Business Architectures for Seamless Mobility Towards an environment of shared control between network operators and consumers.

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1 p o s i t i o n p a p e r Business Architectures for Seamless Mobility Towards an environment of shared control between network operators and consumers. April 2007 Dr. Dragan Boscovic Dr. Dragan Boscovic is director, wireless systems and networks for Motorola Technology. He is currently directing strategic initiatives focused on developing architecture and technology enablers for wireless IP networks. Dragan was a pioneer in establishing Motorola R&D activities in Europe. He is best recognized for his contributions to early Tetra standardization, for his concept of radio ecology, as well as for his B3G vision based on the heterogeneous network principles. The B3G work has internationally reinforced Motorola s image as the technology innovation leader and has secured WWRF (Wireless World Research Forum) foundingmember status and vice-chair position of transatlantic project MESA. Dragan has 16 issued patents. He is alumni of University of Belgrade and University of Bath. Abstract Seamless mobility is the ideal of communication experiences that are ubiquitous, consistent, and delivered without interruption across domains, devices and networks. Originally introduced and championed by Motorola, seamless mobility has become a shared vision for the industry s future. As users become increasingly mobile they expect seamless access to information, entertainment and communication. At the same time, disruptive technologies are erasing the boundaries between wireless, wireline and cable operators, driving all to develop seamlessly integrated portfolios of fixed and mobile. Between rising subscriber expectations on one hand and carrier competition on the other, different visions of seamless mobility are taking shape along a continuum whose poles are defined by the distinctive interests of service providers and consumers. This paper describes the range of business models that are emerging as a result. It suggests that over time, market forces will drive the consensus approach to seamless mobility toward the consumer-centric pole, and that profitable business opportunities exist for service providers in even the most open and customerfriendly environment. In addition to market drivers, it discusses the technology standards and regulatory environment that are necessary to nurture continuing seamless mobility development.

2 Disruptive Times in Telecom Technology The telecommunications industry, currently adjusting to several, nearly simultaneous waves of disruptive technology introductions. Broadband access are exploding. According to IDC, 400 million broadband subscribers are expected globally by , and Juniper Research forecasts that mobile wimax subscribers will grow from 1.7 million in 2007 to 21.3 million in 2012 as wireless broadband deployments accelerate 2. Wi-Fi hotspots in homes, offices, schools, hotels, cafes and many other public spaces now provide high-speed wireless for tens of millions of users daily. The number of commercial hot spots in operation globally was expected to increase by 47 percent during 2006, to 143,700 3, giving millions of users convenient ad hoc connections. VoIP is beginning to make inroads in both fixed and mobile telephony revenues. A recent report by telecom advisors Analysys predicts that by 2012 cellular VoIP will generate U.S. revenues of $18.6 billion, and $7.3 billion in Western Europe, along with fixed VoIP revenues of $11.9 billion in the U.S. and $6.9 billion in Western Europe 4. Cellular wireless growth continues, with global handset sales forecast to rise by 13 percent to billion units. Worldwide wireless subscriptions are expected to reach 3.9 billion by Dual-mode handsets that combine cellular WAN with Wi-Fi or UMA WLAN connectivity are arriving on the market. 300 million are expected to be in use by Other multi-mode combinations won t be far behind. The collective impact of these technical disruptions has been to break down the boundaries between conventional service provider categories, encouraging many to offer new aimed at their neighbors established customers. Seamless Mobility: A Tale of Two Visions The Customer-centric Perspective As wireless broadband become widely available, consumers and businesspeople alike are rapidly growing dependent on increasingly sophisticated mobile devices and for a wide range of personal and professional tasks. Mobile Internet access, , instant messaging, online calendaring, on-demand music and video have joined cellular telephony as indispensable tools for everyday life. Inevitably, users want these to be available anywhere, at any time, over any device and any access network. Motorola conceives seamless mobility as a set of solutions that will one day provide users with easy, uninterrupted access to information, communication, entertainment, monitoring and control, regardless of their location, device or network. Ultimately, the interaction of carrier competition and customer expectation will inevitably bring about a seamless continuity of user experiences across domains, devices and networks, and that mobile technology and service providers must prepare for a transformed service and business environment. The Domain-centric Perspective Not surprisingly, many mobile network operators take a slightly different view of seamless mobility, one that s shaped more by immediate technology disruptions and intense competitive pressure. Their primary focus is on providing customers with seamless mobile connectivity across their own local and wide area networks or those of their business partners. It s a perspective that gives rise to growth strategies aimed equally at new customer attraction and existing revenue retention. New are designed not only to meet customer demand and boost minutes, but to keep those minutes on the internal network. It s a logical policy that, in the short term, serves the interests of both carrier and customer, but in doing so may restrict the user s roaming capability and limit his access to external and. Whether customer- or operator-centric approaches to seamless mobility prevail in the marketplace will depend on which produces business models that are more competitive and economically viable over the long term. Motorola s expectation is that far from being static opposites, these positions represent stages through which mobile service business models will progress over time. Current Telecommunications Business Models As previously mentioned, the business models of network service providers can be seen as points along a continuum. One prominent axis is the degree of control they reserve for the operator, on one hand, or the customer on the other. At one end of the control scale is the walled garden, a service environment in which application and access are tightly coupled. The operator provides a defined selection of packaged and often prevents access to out-of-domain. An operator with a video-on-demand service who limits to what is available on his own network, serves in a proprietary format, and strictly prescribes access points is attempting to create a walled garden. At the other end of the control continuum lie P2P networks software-defined overlays on physical networks that are created and maintained by the users and for the users. Participants purchase access from a network operator, but perform all other management functions themselves, including creation and distribution. 2 Business Architectures for Seamless Mobility

3 In between these poles is a fertile middle ground where control is shared, in varying degrees, between operators and users. In between these poles is a fertile middle ground where control is shared, in varying degrees, between operators and users. Motorola believes that innovative new business architectures that creatively combine broad freedom of choice for users with appealing ROI for operators will emerge from this space, and will develop in two stages. Walled Garden Peer-to-Peer Networks Middle Ground Information sharing between operators coordinating service delivery Increasing control by network operators Shared Control Increasing control by users Figure 1. Service provider business models: The greatest opportunities for profitable business innovation will emerge from an environment where the control of, and is shared between providers and consumers. Seamless Mobility Stage One Intra-domain Network Convergence In the first stage, currently under way, operators are expanding their network core and access platforms to support new. The new sweet spot is a quad play product mix of voice, video, data and wireless. For example, a wireline network operator with an existing broadband service might add support for VoIP over WLAN. These operators require integration strategies and technologies that will allow users uninterrupted service as they move between access networks and devices. By building out their triple-and quadplay service offerings, operators are focusing on keeping customers and their revenue within the enlarged domain. Seamless Mobility Stage Two Inter-domain Service Convergence When triple- and quad-play service bundles have become the norm, operators will need further opportunities to differentiate their offerings. By selectively sharing information and coordinating service delivery with other operators, providers will enable a new generation of based on borderless roaming capabilities and global access to and. Proven technology solutions for stage-one seamless mobility exist today and are being deployed by operators worldwide. Stage-two solutions are still very much in development, and will require a global initiative to address issues of technology integration, protocols for interoperation and regulatory restraint. The challenges, opportunities and evolutionary paths of seamless mobility can be more clearly illustrated by a closer examination of specific stage-one and stage-two scenarios. 3 Business Architectures for Seamless Mobility

4 Customer demand for consistent service and access across personal and professional environments and geographic boundaries will drive the development of standards-based, inter-domain service interaction. Seamless Mobility Stage One: Converging Networks Today, operators of all types are adding new network facilities to expand their service offerings and reduce customer churn and revenue erosion. Most are intent on leveraging the value of their existing facilities and are carefully avoiding rip and replace approaches. Their goal is to increase average revenue per user (ARPU) with the smallest possible capital expenditure. The challenge is to integrate the new and legacy facilities so that service performance is continuous as users move from one access mode to another, and handoffs are completely transparent. TeliaSonera Brings Seamless Mobility Home TeliaSonera, the leading telecommunications provider in Denmark and the Baltic region, faced exactly this challenge. The company provides both wired and cellular, and was seeking new technology to extend its fixed broadband service with integrated GSM/WLAN telephony. Their goals included increasing the company s share of customer spend by capturing in-home cellular traffic, increasing the use of mobile voice and data in areas of poor network coverage, and reducing customer churn by expanding their product and service bundle. After extensive trials, TeliaSonera chose Motorola s Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) solution, which lets operators use wireless LANs connected to a broadband router as a low-cost alternative access network. Customers use dual-mode GSM/WLAN handsets to roam seamlessly between cellular networks and wireless LANs. They receive a single, consistent set of mobile voice and data, taking advantage of the potentially lower costs and higher speeds of the wireless LAN when in range of the home, office or other public hotspots. Handoffs between cellular and WLAN networks are coordinated by a UMA network controller (UMC) on the core mobile network. The UMA solution also provides users with a single mobile device, number, contacts book, voic and bill. This is a classic example of stage-one seamless mobility in that the solution: Expanded TeliaSonera s service bundle to increase ARPU and reduce churn Enabled seamless customer mobility between cellular and WLAN networks Leveraged the value of TeliaSonera s existing wireline and wireless networks Retained all new traffic origination and revenue within the TeliaSonera domain Seamless Mobility Stage Two: Converging Services As triple- and quad-play product offerings become the norm, operators will need new opportunities for service development and differentiation. Motorola believes that seamless mobility will be an important frontier for service innovation, and that customer demand for consistent service and access across personal and professional environments and geographic boundaries will drive the development of standards-based, inter-domain service interaction. A few examples of that would profitably exploit such integration include: Federated voic and contact management for office, home and cellular phone Coordinated single-number service across multiple provider networks Conference call transfer mobility Follow-me preference profiles that could direct service delivery across devices and domains Continuity management for multi-session delivery processes Location-sensitive, including tracking, presence and location-based search and filtering Multi-channel fulfillment Using one channel (e.g. a cellular phone) to purchase and manage the delivery of a stream (e.g. a feature film) over a second channel (e.g. a wired broadband connection) 4 Business Architectures for Seamless Mobility

5 Required Technologies for Service Convergence Creating like these and delivering them consistently across domain boundaries will require two types of tools and capabilities: IP connectivity and control technologies for delivering application consistently across multiple access, to effectively replace tightly coupled architectures with loose coupling via standards-based interfaces. These technologies are now coming to market in the form of Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) solutions. IMS solutions for the network core are application platforms that support access by all major cellular, WLAN, fixed broadband, and PSTN telephony modes. Based on a 3GPP standard, IMS solutions and their structural components are available from Motorola as well as other major communication infrastructure vendors. Standard-based service coordination solutions for managing service access and delivery across domains. This will require technologies and architectures that include preference, resource, session, context and identity management to enable cross-domain service delivery while allowing domain managers to apply policy-based control of service levels. These technologies do not yet exist in production versions, but are the focus of development programs currently underway at Motorola and many other leading network technology providers. Service Coordination Solutions Home IP Connectivity and Control Technologies Figure 2. Enabling multi-operator service convergence will require IMS solutions and other control technologies as well as service coordination solutions that will enable service providers controlled access to user information in other network domains. Preference Resource Session Context Internet IMS SIP Server Identity SMIS Server Standards for Service Convergence The development of technical standards and well-defined protocols for network interoperation has always been an essential precondition of reliable and affordable communication, and inter-domain service coordination will be no exception. Several standards bodies will certainly make essential contributions. 3GPP The 3rd Generation Partnership Project is a collaboration between regional standards bodies from Europe, Japan, China, South Korea and North America, established to develop a global specification for third-generation (3G) mobile phone systems based on GSM. The resulting standard is the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a specification contained in 3GPP release GPP2 A standards body with a parallel mission to that of 3GPP: to develop a global specification for third-generation mobile phone systems based on CDMA technology. That standard is CDMA2000. ITU-T NGN-GSI The International Telecommunications Union, Telecommunications Sector, Next Generation Networks Global Standards Initiative is a program of the ITU to develop international standards for packet-based networks able to provide including Telecommunication Services, and able to make use of multiple broadband, QoS-enabled transport technologies, in which service-related functions are independent from underlying transport-related technologies. 5 Business Architectures for Seamless Mobility

6 IETF The Internet Engineering Task Force is an open, volunteer organization that develops Internet standards, including TCP/IP and the Internet protocol suite, which in turn includes the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) used for call control in IMS. ETSI TISPAN The European Telecommunications Standards Institute, Telecoms and Internet converged Services and Protocols for Advanced Networks sets European convergence standards for fixed networks and the Internet. One of the key subsystems of TISPAN Release 1.0 is based on 3GPP s IMS specification. Third-Party Brokers and Direct B2B Business Models Motorola believes that the combination of commercial IMS solutions with new standards-based solutions for horizontal service coordination will enable profitable business models for crossdomain service delivery to develop along two possible paths. Third-party coordination specialists may emerge who will leverage trusted relationships with end users, service providers and access network operators to broker service purchase, delivery and settlement. Alternately, or perhaps in parallel, direct operator-to-operator coordination may develop. In either case, participating access and application service providers will all cede some amount of control over the delivery process in exchange for a larger universe of potential customers, business partners and revenue. One thing that s certain is that neither path for business architecture development will materialize without industry-wide collaboration on technical standards for service coordination, or concerted action to ensure a globally consistent and non-intrusive regulatory environment. 1 Worldwide Broadband Services Forecast IDC, June Mobile WiMAX: Opportunities, Strategies & Forecasts, Juniper Research, May Wi-Fi Hotspot Forecasts ABI Research, November Analysys, reported in ZDNet.com September Forecast data by Merrill Lynch, reported by com, February 5, ABI Research, September, 2006 Reigning in the Regulators It is the fervent hope of all participants that regulators worldwide will exercise the same restraint with regard to seamless mobility that has, for the most part, characterized the regulation of Internet commerce. With the important exceptions of managing radio spectrum allocation and utilization and defining carrier support for public safety and national security efforts, regulation should otherwise allow the widest possible range for technical and commercial innovation. Where different types of carriers and have, for historic reasons, been subjected to unequal regulation and restriction, that treatment should be normalized. The goals of regulators worldwide must be to create and maintain a level competitive playing field, to ensure equal handling of, reasonable protection for intellectual property rights, and an open technology environment regardless of geography. A Seamless Commitment to Evolving Mobility Motorola believes that the future of telecommunications will be defined by the effort to provide a continuously more diverse and interconnected range of to mobile users in ways that will become continuously simpler, more flexible, transparent, ubiquitous and secure. Innovation in application and will increasingly separate from innovation in access and delivery coordination, creating entirely new opportunities for business development and revenue growth. Without question, these developments will follow somewhat different paths and timelines in different geographies, but the general trend toward seamless mobile access to any service and any, by any user, with any device, from any location, across any network, will prove inexorable and inevitable. It s a vision that offers little comfort for those entrenched in the status quo, but unlimited opportunity for anyone willing to embrace a more mobile tomorrow. 6 Business Architectures for Seamless Mobility

7 About Motorola Technology Motorola Technology is researching and developing the disruptive technologies and innovations that will enhance easy, uninterrupted access to what people value most communication, information, entertainment, monitoring and control. To make this world of seamless mobility a reality, the organization is based on a fluid, functional model focused on delivering solutions that span eight critical technology areas: Intelligent Interaction, Content Handling, Sensing and Control, Real-Time Communications, Session Continuity, Heterogeneous Networks, Security and Manageability. Motorola Technology includes Motorola Labs, Motorola Software, Standards and Early Stage Accelerator. Motorola, Inc E. Algonquin Road Schaumburg, Illinois U.S.A. media contact: Kavita Manek Kavita.Manek@motorola.com MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their registered owners. Motorola, Inc. 2007