Abstract:

Since the early times of GPRS to today’s LTE, the mobile Internet has evolved faster than any other technology. Form factor, operating system, browser, speed, storage, processing power are all features of a mobile handset, whose rapid evolution have contributed to today’s world wide take-up of the Internet through a mobile device. Further advances in augmented reality, geo-location technologies, embedded sensors, or cognitive radio hold the promise of taking us to a fully pervasive mobile Internet service environment. Ultimately the Internet as we know it will be largely composed by wireless devices and networks. Today’s 5 billion mobile subscribers will migrate to the mobile Internet if solutions are found to the energy problem, to the communications protocols, to the architecture of the network. We must also understand how to create the right conditions for an open innovation model, with operators fully involved in setting the right business model catering to the needs of the users.

Some key challenges will however need to be overcome if indeed the mobile Internet is to deliver on all of its promises. The first challenge concerns the energy issue be it at the level of the network or at the terminal level. The second challenge relates to the basic question of the inadequacy of the IP protocol for wireless communications. The third challenge is about creating an eco-system catering for the innovators. The fourth challenge relates to the imperative for mobile operators to open their infrastructure and leverage the collective intelligence of their subscribers. This Panel will bring together four prestigious speakers that will present their views as to what these issues are and how they are to be solved. In conclusion, the panel will be organised as follows:

• The Mobile internet will be a reality if we understand how to fix the underlying energy issue (by Dr. G. Rittenhouse)
• Throw away IP if you really want the Mobile Internet to be efficient (by Prof. R. Tafazolli)
• Will we able to do the right thing and create an open innovation mobile Internet eco-system (by Prof. M. Latva-aho)
• Mobile Internet – it takes a little more than just cutting the wires (by Dr. I. Oppermann)

Abstract:

Cognitive radio systems are seen by many actors of the wireless industry as a core technical evolution towards the exploitation of the full potential of next generation wireless communications.

Following actual market forecasts, demands on wireless broadband communications will explode in the coming years, pushing the need for resources to the limits. On the other hand, price erosion and wide spread introduction of flat rates limit the revenues of mobile operators. Drastic cost-performance ratio improvements are required to cope with that. Consequently, future wireless deployments need to operate much more efficiently, in terms of spectrum and network resource usage, as well as speed and reliability of management decisions.

Introduction of cognitive radio and cognitive network paradigms such as e.g. Dynamic Spectrum Access, Autonomic Management, Self-Organizing Networks, has been studied with significant effort in research projects all over the world. Standardization of Cognitive Radio Systems has been initiated in major standardization bodies such as ETSI, IEEE SCC41, IEEE 802.11af (WiFi for White Spaces) and others. Moreover, in preparation of WRC 2012, regulatory bodies are addressing changes that might be required in the respective framework to allow the introduction of Cognitive Radio Systems. This panel session from the perspectives of technology, business, standardization, and regulation point of views aims to address a lively discussion on the following topics:

• What has been achieved so far?
• Expected benefits and stakeholder interests
• Which hurdles need to be overcome for commercial exploitation?
• CRS as an enabler for green IT
• Use of white spaces: An option for LTE
• Topics that need further study

Abstract:

The exploding demand for wireless data communications is beginning to dominate energy consumption growth in ICT networks. A recent analysis from Bell Labs has shown that the net result of increasing traffic in all parts of ICT networks, coupled with slowdown in capacity improvements, could jeopardize sustainable growth of networks. The ripple effect of a slowdown in network growth would mean less opportunity for energy abatement in other sectors, or less opportunity for ICT networks for reducing global carbon footprint. In order to avoid this, the GreenTouch® consortium was formed to focus innovation and research on dramatically increasing the energy efficiency of networks. One of the most important research areas for GreenTouch® will be to increase the energy efficiency of wireless communications.

In this panel discussion we shall debate the most promising areas for providing low-energy mobile access, and the research challenges therein.

Abstract:

With 3G CDMA systems established during 1990s, the pace of further developments of cellular mobile communications technologies accelerated with the aim to provide a wide range of data rates up to ultra-broadband Internet access to mobile as well as stationary users. Main improvements include high speed packet data networks (HSDPA/HSUPA & HSPA+, EV-DO Rev. 0 & Rev. A), multicarrier capability (MC-HSPA, EV-DO Rev. B) and the introduction of an OFDMA based packet-switched system called Long Term Evolution. The emergence of IEEE802.16/WiMAX, a packet-switched technology based on OFDMA, can be considered in the context of this development.

Parallel to the 3G enhancement-route, a fully new strategic vision for 4G¬ mobile communications networks was laid out which envisaged a longer term future needs of the marketplace. This vision, designated as IMT-Advanced (International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced) by International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunications Sector (ITU-R), defines a new level of requirements on capabilities and performance of mobile wireless broadband systems amongst others peak data rates of up to 100 Mbit/s for high mobility such as mobile access and up to 1 Gbit/s for low mobility such as nomadic/local wireless access, scalable bandwidths up to at least 40 MHz, a comprehensive and secure all-IP based solution facilitating the provision of different services to users. In 2008, ITU-R under the direction of Working Party 5D established the detailed performance requirements of IMT-Advanced and defined the evaluation process for the candidate technologies for IMT-Advanced. The candidate technology submissions to ITU-R for IMT-Advanced will be assessed against these requirements using the defined evaluation process.

ITU has received six technology proposals for IMT-Advanced in October. Basically, all proposals are based on two technologies: LTE-Advanced technology standardized by 3GPP and 802.16m technology standardized by IEEE. The rigorous assessment of the candidate technologies will be supported over the next year by the work of independent external evaluation groups that have been established around the world. The IMT-Advanced process is scheduled to take a decision on IMT-Advanced technologies in October 2010. This panel will address the candidate technologies proposed for IMT-Advanced, the evaluation process and further steps envisaged by ITU-R.

Abstract:

Lately, cellular operators observed significant increase in traffic in buildings which put huge pressure on them to provide strong indoor coverage for even basic voice traffic. There are several ways to improve indoor coverage, use of lower frequencies, denser radio network deployment and indoor coverage solutions i.e. Femtocells. It is a known fact that lower frequencies have lower path loss which is essential for better indoor coverage. However, the spectrum at lower frequencies is limited. Denser radio network deployment would be very costly and sometimes it is not possible due to site acquisition issues. Femtocells are small devices which are connected to a central controller. They are small and low cost devices which provide coverage inside the buildings. Although, Femtocells improve indoor coverage, they also have potential to cause interference outside the buildings if they are not managed carefully. In this panel, we will discuss:

• The importance of indoor coverage solutions for operators (Dr. Ibrahim Tezcan)
• The latest Femtocell developments by manufacturers (Dr Shahram Niri)
• A regulatory approach in terms of spectrum management difficulties for Femto deployment and recommendations in Turkey and in Europe (Afşin Buyukbas, Jamal Housni)

Abstract:

Besides low-cost and low-power features, today’s mobile handsets and active RFID devices with location capability are rapidly becoming popular. Ability to locate and track assets and people within indoor environments will be driving mobile advertising, safety, security and energy efficiency applications, and making numerous context-aware services possible.

There are several available localization technologies in today’s world. However, these technologies offer either proximity based location decisions or location estimates with 5-10 m error. Alternatively, ultra-wideband (UWB) based real-time location systems (RTLS) have been commercially available for the past ten years, offering centimeter level position accuracy, but their high cost has prevented widespread penetration of the UWB systems into the RTLS market. With the emerging IEEE 802.15.4a ultra low-power UWB chips in 2010, the cost will not be an issue anymore.

In this panel, the panelists will discuss recent technological advances in the RTLS. They will also share their own views as well as their companies’ visions on emerging location based services (LBS) and applications, and address social, legal, and regulatory barriers related to RTLS and LBS.

Target audience includes researchers with background in wireless communications, application developers, LBS service providers and potential users.

Abstract:

In the last years extensive research is ongoing on significant performance advances of mobile and wireless communication systems. Tremendous developments in signal processing, system design and deployment concepts enable broadband mobile and wireless communications. With respect to the scarce available frequency spectrum major concerns were high spectral efficiency, high system throughput, high capacity in interference-limited environment and high flexibility to allocate data rates to users. OFDM-based systems like LTE and LTE-Advanced are the dominant approach for broadband systems. In order to achieve high performance many advanced technologies and features are combined optimally like adaptive modulation and coding, scheduling, advanced antenna concepts and relaying. This research is supporting market needs due to the increasing number of mobile and wireless users as well as growing data traffic globally. State-of-the-art allows physical layer concepts that enable operation close to the Shannon bound under noise-limited conditions. On the other hand mobile systems are operated in interference-limited environment. Classical cellular network deployments show a significant dependency of system performance (e.g. throughput, modulation order) from the location in a cell mainly due to co-channel interference. Therefore, new challenging requirements are to increase cell edge throughput and average cell capacity for improved user experience. Means are interference mitigation techniques, and new deployment concepts combined with complex signal processing like CoMP. With respect to the limited available frequency spectrum and a more flexible regulatory approach new concepts like cognitive radio are getting more attention. In addition, short-range communication systems, sensor systems and machine-to-machine communication are increasingly being deployed, where scalability and deployment issues need to be solved. Increasing data traffic and more wide-spread concerns on climate change and CO2 emissions require significant improvements in energy-efficiency of ICT systems.

Based on these considerations this panel will discuss,

• Which new research challenges can be expected in the coming years.
• Will technology development help to provide sufficient system capacity or will additional frequency spectrum be needed to meet challenges of increasing traffic and limited available frequency spectrum?

Abstract:

It is increasingly acknowledged that mobile communications can play a key role in helping developing nations realize their desired tele-density & associated socio-economic objectives.

Mobile has proved to be the most cost-effective route for accelerating rollout of networks in developing economies. As well as bridging the urban-rural digital divide, it helps developing nations catch up with other states that have achieved significant maturity in their telecoms environment.

Thus, technology in general and telecom in particular are decidedly adopting the wire-free route in these countries. As a consequence, the requirements for spectrum have increased at such a dramatic rate that Governments are finding it difficult to keep pace with the spectrum demands of service providers.

In today’s complex, rapidly evolving wireless environment, it is also important to note that business and technological strategies follow quite distinct routes in industrialized and emerging countries respectively. Planning and setting up mobile technologies in Eurasia countries raise major challenges. Often the network infrastructure in these countries is not fully developed, and access networks do not cover the whole population for telecommunication services.

In such cases, the need to import capital goods that are required to build the required telecommunication infrastructure makes services expensive. This is why solutions that meet the specific needs of emerging countries are considered here. 2G & 3G Mobile services can easily leapfrog fixed-line services in such countries.

Within this context, the aim of this panel is to raise these issues in Eurasia countries while also offering some potential solutions.

Abstract:

Numerous small-to-medium scale deployments - mostly test beds - of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) abound, addressing a variety of scenarios mostly in lab/simulated environments. These deployments come in a variety of flavors and are essentially used to showcase yet-another approach to the inherent challenges of WSNs. We are therefore very far from fulfilling the vision of millions, even billions, of sensors pervasively deployed to assist and/or enable real-world applications, many of which we cannot even anticipate. This tremendous sensing (and actuation) potential would in fact enable novel, unforeseen applications and services, as well as providing a solid basis for many of today's approximate solutions to real-world problems.

Following the wise principle of walking before running, this Panel will address the next steps towards actual large-scale deployments in the real-world, with real applications in mind. The objective should be to go beyond some additional "check points" before actual economies of scale are at hand, and actually aim at identifying best-practices to guide end-users through the process of programming, instantiating, deploying, operating and managing (at least) thousands of heterogeneous sensors. The potential role of widely accepted platforms for benchmarking will also be addressed.