mobile devices, the payment
options offered by the service provider and the ability of the provider to receive value
via many and different third parties. For example, the end customer may wish to pay
using the network operator’s reward points or bundles or simply by a credit card.
In any one complete transaction, such as a person obtaining a can of drink from a
vending machine, there will be multiple parties and multiple transactions involved.
None of these transactions should be considered as having greater priority in the
m-tailing operation than the others. The parties involved in this value chain must
therefore all agree on the principles involved if any one of the transactions fails. What
happens if goods are rejected or returned or if the quality of the goods or the delivery
fails to meet service level agreements or understanding? This section does not
discuss in detail the processes of the multi-party settlement nor the information that
might be required to fulfil the settlement of revenues or costs.
8.3.2 Processes
The following two examples refer to the purchase of items from a vending machine
using a UMTS device. They only show the transaction between the handset (retail
customer) and the service retail vendor. The settlements which take place between
the vendor and the network operator, product manufacturer or distributor are not
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shown.
Each scenario is depicted as, firstly, a set of remote stations or servers that need to
communicate and secondly, as flows of information between the stations with their
sequence. Lastly, the processes undertaken by each station are briefly explained.
8.3.2.1 Example 1: Vending communication via UMTS network
In this example illustrated in Figures 8.1 and 8.2 the UMTS network is used for the
following activities:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Selecting the service vendor;
Viewing the options and prices on offer;
Selecting a product or service;
Selecting an available payment method and unit of payment;
Authentication of the user’s request (including a credit check against the enduser’s mobile account);
Instructions to the vending server to deliver the goods and return the status of the
action;
Advising the billing or e-commerce server of the completed (or part completed)
actions (may be via fixed line only);
Billing and statementing the end user.
Vendy
Vending Options and Price
Advice of Charge
Item Order
Order
Delivery Success/Fail
UMTS
Order
Fixed IP
Network
Network
Service Authorisation
Service delivered
Vendor’s
Application-
Menu & Prices
Authorisation
S erver
Charge Advice
E-commerce / B illing
Platform
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 8.1: Vending Communication via UMTS Network
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Sequence
Service Request
Services, Prices
and Payment Options
Service Order
and Payment Opt.
Authorisation Request
Authorisation Response
Actual (discounted) price
Discounted / bundle
Cost
Authorisation fail
Notice
Payment Option
Change Request
Service Delivery
Delivery Status
Confirmation of
Delivery and Basic Price
Accounting Record or transaction
(or part of)
Invoice and discounted cost to user
(may include statement of bundle or points status)
Mobile
Handset
Vending
Provider’s
ApplicationServer
Vending
Machine
E-commerce
Billing Server
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 8.2: Vending Process
The mobile handset or end user is, generally, the initiator of the service. The user
decides that a service is required and searches for the required service or service
provider. This might require looking up the particular vendor and vending machine that
is available close-by or entering the address of the vendor that is displayed by a
vending machine. This display could be a physical one or be delivered by a local
connection such as Bluetooth. In the latter case the transaction could be initiated (in a
loose sense) by the vending server.
The Application (“Order”) Server displays the options, such as a product list, available
to the user and lists the base prices. The end user then selects an option and orders
the service. The order server then requests authorisation for the delivery of this
service from the e-commerce (billing) server, which is able to confirm the end-user’s
credit status. The e-commerce server is able to look at the end-user’s product and
discount plans and can therefore return to the server not only an acceptance or
rejection but also the actual price that the user will be charged. An end user could
have a 10% discount on all m-tailing transactions with this vendor or have a plan that
gives 15% off the first fifty Euros of business each month. If the user has selected to
use a non-monetary or pre-pay balance then the resulting balance on the account
could also be delivered.
If the end-user’s credit is not sufficient then a message will be displayed explaining the
problem and requesting the user to select a different method of payment. If the m-
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commerce account has reached the user’s credit limit the user may still be able to
select payment by credit card or through the use of reward points.
Having delivered the goods then the vending server must indicate a successful
completion by informing the order server. If the sale fails because the machine is
faulty or an empty stock item is selected then the server informs the order server of
this fact.
An accounting record is created by the order server and sent to the e-commerce or
billing server for collection and onward settlement. The user will be billed and debited
by their chosen method. If the method of payment selected is the post-paid billing
account of the service vendor or network operator then the account is debited and a
bill is produced on the customer’s bill date. This will be paid by the end-user’s normal
method, maybe from a bank debit account or credit (card) account.
Settlement records required for paying third parties for use of the network and the
products sold may be generated and used for payment or collection with the third
parties in the value chain. These records must be fully accounted for by the whole
end-to-end process to ensure that no records are incorrectly created or unknowingly
lost.
8.3.2.2 Example 2: Vending communication with the mobile device via a local
network
The example illustrated in Figures 8.3 and 8.4 differs from the one above in that the
selection of the service and display of the available options and prices is handled by a
local communication network such as Bluetooth.
The UMTS network is used for the following tasks and communication requirements:
!
Authorisation of the user’s request (including credit checks against the end-user’s
mobile account);
!
Authentication challenge and response (if required);
!
Advising the billing or e-commerce server of the completed (or part completed)
actions;
!
Billing and statementing the end user.
Depending on the sophistication of the vending server some of the above facilities
(e.g. the ability to display to the end user the fully discounted price of the transaction)
may not be available. For simplicity, it is assumed here that the vending server has a
highly limited communication method with the e-commerce or billing server.
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Vending Options and Price
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Vendy
Item Order
Advice of Charge
Authorisation
Delivery Success/Fail
UMTS
Fixed IP
Network
Network
Service Authorisation
Service delivered
E-commerce / B illing
Platform
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 8.3: Vending Communication with the Mobile Device via a Local Network
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Sequence
Service Request
Services, Prices
and Payment Options
Service Order
and Payment Opt.
Authorisation Request
Authentication
Challenge
Authentication
Challenge
Challenge
response
Challenge
response
Actual (discounted) price
Authorisation fail
Notice
Payment Option
Change Request
Accounting Record or
transaction (or part of)
Invoice and discounted cost to user
(may include statement of bundle or points status)
Mobile
Handset
Vending
Machine
E-commerce
Billing Server
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 8.4: Vending Machine Scenario
In this scenario the initial communication is via Bluetooth and so the first UMTS
communication is for an authorisation request. If the vending server is unsophisticated
then the response will be an acceptance or rejection only. For low value transactions it
is probably sufficient to use the fact that the end user has already established a
connection with the UMTS service provider to accept the end user as the “known”
party.
In higher value transactions or where fraud is suspected it may be necessary to
request additional hidden transmission of a known secret. This secret might be sent
encrypted over the network and either communicated directly to the e-commerce
server or sent via the vending server. Alternatively a method such as the IETF CHAP
(Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) might be used. In this case the ecommerce server issues a challenge string. This is modified by the end user using a
secret key known only to the end user. The detailed security methods are not
discussed here.
8.3.3 Value Chain
Figure 8.5 shows the potential flow of “value”, for example revenue, between multiple
parties. The flow may use different value “units” within the chain. The end user might
pay for an item from the service provider using loyalty points whereas the product
distributor is paid in currency units.
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End-User
Service Provider
Service Supplier/
Distributor
Network Operator
Product Manufacturer/
Distributor
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 8.5: Vending Machine Scenario Value Chain
8.3.4 Rating and Charging Attributes
The following list of attributes indicates the types of information that are required to be
communicated across the interfaces:
8.3.4.1 Product or service
•
•
•
•
Identifier;
Name;
Basic price;
Price unit.
8.3.4.2 Authorisation
•
•
•
Price of product or service;
Value after discounting (returned);
Authorisation ID.
8.3.4.3 Transaction details
•
•
•
•
•
Date and time;
Value of transaction;
Value unit;
Payment method;
Tax and tax rate (optionally pre-assessed);
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•
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Tax jurisdiction;
Final status (e.g. completed, aborted, delivery failed).
8.3.4.4 End-user identification
•
•
•
IMSI or user ID + password;
Mobile station IP address;
Unique ID or session ID.
8.3.5 Standardisation Requirements
The following interfaces require standardisation for the complete model above to be
delivered across multiple vendor and service provider servers:
•
•
•
Authorisation request and response (including payment option);
Authentication challenge and response;
Accounting record information.
M-tailing usually involves the partnership of many trading partners. This means that
controls need to be in place to audit the transactions made and to reconcile
transactions against payments. Some of this will be similar to Interconnect
Accounting, others will be on ´trust` – for example counting the number of advertising
pages viewed.
8.4
LOCATION-BASED SERVICES
8.4.1 Introduction
For location-based services, industry leaders are working to make the various location
determination technologies interoperable and to define standards for new network
elements for location services.
The industry has been faced with the problem of defining the services that would use
this technology. There is now more or less a consensus of the kind of services that will
exist. As discussed in section 7.8, 3GPP has defined four main categories of locationbased services:
•
•
•
•
Value-added services;
PLMN operator-based services;
Emergency services;
Lawful interception services.
The value-added services are further classified into:
−
−
−
−
Information services;
Navigation services;
Tracking services;
Advertising services.
The scenarios involving these services are very complex. The different parties
involved range from network operators to consumers, application providers, content
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providers and infrastructure providers. They also involve different bearers and network
elements ranging from SMS to application servers, MMS, GSM, GPRS, UMTS, GPS
and IP.
The major issues are illustrated by the example of an end user new in town wishing to
find the nearest Italian restaurant.
8.4.2 Processes
Several entities are involved in a typical mobile location service as shown in Figure
8.6. The typical process flow would be:
•
•
•
•
•
•
The end user sends a request to the service provider to be connected to an
application to list Italian restaurants near to his current location.
The application requests the location of the user. This could involve various
techniques (e.g. GPS or triangulation of cell ID from base stations).
The application finds a list of local Italian restaurants from a database.
The application uses the user’s location and the location of the restaurants to
define a map showing all the locations.
Before transmitting the information back, the mobile operator adds an
advertisement from “typical restaurants” and sends it back to the user.
The end user looks for Italian restaurants but also becomes interested in “typical
restaurants” and calls the “typical restaurants” call centre.
Typical
Restaurants
(Advertiser)
Voice
Information
Provider
Mobile
Portal
Text
Image
Video
Audio
Application
Server
Mapping
Application
Location
Server
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 8.6: Restaurant Locator Process Example
Standardisation issues raised by such a process flow include:
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•
•
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Standard facilities to determine the location of the user;
Standardised location Indicators on all geographic-based data;
Standard interfaces to Geographic Information Systems.
8.4.3 Value Chain
Many entities, services and media types are involved even in a very simple locationbased service configuration (Figure 8.7). The values shared amongst the various
entities will depend critically on the service used.
In general, 3G services involve revenue sharing between an increasing number of
chargeable parties. Location-based services add still further to the number of parties
involved in revenue sharing. Location-based services introduce parties such as
location service providers, location application providers and location-based
advertisers. For some services the costs may be shared between subscribers and
wireless advertisers. The business models and value chains are quite unclear in such
scenarios.
End-User
Advertiser
Service Provider
Mapping Service
Provider
Network Operator
Italian Restaurant
Information
Provider
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 8.7: Location-Based Services Value Chain
New strategies for billing based on location information can be envisaged.
Certain parameters directly related to location services can be extracted from the
network and could be used for billing:
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•
•
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User location can be used as a billing parameter. Services may be more
expensive in a large city or when roaming in other countries.
Accuracy of location information can be a billable parameter.
Specific location information can be billed according to the kind of media used
such as text, image, video, audio or voice.
Other parameters, not related to the example used here, include:
•
•
•
8.5
Response time options of location information, which could vary from no delay to
delay tolerant. Delay tolerant applications could be priced lower.
Privacy and security given to the location-based service could be another billable
parameter.
The priority given to the application requesting location information can be a
valuable billing parameter.
BROADCASTING
8.5.1 Introduction
Broadcasters can use UMTS for offering their services and as a return channel for
charging information. The issues are addressed here using the example of Terrestrial
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-T). The spectrum used for DVB-T services is not the
same as that used for UMTS.
Charging principles are illustrated in this chapter using the example of requesting and
paying for a broadcast video film. The requesting process and back channel use the
UMTS network but the film is viewed via DVB-T. There may be a single terminal
device for the complete transaction or there may be linked UMTS and DVB-T devices
– in the examples this is transparent. There are three different payment scenarios.
8.5.2 Processes
8.5.2.1 Introduction
Several processes are involved in the broadcast delivery. In general we can identify
the following main processes:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The user makes a request to view broadcast video films;
Identification of the user takes place;
The user is offered a menu of choices of films he is allowed to see;
The user views trailers from the three films he likes best;
The user makes a selection of the video he wants to see;
The user selects the payment model;
There is authorisation that funds are available;
The broadcast server delivers a decryption key to the user;
The user then views the broadcast video.
The sequence of these processes is given in Figure 8.8.
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Sequence
Request
User
Identified
Menu
Pre-view
Selection
Trailer
Selection /
Payment
Model
Key delivery
MS
Application
Server
Authorization Payment
Server
Identification
Broadcast
Server
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 8.8: Broadcast Processes
8.5.2.2 Payment scenarios
The following sections discuss the three different payment scenarios.
8.5.2.2.1 Pay per view scenario
A UMTS user accesses a page on the application server and selects a video he wants
to see. The user selects the pay per view payment model (Figure 8.9). He receives a
broadcast decryption key that is valid for the selected video and a payment rate
(perhaps Euro 0.10 per 3 minutes).
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Encrypted
content
DxB
B roadcas ter
Log in
Decryption key
+ R ate
X Euro/Min
UMTS
Confirmation
Application S erver
Us er ID / IM S I / credit card #
Payment S erver
Log -file
Decryption key is valid for one s es s ion
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 8.9: Pay per View Scenario
The payment server collects payment events at regular intervals. At the end of the
video, or after say 10 minutes of not receiving any more payment events, the amount
due will be sent to a credit card server or to the telecommunication operator’s billing
support system.
A broadcaster could make the price (per event) dependent on the quality of service. In
principle quality of service could be measured at two points. The first is at the
broadcast transmitter and the second at the receiver in the mobile. The second case
provides the only way to measure the quality of service perceived by the user.
Appropriate measurements could be the signal to noise ratio or the number of lines or
frames missing. Fair models need to be defined and standardised.
8.5.2.2.2 Pay per session scenario
In this case the user selects a per session (per video) payment model at the
application server’s page (Figure 8.10). Even if the user views the video for only five
minutes they still have to pay for the whole video. The price could be dependent on
the level of advertisements accepted by the user.
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DxB
Encrypted
content
S ig n-up
Decryption key
UMTS
Forum
B roadcas ter
UMTS
Application S erver
Log -file
Decryption key is valid for one s es s ion
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 8.10: Pay per Session Scenario
This model is similar to that available nowadays in hotels.
8.5.2.2.3 Recurring charge scenario
The recurring charge payment scenario (Figure 8.11) is well accepted nowadays for
broadcast analogue video and audio. In general quality of service is not taken into
consideration. The video and audio are regularly interrupted by commercials.
The UMTS channel is used for making periodic payments.
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DxB
Encrypted
content
S ig n-up
Decryption key
UMTS
Forum
B roadcas ter
UMTS
Application S erver
Log -file
Decryption key is valid for a period
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 8.11: Recurring Charge Scenario
8.5.2.3 Evaluation of the payment models
The advantages and disadvantages of these different payment models are
summarised in Table 8.1.
Payment
Model
Pay per
view
Pay per
session
Recurring
charge
Advantage
Disadvantage
You only pay for what you view
No subscription fee required
Simple model
No subscription fee required
Payment server needs to accumulate events
Broadcaster’s income is difficult to predict
Broadcaster’s income is difficult to predict
Customer representative has to deal with QoS
issues.
Customer representative has to deal with QoS
issues
A contract is required
Lots of commercials
Simple model
The broadcaster receives fees in
advance
Similar model to pay TV
Source: UMTS Forum
Table 8.1: Broadcast Payment Models
Pay per session and pay per period models are the least complicated. Most
broadcasters will offer both models, aimed at different target groups.
8.5.3 Value Chain
Figure 8.12 shows the potential parties involved in the value chain. A broadcaster can
receive revenue from two different parties, the advertiser and the end user, and often
also acts as a content aggregator.
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Advertiser
Service Provider
Broadcaster
Network Operator
Content Producer/
Aggregator
Source: UMTS Forum
Figure 8.12: Broadcast Value Chain
Charging parameters should be delivered to the billing system in a standardised way.
A number of different charging parameters can be identified:
Content
− Name,
− Price.
Identification
− IMSI or user ID,
− Device or USIM IP address,
− Unique ID or session ID.
Payment per
− View, rate (Euro/minute),
− Session,
− Period.
Other
−
−
−
−
−
−
Transport method (DxB, cable, xDSL),
Requested QoS,
Accumulated price,
Timestamp, duration,
Device type or terminal capabilities,
Accepted level of advertisements.
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9. ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY
2G
Second Generation
2G+ or 2.5G
Second Generation Enhanced
3G
Third Generation
3GPP
Third Generation Partnership
Project
AAA
Authentication, Authorisation and
Accounting (as specified by the
IETF)
A/D or ADC
Analogue-Digital Converter
ADPCM
A-GPS
AMCS
Adaptive Differential Pulse Code
Modulation
Assisted GPS
Advanced Modulation and Coding
Schemes
ANSI T1
American National Standards
Institute T1 Committee
API
Application Program Interface
APN
Access Point Node
www.ansi.org
www.t1.org
An API (sometimes called application
programming interface) is the specific method
prescribed by a computer operating system or
by an application program by which a
programmer writing an application program
can make requests of the operating system or
another application.
An applet is a program that runs inside another
application such as a web browser. The
program starts when the page within which it is
contained is downloaded.
Applets are often used to create features
including news bars (tickers) or more
sophisticated interfaces than those supported
by the HTML standard.
Java is an example of a coding language in
which applets can be created.
Applet
ARIB
ATIS
AV
AVI
Generic name for second generation networks,
for example GSM.
Name given to 2G networks enhanced with
GPRS or EDGE.
Generic name for third generation networks,
for example UMTS.
A co-operation between regional standards
bodies to ensure global interworking.
www.3gpp.org
Authentication: The act of verifying a claimed
identity, in the form of a pre-existing label from
a mutually known name space, as the
originator of a message (message
authentication) or as the end-point of a
channel (entity authentication).
Authorisation: The act of determining if a
particular right, such as access to some
resource, can be granted to the presenter of a
particular credential. The act of collecting
information on resource usage for the purpose
of trend analysis, auditing, billing, or cost
allocation.
A functional block or circuit section to convert
analogue signal to digital signal.
Association of Radio Industries and
Businesses
Alliance for Telecommunications
Industry Solutions
Audio-visual
Audio Video Interleave
94
www.arib.or.jp
Focus on e.g. SHDSL, HDSL2, HDSL4,
modems etc. www.atis.org
Generic abbreviation for audio-visual content.
Extension for Microsoft video format files.
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BCDF
Broadband Content Delivery Forum
Beanz
TM
Bluetooth
Wireless standard
BPSK
Binary Phase Shift Keying
Broadcast
Content distribution to all in a
region/area
CC
Cellular-Cellular
CD
Compact Disc
CDR
Call Data Record
CD-ROM
Compact Disc – Read Only Memory
CEN
Comité Européen de Normalisation
CENELEC
The European Committee for
Electrotechnical Standardisation
c-HTML
Compact-HTML
UMTS
Forum
The BCD Forum is a unique collaborative
effort of leading infrastructure, content and
service providers that are developing business
models and standards that accelerate the
deployment of broadband content over the
Internet – enabling business and residential
customers to receive high-quality, multimedia
content anytime, anywhere.
www.bcdforum.org
An example of e-money or money which only
exists in the virtual domain. "Beanz.com"
provides a facility for electronic payment in an
on-line currency called "Beanz" which can be
used in the purchase of goods or services from
co-operating sites or businesses. Individuals in
this case, receive "Beanz" for visiting websites,
for undertaking transactions on websites and
so on. Importantly the management of the
transaction and of individual client and supplier
accounts are done electronically and are free
to the user, through the "Beanz" site (and back
office).
Short-range radio link standard. Uses
unlicensed spectrum @ 2.45 GHz to provide
1 Mbit/s.
A delivery system where a copy of a given
packet is transmitted simultaneously to all
receivers on a network.
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Initially used to store music, now used for data
and increasingly movies.
Records produced by network entities, i.e.
switches, to provide information to billing
systems.
Initially used to store music, now used for data
and increasingly movies.
A body coordinating standardisation activities
in the EEC (European Economic Community)
and EFTA (European Free Trade Area)
countries.
A body developing electrotechnical standards
for the Single European Market / European
Economic Area in order to reduce internal
frontiers and trade barriers for electrotechnical
products, systems and services. CENELEC's
19 member countries and 11 affiliate countries
aim to adopt and implement the required
standards, which are mostly identical to the
International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC) standards. CENELEC works in cooperation with Comité Européen de
Normalisation (CEN) and European
Telecommunications Standards Institute
(ETSI).
A Hypertext document format used on the
world-wide web. Built on top of SGML. "Tags"
are embedded in the text. A tag consists of a
"<", a "directive" (case insensitive), zero or
more parameters and a ">". Matched pairs of
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directives, like "<TITLE>" and "</TITLE>" are
used to delimit text which is to appear in a
special place or style.
CLI
CN
Calling Line Identification
Physical infrastructure linking wireless base
stations. Predominantly circuit switched, core
networks will increasingly become packet
switched.
Core Network
CSS
Common Presence and Instant
Messaging
Cathode Ray Tube
Carrier Sense Multiple Access with
Collision Avoidance
Cascading Style Language
CVSD
Continuous Variable Slope Delta
DAB
Digital Audio Broadcasting
DECT
Digital Enhanced Cordless
Telecommunications
DigiTAG
Digital Terrestrial TV Action Group
DNS
Domain Name Server
DRM
Digital Rights Management
DV
Digital Video
DVB
Digital Video Broadcasting
DVB-C
Digital Video Broadcast – Cable
DVB Project
Digital Video Broadcast Project
DVB-S
DVB-T
Digital Video Broadcast – Satellite
Digital Video Broadcast –Terrestrial
DVD
Digital Video Disc
CPIM
CRT
CSMA/CA
DxB
EAI
Generic term used for Digital
Video/Audio Broadcast (DVB and
DAB)
Enterprise Application Integration
96
A voice codec that is used for Bluetooth voice
connection.
A digital radio technology used for radio
broadcasting in a number of countries.
A wireless technology used for short range
communications, for example cordless
telephones.
Forum to promote and harmonise digital
terrestrial TV. DigiTAG covers various systems
for interoperability and harmonisation of
technologies for interactive terrestrial digital TV
services. www.digital.org
Internet name resolution server.
DRM is a type of server software developed to
enable secure distribution – and perhaps more
importantly, to disable illegal distribution – of
paid content over the web. DRM technologies
are being developed as a means of protection
against the online piracy of commercially
marketed material, which has proliferated
through the widespread use of peer-to-peer file
exchange programs.
A plug-in circuit cartridge required by some
games consoles in order to play MPEG video
material. Digital camcorder format. Moving
JPEG compression factor 5:1
A digital radio technology used for television
broadcasting in a number of countries.
DVB standard for cable distribution.
Consortium developing DVB technologies.
Standardisation by ETSI and CENELEC.
www.dvb.org
DVB standard for satellite distribution.
DVB standard for terrestrial distribution.
An acronym that officially stands for nothing,
but is often expanded as Digital Video Disc or
Digital Versatile Disc. The audio / video / data
storage system based on 12- and 8-cm optical
discs.
Not technology related.
A method for connecting multiple systems
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EBU
European Broadcasting Union
e-commerce
Electronic Commerce
EDGE
Enhanced Data rates for Global
Evolution
Edifact
Electronic Data Interchange For
Administration, Commerce and
Transport
EICTA
EMC
E-OTD
together in a flexible way.
www.ebu.ch
Term used to describe transactions that take
place on-line where the buyer and seller are
remote from each other.
A further enhancement to TDMA systems that
allows for data speeds to 384 kbit/s.
A set of internationally agreed syntax
standards, directories and guidelines for the
structuring and exchange between
independent computer systems of data that
can be generated in character format.
Information technology, consumer electronics
and telecommunications industry association
www.eicta.org
See www.cenelec.doc
European Information and
Communications Technology
Industry Association
ElectroMagnetic Compatibility
Enhanced Observed Time
Difference
An operating system designed for small,
portable computer-telephones with wireless
access to phone and other information
services.
EPOC
ETSI
EU
GFSK
GGSN
GMLC
European Telecommunications
Standards Institute
European Union
Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying
Gateway GPRS Support Node
Gateway Mobile Location Centre
GPRS
General Packet Radio Service
GPS
Global Positioning System
Global System for Mobile
communications
GSM
GSM
Association
GUI
The community of European nations.
www.gsmworld.com
Graphical User Interface
The ITU-T standard for sending voice (audio)
and video using IP on the Internet and within
intranets. H.323 is sponsored by the IMTC's
Conferencing over IP Activity Group.
Handheld Device Markup Language
HiperLAN
High-Performance Radio Local
Area Network
HLR
HomeRF
Home Location Register
Home RF network system
HSDPA
The standards body for Europe. www.etsi.org
Technique used to upgrade current TDMA
networks. Allows a subscriber to gain up to
eight 14.4 kbit/s channels. Also introduces
packet switching.
A satellite-based positioning system.
The most popular standard for 2G mobile
networks.
H.323
HDML
UMTS
Forum
An ETSI standard that operates at up to
54 Mbit/s in the 5 GHz RF band. HiperLAN2 is
compatible with 3G WLAN systems for
sending and receiving data, images, and voice
communications.
Currently 3GPP is specifying enhancements to
the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network
(UTRAN) collectively known as HSDPA with
the goal to enable packet data transmission in
the downlink at speeds of theoretically up to 10
Mbit/s and increase achievable data rates.
High Speed Download Packet
Access
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HTML
Hypertext Markup Language
HTTP
HyperText Transfer Protocol
IAB
Internet Architecture Board
International Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers
Information and Communication
Technologies Group
Identity
ICANN
ICTG
ID
Hypertext is any text that cross-references
other textual information with hyperlinks.
www.ietf.org
www.icann.org
A working group of the UMTS Forum.
IDv3
A set of TAG definitions embedded
in MP3 files. With the use of these
TAGS one can dtermine the Artist,
Title, Album etc.
IEC
International Electrotechnical
Commission
IEC TC-100
IEEE
Multimedia Systems and
Equipments Standardisation
Committee
Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers
IEEE 802.11x
IEEE standard
IETF
Internet Engineering Task Force
IM
Instant Messaging
IMSI
IMT-2000
The audio format MPEG layer I, layer II and
layer III (MP3) has no native way of saving
information about the contents, except for
some simple yes/no parameters like "private",
"copyrighted" and "original home" (meaning
this is the original file and not a copy). A
solution to this problem was introduced with
the program "Studio3" by Eric Kemp alias
NamkraD in 1996. By adding a small chunk of
extra data in the end of the file one could get
the MP3 file to carry information about the
audio and not just the audio itself. www.id3.org
Global standardisation body at the same level
as ISO. Deals with e.g. electrical safety, EMC,
multimedia systems and equipment, recording
systems etc. www.iec.ch
www.iec.ch
US-based technology development forum.
www.ieee.org
A family of IEEE standards for wireless LAN
technology.
A standards orientated group that works on
specifying and developing Internet standards.
Mobile information service offered by NTT
DoCoMo in Japan.
i-mode
IMPS
UMTS
Forum
Instant Messaging and Presence
Services
International Mobile Subscriber
Identity
International Mobile
Telecommunications
ITU initiative for a global standard 3G wireless
data network.
IMUnified is a coalition formed in July 2000 to
generate a technical specification to enable
functional interoperability and open standards
for IM.
Term used to describe the entities that go to
make up a network which exhibits some form
of embedded intelligence allowing services
such as number portability and pre pay.
The dominant network layer protocol used with
the TCP/IP protocol suite.
A technology for encrypting IP packets. An
additional feature for IPv4 but a standard
feature of IPv6.
The version of IP in common use today.
IMUnified
IN
Intelligent Network
IP
Internet Protocol
IPSec
Internet Protocol Security
IPv4
Internet Protocol version 4
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The emerging standard, which aims to rectify
some of the problems seen with IPv4, not least
the address space.
An industry-sponsored organisation set up in
1993 to create international standards for the
hardware and software used in infrared
communication links.
A telephone service that offers high speed
digital services for devices connected to a
telecommunication network.
Frequency bands in the radio spectrum that
are unlicensed, meaning they can be used for
a variety of applications without specific FCC
permission. The bands are used traditionally
for in-building and system applications such as
bar code scanners and wireless LANs.
Because there is no licensing requirement, the
potential for interference exists. Therefore,
spread spectrum technology is often used to
protect the integrity of data transmission.
IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6
IrDA
Infrared Data Association
ISDN
Integrated Services Digital Network
ISM Band
Industrial Scientific & Medical Band
ISO
International Standards
Organisation
www.iso.ch
ISSS
Information Society Standardisation
System
Provides market players with a comprehensive
and integrated range of standardisationoriented services and products.
www.cenorm.be
IT
Information Technology
ITU
International Telecommunication
Union
ITV
Union – Radiocommunications
sector
Union – Telecommunications
standardisation sector
Interactive TV
J2ME
Java 2 Micro Edition
ITU-R
ITU-T
An international organisation within the United
Nations System where governments and the
private sector co-ordinate global telecom
networks and services.
www.itu.int
www.itu.int
Java
JPEG
Joint Photographic Expert Group
JTC1
ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee
on Information Technology 1
Kerberos
LAN
Local Area Network
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Java for small devices with limited
computational capabilities
Java is a programming language expressly
designed for use in the distributed environment
of the Internet.
A picture format. Standard for the compression
of still pictures. www.jtc1.org
Main activity areas are signal compression and
presentation technologies such as MPEG. See
www.jtc1.org or www.cselt.it/mpeg or
http:mpeg.telecomitalialab.com/
The authentication system of MIT's Project
Athena. It is based on symmetric key
cryptography. Adopted by OSF as the basis of
security for DME.
A data communications network which is
geographically limited (typically to a 1 km
radius) allowing easy interconnection of
terminals, microprocessors and computers
within adjacent buildings. Ethernet and FDDI
are examples of standard LANs. Because the
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network is known to cover only a small area,
optimisations can be made in the network
signal protocols that permit data rates up to
100 Mbit/s.
LBS
Location-Based Service
LCD
Liquid Crystal Display
LCS
LoCation-based Services
LED
Light Emitting Diode
LMU
Mb
MB
Local Microwave Distribution
System
Location Measurement Unit
Mega bits
Mega bytes
m-commerce
Mobile Commerce
LMDS
LCD is the technology used for displays in
notebook and other electronics devices. LCDs
allow displays to be much thinner than cathode
ray tube (CRT) technology. LCDs consume
much less power than LED and gas-display
displays because they work on the principle of
blocking light rather than emitting it.
Terminology used in standardisation work.
A special type of diode that emits light when
electricity is applied to its anode and cathode.
Mbit/s = Mega bits per second
Metadata
MHEG
MHEG is the standard for multimedia data (stills, audio, text and
video)
MHP
Multimedia Home Platform
MJPEG
Moving JPEG
MMI
Man Machine Interface
MMS
MP3
Music Player
Similar to e-commerce but the term is usually
applied to the emerging transaction activity in
mobile networks .
Metadata is structured data which describes
the characteristics of a resource. It shares
many similar characteristics to the cataloguing
that takes place in libraries, museums and
archives. The term "meta" derives from the
Greek word denoting a nature of a higher
order or more fundamental kind. A metadata
record consists of a number of pre-defined
elements representing specific attributes of a
resource, and each element can have one or
more values.
MHEG is an ISO standard-to-be that defines
the representation and encoding of multimedia
and hypermedia objects. It does so with a
platform-independent object model that is
tailored to support real-time interchange of
multimedia information between various kinds
of servers, set tops, and computers. Although
MHEG does not depend on a particular
operating system or hardware, it does imply an
MHEG software engine that interprets
incoming communications and prepares
outgoing messages according to MHEG
syntax. www.jtc1.org
MHP consists of the home terminal set top
box, TV, PC, its peripherals and the in-home
digital network. It offers enhanced
broadcasting interactive services and Internet
access. www.dvb.org
www.jtc1.org
A term used to describe the environment that
encompasses the activities surrounding a user
and their interaction with a device.
The term has become synonymous with the
MP3 player that delivers CD quality music. It is
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MPEG
Moving Picture Expert Group
MS
Mobile Station
the MPEG-2 audio layer 3. www.cselt.it/mpeg
Standard for compression of moving pictures
and sound. MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 are both in
use. www.cselt.it/mpeg
Sometimes called Mobile Telephone Switching
Office (MTSO), the MSC is the sophisticated
central computer (“switch”) that controls the
operation of a wireless system and acts as an
interface between the wireless network and
the PSTN. It establishes and monitors all
wireless calls, tracks the location of all mobile
telephone users in the system, conducts handoffs, and records billing data.
MSC
Mobile Switching Centre
MSF
Multiple Switching Forum
m-tailing
Mobile tailing
Multicast
Transmission feature: one-to-many
MWIF
NAT
NIC
Mobile Wireless Internet Forum
Name and Address Translation
Network Interface Card
NO
Network Operator
NPAD
OS
Non Programme Associated Data
Operating System
Expression used in the Billing and Charging
environment for mobile retailing.
A form of communication whereby a single
information flow can be directed to multiple
receivers simultaneously.
www.mwif.org
The organisation responsible for the operation
of the infrastructure that forms a wireless
network, who could also be a service provider.
The umbrella term for the seven-layer network
architecture model and a series of nonproprietary protocols and specifications
developed by ISO as a framework for
international standards in heterogeneous
computer network architectures.
OSI
Open System Interconnection
OTA
OTDOA
Over-The-Air
Observed Time Difference of Arrival
P3P
Platform for Privacy Preferences
Project
PAD
Programme Associated Data
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The Platform for Privacy Preferences Project
developed by the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) is emerging as an industry standard
providing a simple, automated way for users to
gain more control over the use of personal
information on web sites they visit. At its most
basic level, P3P is a standardised set of
multiple-choice questions, covering all the
major aspects of a website's privacy policies.
Taken together, they present a clear snapshot
of how a site handles personal information
about its users. P3P-enabled websites make
this information available in a standard,
machine-readable format. P3P enabled
browsers can "read" this snapshot
automatically and compare it to the
consumer's own set of privacy preferences.
P3P enhances user control by putting privacy
policies where users can find them, in a form
users can understand, and, most importantly,
enables users to act on what they see.
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PAN
Presence and Availability
Management Forum
Personal Area Network
PC
Personal Computer
PCI
PCM
Protocol Connection Identifier
Pulse Code Modulation
Personal Computer Memory Card
International Association
Personal Communications Services
Personal Digital Assistant
Personal Information Management
Personal Identification Number
PAM Forum
PCMCIA
PCS
PDA
PIM
PIN
PKI
Public Key Infrastructure
PLMN
POI
Public Land Mobile Network
Point of Interest
Consortium formed by Lucent, Bell Labs and
Novell in March 2000.
Common term to describe the personal
computer, usually based on a common
architecture.
A PKI enables users of a basically insecure
public network such as the Internet to securely
and privately exchange data and money
through the use of a public and a private
cryptographic key pair that is obtained and
shared through a trusted authority.
A technique for substituting identity to accept
similar functionality or power of substitute and
responsibility to act for another.
The network, or groups of networks, consisting
of switches and transmission that provide the
bulk of switched services to the general public.
Subjective and objective metric sets that
quantify the performance of a network and its
suitability for use with some applications and
services.
Proxy
PSTN
Public Switched Telephone
Network
QoS
Quality of Service
QPSK
R&D
RCT
Quaternary Phase Shift Keying
Research & Development
Return Channel Terrestrial
RDF
Resource Description Framework
Release 4
Standards Release from 3GPP
Release 5
Release 99
RFC
RSS
Request For Comments
Radio Sub-System
www.dvb.org
A type of XML document, which can be used
to describe an information object.
Term applied to the group of standards
released by 3GPP in March 2001 that
concentrate on the core network. Previously
known as Release 00. www.3gpp.org
The release that will introduce the IP
multimedia subsystem into the network.
www.3gpp.org
Term applied to the group of standards
forming the first phase of standards released
by 3GPP in December 1999 mainly
concentrating on the radio access network.
www.3gpp.org
IETF procedure for standards specification.
Directive 99/5/EC of The European Parliament
and of the Council of 9 March 1999 on radio
equipment and telecommunications terminal
equipment and the mutual recognition of their
conformity.
RTTE Directive
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SDO
SGML
SGSN
SIM
SIMPLE
SIP
Standards Development
Organisation
Standard Generalized Markup
Language
Serving GPRS Support Node
Subscriber Identity Module
SIP for Instant Messaging and
Presence Leveraging
Session Initiation Protocol
A working group formed in May 2001 within
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
The system that enables the sending and
receiving of short text messages, 160
characters. This system has proved
phenomenally successful.
A protocol designed for the seamless
transmission of electronic mail across an
internetwork using email servers and clients.
SMS
Short Message System
SMTP
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
SP
SSL
Service Provider
Secure Socket Layer
STB
Set top box
SWAP
Shared Wireless Access Protocol
SyncML
An open industry standard for
universal synchronisation of remote
data and personal information
across multiple networks, platforms
and devices
TCP
Transmission Control Protocol
TDMA
TDOA
TLS
TOA
Transmission Control Protocol/
Internet Protocol
Time Division Multiple Access
Time Difference Of Arrival
Transport Layer Security
Time Of Arrival
TV
Television
TX
UDP
Transmitter
User Datagram Protocol
Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System
TCP/IP
UMTS
UMTS Forum
The box that connects to the television set and
acts as an interface to the broadband network.
A specification for wireless connectivity within
the HomeRF environment.
SyncML is a common language for
synchronising all devices and applications over
any network. SyncML leverages Extensible
Markup Language (XML), making SyncML a
truly future-proof platform. With SyncML,
networked information can be synchronised
with any mobile device, and mobile information
can be synchronised with any networked
applications.
SyncML minimises the use of bandwidth and
can deal with the special challenges of
wireless synchronisation such as the relatively
low reliability of the connection and high
network latency. SyncML also enables
synchronisation over fixed networks, infrared,
cable or Bluetooth.
A transport layer protocol that offers
connection orientated, reliable stream services
between two hosts. This is the primary
transport protocol used by TCP/IP
applications.
www.ietf.org
WAP security layer.
General term used to describe broadcast and
reception of video and audio.
Internet distribution protocol. www.ietf.org
ETSI specified standard for 3G.
Non profit, independent forum that gives
guidance to standards and other bodies in
Cross industry body
UMTS
Forum
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terms of market requirements and issues to be
solved to allow for a smooth deployment of
UMTS. www.umts-forum.org
Unicast
URL
vcard
VLR
VoD
Point-to-point communications
Uniform Resource Locator
Universal Subscriber Identity
Module
UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
Network
Virtual Card
Visitor Location Register
Video on Demand
VoIP
Voice over IP
USIM
UTRA
UTRAN
The module that identifies, and is unique to,
the mobile subscriber.
Electronic business card.
The generic term used to describe the
techniques used to carry voice traffic over IP.
High-quality variable bit rate video.
A network that can exist discretely on a
physical infrastructure consisting of multiple
VPNs.
VP3
VPN
Virtual Private Network
VR
Virtual Reality
VXML
Voice eXtensible Markup Language
W3C
Worldwide Web Consortium
A markup language designed to make
resources on the web accessible by phone.
WAP
Wireless Application Protocol
Used to allow the transmission of simple web
pages in 2G networks. Consists of a protocol
stack that covers layers 4 to 7 of the OSI
model. Uses IP but replaces TCP and HTTP
with UDP. Web pages are written in WML.
WAP Forum
Wireless Application Protocol
Forum
www.WAP
WinCE
Windows CE is based on the Microsoft
Windows operating system but is designed for
including or embedding in mobile and other
space-constrained devices.
Initiative formed in April 2001 by Nokia,
Ericsson and Motorola to build a community
around mobile Instant Messaging and
Presence Services (IMPS).
Windows CE
Wireless Village
WLAN
WML
Wireless Local Area Network
Wireless Markup Language
xDSL
Digital Subscriber Line
xHTML
extensible Hypertext Markup
Language
XML
eXtensible Markup Language
A group of technologies that allow higher
speed access over standard connections to a
telecommunications network, for example
ADSL, which offers up to 512 kbit/s in one
direction and up to 8 Mbit/s in the other.
www.adsl.com or www.dslforum.org
Defines a single namespace for html:
http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml. Relies on
HTML 4.01 for the semantics and data types of
elements and attributes. Defines XHML 1.0
DTDs corresponding to HTML4's strict,
transitional and frameset DTDs. Provides
guidelines for authoring XHTML documents for
delivery to existing web browsers. Existing
HTML can be trivially converted to XHTML
using W3C's Open Source HTML Tidy utility.
An open standard for describing data from the
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W3C. HTML was created as an application of
SGML – the Standard Generalized Markup
Language (ISO 8879:1986). XML is a
descendant of SGML which is easier to
implement.
XMT
XNS
eXtensible MPEG-4 Textual Format
This is a protocol the provides an open
platform for establishing and managing Web
identity, a foundational element of web
services architectures. XNS-based identity
solutions meet the following architectural
requirements for web identity:
-Open standard with published technical
specifications,
-Federated identity management,
-Platform-independent, vendor-independent,
-Interoperable with existing standards.
Extensible Name Service
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10. BIBLIOGRAPHY
“UMTS Market Forecast Study”, Final Report for EC DG XIII, Analysys/Intercai. Including Annex AB, February 1997.
UMTS Forum Report No. 1: “A Regulatory Framework for UMTS”, June 1997.
UMTS Forum Report No. 2: “The Path towards UMTS Technologies for the Information Society”,
September 1998.
UMTS Forum Report No. 3: “The impact of licence cost levels on the UMTS business case”, October
1998.
UMTS Forum Report No. 4: “Considerations of Licensing Conditions for UMTS Network Operations”,
September 1998.
UMTS Forum Report No. 5: “Minimum spectrum demand per public terrestrial UMTS operator in the
initial phase”, September 1998.
UMTS Forum Report No. 6: “UMTS/IMT-2000 Spectrum”, December 1998.
UMTS Forum Report No. 7: “Report on Candidate Extension Bands for UMTS/IMT-2000 Terrestrial
Component”, March 1999.
UMTS Forum Report No. 8: “The Future Mobile Market”, March 1999.
UMTS Forum Report No. 9: “The UMTS Third Generation Market – Structuring the Service Revenue
Opportunities”, September 2000.
UMTS Forum Report No. 10: “Shaping the Mobile Multimedia Future”, September 2000.
UMTS Forum Report No. 11:"Enabling UMTS/Third Generation Services and Applications”, October
2000.
UMTS Forum Report No. 12: "Numbering and Addressing”, January 2001.
UMTS Forum Report No. 13: "The UMTS Third Generation Market – Phase II: Structuring the Service
Revenue Opportunities”, April 2001.
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