Create Commercial Success Via Operator-Driven Femto Zone Services

By Payam Maveddat, VP of product management and marketing, Mavenir Systems.

Key industry players, both operators and femtocell vendors, agree that a successful path towards mass market adoption is to develop a “Femto Zone Services” strategy. Channeling the focus on services addresses consumers’ needs and helps operators establish and promote their brand as a value-added service provider and not a price led commodity player. Relationships with the end users are critical for service innovation for new revenue generation and differentiation.

 

Introduction

Where mobile operators can increase network coverage and capacity cost effectively via femtocell technology, consumers also benefit from low-cost mobile voice calls compared to VoIP offerings and not being required to switch their existing handsets. But coverage and capacity do not justify the business case for mass market adoption. They remain an operator burden and not a “value-added” feature.

Competition from traditional fixed line, cable and web providers offering triple and quad play solutions continues to increase. Mobile operators will be forced to rely on attractive pricing bundles such as unlimited calling and data plans from the Femto Zones, to entice the consumer to adopt. This diminishes the value of the femtocell, as the operator competes only on price, which is unsustainable for long-term business. 

The availability and adoption of 3G technologies such as HSDPA, WiMax, EVDO Rev A, or LTE will spur femto adoption, as users get hooked to high speed mobile data services and continuity in the Femto Zone – at home or at the office. Where 2.5G data and S/MMS revenue growth is driven by charging for value added services such as premium ringtone downloads and voting events, femto will have to find similar hooks for consumers and enterprises to desire, adopt and stick with their preferred femto service providers.

In order to find the hooks to drive retention of femto services and make femtocells a sustainable commodity for operators, operators must turn their focus to the end user and pay close attention to the trends taking shape regarding devices, networking, connectivity and mobility.

 

Service Strategy – Following the Trends

A service-focused strategy begins with the focus on the end user – consumers or enterprises – and trends, understanding their needs for improving productivity, connectivity or entertainment value. 

1. Consumers rely on the convenience of multiple devices, each equally important and irreplaceable, and they enjoy the rich features and low cost VoIP on a PC, mobility from their mobile and reliability of a home phone service. 

2. Social networking is another wild fire trend that leverages the internet to meet the very basic human need to connect. Mobile provided the first generation of one to one interaction, while the web allows for many interactions. 

3. The trend of multimedia asynchronous communications is demonstrated by the growing use of near real time communications via messaging – SMS, MMS, emails and presence enabled IM and notifications. These are media rich and typically associated with services such as photo and video sharing (You Tube), music downloads which offer chargeable value to the end user.

4. Mobility is the last, but most important trend that gels all the users together.  With more than 3 billion subscribers globally, and winning the battle of the primary medium, consumers still desire all the aforementioned services in a seamless manner across any medium, any time. Session mobility or Service continuity will become critical to drive adoption of next generation services.

These trends indicate the needs and wants of the global community, and operators must be able to mold the end users’ desires into progressive, cost-effective services in order to build revenues and remain competitive.

 

Services Strategy – Generating Revenue

Operators can leverage the following core set of services with their femtocells to generate new revenues:

1.    Reachability Services: for management of sessions across multiple devices available in the Femto Zone. Operators can offer single number services with personal profile based ringing options. Any-to-any messaging can also be bundled with the voice services.

 

2.    Mobility Services: allow users to move their session with them, across devices or on a single device. At home or in the enterprise, services include push to move, push to grab while in the Femto Zone or handovers from the femtocell to the macro mobile network.

 

3.    Web 2.0 Services:  allow users to enhance the usage experience of web based applications with the multi-device and mobility services. Operators can leverage presence and location information from the Femto Zone to provide a richer, simpler and personal experience for the end users. Auto detection policies for presence can users their buddies on services such as Facebook or MySpace about their availability to be connected in the Femto Zone. Alert messages can also be generated by the network to update location status for family or friends.  

The following scenarios for residential, enterprise and youth zones illustrate the power of the Femto Zone services in improving the communication experience for the end users.

 

Residential Home Zone

·         Single number services allow end users to be reachable on any device when they are in the Femto zone.

·         Simultaneous or Sequential Ringing allows the end users to define a profile and control how they prefer to be reached.

·         Any to Any Messaging allows the end users to be defined by a single identity to make it easier for their contacts to message them with ease within their home zone.

 

 

Enterprise Zone Mobility

Business customers seek simplicity and universal reachability along with coverage and capacity ensure a productive environment.  Femtocells will help operators meet the later requirements.  From a services perspective, these value added capabilities would accelerate the adoption of femtocells in the enterprise environment:

 

·         On-net Voice:  Enterprises can now connect their VoIP PBX to the femtocell and allow their employees to be reached via their existing extension numbers on their standard mobile and the desk phone simultaneously.  Users will still be reachable via their personal mobile number while in the zone. 

·         Mobility: A critical requirement of enterprises is the seamless connectivity via mobility features.  Business people on the move can now move their mobile session with their customer to a desk phone without impacting the other user.  Conversely, if that person has to catch a flight, session can seamlessly moved from the desk phone to their mobile within the Femto Zone and then handover to the macro network, all on the same call.

 

 

Youth Social Networking

The high usage of social networks on the web can help operators fuel the demand for femtocells.  Femto operators will have the power to define the next generation services delivery and establish against the new world players from the web domain.

Some of the powerful use cases for Web 2.0 integration revolve around the core features of messaging, location and presence.  Users will now be able to set auto detection policies for presence to alert their buddies on services such as Facebook or MySpace about their availability to be connected in the Femto Zone.  Alert messages can also be generated by the network to update location status for family or friends. Home Zone voice and multimedia content downloads can also be triggered based on simple personalized rules. 

This translates into a list of features, applications or services that will add value and therefore establish their willingness to pay. Service providers can intelligently tie these capabilities to the femto and charge for service value. The underlying benefits of femto will be enhanced and now related to the service brand vs. price based competition. 

 

                            

 

Technology Standards

Several operators have initiated technology trials as the femtocells become available by a multitude of vendors.  3GPP has completed a technical report for femtocells, referred to as 3G Home NodeB in 3GPP, in TR 25.820.  This report concludes that femtocell deployments, using legacy UMTS devices and legacy core networks, are feasible.  The report also states the preferred deployment is an Iu-based interface between the femtocell and Femto Gateway, which aligns with the Mavenir’s approach.

The Femto Forum has drafted the Femto reference architecture shown below, which does not define the service node, but provides open interfaces into the service delivery core network. 

 

 

The current focus within the Femto Forum is on defining the Fa and Fm reference points.  The Fb reference points are to be compliant interfaces into the respective core networks, e.g. Fb-cs will be implemented as IuCS. Liason statements into 3GPP are planned to help guide standardization efforts there.

For Mavenir Systems, the next step is to formally introduce and define the services architecture to ensure standard implementation framework such as adopting the 3GPP IMS Centralized Services (ICS) standard to accelerate the delivery of IMS services to the legacy 2G/3G Femto access network.

 

Mavenir’s Approach to Femto Service Node & Femto Gateway Configurations

Mavenir’s mOne solution enables innovative and compelling services that provide an enhanced user experience in the Femto Zone, whether the femtocell is deployed in the home or in the small or home office.  Mavenir enables services based on the Mavenir’s innovative mOne ICETM (Intelligent Convergence Engine) technology. 

Mavenir has productized its mOne ICETM functionality for femtocell deployment into two different product configurations, a Femto Service Node and a Femto Gateway. In both configurations, a unique suite of services are offered to enhance the Femto Zone user experience.

 

Femto Service Node

Traditional Femto architectures consist of a Femto Gateway that provides the essential functions of aggregating Femto AP’s (Access Points) and connecting them to the MSC core network via standard IuCS/IuPS interfaces.  The Femto Service Node is designed as an overlay to the Femto architecture and is placed transparently on the IuCS interfaces between the Femto Gateway and the MSC core network.  Note, as the Service Node is only a CS solution, the IuPS interface is connected directly from the Femto Gateway to the SGSN.

As an overlay, the Service Node complements the Femto Gateway by enabling value-added services not otherwise provided by the gateway itself.  There are two general categories of services enabled by the Mavenir solution, “true” multi-device convergence within the Femto Zone and location triggered presence and messaging, each of which are further described in the following sections. 

A third dimension of functionality provided by the Femto Service Node is Domain Selection, which is the ability to provide network services from either the MSC core network or the IMS core network. 

 

Femto Service Node & Convergence Services

With the support of multiple device types in the Femto Zone, the Service Node provides a unique set of convergence services, these are described as follows:

 

·         Home Number:  for residential service, the Femto Zone can support a single home number that can ring all devices registered in the home, including 3G phones.  The single number can be logically associated with a landline device plugged into the AP but can be used for enhanced reachability and device freedom – users can chose to receive home calls from their mobile phones.

 

·         Family Voicemail:  voicemail service associated with the home number can be made available to all devices in the Femto Zone.  The Service Node  delivers the Message Waiting Indicator to all devices in the Femto Zone, including SIP endpoints – SMS to SIP interworking delivers MWI to SIP devices via SIP messaging.

 

·         Intelligent Incoming Call Handling:  The Service Node is provisioned with a device group that defines those devices belonging to the Femto Zone.  Incoming calls to the Home Number can be intelligently routed to all devices in the group using any combination of simultaneous and/or sequential ringing.  For example, the incoming call can be configured to ring first and if not answered within 5 seconds, then all home mobiles would ring simultaneously.

 

·         Session Mobility:  The Service Node supports session mobility between device types such that an active call can be handed over from one device type to another – the end user is able to manually change end user device during an active call without dropping the call.  For example, if the end user is on an active call using a fixed phone and wants the freedom to walk outside or leave the house altogether, the end user can transfer the call to his mobile phone through the use of a simple short code and then leave.  Active calls can be pushed from the active device (Push-To-Move) or can be grabbed from an inactive device (Push-To-Grab).

 

Femto Service Node & IMS Services – Presence, Messaging & Location

Another category of services provided by the Service Node take advantage of the location dimension of the Femto AP.  The Service Node provides IMS compliant presence and messaging services for users entering or leaving the Femto Zone.

 

·         Presence:  The Service Node acts as a “presence agent” on behalf of the mobile subscriber entering the Femto Zone.  The Service Node detects the registration of a “home” subscriber and automatically updates the presence server that the subscriber is at home, such that the subscriber’s watchers can see that the subscriber is available.

 

The Service Node supports interworking with IMS compliant presence servers via the IMS ISC interface.  Upon detecting the location update message from the 3G device entering the Femto Zone, the Service Node originates a SIP Publish message on behalf of the mobile subscriber. 

 

Alternatively, the Service Node also interworks with Web 2.0 social networking sites to provide equivalent presence and availability information.  Popular web sites such as MySpace and Facebook can be automatically updated by the Femto Service Node.

 

·         Messaging:  The Service Node provides messaging alerts via either SMS or email.  Again, upon detecting the home subscriber entering or leaving the Femto Zone, the Service Node initiates message alerts to pre-defined destination addresses.  SMS messages from identifiable short codes, associated with the Femto Zone for example, are generated and sent to the SMSC for delivery to standard GSM or UMTS mobile phones (connectivity to the SMSC can be either via SMPP or MAP).  Emails alerts can similarly be generated by the Service Node itself and sent to any number of provisioned addresses.

 

Normally, the Femto architecture is not able to detect that a mobile subscriber has roamed out of Femto coverage and is on the macro network.  However, Mavenir’s Service Node utilizes a proprietary mechanism which detects that a mobile subscriber is no longer within Femto coverage and initiates the appropriate presence and/or message alert, or both.

 

Femto Gateway

Mavenir’s Femto Gateway provides an alternative deployment model for Femto architectures whereby the Femto Service Node and the Gateway are collapsed into one single network element.  Mavenir’s Femto Gateway provides all the essential features required by the Gateway with the value-add features enabled by the Service Node.

Mavenir’s Femto Gateway and Service Node provide the required solutions for Femto today and will help operator to utilize services from both a Legacy core and IMS Core by providing interfaces to both core types and intelligent techniques for routing subscriber services. If deployed today for instance, the operator may prefer services hosted out of the incumbent core. In this case Mavenir provides the necessary interfaces back to the MSC. Subsequently, If the operator wishes to transition to SIP/IMS based services, Mavenir’s solutions help in the migration by not only providing the necessary interfaces to the two service domains but also synchronization functions between the two core networks to keep subscriber profiles and registrations updated.

At the end of the day, unique and innovative value added services that enrich a users experience within the femtocell coverage zone will be key in consumer’s purchasing decision and consumer stickiness. Mavenir’s approach to offering value-added features through Femto Zone Services matches this vision. The core set of services offered within the Femto Zone are driven by key consumer and enterprise trends, but are only limited by imagination. Mavenir Femto Service Mavenir Femto Service Node and Gateway can interwork with any operator chosen vendor to bring in service parity with operator’ incumbent core within the Femto Zone and also provide new services such as those introduced here.  

 

About Mavenir Systems

Mavenir Systems, an innovator of converged service solutions, bridges network generations to create profitable services for mobile network operators.  Mavenir’s Femto Zone solutions enhance perators’ fixed mobile convergence (FMC) strategies to deliver the innovative applications desired by consumers such as multi-device voice, mobility, presence and any-to-any messaging.  Mobile operators can cost effectively deploy femtocells and evolve their service offerings with dynamic service selection across 2G/3G mobile, IMS or Web 2.0 domains. Consumers benefit from device selection, mobility across devices, control and simplicity. Mavenir is based in Richardson, Texas, and has offices in Shanghai, China, Bangalore, India and London, UK. For more information please visit, www.mavenir.com.