Mobile TV

Mobile TV is the latest technology where the TV services are streamed on to the mobile or hand-held devices. Mobile TV is going to get more and more prevalent over the next couple years . There is lot of momentum in the area, even if there are a few commercial products so far.

Already, many mobile operators offer a selection of television channels or individual shows, which are streamed across their third-generation (3G) networks. In South Korea, television is also sent to mobile phones via satellite and terrestrial broadcast networks, which is far more efficient than sending video across mobile networks; similar broadcasts will begin in Japan soon. In Europe, the Italian arm of 3, a mobile operator, recently acquired Canale 7, a television channel, with a view to launching mobile- TV broadcasts in Italy in the second half of 2006. Similar mobile- TV networks will also be built in Finland and America, and are being tested in many other countries.

At the moment, mobile TV is mostly streamed over 3G networks. But sending an individual data stream to each viewer is inefficient and will be unsustainable in the long run if mobile TV takes off. So the general consensus is that 3G streaming is a prelude to the construction of dedicated mobile- TV broadcast networks, which transmit digital TV signals on entirely different frequencies to those used for voice and data. There are three main standards: DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handhelds) , favoured in Europe; DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting), which has been adopted in South Korea and Japan; and Media FLO , which is being rolled out in America. Watching TV using any of these technologies requires a TV -capable handset, of course. Among the three technologies, DVB-H was officially adopted by ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute) as the standard for mobile TV services in Europe.

Just as there are several competing mobile- TV technologies, there are also many possible business models. Mobile operators might choose to build their own mobile- TV broadcast networks; or they could form a consortium and build a shared network; or existing broadcasters could build such networks. Some channels will be given away for free, while others are for paying subscribers only. The outcome will vary from country to country, depending on the regulatory environment and the availability of spectrum. In Italy, 3 bought Canale 7 to get its hands on its spectrum and its broadcaster's licence; in Britain, Finland and America, the scarcity of spectrum makes shared networks most likely.

Among the various mobile TV technologies, the likeliest near-term solution will be to unify under the ETSI-endorsed DVB-H standard. It is considered to be is the best delivery system currently available for most markets, according to many of the operators and vendors.

DVB-H:

DVB-H is a terrestial digital TV standard that uses less power in receiving client than DVB-T (DVB Terrestial), and allows the receiving device to move freely while receiving the transmission, thus making it ideal for mobile phones and haldheld computers to receive digital TV broadcasting over the digiTV network (without using mobile phone networks at all) .
The basic DVB-T television standard has been modified to enable the receivers to be less power hungry, as DVB-T is used in an environment where power consumption is not a major consideration. This power reduction has been achieved by time slicing so that the receiver is only switched on in those time intervals when viewing the channel of interest. These intervals could be anything between a few milliseconds and a few seconds. It therefore reduces power consumption by being switched off for the rest of the time when non-required data is being transmitted. There is therefore a trade off between the data rate required for the service and how much this can be packed into short bursts to save the battery power of the receiver.

Like DMB, DVB-H uses COFDM but with a bandwidth of either 6, 7, or 8 MHz. Additionally it uses a range of different types of modulation from QPSK up to 64QAM and this enables it to have a very high data rate. However it is more susceptible to signal variations and synchronisation problems. Additionally higher transmitter powers are required than those needed for DMB. Also frequencies that are likely to be used have not yet been allocated but it is thought they might be within the existing television bands. The wide RF bandwidth also means that current drain is increased, as wide bandwidth amplifiers are inherently more power hungry.

As it is really just an extension to DVB-T, DVB-H uses the same specs DVB-T. Video is normally encoded with MPEG-2 (but can be encoded with MPEG-1 as well, although very rarely used) and the standard, just like its other siblings DVB-C (Cable) , DVB-S (Satellite) and DVB-T, is mostly used in Europe.

Benefits of DVB-H:

• An approved standard for handheld equipment by ETSI (European Telecommunications Institute) with a high adoption rate worldwide
• DVB-H is an open industry standard that was developed by the DVB Project , an industry consortium and is currently being supported by leading companies throughout the wireless industry.
• It benefits from existing DVB-T infrastructure components, which reduces initial investments in many cases
• It provides the best user experience in the mobile environment, with an energy saving handset that is only ‘on’ 10% of the time, programme guide, soft handover and in-building coverage
• It offers an excellent, broadcast-quality picture, because the screen resolution is of a similar standard to VHS
• Battery consumption is reduced by 90% due to time-slicing technology
• DVB-H comes from the proven DVB standard used in Europe for standard DTV transmission with a low power mode for battery-powered devices.
• Efficient use of bandwidth enables up to 55 mobile channels plus scalability
• It is supported by publicly available air interface specifications helping to drive device interoperability and market development
• Its security includes end-to-end control of stream encryption, generation of decryption keys and delivery of keys to consumers in a billing-integrated way
• It will be accessible by an estimated audience of approximately 300 million mobile users by 2006

High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA)

High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a packet based technology for W-CDMA downlink with data transmission rates of 4 to 5 times that of current generation 3G networks (UMTS) and 15 times faster than GPRS. The latest release boosts downlink speeds from the current end-user rate of 384 kbps (up to 2 Mbps according to standards) to a maximum value according to standards of 14.4 Mbps. Real life end-user speeds will be in the range of 2 to 3 Mbps.

HSDPA provides a smooth evolutionary path for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) networks to higher data rates and higher capacities, in the same way as Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) does in the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) world. The introduction of shared channels for different users will guarantee that channel resources are used efficiently in the packet domain, and will be less expensive for users than dedicated channels.

HSDPA was introduced in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) release 5 standards. Assuming comparable cell sizes, it is anticipated that by using multi-code transmission it will be possible to achieve peak data rates of about 10 Mbit/s (the maximum theoretical rate is 14.4 Mbit/s). This will result in a six- to seven-fold throughput increase during an average downlink packet session compared with the Downlink Shared CHannel (DSCH) standards of 3GPP release 99.

3GPP standards beyond release 5 will aim to achieve further throughput increases, say peak data rates in the range 20 to 30 Mbit/s, by using Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) or other antenna array techniques, and possibly asymmetric allocation of frequency spectrum in multi-carrier cells (e.g. a further 100% downlink packet session throughput increase by allocating an additional 5 MHz unpaired band).
HSDPA achieves its performance gains from the following radio features:

• High speed channels shared both in the code and time domains
• Adaptive modulation and coding schemes: Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) and 16QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation).
• Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) retransmission protocol.
• Short transmission time interval (TTI)
• Fast packet scheduling controlled by the Medium Access Control - high speed (MAC-hs) protocol in Node B.
• Fast scheduling

HSDPA will make life easy for 3G customers, providing vastly better service for both corporate users and individuals, with data delivered at speeds comparable to or better than fixed-line broadband access systems.

• Corporate users will have easy and secure mobile access to corporate networks, with rapid retrieval and downloading of confidential corporate information.
• Consumers will enjoy superior quality for video services, including video streaming and gaming.
• All customers will enjoy fast Web browsing, with rapid access to graphics-heavy Internet sites.

With the availability of HSDPA notebook cards (and a deployed network), the question will be, with ubiquitous HSDPA coverage, will anyone pay for a hotspot service available at only selected locations? There are two possible scenarios where they might. Bandwidth at Wi-Fi hotspots may be hugely price competitive, or even free; and Wi-Fi will come pre-installed on many notebooks. The success of the Intel Centrino platform will see the majority of notebooks ship with in-built WLAN support by the end of 2005, and slotting in an additional wireless card may be overkill for some users. However, with Intel planning to add W-CDMA to Centrino next year, HSDPA may also be on its wireless technology checklist.

As HSDPA settles more into mainstream awareness, we should expect the usual levels of hype to start flying. Already, the technology is being flagged as a potential competitor to DSL, placing a lucrative portion of fixed-line operator customers in the hands of the cellular providers. WiMAX is another opponent being lined-up for a bout with HSDPA. How effectively the 3G upgrade can compete in these arenas will depend on infrastructure cost and coverage density. Regardless, we must admit that the introduction of this new cellular standard has made things a little more interesting.

4G or Fourth Generation Networks

4G or Fourth Generation is future technology for mobile and wireless comunications. It will be the successor for the 3Rd Generation (3G) network technology. Currently 3G networks are under deployement. Approximatly 4G deployments are expected to be seen around 2010 to 2015.

The basic voice was the driver for second-generation mobile and has been a considerable success. Currently , video and TV services are driving forward third generation (3G) deployment. And in the future, low cost, high speed data will drive forward the fourth generation (4G) as short-range communication emerges. Service and application ubiquity, with a high degree of personalization and synchronization between various user appliances, will be another driver. At the same time, it is probable that the radio access network will evolve from a centralized architecture to a distributed one.

The evolution from 3G to 4G will be driven by services that offer better quality (e.g. multimedia, video and sound) thanks to greater bandwidth, more sophistication in the association of a large quantity of information, and improved personalization. Convergence with other network (enterprise, fixed) services will come about through the high session data rate. It will require an always-on connection and a revenue model based on a fixed monthly fee. The impact on network capacity is expected to be significant. Machine-to-machine transmission will involve two basic equipment types: sensors (which measure parameters) and tags (which are generally read/write equipment).

It is expected that users will require high data rates, similar to those on fixed networks, for data and streaming applications. Mobile terminal usage (laptops, Personal digital assistants, handhelds) is expected to grow rapidly as they become more user friendly. Fluid high quality video and network reactivity are important user requirements. Key infrastructure design requirements include: fast response, high session rate, high capacity, low user charges, rapid return on investment for operators, investment that is in line with the growth in demand, and simple autonomous terminals. The infrastructure will be much more distributed than in current deployments, facilitating the introduction of a new source of local traffic: machine-to-machine.

Key 4G technologies:

• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
• Software Defined Radio (SDR)
• Multiple-input multiple-output ( MIMO )

Initially DoCoMo planned to introduce 4G services around 2010. Recently DoCoMo announced plans to introduce 4G services from 2006, i.e. four years earlier than previously planned. NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced that high-speed packet transmission with 1 Gbps data rate in the downlink was achieved successfully in a laboratory experiment using fourth-generation (4G) mobile communication radio access equipments.

The key enablers for the 4G are:

• Sufficient spectrum, with associated sharing mechanisms.
• Coverage with two technologies: parent (2G, 3G, WiMAX) for real-time delivery, and discontinuous pico cell for high data rate delivery.
• Caching technology in the network and terminals.
• OFDM and MIMO.
• IP mobility.
• Multi-technology distributed architecture.
• Fixed-mobile convergence (for indoor service).
• Network selection mechanisms.

Internet Protocol Version 6

Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is a new suite of standard protocols for the network layer of the Internet defined by IETF to replace the current version of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). IPv6 is also called as Next Generation Internet Protocol or IPng.

IPv6 is designed to be an evolutionary step from IPv4. It is a natural increment to IPv4. It can be installed as a normal software upgrade in internet devices and is interoperable with the current IPv4. Its deployment strategy is designed to not have any flag days or other dependencies. IPv6 is designed to run well on high performance networks (e.g. Gigabit Ethernet, OC-12, ATM, etc.) and at the same time still be efficient for low bandwidth networks (e.g. wireless). In addition, it provides a platform for new internet functionality that will be required in the near future.

IPv6 describes rules for three types of addressing: unicast (one host to one other host), anycast (one host to the nearest of multiple hosts), and multicast (one host to multiple hosts). Additional advantages of IPv6 are:

• Options are specified in an extension to the header that is examined only at the destination, thus speeding up overall network performance.
• The introduction of an "anycast" address provides the possibility of sending a message to the nearest of several possible gateway hosts with the idea that any one of them can manage the forwarding of the packet to others. Anycast messages can be used to update routing tables along the line.
• Packets can be identified as belonging to a particular "flow" so that packets that are part of a multimedia presentation that needs to arrive in "real time" can be provided a higher quality-of-service relative to other customers.
• The IPv6 header now includes extensions that allow a packet to specify a mechanism for authenticating its origin, for ensuring data integrity, and for ensuring privacy.

IPv6 Features:

• New header format
• Large address space
• Efficient and hierarchical addressing and faster routing infrastructure
• Stateless and stateful address configuration
• Mobile support (Mobile IPv6)
• Built-in network layer security
• Better support for QoS
• New protocol for neighboring node interaction
• Extensibility

Addressing Format :

An IPv4 address is a 32-bit value that's usually written in "dotted quad" representation, where each "quad" represents a byte value between 0 and 255, for example:

127.0.0.1

This allows a theoretical number of 2^32 or ~4 billion hosts to be connected on the Internet. Due to grouping, not all addresses are available today.

IPv6 addresses use 128-bit technology, which results in 2^128 theoretically addressable hosts. This allows a really big number of machines to be addressed, and it will fit all today's requirements plus PDAs, cell phones, and even IP phones in the near future without any sweat. When writing IPv6 addresses, they are usually divided into groups of 16 bits written as four hex digits, and the groups are separated by colons. An example is:

fe80::2a0:d2ff:fea5:e9f5

This shows a special thing -- a number of consecutive zeros can be abbreviated by a single "::" once in the v6 number. The above address is thus equivalent to fe80:0:00:000:2a0:d2ff:fea5:e9f5 -- leading zeros within groups can be omitted.

Mobile IPv6:

Mobile IPv6 allows an IPv6 node to be mobile - to arbitrarily change its location on an IPv6 network - and still maintain existing connections. When an IPv6 node changes its location, it might also change its link. When an IPv6 node changes its link, its IPv6 address might also change in order to maintain connectivity. There are mechanisms to allow for the change in addresses when moving to a different link, such as stateful and stateless address autoconfiguration for IPv6. However, when the address changes, the existing connections of the mobile node that are using the address assigned from the previously connected link cannot be maintained and are ungracefully terminated. The key benefit of Mobile IPv6 is that even though the mobile node changes locations and addresses, the existing connections through which the mobile node is communicating are maintained.