The move to 4G will also bring technical and spectrum challenges. Multimode radio will be key to LTE rollout, say David Hawke and Harpinder S Matharu, Xilinx

An important requirement for the rollout of 4G networks is the need for the new technology to co-exist for considerable time with the installed broadband wireless network (GSM, WCDMA, CDMA2000, and TD-SCDMA). Existing GSM and WCDMA wireless infrastructure is cost effective for basic services such as voice. However, the emergence of new multi-mode radio hardware, designed to be field upgradeable to support multiple air interface standards, is set to play a key role in the initial deployments of 4G networks.

Multi-mode radio technology allows operators to embed into their networks the flexibility needed for future transitions to new air interface technology with minimum hardware changes. In addition, multi-mode radio heads support remote connectivity in keeping with the growing trend toward distributed base stations (BTS) to reduce overall network cost and improve coverage. Industry consortiums and trade associations have taken on the challenge of defining standards-based remote connectivity interfaces for radio. Support for standards-based interfaces is critical to promoting a healthy ecosystem of low-cost, off-the-shelf hardware options for multi-mode radio development.

Programmable Hardware
The design of multi-mode radio heads is a daunting task that is well suited to the attributes of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Today's FPGA technology is an ideal programmable platform for building cost-effective and flexible multi-mode radio systems on a chip. Indeed, FPGAs are already being used to implement the digital front end (DFE) of multi-mode radio, and are fast becoming pervasive across the industry.

First pioneered in 1984 by Xilinx, FPGAs by their very (programmable) nature deliver the flexibility, features, and field upgradeability required to build and maintain remote multi-mode radio hardware with lower costs and higher operational reliability. FPGAs, in their simplest form, comprise of a matrix of configurable digital logic blocks connected via programmable interconnect. However, the complexity and feature sets of these devices has evolved dramatically over time to current generations, which offer large amounts of on-chip memory, digital signal processing (DSP) blocks, embedded processors, multi-rate high-speed serial interfaces, and hundreds of input/ output (I/O) pins supporting varied standards. They use cutting-edge silicon fabrication technology to provide continuous innovation and improvements for even higher performance, lower cost, lower power, and better reliability.

Multi-Mode Radio
Multi-modal radio technology affords operators an opportunity to significantly reduce capital and operational expenditure by simplifying the supply chain and maintenance. Operating expenditure can be reduced further by using advanced digital algorithms such as Crest Factor Reduction (CFR) and Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) on programmable hardware to achieve transmission efficiencies approaching 40 percent. By enabling dramatic improvements in power efficiency, these algorithms not only reduce the cost of operating equipment, but also significantly reduce the carbon footprint associated with running large networks.

The initial configuration of radio head supports a single GSM carrier. During a field upgrade, the operator could choose to upgrade to a new image supplied by the equipment manufacturer, as shown in configuration 2, thereby increasing the network capacity overnight. In configuration 3, during another upgrade, the same radio could be re-configured to additionally implement a single carrier of LTE.
In this scenario, network operators are able to continuously adapt and tune their networks to maximise revenue potential and attract new subscribers. The final result may be that the network, over time becomes an all LTE network, yielding the highest spectral efficiency of the available spectrum. This is not limited to GSM and LTE, but could similarly be applied to other standards.
 
Standards-based Interface
The Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) and Open Base Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI) are industry-wide initiatives led by wireless infrastructure vendors to standardise connectivity interfaces in base stations (BTS) to reduce cost and manage increasing system complexity. These standardisation efforts have helped to make multi-mode radio module-level expertise accessible, thereby stimulating greater ecosystem participation from small scale companies and startups. In turn, these new ventures apply the energy and skills of innovative teams across the globe to accelerating the wireless broadband evolution through faster technology development and adoption. Specifically, the delivery of nearly plug-and-play, off-the-shelf modules needed to create entire multi-mode radio systems will have a major role in lowering the CapEx and OpEx costs associated with base stations and backhaul networks.

With FPGAs, CPRI and OBSAI connectivity protocols are easily implemented through highly flexible, optimised, and low cost intellectual property (IP) cores. Currently, these soft IP solutions (programmable and changeable) support up to 3G line data rates, but have the ability to support configurable or automatically negotiated data rates ranging from high hundreds of megabytes all the way up to 6.144G line rates. Clock synchronisation and accurate cable delay measurement for installing multi-mode remote radio head topologies are ‘must-have' capabilities as part of these IP solutions, and are optimally implemented in FPGA devices to address the flexibility, lower cost, and lower power requirements of system vendors.

The modem or channel cards are connected to the remote radio heads using industry standard CPRI interface. The CPRI interface and switching function implements any channel card (also called modems) to any radio head with remote connectivity over an aggregated long range fiber. The DFE downlink path (transmit to user cell device) is comprised of digital up-conversion (DUC), crest factor reduction (CFR), and digital pre-distortion (DPD) functional blocks that are all implemented in the FPGA and connected to a digital-to-analog converter along with a feedback path from the power amplifier via analog-to-digital converter. The DFE uplink path (receive from user cell device) is comprised of filtering and digital down conversion (DDC) functions to an intermediate frequency (IF) at which all the base band physical layer processing is performed.

Real-World Application:
Ubidyne, a company that specialises in digital radio wireless technology, has built an embedded radio active antenna technology platform. This commercial application of multi-mode remote radio technology was successfully implemented on a programmable hardware platform to maximise system flexibility and scalability while optimising performance and power. Ubidyne's multi-mode radio design is digital, small, and completely integrated to achieve greater efficiency and bandwidth utilisation for both current and next generation standards. It consumes less than 50% power as compared to legacy base station systems.

The company's first product, the Ubidyne uB900, is a full featured digital radio system that is completely embedded into the antenna, thereby eliminating the need for motors, mechanical tilt hardware, coaxial feeders and other bulky equipment. This multi-standard platform has an integrated multi-antenna (MIMO) transmission capability and reception-ready RF unit for radio systems supporting GSM, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, and LTE. Additionally, the system design is two to five times more reliable with built in redundancy and its unique "self-healing" capability. It is environment friendly in visual impact, cleaner in installation, and features a reduced carbon footprint. 

Summary
While 4G technology holds promise for increasing operator revenue, it must co-exist with the current wireless infrastructure. This requirement creates significant challenges for system infrastructure vendors who must manage an increase in system complexity, while keeping costs low. Fortunately, programmable hardware platforms go a long way in providing the much needed flexibility to address multiple air interface standards and the varying spectrum allocations in different geographies. Commercial applications, such as Ubidyne's embedded radio active antenna technology platform demonstrate the highly innovative and unique value propositions of multi-mode radio for improving coverage, capacity, and power consumption of next-generation wireless base stations.

Consumer knowledge of mobile broadband services is on the rise, and service uptake is increasing. This is impacting on the way mobile is viewed by regulators, as well has having a technical imact.
Strand Consult recently produced numbers that show that In countries like Norway, Finland, Sweden and now also Denmark, the number of ADSL connections is now decreasing. In a country like Austria, over 35% of all broadband connections are now mobile and the number for Slovakia is 30%.

John Strand says, "If you examine the Nordic countries, 15% of all Danish broadband connections are mobile, 20% of Swedish and Finnish are mobile and 13% of Norwegian broadband connections are mobile. The market shares that mobile operators have gained by offering mobile broadband have appeared within the last 12 months – and it has been 12 months where we have seen a continual growth in sales.

"In 2008, each time one Dane chose fibre, five chose mobile broadband and we are currently seeing monthly sales of between 18,000 and 20.000 mobile broadband connections in Denmark – that has a population of 5.5 million. In the Nordic countries we are looking at 100.000 new connections a month in a region with 24 million people and sales of approximately 350.000 mobile phones a month.
Numbers like this have had an impact at a political level. The European Union has confirmed plans to invest €18 million in research into LTE.

Vivane Reding said, "Millions of new users will get ultra high-speed internet access on their portable devices, wherever they are. This will create tremendous opportunities and plenty of space for growing the digital economy," she added.

Dan Warren, Technical Director of the GSMA, would no doubt welcome that sentiment. But he cautions that there is work to be done, both by the industry and regulators, to bring LTE to market.
"On spectrum, there are two key areas of focus," he says. "The first is to ensure mobile broadband has access t the digital divivdend spectrum at 700MHz, and also upwards to 798 and 862 in other areas. The second is the extension bands at 2.5GHz, to give operatwors the ability to support large numbers of people in cities.

"But there is a key point beyod that. The alignment of sprectrum from one country to another, and the band plans withing that is important."

Warren says it is key for the industry to have certainty of which frequency bands it will be working in – to drive R&D efficiencies and economies of scale.

The industry already faces a challenge of supporting MIMO?in different frequencies. Warren warns that low frequency MIMO will place demands upon antenna design.

"Spectral diversity will bring antenna receiver diversity on the device side. MIMO at 700MHz carries significant radio challenges. Antennas on the device will need to be far enough apart to avoid cross antenna interference. At 2.6 or 3.5GHz they only need to be 1.5 inches apart, but at 700MHz they need to be a small number of iches apart.

"Now that's not a problem when antennas are embedded in laptops, but it creates issues for phone design.'

Spectral diveristy also promises to increase complexity on the network, which in turn brings increased O&M demands.

Spirent's Bill Burns said, "The networks of today are infinitely different from  the networks of 20 years ago. In fact, they are very different from five years ago.

"The complexity of the next generation network design is not lost on the telecommunications industry. CTOs and CIOs are taking steps to assess the methods used to analyse performance of networks and its elements. Not only is there a need to ensure that network and services are meeting the QoS and QoE benchmarks, but evaluation methods also need to be cost effective and efficient."

The articles in the next few changes analyse some of those methods and approaches…

How can mobile operators deliver the best value for brands and agencies? asks Keith Dyer

A new report from Juniper Research indicates a sharp increase in expenditures on mobile Internet advertising. According to the research firm, this jump will be due to growing consumer adoption of mobile Internet services and heightened brand engagement with mobile services.

The report, ‘Mobile Advertising: Delivery Channels, Business Models & Forecasts 2009-2014' predicts that with mobile being the preferred means of accessing the Internet in markets with limited fixed Internet access, adspend on mobile Internet will approach $500 million globally in 2009, and reach $2 billion per annum by 2014.

Juniper also notes that in India, mobile accounted for nearly 90 percent of all that country's Internet users in 2008.

The global increase in mobile Internet usage has also been attributed to operator transition from a walled garden environment to a more open model.

Author of the report, Dr. Windsor Holden, notes that popular mobile Internet sites attracting levels of usage provide a strong case for advertising and sponsorship options.

In addition, Holden says mobiles are far more personal than home computers and used only by a specific individual, so brands can build up detailed profiles of user responses and plan follow up campaigns accordingly.

Juniper's research also uncovered that mobile Internet will account for the largest proportion of total mobile adspend for the first time in 2009 a total value of adspend that will from just over $1.4 billion in 2009 to $6 billion in 2014.

This can only come as good news to mobile operators, can't it? With personalisation and targeted adverts seen as the key, doesn't that put them in control?

Well, AdMob, one of the pioneering companies in mobile advertising, passed a major milestone last month, serving its 100 billionth mobile ad.

Having launched just three years ago, this is a sign of the explosive growth that mobile advertising has undergone.

AdMob's, vice president and managing director, Thomas Schulz, said: "100 billion ads served is an exciting milestone for AdMob as a company, but also testament to the fact that the mobile phone is now becoming a mainstream advertising medium."

Another company citing rapid growth and the need to expand into international markets, is ad network mKhoj, which has has rebranded itself as InMobi. Traditionally focused on Asian and African markets, InMobi recently started operations in the UK with other European countries to follow.

mKhoj's traditional strengths have been mobile web-centric advertising in the Asian and African markets.

According to Naveen Tewari, Co-Founder and CEO, "So far, our focus has been on the Asian and African mobile markets. Now that we have achieved scale there, we feel it is the right time to make the leap to the global stage, especially given the requests from our partners for strong advertising and monetisation opportunities in Europe." InMobi began activities in the UK last quarter, and it also now live in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.

The AdMob network now includes over 7,000 mobile sites, and over 2,500 mobile applications.

But its value to mobile operators is limited, operating as it does as a large network that puts brands in touch with mobile sites, which can include operator sites, but doesn't place the customer and network information that mobile operators hold at the heart of the network.

Adhish Kulkarni of marketing services company Buongiorno, says that operators in more mature markets have been trying to tap into the digital spend of brands.

"Here we see the CPC and CPM models in place with operators trying to extend online spend into mobile sites. But they have not had the pan-European presence that brands need, and this has led brands to feel they have no choice but to go over to a company like AdMob and work on that CPC exchange type basis.

"We have set up a pan-European operators, with local presence, to offer that opportunity for operators to be able to offer a service for companies with that pan-European budget. That opens up operator inventories to that sort of campaign."

French mobile advertising provider Sofialys is another that has targeted the operators directly, rather than go down the ad exchange route. Business development director Julien Oudart says the company, which has 30 employees and provides opt-in direct marketing mobile ads and messaging, has been funded from its own revenues and private backing so far. But now it is looking for investors to help it expand its customer base.

Oudart said his company is looking for another 1-2 operator customers, to add to its work with SFR and one North African operator, and about 10-20 major publishers with mobile sites they wish to monetise. The company is also launching with one European operator in September to offer free, sponsored, apps from the operator's app store.

As for other prospects, "We are talking to Vodafone, Orange and Telenor," Oudart said, "plus a pool of publishers averaging 50-100 million page views per month on their mobile sites."

How Sofialys works
So far Sofialys has two million SFR subscribers opted-in to received ads, promotional offers and messages from its ad network. That's 10% of the entire SFR subscriber base. Oudart claims that the opt in model achieves higher click through rates of around 15-20% compared to a "maximum" of 5-10% for non opted-in subscribers.

He said because the model is multi channel, incorporating SMS, WAP banners and sponsored search terms which brands can bid for. All this offers operators more of a chance to match brands to users, driving high responses to competitions. Sofialys asks users to tick one of 12 categories of interest, and can tie that to operator CRM data to build profiles of subscribers.
"It can be done. It's a nightmare, but you have to do it," he said.

With Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft all targeting the market, the opt-in model will give operators an advantage, Oudart argued.

"At one point location was the sole property of the mobile operators, but now Google has got the base station locations, and that control is slipping bit by bit. Where they [operators] can remain ahead of other players is on opt-in, and deep customer segmentation," he said.

"Exchanges that rely on volume can't spend quality time with their customers, whereas we can choose to work with operators. Working with an operator is a full time job for 4-5 people."

Jo Wall is Proposition Manager for Mobile Advertising at Acision. Her view is that there is no single approach that will work for operators.

"It varies, of course, on the strategic ambition of the operator. Some operators establish an ad team and take control of the brands and running that business. Others are more conservative and risk averse."

But Wall says there is common ground amongst operators in "asking what platforms they can leverage for mobile advertising."

"My point of view is that the network and user information they can get is very valuable but it still needs to be supplemented by operators really engaging with their users. I think operators could do more to really gauge their users' level of interest in information and services, by creating a dialogue with the end user.

"The role of the operator is really to be an ambassador for the mobile channel, the custodian of it, and they shouldn't allow the bombardment of their users. It should be a communication that is based on user preferences and interests, and relationships."

Wall says that the extraction of those user interests needs to be done as an extension of all the operators' other activities.

"It's the consolidation of all your activities that's important."

And once operators have built these capabilities, they then need to convince the agencies and brands that what they have is of real, measurable, value.

Henry Stevens, Director of Media and Entertainment at the GSMA, is heading up an initiative with the trade body to bring together metrics around mobile advertising.

"We've had a strong message from brands and agencies and publishers that delivering robust measurements will really make a difference in persuading brands to put more money into mobile."

Stevens says that the first target for the GSMA is to enable the market to quantify the mobile audience – but says that beyond that it's not obvious that mobile will follow the online measurement model.

"It's a long roadmap in terms of what we want to do in measurement. It's not clear that mobile will ultimately use the same measurements that online does. We hope in five years to have specific KPPIs around location and engagement, for instance. But for now we need to be delivering the basic measurements of reach, exposure, and impressions."

Stevens says that getting stable measurements will help medium and small sized agencies to come up with new ways of working with mobile.

"For that cycle of innovation to happen they have got to have a grown-up medium to work with. Measuring the audience is where you start." Stevens says he is very close to announcing a growth in the level of commitment to his programme by the end of the year from the operators themselves.

"One way I?frame what we do is that we are a part of making sure that they don't become a dumb pipe. There is a load of value in the network and in general we are working to see what they can do to open that up on a broad basis."

Yet there is a company out there that has been down this road.

It launched in a targeted, specific way, engaging with users and asking them for their preferences and interests. That company is Blyk, which became something of a cause celebre with its entirely ad-funded MVNO business model.

But the company has now ceased operating as an MVNO. Its spin is that it is now taking advantage of the scale of a host operator, having proved the validity of its business mode. Others are not so sure.
Industry site MobiAd news said that from Orange's perspective, there are several major reasons why this partnership makes sense.

"First, Orange subscribers will receive the kind of offers that caused Blyk subscribers to view the ads more as content rather than advertising. For media houses, they would like to have campaigns with the very high response rates that have been seen on Blyk. And finally, for Orange, it allows them a level of conversation with their customers they have not had before.

"It will be interesting to see if in fact these high response rates and customer enthusiasm can maintained as Orange begins to implement Blyk-type advertising."

It also said that even though Blyk had a specific business model, there are wider lessons for the industry.

"While the initial approach was clearly successful, it depended on tightly controlling all parts of the advertising process. As Blyk  in some markets forgoes the opportunity to build an independent brand, that level of success may drop.

"But perhaps more interesting will be to see how Orange is able to adapt Blyk's mobile advertising approach to the opportunities and constraints of a major mobile operator. Many in the mobile industry have remarked that much of today's mobile advertising is simply a copy of successful internet advertising strategies. If Blyk's style of message-based conversational advertising can be successfully brought to an operator with the reach of Orange, perhaps this will become the first truly mobile centric ad format."

Keith Dyer:
Andy, one of the great things about speaking to someone on a regular basis at this length is that we get a chance to gauge market developments over a period of time. What are your thoughts on current market conditions? As a supplier of high quality microwave antennas to service providers, carriers, and systems developers, how have you been affected over the past year or so?

Andy Singer:
It has been a tough year especially the last winter, and it’s clear the global economy has been through a severe recession, in terms of all the indicators you look at such as GDP, trade and growth, the numbers are pretty abysmal. But recessions happen, they are prt of the normal cycle, and that means that recoveries happen as well. I think in terms of this recession we have moved to the bottom and we are in a position to start the recovery now. The signs are that it’s here: stock markets tend to anticipate recoveries and rise before economies themselves get turned around. People tend to talk about the recent history of a market and project that into the future, but that moment when everyone is talking about moving out is the time to invest.

I think we’re seeing enough now to make us optimistic. The markets themselves are up in some cases 40% on the trough levels. We are seeing governments implement stimulus projects that are unprecedented in peace time, certainly in the USA, and this is beginning to find its way through the financial systems.

Keith Dyer:
So you are optimistic about the economy?

Andy Singer:
I am, and in fact I think that one of the things we will have to deal with as we recover will be inflation over the next decade. There will be a big effect on commodities such as oil, aluminium, iron and nickel, and you have to consider the effect that will have on a manufacturing business like ours. But even there that will drive the global community to push for substitutes to those commodities, and that will become a driver in turn for technical advancements. I think we will see that more and more over the next year or two.

Keith Dyer:
Apart from the global factors, what do you think will drive growth for your business – the supply of high quality microwave antennas.

Andy Singer:
Radio Waves is still focused on microwave antennas – they are what we design, develop and manufacture, and bring to the market on a global basis. One of the chief drivers for that is microwave in cellular backhaul, and the growth of that in that industry. There is a requirement for backhaul capacities to increase rapidly, as operators move from 2, to 3G and 4G. If you consider that on a global basis today 80% of all users are still on a 2G phone, then as users, and especially the younger generation, increasingly upgrade to 3G and then 4G phones, you can see that the demand for high bandwidth services is going to be incredible.

The iPhone, for example, is a data hawk, when AT&T put the iPhone on its network it represented 1% of mobiles on network in the USA, and 50% of the backhaul needs of the network. When you consider that even that was a 2G device, then it offers just a glimpse of what is going to be required in the future. As more and more people send pictures and videos over their devices, we are going to see a doubling, at least, of traffic year on year for global cellular operators.

Another driver is that thirst for high speed data is creating a market for data only service providers. These could be WISPs that provide robust, data only services to businesses, such as a customer of ours, Rapid Systems, provides in Tampa, Florida.

Keith Dyer:
Additionally, businesses like that demand quality and reliability above all else, as they provide data communications infrastructure to enterprise customers who demand top level service.

Andy Singer:
Rapid Systems provides data services to businesses over a 29 square kilometer area using a dedicated wireless network built on our equipment, and rely on the provision of a high quality service delivery. They actually purchased a new radio with an integrated antenna system and found that they lost 20% of their coverage in one sector. So they replaced the antenna with a Radiowaves sector antenna and got that sector coverage back. It’s an example of a business where high quality components are very important to a WISP, and shows how important they could be to a cellular operator as well.

Keith Dyer:
Predicting increased demand for microwave from cellular backhaul relies on microwave staying as part of the mix. Are we not seeing more fibre rolled out to base stations?

Andy Singer:
Yes, in urban area we are starting to see fibre where it is available, but we still see operators using microwave outside of that. To be honest, I think there is enough demand to generate huge growth in fibre as well as microwave deployments. It will depend on the operator, of course, and how their own business models are worked out.

Keith Dyer:
One innovation in microwave for backhaul has been in point to multi-point microwave, rather than point to point. The argument is that it provides more coverage and capacity at reduced costs.

Andy Singer:
Point to multipoint is certainly shaping up to be an interesting market that, in fact, almost died in 2001. You may remember the LMDS market in the past that crashed, but now the technology is back in a much more robust manner.

Point-to-multipoint (PMP) wireless access systems cost-effectively deliver high-speed, high-capacity video, voice and data services to multi-tenant buildings, large corporations, small offices, and medium-sized businesses. Radio Waves designs and manufactures an extensive line of quality point to multi-point antennas ranging from 1.5 to 40 GHz. PMP solutions include base station sector and hub antennas with varying azimuth beamwidths and low-profile customer premises or subscriber antennas.

Cambridge Broadband Limited is one company that has a very robust point to multi-point solution using 28GHz. It uses a specially designed Radio Waves antenna that gives Cambridge Broadband the performance it needs. The technology is having success with Tier One operators and in emerging markets. I think you will probably see take up where there are limited fibre networks, as using point to multi-point means operators can more cost effectively cover an area than point to point links can manage.

Keith Dyer:
So is the growth in demand for these technologies driving new product development on your part?

Andy Singer:
I think it’s inevitable that new microwave bands will have to be opened up to support the higher bit rates we have mentioned, and we want to make sure that when the radios are ready, we are already in place to deploy networks as soon as possible.

One new product is a new line of SP microwave antennas called the SPX-1.8NS series, which provides coverage from 1.7 – 1.9 GHz, available in all sizes from 1 foot to 8 feet in diameter. We designed these antennas to cover a number of services including the Canadian smart grid network band of 1800 – 1830 MHz and the U.S. federal government band of 1755 – 1850 MHz, but I think European countries will also have to look at licensing these bands.

Another area of innovation for us in terms of frequency is an antenna that will cover applications from 1 -18 GHz. This Log Periodic Dipole Array antenna is very broad-band in nature, and is ideal for those “unusual” frequencies that I think we will start to see an increased requirement for.

I think we are going to see links at the 28/32/38 and E-bands increase in the near future. When you are talking about a Gigabit of connectivity then I definitely think there is going to be a place for E-Band, especially as operators move to LTE. Products such as the ones I have mentioned will give operators and service providers the flexibility they will need in their networks, and in turn the requirements of the next generation cellular networks will drive developments in antenna design.

Keith Dyer:
So when might you expect to see the benefits of LTE networks start to accrue for you?

Andy Singer:
I think that’s tough to predict because of the timing and nature of the global economy, and I think operators will only move when they find they really have to invest in and deploy increased backhaul capacity. Certainly I see growth in the market again, but not 20-30% growth. Those days are over with, because of the pressures constraining operators themselves, in terms of their own revenues and pricing.

But like any other market we will see some people that will buy quality and some who are more attracted by pricing. Wireless is no different than any other market in that regard. But we remain committed to high quality service and support. Just recently our UK manufacturing plant achieved ISO9901, 14001 and 18001 certifications. It shows our commitment to quality hasn’t abated, in fact it has increased. Europe, and the Middle East and Africa, remains a key market for us, and I think our local presence demonstrates that, and enables us to respond to the needs of those markets.

About Andy Singer, President, Radio?Waves Inc: 
Prior to joining Radio Waves, Andy held senior marketing and product management positions with a number of antenna system companies, including RFS(Alcatel) and ATG. Andy began his career as an antenna design engineer and has a B.S.E.E. and M.B.A. He has received multiple patents in regards to remote tilt antenna systems. Andy is a well-known speaker in the industry and a member of a number of industry organizations such as the IEEE.

A report from Broadband-Testing & Mobile Test Labs calls for a change in test methods.  Mobile Europe runs some extracts

All mobile phones have to pass conformance testing for certification and type approval for each country in which they are sold but, as Dean Bubley, analyst with Disruptive Analysis explains later in this report, this is no longer enough.

The problem is that the certification and type approval process does little other than confirm that a mobile handset works at a fundamental level and is compliant with industry-wide certification standards, plus a given set of country-specific requirements. It does not actually give any clues as to how well that handset actually performs.

Meantime, in the US, operators have looked to take matters into their own hands.

It started with Verizon Wireless looking not just to have the best quality network but also the best quality handset range and finding that the set standards – there was no formal certification in the US at the time for handsets that used Verizon?s CDMA technology – were too low to guarantee that a handset performed adequately. Not relying on the industry standards bodies, Verizon set its own bar higher and required handset vendors? products to meet strict performance levels before they would be considered for resale on Verizon?s network. Verizon effectively developed its own handset certification process, using performance as a key criterion.

To compete effectively with Verizon, AT&T – its rival for the title of largest US carrier – then also raised its handset acceptance criteria, testing well beyond the basic requirements of the industry?s certification process. Unlike Verizon, AT&T is a GSM/WCDMA operator, so this led to the bar also being raised for new handsets that use this technology.

And not without good cause… Two well-documented recent cases of issues with major smart phone releases concern the initial launch of the iPhone 3G (since corrected with firmware upgrades, as shown in this report) and AT&T postponing the launch of the Blackberry Bold for several months because of significant issues found during testing. In Europe, Orange actually withdrew the Bold from the market for a while in the autumn of 2008. For handset vendors and operators, the consequences of releasing a handset to the market that simply doesn?t work well enough are enormous, not just in terms of the costs at the time but also in terms of the bad PR and loss of confidence by the general public – its customers – this creates.

Several leading Asian operators have also put handset performance standards requirements in place to qualify phones for resale, but EMEA still lags behind in this respect. As we move towards 4G/LTE, the issue of performance is set to become more important and fundamental than ever. So, wake up Europe, let?s get in line with what is happening in the rest of the world…

Despite the impressive rise of mobile broadband and other forms of wireless data service, ordinary voice telephony still accounts for the bulk of revenues for most cellular operators.

As well as its critical importance financially, voice performance also remains one of the main ways that customers can differentiate between service providers. Dropped calls, poor voice quality and other glitches can affect an individual user's propensity to churn – and can also contribute to a wider, word-of-mouth loss of reputation amongst the user's social network. Voice services are also the most regulated aspects of mobile telephony, with operators typically scrutinised for service availability and customer satisfaction.

"Some of the factors affecting voice are clearly network-related in origin – spotty coverage, insufficient capacity, issues with core network switching and so on. But generally, these are well-known and (fairly) well-managed by the operators themselves. What is less obvious is the contribution that the handsets themselves make to the voice performance equation and thus user experience. Given identical network conditions, not all handsets perform equally well."

While there are certain clear conformance tests that phones must pass, these do not show the full picture. Their real-world behaviour is less predictable, set against variable network conditions, handover between cells and technologies, sensitivity in low-signal environments and tolerance of differences in network setup.

If we take an Internet-based analogy, while mobile browsers pass "conformance" tests on different handsets, there are significant differences in how successfully these are implemented – the Safari browser on the Apple iPhone clearly offering superior performance in most users' eyes to most of the competition, for example. In this example, the difference is largely driven by manufacturers' user interface and touch screen technology, underpinned by their optimisation of the browser software and graphics capabilities of the phone's application processors. For mobile voice, the performance is driven more by the baseband (‘modem') chip and the associated protocol stack and interface software. Certain aspects of voice user experience are driven by higher-layer software like the phonebook application or the dialler itself, but the actual performance of the voice stream is quite lower-level.
"Disruptive Analysis believes that additional scrutiny of handsets' voice performance is well-justified. Despite the enthusiasm for new forms of mobile data service, there is also likely to be innovation in „mobile voice 2.0? services, which could drive an important part of future operator revenue growth."
But LTE, like some other network technologies such as WiMAX, is all-IP. Voice services will either need to be transported as "pure VoIP", perhaps driven by an IMS or NGN application core – or, alternatively – reuse existing circuit-switched voice protocols, tunnelled via an IPSec connection. (This latter approach is similar to the GSM-over-IP voice used in the older, WiFi-based UMA standard).
In any of these scenarios, a range of additional performance characteristics will need testing and optimising: 
– Management of the vagaries of IP connectivity, such as variable latency, packet loss, jitter and so on. 
– "Vertical handover" between VoIP and circuit calls, when the phone moves out of LTE coverage and back to 3G or 2G networks. Also known as "circuit fallback", this introduces a huge set of performance-related issues, from the total dropping of calls, through to delays or perceptible differences in voice quality. 
– In some cases, there may be an attempt to run VoIP over HSPA+, or even Evolved EDGE 3G/2G networks, rather than using „circuit fallback?. 
– In some cases, deployment of LTE may proceed in parallel with "refarming" of some older 2G spectrum bands. There is a possibility that narrow LTE channels may be squeezed into parts of existing GSM frequencies, with the two coexisting as operators slowly look to migrate users and radio allocations away from older and less-efficient technologies.

In addition, other new network technologies will become widespread over the next five years. Femtocells (small ‘Access Point-sized cellular base stations) should provide improved indoor coverage and capacity. But again, these will present a new set of challenges for handsets when it comes to voice – especially during transitions between macro and femto domains as users hand off from one to the other. Although in theory all 3G phones should work with a 3G femtocell, this does not mean that all will work equally well.

For further info contact:
www.broadband-testing.co.uk

How can operators meet EU legislation and raise more revenue from roaming?

Holiday season is over again, a time to relax, unwind and take a well earned break from work. The last thing that you want while you are away is a fear of how much your mobile bill is going to be when you get back. Thanks to the new legislation passed by the EU, consumers can rest assured that they will not be greeted by a "bill shock" when they return. A few mobile operators have already reacted to this enforcement, most notably Vodafone who abolished its roaming charges for the duration of the summer period this year. Many other operators, however, are still looking at how best to move forward.

The legislation
The legislation follows on from the European Commission's original proposal back in 2008 to reduce consumer roaming charges, and this led to the European Parliament voting in favour of new legislation on roaming during an Industry Committee meeting in March 2009.

The new enforced rules require operators to help subscribers monitor and control their mobile data usage while abroad. This is likely to affect the operator's bottom line as the legislation includes caps on charges for SMS, data and voice roaming costs. To help subscribers monitor their spending operators will also need to send notifications to subscribers confirming the price of data usage while abroad and give them the option of capping their spending for the time they are away.
The roaming price caps are as follows:
– Text message – 11 euro cents (10p; 14 US cents) per SMS
– Data downloads – 1 euro per megabyte
– Voice calls – 43 euro cents per minute (outgoing); 19 euro cents per minute (receiving)
Every UK operator must have these new charges in place immediately as well as introducing real-time billing alerts and caps by mid 2010. This means that every subscriber roaming will be in a position to set their own spending limit with real-time updates. Operators like 3 and Vodafone have since reacted to the imposed legislation by deciding to offer customers rates well below the imposed caps, which has further stimulated competition.

What do the consumers think?
Research carried out by Acision, the messaging company, sought to find out how consumers feel about using their mobiles abroad. Would they like to use their mobile more/less, what would they like to use their mobile for and what can operators do to encourage consumers to increase mobile use abroad?

The results confirmed that consumers just aren't using their mobiles abroad – in fact only 12 per cent used their mobiles as much overseas as when they were in the UK. This is a massive opportunity for potential revenue growth for operators and if they are able to answer customer's fears and needs they can surely embrace it. The research highlighted that over two thirds (62%) of consumers are completely unaware of the charges associated with using their mobiles abroad while only 10 per cent feel they are being charged a fair price.

The research also showed that 42 per cent of consumers would love to use their mobiles more abroad if they could set a cap on their spending. This gives them the control and freedom to use their mobiles without the worry of an uncontrollable bill mounting up. Consumers would also feel more at ease if their operator offered roaming bundles and 67 per cent said that they would purchase a bundle to call and text home while on holiday. But it's not just calls and texting that consumers are interested in while on holiday, 11 per cent would also like to buy a data package to access the internet for a variety of things including email and social media. Further to that, 22 per cent would like to access social networking sites, 18 per cent would watch TV and 11 per cent would like to download TV programmes or movies.

Overall the research concluded that consumers would like to use their mobile more abroad, providing they feel they are in control and billing is transparent.

How will operators meet the legislation's 2010 deadline?
Operators are going to find it difficult to implement the infrastructure changes needed to deploy these new mechanisms and will need to either upgrade or introduce new systems that give them and consumers access to real-time information. The technology platform will need to be equipped for real-time monitoring, so that consumers can be notified when they have reached their set spend limit. This transparency will give consumers the added security of feeling in control of their mobile use abroad as well as much needed trust in their operator.

Ideally, operators need to have a charging solution that fits into the existing infrastructure without any complicated changes to the network, avoiding unnecessary additional cost and disruption. This type of solution would make the July 2010 deadline a much easier target.

Such a solution should be able to be deployed as a standalone or adjacent solution and so fit directly into the operator's current infrastructure. Operators should look for a real-time system that enables consumers to set spending caps and be notified once these have been reached, whilst being given the option to upgrade to a higher spending cap immediately. The solution should also enable  an operator to offer customers multiple service bundles which can include its own rules, expiry and lifecycle, as well as convergent bundles of voice, messaging, data sessions and content.

Conclusion
The research from Acision clearly shows that consumers want to use their mobiles while abroad and for a variety of things including social networking and multimedia messaging. Consumers want a clear billing system that shows them exactly what they are being charged and gives them control to cap their spending. The reduction in the cost of roaming charges is an added incentive.

Operators need to deploy an appropriate technology platform to help them meet the 2010 deadline and better serve consumers' needs. The legislation not only means a fairer deal for consumers but with the right technology solution, operators can encourage consumers to use their mobiles more abroad -creating new revenue opportunities from roaming.

About the author: Mike Beech, is VP product marketing, charging, Acision

The new EU roaming rules

– Limit the consumer price for sending a text message while abroad to 0.11 Euro (excl. VAT), compared to a current average 0.28 Euro.

– Further reduce prices for mobile roaming calls. As of 1 July, caps are 0.43 Euro for calls made and 0.19 Euro for calls received abroad, falling to 0.39 Euro and 0.15 Euro on 1 July 2010 and to 0.35 Euro and 0.11 Euro on 1 July 2011 (prices per minute, excl. VAT). Until 30 June, the maximum price is 0.46 Euro for calls made and 0.22 Euro for calls received abroad. In summer 2005, before EU action, a roamed call in the EU could cost around 1.70 Euro per minute for a German roaming in Austria, 1.47 Euro for a Briton roaming in Italy and 2.50 Euro for a Belgian calling from Cyprus.

– Introduce per-second billing after 30 seconds for roamed calls made and from the first second for calls received abroad. Until now, consumers paid up to 24% more than the time actually used making or receiving calls.

– Reduce the cost of surfing the web and downloading movies or video programs with a mobile phone while abroad with a new wholesale cap of 1 Euro per MB downloaded, compared to an average wholesale price of 1.68 Euro per MB, with peaks in Ireland (6.82 Euro), Greece (5.30 Euro) and Estonia (5.10 Euro). The wholesale cap for downloading will fall during the next two years: to 0.80 Euro in 2010 and 0.50 Euro in 2011. Consumers will be informed on what they will pay for data services, as the new rules require mobile operators to provide (via an SMS or pop-up window) free, country-specific information on roaming charges to their customers when they enter another Member State and use data services.

– The new rules will also protect consumers from "bill shocks" by introducing a cut-off mechanism once the bill reaches 50 Euro, unless they choose another cut-off limit (recently, a German downloading a TV programme while roaming in France faced a bill of 46,000 Euro). Operators have until March 2010 to put this cut-off limit in place.