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Mobile Software Insight's Glossary of common terms3G Third generation. The generic name for a new breed of mobile network which will support a multitude of advanced services not just voice communications. 3GPP The Third Generation Partnership Project. A body set up
to co-ordinate the development of globally accepted standards for 3G
whose membership includes the world's cellular conformance test houses.
www.3gpp.org The original standard for analogue cellular mobile telephone systems still very much in use in North America at present. The USA has three digital standards all going under the umbrella of PCS (Personal Communications Services) 1900 since they operate at 1900 MHz rather than at 800 MHz like analogue. The list includes GSM, CDMA (cdmaOne) and TDMA (IS-136). ARIB Association of Radio
Industries and Businesses. Japanese telecomms body
www.arib.or.jp CAMEL Customised Applications for Mobile network Enhanced Logic. CAMEL specifies how features normally associated with IN (Intelligent Networks) can be integrated into a GSM network. The greatest benefit CAMEL provides is to allow information on the caller’s location to be passed from the network to an Internet Web site. CDG CDMA Development Group. The industry body representing
the CDMA industry. www.cdg.org CDMA Code Division Multiple Access. A means of splitting radio channels depending on usage rather than into specific time slots as GSM does. CDMA digital mobile systems have been championed in the USA and other countries such as Korea by Qualcomm (as cdmaOne) and Samsung. However, a compromise has been reached to combine the best aspects of GSM and CDMA for the third generation of mobile phone networks. This technology is known as W-CDMA (Wideband CDMA) and is already popular in Japan which is rapidly running out of available airwaves using current (second generation) technology.
A
3G version of cdmaOne, one of three technologies accepted by the ITU for
IMT-2000. In the run up to 3G there are a number of cdmaOne variants
including 1xEV Compact HTML, the markup language employed by NTT DoCoMo for sites on its i-mode service, the arch rival to WAP. CWTS China Wireless
Telecommunication Standard. Chinese telecomms body.
www.cwts.org D-AMPS Digital AMPS. Old term for TDMA (IS-136) networks. EBITDA Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation. A method of calculating true income derived from operating a mobile network.
Enhanced Data rate for Global Evolution. A high speed version of GPRS which work on both GSM and TDMA network. The final stop on the ladder for second generation networks, it is sometimes referred to as 2.5 G (generation) technology. In theory its top speed should equate to 384 Kbit/s - the minimum requirement for a 3G network. With GPRS struggling to achieve speeds above 40 Kbit/s, achieving this goal is looking increasingly unlikely. E-GPRS Enhanced GPRS. Original name for EDGE. ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute. European telecomms body. www.etsi.org FOMA Freedom of Mobile multimedia Access. Trade name for NTT DoCoMo's 3G network combining i-mode and W-CDMA. GAIT GSM ANSI-136 Interoperability Team. Project promoted by the UWCC, the GSMA, and TDMA and GSM operators, to standardise a multi-technology handset providing interoperability between TDMA and GSM networks. FPLMTS Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunications System. Early name for 3G/IMT-2000 and you can see why it changed. Gateway A point on a network which enables data traffic in one format to change format. Hence you need a gateway to convert information held in a WML format by a WAP site into HTML formats (for standard Web pages) or POP3 format for standard e-mail messages. GERAN (GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network). A technology intended to turn GSM or TDMA networks into fully fledged 3G networks. Highly speculative technology at present. GPRS General Packet Radio Services. A system devised to
enable higher data throughput speeds over GSM networks. It breaks data
down into small packets and is therefore similar to X.25 – a protocol
still popular in France. The crucial point about GPRS is that its
provides a constant ‘always-on’ connection as opposed to using standard
data connections over GSM (based around ISDN) which requires the user to
dial into a particular service. Although GPRS connections aren’t
tremendously fast (between 20 and 40 Kbit/s at present), they will be
cheaper because network operators won’t have to charge by minutes of
time used but packets of data used. GSA Global Mobile Suppliers Association. US based industry body promoting the interests of GSM based networks. www.gsacom.com GSM Global System for Mobile communications. Originally developed in Europe as Groupe Speciale Mobile, it was intended as a common standard for digital mobile telephone network. It is now by far the most dominant of second generation digital telephony standards. GSM Association Industry body promoting GSM worldwide.
www.gsmworld.org or
www.gsmworld.com HandHeld Markup Language – a system devised by Unwired Planet (now Phone.com) for defining information to be fed to mobile communication devices. Products developed originally for HDML have frequently be modified to work with WAP. HSCSD High Speed Circuit Switch Data. A technology for
improving data speeds over GSM. It actually relies on combining to
existing GSM channels together.
At
top speed (43.2 Kbit/s) with HSCSD the user is making the equivalent of
3 standard voice calls. HTML Hypertext Markup Language. A means of controlling and displaying information in the form of pages. HTML was chosen by Tim Berners-Lee as the means of creating WWW (World Wide Web) pages on the Internet and over private Intranets. It has now become the favoured means of creating Web sites on the Internet. Arch rival to WAP and WML. HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol. An Internet Engineering Task Force protocol for web based file transfer. iDEN integrated Dispatch Enhanced Network. An enhanced version of TDMA used in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Israel, and parts of Asia and South America. A rival to Europe's TETRA. In the USA, the main iDEN carriers are Nextel and Southern Linc. IETF i-Mode information mode. A play on the Japanese word for
anywhere, i-Mode is similar to WAP but proprietary to NTT DoCoMo at
present. It utilises cHTML (compact HTML) as its markup language instead
of WML like WAP. IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity. The number normally inscribed on a GSM handset to identify it. Dual-IMSI is also possible.
IMT 2000 IP Internet Protocol. See TCP/IP. ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network. The standard developed by the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) for digital telephone networks on which GSM is heavily based. Indeed when you make a data connection over GSM it is in fact an ISDN called slowed down from 64 Kbit/s to 9.6 Kbit/s. Because each ‘service’ is identified separately over GSM most handsets default to only a single service – voice. Thus when making a WAP call you may find that the ‘data’ service has not been enabled so you need to make a call to customer services to ‘enable’ it. The same principle applies to roaming. ISP Internet Service Provider. The organisation providing customers with physical access to the Internet. Popular ISPs include CIX (on which this service originally resided), Demon, Freeserve, and Pipex.
ITU
LiPS Multimedia Messaging Service. An enhanced version of SMS (Short Message Service) or text messaging. With MMS you can create a truly multi-featured message. In essence, a MMS message is created by taking a photo with a digital camera and then adding text plus a sound-bite (a voice recording or a music clip). Once completed this message can be sent to anyone with an MMS enabled mobile phone or PDA. Additionally, an MMS messages can also be forwarded on to any Internet style email mailbox. OBEX Object Exchange Protocol PDA Personal Digital Assistant. Term invented by Apple and now used as generic label for handheld computers. Particularly associated with pocket computers with touch screens that accept stylus input such as the Palm Pilot and Handspring Visor. PCS Personal Communications Service. A term for 2G networks commonly applied to the 1900 MHz networks in the USA. PCN Personal Communications Network. European term for PCS, commonly applied to 1800 MHz networks. PDC Personal Digital Cellular. A digital mobile standard adopted in Japan mainly by NTT DoCoMo. Based on TDMA technology. POP3 Post Office Protocol 3. The standard defined means of providing an electronic mail mailbox over the Internet. Roaming Technical name for the ability of a single handset to work in conjunction with more than one mobile network. In practice roaming means that the handset will work when its owner travels abroad. In the USA, handsets may roam between different cities. SAT Sometimes used as an abbreviation for the SIM
Application Toolkit. This enables operators to add an extra set of
functions to GSM SIM cards. In a WAP context, we also have S@T (SIM
@lliance Toolbox), the specifications for interoperable systems and
products for adding WML-based (WAP) services to SIM Application Toolkit
enabled (GSM Phase2+) handsets. SIM Subscriber Identity Module. A card inserted inside a mobile handset to provide all pertinent information about the user including airtime creditworthiness. Created to prevent airtime frauds it has now been adapted so that it is possible to run a WAP browser on a SIM card. See also SAT SMS Short Message Service. Name given to the method by which brief text messages can be sent over a mobile telephone network. SMS is generally regarded as the proper term for this facility on GSM networks where the maximum length of the message is 160 characters. However, other mobile network technologies – such as TDMA – implement SMS is a slightly different manner. The crucial point here is that many TDMA handsets could not send (Mobile Originate) messages, although they could receive (Mobile Terminate) messages. Confusion was caused by WAP 1.0 based phones which used SMS to send and receive ALL data rather than using the full range of IP based protocols. TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. A system devised for co-ordinating the transfer of data over networks, it has grown to become the foundation for the global communications network we know now as the Internet (which derived its name from TCP/IP, of course). Its only real rivals are protocols such as NETBIOS/NETBeui which is still used by Microsoft Windows networks and SPX/IPX which is used on Novell NetWare networks. TDMA Time Division Multiple Access. An old telephony based protocol – arch rival to CDMA – which has now given to a type of digital network championed in the USA by Ericsson. It bears a close enough resemblance to GSM that an enhanced version of GPRS (EDGE) will work on both TDMA and GSM networks. TD-SCDMA Time Division - Synchronous Code Division Multiple
Access. Successfully combines two leading technologies - an advanced
TDMA system with an adaptive CDMA component to present yet another 3G
technology. Championed by CATT (China Academy of Telecommunications
Technology). TErrestrial Trunked RAdio. Digital standard developed by ETSI to satisfy the user requirements for PMR (Private Mobile Radio) /PAMR ( Public Access Mobile Radio) where GSM is not applicable. TIA Telecommunications Industry Association. A US based telecomms standards organisation. www.tia.org TTA Telecommunications Technology Association. Korean telecomms body. www.tta.or.kr TTC Telecommunication Technology Committee. Japanese telecomms body. www.ttc.or.jp UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. The standard for 3G networks formulated by ETSI for use throughout Europe. UMTS Forum Industry body formed to promote the interests of UMTS/3G. www.umts-forum.org USSD Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, protocol for moving the data around within GSM. USSD is actually a low bit rate channel that uses the GSM signalling system. It's an alternative to using the standard dial-up GSM channel. Both USSD and SMS were possible alternatives for transmitting WAP data but the Siemens S25 seems to have been one of the only handset to use the SMS. We are not aware of any phones or networks which actually supported WAP over USSD. UWCC Universal Wireless Communications Consortium. Industry body representing those interested in TDMA (D-AMPS) and AMPS networks. Promoted its version of 3G called UWC-136 which is now known as EDGE. www.uwcc.org
W-CDMA WAP Wireless Application Protocol. A standard created by Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and OpenWave (formerly Phone.com and Unwired Planet) for providing Internet access via mobile communications devices. Part of the standard defines how information should be displayed - using the Wireless Markup Language (WML), while another part defines how information be sent and received via WAP gateway servers. Its chief rivals are i-mode, the similar but proprietary system developed by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo plus existing Web based system using standard (HTML) WWW pages. WAP Forum The industry body created to give substance to WAP protocols. It now has over 200 full time members who pay substantial fees to belong. Although the WAP standards are regarded as being ‘Open’, the Forum has nevertheless trademarked the commonly used WAP logo. Go to www.wapforum.org
WAP Gateway WAP Insight The best online newsletter dedicated to all aspects of WAP from which you have just ‘lifted’ this glossary of terms. WASP Wireless Application Service Provider. A company providing the means for sharing applications across a mobile phone network. WLL Wireless Local Loop. Popular term for fixed mobile networks which replace fixed line (copper) networks with wireless connections in order to provide local telephony. Often WLL networks re-use existing cellular technologies. WML Wireless Markup Language. The chosen method for creating pages of information on WAP sites. It is actually a sub-set of XML and supersedes HDML as Openwave’s chosen technology for wireless devices. WSPThe Wireless Session Protocol (WSP) contains all the specifications for a WAP session. It is the interface between the application layer and the transfer layer and delivers all functions that are needed for wireless connections. XML eXtensible Markup Language. Created as a kind of ‘super language’ under which you can create web sites using a number of different methods. Crucially these methods include both WML and HTML. xHTML eXtensible Hyper Text Markup Language. The intended format for mobile services to supercede WAP. xHTML is the natural evolution of WAP and the fixed Internet (WWW) combined together. Promoted by Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and Siemens but not Openwave as yet. See XHTML |
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