Written by: Håkan Eriksson

Internet mobile telecommunication
The tremendous success of our cellular business can be attributed to our having added new value to the established voice service—we made it wireless! Now, as we set our sights on third-generation mobile telephony (3G, UMTS, IMT-2000 or whichever acronym you choose), we are about to do the same thing again. But this time the application is the Internet. Personally, I favor IMT-2000, where IMT stands for Internet mobile telecommunication, since this acronym captures the essence of 3G developments.

• Internet—the application, but also the IP paradigm, as such;

• Mobile—the user environment, characterized by freedom and ubiquitous access,

• Telecommunication—which is known and valued for its robustness and real-time capabilities.

For a long time now, we have talked about voice versus data communication and circuit versus packet switching. Ultimately, however, packet switching will prevail. Thus, the only real issue is whether we will have it in real-time or not.

The most obvious real-time packet application will be voice over IP (VoIP). Many ISPs are now showing great interest in this area, since voice is a familiar application for which consumers are willing to pay. Thus, in our search for the killer data application, we rediscovered voice.

Putting real-time requirements on the packet network, and particularly on the Internet, means that we must abandon the “best-effort” approach used to date, and instead introduce differentiation of services with the ability to guarantee low latency for some classes of service. We must also be allowed to charge accordingly.

Opening up the architecture
We are opening up the architecture, not only of the network, but also of our products—the nodes in the network. This means that we can use commercially available processors and operating systems in our products, while at the same time providing open interfaces (API) on which others can implement their applications.

In doing so, however, we remain competent total-system integrators. Thus, in some instances, we choose to develop the components ourselves, in order to add value and guarantee the characteristics of our networks. Examples include the Jambala, Cello and Tigris platforms and products, as well as the Professional Services described in this issue of Ericsson Review.

Real-time IP evolution
The backbone has already begun to evolve toward real-time IP. Today, we are also driving development projects that aim to add real-time IP routing to the access network—for example, between radio base stations and switches. Finished products resulting from this research should reach the market around 2000-2001.

Finally, real-time IP transport will be provided across the wireless interface all the way out to the terminal. We are currently researching this area too, with the aim of providing finished products around 2003. The challenge is in dealing with the overhead produced by the IP format, which must be transmitted over the radio spectrum—a valuable but sparse resource.

The main message here is that the IP paradigm will eventually dominate, but that the circuit-switched and the IP worlds will coexist for a long time. Obviously, we will offer products for either track as well as gateways for bridging the gap between them.

An end-user and application-related focus dictates that we must make the Internet wireless. Drawing on our strengths in wireless communication, we will succeed in providing higher bit rates and wireless mobility. GPRS and our WCDMA evaluation system, two additional topics described in this issue of Ericsson Review, are vital components in making this happen.

However, the Internet is not only about the World Wide Web. It also introduces the IP paradigm and a new way of building networks, which implies that we must develop routers and gateways. Given the added requirement for real-time applications, we will draw heavily from our experience of telecommunications, making routers and gateways that are robust and operate in real time.

[First published in Ericsson Review no. 02, 1999]