Telecommunications industry…..Technologies…..part 2
2010 has been crazy for me, so far. This is why it has taken me a long time to come up with this second part. I shall keep this one short and crisp.
So, let us begin from where I left in part 1 Telecommunications industry…..Basics…..part 1. Here, I shall attempt to touch upon the various telecom technology phases without going into the nitty-gritty's. You can find tons of technical details (for each technology) on the internet. My aim here is to highlight all the relevant technologies -at one place, in one blog.
Briefly, the technology journey so far -
A) 1G - Analog signal communication networks
B) 2G - Digital communication networks:
• GSM (Global System for Mobile communication, TDMA based network)- high quality voice calls, data services (e.g. SMS messaging service), low speed data transfer
• cdmaOne (IS-95) (CDMA based network) - sending voice and data
C) 2.5G
• GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) - data service that uses packet switching (digital network communication). moderate speed data transfer. Available to GSM users. Provides mobile internet access, & Multimedia Messaging Service
D) 2.75G -EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution, also known as Enhanced GPRS i.e. E-GPRS) - backward compatible and provides much improved data transfer speeds (enabling video & multimedia services). This is an extension on GSM.
E) 3G -
• CDMA2000 (CDMA based) - Includes CDMA2000 1X, EV-DO Rev 0., EV-DO Rev A., EV-DO Rev B. (Evolution Data Optimized) - wireless data transmission for broadband internet . This is backward compatible with cdmaOne (IS-95)
• UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) - This is closely related to GSM/EDGE. It is a CDMA based technology.
Applications: high end services such as videoconferencing, high-speed internet, ultra-fast downloads and interactive gaming amongst other data services on the mobile
My favorite upcoming/New Technologies:
A) LTE (Long Term Evolution) -
LTE is a 4G technology. It is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System.
• It provides interoperability with existing UMTS
• Supports flexible carrier bandwidths
• complements HSPA(High Speed Packet Access) networks with higher data rates
• Supports advanced Antenna techniques like multiple input-multiple output (MIMO), spatial division medium access (SDMA).
• Supports an all-IP flat networking architecture.
Applications: High speed mobile broadband which in turn enables rich Real-time interactive mobile applications
B) Unlicensed Mobile Access
This provides access to GSM and GPRS mobile services over unlicensed spectrum technologies such as Bluetooth and 802.11. This leads to a ubiquitous network using dual mode handsets.
Application: Enables users to switch between wireless LANs/WANs and Cellular networks using a GSM/Wi-Fi dual-mode mobile handset GAN enables the convergence of mobile, fixed and Internet telephony, sometimes called Fixed Mobile Convergence.
A Future possibility: Imagine two rooms- Room A has a WiFi internet router. Assume that the cellular network is not present here.
And Room B has the cellular network. But there is no WiFi internet here.
A person shall be able to initiate a call in Room A and move to Room B, without disruption of the call! The mobile device would automatically switch from the internet network to the cellular network and vice-versa.
Other promising technologies include
C) Near Field Communication (NFC)
D) Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS)
E) Indoor Base Stations
F) WiMAX
All these technologies come with their own set of applications and challenges. And this is where, I believe, BPM can score points. Stay tuned for the next part, where I shall highlight the generic challenges.
