 | Issue: | Global-ICT 2008 |
| Article no.: | 7 | |
| Topic: | Converged, ubiquitous networks | |
| Author: | Kuldeep Goyal | |
| Title: | Chairman and Managing Director | |
| Organisation: | CMD, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) India | |
| PDF size: | 303KB |
About author
Shri Kuldeep Goyal is the Chairman & Managing Director (CMD), of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). He has vast experience in the field of telecommunications having worked in: planning, installation, operation and maintenance of wireline and wireless services, data services, computerization of network services and the provision of value added services. He previously served as BSNL’s Chief General Manager in Maharashtra. Prior to that, Mr Goyal was Executive Director, MTNL, Mumbai. Mr Goyal also worked in Yemen with Telecommunication Consultants India Ltd. He has been an invited speaker at GSM Association, Institute of Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Telecommunications Engineers, and Confederation of Indian Industry events, as well as on television and All India Radio. Mr Goyal has published articles in the Telecommunications Journal. He was a Member of National Working Group of ITU-T Study Group 2 on operational aspect of service provision, networks and performance of telecom networks. He is also a member of the Telecommunication Committee of Indian Merchants Chambers, Mumbai. Shri Kuldeep Goyal is an engineering graduate from IIT Roorkee.
Article abstract
Network convergence, driven by IP-based architectures, will give people access to an unprecedented volume of information and services, but be difficult for operators. The migration to fully converged systems will take at least ten years and will raise a series of questions regarding business models and service offerings. In a converged environment, any sort of personal or business service must be delivered over any sort of fixed or wireless network – with seamless handover between networks – at any time.
Full Article
A child is given a unique identifier (IP Address?) upon his birth that can serve as their contact address during his/her lifetime. This contact address will serve for information, communication, and entertainment – indeed everything. Movement of technology Telecommunications is transforming the world into a digital society, so that everyone is always connected, either at home, at work or outside. People can talk to each other, obtain information or content from the network and at the same time, engage in business transactions. There are huge business opportunities emerging as wireless and mobile take on more and more roles. Convergence will change the role of the mobile phone and turn it into a communications and media platform encompassing the functionality of PCs, phones, entertainment devices and control devices. By 2015, communications technology will be predominantly portable, wireless and Internet capable, with powerful computing capabilities. Taken together with the trend towards using the Internet as the primary news medium, the news of tomorrow will mostly be delivered on small, portable, digital and wireless devices. The Soviet Economist Nikolai Kondratieff has introduced a Long-Cycle theory about macro-economy. His theory says that about every 50 years, a major industry takes over the macro-economy. We have seen that in the last 200 or 300 years, textile, steel, oil and auto each have taken 50 years. Now it’s the turn of converged ICTs – information and communication technologies. The business issues The challenge for the converging industry is to provide end users with the right products and services. Telecommunications, information technology, the Internet, media and consumer electronics used to be separate industries; each took care of their own businesses. Today, they are converging – with telecommunications in the middle providing the transport network and connections to the end user. On the one hand, it’s connecting business, family and individuals through various consumer electronics or office equipment. On the other hand, it is connecting media, online and IT service to banks, media, schools and hospitals. There are many participants, and convergence really calls for a mix of cooperation and competition among all participants. Regarding the bearer network, we see peer-to-peer traffic growing greatly and forcing operators to continuously expand their capacity, although the price per megabyte for broadband access is decreasing at about 20 per cent a year. We also see the terminals becoming increasingly intelligent. As a result, terminal-to-terminal, peer-to-peer, communication will be easier without much need for middleware. Preparing for the change For operators, the key to success is to control the value chain by establishing high quality access, broadband, IP network and optical network, and most importantly, next generation service network with customer care, information, resource control and session control. The basic strategy is to construct a fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) solution based on all-IP networks. This solution makes it possible to easily create innovative services, multi-play, ICT, media and advertising services. It is important to be able to bring an FMC experience into new markets and value-added services. Projections FMC – Fixed Mobile Convergence; VoD – Video on Demand; SVoD – subscription Video on Demand; HDTV – Voice over Internet Protocol; VAS – Value Added Services; DSL – Digital Subscriber Line; ADSL – Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line; VDSL – Very High Bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line The telecom transformation The telecom industry must transform itself to face the challenges and capitalize the new opportunities. The key factors in the transformation are environmental, financial and operational. The industry and market environmental questions are critical. Who are the competitors? Who are your customers? What are the segments you are addressing? What are the regulatory considerations? What are the financial objectives? Looking at the operational transformation, there are really three critical areas – strategy, service and the network itself. A number of operators including British Telecom, France Telecom and NTT, have each announced their own transformation programmes, and some are already in progress. Let’s have a look at the strategy, service and network of transformation of each operator. For the strategy, it’s essential to build a digital ecosystem so that the operator can control the value chain. There is the transport network, the broadband network access whether it’s fixed-line, wireless, mobile and sensor, and then there is service platform connected to the content providers and other service providers. What we are likely to see are end-to-end solutions built for business users and personalized services offering consumers new experiences. Operators will need to re-position themselves in the market and adopt new business models to build a supportive digital ecosystem for the strategy transformation. There are two major service issues. One is to defend legacy business and the other is to grow a new wave revenue. Defending the legacy means to keep your existing services, which include data, video and voice. These tended to be separate services in the past, but are now converging; data, video, voice are coming together with mobility surrounding them. By combining these services, you can have VoIP (voice over IP) which utilizes both data and voice, you can have IPTV which utilizes data, video and also video communication or triple-play. You have richer converged service offering. With that, you should be able to go after the legacy services. You can address emerging markets, go to new markets, or offer value-added services with your voice. For new generation services, where the competition is much less and opportunities are more, the services are more complicated, for example, multi-media services, multi-play services, ICT service and media and advertising services. We believe that network will have an all-IP architecture and near ubiquitous coverage. We’d like to divide this into two phases. The first phase will occur during the next four to five years, and the next phase would take until year ten. Let’s focus on the next four or five years. It’s going to be FMC based upon an all-IP architecture. Users anywhere – at home or work, outside or in a car – will connect to the network through fixed access – most likely broadband via copper-based DSL or fibre – or through mobile access (2G, 3G, WiFi, WiMAX). This fixed or wireless last mile access will connect to a metro transport network- probably DWDM and Ethernet switch-based – which, in turn, connects to the backbone network. The backbone network would involve next generation DWDM and next generation optical networks. The next generation networks (NGNs) will provide much higher bandwidth. They will be structured for a wide variety of services, often driven by user profile database based upon the subscriber’s usage history and stated preferences. Multi-Media communication platforms with IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem – an architectural framework for delivering Internet protocol [IP] multimedia services) session control will serve a crucial role implementing systems within a converged framework. Multi-media and information platforms for multi-play services, and IT platforms for ICT service will let other providers offer their services on the network. At the same time, the Business Operation Supporting System (BOSS) has to be configured or designed to manage all these elements and the network as a whole. This is the outlook for the next five years; almost all vendors and most operators have a similar view. After that within ten years, a ubiquitous network will evolve. A number of co-existing technologies, both fixed-line and wireless, will provide broadband access and there will be a smooth, seamless, handover between WiMAX, 2G, 3G and even WiFi networks – according to network availability or for lowest-cost communications – as the user moves about. The network will become so ‘intelligent’ that it will follow each subscriber and, as a function of the user’s profile, will dynamically reconfigure its resources to serve the subscriber’s needs according to the situation. In the office, the network will bring its services to the desktop. In a car, it will reach your mobile phone. At home, the network will work through your WiFi connection. The service delivery environment will also change. A ‘service enabling engine’ will create a delivery environment that makes all services available on the Web. Telecom services and web-based services will work together to take advantage of the vast number of applications available. This blend of access and applications that will be available in ten years is what we call the ubiquitous network. The millions of users will have millions of services available. How shall operators match each user to exactly those services they need and want? How can this vast variety of services be individually packaged and sold to each user? We will have fixed-mobile converged networks, with all-IP architectures, but for truly ubiquitous networks we must reconcile the differences that must arise because each operator employs different technologies and have different licenses for services and spectrum. There are many products and technologies that can deal with these questions, but finding those that provide the best solution for each operator is a difficult task. Both hardware and software vendors must be able to deal with all these separate technologies and systems within a converged environment. They must be able to quickly customize their solutions to meet the needs of their customers within the constraints imposed by the network and systems configurations they currently utilize. In tomorrow’s digital world, every person and each device will have a unique digital identity. Personalized services will be delivered to everyone and every device, as needed, by an integrated platform in a truly connected world!
