Gigabit LTE is expected to account for 70% of LTE Advanced Pro subscriptions by 2026

ABI Research forecasts LTE will grow from approximately 30% of global mobile subscriptions in 2017 to 50% in 2024. The most advanced LTE service, Gigabit LTE, is expected to near two million subscriptions globally in 2017, which is less than 5% of LTE Advanced Pro subscriptions in 2017. Gigabit LTE devices, launched in 2017, will far exceed the subscription numbers, as few cell sites are expected to reach Gigabit LTE speeds in 2017. Gigabit LTE is a pivotal piece of an advanced 4G mobile network that can support an operator’s mobile service goals over the next six to eight years and beyond.

“Gigabit LTE is a specific configuration of the LTE Advanced Pro standard and is expected to account for 70% of LTE Advanced Pro subscriptions by 2026,” says Prayerna Raina, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. “It is a critical network milestone for operators in an increasingly competitive environment in the evolution to 5G. It is essential for operators to support the ever-rising bandwidth needs of consumers, while also upgrading the network to support 5G networks in future.”

As Gigabit LTE offers higher bandwidth to consumers and very efficient use of spectrum for operators, ABI Research expect more operators to launch Gigabit LTE globally over the next year and a half. Sprint launched the first Gigabit LTE service for mobile devices was in New Orleans, Louisiana in March 2017. Telstra launched a Gigabit LTE mobile hotspot service in Sydney, Australia in February 2017, and is expected to support Gigabit LTE mobile devices as they become available. Monaco Telecom launched a mobile Gigabit LTE service in April 2017. ABI Research expects additional launches to take place this year from all key operators in the U.S., as well as by some operators in Asia, Europe, and Canada.

“Today, operators globally are in various stages of upgrading their LTE networks,” concludes Raina. “Over the next four to six years, we expect mobile networks to evolve considerably with the proliferation of LTE Advanced, LTE Advanced Pro, and Gigabit LTE on one hand and the launch of 5G on the other hand. The vendor ecosystem is essential to this network evolution with device availability being critical for the service launch. It is, therefore, imperative for vendors to align their competitive strategies with the operators’ network transition timeline as well as alliances in the ecosystem.”

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NGMN : 5G E2E Architecture framework; more on 'large scale convergence' at data plane.

The 5G system will also support flexible RAN structures including implementations based on Cloud principles and the placement of context awareness at the RAN edges (i.e. mobile edge computing). Both centralized and distributed implementation of RAN functions should be enabled to facilitate the realization of various RAN implementations. In addition, support for various coverage layers and cell sizes spanning extreme long-distance covering macro cells to small cell radio access deployments is required.

An open Perspective for LARGE SCALE CONVERGENCE, specially in case of data plane.

RAN Decomposition, Functional decomposition of the radio network is required to meet the diverse information transport demands (high performance to low performance) and align them with the demands of next-generation service categories of eMBB, mIoT, and URLLC. To accommodate these, a decomposition of the radio network protocol layer functions, across layer-1, layer-2, and layer-3 is required, in terms of the degree of centralisation or distribution.

This decomposition consists of placing more functions of the upper layers of the radio network protocol stack in distributed entities for high performance transport demands (e.g. high bandwidth, high-capacity, low-latency, low jitter etc.,) relative to a centralized entity. Scheduling optimisation at a centralized entity, for high performance transport across multiple distributed entities (e.g. base stations, remote radio heads etc.) for fast coordination is critical requirement.

For relatively low performance transport, more of the upper layer of the radio network protocol stack is placed at a centralized entity to optimize the cost/performance trade-off, associated with the distributed entities. This choice of functional split will determine the x-haul capacity requirement and associated latency specifications and performance. This will impact the network architecture as it could determine the placement of nodes and distance between them or, in the case of a higher layer split, will be tolerant of a large latency from a RAN perspective which may be excessive when low-latency services are considered, therefore bounds must be applied within the network architecture to enable a service provider to support low latency services.

A distributed RAN (D-RAN) with several functional splits will be supported by 5G. Figure 1 illustrates the configuration with co-located centralised unit (CU) and distributed (DU). All radio protocol layers are terminated within the cell site.

The connection from the cell site towards the core network is traditional mobile backhaul which will be scaled and optimised to support 5G data rates and performance targets such as low-latency, low PELR, low and very deterministic PDV etc. The D-RAN configuration does not constrain the ability of the local CU to support remote DU; in fact the cell site could become a CU for other cells sub-tended as illustrated in Figure 2.

A 5G C-RAN can be implemented with a higher layer split with the protocols stack with PDCP being located in the CU while the remainder of the stack is in the DU, as shown in Figure 3. This is one example; other splits will result in a different distribution of functionality between CU and DU.

This configuration has similar x-haul capacity requirements when compared with traditional backhaul, the latency and performance requirements of the RAN are not stringent and therefore consideration must be given to engineer the x-haul link in accordance with service-based latency and performance targets.

170511 ngmn e2_e_archframework_v0.6.5 from Saurabh Verma

What is "ZERO DAY ATTACK"?

Source ETTelecom

Government on alert for ‘zero-day’ attack

The government has sounded an alert for a possible onslaught on its information technology apparatus, warning that loopholes in software and the set-up at large could be exploited by assailants to paralyse the system."Loopholes in software and the set-up at large could be exploited by assailants to paralyse the system.

Such a cyber assault, where a system’s vulnerability is exploited by hackers to gain unauthorised access to infiltrate malware or spyware, is known as a ‘zero-day’ attack".
The government’s heightened vigil comes amid increased concerns about malware attacks on critical installations, especially in the wake of the recent ‘Wannacry’ ransomware attack that crippled hundreds of thousands of systems in at least 100 countries.

Union information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that a National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) was being set up to counter security threats and strengthen the IT security apparatus. “We are strengthening the cyber-security walls, and this is being undertaken on a proactive basis,” Prasad told TOI, “It is a 24X7 vigil.” A government report has pointed at “security threats” to official infrastructure through laptops, desktops and mobile phones being used by senior officers.

According to the report, there should be a “central control” on the browsing, and these measures should be rolled out through the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). Prasad said that the cyber coordination centre was being set up in order to have real-time situational awareness and mount a rapid response to cyber security incidents. “It will generate the necessary situational awareness of existing and potential cyber-security threats, and enable timely sharing of this information for proactive preventive and protective actions by individual entities,” he added.

It was the government’s prompt response to warnings that minimised the impact of WannaCry in India. Prasad said that CERT-In had issued a “vulnerability note” regarding a potential cyber attack as early as March 15, and came out with a response on May 13 when the attack hit computers and software systems in the country. CERT-In also alerted the RBI as well as Sebi, besides key organisations in banking and finance, power, defence, telecom, income tax, and central and state governments.

The government has also formulated a crisis management plan to counter hackers, cyber terrorists and online attackers. “This will be implemented by all the ministries and departments of the central and state governments as well as organisations in critical sectors.”For original news click HERE

Indian Telecom: Are they on right track- This is where VoLTE be placed?

Source ETTelecom

Airtel, Vodafone & Idea to soon launch VoLTE to protect low-end subscriber base

Launching such services could become critical to protect incumbents’ low-end subscriber base who could move out to Reliance Jio which is running an all-VoLTE network and offers voice for free.

An Airtel spokesperson said that the telco is piloting VoLTE in a few places, but didn’t comment on launch timelines. Vodafone and Idea didn't comment on ET queries, but Idea managing director Himanshu Kapania recently said that the No. 3 telco would introduce VoLTE over the next two quarters. “We are initially planning to be able to build VoLTE for about 20-25 million customers, which is sufficient enough to be able to take care of our 4G expectations in volume in India.”

Having finished testing, Idea Cellular expects to launch its VoLTE services by the second quarter (July-September) of this fiscal and cover 20-25 million customers.
Rohan Dhamija, partner and head for India and South Asia at Analysys Mason, said that VoLTE device proliferation outside of Jio’s base is probably not at a critical mass, a reason why Airtel and other incumbents haven’t launched VoLTE service yet.
“In fact, given that VoLTE has a lower cost per minute than traditional voice, in a scenario where the industry is under tremendous pricing pressure, in due course the importance of VoLTE could increase,” Dhamija said, adding that telcos should continue with VoLTE testing and be ready to launch commercially once device proliferation reaches critical mass.Launching such services could become critical to protect incumbents’ low-end subscriber base who could move out to Reliance Jio which is running an all-VoLTE network and offers voice for free. Analysts add that in a scenario where the industry is under tremendous pricing pressure, VoLTE is set gain in importance as it can be delivered at a lower cost per minute than traditional voice. 

“Airtel’s VoLTE plans are on track having kicked off field or commercial trials in Mumbai and Delhi, and it will soon launch the service commercially in India,” a person familiar with the matter told ET. Another person said that Vodafone did basic trials of the technology, and will launch VoLTE services soon.

VoLTE allows an operator to offer both voice and data with voice being just another application that rides on an LTE data network, a technology that newcomer Jio has adopted. Incumbents currently offers calling on the legacy circuit-switch technology.detail News click HERE.

TRAI- Bars discriminatory tariffs to same set of subscribers-Monkey business in Indian telecom.

Source : ETTelecom.

TRAI - Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

NEW DELHI: India’s telecom regulator has barred mobile-phone operators from offering different plans to subscribers in the same category, limiting the ability of incumbent telcos to sell customised plans to retain customers seeking to switch their loyalties to Reliance Jio.

“The authority directs all the Access Service Providers to ensure that all the tariffs offered to the consumers shall not be discriminatory between the subscribers of the same class, and to ensure that every tariff that is offered to a customer is invariably reported to the authority as per the reporting framework under the forbearance regime,” the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in a two-page order Thursday.

The existing rules require telcos to report all plans to Trai within seven working days of introducing them.

Thursday’s order means that the telcos, although free to offer any plan to any customer on clearance from Trai, would not be able to offer customized packs to an individual subscriber: The moment an order is filed for clearance with the regulator, it becomes available to all. Besides, the order takes away the advantage of bespoke plans for a telco, or the confidentiality of such offers.

Moreover, incumbents have hundreds of existing plans, and the approval for each additional plan could lead to breaching the limit of up to 25 plans a month that a carrier can file with Trai. Jio, which started commercial services on September 5 last year, has a limited number of plans on offer.

Trai Thursday said it had received complaints that some service providers were introducing tariffs without filing them with the regulator, and that they were offering “discriminatory tariff to individual customers within the same class”.

The directions issued in the form of a tariff order came after complaints to Trai from Reliance Jio that Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea were offering special tariff vouchers (STV), packs and discounts to influence those users wanting to shift out of their networks to Jio. The Reliance-owned Jio and the three incumbent service providers are engaged in a price war to attract and retain users.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea had previously denied all allegations, claiming they were in full compliance of regulatory guidelines, including tariff orders and MNP (mobile number portability) regulations. The companies didn’t comment on the regulator’s order Thursday.

Officials at Trai said that besides the letter from Jio, they had received complaints from consumers who had referred to or contested plans that were not available on the Web sites of the telcos.

The Mukesh Ambani-owned carrier had highlighted the lack of transparency in tariff offers last month, and accused the incumbent competition of making surreptitious, personalised offers to select consumers in violation of existing rules.

Jio had alleged that some telcos were offering special tariff plans to select customers to prevent them from porting "under the garb of usage and retention," adding that some of these offers were being communicated to consumers in a personalised way through 10-digit mobile numbers, instead of being published. The practice violated current rules, Jio said.

Jio added that the actions of the rival telcos violated the tariff reporting requirements and breached the monthly permissible limit of 25 plans (prepaid and postpaid).

Jio had also alerted Trai about two of Bharti Airtel’s tariff offers (Rs 293 and Rs 449), complaining that the Sunil Mittal-owned telco was discriminating between 4G and other subscribers. It claimed that Airtel was providing headline benefits only to new subscribers with 4G handsets, while others were being given substantially lower benefits on both data and voice services.

The allegations intensified an ongoing war of words between Jio and the incumbent telcos, who have been fighting on issues such as trial of services, points of interconnection, and interconnect charges since the newcomer's entry last September.

click HERE for original news from ETTelecom.