Another problem with HSPA phone is the spectreum standard. When browsing the specs of the new Windows OS Experia X1 phone, we could notice that it will come in two hardware versions: one supporting HSPA in the 850/1700/1900/2100 MHz bands and another one in the 900/1700/1900/2100 bands. The first variant is probably targeted at the US and Australian market since they have networks in the 850 and 1900 MHz bands and that one odd HSPA network of T-Mobile in 1700 MHz. The 2100 MHz is for roaming. The second variant seems to address the European market where we might see UMTS migrating to the 900 MHz band soon beyond the first network in Finland using this frequency.

HSPA Phone: Quad band is not enuff :).

Recently, UWB is implemented as Bluetooth, Wireless USB, or WLP-IP. UWB provides a standard physical layer (PHY) and media access layer (MAC) across various protocols. Handset manufacturers can cost-effectively pack multi-protocol functionality into a single device, holding down complexity and cost.

UWB uses multiband (MB) OFDM technology that transmits data simultaneously over multiple carriers spaced apart at precise frequencies. This results on high spectral flexibility and resilience to RF interferences. Flexibility is a key element. Using MB-OFDM allows the same hardware device to be dynamically fine-tuned on software to comply with different regulatory environments. The underlying OFDM technology has also be proven in other widely deployed communications system, such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and ADSL.

With UWB in every handset, users will have a 10-meter bubble of flexible, wireless auto-discovery that moves anywhere they go; ready to connect with applications in their proximity. UWB will also create exciting new opportunities for applications using handset-to-handset communications, such as Personal Area Social Networking (PASN). PASN could inject a personal touch into existing social network applications (Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Xanga, etc). As these applications proliferate, an increasing number of users will rely on their handsets as mobile personal servers. Combining voice, PDA functions, email, web browsing, cameras, and music player is not new. But it will become primary necessity.

Indirectly, the timing of launching is supported by Apple. OHA could be observed as a resonation of the air of “let’s reinvent the mobile phone industry” coined by Apple with its iPhone. However, there was little mention on how Google will make money. Android is free of charge. Google plans only to expand the advertising market, after Android has a large market share.

Meanwhile, here’s the list of OHA Founding Members: Aplix, Ascender, Audience, Broadcom, China Mobile, eBay, Esmertec, Google, HTC, Intel, KDDI, LivingImage, LG, Marvell, Motorola, NMS, Noser, NTT Docomo, Nuance, Nvidia, PackerVideo, Qualcomm, Samsung, SiRF, SkyPop, SoniVox, Sprint Nextel, Synapsis, TAT, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Texas Instruments, T-Mobile, and Wind River.

On the positive side, WiMAX has received support form the ITU, and Cisco. ITU has approved WiMAX as a 3G standard, including it in the IMT-2000 set of standards for international mobile telecommunications. IMT-2000 family of standards will now support four different access technologies: OFDMA (incl WiMAX), FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA.

Network equipment manufacturer Cisco has launched its way into the WiMAX market, by acquiring Navini Networks for US$330m. Navini has series of WiMAX products, which will now form part of the Cisco range. This way, WiMAX is expected to offer worldwide broadband wireless network, and to capture millions of new Internet users.

WiMAX now has both strong opportunities and threats. Discussing these matters, we should not overlook the different nature of Fixed WiMAX (IEEE 802.16d), Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e), and incoming Next Generation Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16m). This year, WiMAX will be one of the sexiest technology to observe.

There are currently three candidates to be considered as 4G standards. They are the LTE (long-term evolution), UMB (ultramobile broadband), and WiMAX II (IEEE 802.16.m). Other candidates could also be submitted until 2009. Then the ITU-R will start working on detailed specifications.

LTE was developed by 3GPP (the GSM group, mainly Ericsson), while UMB was proposed by 3GPP (the CDMA 2000 group, mainly Qualcomm), and WiMAX II by WiMAX Forum (mainly Intel). The table above compares some aspects of the candidates. All transmissions use OFDMA, except uplink part of the LTE, which uses single-carrier FDMA to improve power efficiency. UMB promises to reach data rate up to 288 Mb/s (with 20 MHz band), while the LTE noted 250 Mb/s. WiMAX II promises to break 1 Gb/s barrier in stationary mode.

Industry observers speculate that ultimately, 4G could end up as a combination of different approaches. Worse :), different carriers could simply deploy the technology of their choice, regardless of standardisation. And, still, 4G adoption may not occur until the standards process plays out and vendors have begun recovering their investments in 3G and 3.5G technology.

I found a site discussing the initiative to the context awareness by creating a middleware. The name is MIDAS: middleware for intelligent discovery of context-aware services. MIDAS exemplifies how to exploit context awareness based on user/device/service profile metadata and semantic-based matchmaking to provide advanced user-centric service discovery. Here’s its architecture:

The MIDAS components facilitate profile encoding, manage user contexts, identify proper discovery scopes, and provide personalized service views depending on user context.

The MIDAS discovery model identifies three key entities involved in the discovery process: users, devices, and services. Users are the principals that can provide and request services and interact by accessing services via heterogeneous devices. Services are “black boxes” encapsulating physical/logical resources and providing the functions to operate on them. All MIDAS entities have profiles that describe their characteristics. To support user-centric discovery, MIDAS associates each user with a personal context space during each discovery session.

A profile has a modular structure and it is composed of different parts: identification, capabilities, requirements, and binding. Each profile part can be split into two categories: static metadata, e.g. entity names, user interests, and service functions; and dynamic metadata, e.g. entity location and device battery status. All profiles are represented in OWL.

MIDAS implementations are under development. There are some case studies discussed on its website. One of them is the NDA: News Discovery Assistant. NDA enables mobile users to access information services available on the Internet, such as newspaper reading services and radio/television digital broadcasting services. NDA retrieves information services that are available in the nearby of the current user location and manages access to these services, to provide mobile users with the news they are interested in.

A good start, isn’t it? Check the site now: MIDAS

The next-generation network (NGN) should be perceived as a composite of autonomous domains that intersect to cooperate based on dynamic service level agreements. Daidalos project addresses interoperator federations horizontally and vertically. Horizontal federations develop between access network providers, between service providers, or between pervasive operators. Vertical federations are established between mixed combinations of wireless access network providers, operators, or service providers, as well as pervasive service providers.

Traditional network architectures do not attempt to infer user needs from a user’s environmental context. In the Daidalos system, services are assumed to be adaptable to network conditions and reconfigurable. Bringing the user into focus encompasses user-controlled service customization and automated service adaptation. The project integrates mechanisms for service personalization and context awareness. This is one step further than the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS), which currently only considers rich presence and basic personalization. A subsystem called the service provisioning platform (SPP) incorporates a modular and extensible toolbox for fragmented models and federations, and allows different entities from different domains to interact.

Separation of the local and global mobility management domains paves the way to better support for federations. Mobility has been further enhanced by inclusion of both terminal and network initiated handovers. Key innovations include decoupling of a user from a mobile terminal at the system level through the virtual identity (VID); increased independence of network access technology by means of a generic abstraction layer; and selection of the preferred network attachment based on inputs provided by network discovery functions, network interfaces, user preferences, current networking context, and operator policies in different access technologies and domains. In such a structured mobile environment, Daidalos integrates negotiation and management of network resources for legacy and multimedia services in the local mobility domain.

One of the key issues on Beyond-3G network is ubiquity . Ubiquitous access to services is synonymous with universal availability of a service, regardless of network technology, mobile device, service type, or user location. User movement, or other context changes, can trigger service reconfiguration. For this purpose, context engines for collecting and processing relevant information from the network infrastructure and terminal sensors are introduced to feed relevant data to pervasive applications.

Those necessities, among others, are the motivation to develop context awareness. Strictly speaking, context awareness refers to the capability of a system to be sensitive and react to user and network-environment variations and thus assist the dynamic adaptation to those changes. But context information is complex and heterogeneous as the services that it intends to support. Therefore handling and distributing context efficiently for enhancing wireless systems and multimedia services is one of the main problems being faced in the mobile applications.

Even though, some researches has been starting on this area. It could start with simple things, like automatic insertion of user’s location into searches. When you google for Starbucks location, you would find different results (address, phone number, etc), depends on your location, without having to type your location.

For the next step, context awareness will use other relevant information: user’s profile, hence his/her lifestyle, communications history, friends and other relations, and anything imaginable. Compiling those information with several artificial intelligence methods will enhance the services. A Context Information Dissemination System (CIDS) must be implemented. CIDS aims to achieve efficient collection and dissemination of context information from devices spread and distributed in ad hoc networks. It provides context information to overlay applications, in a specific and formal object-oriented context information model, that helps the management and provisioning of new context-aware services or even the modification of the functionality of applications or services in operation.

As discussed everywhere, Mobile 2.0 is mentioned as a successor to Web 2.0. Mobile 2.0 is obviously not only a scheme to use Web 2.0 with your mobile phone. Mobile 2.0 extending Web 2.0’s capabilities to mobile devices while coping with their limitations (low computing power, short battery lifetime, small display, etc) and leveraging the opportunities of location-based computing. Context awareness, I believe, would be one of the enablers for Mobile 2.0. Pervasive and context-aware support infrastructure will create new business opportunities.

Globally nearly one-third of mobile subscribers will use a mobile broadband connection by 2012. This will represent over 1 billion users, driven by demand from North America, Western Europe and, to a lesser extent, by the Far East and China.

However, the main gating issue that will dictate take-up for this technology will be the availability of suitable devices; whether handsets, laptops, datacards, or other types of device, such as media players.

“HSPA’s in-service status in 2007 makes it already the most advanced mobile broadband technology, with many further deployments due in the near and medium term,” says the report author Howard Wilcox. “For the 3G service provider base, HSPA represents a software upgrade rather than a new network investment; HSPA will also benefit from technology ‘leap’ subscribers in the developing nations, and handset churn elsewhere, with users migrating to HSPA-based broadband as the norm.”

Wilcox adds: “Over the last year there has been significant activity in the Mobile WiMAX market, including many trials and contract announcements by leading vendors and operators. Mobile WiMAX is now positioned to achieve a single digit-per-cent proportion of the global mobile broadband subscriber base by 2012. This will represent a significant attainment for this new mobile platform.” Juniper believes that the WiMAX market will see substantial growth after 2012, as new networks are built out and new applications are adopted.

p>As published on The IET Network today, Nokia is preparing to sell part of its chipset design operation to STMicroelectronics as part of a larger plan to step back from silicon development.Nokia said it will continue to develop technology for wireless modems but will license that to chipset suppliers, who will implement the electronics for the phone maker. Chipset suppliers will be able to sell the parts they develop using the modem technology to Nokia’s competitors.

“This is a pragmatic move in the face of an increasingly complex technology environment,” said Niklas Savander, executive vice president, of Nokia’s technology platforms division. “Companies in this industry need to focus on areas where they can add value and partner with others where it makes sense. We believe that our renewed strategy will allow us to concentrate on developing core chipset technologies, while increasing our R&D efficiencies and improving our agility in a fast-moving marketplace.”

Nokia said it is now working with four chipset suppliers. Texas Instruments will continue to be a supplier across all protocols. Broadcom has been chosen as a supplier in EDGE, Infineon Technologies as a supplier in GSM and ST as a supplier in 3G.

Nokia has awarded ST a contract to design a chipset for High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) in an arrangement that will see about 200 designers based in Finland and the UK move from Nokia to ST. The companies are still negotiating over the staff transfer, which is one of the conditions for the HSPA contract.

Nokia said it chose Broadcom for EDGE based on its most recent single-chip baseband design.

“Nokia has been following the development of Broadcom’s Venus single chip EDGE processor and we were impressed with the progress made by the Broadcom team,” said Peter Ropke, senior vice president of Nokia’s mass-market mobile-phones operation.