Nokia reinvents itself.

I still remember those days. Everyone was writing off Nokia and some even claimed this company would cease to exist come couple of years.

Having seen the crisis of Nokia up close (I was an employee of Nokia subsidiary, Nokia Siemens Networks), I am proud to mention how the company reinvented itself from the burning platform it seemed to be standing on (Stephens Elops letter to Nokia employees). 

The Nokia management board was put through an intense leadership test. While the entire universe was imploring Nokia to jump the bandwagon and tie up with Android, Stephen Elop shrewdly stroke an exclusive partnership deal with Microsoft.

Not only does Nokia differentiate itself spectacularly in the Windows 8 Ecosystem, but also positions itself as the best choice among the Windows devices. While the share of Windows itself is miniscule as of now, the share of that windows phone that belongs to Nokia is huge. 

With the introduction of Lumia 520 and 720, Nokia has completed the different price point offerings, and has something to offer to every kind of consumers. Yes, I was there in Barcelona Mobile World Congress 2013 when these smartphones were launched.

There was a phase in the middle when none of my friends seemed to be buying Nokia smartphones. However, now things seem to have changed quite considerably. 

One of my friend was in dilemma as to which smartphone to buy. He was bored of the laggy UI of a cheap android phone. I recommended Lumia 520. He has fallen head over heels for the WP8 eco system. He thanks me all the time for literally forcing him to go for WP8. 

What I dont understand is this initial reluctance to try something new that none of the friends in the extended social circle has been using. Hopefully, as I see more and more people around me buying Lumia devices, I would try to get some insight into this follow-the-herd mentality which is harming the sales of the innovative devices that lack the social approval.

The latest development in the mobile phone industry has changed the dynamics of the war of the eco system. The ruling of the federal court in favour of apple for patent infringement against samsing will prove to be a breath of life for ailing giants like Nokia and RIM.

While RIM is more or less down the spiral path of destruction, there is still a lot of expectation from Nokia in terms of challenging the technology giant.

As is the case with any economy, an increase in competition results in the increase in the innovations and decrease in the end price for consumers, a win-win situation for consumers.

Apple is wary of Nokia itself, for the latter created a segment we know as smartphone today.

September 2012 seems to be the most critical month for a long time to come. Not only are we expecting a range of windows 8 devices from Nokia including their flagship products, but also a new iphone, a new kindle and new ipad mini, something that Steve Jobs has termed as DOA (Dead On Arrival.)

Stay tuned. We are heading for a roller coaster ride readers.

Please don't forget to comment how you feel about this short write up.

GSM History

During the early 1980s, analog cellular telephone systems were experiencing rapid growth in Europe, particularly in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, but also in France and Germany. Each country developed its own system, which was incompatible with everyone else's in equipment and operation. This was an undesirable situation, because not only was the mobile equipment limited to operation within national boundaries, which in a unified Europe were increasingly unimportant, but there was also a very limited market for each type of equipment, so economies of scale and the subsequent savings could not be realized.


For more info, please go to the official web page of ITU.



The Europeans realized this early on, and in 1982 the Conference of European Posts and Telegraphs (CEPT) formed a study group called the Groupe Spécial Mobile (GSM) to study and develop a pan-European public land mobile system. The proposed system had to meet certain criteria:

• Good subjective speech quality
• Low terminal and service cost
• Support for international roaming
• Ability to support handheld terminals
• Support for range of new services and facilities
• Spectral efficiency

ISDN compatibility In 1989, GSM responsibility was transferred to the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI), and phase I of the GSM specifications were published in 1990. Commercial service was started in mid-1991, and by 1993 there were 36 GSM networks in 22 countries. Although standardized in Europe, GSM is not only a European standard. Over 200 GSM networks (including DCS1800 and PCS1900) are operational in 110 countries around the world. In the beginning of 1994, there were 1.3 million subscribers worldwide, which had grown to more than 55 million by October 1997. With North America making a delayed entry into the GSM field with a derivative of GSM called PCS1900, GSM systems exist on every continent, and the acronym GSM now aptly stands for Global System for Mobile communications.

The developers of GSM chose an unproven (at the time) digital system, as opposed to the then-standard analog cellular systems like AMPS in the United States and TACS in the United Kingdom. They had faith that advancements in compression algorithms and digital signal processors would allow the fulfillment of the original criteria and the continual improvement of the system in terms of quality and cost. The over 8000 pages of GSM recommendations try to allow flexibility and competitive innovation among suppliers, but provide enough standardization to guarantee proper interworking between the components of the system. This is done by providing functional and interface descriptions for each of the functional entities defined in the system. 

One of the oldest mobile phones in display.

Services provided by GSM

From the beginning, the planners of GSM wanted ISDN compatibility in terms of the services offered and the control signalling used. However, radio transmission limitations, in terms of bandwidth and cost, do not allow the standard ISDN B-channel bit rate of 64 kbps to be practically achieved.

Using the ITU-T definitions, telecommunication services can be divided into bearer services, teleservices, and supplementary services. The most basic teleservice supported by GSM is telephony. As with all other communications, speech is digitally encoded and transmitted through the GSM network as a digital stream. There is also an emergency service, where the nearest emergency-service provider is notified by dialing three digits (similar to 911).
A variety of data services is offered. GSM users can send and receive data, at rates up to 9600 bps, to users on POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service), ISDN, Packet Switched Public Data Networks, and Circuit Switched Public Data Networks using a variety of access methods and protocols, such as X.25 or X.32. Since GSM is a digital network, a modem is not required between the user and GSM network, although an audio modem is required inside the GSM network to interwork with POTS.

Other data services include Group 3 facsimile, as described in ITU-T recommendation T.30, which is supported by use of an appropriate fax adaptor. A unique feature of GSM, not found in older analog systems, is the Short Message Service (SMS). SMS is a bidirectional service for short alphanumeric (up to 160 bytes) messages. Messages are transported in a store-and-forward fashion. For point-to-point SMS, a message can be sent to another subscriber to the service, and an acknowledgement of receipt is provided to the sender. SMS can also be used in a cell-broadcast mode, for sending messages such as traffic updates or news updates. Messages can also be stored in the SIM card for later retrieval.

Supplementary services are provided on top of teleservices or bearer services. In the current (Phase I) specifications, they include several forms of call forward (such as call forwarding when the mobile subscriber is unreachable by the network), and call barring of outgoing or incoming calls, for example when roaming in another country. Many additional supplementary services will be provided in the Phase 2 specifications, such as caller identification, call waiting, multi-party conversations.

Core Network of a GSM System

Ever wondered how you get connected to the person you call from your cell phones ? 


Probably yes.


Ever got to know what is going on in the back hand to enable the connection between you and the called person ?


Probably No.


See the following image ? This is what constitutes the core GSM Network. In Technical lingo, its known as Network Switching Subsystem. It is one of the 3 broader distinct classification of a GSM Architecture.


In short, this machine depicted here (known as MSC, or, Mobile Services Switching Centre.) takes care of connecting your call to the called party. (the person you called.)

MSC (Mobile Services Switching Centre) : Makes use of the distributed processing architecture !

                                                               
This is what this blog is all about.


Okay. I am not giving you any user reviews of the latest smartphones that have been launched by Nokia, or BlackBerry, or Apple. Sorry. For that, there are already millions of sites vying to get your attention.


This blog is to make you aware of the process that goes in a network for every activity that you do. It would help you appreciate the finer nitty gritties of the complexities involved in a call/sms/data call.


Since this is my first post, I wouldn't write any technical stuff that I am about to write in few days anyways.


Subscribe to this post and you wouldn't regret.


Cheers.


Rahul Jha
Telecommunication Engineer
India.


Currently working as a Configuration Management Engineer with Nokia Siemens Networks @ New Delhi, India.