5G Requirements- A view from Mikio Iwamura, Director NTT DoCoMo & NGMN Work Stream lead

Ahead of the 5G World Summit 2015, taking place on 24-25th June in Amsterdam, Mikio Iwamura, Director NTT DoCoMo & NGMN Work Stream lead, gives us his current views on the requirements of 5G networks and the services enabled by it!

Here is what Mikio says  ““5G” seems to encompass different aspects and you will probably get ten different answers if you talk to ten different people. “5G” is a convenient term and everyone wants to talk about it, but after all, it will just be a marketing term. Companies will use the term “5G” to encompass whatever they want to call “5G” when the time comes.

I think it is about time the industry needs to define concrete terms that represent different components of “5G”. For example, 3GPP will need to define a term that represents a new radio access technology, that will potentially have access to the IMT-2020 spectrum, once approved by ITU-R. This will be a 5G equivalent of “LTE” or “E-UTRA/ E-UTRAN”. 3GPP may also need to think what they will call LTE enhancements, beyond Rel-13. Another aspect is the future core network. Including NGMN, various consortia and companies are promoting the “network slicing” concept, that brings along more cost efficient and agile ways of provisioning services with disparate requirements by use of NFV and SDN technologies. The industry will need a new name to address the system that has this capability. This will be like “EPC” or “EPS”, but I think “packet” will not be the keyword here. Something along the lines of “poly-morphic system” seems to better describe the concept.

The Most Important LTE Markets in the World…

The pocket sized Bolt! streams 4G to smartphones, tablets or laptops – making high speed LTE accessible on the move.

The emerging markets of Asia (EMAP) could soon be the most important LTE markets in the World.

All eyes are on the emerging markets of Asia Pacific; countries including Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam among others, as they begin to deploy and expand their LTE networks.

Studies show that EMAP is set to outstrip the developing markets of Asia Pacific (Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Australia) in terms of LTE subscribers by 2017, creating a tremendous opportunity for LTE players across the region. As demand grows, users will require connectivity throughout the region, meaning more complex networks, better service and competitive rates across the board.

OTT Spotlight – Interview with Viber’s Luiz Felipe Barros, Brazil Country Manager

Luiz Felipe Barros, Brazil Country Manager, Viber

Latin America is a promising market for OTTs and data consumption, but that doesn’t mean lost revenue for operators and MNOs in the region. In this exclusive interview for the LTE World Series Blog, Luiz Felipe Barros, Brazil Country Manager at Viber, tells us about the opportunities in partnership between MNOs and OTT players.

One of the featured keynote speakers at the 6th Annual LTE Latin America conference and exhibition, Luiz Felipe sat down with us to give us a quick summary of his key message eat this year’s show.

Indoor Mobile Locationing: Beyond Pick and Pay

This guest post was written by Ofer Talmor, VP Products, Saguna

Ofer Talmor, VP Products, Saguna

With the high usage of mobile devices in almost every aspect of our lives, mobile retail revenue stats are hardly a surprise: In Q1 of 2014, retail revenue generated via a mobile device was up 35 percent over first quarter of last year, with mobile owning 13.7 per cent of total e-commerce orders in Q1 2013 compared to 18.5 percent during the first quarter of this year.

But while a lot of data is aggregated about online shopping habits, a big piece of the puzzle is still missing – how do you track brick and mortar customers to identify the optimal point of conversion in-store? How can you identify when a shopper walks in the store, and offer him the best retail experience?  Can the experience that can be amplified by mobile usage?

At the same time, the human need to ‘touch the merchandise’ is still a dominant one. So is the desire to get it immediately, rather than browse online, and wait Combining mobile and in-store engagement for retail success

Enriching the LTE Experience in Qatar – Interview with Ooredoo Qatar’s Cody Postier

Cody Postier, Senior Manager Mobile Data Services, Ooredoo

Ooredoo is working hard to build bigger, faster networks across all their markets and in particular in their home market of Qatar. Ahead of the LTE MENA conference in Dubai, we caught up with Cody Carver Postier, Senior Manager Mobile Data Services at Ooredoo Qatar to find out how Ooredoo’s LTE networks will be enriching the lives of their consumers in 2015 and beyond.

“We’re giving them access to the best content and apps, providing the fastest upload and download times” he said “We believe the key to encouraging customers is to introduce new devices, offer incentives to upgrade and to make it as easy as possible for customers to move to 4G.”

LTE Deployments in Emerging Markets – Interview with Marc Zirka, Head of Corporate Strategy, Bakcell

Marc Zirka, Head of Corporate Strategy, Bakcell

Some of the discussions at LTE MENA 2015 will examine the challenges of deploying LTE in the emerging markets in the region. One of the key questions at the event will be what does it take to rollout a successful commercial LTE network?

To help us understand the challenges of LTE rollout, we caught up with keynote speaker Marc Zirka, Head of Corporate Strategy at Bakcell, ahead of their commercial LTE launch. He gave us a breakdown of the challenges they faced preparing to deploy their network and key insights into the strategy and thought process behind their decision to deploy LTE.

The Promise of Voice over LTE: Overcoming Today’s Challenges

Femi Adeyemi, PhD
LTE Solutions Architect, Fujitsu Network Communications

This post was written by Dr. Femi Adeyemi, LTE Solutions Architect at Fujitsu Network Communications

 

Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is considered by many to be a revolutionary application, for both mobile operators and their subscribers:  Operators, once they establish VoLTE networks, will no longer have to maintain separate networks—circuit-switched for voice and packet-switched for data. As a result, they will see savings in both operational and capital expenses.  Subscribers who use VoLTE will be able to use high quality voice and data applications simultaneously, while enjoying greater clarity in voice calls.

However, VoLTE deployment has been slower than anticipated due to several challenges…

Anera wins award for “Top Innovator” at LTE North America 2014

Ryley MacKenzie, CEO of Anera collects his prize for Top Innovator at LTE North America

Anera, an SDN and NFV solution provider, was crowned the winner of this year’s Innovation Accelerator at LTE North America in Dallas.

The Innovation Accelerator aims to discover the most exciting start-ups in the market today. This year, hundreds of entries poured in prior to the event, and were subsequently wittled down to a shortlist of 3 companies by our judging panel. Those three companies then pitched their services to a panel of expert judges and the LTE North America attendees.

Why do you need a Diameter Routing Agent in a VoLTE deployment? (Part II)

This is Part II of Peter Nas’ Blog Entry: Other DRA added-value in VoLTE

There’s additional value to the fundamental session binding functionality of a DRA. A DRA can enable optimal call management ensuring higher quality-of-service VoLTE calls. For instance, think of all the different vendors’ equipment that is needed to exchange Diameter Gx and Rx signaling. One example is when the LTE PGW has a different Gx implementation than the PCRF. In turn that PCRF can have a different Diameter Rx implementation than the IMS’s P-CSCF node. Typically inside an operator’s network, there will be various vendors for LTE, PCRF and IMS core network elements. And this is the norm in roaming use cases where the visited LTE network is out of control (meaning a different vendor) than the home IMS network, where the P-CSCF (and other elements) will be involved.

Why do you need a Diameter Routing Agent in a VoLTE deployment? (Part I)

Peter Nas, Senior Solution Architect, F5 Networks

This article was written by Peter Nas, Senior Solution Architect for the Traffix SDC, F5 Networks

Operators have begun to get more and more serious around deploying VoLTE (Voice over LTE) in their networks. Since the announcements of VoLTE services from some Korean and US operators, others, particularly in Asia, North America and EMEA, have launched or are about to launch VoLTE (see GSA announcement of 17th Sep 2014: 71 operators in 36 countries investing in VoLTE deployments, studies or trials, 10 operators commercially launched HD voice using VoLTE). More often than not, operators use a Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) to support correct routing and control of the Diameter signaling related to VoLTE.

How can you measure Customer Experience in the Data Tsunami?

This post is by Neil McKinlay, Senior Manager – Product Management, Anritsu

The market is changing rapidly, with new applications and usage models appearing daily. LTE is a major driving force in this change by providing reliable high bandwidth to mobile devices.

The cost of that ubiquitous bandwidth is falling with the realizing of NFV and SDN technology, further pushing down the cost per megabit delivered to the end customer.

This is all great news for the industry, more bandwidth, more users, more apps, new devices, higher quality connections, video support. What’s not to like?

Are you ready for the switch to 4G LTE?

This post is by Eyal Amit, Product Marketing Manager, Amdocs

Plenty of service providers (and their end-customers) have jumped on the 4G LTE bandwagon. As a result, two of the most immediate and noticeable changes we are seeing are the speed at which data services are running and high-definition voice quality.

And that’s great…assuming that everything works as it should, and customers receive the quality of experience they were promised. But sadly, many 4G LTE implementations do not live up to expectations due to the challenges that lie within the core elements of these networks.

Antenna Solutions Play a Crucial Role in Network Capacity Improvement

Kevin Linehan, VP and CTO, CommScope

This post is by Kevin Linehan, VP and CTO Antenna Systems, CommScope

According to a GSMA Intelligence study, global LTE connections will hit the 1-billion mark by 2017 and Asia will account for almost half, or 47 percent of that. The demand for high speed connections and rich media experience is keeping operators on their toes and constantly upgrading and building more efficient LTE networks. As operators work towards keeping high levels of subscriber satisfaction, network coverage and capacity becomes utmost concern.

I have been in the telecommunications industry for nearly three decades and these developments are extremely exciting.  At the LTE Asia Conference, which took place from September 24-25 in Singapore, I was happy to share a presentation titled “Antennas Solutions for Capacity Improvement” in which I addressed concerns related to maximizing network capacity and developing unified industry standards for base-station antennas.

Network Sharing: African Telecoms’ Newest Growth Story

This post is by Terry Young, Director of Marketing, Stoke

LTE network sharing is on the rise, encouraged by regulators to speed penetration of advanced broadband and increasingly adopted by operators to improve the economics of entering or expanding their LTE base.

The LTE industry in Africa has grown steadily over the last few years, but slowing revenue growth, increasing costs and shareholders demanding returns are forcing operators to consider the next wave of investment. Over-the-top services are gaining traction in Africa as smartphone usage grows, but the willingness to pay among consumers is limited, and enabling payment is also an ongoing challenge. Mobile money continues to be an area of intense interest for the region, and for service providers, given the size of the opportunity among the unbanked.

If You Can Scale Small Cells Inside, then Service IT: Small Cell Services at the Enterprise Edge

Ronny Haraldsvik, SVP/CMO, SpiderCloud Wireless

At the heart of SpiderCloud’s scalable 3G/4G small cell system is the Services Node (SCSN), a “local” control point for the small cell network deployed inside the enterprise over existing Ethernet. It’s also where the enterprise edge meets the mobile operators edge network. The small-cell system can provide cellular capacity and coverage to over 1.5 million sq.ft. of space and support for 10,000 voice and data subscribers.

Beyond coverage and capacity, after credibility has been established with the IT department, the Services Node is a strategic point of entry into the enterprise IT environment for mobile operators and business partners to service IT, and a potential great revenue opportunity.

LBO or not, I want to break out… (Part II)

This is Part II of Peter Nas’ blog post on local break out technology

 

Peter Nas serves as Senior Solution Architect at F5 Networks and draws from more than 20 years of telecom experience to advise operators how to leverage Diameter signaling solutions to enable the optimal LTE experience. Peter joined F5 with the company’s acquisition of Traffix where he was responsible for global business development.  Prior to joining Traffix, he worked at Tekelec focusing on market development for Diameter and SIP routing. In his days before Tekelec, he served as Core Network Engineering Manager at a prominent mobile operator in the Netherlands.

In my last blog post, I began looking at the slow progress for the deployment of LBO (local breakout) technology that will reduce mobile roaming revenues. In this post, I will suggest various ways to leverage LBO to offset the reduction in roaming revenues.

One interesting aspect of LBO is that the signaling for two additional Diameter interfaces, S9 for policy and Gy for charging, could be exchanged between visited and home networks, and if so, this will be done via an IPX network as per GSMA guidelines (IR.88). There are different views on whether or not using the S9 interface to exchange policy information between the visited PCRF and home PCRF, will be massively used once LBO is offered, but let’s assume it will be used. In this case, an IPX carrier can offer various services around Diameter interworking, security and perhaps also screening, overload control, prioritization and potentially adapting policy rules and more.

LBO or not, I want to break out… (Part I)

This post is by Peter Nas, Senior Solution Architect, F5 Networks

Peter Nas, Senior Solution Architect, F5 Networks

 

For over ten years, the technology to offer local breakout (commonly known as LBO) has existed, allowing data use by roaming customers to be supported by the visited operator’s network. This is in contrast to the scenario in which data requests are sent back to the roamer’s home network, which of course, results in higher costs. However, despite the obvious fact that many people would like to get lower data roaming rates, a wish not limited to Europeans traveling in the EU, sadly it is not offered yet.

 

Interview: CEO, MTC Namibia: “In terms of maintaining business mobile sustainability into the future the price-per-gigabyte is critical.”

Miguel Geraldes, CEO, MTC, Namibia

Miguel Geraldes, CEO, MTC Namibia is speaking on the subject of LTE launch strategies in Africa at the second annual LTE Africa conference, taking place on the 11th-13th November 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa.

You’ve already launched LTE in Namibia? What have you learned from the experience?

Indeed, MTC launched LTE in May 2012, with an aim to increase speed and capacity, especially for mobile broadband users (dongles and routers), as well as the new smartphone users. MTC’s strategy since 2008 was to compete in the broadband market, first using 3G, and thereafter LTE to fight against ADSL. To become the market leader in the broadband segment using mobile pushed MTC to deliver a more efficient service in terms of speed and latency against the fixed services, and against WiMAX in the wireless. But as a third of the customer base was already using advanced smartphones, not providing LTE was not an option.

What makes launching LTE in Namibia different and more challenging than doing so in Europe?

Putting the pieces in place to make VoLTE work

Eyal Amit, Product Marketing Manager, Amdocs

This post is by Eyal Amit, Product Marketing Manager, Amdocs

There are over 300 LTE deployments around the world, each promising a better, faster and more engaging connected mobile experience. While LTE has brought great advancements with regards to fast data speeds, HD video availability, mobile shopping and gaming, by and large it has not lived up to the hype on voice.

Voice over LTE, or VoLTE should mean conversations in high definition, crystal clear video calls, and easy transitions into text messaging. Consumers should be able to see which of their contacts are available and which aren’t through their contact list, not through a voice message on the other end of the line. Mobile phones were originally designed to facilitate talk, so why have only under seven per cent of all LTE Service providers begun offering VoLTE services to their customers?

Interview: Project Director Wireless and LTE, Swisscom: “The “killer app” is, and will continue to be good quality voice.”

Christian Menini, Project Director Wireless and LTE, Swisscom

Christian Menini, Project Director Wireless and LTE, Swisscom is giving a real life case study about Swisssom’s LTE deployment on Day One of the LTE Voice Summit, taking place on October 7th-8th 2014 at the Royal Garden Hotel, London.

What are you expecting and hoping for from the commercial launch on VoLTE?

The commercial launch of VoLTE, which we are aiming for next year at Swisscom as well, really does have the potential to get the ball rolling. With VoLTE, the MNP are completing the technological change that will enable them to further develop mobile voice communication, as one of their most important assets, and reposition it.

I believe the good old “voice service” may experience a small “renaissance”. Over the past few years voice has been forced into the background by all of the new communication forms. But I’m convinced: Voice is not only noise.

As we approach commercial launch is there any clearer idea of whether VoLTE will truly compete or will it just complement OTT services?

Interview: APAC General Manager, Tropo: “While we are a small and agile organisation and can react fairly fast, that’s not enough. We need to have everyone along the delivery chain moving quickly.”

Tropo, an API that makes it simple to build phone, SMS and Instant messaging applications was picked as the winner of the Innovation Accelerator at the recent LTE Asia conference. In this interview with Fuxin Jiao-Kiuru, APAC General Manager for Tropo, we find out what the award means to them and why API development is so important in the telecoms space.

You won the Innovation Accelerator at LTE Asia. Why do you think your product attracted the attention of the judges?

Tropo bridges the gaps between telco and web development spaces, making fast innovation in communication possible.  I believe the reason we won is that we are not only talking about great technology, but also real customers, real applications in the market, and real innovation and we bring in great value. In the region, both China Telecom and Globe Philippines are already using Tropo with their eco-system partners. So we are not just talking about it, we are innovating with our customers and partners as we speak.

What are the main challenges you expect to face over the next 12-18 months?

Dynamic Multi-Layered Defense – Part II – Why LTE networks are less secure than their 3G predecessors

Leonid Burakovsky Sr. Director, Strategic Solutions for F5 Networks

As I discussed in my first blog, the issue of security for mobile networks, subscribers, devices and applications, is undergoing significant changes with the move to an IP-based technology. In this post, we’ll look at technology trends that are contributing to these new security challenges.

For several reasons, LTE networks are less secure than previous generations. First of all, because they are all-IP networks. The newest security front is between eNodeBs and EPC (evolved packet core). There is no protection there for user information privacy and man-in-the-middle attacks. Only a relatively few mobile operators are deploying IPSec VPN to protect user data and enhance authentication.

LTE Asia Awards winners announced!

 

Once again the great and the good in the Telecoms industry were present for the latest Telecoms.com awards, held for the first time at the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore. After a cocktail reception filled with glitz and champagne the winners were finally revealed to an expectant audience. Well done to all the nominees and especially to the winners!

See you there next year!

Roll of Honour!

• Best Test/Measurement LTE Product – Polystar
• Most Significant Development of a Commercial LTE Network (Operator Only) – SK Telecom
• Best LTE Core Network Product – Cisco
• Best Traffic Management Product – Gigamon
• Best LTE Roaming Product – SAP
• Best VoLTE Innovation – Samsung
• Innovation in HetNet Development – Huawei
• NFV Innovation of the year – Mavenir System

Off to the LTE Asia Awards: Singapore or Bust

Jim O’Leary, Senior Mobile Solutions Marketing Manager, Cisco

This post is by Jim O’Leary, Senior Mobile Solutions Marketing Manager, Cisco

Think about what is going on in the APJC Mobile Market for a minute:

• In Korea Mobile data traffic on 2G, 3G, and 4G networks increased approximately 70 per cent between 3Q 2012 and 3Q 2013.
• In China : Mobile data traffic of China’s top three mobile operators grew 90 per cent in 2012 and 72 per cent from mid-2012 to mid-2013.
• In Japan, Mobile data traffic grew 92 per cent in 2012 and 66 per cent from 3Q 2012 to 3Q 2013, according to Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
• While in India Bharti Airtel reported mobile data traffic growth of 112 per cent between 3Q 2012 and 3Q 2013 and Reliance Communications reported mobile data traffic growth of 116 per cent between 3Q 2012 and 3Q 2013.’Nomophobia’ is a term describing a growing fear in today’s world — the fear of being without a mobile device, or beyond mobile phone contact, which is why analysts report that 91 per cent of us keep their cell phone within three feet of themselves 24/7.

Succeeding with LTE in Asia: Go for Next Generation Communication Services

Malcolm Chan, Managing Director, BICS, Asia-Pacific

This post is by Malcolm Chan, Managing Director, BICS, Asia-Pacific.

Asia is expected to account for almost half (forty-seven per cent) of all LTE connections by 2017, as LTE networks are rolled out in major markets such as China and India, making Asia-Pacific the world’s largest LTE market in terms of service revenue. In the face of this tremendous growth, operators need to seek innovation through Next Generation Communication Services to maintain market share and customer loyalty.

To achieve this, operators need to ensure they provide an enhanced user experience. Central to this is an enriched communication experience with IMS based services like VoLTE and Rich Communications Services (RCS).

As OTT players increase the number of VoIP and messaging services they offer their customers globally, mobile operators need to deploy VoLTE and RCS services in order to offer innovative high quality services through their unique proposition of ubiquity, global reach, quality and privacy management.