A fragmented OSS/BSS marketplace is doing no one a favour, argues Christian Fredriksson, Head of Operations and Business Software Business Unit, Nokia Siemens Networks.

Service providers of all kind are currently finding themselves at a crossroad. On the one hand they lack a comprehensive view of how many services a customer has purchased, never mind how they are being consumed, but at the same time they are under huge pressure to introduce a myriad of new services quickly.

On the other hand, they have hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of OSS management applications and business support systems (BSS) that are not only interacting between themselves, but with the network devices – base stations, wireless switches, routers, broadband modems – everything that is needed to connect a network to a user.

This has resulted in their networks evolving into highly complex islands of infrastructure from multiple vendors, each with its own management system. There are just too many disparate systems involved, which restricts service providers’ ability to create, deploy, provision, monitor, control, troubleshoot and bill services effectively and quickly enough to stay ahead in today’s intensely competitive markets – many of which require real-time mediation.

As more technologies are introduced and as service providers move to triple and quad plays to compete, the cost of customizing and maintaining these interfaces has become unsustainable and so has their management – for operators and application developers alike. It doesn’t take much to picture the consequences for service providers of wrongly budgeting the costs to automate each interface within the OSS.

The only way that service providers can offer customer services to support the new blend of telecoms and media services economically is by facilitating customer self-care, but again their infrastructure and systems prevents them from saving money and improving customer service in this way.
Given this situation, at first glance it is strange that customer relationship management (CRM) and order management systems saw a strong increase in sales in 20061), while billing, revenue assurance and mediation system sales fell significantly in most parts of the world – the front-end is no good without the engine. At the same time, spending in the global OSS network and service management market has become fragmented.

The reason that operators are stopping short of tackling the complexities of billing, revenue assurance and mediation is that, as history has shown, it is far easier to topple a regime than it is to replace it with a better system. Service providers understand both their plight and the trends that are driving the market only too well. The question is what to do about it – the solution has to be economically viable, cannot disrupt service provision and must provide a stable, but flexible way to move forward. Also, every operator is at a different stage with different business priorities, but a bespoke solution is out of the question because of cost and the fact that I would simply perpetuate the situation.
The larger vendors started working on this knotty problem a couple of years ago and concluded that the only viable solution was a common management platform, based on open standards, that is vendor-neutral and technology-agnostic.

This move towards commonality is reflected by the growing consolidation and collaboration among vendors, illustrated by recently announced, long-term agreement between the newly formed Nokia Siemens Networks and Cisco and their individual and collective agreements with other big players, such as IBM and Amdocs.

The plan is to provide a common end-to-end network view of diverse network elements – across IP and mobile technologies – that are automatically discovered and represented as a virtual network model. Likewise, the solution will provide a complete view of network resources regardless of platforms, technologies or vendors. The platform will include basic fault, configuration, performance and security (FCAPS) management functionality as well as common functions, such as data acquisition and network element mediation, which will be utilized by higher-level OSS applications.

Nokia Siemens Networks’ Open EMS Suite provides capabilities of an element management system (EMS) and can be used to build EMS for various kinds of networks including transport, mobile, and broadband will be harnessed alongside the Cisco Active Network Abstraction (ANA) management solution. 

George Nazi, vice president of Global Engineering, BT, says, "While often downplayed, the OSS is the critical engine for our ability to support our network investment in meeting the demands of consumers and business for new services, new technologies and new ways of doing business. Providing a common view of the physical and virtual network across all technologies and building a foundation for other vendors will complement BT’s software driven network strategy to deliver superior customer experiences."

So exactly how will the common management platform help? Consider a fault management application. It monitors everything for a video-on-demand service say, end-to-end between someone’s home and the server. It touches hundreds of devices en route and gathers information from each of them. Hundreds of other applications touching those devices, look for the same information. Instead of all that duplicated effort and high level of integration, it makes sense to have a single source of information for whichever devices need that information at any particular time.

In other words, the fault management isn’t service specific, but fault-specific, allowing the network to be performance-centric. Not only can does it become aware that there is a problem with the video signal reaching someone’s home, it can also reroute the signal, instead of just reporting it and all without thousands of unnecessary communications between devices.

The collaboration will also provide a basis for helping OSS and other software vendors produce or extend their own applications more quickly. A number of industry players are supporting the move and will be leveraging the common technology from Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks to extend their own OSS solutions that assist with issues such as fault management, network provisioning and inventory control.

Arguably, the biggest challenge and, simultaneously, the most important aspect of this approach is that is masks complexity, leaving service providers with an ostensibly simpler, more flexible and dynamic infrastructure as they move towards next generation networks and beyond that migrating towards an IP Multimedia Subsystem environment. From now on, service providers and vendors should focus on how they can best bend and meld infrastructure to meet existing and future business needs rather than about customization and quick fixes that turn out to be anything but.

With multiple radio support now required in the radio network, programmable digital radio may provide a method of reducing spending and increasing efficiency for suppliers, vendors and operators, says David Hawke, Radio Product Manager, Xilinx Inc.

With the increasing number of emerging wireless standards and the multitude of possible transmission frequencies across the globe, infrastructure Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are faced with increasing development and integration costs to satisfy multiple markets. These markets differ substantially depending on the needs and spending power of the consumers.
Today's consumers now expect high speed connectivity in the home, and the natural evolution of this is to make this facility mobile. Making data low cost and enabling wireless Network Operators price plan's appeal to a wide range of clientele is of paramount importance to consumer attractiveness and retention.

In order to provide lower cost data spectral efficiency must be increased, as has been demonstrated with the newer air interface standards such as WiMAX, 3GPP-LTE or UMB. This increase doesn't come without a price, as the newer standards place an even greater linearity requirement on the radio equipment resulting in potentially lower efficiency. This directly affects Capital Expenditures (CapEx) and Operating Expenditures (OpEx). Without help from advanced algorithms and Moore's Law, radio transmission efficiencies would decrease. How can this be minimised whilst allowing Network Operators greater freedom of choice of how they use their spectrum?

Multi-Modal Radio can offer benefits across all levels of the supply. Having a flexible and programmable radio allows Network Operators and OEMs the ability to provide support for new and evolving standards with minimal risk. It also has the ability to provide Operators the ability to plan their coverage depending on the likelihood of the demand from their customer base. Clearly, there is likely to be most return on mobile high speed data close to business centres, transport hubs and urban areas. Other areas may benefit from lower cost voice coverage to compete directly with fixed line to the home.

The concept of Multi-Modal Radio is not new. Military applications have long been pursuing Software Defined Radio (SDR) as a truly reconfigurable platform that can support many different waveforms (or air interface standards).

Advances in Design
Unfortunately, analogue circuits don't tend to follow Moore's Law in the same way digital logic does. However, there are certainly advances that are making a large impact on present and future radio design.

The data converter manufacturers are now able to provide support for Multi-Modal Radio through the use of direct conversion architectures. This architecture allows for a much lower Bill of Materials (BOM) cost, since it removes the need for radio Intermediate Frequencies (IF) found in heterodyne designs. It consumes less board area allowing for more compact units. This architecture allows for a single Local Oscillator (LO) providing the transmission frequency required by the Operator. Multiple switchable LO's allow the same unit to be used over a number of frequencies and wireless standards, resulting in lower integration costs and decreased risk to Operators.

Digital techniques
Digital logic advances have progressed significantly since the first CMOS devices. Programmable logic, in particular Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have evolved  from being simple glue to full System on Chip (SoC), but remain programmable.

Integrated SERialiser/DESerialiser (SERDES) allow OBSAI and CPRI radio communication protocols to be implemented in FPGAs. Additionally, a significant increase in the amount of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) blocks allows for efficient implementation of signal processing requirements demanded by radio designs. Such is the integration now possible; the entire digital processing requirements of a radio can be implemented in a single FPGA for lower cost and lower power.
Power Amplifiers (PA's) are well known to be the largest proportion of the cost of running the BaseStation, due in part to the requirement to be highly linear with the later signalling standards. Amplifier design is also progressing, but coupling this with advanced digital algorithms provides significant efficiency improvement with low equipment costs. Two well known methods of improving PA efficiency are Crest Factor Reduction (CFR) and Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD).

Due to the advancement of FPGAs, CFR and DPD algorithms can now be realised cost effectively. Xilinx has seen efficiency improved from 6% to 34% on certain amplifier types with UMTS using it's CFR and DPD algorithms. This significantly reduces the OpEx costs of running network equipment, and contributes to a reduction in CO2 emissions due to energy savings.

Techniques that really make programmable digital radio a reality are already available. Signal processing techniques exist such that any mixture of air interface waveform can be deployed using an FPGA. The inherently programmable nature of FPGAs allows radios to be future proofed, allowing optimisation or functional changes to be made long after network deployment.

Mixing air interfaces
These digital advances, combined with software programmability, means that any signal processing chain can be deployed for a given air interface. If this concept is taken further, then it is possible to mix air interface types. For example, it could be desirable to have a radio configured such that there is a single carrier of UMTS in the proximity of a dense business centre with a single adjacent 10MHz WiMAX carrier in the same transmitted spectrum. This would suit both the need for voice connectivity and low cost data. In an urban area, it may be more practical to have a higher density of UMTS carriers deployed in that same spectrum where the return on investment for the voice traffic may be higher.

One key advantage is that the same radio platform is used for all frequency variants (subject to RF component fit options), and all air interface standards. This in itself provides a streamlined product line for OEMs that allows for reduced integration, verification and qualification testing, resulting in far lower costs than having multiple separate platforms for UMTS at 2.1GHz, WiMAX at 2.5GHz or WiMAX at 3.5GHz for example. All of the above could be supported from the same base PCB and digital circuitry, allowing significant Bill of Materials (BOM) reduction over having multiple platforms with differing base architectures.

Increasing reliability
Maximising a system's reliability is key in reducing OpEx and increasing profitability. Radio electronics reliability is affected by a number of elements. One of those elements is thermal stress.
Thermally, radios are challenging. RF electronics and power amplifiers tend to run hot, and it's this thermal design which can adversely affect a unit's reliability. Reducing component thermal stress on both the analogue domain (RF components and power amplifiers) and digital domain (digital radio processing) results in far superior equipment reliability.

A typical radio subsystem has many hundreds of components, where many of these are in the analogue domain. In newer analogue architectures there is a significant reduction in component count. This reduction can often lead to providing a statistically higher reliability figure. Additionally, integration in the digital domain to a single device from many Application Specific Standard Products (ASSPs) results in lower power consumption. Reducing this consumption allows easier heat dissipation and a lower FPGA junction temperature.

The reliability of Xilinx' 90nm FPGAs are reported as 2 FIT's or Failures In Time. This means that statistically there would be only 2 failures per 1 billion device hours.

Consumer benefits
If Operators and OEMs take advantage of technology advances, it would bring new meaning to network optimisation. Networks could be optimised such that in certain areas, broadband data could be made available on an ‘all you can eat' basis for the business end of the spectrum, whilst also being able to cater to the requirements to be competitive at the voice only end. The network could really be optimised on a cell by cell basis.

Providing services that customers are willing to pay for, by having flexible, efficient and cost optimal radio hardware allows networks to be continually tuned and adapted to the ever-changing market needs. This strategy allows greater profitability and opportunity to increase ARPU depending on the various consumer personas targeted by the operator, whilst mitigating risks associated by deploying completely new networks.

Although there have been many, developments in M2M continue to grow, with one of the biggest in the second half of 2007 being the introduction of in-SIM M2M solutions. The developments are designed to improve flexibility and ease of management for enterprises, as well as reduce the cost of operating M2M services.

One of the most notable advances recently was the news that Telit Wireless Solutions has unveiled its GE863-SIM, and module solution integrating the “Embedded SIM” Gemalto product, M2M card. This new module has been designed specifically for the requirements of M2M applications. Telit says its customers stand to benefit from the SIM’s enhanced reliability, as well as considerable cost savings and efficiency in the development and production of their M2M solutions. The first Telit GE863-SIM modules were made available from October 2007.

This module is the first ever to feature the innovative M2M card concept within an M2M card. Gemalto is the first supplier of these SIMs, which include specific M2M features and have a new form factor embedded directly into the M2M module at the manufacturing stage. This eliminates any manual operation, such as insertion and configuration and as such, is designed to significantly reduce the related costs.  

The M2M card product developed by Gemalto is of particular importance, since the SIMs used in the M2M sector need to satisfy very specific demands such as robustness to last 10 years and resistance to extreme temperatures between -40°C and +85°C, vibrations, shocks and humidity. 
“Gemalto is a world-wide leader in the development of SIM-based solutions and services and particularly active in the M2M market. Given the business opportunity of the M2M market, the choice of the technological partner quickly became strategic, and the name of Gemalto came across as obvious,” says  Dominikus Hierl, President of Telit Wireless Solutions, explaining the choice of SIM provider.

“In order to respond to M2M industry challenges, Gemalto is developing a new long-life SIM card, with special M2M specifications and Over-The-Air mechanisms. This new, more robust and immovable SIM will reduce the logistics on behalf of the mobile network operators (MNOs) and reduce the cost of ownership for  all players within the value chain,” says Jean-François Schreiber, SVP Gemalto Operated Services.

Gemalto’s people say that the GE863-SIM GSM/GPRS module, with its M2M card, which remains under the full control and administration of the operators, is suitable for all M2M sectors. The Automated Meter Reading  (AMR) sector will benefit particularly well from the advantages of this new module due to the fact that AMR applications require the SIM card to have a long service life and are a popular target for thieves. The GE863-SIM also offers various market opportunities for mobile network operators and mobile virtual network operators who want to get involved in the rapidly growing M2M market. Operators of mobile network services will therefore in future not only be able to set up access to the mobile telephone network, but will also provide all hardware and additional services in a single package.

Another company to have notched up recent success in the field of on-SIM M2M is Jasper Wireless, which with M2M wireless module vendor Wavecom recently announced that its StarService is now being offered on Jasper Wireless’ global service platform.

“Jasper Wireless is delighted to work with Wavecom to be the first M2M mobile operator to enable inSIM," said Jahangir Mohammed, CEO, Jasper Wireless. “Wavecom and Jasper Wireless are changing the business model for enterprises by removing the upfront investment that has been a key barrier to mass adoption of wireless M2M," said Ron Black, CEO, Wavecom. "Jasper Wireless is unique in its ability to deliver a single global service and we are delighted to partner with them by combining our companies' great technologies with innovative business models to deliver exceptional value to industrial M2M and automotive customers."

Jasper Wireless operates a service platform, previously unavailable in the M2M market, to connect and manage machines around the world. The service includes three key components. First is the Jasper Wireless M2M Global SIM, providing local service in over 35 countries and growing every month. Second is the web-based Jasper Wireless Control Center, offering one dashboard for all machines, with complete visibility and control of communications. The third component is a group of vertical application solutions built and optimized to meet the unique needs of specific industries including fleet and asset management, vehicle telematics, security and remote product service .Wavecom StarService includes the new Wavecom Wireless Microprocessor 50 with inSIMTM (embedded SIM) free of charge with a subscription to the secure Wavecom Intelligent Device Services web portal. Wavecom inSIMTM is an industrial-grade implementation of traditional SIM cards, built to endure the harsh environments common to M2M applications.

StarService enables customers to obtain Wavecom’s WM50 module for free with subscription to a remote device management service. This is a way for M2M vendors to maintain a profit margin as wireless connectivity becomes integrated with end-equipment.

“Many module customers appear to regard the wireless module as essentially a generic ‘bit pipe’,” ABI analyst Sam Lucero explained to TMCNet at the time of the launch. “They base purchase decisions largely on the price that module vendors are willing to offer.”

Lucero added that price sensitivity is exacerbated by the fact that end-equipment for M2M applications tends to be fairly inexpensive to begin with; thus the connectivity component must be as low-cost as possible to lessen impact on gross margins for the module customer.

“This encourages module customers to negotiate hard for lower module pricing,” Lucero says. Lucero added that the threat to wireless module vendors comes in several forms. One is the potential for being displaced in the value chain by baseband integrated circuit (IC) vendors who enter the cellular M2M market. Another threat comes from downstream value chain players (e.g. OEMs, solution providers) bypassing the module vendors by working directly with semiconductor suppliers.
“The threat of obsolescence will continue to place tremendous strain on wireless module vendors’ gross margins,” Lucero predicted. "As machine makers scale their businesses using wireless technologies, having their equipment connected out-of-the-box from day one is critical.

More flexible and cost-efficient solutions will also be necessary as M2M moves from the 2G domain, where it has largely been sited until now, into 3G and 4G technologies. At this point, many think that WiMAX will start to have a real impact on operators’ cellular M2M strategies, as momentum grows in the deployment of WiMAX as a next-generation WWAN communications technology. WiMAX is more spectrally efficient and cost-effective to operate in carrier networks when compared with W-CDMA and CDMA EV-DO, making WiMAX very suitable for low data rate, low ARPU M2M applications — when and where WiMAX connectivity is available.

Sam Lucero, ABI Research senior analyst, says, "Sprint and Clearwire are the two most significant service providers deploying WiMAX in the United States. Sprint, a CDMA-based operator, has selected WiMAX as its path to 4G service offerings. Sprint will work with Clearwire — a Craig McCaw startup that has received $600 million in venture backing from Intel and $300 million from Motorola — to provide joint coverage to each other's respective customers on the nationwide WiMAX networks deployed by the two companies.

"Sprint is rapidly deploying WiMAX infrastructure in North America, and believes WiMAX is well-suited to deliver cost-effective, wide area M2M services: a viewpoint borne out by ABI Research analysis."
There is also growing interest in Europe in the deployment of WiMAX. Furthermore, there are indications suggesting an interest in employing WiMAX for M2M applications such as AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure).

Sprint and Clearwire are only two among a number of interested parties. Lucero adds, Additionally, municipal Wi-Fi can be deployed at a very low cost and is well-suited for select M2M applications, such as AMI, public safety telematics, and video surveillance.

Cellular M2M applications have traditionally only required relatively low data rate connections, for which cellular 2G technologies, such as GPRS and CDMA 1xRTT have been perfectly adequate. In 2006, however, high-speed wireless M2M applications, such as video surveillance, Remote Information Display, and in-vehicle camera systems, began to be deployed.

While high speed wireless M2M will only represent a small proportion of total M2M connections over the course of the forecast period, the number of such deployed devices should grow strongly, utilising cellular 3G technologies, such as HSDPA and CDMA EV-DO, as well as WiMAX, and municipal Wi-Fi.

Businesses that depend on the ability to monitor and control remote processes may like the idea of Web-based software that tracks event data and relays it back to a desktop or mobile interface.
Another possibly disruptive approach comes from the hosted market, where a separate network is maintained by a third party provider, such as Numerix. Numerix launched FastTrack at the end of October 2007, a service designed for companies that need to track off-site events like the temperature in a remote facility, the whereabouts of a fleet of trucks or substance flow.

Besides the hosted application, other components of the technology are the company's AnyNet (GSM)-based wireless device, and wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) network.

The company hopes the hosted technology will reduce the hassle of dealing with technical support, software updates, and in-house IT infrastructure for their customers. "With FastTrack, Numerex is answering the call to bring reliable, cost- effective M2M capabilities to organizations of all sizes and across all industries to help them more effectively manage operations," said Chuck Horne SVP Marketing of Numerex. "Because it is powered by Numerex's own infrastructure, network, and supported by our trained experts, FastTrack enables organisations and industries that have previously seen M2M as 'too complex' or 'too costly' to get up and running quickly and for literally pennies per day."

Horne adds that FastTrack brings the benefits of wireless M2M to virtually any type of industry with remote monitoring and control requirements, including highway and transportation, utilities, security, SCADA and agriculture, and a variety of wide area monitoring situations, such as pipeline temperature sensors, pressure measuring points, flow monitoring, discrete level monitoring and pulse generating sensors.

Because the solution is hosted end to end, FastTrack provides an alternative to lengthy application and device development projects allowing customers to pilot, test and deploy projects immediately, claims.

Although M2M may look at first site like a static technology in a limited market, in fact the industry is continuing to develop both its business models, underlying technology and delivery method. 2008 looks like being the busiest year yet.