Mobil Europe 1.3

WHO GOT TOO ARROGANT FOR OPERATOR TASTES?
TESTING THE FUTURE OF LTE

Exclusive Mobile Europe Insight Report probes the LTE test landscape, ahead of impending launches
MOBILE
EUROPE
ALSO INSIDE:
MOBILE TV AGAIN?
EUROPES WIRELESS MAGAZINE S issue no. 210 S June/July 2010 S www.mobileeurope.co.uk
> IMB trial in UK
operators to check out sharing TDTV infrastructure for mobile broadcast
GET PERSONAL
> Openwave CEO
says operators need to avoid drowning in subscriber data to provide contextualised services
MOBILE VOIP
> Partnerships will grow

MVoIP opportunity for mobile operators, say Truphone, Skype and Juniper Research
P10
Piecing together
P26
THE APP STORE

puzzle for operators
P28
Contents
June/July 2010
MTS Garrett Johnston
INSIGHT REPORT
INTRO: MEETING THE LTE TESTING CHALLENGE
Keith Dyer explains why Mobile Europe chose the topic of LTE testing for its second Insight Report, and introduces report author, Infonetics Stephane Te.
13
INTERFACE, TIMING, AND INTEROPERABILITY

The speed of the development in LTE is causing its own problems, from relying on fewer interfaces to to monitoring and troubleshooting pre-standard network elements.
14
LTES IP FLAT ARCHITECTURE

What impact on network monitoring and test has the simplification of the network design had? Which interfaces have been eliminated, and what new tools are required?
18 20 21 22
PUTTING THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE

Nokia and Yahoo! strike a deal thats good for operators
Things were very different in 3G. But LTE is seeing live launches while three key programmes that affect testing are still under way.
NTT HAS JUST BEGUN PRE LAUNCH TESTING
REGULARS
EDITORIAL
What does NTT DoCoMos approach tell us about the testing challenges likely to dace other operators as they migrate to LTE networks?
04 06
Keith Dyer says that the mantra of test and test again is being challenged by commercial pressures.
INTEROPERABILITY EMERGES AS THE CHIEF ISSUE

Why interoperability, and then interworking, are likely to be the critical issues for operators to address, and how they can ensure that capability.
NEWS
TDTV rides again in cross-operator UK trial; Cloud services stall on poor sync technology; Services portfolio crucial to LTE success, says Al-Lu; The operator opportunity for mobile VoIP; LTE requires small cells, says NEC; Openwave CEO says operators face personalisation challenge; Orange sees revenue benefits from customer care programme; Nokia and Yahoo! sgo swapsies....
VENDORS TEST STRATEGIES AND STRENGTHS

So what are the individual test vendors themselves doing to aid LTE development? What are their strengths and experiences to date?
25
42 10 36
DIARY
The events and conferences coming up in the weeks ahead.
FEATURES
THE OPERATOR INTERVIEW
MTSs Garrett Johnson speaks to Keith Dyer
LTE presents operators with many headaches. Not the least of which is how soon to come to market.
TO PLAY OR NOT TO PLAY IN APP STORES?

CapGeminis Jerome Buvat says that operators need to grasp the chance to build out their applications strategy now, whichever path they choose to follow.
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Mobile Europe | 3
Comment
editor: keith dyer
The importance of testing, and other issues... In the introduction to our Insight Report, I give fuller reasons for our decision to commission a report into the test and monitoring challenges facing operators rolling out LTE. When we chose the topic, we thought it identified a possible squeeze point for operators in how they can control costs. Its not so much the technical intricacies that thrill, more that this is the sort of area where costs can get out of control and undermine the operator business case. The C-Suite (apologies for using that term) need to be aware of the issues, and budget accordingly now to avoid the problems they encountered with 3G. So it was interesting for me to attend LTE World Summit in Amsterdam in May, and to hear one of the very first speakers get up and urge his fellow operators to get on and launch LTE without testing. That displays, of course, a high level of trust in your supplier, in this case Ericsson. But it also shows the commercial pressures in a mature market to grab an advantage while it exists. And that way lies a danger, that you go too hard too early, and end up dealing with interworking, and proper optimisation, at a later date. As our report explains, theres a balance to be struck. Its perhaps OK if youre TeliaSonera, which can push out city by city, in a controlled environment in a single vendor network. Its a different matter if you are Orange, or T-Mobile.
MOBILE
EUROPE
Editor: Keith Dyer keith.dyer@stjohnpatrick.com Direct tel: +44 (0) 203 007 0020 Web editor: Robert Riggs robert.riggs@stjohnpatrick.com Production Manager: Tania King Commercial Director: Justyn Gidley justyn.gidley@stjohnpatrick.com Direct tel: +44 (0) 20 7933 8979 Publishing director: Chris Cooke ISSN: 1350 7362 Free Subscriptions Mobile Europe is a controlled circulation monthly magazine available free to selected personnel at the publishers discretion. If you wish to apply for regular free copies then please write to: Database Services St John Patrick Publishing Ltd PO Box 6009, Thatcham, Berkshire, RG19 4TT. Tel: +44 (0) 1635 879361 Email: mobileeurope@circdata.com or register free online at: www.mobileeurope.co.uk Paid Subscriptions Readers who fall outside the strict terms of control may purchase an annual subscription . UK 1 Year - 96. International 1 Year - 120. Subscription enquiries should be sent to: Saint John Patrick Publishers PO Box 6009, Thatcham, Berkshire RG19 4TT United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1635 879361 Fax: +44 (0) 1635 868594 Email: mobileeurope@circdata.com Web: wwwmobileeurope.co.uk
We've reported before that the EC has recommended that the roaming premium be eliminated by 2015. Well, if the industry thought it might be able to shut its eyes and hope the monster goes away, the monster has given notice that it is not intending to quit any time soon. The Commission has reiterated its stated intention of cancelling out the roaming premium within the EU by 2015. What will be interesting is how the Commission reacts when the operators react to make up for lost roaming revenues in other areas. How about another strategically important area - broadband? Perhaps operators will reason that if they cannot extract a premium for providing services to people travelling across borders, they make it up by charging more for premium broadband services, or by throttling other users. How will the EC feel about net neutrality, digital enfranchisement and the digital dividend, if that happens? Food for thought for the Commission which needs to be careful now that it doesn't limit the ability of operators to innovate in other areas, by squeezing their profitability. If you doubt that last sentence, or think it forms special pleading, then go and look up how much of an operator's current profits are accounted for by roaming. (Hint - it's a lot) Then ask yourself how, if you were an institutional investor, youd view an operator as investment vehicle, given its reduced capability to turn a profit.
Dont squeeze the operators too hard - or you risk threatening the very investment you require for your own economic vitality
Printed by William Gibbons & Sons Ltd, Willenhall, UK.
The views expressed in Mobile Europe are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher. Mobile Europe is published by Saint John Patrick Publishers Ltd, 6 Laurence Pountney Hill, London EC4R 0BL.
4 | Mobile Europe
News
News l Cloud Services
SYNC TO UNLOCK MOBILE CLOUD CONUNDRUM

Sync that actually works, and can work across the widest possible variety of handsets, could be the tool that unlocks the cloud services space for mobile operators, according to Hal Steger, vice president marketing, Funambol. Steger said that one reason operators have had little success so far with cloud services is that "technical issues with sync have been huge. They've really been big." Steger highlighted Vodafone 360 as a cloudbased service that had not met expectations, partly because the full experience had been available on only two dedicated handsets, and partly because the technical issues of syncing content proved challenging. Generally, providers of cloud services have found the sync element harder than they expected, he said. Even Apple took months to sort out its MobileMe service, and that was just targetting dedicated devices. When operators are faced with such a diversity of devices, all of which iterate content in different ways, then things get much more complex. "Operators are at a fork in the road," Steger said. "They have to decide if they are in or out [on cloud services]. If they are in, should they build it or buy it? If they are out then they risk handing over control of the customer to Google." "Google offers sync for free," he said, which challenges operators to compete for control of customers, but also to find a business case upon which to do so. Steger believes that Freemium and ad-supported models could be the answer. Another example would be to provide services that are only charged for when activated. "An operator could provide a back-up service for free, but if a user then loses their phone, then they have to pay a charge to get that data back," he said. Steger said that there were operators moving ahead with the cloud services model. Funambol is working with a "Tier 1" operator in Asia which is targeting its 50 million subscribers, most of whom do not have smart phones, with a synced content service.
Synchronise to capitalise on cloud services
an ad-supported model it went through the roof. Mobile cloud services can be ad supported too. Hint: We're about to be integrated in a whole load more device makers, following us being made the de facto sync solution for Qualcomm's chips, such as Snapdragon. Tip: Alcatel-Lucent is getting good traction with its services business, hooking the largest US cable company, and looking good to get more business. Bitch: Operators hated RIM because it got very arrogant and made a lot of money, but on the other hand they cracked open the enterprise market. Now they're in a similar quandary with the Cloud.
"SHOULD OPERATORS STAY OR GO NOW?

Steger's titbits, hints, tips, and bitches: Tit: One unnamed UK operator will shortly be launching a home internet device that uses Funambol's technology to sync internet-based content onto the appliance, which will operate as a sort of central internet hub in the home. Bit: One French operator had managed to attract just 10,000 users to its IM service after three years of marketing. When they moved to
Alcatel Lucent pins colours to end-to-end and services masts for LTE
Alcatel Lucent is gunning hard for the LTE market, emboldened by its contract wins with Verizon Wireless. The company argues that it offers a true end-to-end service for operators, from the IMS, through the EPC, to next generation backhaul, and finally the front end. It says this differentiates it from other providers in the market. The company claimed that it has been involved in 45 LTE trials to date, with 50% of those with companies that are not existing customers. It is also touting its ng connect programme, through which it is working with a set of partners to develop a set of pre-tested and pre-integrated services and applications optimised for LTE. Ken Wirth, head of Alcatel Lucent's LTE programe, said that the benefit for operators of the programme is that they will know that they have services that have been pre-certified and tested for LTE. Operators need to be able to build business models to support their 4G investment, Wirth said. Having a centre of tested apps and services, from in-car systems to healthcare will help them do that. But Tommy Ljunggren, technical lead at TeliaSonera mobile, said that he preferred to work in an open way with partners, referencing his company's work with Spotify. He also said that no one company provides best of breed across the board TeliaSonera uses Ericsson for its core equipment, but is using Nokia Siemens as well as Ericsson for its radio network. Valerie Layan, VP Wireless Soltuions and Marketing, EMEA, Alcatel Lucent, said that operators needed to be able to offer added value, through context, control and communications to "over the top" providers. This is the smart pipe model for operators, she said, and one that companies like Al-Lu can aid by enabling operators to offer such capabilities to over the top providers.
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Mobile Europe | 5
News
News l Mobile VoIP
MOBILE VOIP - THE OPERATOR OPPORTUNITY

Stats released from Juniper Research claim that there could be 100 million mobile VoIP users by 2012, with mobile voice over WiFi usage perhaps draining $5 billion from operator voice revenues by 2015. Juniper's report author Anthony Cox said that several more traditional operators will have partnered with VoIP providers by 2012, leading to a significant uptake of mobile VoIP services. But what lies behind such partnerships? Are operators beginning to see the value of mobile VoIP, or are they being forced to the table by being routed over WiFi but what is the upside of operator partnerships with VoIP providers, such as 3's with Skype? Are there indications that operators see an upside, either in data tariffs, or customer retention, to mobile VoIP? A: First off, it could be a lot more than $5 billion, incidentally. 3UK's partnership with Skype was initially designed to attract customers. Counter intuitively, 3 says that it has actually increased margins, by increasing voice revenue and bringing down churn. Three claims the following: T Skype users churn less (14 percent) than nonusers T Mobile Skype users generate nearly 60 percent more voice revenue than non skype users T Skype users have a "margin uplift" of more than 20% T Skype users are more likely to subscribe to a data add-on than non Skype users Q: And if operators do look to partner, what would be their strategy in doing so. Would operators look to tier VoIP QoS? A: Good question, probably not yet. It's worth noting that voice over 3G networks is technically quite difficult. Latency and variable signal quality is the problem. So how do things look from the VoIP service provider side of the fence? Russ Shaw, GM of Mobile, EMEA for Skype said that operators are changing the way they think of VoIP. We are seeing evidence that many mobile operators around the globe have started to rethink their strategies towards innovative applications on their networks, including mobile VOIP. We already have solid partnerships with Hutchison 3 in the UK and Verizon Wireless in the US who are offering Skype to their customers. Shaw's numbers from 3 roughly mirrored Cox's figures. He said that figures from Hutchison 3 are showing that continuous Skype users among the customers of Hutchison 3 churn less and consume 17% more non-Skype voice minutes (3 Customer Survey, Aug. 2009). We strongly believe that there is no alternative for mobile operators on the road to customer loyalty than embracing innovation and forging alliances with mobile innovators like Skype, he added. Karl Good, Director of Applications at Truphone, said that good quality VoIP solutions allied to increased network demands were driving opertaors' interest in VoIP solution. VoIP has continued to mature and today there are many good quality mobile solutions can offer an as good as or in some instances better than experience than a traditional circuit switched cal, Good said. There are also practical reasons to look at VoIP as a complimentary solution to offer voice to operator customers - such as offering connectivity over IP networks where operators perhaps cannot effectively or affordably offer cell coverage in rural areas. Operators naturally are looking at ways of reducing traffic and traffic transit cost, VoIP again naturally fits here as a complimentary channel that can be used to backhaul traditional circuit switched voice traffic over an IP backbone, where operational costs are significantly lower than that of traditional cell network infrastructure.
I NEC has launched ePASOLINK, a wireless transmission system said to provide ultra-high link throughputs of up to 2.5 Gbps in the E-band spectrum range of 70/80 GHz. ePASOLINK is claimed to enable mobile network operators to build a cost-effective, IPbased mobile backhaul network that meets the high-capacity data demands of mobile broadband technologies such as HSPA, WiMAX and LTE. I Anritsu has introduced hardware and software for its MT8820C that extends the capability of the tester to support measurement of parametric data during an LTE test mode call. Capable of conducting TS36.521-1-compliant transmit and receive tests, the enhanced MT8820C can now serve as an eNode B signaling simulator, adding to current capability for non-signaling test.
3'S SKYPE USERS GENERATE MORE NON-VOIP MINUTES, AND CHURN LESS
the increasing "over the top" uptake of Skye and other VoIP services? Here are some Q&As Mobile Europe had with Juniper's Anthony Cox. After that, we've got the views of Skype's Russ Shaw, and Karl Good of Truphone as well. Q (Keith Dyer): What I'm interested in is whether you think mobile VoIP represents an overall opportunity for operators, or will inevitably threaten revenues? A (Anthony Cox): In the very long term, mobile operators will be using mobile VoIP to carry their traffic themselves, but that is a long way off. In the mean time, they have the possibility to form partnerships (Skype says it is working on several in addition to the two it has already). These partnerships would typically be a hybrid between voice over IP and circuit switched. Mobile VoIP, via a downloaded application for example, is threat to traditional operators, but the extent to which it will undermine them in the medium term has probably been overstated. The pressure on voice margins through intense competition as mobile subscriber rates reach 100% is more of a problem. Q: You mention a $5 billion drop due to traffic
6 | Mobile Europe
News
News l TV and Spectrum
OPERATORS GO BACK TO TV FUTURE - FOUR YEARS ON

Two years after T-Mobile and Orange ran a trial of IPWireless' TDTV technology, and three and a half years after four operators first tried out the technology, three operators have returned to the theme. This time the multi-operator pilot, which will run for three months commencing in October 2010 in central London and Slough, will assess how mobile broadcast services can be deployed using shared network infrastructure. Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB) is a 3GPP technology recently endorsed by the GSM Association. As well as offering broadcast services to customers, it can link with traditional unicast or on-demand services delivered over 3G. way before, there is a feeling that the 3GPP standardisation and GSMA endorsement, along with market demands, might mean that this time the trial will go somewhere. "With the strong growth of data traffic on our 3G networks and the mobile industry's recent support of this high performance broadcast technology, the time is right to move forward with an IMB initiative," said Luke Ibbetson, Head of Technology R&D at Vodafone Group. "By joining our peers in this UK Pilot, we expect to be able to explore the potential of delivering broadcast services across available 3G spectrum." Thierry Bonhomme, EVP in charge of Networks, Carriers and R&D at Orange, said, "Network capability is key for mobile TV rollout and IMB will enable more operators to maximize the benefits they get from 3G investments." "We believe the road is clear for IMB now that it has been endorsed by the GSMA and supported by the wider mobile ecosystem," said Gavin Franks, Head of New Business Development at O2. "Based on the results of the pilot, we anticipate being able to offer our consumers through our networks a range of innovative new broadcast services such as mobile TV and intelligent broadcasting that will lead to an enhanced user experience." IPWireless and Ericsson are the technology providers for the UK pilot.
South Eastern countries combine for harmonised digi divi spectrum

13 Southern and Eastern European countries have formed a working group to increase co-operation between nations in order to try and gain harmonized allocation of digital dividend spectrum across the region. Regulatory and government representatives from the countries have agreed to form a group that will work to synchronise the development of digital dividend licensing in the region. The governments met in Serbia in June to share information and discuss issues surrounding the digital dividend. A statement produced by the Serbian government, on behalf of the attendees, said that the full benefits of broadband could only be achieved if cooperation was achieved between countries, as well as at a bilateral level. Roberto Ercole, Director of Spectrum Regulation at the GSMA, said that there are some issues specific to the region that merited forming a combined approach. Although, as in most of Europe, analogue TV dominates the band currently, there are also some countries where aeronautical radar systems operate in the band. The area also tends to have much lower broadband penetration than in Western Europe, meaning that the benefits of proving widespread mobile broadband coverage at the lower digital dividend frequencies will be particularly strong. The countries that met in Belgrade were: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.
"WE BELIEVE THE ROAD IS CLEAR FOR IMB NOW

The mobile operators are trailing the IMB wireless technology within unused Time Division Duplex (TDD) spectrum that they already own. The pilot is intended to demonstrate the capabilities of IMB in delivering both live streaming video and offloading traffic from existing 3G networks by broadcasting and storing popular content on mobile devices. Although the industry has been round this
FloTV is just one competitor to TDTV
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Mobile Europe | 7
News
Orange mobile chief reveals income from care service l News
REVENUE OPPORTUNITY FOR OPERATORS IN CUSTOMER CARE

Orange is making 200 million revenue annually from the three million customers it has for its Orange Care service, Olaf Swantee, Senior VP, France Telecom, said. The service provides a combined "lifecycle" customer care service across user support issues, contacts and data transfer and back up, as well as insurance. Swantee said that the success of the Care approach shows that operators can turn what has previously been a cost base, customer care, into a revenue centre. "We have 90,000 people working in our call centre and retail distribution outlets and most of these people are quite reactive today. But they could bring a huge difference to the new market," Swantee said. With 75% of the user base still to access the mobile internet, Swantee said there is a big demand for customer care services to help users along they way. Even 15-20% of people that buy and iPhone request a customer care starter pack, he said, adding that this is for a device that is recognised as being user friendly. The issue for operators in smartphone customer care has been that support calls tend to last longer, and require more technical solutions -costing the oeprator. But Swantee said that using the retail channel, as well as remote access solutions, could turn this into a "big revenue stream." He also said that the device manufacturers were happy to see Orange take the lead in customer care, and Nokia had in fact worked with Orange to set up its care service.
I The Femto Forum will hold a second plugfest. To be held towards the end of 2010, this second plugfest will focus on the Broadband Forum's femtocell management standard, building on the work of the Forum's first plugfest on the Iuh interface. TRaC Telecoms & Radio has confirmed it will once again be facilitating the interoperability testing event and ongoing interoperability program. I Elisa has activated new network features from Nokia Siemens Networks that provide flexible Quality of Service (QoS). This is the first commercial deployment of Nokia Siemens Networks QoS differentiation solution built by integrating multiple network elements, including its radio network and network management system. Elisa is using the QoS differentiation to prioritise time and resource critical traffic . I Opera Software and the Russian federal mobile operator MegaFon signed an agreement under which MegaFon's special package "Unlimited Internet with Opera Mini" will be distributed to all Russian territories. It means that more than 53 million Russian mobile subscribers will have access to the mobile web without traffic
Oranges Olaf Swantee
counting.
Nokia and Yahoo! tie up on maps and messaging

Nokia and Yahoo! have announced a partnership that will be "good news for operators", according to Nokia CEO OlliPekka Kallasvuo. The two companies have said that from
Ovi Maps
about the second half of this year, Yahoo!'s mail and messaging platform will "power" Ovi Mail and Ovi Messenger. At the same time, Yahoo! will use Nokia maps and navigation technology across its portfolio. "We are two operator-friendly companies," Kallasvuo said, adding that the deal would mean operators would have a ready for market platform to offer services upon. He also said that both companies would be able to bring large developer communities to build further products upon the joint platform. Carol Bartz, Yahoo! CEO, admitted that Nokia's maps product was better realised than Yahoo!'s, and would therefore strengthen the web player's presence in that area. Bartz added that said that the partnership would have good results in emerging markets, where feature phones
still dominate. Nokia is also hoping to use the partnership to break further into the US market. "We are an unusual multi-national company in that we have limited penetration in the US," Kallasvuo said. Nokia has built its Nokia Messaging products to date on its own development plus technology assets it acquired with the purchase of OZ Communications in 2008. Nokia messaging is offered in partnership with several operators. Mobile Europe understands that all Nokia messaging services will now be branded as Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat powered by Yahoo! Nokia and Yahoo! said that they plan to work on iD federation between their services, beginning by making it possible for people to use their Ovi user iDs across select Yahoo! properties to easily access the online content and services they need.
8 | Mobile Europe
News
News l Openwave CEO
Stay small for LTE, or miss the benefits

Operators are coming round to NEC's way of thinking about LTE, according to Dr Sharam Niri, Director of Global LTE/SAE Strategy & Solutions at NEC Europe. Two to three years ago when we told operators that LTE was going to require small cells, they said no no no'. Then a year later they were saying they were surprised they hadn't seen many small cell products from other NEPs. So either we are taking the wrong approach or the others [NEPs] are missing something, Niri said.
OPTIMISE CONTEXTUALISE PERSONALISE

Operators that can't access and provide contextual information about users will be drowned by the tide of data and content traffic across their networks, according to Ken Denman, CEO of Openwave. Denman said that pushing the old buttons of adding more radios, more cell sites, and splitting carriers, will not work for operators. Instead they will need to know, and be able to provide to partners, much more contextual information about the user - to be able to provide personalized, and network-optimised, customer experiences. "We're very much on the verge of the next big thing, and the bubble is about to burst. In three to four years 60% of the devices on the network will be something other than phones, and 70% of the content will be video based in some form or other," he said. "That's a huge challenge for this industry and to answer it it has got to get hold of context. That's the user info, the social and demographic information, location, and bundle that into personalized subscriber billing plans. Rapidly we are seeing that context is now king." Openwave is positioning itself as a provider of back-end network optimisation information and policy management platforms - allowing operators to create personalised pricing plans and other offers based on a user's contextual profile. It has announced general availability of two products to address that area. The first is Openwave Smart Policy, a context-aware policy management solution designed to help operators monitor and manage network utilisation at a user, device and application. The second is its Optimisation ROI Calculator a tool help operators calculate the estimated cost savings for web and media optimisation opportunities. Policy management is a hot topic at the moment, with a coterie of dedicated players, as well as the traditional OSS and NEP providers targeting the sector. Network intelligence is also being stitched together by signaling companies such as Tekelec, as well as companies in the network management area such as Tektronix. As for video optimisation allied to advanced charging capabilities, this is something that companies such as Byte Mobile and Flash Networks also target. So how does Openwave see itself as playing in these areas? Denman said that by using data from its traffic mediation and messaging platforms, Openwave is able to present contextual information to operators in a massively scaleable way. "Essentially we sit in the data path doing mediation of the IP traffic," he said. "That puts us not just in the position of encoding and transcoding content, but we can provide analytics from multiple network inputs at a peruser and device level, as well as provide the back end integration," he said.
"MACRO LTE CELLS WON'T OFFER BIG BENEFIT

Niri said that operators are now starting to believe NEC's view that LTE will not map onto the macro 3G network, and will require a roll out of much smaller cell sizes of between 100-200 metres. "People have been underestimating the difficulty the different spectrum bands have presented. You can't change the laws of physics," he said. As evidence of this changing operator view, Niri said he "hoped" NEC would be announcing a major operator LTE trial within the next two weeks. He admitted that the operators are asking for actual performance characteristics of NEC's small cell LTE solutions. "They have seen that 2.6GHz doesn't offer them much if they follow the 2.1GHz grid for 3G, but they require more solid data on what we are saying," Niri said. "The challenge for us in this business is that we are saying something different from everybody else," Niri added. Andy Gothard, Director of Corporate Marketing, picoChip, which makes 3G femtocell chips and is developing an LTE solution, said that he hoped operators would see the benefit of building small first and then providing macro coverage. But he said that it appeared to him that operators were still planning to build "outside in". "All the trials have been macro trials," he said. Many operators in Europe are considering a combination of LTE networks in one higher spectrum band, typically 2.6GHz, and one lower spectrum band.
LBS RIDES AGAIN - BERG INSIGHT

According to a new report from telecoms research firm, Berg Insight, the market for LBS platforms and middleware in Europe will return to growth in the coming years, with demand driven by E112 and lawful intercept requirements as well as increasing adoption of A-GPS. Annual revenues in Europe for mobile location platforms, including A-GPS servers and middleware platforms, are projected to grow from about 18 million in 2009 to 35 million in 2015. "Location-based services are finally on the verge of mainstream acceptance, enabled by broader adoption of GPSenabled smartphones", said Andr Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. "Mobile operators are now gradually responding by investing in location platforms and new technologies. Especially A-GPS servers and hybrid technologies will become very important as the installed base of GPS-enabled handsets is projected to surpass 400 million devices in 2014."
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Mobile Europe | 9
The operator interview Garrett Johnston, MTS
THE TRUE SMART PIPE

Garrett Johnston, group director of strategic marketing for Russian operator MTS, talks openly about how operators need to move to a more co-ordinated way of doing business.
he world of the mobile operator has become very formal over the years. The earlier pioneering spirit, exemplified perhaps by the leather jacket wearing, volcanic-dust eating, Hans Snook, has been replaced by the earnest dark suits, controlled by the financial markets. Garrett Johnston is slightly different. While it would be pushing it too far to suggest that Johnston is some sort of maverick, his fluency in eight languages (with intermediate capacity in several more), the massive ring on his finger (seriously, its about the width of two normal knuckles) and the purple v-neck sweater (with scarf) mark him out as not stamped from an identikit corporate mould. Career wise, its pretty If you had to go to the supermarket orthodox. There is the previous job as chief and queue in one aisle for tomatoes and marketing office of Kivstar, another for cucumbers, thatd be mad. the background working his But thats what operators ask us to do to way within the communications and IT access services. industry within names such as Spectel, CapGemini, World Com, Alcatel. And that background gives his thoughts on the current state of the mobile market some weight.
is going to grow, and with it a growth in personal branding. That segment has a high sensitivity to data applications and high network dependencies. So we can take the brand values we have in the business market and move that to the mass market. Increasingly everyone is a brand. We have a huge job to support that brand promise. That also means the brand has to be customer-centric, supporting co-creation and open innovation. Its about getting the customer involved in creating services. Cocreation might involve idea contests, moderated forums. Just pushing services out to the end users doesnt differentiate you, and is not viable going forward. That model might work when you have 10 or 50 services. But not when you are talking about 200,000 applications and 100 million customers. If you look at O2 Litmus, thats a co-creation platform that is quite advanced.
ON THE SMART PIPE:

We could be a lot more than just be a pipe with open APIs. We could say to a brand we have this profile, in this location, with this kind of car - anonymise that data and do a lot more with it. There should be money in providing the DHL service for bits providing the logistics, the QoS, the transaction support. Thats a true smart pipe.
ON THE POTENTIAL FOR MOBILE:

98% of the customer wallet is untapped by mobile. The most important customer experience currently is based on how you pay your bill. Thats throwback thinking think about what that does to the user experience. We should be building a platform that we offer to host applications, and market applications, to the right customer at that right time. We have 100 million customer profiles. If you can publish APIs that can show those profiles to the right applications, thats the most valuable service you can provide. If you had to go to the supermarket and queue in one aisle for tomatoes and another for cucumbers, thatd be mad. But thats what operators ask us to do to access services. On the move to co-creation and open innovation: At MTS it was about growth and customer acquisition, about who can get there the fastest. Now that has shifted from acquisition to demand stimulation and customer retention. Services come to the fore. Service becomes the key thing. Our DNA, where people think of us being strong, is in the business segment. That could be seen as limiting, but in Russia the SME market only accounts for about 28% of GDP, compared to 80% in the EU. So that market
MTS FACT FILE:

Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS) claimed 91.33 million subscribers as of December 31, 2008, and provides services in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus. In the first quarter or 2010 it turned over, as a group, $2.48 billion, up 23% on the year before, slightly down on the final quarter of 2009. The Group had 102.3 million subscribers as at the end of March 2010. 69.3 million of those are in Russia giving the operator a 33% market share. ARPU in Russia sits at about the 240-250 Rouble range (7.5-10$), with value added services growing as a share of overall ARPU to 22.7% in Q1 2010.
ABOUT GARRETT JOHNSTON Garrett Johnson is group director of strategic marketing for Russian operator MTS
10 | Mobile Europe
MOBILE EUROPE
INSIGHT REPORT
LTE: test strategies and methodologies
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INSIGHT REPORT
MEETING THE LTE TESTING CHALLENGE

hen we were deciding what should be the subject of our second Insight Reports, we knew that we should take on LTE in some way, as it is clearly the hottest topic in terms of mobile infrastructure at the moment. The issue was - what aspect to address? But one thing stood out - and it related directly to the business case for LTE. As operators see their data revenues rise, but nowhere in line with data usage, the need to achieve a much lower cost per bit to enable them to operator economically. LTE, which offers a promised cost reduction of up to 80% over some 3G architectures, is clearly an attractive proposition. Its offer of increased capacity with lower capex is attractive. But what if other costs impinged on that promised benefit to the bottom line? Although the all-IP architecture promises simplicity on paper, and in many respects in real life, it also hides a lot if complexity behind the IP cloud. What LTE, which offers a if the operators cannot promised cost reduction of up to achieve the visibility they need into the services they 80% over some 3G will offer. What if the architectures, is clearly an operational cost of attractive proposition. Its offer of monitoring all-new interfaces and network elements eats increased capacity with lower further into the lower cost per capex is attractive. bit benefit? So we asked But what if other costs impinged respected analyst Stephane Teral to take a tour round the on that promised benefit to the challenges facing operators, bottom line? and report back on what solutions they are being offered. We also speak to some leading players in the test community soliciting their opinions and views. They make for illuminating and, often, reassuring reading. Keith Dyer, Editor, Mobile Europe About the author of this report - Stphane Tral: Stphane Tral is Principal Analyst, Mobile and FMC Infrastructure, Infonetics Research. With more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Stphane is regarded as one of the top analysts in his field, having been the trusted advisor at some of the worlds largest telecom providers and manufacturers. Stphane joined Infonetics Research in January 2006, after eight years with analyst firm RHK, where he developed their European optical coverage and helped carriers migrate from PSTN to next gen networks. Prior to RHK, Stphane was an engineer and project manager with Alcatel. Stphane now specializes in IMS, mobile infrastructure, and voice over IP and circuit-to-packet migration products, services, and adoption trends of service providers.
Mobile Europe Insight Report | 13
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INSIGHT REPORT
INTERFACE, TIMING, AND INTEROPERABILITY ARE KEY LTE TESTING ISSUES

s mass use of 3G networks materialises, and mobile operators are learning more about usage, LTE, which was supposed to be on the horizon, is already a reality. That this new technology is evolving at a fast pace is creating its own issues ranging from relying on fewer yet unproven interfaces to monitoring, debugging and troubleshooting pre-standard network elements that are forming heterogeneous network islands. Although LTE is a simplification of the overall 3G architecture, in current radio access network (e.g. UTRAN), it eliminates two key interfaces that have traditionally been used to capture important data, and that complicates the monitoring of the newly designed radio access network (E-UTRAN). The timing issue is induced by the pace at which a flurry of mobile operators of various sizes in various regions and countries are rolling out LTE while 3GPP Rel. 8 test development, LSTI trials, and GCF test validation are still undergoing, with targets to complete sometime this summer. And as we are in the early days of LTE with shiny new standards, every equipment vendor implements its own interpretation of these standards to deliver the LTE equipment needed in initial rollouts. Consequently, the industry is creating LTE network islands that are not necessarily interoperable and since these islands will eventually have to be backward compatible with W-CDMA, EDGE, and GSM, interworking is likely to emerge as an issue as well. This paper analyses LTE interface, timing and interoperability testing interrelated issues and explores what testing vendors are doing to address those issues. They all are closely involved in the early LTE deployments worldwide, working on performance optimisation under various conditions, and collecting as much field data as they can to analyse the data later in the lab. The other steps they are going through include looking for real time feedback, developing more sophisticated models, performing multi-UE simulation, conducting LTE service validation, maximizing drive test through virtual drive testing, using passive air probes, and monitoring critical parts of eNodeBs and EPC end to end.
As 3G mobile broadband grows, the pace of the move to LTE is creating problems
LTE IS 3GPPS NATURAL LONG TERM EVOLUTION MIGRATION PATH

LTE is the natural migration path from 3GPP technologies (e.g. GSM, EDGE, WCDMA, HSPA), accounting for more than 75% of cellular subscribers worldwide. However, more and more 3GPP2 service providers (those using the CDMA family such as Verizon Wireless) are also migrating to LTE so that the two worlds can be bridged together through a flat IP architecture. In fact, the 3GPP has been working on the evolution of the UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) since
14 | Mobile Europe Insight Report
November 2004. Starting with a work shop that was open to all interested organisations, members and non members of 3GPP, operators, manufacturers and research institutes, the chief goal is to develop a framework and an architecture that meet the following key requirements: T Reduced cost per bit T Increased service provisioning allowing more services at lower cost with better user experience T Flexibility of use of existing and new
frequency bands T Simplified architecture, open interfaces T Reasonable terminal power consumption After a long process of studies and developments of specifications and requirements that was completed in September 2006, the Evolved UTRAN (EUTRAN) overall architecture was defined and is described in 3GPP Technical Specifications 36.300 and 36.401, from which the Work Item for 3G LTE was created.
INSIGHT REPORT
Figure1: 3GPP Architecture and Elimination of Interfaces
LTES IP FLAT ARCHITECTURE ELIMINATES TWO MONITORING INTERFACES

The simplification of the 3G radio access network (UTRAN) that is achieved by collapsing the NodeB and the RNC into an eNodeB results in the elimination of key measurement reports at the interface Iub between the RNC and the eNodeB, and at the interface Iur between RNCs (see Figure 1). These interfaces have traditionally been used to capture important Uu RF data such as how much bandwidth is consumed per connection, and how retransmissions are being handled. With the implementation of the EUTRAN, the two interfaces become just one, X2, located between eNodeBs, prompting testing vendors to innovate and find alternatives to address visibility
Source: JDSU
Migration to IP leads to the disappearance of protected 6kByte channels. Instead, services with very different real time behaviour will be transported over the same transport infrastructure requiring the deployment of QoS tools.
to the Uu interface. One is to access the air interface but this method requires complicated and expensive spectrum analysis tools, which does not bode well with the operational efficiencies LTE is
supposed to bring. Coming to the rescue, network equipment manufacturers are providing standard trace or logging ports to provide access to the hidden processes inside the eNodeB. Another challenge is the sudden astronomical amount of data that needs to be monitored: a single user equipment (UE) will support up to 100 Mb/s. And finally, the migration from circuit-switched to IP leads to the disappearance of protected 64kByte channels. Instead, services with very different real time behaviour will be transported over the same transport infrastructure requiring the deployment of effective QoS tools.
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INSIGHT REPORT
BUT LTE IS ALREADY DEPLOYED AND MOVING AT A FAST PACE

Migration to LTE has already started and is morphing into a shorter term type of evolution, which is escalating the monitoring challenges. The TeliaSonera milestone launch in December 2009, ahead of other carriers such as Verizon Wireless and NTT DoCoMo, precedes a much larger wave of commercial LTE launches by the end of this year: On June 7, 2010, the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) published an update to its Evolution to LTE report which confirms 110 operators in 48 countries are currently investing in LTE networks. So far, 80 operators have made firm commitments to deploy LTE networks in 33 countries (compared to 64 network commitments identified two months ago). LTE networks are now being installed or planned for commercial service in Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, The Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, UAE, USA, and Uzbekistan GSA anticipates that up to 22 LTE networks will be in service by end 2010, and at least 45 are expected to be in service by end 2012. The second wave will start in 2011 and will really ramp up in 2012 when a flurry of mobile operators will join the bandwagon.
PUTTING THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE

With 3G, things were very different: all standards and testing procedures were clearly defined and available before network deployments started. In addition, a 3G license stipulated a date at which 3G coverage requirement had to be met. With LTE, none of this applies, despite the 3GPPs efforts to keep the momentum and stay ahead of the curve with its evolutionary set of technologies by speeding the process of Rel. 8 specification development that gave birth to the first version of LTE. Figure 2 clearly illustrates the situation. One LTE network, although a small footprint, went commercial in December 2009, and 22 are expected to go live by the end of this year, while at the same time three major testing initiatives are still under way: T Rel. 8 test development: this includes the work of 3GPP in drafting the specifications. A parallel 3GPP project called System Architecture Evolution (SAE) is defining a new all-IP, packetonly core network (CN) known as the evolved packet core (EPC). The combination of the EPC and the evolved RAN (E-UTRA plus E-UTRAN) is the evolved packet system (EPS). T LSTI trials: the LTE/SAE Trial Initiative (LSTI) is an industry forum and complementary group working in parallel with 3GPP and GCF with the intent of accelerating the acceptance and deployment of LTE as the logical choice of the industry for next generation networks. The work of LSTI
One LTE network, although a small footprint, went commercial went commercial in December 2009, and 22 are expected to go live by the end of this year, while at the same time three major testing iniatives are still under way
is split into four phases. The first phase is proof of concept of the basic principles of LTE and SAE, using early prototypes not necessarily compliant with the specifications. The second phase is interoperability development testing (IODT), which is a more detailed phase of testing using standards-compliant equipment but not necessarily commercial platforms. The third stage is interoperability testing (IOT), which is similar in scope to IODT but uses platforms that are intended for commercial deployment. The last phase is customer trials. T GCF test validation: the Global Certification Forum (GCF) is working on the first user equipment (UE) certification against 3GPP conformance test. The certification testing process for user equipment does not exist yet and it remains to be seen what may
Figure 2: LTE test validation timing (Source:Agilent, GSA, Infonetics Research, Spirent)
INSIGHT REPORT
unfold on that front. Will GCF deliver on time so that the LTE front runners and the testing vendors get equipped on time? During 3G deployments, an 18- to 24month trial was scheduled to test
everything thoroughly. With LTE, networks have to be up and running within twelve months. As typical in such a situation of not having the set of validation tools available, large mobile operators such as
Verizon Wireless and NTT DoCoMo have already adopted a do-it-yourself approach: they are running their own performance certification program to which the testing vendors have to adapt.
CASE IN POINT: NTT DOCOMO HAS JUST BEGUN THE PRE LAUNCH TESTING
NTT DoCoMo has been the most vocal about its LTE planning and deployment process, the same way BT publicised its 21CN journey. On June 8, 2010, the Japanese giant said it will begin verifying its shiny LTE network in the Tokyo area, prior to the full-scale launch of commercial service in December. The chief goal is of course to verify that specification requirements such as throughput, latency, stability of inter-cell handover and other conditions required for commercial operation are met. The company expects to confirm 5 MHzbandwidth throughput for 37.5 Mbps downlinks and 12.5 Mbps uplinks, and later 10 MHz-bandwidth throughput for maximum 75 Mbps downlinks and 25 Mbps uplinks in selected test areas The pre launched 2 GHz network system consists of dual W-CDMA/LTE base stations, LTE core network equipment, and LTE-enabled mobile devices. The concept of dual WCDMA/LTE base station deserves particular attention. After one year of intense research on interworking between legacy W-CDMA and new LTE network, DoCoMo found that installing LTE base-station components, known as remote radio heads, on existing WCDMA 3G base stations was the optimal solution to leverage the existing assets and reduce the need for brand new eNodeBs. Consequently, existing WCDMA NodeBs that are equipped with dual W-CDMA/LTE remote radio heads can be easily upgraded for LTE service. The LTE devices to be used in the prelaunch operation are equipped for theoretical speeds of 100 Mbps
With early adopters rolling out their LTE networks while key certification and validation initiatives are still under way, the reality of testing is turning out differently.
downlinks and 50 Mbps uplinks. Compatibility with W-CDMA will enable seamless handover as the devices move between LTE and W-CDMA service areas in the network. And at last, the devices also are compatible with the GSM protocol. Putting aside the testing challenges inherent to the LTE IP flat architecture, three challenges arise from the above NTT DoCoMo plan: T Interoperability: As mentioned earlier, one of the goals of LTE is the implementation of a simplified IP architecture that has fewer, but open,
interfaces. However, with early adopters rolling out their LTE networks while key certification and validation initiatives are still under way, the reality of testing is turning out differently: open interfaces are not that open and interconnecting equipment from different vendors lead to interoperability issues as a result of vendors implementing their own spin of the standard. T Interworking: Testing the LTE network in the LTE IP domain is one thing but testing the interworking between LTE and W-CDMA, also referred as to backward compatibility, also needs to be taken into account. T Devices: They badly need to come quickly. With 2G and 3G, testing used to be conducted with banks of devices available. This will not happen anytime soon with LTE because again, interworking kicks in. For simple roaming purposes, LTE devices need to support GSM/EDGE on four bands, WCDMA/HSPA on three bands, and LTE on some bands.
Above: LTE devices need to come to market quickly
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INSIGHT REPORT
IN THIS TIMEFRAME, INTEROPERABILITY EMERGES AS THE CHIEF ISSUE
Figure3: The EUTRANS X2 and S1 interfaces
Interoperability emerges as the most important issue because when something goes really wrong, it can have a ripple effect down to the chipset vendor, thereby affecting the whole ecosystem. Figure 3 illustrates the EUTRAN architecture with the two interfaces, X2 and S1. Since it is assumed that there always exist an X2 interface between the eNodeBs that need to communicate with each other, it is crucial to validate the interoperability between eNodeBs from different vendors, and then the interoperability between one vendors eNodeB connected to an EPC from another vendor needs to be validated through the S1 interface. Given that NTT DoCoMo is launching its pre launch testing and a total of 22 mobile operators are expected to have launched a commercial LTE network by year end at the same as LSTI is conducting interoperability testing (as shown in Figure 2), the prospect for interoperability issues does not come as a surprise. Interworking is likely to come next because in the early deployment stages, LTE coverage is going to be spotty and devices will need to seamlessly fall back on whatever network is available in the area. This can also impair the users experience with a sudden speed slowdown and latency jump.
SO, WHAT ARE TESTING VENDORS DOING ABOUT THIS? Well, the are working as hard as they can to match vendor and operator requirements because, after all, all this means opportunity. They are all closely involved in the early deployments, working on performance optimisation under various conditions, and collecting as much field data as they can to analyse
usually occurs prior to the completion of the deployment of the network, is done, then comes the field testing phase that starts when the network reaches prelaunch status as illustrated by the NTT DoCoMo case. During this phase, testing vendors are deploying their tools to monitor and analyse whatever data is coming from the available interfaces. The steps they are going through can be summarised as follows: T Collecting field data while learning from legacy technologies. T Looking for real time feedback T Developing more sophisticated models T Performing multi-UE simulation T Conducting LTE service validation T Maximising drive test through virtual drive testing T Using passive air probes but in the Lab only T Monitoring critical parts of eNodeBs and EPC end to end COLLECTING FIELD DATA WHILE LEARNING FROM LEGACY TECHNOLOGIES All testing vendors such as Agilent (now part of JDSU), Ixia, Rohde & Schwartz, Spirent, Tektronix have been accumulating mountains of mobile data since the very first deployment of 2G in the nineties, and know that collecting field data is the best and only way to understand the end to end behavior of a network. LTE will be no exception and as soon as network islands are up and running, they collect field data that they later analyze in their Lab. For instance, Tektronix is leveraging its long time experience with legacy technologies. LOOKING FOR REAL TIME FEEDBACK In this rapidly changing environment, testing vendors are looking to provide real-time feedback of all the relevant network and call performance information required to quickly evaluate test case
Since it is assumed that there always exist an X2 interface between the eNodeBs that need to communicate with each other, it is crucial to validate the interoperability between eNodeBs from different vendors.
the data later in the lab. After all, being part of the mobile operator cost equation is the last place they want to be. From their respective experience and understanding of key test cases, testing vendors assist mobile operators in defining their test strategies and plans. They typically do this via technical workshops that cover the technologyits state of the art and readiness, test methodology and identification of key test cases. Once the workshop stage, which
INSIGHT REPORT
In an LTE world, the common wisdom is that thousands of users will be simultaneously using bandwidth hungry applications. As a result, the need to build sophisticated and yet repeatable LTE user models has emerged
The LTE environment will require more sophisticated test models
results. In the case of JDSU, this drives its solution focus for the measurement and analysis functionality required to follow and understand network and service performance from end to end in real-time. In addition, JDSU looks at providing linerate pre-processing capabilities to enable more effective usage models capable of coping with increasing data rates and traffic volumes. DEVELOPING MORE SOPHISTICATED MODELS In an LTE world, the common wisdom is that thousands of users will be simultaneously using bandwidth hungry applications. As a result, the need to build sophisticated and yet repeatable LTE user models has emerged. For instance, Ixia has made subscriber modeling at the core of its strategy. The company started by asking the question: what will an LTE user experience look like? In order to answer that question, Ixia is conducting end to end LTE testing from access to core but from a service validation perspective. In doing so, they have built models to simulate various situations in which thousands of users load an eNodeB and look at how one of these users can affect the others by launching critical applications. Multiple scenarios are developed and made repeatable so that subscriber profiling can be achieved, and a database is built to emulate what the tested LTE network might look like when it becomes commercial. MULTI-UE SIMULATION Multi-UE simulation involves test ports emulating UEs connected to eNodeBs over the air interface Ixia can also simulate the MME and EPC to fully surround the eNodeB and allow vendors to test the functionality of eNodeBs layer by layer including the PHY layer and protocol layers because eNodeBs are currently very raw and equipment vendors are very
focused on functional testing; in fact, they all are at different stages in this process. Once vendors have proven basic functionality of the eNodeB, they very quickly turn to maximising throughput by sector/cell, and then maximising the number of subscribers that can be supported. They are very keen to show basic functionality and scalability to carriers and testing vendor Ixia help them do that. Historically, testing was conducted through a so-called bank of
TESTING VENDORS SAMPLELE
mobiles to demonstrate the scalability of the base stations. Ixia has developed the worlds first high scale multi-UE test product, which is expected to drastically change how base station testing is done moving forward. LTE SERVICE VALIDATION Although no one really knows what an LTE service might be, service validation is the process of assuring the LTE user experience with real-world subscriber
KEY TESTING FOCUS AREAS
Ixia JDSU
Spirent Tektronix
Modeling, multi-UE simulation, LTE service validation Real-time feedback, drive test maximization
Virtual drive testing Leveraging experience from legacy technology, end to end view of critical parts of eNodeBs and EPC
LTE Testing Vendor Comparison
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INSIGHT REPORT
modelingincluding handoversat high load using quality of experience (QoE) measurements. Ixia has the ability to perform service validation in the EUTRAN, EPC, or end-to-end. As IP has been around for a while, the EPC is further ahead of eNodeB development and consequently, service validation is being adopted here first. One of the fundamental things LTE brings is the ability for carriers to better manage the traffic on their networks, and the ability to differentiate subscriber and service types controlling the QoE of the different group types. This will allow operators to better manage and monetize their finite cellular network resources. The 3GPP has defined a comprehensive Policy and Charging Control (PCC) framework to support differentiated services, which Ixia views as being at the heart of LTE. Carriers must smartly manage the traffic on their networks because capacity gains will never be able to keep up with the growth of mobile data. LTE service validation provides vendors and carriers the ability to test and verify the policy and charging control framework and to measure the QoE by subscriber and service type. EPC testing is ongoing and well underway, and the attention will soon turn to the EUTRAN because the eNodeB plays a critical role in the PCC through scheduling UE usage of spectrum resources and rate policing traffic on both uplink and downlink. MAXIMISING DRIVE TESTING THROUGH VIRTUAL DRIVE TESTING Drive testing becomes ever more essential for operators deploying and later optimizing LTE. Drive test systems generally provide a UE centric view that
provides an understanding of a typical end user experience of the network. However, it can only provide few discrete samples in location and time. Drive testing can be time consuming and costly but are necessary. In the 2G world, drive testing was easy but when 3G appears, the picture changes all the time as network resources are allocated dynamically and UMTS RF was causing its specific set of issues rendering the procedure ineffective. With LTE, ideally, there should be other data sources able to provide targeted information to maximise the effectiveness of drive testing. In order to maximise drive testing and circumvent some of the aforementioned issues, JDSU performs drive test with HCP testing and a combination of RF probes for site clearing and streaming to obtain a realistic picture of whats going on over the air. In addition, JDSU introduces features in the probe to simulate usage as well as significantly increase the capacity
testing statistical accuracy. For example, most tests specify minimum test times under faded conditions. Without a realtime engine, the generated fading model may not meet the intent of the test and results can be compromised. USING PASSIVE AIR PROBES BUT IN THE LAB ONLY Although passive air probes from vendors like Sanjole, Abit & Accuver offer varying degrees of capabilities, they in general allow for a UE/device independent view of what is happening on the air interface, which becomes essential for eNodeB optimization. The caveat though is that these solutions tend be very expensive and therefore are not usually practical outside a lab setting. MONITORING CRITICAL PARTS OF ENODEB AND EPC END TO END Since LTE networks are all-IP, handling properly user quality of service (QoS) requests is becoming more critical than ever before. QoS can be affected by multiple elements including interference at the cell edge, the quality of the radio resource scheduler in the eNodeB, which may affect the user's experience of LTE services, and traffic management and prioritisation issues within the EPC. Tektronix has developed a specific probe that is used in conjunction with an analyser to investigate all layers of the Uu interface and determine the cause of potential QoS (and other) issues. Basically, the system monitors simultaneously and in real-time the Uu and X2 interfaces and sorts out the origins of the issue. WHATS NEXT? TROUBLESHOOTING? All the previous but necessary LTE testing steps miss one aspect of full blown network testing: troubleshooting, which is likely to start with small and limited LTE footprints. In essence, we are heading toward a two-phase LTE testing process: T Phase 1: tactical monitoring, analysis and modeling based on network elements, devices, and interfaces that are available. T Phase 2: full blown network monitoring
The virtual drive test starts with a real-time engine that ensures timed testing statistical accuracy. For example, most tests specify minimum test times under faded conditions. Without a real-time engine, the generated fading model may not meet the intent of the test and results can be compromised.
and the scale of the system. On the other hand, Spirent developed a virtual drive testing tool that allows mobile operators to create almost any wireless scenario, real or imagined, in the lab under a controlled and repeatable test environment and therefore avoid the burden and the cost of physical drive testing. This Lab-based testing is going on with most mobile operators (outside of NTT DoCoMo) in the absence of formal GCF validation. The virtual drive test starts with a real-time engine that ensures timed
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INSIGHT REPORT
when all interfaces are available and deployed. As already mentioned and pointed out in the NTT DoCoMo case, which is not unique but concerns every single mobile operator constructing an LTE network, the lack of LTE devices translates into the scarcity or even absence of Uu interface between the user equipment (UE) and the E-UTRAN. On one hand, Phase 1, which is based on permanent monitoring of X2, and S1 CP interfaces through passive probes, is providing the tools that deliver an extensive set of signaling and media data from the network. On the other hand, Phase 1 is also bringing sophisticated end user profile models that will be tested upon real life usage as soon as more and more devices hit the market place and consequently, the Uu interface become widely available. However, phase 1 will only provide 10% of the insights required to get a complete view of the LTE network; the Uu interface will increase that to 50%.
Thence, Phase 2 will bring the last piece of the LTE puzzle, and vendors will integrate this last piece into their tools to correlate the data end-to-end across the network, and then go full circle to provide advanced analysis tools for end-to-end network monitoring and troubleshooting, either on demand or campaign based. The latter technique involves the use of a Uu probe that allows for the collection of 100% of the insights. ALL IN ALL, DESIGN AND SIMULATION TOOLS ARE WHAT TEST VENDORS SHARE IN COMMON The devil is in the details and in the early LTE stage, we dont have that many details. Nonetheless, all testing vendors seem to agree that in the current LTE environment, design simulation tools help system engineers address LTE development challenges and verify their interpretations of the standard. Typically, models simulated at various levels of abstraction are needed to
As already mentioned and pointed out in the NTT DoCoMo case, which concerns every single mobile operator constructing an LTE network, the lack of LTE devices translates into the scarcity of Uu interface between the user equipment (UE) and the E-UTRAN.
support the progression from product concept through detailed design. Performance of both baseband and RF sections must be evaluated individually and together to minimize the problems and surprises encountered during system integration and other phases of the development cycle. Finally, during the transition to hardware testing, a means of moving smoothly back and forth between design simulation, and testing is needed to ensure that engineers are not forced to redesign the product on the bench to get it to work.
CONCLUSION:
For the first time in mobile industry history, the cart is being put before the horse. One of the lessons we are already learning from LTE is that simplifying the network architecture does not necessarily ease its certification and verification processes. Another one is that rushing deployments while several organisations are working in parallel to ensure the readiness of all procedures further complicates the situation. Meanwhile, the telecom industry has seen this before; for instance, the rush to MPLS in the late eighties and early 2000s ended up with multiple non interoperable MPLS islands, which through a series of merger and acquisitions during the great telecom crash of 2000 2004, resulted in the definitive shut down of many. The way things are currently unraveling give good reason to believe something similar could happen with LTE. Nonetheless, testing vendors are up to the challenge and are already racing to stay on top of potential interoperability and pending interworking issues. They all know that collecting data and developing sophisticated end user models will be essential for LTE to be a success story.
Testing vendors are up to the challenge of ensuring LTE rollouts go smoothly

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HURRICANE LTE APPROACHES SLOWLY BUT THE NETWORK FOUNDATIONS NEED REINFORCING NOW
One lesson learned from the global rollout of 3G is that when you have a problem with your first deployment it takes a long time and a lot of money to recover the market. LTE has arrived with the first deployment by TeliaSonera in December 2009 and a trickle of arrivals announced for later this year. A lot depends on these early deployments delivering on the technologys promise.
igh expectations is the first challenge that must be met. The initial 3G market was relatively forgiving. The productivity increase attributable to the transition from fixed-line modem to mobile Internet connection was so significant that mobile executives made allowances for any unmet expectations. But todays user is becoming addicted to high-speed mobile broadband and their natural instinct is to blame service faults on the network rather than the device. The expectation is that the next generation of mobile services will be a quantum leap beyond the current 3G user experience. The second challenge is the complexity of LTE deployments. Although LTE makes use of a simpler all-IP architecture with smarter network nodes, there are still plenty of challenges that can impact a users Quality of Experience (QoE). Inter-technology (2G/3G/LTE) mobility, support for voice services and greater air interface complexity with MIMO, to name but a few. So it is vital to learn from past mistakes that everybody operators, equipment and device manufacturers must take every measure to ensure that subscribers have a great experience from day one.
planning to migrate to HSPA+ as an interim step. Its no match for expected LTE performance, but as a costeffective interim measure for the massive existing 3G user base, HSPA+ is a sound business decision for many. As a result, analysts suggest that the real take off point for LTE will not be until 2012 when Europe and China begin significant deployments. All three Chinese operators have committed to deploying LTE by 2013. Two more years that deadline might not seem that near for operators, until we look a little more closely at what lies ahead
KEY QOE CHALLENGES TO ADDRESS

Delays in initial adoption simply reinforce the obvious fact that carriers will need to operate both 3G and 4G networks. Multi-mode devices will continue to be required, negotiating the highest level of service where available and falling back to legacy services when necessary. Although wireless access can pose some of the more visible QoE issues, the more fundamental challenges lie in LTEs All IP Network (AIPN) architecture, replacing legacy TDM/ATM voice networks, as well as the need to upgrade existing backhaul networks to support the Evolved Packet Core (EPC). There are five key areas where QoE issues can arise: T User authentication and mobility. These functions depend on three devices in the LTE system the MME (Mobility Management Entity), SGW (Serving Gateway), HSS/AAA (Home Subscriber Server / Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) server and their interaction between wireless and core networks. T Multi-platform interoperability the mobile user must move transparently between LTE and legacy technology cells without call loss or other QoE degradation. T Timing and synchronization this was a standard feature of legacy TDM backhaul technology, but LTE architecture specifies an All-IP network based on Ethernet, which lacks these native features. While the
HOW LONG HAVE WE GOT?

While there is no doubt that mobile communications future is LTE, there are technical challenges to address, as well as business reasons for delaying LTE deployment. The deployment of 3G taught us that it is one thing to launch a few pilot services, but quite another to allow time for the whole ecosystem including the radio access network, the packet core network and handsets and devices to reach critical mass. This is especially true for LTE, where there is still churn in the specifications. There is a strong business case for not rushing prematurely into LTE. The majority of operators planning to deploy LTE already have robust and extensive HSPA networks. Purchasing new spectrum, in addition to brand new infrastructure, will cost billions of euros and the operator must determine over what time period these hefty up-front costs will be recouped by their LTE services. According to the DellOro Group, many operators are
Cost-effective backhaul throughput is clearly going to be a major issue. But havent we shown that we still have two years leeway before that challenge begins? Forget it!
24 | Mobile Europe
SPONSORED FEATURE
IEEE 1588v2 standard promises the precise levels of synchronization needed for real-time applications, thorough testing of its implementation is necessary. T Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) is another area where enhancements were needed to qualify Ethernet for mobile backhaul. Link OAM is for a single link between two devices, and Service OAM is for fault management, performance monitoring and protection switching for a circuit that traverses multiple devices over one or more network operators. T Backhaul throughput and latency once Carrier Ethernet was formalized to ensure features such as predictable latency, minimal jitter, guaranteed bandwidth and traffic engineering, it became the obvious candidate for All-IP mobile backhaul.
SOLUTIONS FOR LTE TESTING

The lessons from 3G need to be remembered. Even if LTE roll out is not an immediate prospect, gearing up the infrastructure is already a vital priority. Todays user of smartphones, data cards and netbooks already has sky-high expectations and infrastructure upgrades must only be apparent to a user in terms of improved QoE. It may take a long time to recover from the business implications of user disappointment with networks and services that are rolled out before they are thoroughly tested and ready. Spirent Communications is a global leader in integrated performance analysis and service assurance solutions for IT systems and networks, with well over a decade of experience in pre-testing 2G and 3G technologies, as well as providing test and monitoring to ensure continued service quality. Building on this experience, Spirent is now geared up to offer the same support for the next-generation mobile network and devices and is actively supporting mobile operators, core network infrastructure manufacturers and device manufacturers with their LTE evolution product testing. Already the worlds leading provider of 2G/3G mobile packet core and Ethernet network test solutions, Spirent is ahead of the game in providing and supporting Ethernet backhaul test and monitoring solutions, and solutions for testing mobile packet core performance, scalability and mobility. Spirent also offers solutions for LTE device testing. Spirent test solutions are used by operators for acceptance testing, user device and network equipment interoperability testing, as well as validation of equipment manufacturers performance claims. Network equipment manufacturers use Spirent solutions during development, QA, installation, service and sales cycles to verify and demonstrate that their equipment meets operator requirements. As the one-stop provider of choice for next generation test solutions, Spirent provides operators and manufacturers with innovative and industry-standard tools to test from the device through the backhaul and mobile packet core to the Internet. Spirent has the test solutions, experience and support you need to make sure your LTE network will be ready.
THE WAY FORWARD

Cost-effective backhaul throughput is clearly going to be a major issue once LTE puts its anticipated data rates of up to 100Mbps or more into users hands. But havent we shown that we still have two years leeway before that challenge begins? Forget it! Backhaul networks are already creaking at the seams from the mass of data traffic and adding leased lines is an expensive temporary solution. The smartphone has moved from a niche business solution to a consumer must-have. This converged mobile communications device is putting an enormous data throughput load on mobile networks, not to mention the added signalling burden as smartphones conserve their batteries by constantly signing on and off the network during use. As a result, there is already a lot of pressure to upgrade to Carrier Ethernet backhaul simply to meet the scalability and performance needs of todays traffic, let alone the data tsunami in years to come. So, although the rollout of LTE wireless networks may not be an urgent priority, the transition to next generation backhaul is already high on the agenda. And it must happen without disrupting or degrading existing services as well as being ready to support superb performance and QoE when LTE comes online. We cannot allow existing users to be treated as guinea pigs, we need to get the service right from day one. And that calls for thorough pre-testing of network upgrades prior to roll-out. Although an All-IP core network offers a simpler and more efficient basis for data traffic, as the previous section shows, there is more complexity involved in testing the interface between the evolved packet core and LTE radio network that delivers services to the user. Testing to ensure a seamless upgrade to Ethernet backhaul is already an urgent priority and the need to fully test the LTE EPC is increasing rapidly, especially when inter-technology mobility and impact on QoE is considered.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nigel Wright is Vice President of Product Marketing at Spirent Communications. In this role he oversees the marketing communication and industry engagement around all of Spirents wireless and positioning product lines. Spirent Communications plc Tel: +44 (0)1293 767676 www.spirent.com
Mobile Europe | 25
SPONSORED INTERVIEW
SCALE AND SCALEABILITY

Operators need to be able to test end to end in an LTE environment, drilling deep into complex information, whilst also keeping control of a manageable number of KPIs, Paul Gowans tells Keith Dyer.
KEITH DYER: KEITH DYER:
Paul, Cisco are the key concerns of your operator Jim, what of course is represented in the femtocell customers around LTE strategy at the which is most market through its MicroCell device, moment? notably supporting AT&T's femtocell service. Why do PAUL GOWANS: well-placed to meet carrier needs you think Cisco is for femtocell deployment? Well, first off, I think the important thing to remember is that although you hear a lot about the technical challenges of LTE, the whole debate needs to take place JIM TAVARES: in the context of the commercial challengesbecause we We are very excited about the market that all operators are facing. Theres a lot said about the gap believe it leverages so many key capabilities we have between the exploding usage of data, and the revenues as a company. First, there is the long tradition of operators will see from that. But with the number of the Scientific Atlanta to deliver carrier-grade CPE into Smartphonesof course there is perhaps 300 million now, home. And set to grow from our position within to 1 billion in five years then that problems not about network infrastructure - that has only been to go away. Operators Starent acquisition. Femtocell strengthened by the know they need a new business model to both with that, and that is why LTE, with its plays to cope segments, and our strength in both focus on reduced we have bit, is so important in segments mean cost per the potential to support addressing that. in the mobile industry. massive growth The whole drive to LTE infrastructure is that it is Importantly, we believe we can provide the end-tointended to deliver an 80% reduction company, from the end femtocell infrastructure as one in cost per bit compared toend to the back-end provisioning side. radio front 3G, and 50% over HSPA. But allied to that, operators know that they best-in-class provider in and We've partnered with a will see service complexity the volume ofprovide the RFbalance as that is not a to ip.access to data rise. The piece, operators need strike is in between the needsus. service the growth in traditional solution area for to Of course, everyone data usage, withabout the to reduce costs both on the tends to think the need radio side, but the network and in delivering service complexity. consumer provisioning side will impact as well. Unless deployment of femtocells is zero touch then there's KEITH DYER: can scale - and we have the no way carriers experience to provide the whole integrated As operators address that balance, what stage are they at now in addressing LTE? provisioning process. make sure that this technology is going to work for them.
KEITH DYER:
What are the key testing issues likely to confront operators as they move through that lifecycle?
PAUL GOWANS:
A key issue is that the old lifecycle of test, optimise, deliver, is going to be squeezed, by competitive and cost requirements, into a much shorter time frame. LTE will be rolled out in a lot shorter timescale. So from that perspective there is going to be a lot of expectation that the technology will be ready, and already operating optimally. I think that one other issue that is likely to arise is that although the architecture in LTE moves to that flat, IP model, that could create a problem for operators in terms of visibility into services. Operators need to know what their critical connections are, what guarantees they have made to users on the end of that pipe and whats going on within it. The complexity of the service environment means that operators need to try and look into the pipe, and pull out per-service data when thats much more difficult to do. They will also be faced with the need to do this in an end to end manner, from the core, across the backhaul, and into the radio access network. So the test and monitoring questions will move away from where to what to monitor, and how to monitor end to end, and what to do with the vast volumes of data that are going to be created.
PAUL GOWANS: KEITH DYER:

If youmention look at this from our perspective ofwill You were to deployment, but how important the test lifecycle, then at the of femtocells be are committed ongoing management moment carriers for carriers, to early stage tests in pre-deployment. Thisdeployed? once they have thousands of femtocells involves looking at real live interoperability testing and predeployment testing, prior to moving to live and end to JIM TAVARES: end assurance testing. We are seeingTo take one That's exceptionally important. the network equipment in the USA you have got to havethe example, vendors testing in their labs, and integrated following stage is torequirements, and carriers also GPS to meet e911 see service providers go through their trial know where cells arealso means doing their need to deployments - which because they may want pre-deployment and interoperability testing. locations, to radiate on certain frequencies in certain orNext we willto avoid interference with other femto or take steps see operators move to RAN optimisation, including ensuring they have hand-offs between LTE, macro cells. So that means as well as GPS you also 3G, HSPA integrated network listening capability to need an and 2G networks. know where a perspective, as I said, we are seeing a lot From a JDSU cell is by determining its interactions of ourthe cells around it. Customers may also selfwith experience being brought to bear in that predeployment testing, helping carriers to see how they can
The LTE balancing act
26 | Mobile Europe
SPONSORED INTERVIEW
that as they were continually asking what data they needed, and what they can do with it, and how they can pull data from multiple sources to do that.
KEITH DYER:
And how did they build that system, so that they could manage the data the needed?
PAUL GOWANS:
JDSU End To End LTE Solutions
We already have a customer that generates 20 billion records a day, before any LTE deployment. Thats a daunting volume, and one thats only going to go up.
KEITH DYER:
How can operators balance the need to measure end to end, with being able to cope with such increased volumes of data?
PAUL GOWANS:
This is really an area where the industry is moving on, and will continue to. Operators and carriers will need to move to a one-to-many technique. Its not just about grabbing data, but about doing something intelligent with it, sharing it to lots of different applications - to revenue assurance, roaming management, which ever business function needs access to that data. This will really mean that the focus moves from the attention that is currently paid to a host of KPIs. The industry went down the path of saying we want everything delivered and measured in terms of KPIs. And they ended up with hundreds of KPIs that most service providers didnt really need. The marginal benefit of extracting so much information was not right, and the cost of getting it was quite high. Additionally, that information wasnt processed in a way that allowed service providers to do anything meaningful with those KPIs. What weve been involved in as operators look at this changing business model is to ask whats really important to the network and to whats needed to manage the networks? If you developed a dashboard with perhaps those five essential KPIs, then what would they be? We are working with a major Tier One service provider to manage their entire network on five KPIs, aside from their current 200. We have learnt a lot from
You still have a control plane, and still have a user plane. You will need to have 100% visibility of the control plane, bearing in mind it is also a plane that has got a lot more complex over the years. Thats fundamental. At the same time the operator needs to be looking at the user plane, but here they can be more flexible. They can drill into the user information only when they need to - looking at data over time, and when you need to resolve an issue, perhaps. I think youd also look for KPIs around service completion, so that you know when someone uses a service you know it was delivered. And you might have a KPI on roaming connect, which will be fundamental to LTE. But by keeping these at the dashboard level, whilst knowing you can drill into it when you need to you can really improve your business efficiencies whilst keeping control of revenue-critical services.
KEITH DYER:
We already have one customer that generates 20 billion records a day, before any LTE deployment. Thats a daunting volume, and one thats only going to go up.
Finally, do you think operators require new tools and infrastructure for testing and monitoring LTE?
PAUL GOWANS:
I think that will depend very much on the operator. You can retrofit as an extension of where you are now, mapping over, say, HSPA to manage the same services. Having said that some carriers will build from the ground up for LTE, seeing the increased scale and the need for end to end monitoring in an environment of increasing complexity. Our job at JDSU is to help operators manage that transition in a way that best fits their business needs.
ABOUT PAUL GOWANS: Gowans is Marketing Manager, EMEA, for JDSU
Mobile Europe | 27
INSIGHT REPORT LTE TESTING

Samsungs 4G (LTE) dongles
TO TEST OR NOT TO TEST?

TeliaSonera has stolen a march on the European industry by going ahead and launching commercial LTE service long before other operators have plans to do so. But is their strategy of just do it compatible with a fully-tested service? Keith Dyer investigates. n May 2010, Tommy Ljunggren, SVP and head of systems development at Mobility Services, TeliaSonera, Sweden, urged operators to get on and launch LTE services - without carrying out lengthy trials and tests. "We didn't test at all," he said. "No trials. We just went and launched it, communicated where we were at each stage and took that to market. And we do have a business model to make a profit out of this" "We want more operators to launch we believe that this is a mass market thing that should happen now," he said. "The industry should be telling regulators and governments to open up the opportunities for their country." Ljunggren also called for spectrum to be made available according to 3GPP guidelines, and for governments not to be too greedy in selling spectrum. TeliaSonera launched in Sweden in December, with a limited network in Stockholm. At the moment it has a few thousand users, limited by the availability of LTE dongles, Ljunggren said. At the moment all users are on single mode dongles, although
Spirents Nigel Wright

Ljunggren said that the operator would have multi-mode dongles available in the second half of this year. This wasnt always TeliaSoneras plan, however. Back in 2008, the operator said that the 4G network will be rolled out gradually in Sweden. A number of test periods with selected customers would be performed, TeliaSonera said, and the operator estimated that it would be able to provide services over the new network to both consumer customers and businesses in 2010. The need for capacity and speed in the mobile networks is increasing all the time. I think we will see even more capacity-intensive entertainment and communication services in future, and I believe that the customers to a larger extent want to be able to use these services via a laptop or mobile phone, regardless of where they are, said Hkan Dahlstrm. In the event, the operator went to market even earlier than it predicted. And it has been relatively free of the customer complaints and service issues that greeted the launch of the iPhone, say, on some 3G networks. That may in part be accounted for by the closed nature of the network, the fact the TeliaSonera has operated a single vendor network with limited numbers if users, and without huge hand-off concerns. Although other operators are unlikely to mirror TeliaSoneras urgency, facing different commercial drivers and the need to exploit HSPA assets fully, there is still likely to be pressure on the test community on the device side to meet 2011 timelines. Nigel Wright, Vice President of Product Marketing at Spirent, told Mobile Europe back in February of this
year that he expected handheld LTE devices (ie not dongles) to be available in the first half of 2011 - earlier than many have predicted. But early availability of LTE phones will not come without problems, he warned. The first is that certification testing for LTE devices will not be in place until the first quarter of 2011. That means there is the risk of devices coming on the market that have not been certificated against agreed standards, and with US regulators watching issues like RF interference very closely the pressures on the device manufacturers is going to be intense. "With the US LTE band sitting right next to the public safety band, and the harmonic of the band sitting right next to GPS, the radio is going to have to be squeaky clean," Wright warned. The second issue with a push for early LTE devices is that voice over LTE becomes an immediate priority - and standards for voice over LTE are far from complete. The GSMA-backed VoLTE initiative is making strides in this regard, building on the specifications of the OneVoice group. But full standardscompatible devices by early 2011 still seems unlikely. The third issue with early device releases is that, in theory, you cannot currently enable MIMO at 700MHz in a device with a handset form factor, because there is not enough room in the device for the antennas. So producing a device would necessarily mean some compromise on performance - or not enabling MIMO, thereby negating much of the benefit of LTE. There are also unresolved issues with LTE roaming. If operators are deploying
LTE TESTING INSIGHT REPORT

Telia Soneras 4G coverage: Finland
at 700MHz in the USA, and at 2.1GHz and 2.6Ghz in other markets, then the phones will need to be multi-band to roam. And there could be up to 15 bands supported in three years, adding to the complexity. At the LTE World Summit held in May 2010, spectrum diversity was mentioned by many speakers as a possible issue for the industry. A further complicating factor is that there may be more chipset diversity in the LTE market. Many of the OEMs are developing their own LTE chipset programmes in a bid to protect themselves from over-relying on the likes of ST-Ericsson and Qualcomm. This of course introduces further variations in implementation and interpretations of standards - increasing the need for solid test cases. There are also WiMax chip vendors who view the OFDMbased LTE market as an opportunity for them to enter what has until now been a wireless market dominated by the three big players. Another issue in the device side is whether operators take responsibility for volume UE testing, simulating multiple users in cells, analysing application performance. Or whether they follow the existing GSM/3G approach, and follow the existing conformance test approval model for LTE devices. Mobile terminal manufacturers must gain GCF approval to prove that their LTE terminals satisfy the 3GPP standards, meaning that there is increasing demand for an approved conformance test environment. And here they are receiving support from the test vendors. Anritsu, for example, has been a supplier of GCF-approved test cases for
Certification of devices will be important to the LTE user experience W-CDMA conformance tests since the start of 3G services. With the targeted October 2010 roll-out of LTE services, Anritsu says it is on track to deliver the required 80% of approved Priority 1 and 2 test cases, and is expecting to accelerate its number of both GCF and PTCRB approved test cases to assure the early success of high-quality LTE services. Anritsu Measurement Group President Mr. Kenji Tanaka said, "In the last year, there has been a rapidly growing trend towards actual applications and services using LTE." "It is amazing to observe the momentum in the market for a worldwide deployment of LTE - no matter what region in the world. Advanced multimode LTE solutions addressing low power and advanced performance combined with powerful test equipment are key elements to it", said Dr. Wolfram Drescher, Managing Director at Blue Wonder Communications, a company that has a partnership with Rohde & Schwarz to provide test cases to the industry. "Certification of LTE mobile devices is an important step into the commercial use of LTE in networks, Michael Altmann, head of Product Management Mobile Radio Testers at Rohde & Schwarz, says. There has been a lot of fanfare about TeliaSoneras no test launch, but when it comes to devices that will need to handoff services and applications in more complex environments between networks, and under harsher conditions, it seems the operators themselves will still need to rely on the best test cases and conformance testing to meet consumer expectations.
Operator strategies
MOBILE APPLICATION STORES WHATS THE OPERATOR OPPORTUNITY?

Jerome Buvat, Global Head of Capgeminis TME (Telecom, Media and Entertainment) Strategy Lab explains why there should be no delay in operators positioning themselves in the app store space
pplication stores have gained considerable attention in recent years, and are emerging as an important channel for distribution of mobile content. While application Stores have been in existence for almost a decade, the category received a shot-in-the-arm only after the entry of Apples App Store. The advent of Apples App Store has resulted in a paradigm shift in how mobile applications are created and distributed (see Figure 1). The success of Apples App Store was followed by a spate of announcements from various players around their decisions for entering the space. Device vendors such as Nokia and Research in Motion (RIM, maker of Blackberry smartphones); OS vendors Microsoft and
Opertors need to pull their app strategy together without delay
Google; and telecom players, have all forayed into the applications store market. Most leading mobile operators have launched their own application stores or have announced their intent to launch one in the near future. The launch strategies range from creating proprietary solutions to embracing third-party hosted application stores. While application stores are an important key growth area within the mobile data market, telcos are faced with the question of whether they should launch application stores at all, and if yes, how they should position themselves in a space dominated by device players. Application stores are emerging as a key distribution channel for mobile content. Research recently carried out by Capgemini has found that total revenues from paid mobile application downloads during 2009 are estimated at around US$ 3.8 billion. However, changes taking place across the ecosystem are likely to result in both demand side pull as well as supply side push, ultimately resulting in growth of the segment. Increasing customer base forms a key demand-side driver, while improved device capabilities are expected to be the primary supply-side driver. These drivers are expected to boost adoption of mobile application services with the market expected to reach US$ 8.6 billion by 2013, growing at a CAGR of 30% between 2010 and 2013 (see Figure 2). Launching an application store will provide operators with an opportunity to augment their existing data services revenue. There are going to be primarily four revenue streams for operators, viz.
Launching a store will provide operators with an opportunity to augment their existing data revenue. There are going to primarily four revenue streams for operators; share from sale of applications, mobile advertising, incremental data usage and payment gateway revenue.
Mobile Europe | 31
Operator strategies
revenue share from the sale of applications, mobile advertising revenue, incremental data usage revenue and payment gateway revenue. Relying on these revenue streams, our analysis indicates that a typical operator (based in Western Europe with a subscriber base of 50 million) can expect a data revenue uplift of 11% by 2013. Additionally, if an operator is successfully able to implement a strategy wherein they are able to push web-based applications which result in greater data consumption, the revenue upside can be as much as 17% with over 30%-40% of this uplift coming from increased data usage. In addition to augmenting current data revenues, applications storefronts can also be instrumental in attracting and retaining subscribers with high-spend on mobile data services. High-value customers exhibit a greater proclivity to download and use mobile applications. Moreover, application stores are becoming increasingly important for operators to build and maintain a robust content ecosystem, something that is essential in todays economic climate and competitive landscape. Operators are threatened by the prospect of being rendered bit-carriers due to the expansion of online and device players across the value chain. The emergence of application stores as primary channels for mobile content distribution can further impact operators positioning in the value chain. Consequently, inaction in this space would not only undermine the competitive positioning of operators vis--vis other players who actively launch application Stores, but also the ability to drive data consumption amongst existing consumers. KEY CHALLENGES Amongst the device manufacturers, Apple, with its existing dominant position in the market and access to the early adopters of technology with a tendency to spend on mobile services is likely to continue as the dominant application store. RIM, with access to a niche, enterprise audience is also likely to be a strong contender in this segment. Nokia can leverage its large
32 | Mobile Europe
Figure 1: The shift in how apps are created and distributed.
base of existing users and its strength in the emerging markets across Europe. One of the consequences of multiplicity of platforms, devices and application stores will be that developers will align themselves with particular storefronts. Since the success of a storefront is intricately linked to the quality of applications available on it, the competition for retaining the best developers on the major stores is going to be intense. Driven by the proliferation of free and mass market applications, the average selling price (ASP) for applications is likely to drop analyst estimates indicate a value of US$ 1.72 by 2014, as compared to US$ 3.83 in 2009. RECOMMENDATIONS Capgemini believes that mobile operators can shore up their position in the mobile applications space by taking a series of definitive measures. Operators need to
Figure 2: App revenues Figure3: Operator options
Operator strategies
decide on the extent of activities that they would want to undertake in the application store segment. While global players with a large captive customer base might want to build end-to-end capabilities in the space, smaller players might decide to undertake only select activities in-house, relying extensively on thirdparties for the technology platform (see Figure 3). A critical component of operator strategy to compete in the space would be their support of device-agnostic platforms. This will allow operators to support a much wider device portfolio through their storefront, while simultaneously reducing porting efforts, and hence costs and time-to-market for the developers. Additionally, platform-agnostic applications will allow a distinct positioning option for operators, thereby avoiding direct competition with vendor partners. Another option available to operators looking to encourage device-agnostic application creation would be to actively promote web-based applications. Since the quality and reliability of the applications available on a storefront will be dependent on the strength of the developer community, it is imperative that operators provide the necessary incentives for the creation of exclusive applications for their storefronts. We believe that aggressive revenue share arrangements, wherein operators allow developers to Figure 4: Growth in services retain a higher share of the application revenues when compared to other storefronts, can help operators play Figure 5: Pricing models the role of disruptor and corner a higher market share. While a revenue share of at least 75% for the developers will be necessary to remain competitive, analysis indicates that by increasing developer share to 80%, operators can get incremental revenue uplift of A critical component of operator strategy to around 11% points, compete in the space would be their support of resulting primarily device-agnostic platforms. This will allow from a greater market share of operators to support a much wider device application portfolio through their storefront, while reducing downloads. porting efforts for developers Operators should strive to develop pricing models which are optimized based on the nature of the application, ABOUT THE AUTHOR with popularity, market potential and stickiness of an Jerome Buvat is the Global Head application being the defining criteria. For instance, of Capgeminis TME (Telecom, typically applications in categories such as medical and Media and Entertainment) finance are highly customized, resulting in a limited Strategy Lab number of such applications. However, because of the utilitarian nature of these applications, the consumer
willingness to pay is fairly high. As a result, these applications are very suitable for subscription pricing (see Figure 5). Operators should also play an active role in formulating the monetization strategies of applications, to ensure the greatest returns from their storefronts. Capgemini believes operators should launch application stores to retain their prominent position in mobile content distribution, as well as to benefit from new revenue streams through the sale of applications, provision of access services and rendering of additional services such as integrated billing and access to networks that application interfaces are supported on. While application stores provide operators with an opportunity to re-establish their position in the mobile content value chain, the opportunity requires a strong operational strategy for success. Operators need to leverage existing capabilities in this space so as to be able to create a robust offering for the consumers. The opportunity should be looked at from the perspective of a strategic imperative to reverse the present trend of disintermediation from the content ecosystem, rather than a pure revenue enhancement exercise. It cant be left to Apple to pave the way anymore in the application store market. There is plenty of room for more.
Mobile Europe | 33
Diary & Notes

June/July 2010
MOBILE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY SUMMIT
21-22 September, London Top Features at Mobile Healthcare Industry Summit 2010 include: Mobile Healthcare clinic - Check up and check out the newest innovative services. University Challenge: R&D academic knock-out session and awards where are the leadingmhealth developments?. Regional Overview! International healthcare provider case studies in the public and private space www.mobilehealthcareindustrysummit.com
MOBILE PAYMENT SERVICES
27 - 30 September, Barcelona Featuring an executive level, cross-industry speaker panel, you will learn from strategic insights from all players in the m-commerce value chain. http://www.iir-telecoms.com/I2PUAMOEU
PERHAPS THIS SLOT WILL HAVE AN APPLE ITEM EVERY ISSUE. WHY NOT TURN THEIR BARS UP TO 11?
MOBILE BROADBAND WORLD 2010

27-29 September, London Mobile Broadband (MBB) is now the biggest growth area in telecoms. Understanding how to capitalise on this growth and develop cost-effective strategies to deliver the bandwidth required, whilst creating the right pricing models will be at the heart of this three day intensive event. http://www.iir-telecoms.com/I2GS2MOEU
PREPAID MOBILE 2010

27 - 30 September, Barcelona IIR's Prepaid Mobile 2010, the only European event dedicated to the sector, will demonstrate to the industry's service providers that they have a huge opportunity with prepaid customers to make substantial profits and tap into new markets, if they embrace the opportunity. www.iir-telecoms.com/I2PU9MOEU
MANAGED SERVICES WORLD CONGRES

28-29 September, Berlin The Managed Services World Congress is a global event focusing on strategic developments in growth and mature markets. Put your questions to the industry leaders, and discuss ways to work around the market issues that you face every day. http://www.managedservices-world.com
A call is made to Orange Press Office, on behalf of concerned citizens in a certain South London postcode (leafy Peckham, if you must know).
Why? Well it seems that locals have been putting up with poor coverage (make that no coverage) on their iPhones, and theyre getting a bit hacked off about it. One local reports that Orange customer care said the issue was due to the Orange T-Mobile merger, and it wasnt known when the issue would be fixed. Surely not, we thought? The merger cant be having that effect? It seems not, with the Orange press office putting the issue down to the outage being due to a power problem at one site only. So who is giving the customer care agents their script, then? Or was this a rogue operator? Sticking with Orange press office, who endeavoured to answer some questions we had around hi-def voice, which it is trialling in the UK right now. We think this is a good thing, and is important, given that operators need a) points of differentioation, and b) something to ward off the VoIP monster. So how many triallists are there, we asked? Enough, said Orange. What phones are you using. Nokia phones said Orange. Other questions met with a similar dead bat. Commercially sensitive? Oh yes. Perhaps this slot will have an Apple item every issue. The
latest mention is occasioned by the barely believable letter that Apples PR team sent out on 2 July. Its so bizarre, this letter, that we half expect it to have been outed as a hoax by the time weve gone to press. Anyway, as you may know, it seems the iPhone 4 has not antenna issues. Instead, the bars on the phone have been calibrated wrong. Apples going to fix this, it says, by changing the number of bars it has, and making the 1-3 bars taller. Why, we asked (and we werent alone in doing so) dont they follow the Spinal Tap approach, and just make their bars go up to 11? That should fix it.
34 | Mobile Europe
Smart home demo: ip.access
Now playing
Femtocells World Summit 2010
Manish Singh: Continuous Computing
Sanjeev Verma: Airvana
Femtocells World Summit A year after Vodafone used the Femtocells World Summit to launch the first commercial residential femtocell service, Mobile Europe returned to the event to find out what the next year holds. Does LTE represent an opportunity for the small cell? Is there a solid business case for residential femtocell? Do operators need to see more innovation around services? Mobile Europe was there to find out.
Jim Tavares: Cisco Systems
watch the interviews on www.mobileeurope.co.uk/me_tv

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WHO GOT TOO ARROGANT FOR OPERATOR TASTES?

TESTING THE FUTURE OF LTE

EUROPES WIRELESS MAGAZINE S issue no. 210 S June/July 2010 S www.mobileeurope.co.uk

> IMB trial in UK

operators to check out sharing TDTV infrastructure for mobile broadcast

> Openwave CEO

> Partnerships will grow

THE APP STORE

INTERFACE, TIMING, AND INTEROPERABILITY

LTES IP FLAT ARCHITECTURE

PUTTING THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE

NTT HAS JUST BEGUN PRE LAUNCH TESTING

INTEROPERABILITY EMERGES AS THE CHIEF ISSUE

VENDORS TEST STRATEGIES AND STRENGTHS

TO PLAY OR NOT TO PLAY IN APP STORES?

go to www.mobileeurope.co.uk for the latest information on mobile

Printed by William Gibbons & Sons Ltd, Willenhall, UK.

SYNC TO UNLOCK MOBILE CLOUD CONUNDRUM

Synchronise to capitalise on cloud services

"SHOULD OPERATORS STAY OR GO NOW?

go to www.mobileeurope.co.uk for the latest information on mobile

MOBILE VOIP - THE OPERATOR OPPORTUNITY

OPERATORS GO BACK TO TV FUTURE - FOUR YEARS ON

South Eastern countries combine for harmonised digi divi spectrum

"WE BELIEVE THE ROAD IS CLEAR FOR IMB NOW

FloTV is just one competitor to TDTV

go to www.mobileeurope.co.uk for the latest information on mobiles

REVENUE OPPORTUNITY FOR OPERATORS IN CUSTOMER CARE

Oranges Olaf Swantee

Nokia and Yahoo! tie up on maps and messaging

Stay small for LTE, or miss the benefits

OPTIMISE CONTEXTUALISE PERSONALISE

"MACRO LTE CELLS WON'T OFFER BIG BENEFIT

LBS RIDES AGAIN - BERG INSIGHT

go to www.mobileeurope.co.uk for the latest information on mobiles

The operator interview Garrett Johnston, MTS

THE TRUE SMART PIPE

ON THE SMART PIPE:

ON THE POTENTIAL FOR MOBILE:

MTS FACT FILE:

LTE: test strategies and methodologies

MEETING THE LTE TESTING CHALLENGE

INTERFACE, TIMING, AND INTEROPERABILITY ARE KEY LTE TESTING ISSUES

LTE IS 3GPPS NATURAL LONG TERM EVOLUTION MIGRATION PATH

Figure1: 3GPP Architecture and Elimination of Interfaces

LTES IP FLAT ARCHITECTURE ELIMINATES TWO MONITORING INTERFACES

BUT LTE IS ALREADY DEPLOYED AND MOVING AT A FAST PACE

PUTTING THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE

16 | Mobile Europe Insight Report

Above: LTE devices need to come to market quickly

Mobile Europe Insight Report | 17

IN THIS TIMEFRAME, INTEROPERABILITY EMERGES AS THE CHIEF ISSUE

Figure3: The EUTRANS X2 and S1 interfaces

18 | Mobile Europe Insight Report

Mobile Europe Insight Report | 19

Testing vendors are up to the challenge of ensuring LTE rollouts go smoothly

Dont get left behind

Reports coming up:

Interested in reaching decision makers within the wireless industry?

KEY QOE CHALLENGES TO ADDRESS

HOW LONG HAVE WE GOT?

SOLUTIONS FOR LTE TESTING

THE WAY FORWARD