In future wireless broadband networks, an open terminal, or Intelligent Internet Device (IID), will act as a portal. It will integrate services and provide customer experiences. IIDs can access networks through different air interfaces and use only one widget or button for a given service application, including voice and data services. Data services in the 3G/4G era will be as popular as SMS in the 2G era. Unlike voice and SMS, data services have spawned from the Internet, and are therefore more diversified, complex, and flexible.
In the future wireless broadband market, we can predict that:
In the future wireless broadband market, we can predict that:
- The voice service will lose its dominant position and become a basic service. The technical threshold of SIP-based VoIP will continue to decrease, and most SPs will provide a VoIP "button". Voice services–and especially VoIP–will supplement other services in the same way that voice currently supplements IM in MSN. The traditional telecom operation mode that only provides a voice service will vanish.
- Streaming media will play an even more pivotal role in data services. The ARPU (for data and voice) of streaming media will be replaced by other indices such as average bandwidth speed (ABWS) and the average bandwidth consumption per month (ABWC). In addition, a greater range of business models will accommodate ARPU of data services. Listing services top-down in terms of requirements on network transmission quality yields the following order: online games, real-time videos, voice services, streaming media, Web browsing, and non-real-time services (such as FTP, BT, SMTP/POP). These services have different requirements for network indices such as jitter, delay, bandwidth, QoS, QoE, and security. Streaming media most closely bonds the requirements of subscribers and the provisioning capability of networks. As a key broadband data service, it will no doubt increase popularity among subscribers, and consume the major share of bandwidth resources.
Spectrum resources will be the key
The spectrum is inherently a rare resource. Shannon's theory holds that channel capacity is influenced by two factors: spectrum bandwidth and SNR. It is impossible to fully eliminate noise, and increases in signal strength are limited. Hence, spectrum resources are vital to meeting the increasing demand of subscribers for wireless data traffic volumes.
In most countries, high quality spectrum resources have been historically occupied by narrowband voice, radio, and television. This includes most civil spectrum resources and a certain amount of dedicated spectrum resources for the military, civil aviation, railway, security industries, and for radio and television. In future, these high quality spectrum resources will be gradually released for new communication technologies applications, albeit as part of a very slow process. This is the reason why the white-space spectrum is so valuable.
Among existing, advanced wireless broadband technologies, HSPA and WiMAX possess the advantages of precocity. In contrast to other technologies, the two have a developmental window of opportunity spanning 3 to 4 years, and will be allocated frequency resources before other technologies. The application of HSPA can target the personal mobile broadband (MBB) market, while WiMAX can focus on home and enterprise broadband services. In consideration of market competition and investment protection, HSPA and WiMAX will form significant wireless broadband technologies in the coming years.
New technologies and concepts
Cloud computing
For many years, computing resources have been exploited and expanded in the information and communication field to compensate for the dearth and expense of bandwidth resources. Increases in bandwidth availability coupled with a decrease in costs will soon bring the advantages of cloud computing into sharper relief. If the majority of core computing resources gather into a "cloud", only simple processing tasks such as optimizing visual and aural effects are required at the client level to provide high QoE at low cost. The cloud model thus centralizes resources, simplifies their reuse and management, and enhances efficiency.
However, cloud computing visits problems on customization and diversity. Though the model gathers computing and digital media resources into the cloud, meeting individual requirements either via the same cloud or through different clouds is another matter entirely. The solution, however, lies with tailor-made and personalized portals that allow subscribers to use any type of terminal to obtain a personal, mobile homepage, which is application-ready and can be customized.
Accessing information through cloud computing is similar to Paying with Plastic in that the terminal resembles an intelligent credit card, resource clouds mirror virtual banks and Internet stores, and the wireless broadband network forms an ATM or POS. Subscribers store home pages and access these banks and stores through a unique personal network ID (or what we refer to as a "communication fingerprint"). The private ID database, home page database, widget stores of network applications, and resource and settlement platforms all describe new NEs that exist under cloud computing architecture.
While cloud computing may be useful in specific contexts such as computing and for applications in dedicated networks, it has little impact on the architecture of wireless broadband networks.
Mesh and SON
The Mesh and Self-Organizing Network(SON) technologies fall under the same category. The SON technology deploys auto-configuration, auto-discovery, auto-organization, and multi-hop routing to form an SON comprising independent nodes. When network topology changes or links disconnect, the SON technology's self-healing and self-organization capabilities guarantee network connectivity and can optimize network-wide performance.
The wireless Mesh is a multi-hop network that has evolved from an Ad Hoc network. Mesh technology connects independent network nodes to optimize overall performance. The expectation on intelligent Mesh technology is relatively logical as disorganized networks must demonstrate a "clear and logical thinking ability" to manage a host of complex networks, efficiently interconnect independent network nodes, and facilitate their inter-communication.
At present, disorganized networks such as Wi-Fi networks cannot realize a greater "sense of organization" than cellular networks. We hope that the future application of intelligent Mesh technology can arrange these disorganized networks into a complex, SON capable of improving the performance across entire networks.
The spectrum is inherently a rare resource. Shannon's theory holds that channel capacity is influenced by two factors: spectrum bandwidth and SNR. It is impossible to fully eliminate noise, and increases in signal strength are limited. Hence, spectrum resources are vital to meeting the increasing demand of subscribers for wireless data traffic volumes.
In most countries, high quality spectrum resources have been historically occupied by narrowband voice, radio, and television. This includes most civil spectrum resources and a certain amount of dedicated spectrum resources for the military, civil aviation, railway, security industries, and for radio and television. In future, these high quality spectrum resources will be gradually released for new communication technologies applications, albeit as part of a very slow process. This is the reason why the white-space spectrum is so valuable.
Among existing, advanced wireless broadband technologies, HSPA and WiMAX possess the advantages of precocity. In contrast to other technologies, the two have a developmental window of opportunity spanning 3 to 4 years, and will be allocated frequency resources before other technologies. The application of HSPA can target the personal mobile broadband (MBB) market, while WiMAX can focus on home and enterprise broadband services. In consideration of market competition and investment protection, HSPA and WiMAX will form significant wireless broadband technologies in the coming years.
New technologies and concepts
Cloud computing
For many years, computing resources have been exploited and expanded in the information and communication field to compensate for the dearth and expense of bandwidth resources. Increases in bandwidth availability coupled with a decrease in costs will soon bring the advantages of cloud computing into sharper relief. If the majority of core computing resources gather into a "cloud", only simple processing tasks such as optimizing visual and aural effects are required at the client level to provide high QoE at low cost. The cloud model thus centralizes resources, simplifies their reuse and management, and enhances efficiency.
However, cloud computing visits problems on customization and diversity. Though the model gathers computing and digital media resources into the cloud, meeting individual requirements either via the same cloud or through different clouds is another matter entirely. The solution, however, lies with tailor-made and personalized portals that allow subscribers to use any type of terminal to obtain a personal, mobile homepage, which is application-ready and can be customized.
Accessing information through cloud computing is similar to Paying with Plastic in that the terminal resembles an intelligent credit card, resource clouds mirror virtual banks and Internet stores, and the wireless broadband network forms an ATM or POS. Subscribers store home pages and access these banks and stores through a unique personal network ID (or what we refer to as a "communication fingerprint"). The private ID database, home page database, widget stores of network applications, and resource and settlement platforms all describe new NEs that exist under cloud computing architecture.
While cloud computing may be useful in specific contexts such as computing and for applications in dedicated networks, it has little impact on the architecture of wireless broadband networks.
Mesh and SON
The Mesh and Self-Organizing Network(SON) technologies fall under the same category. The SON technology deploys auto-configuration, auto-discovery, auto-organization, and multi-hop routing to form an SON comprising independent nodes. When network topology changes or links disconnect, the SON technology's self-healing and self-organization capabilities guarantee network connectivity and can optimize network-wide performance.
The wireless Mesh is a multi-hop network that has evolved from an Ad Hoc network. Mesh technology connects independent network nodes to optimize overall performance. The expectation on intelligent Mesh technology is relatively logical as disorganized networks must demonstrate a "clear and logical thinking ability" to manage a host of complex networks, efficiently interconnect independent network nodes, and facilitate their inter-communication.
At present, disorganized networks such as Wi-Fi networks cannot realize a greater "sense of organization" than cellular networks. We hope that the future application of intelligent Mesh technology can arrange these disorganized networks into a complex, SON capable of improving the performance across entire networks.
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