Take a break !

Its 35 degrees. Take  your team out for a teambuilding activity. They deserve it !

And if you think that the EMO hair style is original, check the left keyboardist !

Regarding Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Long Term Evolution, commonly referred to as 4g (or at least an initiation into 4g) mobile, is the cellular’s industry  adherance to an edge to edge ip network.

by : Antonis Hontzeas

Long Term Evolution has been, directly or indirectly, about 14 years in the making when the cellular industry decided to slowly, but surely, abandon the circuit switched global title/ISDN/SS7 network (which had been around in one way or another since the beginning of the 1940s) and migrate to an all ip framework (GSM- GPRS-3G (incl. HSPA)-4G SAE/LTE).

LTE promises eventual speeds (with 4X4 MIMO) of about 326 Mbps downlink. 

Now the reason for this post:

• A number of LTE promotional materials state that LTE gives equivalent fixed line and better voice service. So what? That’s the wrong position for LTE in the same way that positioning MBMS as the mobile equivalent of IPTV. Don’t compare mobile radio propagation with fixed line systems. It raises expectations and puts a frame of mind that does not do mobile technology justice (more about this below).
• Mobile throughput and quality will never be able to compete with state of the art fixed and should not be positioned to (marketing wise). Fixed technology is man controlled while mobile technology (propagation based) is always challenged by nature (propagation effects etc…). Also, if LTE boasts 100 Mbps downlink and 50 Mbps uplink, fixed can deliver via fiber 100Gbps symetrical. If mobile reaches 100 Gbps (which will require all available bandwidth that a country has) then fixed will top 100 Tbps.
• Mobile technologies should be marketed for the benefit that they add, ie. that they offer mobility with an adequate infrastructure to accomodate the required services with resilience and certainty. Mobility is the key word and not a comparison to fixed
• LTE goes a long way in offering mobility based broadband services. In addition, the flattened network will make it more manageable and less expensive  to maintain. The fact that it rests (finally) on a common architecture/protocol (ip) implies that it can eventually align its roadmaps with other ip based systems, including an ip based fixed network (implying an eventual technical convergence to a common core network for fixed/mobile systems;this should interest the Deutche boys since they finally decided to merge their fixed and mobile operations).
• LTE does not go a long way in opening up the network for general three party usuge, even though the IMS subsystem will indeed provide APIs to independent approved software developers. LTE is still very much a telecom network (and there ain’t nothing wrong with that !) and not an open network as many from the other side of the fence would’ve hoped. The fact that LTE is an IMS based network (implying SIP based central core network control) implies limitation to accomodating peer advancements and surrogate based technologies which are emerging rapidly and showing there effects on the edge of the network.
• Most operators will upgrade their packet core network (SGSN, GGSN etcSN) towards the Evolved Packet Core functionality (initially this will be a pure software upgrade but eventually, once the CS functionality is totally removed, this will be replaced by high capacity routing mechanisms);eventually these boxes will be replaced by high capacity high speed dumb ip routers andthe mobility intelligence will reside in servers. This means that voice call handling (which will be ip based) will be nothing more than another software application.
• Many label IMS as the “custer’s last stand” of the telecom world before relenquishing total control of the network to server based architectures riding a high speed ip network, and peers controlling the applications (or peer groups comprising the application). This implies that the network will carry data and the peers will decide whether that data is for them, ie whether they will participate in a particular application. In addition, may label IMS as trying to build faster sailboats when the industry is clearly heading towards steamships. This again remains to be seen.

Feliz Navidad/Joyeux Noël

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