re: GSMA Task Force Fast Track Solutions
>> GSM Association Task Force Approach Delivering Fast Track Solutions
Cannes, France
20 February 2002:
The GSM Association has announced details of progress achieved by a number of fast track 'task forces' formed to address a range of critical path issues in the transition to widespread adoption of wireless data services.
The task forces activities have centred on the core areas of Services (including 'M-Services' and service creation), Interoperability, Roaming, Terminal Certification and Wireless LAN/ Bluetooth. The task forces were created to focus on the major requirements as defined by the CTOs of the leading network operators globally over the last six months.
"While there is an enormous amount of work in progress throughout the industry on the transition from voice to data-centric wireless services, there are key areas that our CTOs identified where we can cut to the chase and come up with tangible results in a short space of time," said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association. "Through the collaborative efforts of our members and by funnelling their requirements into dedicated, specialist teams we have been able to produce a rapid response to their key needs."
"This new structure is about operator requirements, prioritisation, speed, efficiency, and delivering clear results. Because the strategy represents a much more focussed the way the Association does business, the results must speak for themselves. The success of the M-Services Initiative in particular demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach."
Moving Forward with M-Services & M-Commerce:
The GSM Association's 'M-Services initiative' Phase II Requirements are being adopted worldwide to ensure maximum customer satisfaction in the implementation of data services over GPRS networks.
The GSM Association initiated M-Services in June last year to enhance the consistency of wireless data service delivery to consumers and accelerate growth of GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) globally. Phase I of the requirements received widespread industry endorsement and commitment from operators, handset manufacturers and the application developer community.
Building on the success of Phase I, the M-Services task force co-ordinated widespread GSMA Member and Associate Member input, together with industry consultation to achieve the evolution of the scheme for Phase II. These further define the M-Services requirements and build on the principle of open architecture and will be issued by the GSMA on 20 February 2002.
"M-Services is a textbook example of how the task force principle brings results," said David Hills, the GSM Association's Executive Director of Technology. "We have classified the areas that will provide ongoing points of reference for manufacturers to define in detail the design and behaviour of the handsets, facilitate higher levels of customer satisfaction and ultimately increase usage and revenue for the industry."
As part of the M-Services programme, another group has focused on the requirements for M-Commerce. A set of models has been developed which provide a mechanism for operators wishing to enter the M-Commerce sector to better understand the issues, which need to be considered. Work in this group is ongoing and other industry groups are being contacted to provide input and their requirements in this critical business segment.
Roaming:
Key to the success of wireless data services is roaming capability on GPRS and future 3GSM service. The GSM Association is driving GPRS roaming to be as seamless and successful as voice roaming, and the focus groups have achieved considerable results in a very short time. The Roaming Task Force coordinates the activities of the GSMA's Roaming focused Working Groups and has been examining some of the possible impediments to the roll-out of GPRS roaming.
In terms of charging principles and an inter-operator settlement template for wholesale charging between operators, all the enablers required for GPRS roaming are in place, and the coming months will see the task force expand and fine tune the charging principles associated with the first 3GSM services. Planning for 3GSM is considerably more complex, because operators will be able to develop a wide range of services according to market demand.
The Transferred Account Procedure (TAP3) GSM Association billing standard has also been developed and is designed to handle every conceivable data billing scenario at the wholesale settlement level. As well as tackling complex issues like M-Commerce and billing for content rather than network usage, the TAP3 standard must also accommodate a growing number of players. With data services, it is not only other GSM operators that need to be reimbursed for minutes of use or services, but also content and application providers, for example: Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) and Location Based Services.
"It's often difficult to imagine in detail how a particular service will actually work in the field," said Hills. "We have a tremendous opportunity with Multimedia Services over GPRS, and it is extremely important for both end-users and operators that the appropriate charging principles are defined so services such as MMS and Location Based Services can be implemented.
We're ready to roam - and the Roaming Task Force has been working closely with the GRX carriers to ensure timely implementation of global peering."
The Association has also made great strides in Inter-Standard Roaming, with the first successful GSM-CDMA inter-standard, international roaming achieved via an unprecedented cooperation between the GSM Association's Global Roaming Forum (GGRF), Korean CDMA operator KTF, and GSM operators Bouygues Telecom in France and CSL in Hong Kong, among others. The GGRF provides a collaborative opportunity for the discussion and development of technical requirements and commercial standards for roaming between GSM and other wireless technologies. In addition to its GSM-CDMA work, the GGRF has also fostered the development of GSM-TDMA (with several operators expected to launch GSM-TDMA roaming in the first quarter of 2002) and GSM-iDEN interoperability (in commercial operation since 2000).
Terminal Certification:
The Terminals Certification task force is focused on ensuring that consumers have a stable platform with which to consistently and reliably access services. Acting as the link between operators and standards organisations, the terminals task force is communicating requirements to ensure they are reflected in the new generation of standards.
"We are providing a focus for the sharing of knowledge from a wide range of industry areas," said Hills. "Our ultimate goal is to enable the creation of a quality environment for customers which is context sensitive yet maintains stable user profiles. The terminal is the only part of the network that the subscriber ever sees. If we can create a mindset change in the fundamental perception of mobile handset usage, we will make a major contribution to the successful introduction of data services."
The Terminal Certification Task Force is working closely with the GSMA's Terminals Working Group, the Global Certification Forum (GCF) and also the 3GPP to ensure prioritisation of test cases is carried out, and is further refining the verification and validation of test processes to drive forward terminal certification expediently.
WLAN & Bluetooth:
The Wireless LAN task force is currently considering the implications of new short-range technologies such as WLAN (802.11b) and WPAN (802.15) a.k.a Bluetooth. This task force is exploring technical issues such as how WLAN & WPAN can be used by operators to complement the GSM family of wireless communications. Issues such as interference, capacity, security, authentication, and billing are high on the agenda. The Terminals Working Group is supporting this work by providing input on Bluetooth user scenarios, interoperability and co-existence.
Interoperability - Minimum Performance Requirements:
Interoperability matters are the focus of the Minimum Performance Requirements (MPR) task force, which is looking at the evolution to 3GSM services. Operators need to evolve their networks in the most cost-effective way, so the less network re-engineering required, the better in terms of bottom line. The MPR group is working to document a robust set of procedures, based on the lessons learned from implementing GPRS to ensure that 3GSM terminals and infrastructure elements are tested to a common standard. This will, through a collaborative approach, minimise operators' interoperability costs and maximise roaming potential.
"Given the huge investment that has been made in 3G, we're looking at ways to provide the industry with cost benefits. Prevention is better than cure, and if we can set the performance requirements up front, the evolutionary process to 3GSM should be far more economic, faster, and less complicated," said David Hills.
Requirements for Services
The wireless data applications market is set to be energised with the introduction of a baseline set of GPRS data services by the GSM Association. By clarifying global requirements, the Association plans to encourage the development of commercial applications that will promote increased consumer uptake of the GPRS services.
The GSM Association's services portfolio is the result of detailed consultations with operators looking for a catalyst to generate new services and applications for GPRS customers. The work is being facilitated by the End-to-End Features and Services task force.
"The wireless data market is driven by the range of applications and services that appeal to the subscriber," said Rob Conway. "We have acted to define a set of easy to use services as a general base that will facilitate faster implementation of a wider choice of commercial applications."
The following services have been identified by the operators as services they feel are needed during the first half of 2002 to boost global GPRS uptake and enable seamless roaming:
* Location Based Services, to include:
- Location Tracking
- Point of Interest
- Road Traffic Assistance
* Multimedia Messaging Service
* Customised Information Service
* Mobile Office Service
* Unified Messaging
A number of standardised services were included in the original second generation GSM specification.
When the standards bodies began work on data services, they agreed to only standardise bearers, enablers and toolkits, and not to focus on services.
The GSM Association initiative is set to drive the creation of these baseline services and energise the data services market.
With the services portfolio defined, the next steps are under way, with the documentation of the features and enablers required, and the minimum number of options needed within the standardised enablers to implement each service. Service Implementation Guides are being produced, which collate and publish all the information needed by an operator or vendor to implement a specific service.
"Essentially, the operators have defined a set of services that they envisage starting their portfolio's with," said Conway. "They know what they want, we're providing the interface with the various standards bodies and the industry in general to refine the requirements, highlight and resolve the issues, and provide a clean guide to implementation.
Each operator will bring its own individual specific differentiation within the marketplace ensuring there is robust competition." <<
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- Eric - |
