Mobile Europe is at 4G World in Chicago poking its nose into the world of LTE, and other forms of “4G”. Here’s a short round-up of some the announcements (and one non-announcement) we’ve picked up on so far, on the first morning proper of the event. More to come…
ALCATEL-LUCENT:
4G Consumer Communications Solution: An IMS-based video/voice/messaging application from Alcatel-Lucent:
http://www.multivu.com/mnr/52409-alcatel-lucent-connecting-video-made-simple-4g-mobile-broadband-solution
Interoperable video calling and messaging solution, based on IMS.
“Subscribers are provided with access to a unified contact list that establishes a single point with which to connect to people, regardless of where they are or what device they’re using.” No mention of RCS, right?
SAMSUNG wants you to know it can do LTE too. It’s hosting live demonstrations of Samsung Smart LTE, introduced earlier this year, and Voice over LTE (VoLTE). It included a handy infographic to point out that it has plenty of LTE smarts, based on experience with MetroPCS and others. Mobile Europe was due to be briefed on a European customer engagement with LTE, but that has been delayed, which will be frustrating for the vendor.
DRAGONWAVE has introduced something it’s calling “Avenue” – a piece of kit that integrates a 3G/4G RAN unit with a backhaul antenna array. It’s designed to support small cell deployments, with the “all-in-one” microcell/balhaul anntennas being sited on lamp posts or similar. One competitor has already sniffed to Mobile Europe that “At that size, you’d need a pretty strong lamp post”.
http://investor.dragonwaveinc.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=617628
IXIA has launched a 3G/4G control plane testing appliance called the X800.
Ixia quote:
“The new IxCatapult X800 provides critical validation of complex control plane scalability for both 3G and 4G/LTE networks. It verifies network design and implementation by emulating control plane signalling on a city scale. The combination of IxCatapult and the X800 allows service providers to be confident that their networks can handle the huge influx of smartphone traffic without compromising network availability.”
Traditional supporting analyst quote:
“Control plane scalability is a critical factor for mobile networks as the onslaught of data traffic from subscribers, devices, and applications increases exponentially. Testing a network’s control plane capacity requires unique and precise measurement tools,” said Stéphane Téral, Principal Analyst, Mobile and FMC Infrastructure from Infonetics Research. “Ixia’s X800 appliance is the type of device that provides the level of testing needed to accurately assess the control plane capability of a mobile network.”
http://www.ixiacom.com/news_and_events/press_releases/display.php?skey=383
CONVERGYS:
You need next gen BSS designed for 4G monetisation. Real time controls, transaction management, cost control and scaleability are key.
We commissioned a report from Heavy Reading to back us up.
http://www.convergys.com/company/news-events/newsroom/news_release.php?newsid=4906
TEKELEC:
You need next gen signalling and integrated policy solutions designed for 4G monetisation, especially for group data plans which we think are going to be big in 4G. Real time controls, session management, alerts, and scaleability are key.
We commissioned a report from Infonetics to back us up.
http://www.tekelec.com/news-&-events/prDetail.asp?prID=964