Remedy for growing mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-machine traffic

With short messaging services (SMS) continuing a phenomenal growth pattern in Europe, operators are searching for solutions to handle the increased traffic this communication medium produces.
Tekelec, a leading developer of signalling, switching, and applications for now and next-generation networks, is responding to these challenges with the introduction of the Short Message Gateway (SMG). 

Tekelec’s SMG allows operators to manage increased SMS traffic without adding additional short message centers (SMS-Cs) or expanding their network infrastructures. Its unique design combines SMS offloading and SMS router solutions in a single high-performance system.

“Short messaging is a major revenue source for mobile operators,” said Fred Lax, Tekelec president and CEO. “Our goal is to provide carriers with smart solutions that will allow them to capitalize on revenue opportunities while creating a more efficient network overall.”

The SMG efficiently handles increasing amounts of commercial SMS traffic. Unlike a traditional SMS-C, Tekelec’s new SMG offloads mobile-to-machine traffic so that it never reaches the message center. Operators are able to use the existing SMS-C to perform its intended function – managing mobile-terminated traffic. Fewer SMS-Cs in the network reduce capital expenditures, operational costs, and increase network reliability. The SMG also attempts first-time delivery of machine-to-mobile and mobile-to-mobile messages and only passes the message to an SMS-C if delivery is not achieved, which significantly reduces the number of mobile-terminating messages being stored and forwarded.

In addition to handling increased traffic, Tekelec’s SMG also serves as a flexible SMS routing system.  With its powerful address analysis engine, destinations such as domestic mobile, international mobile, short code, and e-mail addresses can be managed easily. Tekelec designed the gateway to offer operators functions outside basic messaging services. 

“Tekelec is committed to providing our customers with practical and cost-effective solutions to address their network challenges,” Lax added. “This new gateway is a perfect example of that commitment at work. The gateway will allow operators to generate revenue and to save money at the same time.”

With any-to-any connectivity, the SMG assists operators with global, multi-protocol networks. The SMG supports both GSM and ANSI-41 interfaces simultaneously, and can , therefore, be deployed in a hybrid GSM/ANSI-41 network, facilitating seamless transfer of SMS traffic.

External Links

Tekelec

Product set will accelerate A2P service growth for mobile operators

Anam, a leading developer of messaging technology today provided the growing Application-to-Person (A2P) MMS market a boost, with the launch of a new product, Eclipse MMS Direct, that will allow operators to rapidly grow their MMS traffic.

As the next trend in messaging, Anam believes that it has developed the right set of products to accelerate MMS take-up Currently less than 20% of MMS traffic is application-generated, however this is predicted to increase dramatically – and will make up the bulk of the predicted $22bn MMS revenue generated in 2008[1] – once the technology is in place to deliver such messages to consumer handsets in a more affordable and simplified manner.

“By implementing Anam’s Fair Pay commercial approach we can ensure that the costs of delivering this service is more cost-effective to operators,” says Gerry McKenna, Chief Executive Officer, Anam.

“Our Fair Pay commercial models help with revenue growth expansion by offering a low-risk approach to both service deployment and expansion. Operators can test this technology within their network with minimal risk as it can be deployed alongside their current set-up. Eclipse MMS Direct is giving operators the opportunity to take full advantage of A2P/P2A MMS now.

“Anam Fair Pay is about delivering quality products and maintenance services at realistic pricing levels. We recognise the significant investment required by the customer to make services a success and feel the Fair Pay commercial model supports this fully,” said McKenna.

The Anam Eclipse Product suite employs contemporary designs that reflect the service requirements of the modern Data Service environment: they are fast, efficient, smart, flexible, easy-to-use & cost-effective. The line up includes:

The Eclipse MM Exchange provides connectivity with every major VAS vendor and equipment for very large numbers of service providers. It streamlines content access for all media types into a single platform architecture and gives operators a single overview of their entire content management business whilst inter-working with all business support systems.

Eclipse MM Content Manager is a content creation and management system. It allows content and service providers to easily and quickly deploy content services without exposing them to any technical complexity regarding connection to the network. It is a true ‘click ‘n’ go’ service creation environment and comes bundled with a suite of ready to run messaging applications. MM Content Eclipse ensures that all agreed content-delivery service models can be defined and managed within the acceptance criteria of an operator’s business support systems.

Eclipse SMSX is a high performance fully functional message switch that opens up a new world of personalised SMS services & real-time mass-media services. It seamlessly integrates with all existing SMS application infrastructures whilst also significantly reducing load on the SS7 network. The SMSX offers complete visibility of all SMS traffic and its architecture makes it a simple task to implement ethical service provisions such as anti-spam and barring of malicious traffic sources.

External Links

Anam

A new service from TextView in Malta turns mobile phones into TVs where Teletext pages from Ceefax and Aertel can be browsed on the move. The speed of the GPRS network means that they are also delivered faster than to a TV.

TextView’s technology picks up live streams of BBC1, BBC2 and RTE text services just like you would on any TV set and then lets you browse them on a mobile phone with fast, easy access and charging provided by Bango.net.  Content includes travel updates, the widest selection of sports and horseracing news anywhere on the mobile Internet, flight arrivals for all commercial airports and TV listings. TextView charges
50p per day for use of its service. 

“TextView gives people fast access to vital information anytime and anywhere,” said Johanna A. Harink, Marketing Manager of TextView. “There’s a powerful search facility that when you search on ‘roadworks’ and ‘M25’ for example, delivers pages with the latest travel news. Another nice feature is that you can bookmark search strings, allowing for fast and easy daily retrieval of information that’s important for you.”

In the UK, users simply text go textview to 89080 and are sent a message which takes them to the Textview site on their WAP phone with £1.50 ready to spend – the cost of sending this message.  When users want to pay for further use of the TextView service, Bango’s innovative technology dynamically offers different payment options depending upon where the user is connecting from and from which network.  These include on the phone bill by Premium SMS and operator billing system, by credit/debit card or using a PIN code. 

The service is already proving very popular with airport taxi drivers who need to keep track of flight arrivals from their cars.  “This service saves us time, money and hassle” said Ken Way of Kenway Cars, a taxi firm located near Stansted Airport.  “Minute-by-minute updates of when planes are due to land at all major and regional airports in the UK, means we don’t have to hang around arrival lounges when a flight is
delayed.”

“TextView offers the largest and most up-to-date range of information, more than many of the other mobile portals,” commented Ray Anderson, CEO of Bango.net. “What’s more, it’s available to anyone with a mobile phone, on all operator networks.”

Bango.net’s technology lets content enablers such as TextView easily promote and charge for any mobile content, the most popular being ringtones, pictures, games, and videos.  Bango provides automatic payment capabilities enabling hundreds of millions of mobile customers to pay for content and services.

External Links

Bango.net

Launches Spinnerchip1.1

The timeline for commercial realization of UMTS-capable wireless devices has been significantly shortened with the launch of Zyray Wireless’ SPINNERchip 1.1 add-on WCDMA baseband processor.  SPINNERchip enables device manufacturers to develop single-mode WCDMA, dual-mode GSM/GPRS & WCDMA and multi-mode GSM/GPRS, EDGE & WCDMA devices in a low risk, cost effective and time efficient manner.  A time line of 6 months from project start to Interoperability Testing (IOT) and less than one year to mass production is achievable.

“The speed of integration afforded by the add-on architecture is evident in the fact that the new SPINNERchip 1.1 has already been integrated into multiple form factor size platforms a mere 7 to 8 weeks after we received it back from the fab.  We will be demonstrating two of these in Cannes; a world’s first high performance multimedia phone platform supporting UMTS, EDGE and GPRS and a world’s first EDGE+UMTS PC card,” said Werner Sievers, President and CEO of Zyray Wireless.   

SPINNERchip 1.1 is housed in a compact 10x10mm BGA including integrated analog technology and is flexible enough to mate with various RF transceivers, baseband processors and dual-mode protocol stacks. This universal flexibility has resulted in SPINNERchip being adopted by multiple Tier 1 semiconductor partners and it is already being designed into multiple end customer products.  SPINNERchip can also be provided in die form to be included in customizable MCM (Multi Chip Module) solutions.  Given the availability of many existing mature, high volume 2G / 2.5G solutions, SPINNERchip’s ability to integrate with these maximizes the benefit from their high volume/lower cost.

SPINNERchip 1.1 is fully 3GPP Release 99 December 2003 compliant and is firmware upgradeable to support Downlink Shared Channel (DSCH) and all other 3GPP Release 4 features. A configurable hardware / flexible software design approach was chosen for SPINNERchip to ensure a robust design platform for future developments as well as to facilitate low power consumption. SPINNERchip supports 384kb/s in both the uplink and downlink and is upgradeable to a 2Mb/s class modem. SPINNERchip includes proprietary Adaptive Interference Cancellation (AIC) and Optimum Combining algorithms and support for multiple antennas in either handset or PCMCIA platforms.

A full suite of support peripherals and services are provided with SPINNERchip. “The support provided by the Zyray engineering team is key to the short integration times we have been able to achieve.

We provide a complete solution with SPINNERchip, which includes evaluation boards, software development and testing tools and excellent real-time tracing and data logging capabilities. Beyond that we work very closely with our partners to ensure a quick turnaround on customer projects, ” said Michiel Lötter, VP of Engineering.

Upcoming versions of SPINNERchip will support future evolutions of 3G technology including HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access).  HSDPA, an enhancement to W-CDMA technology, provides ultra high-speed downlink capability.

External Links

Zyray Wireless

Redknee conducts market validation on Synaxis OSA/Parlay and Web Services/Parlay X Solution with Telefonica Moviles Espana

Redknee Inc has announced the ongoing assessment of an OSA/Parlay and Web Services/Parlay X Solution to Spain’s Telefónica Móviles España which shall be utilised to evaluate an advanced service delivery framework.

The solution is consistent with Redknee’s initiative to develop a
powerful application creation environment that utilizes open standard-based application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable operators to create their own services or outsource service development.

Redknee’s modular architecture ensures that deployed solutions accommodate existing protocols
and interfaces, while providing an extensible framework to support future protocols. For carriers such as Telefonica, this facilitates the development of applications that feature a consistent user experience across varied underlying technologies.

All of these benefits position carriers to extend the services that they currently offer their customers to include either wholesale access to the carrier’s own telephony-based value-added web services or allowing carriers to offer turnkey web services solutions with the goal to increase their
customers’ competitiveness through new innovative, differentiated services or perhaps to reduce their customers’ software integration costs.

“Telefónica has taken advantage of Redknee’s advanced Parlay/OSA technology platform which facilitates the generation and delivery of next-generation services,” said Bohdan Zabawskyj, Chief Technology Officer at Redknee. “This robust suite of abstracted interfaces will allow Telefónica to reduce its ongoing development costs whilst bringing innovative revenue generating services to market more quickly than ever before.”

The Redknee Synaxis(TM) Service Delivery Framework is available now for order and timely delivery. The Synaxis(TM) Service Delivery Framework solution provides an evolutionary path to address the dynamic requirements of next-generation mobile services and applications. This next-generation
delivery platform is currently being deployed in top tier networks globally.

Redknee’s commercially deployed suite of service applications includes messaging, mobility, payment, and data/call control solutions.

External Links

Redknee

Spirent’s ULTS system enables comprehensive interoperability testing of A-GPS GSM handsets

Spirent Communications has announced a significant enhancement to its UMTS Location Test System (ULTS) for the testing of GSM and WCDMA mobiles incorporating Assisted GPS (A-GPS).

A-GPS is the most popular high-accuracy location technology choice of operators deploying next-generation location-based services in Europe and around the world.

Spirent’s ULTS already allows operators and mobile manufacturers to test fully the accuracy and reliability of A-GPS-equipped mobiles prior to widespread commercial deployment. However, applicable industry standards for A-GPS allow a wide range of implementation options, resulting in a very significant potential for interoperability issues between mobiles and networks.

Now, Spirent’s SMLC Emulator (SSE) has been added to the ULTS, enabling mobile manufacturers to test fully the interoperability of their products’ location ability against the wide range of implementation possibilities.

This enhancement helps reduce the need for costly field trials and helps ensure reliable operation in roaming scenarios prior to full deployment. The highly flexible SSE will allow mobile manufacturers to test their devices over the full range of location services message content and call flows that are likely to be encountered in live networks.

“Operators hoping to launch profitable location-based services over 2.5G and 3G networks clearly want to minimise any performance and interoperability issues experienced by their subscribers,” states Richard Catmur, wireless business development director at Spirent Communications. “Ideally these problems need to be caught before services and mobiles are deployed. With the new SSE, our ULTS solution now makes it possible to identify both performance and interoperability issues in the lab, helping to enable the success of next-generation services.”

A Serving Mobile Location Centre (SMLC) is the key network element in A-GPS implementation. The SMLC manages the processing associated with the location of a mobile and in many cases makes the actual calculation of a mobile’s location. In order to detect interoperability problems caused by implementation differences in SMLCs and mobiles, extensive lab tests using actual SMLCs and expensive field trials are usually carried out.

Now equipped with the new SSE, the ULTS can emulate the function of a real-world SMLC in a lab environment. Spirent Communications’ wireless test solutions aid in all phases of mobile handset development and deployment for the world’s leading chipset, handset and infrastructure manufacturers and mobile service providers.  Spirent is considered by the industry the “one-stop-shop” for CDMA handset performance and certification testing. Among its accomplishments, Spirent has introduced the first and only integrated solution available to test location-capable CDMA phones, a critical element of assisting manufacturers in meeting the U.S. FCC E911 requirements.

Spirent has leveraged its success in mobile performance and certification testing in the CDMA market to also bring comprehensive performance analysis to the GSM and WCDMA market.

External Links

Spirent Communications

GPS Leader Delivers Comprehensive Solution to Ease LBS Deployment in Wireless Carrier Networks

SiRF Technology, a supplier of GPS semiconductor and software solutions, today introduced a trio of new location products and technologies that break key barriers to making location awareness an integral part of mainstream mobile devices. 

Recognizing the need to provide outstanding location capability across a wide variety of mobile devices, applications and networks, SiRF’s comprehensive new location solutions help wireless carriers reduce the cost and risk of location-enabling their networks while enhancing the user experience for location based services (LBS). 

These solutions open the door to a wider variety of location-aware cell phones, smart phones, PDAs and other wireless handheld devices, and enable carriers to meet the rigorous demands of consumer applications.

The new products, to debut next week at the 3GSM World Congress, include a chip-set and an IP platform based on SiRF’s new, third-generation GPS architecture, SiRFstarIII.  With its industry leading performance, SiRFstarIII provides flexibility for location enabling a wide range of mobile devices. 

Multimode GPS

The new SiRFSoft mobile GPS software architecture, also unveiled today, represents a new approach to multimode GPS-enabled location technology.  Geared toward smart phone devices with powerful application processors, SiRFSoft mobile GPS architecture is designed to deliver scalable performance cost-effectively by eliminating the need for a dedicated GPS baseband chip. SiRF today also introduced the SiRFLoc Server platform, incorporating SiRF’s patented SiRFLoc multimode technology.  Deliverable through SiRF’s infrastructure partners, in a carrier-class network location server, the platform supports either standards-based control plane or IP-based user plane operation.

Consumers’ performance expectations in the wireless location market have become much more rigorous.  In order to satisfy consumer expectations, response time for a location application has to be fast, and work in varied wireless environment, under difficult signal conditions – indoors and out – even if the network connection is lost altogether. SiRFStarIII and SiRFSoft both bring unique benefits to mobile devices and are designed to deliver fast times to first fix and high-sensitivity acquisition to make real-time navigation practical where conventional GPS often fails.

Processor efficient

SiRFSoft GPS architecture is optimized for efficient usage of application processor engines that are driving many of today’s smart phone and wireless connected PDAs.  Portable to the market leading platforms such as Intel XScaleTM and OMAPI, its performance is scalable to the available throughput of these devices. 

External Links

SiRF Technology
Intel

iAnywhere Solutions, a subsidiary of Sybase, has announced the availability of the free M-Business Anywhere Developer Edition, which enables developers to deliver Web-based content and applications to PDAs with minimal recoding. In addition, the company unveiled new integration with SQL Anywhere Studio, enabling developers to leverage the market-leading mobile database to create data-driven Web-based mobile applications.

M-Business Anywhere now combines the speed and low TCO of Web development with the power and sophistication of SQL Anywhere Studio for on-device data and synchronisation,” said Ojas Rege, senior director of Mobile Solutions at iAnywhere.

“With M-Business Anywhere, developers can quickly and easily deliver a wide range of Web-based applications right to the palm of users’ hands. And with the new, free Developer Edition, they can take M-Business Anywhere out for a test drive to really get a feel for its capabilities.” 

“We have relied on M-Business Anywhere for many years to deliver time-sensitive information to Republican senators’ mobile devices,” said Tim Petty, director of Information Resources for the U.S. Senate Republican Conference. “With the new Developer Edition, developers can see for themselves how simple it is to mobilise Web content and enterprise applications.”

M-Business Anywhere is the core technology of the popular AvantGo mobile Internet service, which has more than 10 million registered users worldwide. The platform enables companies to mobilise internal and external Web sites as well as a wide range of back-end enterprise applications including CRM, ERP, field service, data collection, inspection, help desk and business intelligence solutions. With the new M-Business Anywhere Developer Edition, developers can create mobile applications that increase the speed and accuracy of data collection, reduce costs and enable faster, more efficient decision-making.

In addition, iAnywhere introduced integration for M-Business Anywhere with SQL Anywhere Studio’s UltraLite technology, a key component of the company’s market-leading mobile database. Integration between UltraLite and M-Business Anywhere allows enterprises to create mobile applications with all the benefits of a relational database on the device and the development and deployment advantages of a Web-based architecture.

 Interested developers can download both the M-Business Anywhere Developer Edition and the latest version of the SQL Anywhere Studio Developer Edition by visiting the link below. This site also features a link to register for the upcoming “Mobile Web Development Fundamentals” Webcast series.

Both M-Business Anywhere and SQL Anywhere Studio leverage an always available architecture, providing support for both wireless and offline “sync and go” connectivity. This is a critical capability in the current wireless landscape, where cost, bandwidth, signal availability, and signal quality present significant issues. This always available access is essential for organisations to keep their mobile workers productive with the information they need, when they need it, while reducing costs associated with connection times.

External Links

iAnywhere developer edition site

ProQuent ACCESS Mobile enables network operators to filter out and control access to inappropriate, indecent and offensive content

ProQuent Systems, provider of intelligent mobile data infrastructure, today announced the launch of ProQuent ACCESS (Authorized Content Control & Electronic Subject Screening) Mobile.

The solution will enable mobile operators, for the first time, to manage and monitor content sent or accessed over their network without any degradation in network performance.

In January 2004, UK mobile network operators Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile, O2 and 3 signed up to a Code of Practice that governs the way content is classified and made available to customers.
The Code, endorsed by UK Communications Minister Stephen Timms, will come into
force by the end of 2004.

ProQuent ACCESS Mobile is the only commercially available solution which enables mobile operators to actively enforce content and access control policies in real-time.

ProQuent ACCESS Mobile can:

*    Avert access to inappropriate mobile Internet sites and content
(including video streams);
*    Filter mobile messages containing inappropriate or offensive material from unapproved sites;
*    Allow operators to manage services based on content
classifications.

It will allow mobile network operators to create tailored service
packages for subscriber groups such as young children or teenagers. Operators will also be able to provide authorized-only access to adult content, chat rooms or gambling sites, for example.

The ProQuent ACCESS Mobile solution is designed to be easily integrated with a mobile network operator’s existing service delivery platform. As content filtering and access control is managed at the network level, mobile phone users do not have to upgrade their handsets or download any software.

In a statement about the launch of the mobile industry Code of Practice, Stephen Timms, Communications Minister, said “This Code is an excellent example of the responsible self-regulation we are keen to encourage among the mobile operators to address issues relating to new types of content now available on mobile handsets. New technology introduces significant benefits and opportunities, but it can also bring new
concerns and we must ensure that safeguards are in place to protect those who are vulnerable, such as children.”

“How to prevent inappropriate and unsuitable content reaching handsets and polluting the mobile Internet is a burning issue for every network operator,” said Tom Hamilton, founder and CTO at ProQuent Systems.

“Operators realize they have a duty of care to provide a safe and controlled mobile environment, but have so far been unable to deliver against this in practice. ProQuent ACCESS Mobile is the first solution to be designed specifically to address this issue and will enable operators to give parents complete peace-of-mind over their children’s use of mobile services.”

The solution is based on the ProQuent MSSP (Mobile Services Switching Point), which provides a flexible platform for operators to manage data applications running on their networks. The ProQuent MSSP scans and filters data traffic and checks Internet access requests against the world’s largest categorized database of inappropriate Web content, created and updated by SurfControl. The SurfControl Content Database includes more than six million URLs and one billion Web pages.

SurfControl reviews and categorizes Web sites in more than 65 languages and 200 countries, and over 35,000 new URLs are added every week. The SurfControl Content Database is kept current with a combination of expert human review, state-of-the-art automated tools and customer submissions.

ProQuent ACCESS Mobile includes three pre-configured service packages:
*    ACCESS Mobile PC for Parental Control
*    ACCESS Mobile EC for Enterprise Control
*    ACCESS Mobile GM for Online Gaming

ProQuent ACCESS Mobile also provides the tools and infrastructure needed for operators to create custom services packages or to integrate control services into pre-existing packages.

External Links

ProQuent
SurfControl