Jean-Christian,
the term "3g radio" is a fairly broad term. The key is what software is
going to be in the new G4 IT above the radio/physical layer. It would
make sense, especially if Nokia decides that the G4 IT is going to go
after the market served by the iphone, to give the G4 IT, full 2G/3G
voice functionality in addition to HSDPA. The rub here with such a
decision may be the impact on the product cost of having to use a
presumably more expensive radio of the kind that are contained in 2G/3G
dual mode handsets. I would think that for a product released in 2009 2G
support would still be essential.
On the other hand, if Nokia is not planning to make the G4 IT into a
full mobile smartphone (as we know such devices today) then my surmise
that, in the case of the G4 IT, there will NOT be a 2G/3G radio nor will
there be the software to support all the voice call handoff/roaming
that is contained in a regular 2g/3g mobile phone. Rather the software
will rely on SIP endpoint services such as are contained in the current
G3 IT and will utilize the underlying (unreliable best effort) IP
service capability layered on a HSUPA radio layer to agnostically
(voice, data,who cares as long as it is in a packet) move the voice UDP
packets end to end over the mobile service provider's network. One
consequence of this approach, is that, for such voice traffic
originating/terminating on a G4 IT, the 3G radio base stations inside of
the mobile service provider's network would NOT have to be concerned
about voice call handoff from base station to base station in the case
of a user that is in motion. The base stations would only need to
concern themselves with handing off an (unreliable by definition) IP
interface from one BS to the next. Only the SIP endpoints would be aware
of the voice connection.
Related to this, today I learned that a consortium of mobile industry
participants (mostly infrastructure equipment providers) just today
announced yet another "forum" called the VOLGA forum (no relation to
the Volga River) to
".....enable mobile operators to deliver mobile voice and messaging
services over LTE access networks based on the existing 3GPP Generic
Access Network (GAN) standard."
VOLGA in this case stands for "Voice Over Lte via Generic Access" and a
"Generic Access Network"^1 is a network that uses IP at its core (e.g.
one based on IEEE 802.11 a/b/g wireless)for transport).
Here is the url to the www page for the VOLGA www site:
http://www.volga-forum.com/index.php
Now I thought that the LTE standards framework as defined by the 3GPP
had already solved the very basic question of how to convey mobile voice
and messaging over LTE but clearly I was wrong.
Obviously this VOLGA group has some new and/or different ideas of how
to utilize LTE infrastructure using GAN principles to convey voice and
SMS over a 4g network. different, that is, from the method that is
already contained in the 3GPP LTE standards framework.
Since there are no spec's yet published on this www site from this forum
it is impossible to say for sure but, based on my reading of what GAN is
all about, my gut tells me that VOLGA is a "voice over packet" solution
similar to what I surmised above and that this solution is somehow
different from whatever "voice over packet" solution is already
contained in the 3gpp standards.
I suspect that what is going on here is that, as the commercial reality
and success of VOIP and SIP trunking service providers (aided and
abetted by the fantastic success of the proprietary protocol based SKYPE
service) seeps in to the minds of the world's mobile network planners,
these planners from within the mobile service providers, handset
providers, and infrastructure providers are all rethinking how to most
cost effectively evolve the world's mobile networks to 4g.
I do find it interesting that, with respect to the VOLGA forum, although
the infrastructure providers Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, Ericsson and ZTE
are involved, there is no mention of Nokia-Siemens Networks as a member.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_Access_Network
Best Regards,
John Holmblad
Acadia Secure Networks, LLC
* *
Jean-Christian de Rivaz wrote:
> Andrew Flegg a écrit :
>> On Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 8:59 PM, Jean-Christian de Rivaz <jc@xxxxxxxx>
>> wrote:
>>> I don't understand why the next tablet will not be able to make regular
>>> phone call, since it will have 3G link. It's a non sense.
>>
>> You seem awfully sure about the features of a device which has yet to
>> be announced, let alone released.
>>
>> Perhaps such certainty should be held in check until an announcement
>> is actually made about what the RX-51 and RX-71 *are*?
>
> Of course I can be wrong. I just read news from Maemo site:
>
> http://maemo.org/news/internet_tablet_talk/dr-ari_jaaksi_on_maemo_5/
>
> --------------------
> Dr. Ari Jaaksi has just finished his keynote speech over at OSiM,
> revealing a lot of juicy stuff on the future of Maemo. Check out the
> the upcoming Maemo 5 (5th generation) highlights:
>
> * online anywhere with cellular connectivity over HSPA for
> broadband anywhere
> * powerful computing with TI OMAP3 processor - for better
> performance and better graphics performance
> * photo sharing with hi-def camera - imaging and photo-sharing
> * Nokia is now Gold Sponsor of Linux Foundation, has contributed
> code today for 3G/HSPA cellular (data) connectivity for OMAP3 to Linux
> kernel
>
> * no news yet on backward compatibility for older devices
> --------------------
>
> From what I can find on the net, HSPA seem to be an extend of the 3G.
> So it seem logical to me that the next tablet will have 3G radio.
>
> Best regards,
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