Rattler: VAS developer (SMS, MMS, WAP, WEB, USSD, IVR, VoIP)

A 3GPP Seminar aimed at the Latin American Operator community has been held – Hosted by the GSMA at their joint Latin America and North America Conference in Miami, USA. Over 50 delegates discussed evolution paths towards LTE services, with presentations from the four 3GPP Specification Groups;

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GSM Evolution, How close can we get to the 'LTE like' experience with GSM EDGE? Werner Kreuzer, GERAN WG1 Chairman

• EDGE Evolution - radio and protocol enhancements
• GERAN interworking with LTE
• Latest evolutions of GSM/EDGE

Core Network evolution & Terminals Hannu Hietalahti, 3GPP CT Chairman

• Key features of the LTE Evolved Packet Core (EPC)
• Core Network Interoperability and 2G/3G Integration
• Terminal features covered in 3GPP
• QoS management

3GPP Radio Access Network Takehiro Nakamura, 3GPP RAN Chairman

• LTE technical overviews
• LTE performance
• LTE deployment scenarios
• Possible challenges for LTE deployment

3GPP Services evolution and the impact of IMS Stephen Hayes, 3GPP SA & Plenary Chairman

• IMS Ready for Prime time?
• 3GPP Service evolution
• 4 Myths about LTE
• LTE Feature focus: Public safety and disaster warning enhancements

The 3GPP Technical Specification Group (TSG) leadership were joined by Entel PCS, GSMA and 3G Americas colleagues, who added a market perspective to the standards discussion.

Dan Warren of the GSMA, chaired the event as well as speaking on the VoLTE initiative;

The VoLTE Initiative & Roaming with LTE Dan Warren, GSMA Director of Technology Entel PCS - 3G Success in the Region Francisco Ochoa, Deputy Chairman, Technical & Terminal Working Group GSMA LA. Broadband Access Mobile Service Update in the Americas Erasmo Rojas, 3G Americas Director of Latin America and the Caribbean

As a follow-up, 3GPP is now in discussions with GSMA and 3G Americas on how best to provide educational content, about LTE specifications and 3GPP Releases for Latin American events in the future.

Contact: Kevin.flynn@3gpp.org

It is with sadness and a great sense of loss that we report the recent passing away of Ian Harris, the ETSI EMTEL Chairman and former 3GPP T2 Chairman. Ian was a very well-known and loved figure in both the ETSI and the 3GPP standards communities.

Ian's achievements related to 3GPP work were many; Ian was a vigorous supporter of the facsimile standards and became a main mover in establishing consensus between the facsimile and the GSM communities. As a delegate to the GSM IDEG committee (later ETSI SMG4) since the very beginning (1987), Ian was active in several work items related to mobile data, but his main focus moved to the completion of the SMS specification in 1990. At the end of 1996, he was elected chair of the ETSI SMG4 Message Handling group and he continued in that role as SMG4 became T2 in the newly formed 3GPP. He later became chairman of 3GPP T2. He remained the official rapporteur of several 3GPP specifications on SMS and data related matters.

Kevin Holley, Vice-Chairman 3GPP TSG SA, remembers Ian as a friend and a collaborator with a solid track record of achievement in the standards domain. In his email to the 3GPP community announcing the news, Kevin said:

“Ian will be most remembered as a very friendly and helpful standards delegate, and although we teased him often about his Tippex, scissors and glue in the early days before computers, we all recognised the dedication and thorough tenacity with which he made his mark on our standards world. He was never offensive and always well-liked. A really outstanding friendly gentleman who will be sadly missed.”

In November 2009 Ian was elected as Chairman of the ETSI technical committee EMTEL, where he was leading the work on the use of telecom services in emergency situations, across fixed and mobile domains.

Jean-Pierre Henninot, Vice-Chairman of ETSI EMTEL and Chantal Bonardi , Technical Officer for ETSI EMTEL, expressed their sadness and shock at Ian's death, In a joint email to EMTEL delegates they said:

“His dynamic and creative leadership could not give any hint of such a destiny. Among many qualities, his easy and friendly way to communicate with everyone and his attention to detail should remain in our memory. His knowledge in several technical areas and his experience enabled EMTEL to enrich its relations and to maintain its professional image.”

As an official and as a delegate Ian will be remembered as friendly, helpful and dedicated with a tenacity that allowed him to make his mark on our standards world.

John Meredith, of 3GPP and ETSI, summed up the feelings of the staff who knew Ian Harris:

“He was a mine of information on mobile terminal matters, his wealth of knowledge and experience will be missed by us all, as will his humour and humanity.”

Ian's funeral will be held at North Leigh in the UK on Tuesday 22nd June.

[3GPP] – 3RD GENERATION PARTNERSHIP PROJECT

[ETSI] – EUROPEAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS STANDARDS INSTITUTE

[SMG] – SPECIAL MOBILE GROUP

[SMG4] – SPECIAL MOBILE GROUP WG4 (DATA SERVICES)

[3GPP TSG SA] – 3GPP TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION GROUP, SERVICE AND SYSTEM ASPECTS

[3GPP T2] - TERMINALS WORKING GROUP 2 (MOBILE TERMINAL SERVICES & CAPABILITIES)

[IDEG] - IMPLEMENTATION OF DATA-SERVICES EXPERTS GROUP

LTE India 2010 (New Delhi) & the 3GPP LTE India Workshop (Chennai)

The spectrum auctions in the 2.1GHz band (3G) and the 2.3GHz band (BWA) have helped to create great interest in the LTE India conference and a dedicated 3GPP LTE Workshop.

3GPP presentations to over 500 participants included an overview of the standards as well as detailed presentations on radio aspects and core network evolution.

One of the key topics at both events was whether LTE is set to overtake 3G services in India, with one Operator CTO declaring “It is the right time for LTE in India”

Another popular discussion was on the prospects for TD-LTE, as India seriously considers becoming the second country to plan for a roll out of that variant of the LTE standard.

The purpose of 3GPP participation at both events was to spot-light 3GPP specifications and to raise awareness of the stability and World-wide commitment to LTE.

Planning for a future workshop in Bangalore is now underway, as interest and commitment to LTE grows in the worlds' second largest market.

See the 3GPP Workshop presentations...(click)

In a pre-conference seminar dedicated to the technology behind the successful LTE Standards, Russian telecommunications experts have discussed the Regions' needs with 3GPP Chairmen and leading officials.

The 3GPP Seminar: Evolving Networks to LTE – 3GPP Perspective featured technical presentations and a Panel session with the main Russian Operators, where the road-map to LTE was discussed – On the very day news broke that the Russian mobile broadband provider YOTA will build LTE networks in its new rollouts and will eventually overlay LTE in its current WiMax marketsof Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Get the presentations: Core Network migration path for HSPA+ and LTE Hannu Hietalahti, 3GPP CT Chairman, Nokia GSM Evolution, EDGE+ progress report Andrew Howell, 3GPP GERAN Chairman, RIM Europe Radio Access Networks - LTE progress report Takehiro Nakamura, 3GPP RAN Chairman, NTT Docomo Services evolution and the impact of IMS Stephen Hayes, 3GPP SA Chairman, Ericsson Regulatory update: Digital dividend, Flexible use of spectrum Igor Minaev, ETSI Technical Officer, ETSI Standardisation Projects Femto Cells for LTE Andrew Germano, Femto Forum Vice-Chairman

The event LTE Russia & CIS has a Russian language web site with more information about the event; http://www.comnews-conferences.ru

3GPP and 3G Americas held a LTE Standards workshop in advance of this years' LTE Latin America Conference, held in Rio de Janeiro 26-28 April.

Speakers from Operators and Manufacturers' looked at the huge potential for HSPA and LTE networks and discussed Standards and Regulatory issues that are affecting LTE Roadmaps for the Latin America Region.

Topics such as equipment availability and spectrum scarcity were high on the agenda, along with discussions on systems architecture evolution and backhaul issues.

The presentations from the workshop are available on-line (See full story...)

Operator Presentations

• VIVO - Oportunidades e Desafios Banda Larga Móvel no Brasil

• CLARO - Operator Strategies for Mobile Broadband

• NTT DOCOMO - RAN Migration Strategy

Manufacturers' Presentations

• Ericsson - Perspective Setorial de HSPA Evoluido

• NSN - Migrating from HSPA to HSPA+ and LTE

3GPP and 3G Americas Presentations

• Marketplace update

• Spectrum Policy and Recommendations

• 3GPP Standards Roadmap

ftp:/ftp.3gpp.org/workshop/2010_04_Rio_LTEseminar/' class='spip_out'>Get all the presentations...

Operation Requirements for next generation multi-technology networks are the key topic that brought 3GPP, NGMN and TM Forum together for a workshop held March 29-30 2010 in Bonn. The two-day workshop was attended by forty industry experts who worked on use cases and requirements in three parallel work streams and provided recommendations for next steps.

At the Bonn workshop, the 3GPP Telecom Management working group - SA5 - presented background data on the SA5 work program to date, much of which meets the needs of the NGMN Top Ten Requirements:

• Quality and Quantity of Alarms
• Automatic Software Management
• Energy Saving
• LTE Automatic Neighbour Relation (ANR) and Self Organizing Networks (SON) Operation
• Performance Management in Real-time
• Substitution of Monitoring Probes by Infrastructure Inherent Trace Functionality
• eNodeB Plug & Play Self-Commissioning
• OSS Standard Itf-N
• LTE Parameter Optimization
• Automatic Inventory

The workshop conclusions acknowledged that:

• Standards specified by SA5 over the last ten years provide a widely deployed, fully re-usable and expandable solution for management of Next Generation Networks,
• NGMN Top Ten Requirements are mostly satisfied already by 3GPP SA5 specifications, the missing functionalities will be addressed in 3GPP Release 10 (due December 2010),
• The ongoing 3GPP-TMF alignment program provides an excellent opportunity to address network management of Wireless-Wireline convergence based on the 3GPP IRP framework.

At the end of this workshop, the SA5 Chairman Christian Toche said:

"This workshop has identified important requirements and allowed TMF and 3GPP to compare their solutions that can satisfy Operators requirements, of whom many are already supported in 3GPP specifications. I am confident that, as long as the representation from each group is maintained at the right level, an alignment of the 3GPP and TM Forum specifications will result from this cooperation, satisfying the requirements for use in convergent network operational environment."

Christian Toche identified that the next step includes the need for the two ongoing Network Management harmonization projects with the TM Forum - On FM and resource modelling - to be completed.

Further progress on the alignment of 3GPP and TMF specifications will be made at the follow-up workshop on May 6-7, 2010 in Montreal

3GPP documents from Bonn workshop are available at: http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/workshop/20...