Evolution of Voice as a Service

In the era of “data” hogging the limelight, in this post I dwell on “voice” and where we stand now on voice as a service. How do we define “Voice”? Voice as spoken by human beings is the ability to hear the words spoken by another and possibly carry on a conversation. A normal human voice falls in the frequency range of 80-250 Hz compared to the frequencies allotted for mobile communications which typically lie in the range of 700 - 2500 MHz in today’s spectrum allocations. The frequency range of human voice is about 1000,000 times lower in magnitude compared to commercial mobile spectrum.

www.guinnessworldrecords.com informs that the male voice normally goes to 180 meters in still air. For human voice to be spoken and transmitted over a distance (Here I am not talking about mike amplifiers used to address crowds) it can be done through the medium of telecom networks. The first and traditional way is the POTS phone which has a fixed wire or cable from the telephone exchange terminating in the device and it can also be done by using a mobile network. There are other ways like satellite phones or trunk radios but let me stick to voice service that an ordinary user can avail. This voice carried over any network has to have the unique property of being in “real time” so that the end user can comprehend what the other side is saying and carry out a meaningful conversation.

Voice availed through the POTs phones given by the Fixed Line service providers has evolved not only in the way the service is availed by the end user but also in the background technology. We have a fixed phone set at home or office and dial the number we need to dial, hear a ring back tone and when the other side picks up, the end to end circuit gets established enabling the users at both ends to have voice communication. Behind this simple service is an array of equipment, the central of which is the Telephone Exchange and the access side. Taking an analogy with mobile telecom systems, there is an access network side consisting of the physical media laid from the telephone exchange to the end user premises.  The voice is carried over DSL lines where voice and data can be conveyed together over digital lines on copper. Optical fibers are also being increasingly used for the last mile combining data and voice. Devices such as Splitters/IAD/MSAN is used at the customer end premises to extract the voice services and terminate in a fixed line device or telephone set. As such, the media for connecting the end user which initially had only copper cables has now got two options - copper and optical fibers. The other part - the Exchange over time has also seen technological upgrades from analog to digital systems. Even within the digital space it has changed from one version to upgraded avatars known as NGN.  ITU -T defines NGN as one “where service-related functions are independent of the underlying transport-related technologies”. Although improvements have taken place over the years in terms of the digital switching platform, there is no concrete terminology used such as 2G, 3G or 4G as used in mobile networks. But user experience has got enhanced. From the initial days when only plain basic voice was there, now the user can have add-on services like Call Forwarding and Wake-up call facilities.

Even electronic and digital systems have a shelf life no matter how advanced they might be. The service providers will no doubt try to extract the maximum utility from the installed systems and as operational costs increase in terms of repair, support, power consumption and area the equipment takes up, they need to look at technological upgrades to keep the services running.  Service providers will also need to   give increased value to the voice users. This leads to procuring newer and advanced switches and the shift from one hardware and software version to another. In current deployments Internet Multimedia Sub-Systems (IMS) have come in for the core or “exchange” end for PSTN. IMS supports SIP (IP) and the POTS phone gets transformed to IP end points. These IP end points may be SIP Voice phone, SIP Video phone or SIP Clients offering an array of services such as Call Conferencing, Call waiting, Call Forwarding among others using IP as the underlying layer.

Looking at the evolution of voice in a Mobile network, let us look at the two aspects Access and Core as we did in the case of the Fixed phones above. In the access part which the Radio part or “last mile” it is 2G, 3G or 4G to the end user who uses a mobile handset to avail the voice services. For 2G and 3G, the voice is carried over the airwaves through a Circuit switched (CS) network which connects to the mobile Network of another service provider (PLMN) or PSTN network. The 2G and 3G networks use the MSC. an equivalent of the PSTN Exchange to switch calls in different sides. Similar to the PSTN network, an end to end circuit is established from the end user mobile handset through the Radio access and Core Network onwards to the end user on the other side. This circuit is maintained till such time the call is ongoing. From the Circuit Switched network, it has evolved to Packet switched networks where there is now no dedicated path to carry voice. Voice is now carried as data packets. This is the way IP packets flow when we send across emails and other data from one laptop or desktop across cities and countries.

Voice in this new form of data packets is possible through two ways. One through VOIP which has what we have through the use of applications like Skype, WhatsApp voice and the like. These Apps for voice are free in the sense that these apps do not charge from the end users. These apps use the underlying network infrastructure of the mobile networks as an overlay layer. The app providers have their own setup consisting of servers to route the calls, maintain databases and give other value added services through the net. Although voice is apparently free, add on services may be charged. In this scenario, the network service providers who have 2G, 3G and 4G networks do not have much control and in these days of “Net Neutrality” they can ill afford to block or throttle these applications. The other approach which mobile service providers feel they can have more control over a traditional service such as Voice is to have an IMS architecture. This IMS architecture is the same one used for Fixed line voice as we saw above as IMS is agnostic to the underlying access layer whether it is Copper, Optical or 4G. But service providers need to give clear benefit to entice the user to avail voice service given by them. Using a IMS setup gives them the leverage to do so and the benefits in this game of having IMS can be giving better Quality of Service, common look and feel and avoiding the hassles of ensuring that both the callers (caller party and called party) having to use the same application. In current setup, a Skype user can only call another Skype user and not a WhatsApp user. This problem is circumvented by using IMS Voice. For a service provider deploying LTE radio access, deploying IMS network becomes mandatory as LTE by design cannot be connected to a circuit switch (Core) network like the previous generations of 2G and 3G radio to deliver voice services. Voice carried over LTE is known as Voice over LTE (VoLTE). Once a service provider introduces IMS in its network, it can also use it to give voice services over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) or give Video services.

VOIP or Voice over IP (or Internet) allows a caller to initiate calls from his or her PC, laptop, tablet or mobile device using IP. A user making a voice call to another PC user can bypass the traditional PSTN or PLMN networks.  Depending on local policies and regulations, voice calls from VOIP to PSTN or Mobile numbers and vice versa are allowed or curtailed.

What about the actual conversion of analogue speech as we speak to digital format? Codecs are used for conversion of voice (analogue) to digital format for transmission and re-conversion back to analogue for speech at the other end. Improvements have also taken place in the quality of voice carried over telecom systems over time. For GSM (2G) it started with Full rate (FR) codecs and then progressively seen half rate (HR) codecs for pumping more information, Enhanced Full rate (EFR) codecs reducing errors leading to Adaptive Multi rate (AMR) and Wideband AMR (AMR-WB) codecs in deployments. AMR-WB for instance provides for more bandwidth than conventional 3.1 kHz and has other features for better speech quality and noise reduction.

So where do we stand on voice services in the current scenario? I take the case of India again.

• ·    Incumbent operators have got circuit switch networks that cater to 2G and 3G radio networks which are widely deployed compared to LTE. Using VoLTE presents a challenge as full and seamless LTE coverage is not there across the country currently. Having full LTE coverage will take time although service providers are increasing its coverage. In this scenario, the experience of using VoLTE in patchy LTE radio coverage areas leaves the user experience wanting.
• ·       So what do existing operators who are having LTE radio network as well as 2G and 3G network do? The mechanism of CSFB (Circuit Switch Fall Back) for voice services is a way out. This means that while in the LTE radio coverage area, data services are carried by LTE radio network while any voice service to be availed by a user, the network automatically selects the Circuit Switch Network. This fallback for voice makes sense when the service provider has a robust 2G and 3G network which is true for most such operators in India. As LTE coverage increases and expands, SRVCC can be resorted to. This mechanism uses the IMS Core for voice calls in the LTE radio network and utilizes the existing circuit core for voice calls when the user moves to a 3G or 2G radio coverage area. The difference with CSFB is that in SRVCC, the Call control is retained by the IMS Core. SRVCC is not seen in Indian networks although operators have tested the solution in their networks. CSFB remains in vogue.
• ·      Having a LTE capable handset does not always mean having a handset supporting VoLTE at the same time. It seemed as if the two aspects are separate although VoLTE runs on IMS Core with LTE radio technology in the access. As recently as a year back, there were few handsets supporting VoLTE. But Handset support for VoLTE is increasingly seen across multiple handset manufacturers and the price of these handsets are getting affordable.
• ·       To maintain their technological lead and ensure they are not lagging in the deployment of newer services, providers need to keep abreast of their peers. In the case of VoLTE too, this seems to be in the case along with the inherent need to upgrade the networks and keep pace with the developments in the market.
• ·      The Telecom Regulator (TRAI) regularly publishes the Network Quality performance indicators and considering the technological and market changes, indicators would warrant review as subscriber ramp up takes place in the IP side of voice compared to Circuit Switched voice. 
• ·         Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) is not much of a story in India, as of now. Service providers in India are deploying IMS solutions in their Fixed line and Mobile services but the use of one single IMS core is not visible although IMS is access agnostic. Possibly the separation is maintained because of administrative and operational reasons and not due to technological limitations.
• ·      Voice calls from PSTN or Mobile numbers to Voice over IP (VOIP) users and vice versa are not allowed under current policy/regulations. However, PC to PC or PC to International PSTN/PLMN numbers are allowed. No separate numbering scheme exists to identify VOIP users like a PSTN or Mobile number. The regulator (TRAI) had initially proposed allowing such calls and it has issued a consultation paper (2016) on the issue to solicit views of different stakeholders but as things stand, the current policy does not allow calls from VOIP users to users of fixed line and mobile numbers.
• ·     Service providers are giving affordable tariff plans which offer free unlimited local and STD voice calls bundled with data. Voice which was charged per minute or per second or multiples of the same is seeing a changeover. In current scenario, either it is not charged separately (at least in some plans) or charged at low rates.

The genesis of telecom which had voice as its core service is seeing a change and voice is now only one in the bouquet of services provided by the service providers The entry of VOIP and Reliance Jio as a provider which has no 2G and 3G networks but launching LTE networks is changing the market as far as “voice” as a service is offered. From the traditional circuit switched voice where a dedicated path is established to packet switching of calls, voice is on the path of using IP as the underlying layer, whether we term it as a IMS voice or VOIP call. 

Telephony end user hopes and expectations for this year

As 2017 starts, I try to capture my thoughts and hopes as a consumer of telephony services.   There is a plethora of services in offer by different service providers. But what do I expect as an end user of a service which is now seemingly an un-detachable part of my life?  The mobile has become so much a pervasive part of me not only because I am immersed in the industry but also to do with the fact that it has become a basic necessity in today’s world. Here are 10 areas that I as a user hopes gets better in this year.

1.       No buffering and good speeds available in mobiles for data sessions in home, in the market place and the roads and highways. Although voice network is extensive in the country but as far as data is concerned, issues still persist firstly on coverage and secondly on the quality of the data sessions.

2.       Security and privacy of data for whatever is uploaded, shared or downloaded among friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Currently an average user does not know whether his or her data is safe or has fallen prey to someone’s prying eyes. To a naïve user it may never cross his mind that his personal details are available to others till he or she becomes a victim of some fraud.

3.       Healthy competition between service providers so that the consumer gets a rich choice of service bouquet and affordability for mobile telephony services.

4.   Tariffs remain transparent and affordable. This is applicable for both mobile as well as fixed services. For fixed broadband tariffs, wherever competition is not there, tariffs on offer can vary a lot. If we take the example of Delhi, where there are multiple service provider choices, one can get unlimited broadband plans @1000 (US$ 15) rupees approximately per month, while in Gurgaon an adjacent city and logically a part of Delhi the range can go to around 1500 rupees (US$ 22) due to the fact that in many areas there is only one or two providers and the service provider tries to exploit the monopoly situation. This situation is more so when one moves beyond the major cities and towns.

5.       Easy to use and maneuver portals of Service Providers. If one goes to any service provider’s portal, the number of schemes that are displayed creates more confusion than clarity of what the user wants.  Time for some simplification!

6.       Regulator plays a more active role in preventing unwanted marketing calls and SMSs from banks, insurance companies and real estate agencies in ungodly times and days. The regulator monitors the network quality, subscriber data and the like but it seems that the end consumer experiences are not captured in a way it should be. It would be unrealistic to expect the regulator to get to the individual consumer but some process through which it can gauge the user experiences along with the network performance would help.

7.       Resolving financial transaction issues - For financial transactions done through the mobile, there are a number of players in action in the chain- starting with the mobile operator, the app, the payment gateway and the bank. The situation gets further complicated when the user is traveling and carries out a failed transaction in a roaming network. In case of a dispute, two things need to be addressed. First who will resolve the dispute and second how much time will the complaint get resolved? Time is the essence. 

8.       Battery life of the mobile phone remains enough to last for the whole day to do voice calls and data sessions without looking for a recharge point or battery bank to carry along. 

9.       App options get simplified and integrated. Multiple app options are available for a smart phone and it is increasing day by day. When using an app, it sometimes asks for permission to access the phone book, SMS, call history and other such details. One does not know whether to give the app the permission and if given, how exactly the app is using that information? Is the app going beyond what is required to function effectively? If there is one integrated procedure by which such permissions are given for the apps it would make life simpler.  

10.   Customer care access gets easier. The multiple automated voice menus on calling customer care numbers leads the caller hopping from one menu option to the other. To top the labyrinth of the menus, the service provider sometimes will first play a long advertisement and then one gets to go inside the menu. Getting to a real live human voice is a long and patience testing option. 

I collate these 10 areas of expectations from a user perspective and that too in a situation when a human is using the services. In coming times when AI, M2M and IOT becomes more prevalent with forecasts suggesting  IOT/M2M devices set to cross the human users by many multitudes, the needs of an “end user” will see modification. Why so? Because the type of users will be much more. As technology, business and user landscape changes, this list will no doubt get updated to incorporate newer and varied needs.  Meantime, hope that the human consumer gets more choices, more transparency, better quality and better services.  I guess I am not asking too much.

Wishing you dear readers a happy new year.

5G -What is in for countries like India?

ITU (ITU-R) will finalize the candidate technologies as part of IMT-2020 by the year 2020 and once the 5G technologies and use cases are frozen and agreed to then these are expected to serve the needs for the next decade. In simple words, 5G will be there for at least 2030 considering previous generations of technologies. If countries like India do not come forward and take the required steps to bring together the industry, academia and the policy makers, they will miss the bus to move to the next level. Not only will these countries fail to energize their industries but the unique requirements to serve their unique needs will simply not be there. The five regional groupings will lobby to ensure that standards are set to meet the needs of their societies and industry. India for instance has quite a lot to catch up on infrastructure like electricity, roads, health care and education. 5G will need to cater for these needs as an enabling technology for IOT and other services. Can a user in the US expect to see that a street light which gets broken takes a year to get repaired? Or ensure that a remote school has interrupted electricity through effective monitoring? Or a remote hospital has electricity? Some basic things are taken for granted in the advanced countries. To deliver these basic services 5G can help but these requirements need to be there through uses cases and possibly through the standards through which the technologies will see light of the day.

Two recent developments in this area seem to indicate that things are moving in the desired direction although the pace is still much to be seen. One, India has now one Telecom Standards Organization (SDO) - TSDSI. This new organization has come after a couple of attempts in this direction through DOSTI and GISFI.  TSDSI is now formally an organizational partner of 3GPP along with six other SDOs of the 5 regions/countries which are active in the area. The second development is that the global body GSMA has elected its chairman for the next two years from India. Airtel’s chairman Sunil Mittal will take over in 2017.

Hopefully these and other steps will see the needs and requirements of developing and aspiring nations to be put in the right forums. However, if we look at the regional forums set up in the 5 regions - EU, Japan, Korea, China and US each has come up with a forum to focus on 5G. The 5G Americas (US), 5GPP (Europe), 5GMF ( Japan), IMT-2020 Promotion Group (China) and 5G Forum (Korea) are a pointer in this direction.

For setting up a SDO different stakeholders like the ministry, industry, academia has come together. Setting up a SDO and getting it globally recognised is hard and it has come after many years to India. Now a similar initiative to focus especially on 5G needs to come up. Will the country’s Telecom SDO be sufficient to drive the initiative or a focussed organization is required? No doubt the SDO can help in the standards process but for an ecosystem to come up some extra dedicated efforts would be required to bring different stakeholders together. Otherwise fragmentation on efforts will be there. True India is not a major manufacturing base for electronics and telecom but a concerted effort for a common objective will help reap the benefits. What can be the implications if India misses the bus?

To my mind, the top 5 reasons if we fail to give thrust to emerging technologies can be

1.    Industry growth

GSMA in its report  “The Mobile Economy  India 2016” highlights that the  operators have made CAPEX investments worth INR 154,100 crores ($23 billion) over the last five years which is slated to increase to  around INR 227,800 crores ($34 billion) for the period to 2020. Investments are set to increase in the industry. What will be the right match between investing in existing technologies and incoming ones like 5G?

2.    Unique needs of India not getting reflected in the international standards.

Considering the spread of the country, demographics, terrain, state of infrastructure, Indian needs do not exactly match the needs of the more advanced countries. This does not mean that everything is different but there are subtle differences that need to be taken care of. Having  a forum will give more weight age to the SDO.

3.    Ability to project itself as a technological power.

To raise its status in the comity of nations, multi pronged efforts are needed in economic, military, political, diplomatic and technology areas. The world is aware of the strength of the Indian IT sector. In other domains it is still not much counted where most advanced technologies are imported. 5G is an area which is emerging and the country can make its voice heard in this high technology arena through adequate and appropriate measures.  

4.    Policy and Regulation

Taking an early role in 5G, India can build up its policy and regulations in terms of addressing market needs, diverse industries, security, spectrum and technological needs and ensure that end users are given the service they have asked for. Best practices can be shared on the right policies and regulations with other countries. To start with India can cooperate and collaborate with different regional and trade blocks of which India is part of like BRICS, SAARC in advocating the right mix of policies and regulations.   

5.    Meeting the needs of other industries

As IOT/ M2M sees increased interest, wireless will play an important role no doubt. Vast tracks of the country cannot simply be accessed through fixed line or optical fibres and this scenario is unlikely to see much difference in the coming years simply because of the spread and geography.  Through its various functionalities like catering for low power consumption at the device end, better latency and higher throughputs added with support for multiple and diverse applications can sufficiently aid in the needs of other sectors. Indian telecom needs are unique and this can be said for other sectors also. Indian thrust in 5G can hopefully address the unique need of other industries.

Standards have not been frozen for 5G but it has started and all the big players and countries have set the ball rolling. There is still time to put up the act and stay in relevance. A forum that will have representatives from the government, regulator, service providers, manufacturers, universities and R&D centres to spearhead 5G with a common vision and mission is the need.  Otherwise India stands the risk to remain a marginal player in the emerging wireless technology space.

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5G Standardization

5G is a trending topic nowadays in different forums and seminars. Let us see what are the different standard bodies working on the international arena, the regional groupings and where do we sit from a developing country perspective? Based on my understanding, I cover in this post some of the major standardization organizations and what they hope to achieve in the area of 5G.  I start with the international organizations and then come to regional bodies.

International Organizations

ITU-T: www.itu.int

The United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies- ITU has finalised the “Vision” for 5G in 2015. Continuing the journey of previous frameworks for IMT-2000 and IMT-Advanced for 3G and 4G, the expectation is to freeze the IMT-2020 for 5G with detailed specifications for new radio interfaces.  (IMT stands for “International Mobile Telecommunications). If we go back to IMT Advanced, ITU had confirmed IMT Advanced status to 3GPP LTE Advanced and WirelessMAN Advanced as the technologies for 4G and it will be done similarly for 5G.

3GPP: www.3gpp.org/

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defines technologies with their specifications from the 3GPP family of standards. 3GPP has published specifications for 3G, LTE, LTE Advanced including GSM (GPRS &EDGE). It has got representations from telecommunications Standard Development Organizations (SDOs) from different regions. Different releases are generated each showing advances and improved functionalities. Release 15 is slated to be the first set of specifications for the new generation of 5G. Starting from 2015, 3GPP started working on 5G, with the objective of submitting a candidate technology to the IMT-2020 from ITU.  3GPP believes there are two areas from the radio point of view-   a.  Requirements of IMT 2020 that might include LTE and b. Scope & requirements of new radio system beyond LTE.

NGMN: www.ngmn.org 
Founded by the leading international mobile network operators in 2006, Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN) provides inputs to other standard bodies like ITU and 3GPP on 5G. For 5G it is of the view that there are 5 use cases namely -mobile broadband, mission critical communications, massive Internet of Things (IoT), broadcast- like services, and higher user mobility as the next generation 5G will be more than new radio interfaces but will encompass an end-to-end system that includes all aspects of the network. The organizational focus is to ensure that operators need and requirements are taken into consideration while working out new standards and technologies such as 5G.

IEEE: http://5g.ieee.org/ 
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), an association of professionals started with electricity and then incorporated Electronics and IT along the path among other fields. It has published several well-known standards such as 802 family for wireless standards, LAN, MAN etc.  Wi-Fi which we use so frequently nowadays has been standardized by IEEE.  In the area of 5G, special interest groups (SIGs) to work on specific areas like mmWave, end-to-end security, edge cloud, resilience, end-to-end latency, mobility, network architecture, gigabit service enablement, and sensing is planned. These SIGs will work on various aspects such as publications, education, training, conferences, federated testbeds, and standards.

GSMA : www.gsma.com/ 

Having the interests of operators worldwide with more than 800 members, GSMA is looking into the roaming and interconnection for 5G, suitable spectrum bands and use cases/applications and also give inputs to the standard bodies.  How 5G will impact the economics and technicalities is the focus of interest. GSMA is of the view that currently two perspectives exist on 5G. The first is of a “hyper-connected” world, where 5G is a blend of existing technologies like 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi etc.  These together can deliver among other things much greater coverage and availability, higher network density and provide the connectivity for M2M and IoT. The second is that 5G is a totally new next-generation radio access technology. 

Regional Initiatives

Besides the major global forums given above, there are a number of regional initiatives. These are not standard bodies but exert influence on standardization and technology space to further their interests. I show below the 5 major ones for 5G. 

5GPPP (5th Generation Public Private Partnership) https://5g-ppp.eu/

5G PPP has been initiated by the EU Commission and industry manufacturers, telecommunications operators, service providers, SMEs and researchers to further enhance Europe’s leadership. This initiative aims to have European industry driving the 5G standards and to develop and exploit at least 20% of the 5G SEP (Standards Essential Patents). It is a 1.4 Billion Euro initiative.

5G Americas http://www.5gamericas.org/

5G Americas aims to be the “Voice of 5G for Americas”. This grouping which came into being as “3G Americas” morphed into “4G Americas” for 4G has now taken up a new avatar in the form of “5G Americas”. It aims to recommend standards for 5G as well as for LTE, LTE-Advanced and LTE-Advanced Pro. 

5GMF (5th Generation Mobile Communications Promotion Forum) http://5gmf.jp/en/

The Japanese Initiative for 5G aims to conduct research & development concerning Fifth Generation Mobile Communications Systems for standardization among other objectives. It aims for early realization of 5G. 

IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group http://www.imt-2020.cn/en/

This group aims to promote the research of 5G in China. Some areas of focus for this forum are to study requirements, 5G framework, network technology, spectrum, IPR and international cooperation. 

5GForum-http://www.5gforum.org/

The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and Mobile Industries in South Korea founded the 5G Forum in 2013. By 2020, the   government intends to deploy 5G mobile technology for the first time in the world featuring core 5G services during the 2018 Winter Olympics to be held in South Korea and this forum will help drive the initiatives in that direction.

In this high technology game, it would be of vital and strategic importance to these countries as it can have implications for their GDPs and growth. If we look at the origin of these bodies they all emanate from the countries/regions from where the Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) contributing to 3GPP come from. Each regional grouping aims to maintain the lead in the development of 5G in the area of advanced technologies and reap the maximum benefit for their industries based in those areas. There will be tough fights and in the ensuing battles, each group will try to extract the most for themselves and their stakeholders.