The Cable and Telecommunications Professionals' Reference

PSTN, IP and Cellular Networks, and Mathematical Techniques

Goff Hill

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780240807478
• eBook ISBN: 9781136034572
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This book is for any telecommunications-convergence professional who needs to understand the structure of the industry, the structure of telephony networks and services, and the equipment involved.With the growing variety of networks and technologies now on offer it is inevitable that some convergence will take place between different networks, services and products. New VOIP (voice over internet protocol) networks must interwork with traditional networks. For instance, mobile phones can offer data services; wireless broadband connections to laptops will allow VOIP phone calls away from base; users could have the option of 'convergent phones' that can be used on a landline when at home or business, but which can be used as a mobile when on the move, and so on.

Part One

Standards and Regulation

The economic well-being of a country has long been dependent on a good, reliable telecommunications service. The telecommunications sector underpins all forms of commercial, industrial, and domestic life, and its smooth running is vital. As the information society develops, and new technologies bring more advanced means of communications, this dependence continues to grow. Governments at both national and continental levels therefore take a keen interest in establishing and maintaining the health of their telecommunications industry sectors, and they set up regulatory bodies to oversee the market and ensure its proper functioning. Regulatory infrastructures at national and regional levels are therefore created to ensure that the interests of consumers are properly served, that the market operates smoothly, and that competition is open and fair.

In itself, good regulation does not guarantee a healthy industry sector. That calls also for strong industrial players with dynamic interactions. Standards bodies and related organizations play a vital role in promoting constructive cooperation as the industry develops and deploys the latest technologies within the market. The standards bodies, fora, and related trade associations strive to ensure full advantage is taken of rapidly developing technological capabilities, and they provide vital links in the value chain to deliver solutions to end users.

The shape of the regulatory environment is also important to the standards groups, as a healthy sector is essential for the successful deployment of standardized products. Regulatory bodies monitor and analyze the market and its operation and invite opinions from industry on a wide range of regulatory matters. Individual entities are invited to make submissions to regulatory bodies, but in addition to this, lobbying groups such as the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO) and European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) were formed to ensure a stronger, united voice representing the interests of their particular groups.

In this part of The Cable and Telecommunications Professionals’ Reference, an introduction is provided to both standards (Chapter 1) and regulation (Chapter 2). Further reference to specific standards and standards bodies is made throughout the volume. Also in this part, the open systems interconnection reference model, a particular standard that has fundamental relevance to virtually all telecommunications systems, is summarized in Chapter 3.

1 Standards

Yael Baruch

Introduction

A standard is like a cookbook for experts about a specific kind of food, for example sushi, that was written by a group of chefs. The book contains functional rules about making sushi, but without specific recipes. It is left to the chef’s creativity to get the best sushi results following the restricting rules (rules like taste, texture, quality, and so on).

The cookbook describes:

• How you can use it (eat it in a sushi bar or at a romantic dinner—the service)

• Its functional parts (different types of sushi: rice part, fish part—the network architecture)

• How you can combine this food with other foods (salads, tea—the interfaces)

• For each type of sushi, a description of required, related parameters (such as quality of the food, possible colors, taste, texture—the technical parameters and measurements)

Eating sushi or making it according to the chef’s recommendations is up to the readers to decide. It is not necessary that people who read the book make or eat sushi.

After publication, the book can be located in library or in shops, or given as a present to anyone who wishes it (for sushi promotion). These locations can contain several cookbooks about sushi. Different chefs (vendors) following the same book (standard) usually produce different sushi (different products). Different chefs following different books produce different sushi (different products). This is because different books (standards) exist on the same subject (sushi).

The same applies to standards. Standards are written by multiple writers from different market sectors (vendors, service providers, content providers, users, consultancies, and so on). A standard is written for a specific subject that can be wide or narrow. For example, the GSM technology standard is very wide, but a standard for printer page size (like A4 or A3) is very narrow. A standard can be written, but the market forces determine whether it will be implemented or not. For example, a very good digital pager standard by the name of ERMES was published around the same time that the GSM mobile standard was published. The GSM standard has become very common and successful in the world, while ERMES is almost unknown. One of the reasons for that was that for the same price, GSM had all the features ERMES had, and much more. The people preferred to buy GSM phones rather than ERMES pagers. Therefore, although ERMES was published and the vendors produced a good product, no wide market demand was generated for it.

Sometimes the authorities play an essential role in the standard definition. Standards concerned with the use of radio spectrum are a good example of the need for authority involvement. It is not enough that the standard defines a set of frequencies for the use of the vendors and service providers who want to implement the standard. This set of frequencies must be approved by the country authorities, taking account of the competing demands and special interests, and depending on the frequencies that are available.

Standards Body Types

An “official standards body” usually makes the standards. Nevertheless, sometimes in parallel with the official standard body, other bodies contribute or compete with it. The standards body types are given below. A list of major standards bodies and related organizations, together with their Web sites, is given in the references.

Official Standards Bodies

An official standards body can be from the following types:

• Global (worldwide) such as ITU, IEC, ISO, 3GPP, 3GPP2, and IETF

• Regional such as ETSI, ETNO, and ECTA for Europe

• National such as ANSI and TIA for North America, ARIB in Japan, the TTA in Korea, the CCSA in China, and the NPL in the United Kingdom

In practice, the extensive coverage by ANSI and TIA across North America extends their scope to that more akin to a regional entity. These are a few of the well-known organizations, but there are many others (see a list at the end of this chapter), often working together toward shared objectives.

The names global, regional, and national express the type of group members (that also write the standard) rather than the place where the standard is implemented. As explained before, the implementation of a standard depends strongly on market forces. For example, the GSM standard was created in ETSI (a European body), but implemented all over the world. Usually, the standards bodies aim first to address the related area market needs (i.e,. ETSI for European market needs, TIA for American needs, and so on).

Forum Bodies

In addition to the standards bodies, several types of forum exist mainly to debate and support the work of the standards bodies. These may be of various types including open, closed, international, and worldwide fora. There may be many reasons why fora are created, including the following:

• To answer problems raised in a standards body during the definition phase of a specific standard. For example, if the standard’s process is proceeding slower than required, and market forces push for early results, then it is possible that a group of companies with common interests will open a forum to accelerate the work.

• To lobby and influence processes in the official standard. Where a specific group of active companies in the official standards body wants to push particular interests, unite forces for that, and lead it in their direction, they might open a forum. Usually these kinds of actions are performed in background discussions during the official standard process. The group will choose to open a forum in case of ambitious goals that are hard to achieve and that require specific work and plans. This type of forum will probably be a closed forum in which only authorized members can participate.

• To define and standardize an untreated subject for which no official standards body has taken responsibility. The interested group will open a forum to define this subject and normally open it for public comment in an open forum.

De Facto Standards

Although a de facto standard is not a standards body but a standard, it is relevant to explain this term here. If the market commonly has adopted the implementation of a specific company, or a standard specified by an unofficial standards body, then this standard is called a de facto standard. When this kind of standard exists, it can be very difficult for competitors to enter the market with different directions, including those companies that implement an official standard on the subject.

Qualcomm is a special example of a company that has greatly succeeded in the standards arena as its development came to be a de facto standard. Starting as a small company, Qualcomm succeeded in introducing a new standard into the market that included unique company patents (cellular CDMA). After the standard was accepted by the market, Qualcomm experienced exponential growth. This of course is not the customary example and very few companies can achieve this level of success. Microsoft is another example of a company whose products are de facto standards.

Benefits Arising from Standards

The standard brings benefits to all involved in the value chain (the industry, network operators, content providers, service providers, vendors and end users, and so on). Each group with a different interest may need a standard for different reasons. However, it is not questionable that standards can bring benefits to all.

The most important benefits of standards are:

• They ensure that equipment from different suppliers can interwork. This benefits the user by enabling competitive procurement.

• They enable equipment supplied by a manufacturer to be used for different applications and in different regions. This increases market size and reduces costs due to economies of scale. This benefits both suppliers and consumers.

• They provide the means to deal with a changeable environment. Today businesses must to do more with fewer resources in changeable conditions and environments. It is difficult to keep up to date, to understand the complex technologies, to be a specialist in all system parts, and to respond effectively to changes, because of the speed at which change takes place. There are several challenges that business and industry need to deal with to maximize profit, improve performance, and soften risks. The standardization process influences all of these. Standards help to maximize return by lowering the cost of change, by increasing cooperation, and by enabling improved response to change.

A company that plans its products and services while being involved in the standards process increases its chances of producing a product that is suitable for the market. A company that does not operate in this way can still develop and offer a wonderful service. If the standards have not been embraced as part of the company’s market research and strategy, the final product will most likely encounter stiff competition. This competition will come from cheaper standard products and strong un...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Contributors
• Part One Standards and Regulation
• Part Two Circuit-switched Networks and Digital Switching Systems
• Part Three The Internet and Data Networks
• Part Four Cellular Telephone Networks
• Part Five Analytical and Simulation Modeling
• Part Six Mathematical Techniques
• List of Acronyms
• Index