Friday February 16, 2007

Especially for the european market Sun and Comptel Corporation, a leading Operations Support System (OSS) software vendor for convergent mediation, charging, provisioning and network inventory, announced this week at 3GSM that we'll jointly provide a turn-key Data Retention Solution to mobile and fixed telecom operators worldwide for data retention of voice call and Internet traffic related data. The Data Retention Solution is designed to fully support the requirements of the European Union (EU) Data Retention Directive (EDRD), including phase two, which covers the retention of data from IP and data networks. According to the EDRD, mobile and fixed operators in all 27 EU member countries should have a data retention solution in place by September 15, 2007.

EDRD, which the EU issued in March 2006, mandates the retention of voice call and Internet traffic related data in all 27 member countries, to be used in cases of serious crimes, including terrorism. The directive includes the retention of data from mobile phones, Internet and fixed telephony, Internet access and e-mail. Any affected party needs to retain essential information about these communications. According to the directive, data must be retained for a period of time between six months and two years, but some member states have chosen to extend that period to up to five years.

The Directive requires Member States to ensure that communications providers must retain necessary data as specified in the Directive:

1. to trace and identify the source of a communication;
   
2. to trace and identify the destination of a communication;
   
3. to identify the date, time and duration of a communication;
   
4. to identify the type of communication;
   
5. to identify the communication device;
   
6. to identify the location of mobile communication equipment.

"This EU directive is very problematic and costly to implement from an operator's point of view. Consider for example the wide variety of sources of data, and volumes involved. This is why Comptel's expertise in telecom data collection, and Sun's hardware and software expertise are the perfect combination to solve this problem quickly and cost-effectively for operators," says Markku Penttinen, EVP of Convergent Mediation for Comptel Corporation.

Comptel's field-proven and market-leading mediation software is used to collect and process the call data from the various networks. Comptel's software runs on Sun Fire servers, running the Solaris 10 OS, the most advanced OS on the planet. The data itself is stored to a low-cost database, which removes the need for any expensive 3rd party licenses. The stored data is compressed automatically using the Solaris ZFS file system. Sun StorageTek storage systems take care of the physical storing of the data during the retention years. Comptel's state-of-the-art software has off-the-shelf features covering auditing, user profiles and other security requirements for the comprehensive data retention solution.

Want to learn more? Contact us.

Thursday February 15, 2007

NAVTEQ announced the European winners of the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge at the 3GSM World Congress on tuesday, Feb 13. The challenge is designed to stimulate the Location Based Services industry (LBS) by encouraging application developers from around the world to build innovative location-based service applications that work with portable devices using wireless technology and NAVTEQ maps.

Over 340 companies registered for the Challenge globally, of which nine semifinalists advanced to the final judging in Barcelona, Spain. The semifinalists represented a broad spectrum of wireless applications in three categories: Navigation, Business Applications, and Social Networking. Semifinalists were selected based on each competitor's commercial feasibility, functionality and design.

The grand-prize winner and Navigation Category Winner, Jentro Technologies GmbH - at the picture you can see my friend Erno Hempel, CTO of Jentro, received euro 35,000 in cash and euro 100,000 worth of NAVTEQ Map licenses for up to one year. Jentro's application, activepilot, is a location-based, end-to-end service offering local search, community tools, e911, and off-board navigation. This versatile product meets the needs of the mass market, and also acts as a sensor for generating traffic flow information through its users via its exclusive Floating Car Data technology.

Each category winner, excluding the Grand Prize Winner, will receive euro 5,000 in cash and euro 75,000 worth of NAVTEQ Map licenses for up to one year. Nice prize! Congratulations to all but especially to Jentro who got 2 prizes in one contest.

It's great to see that Jentro is so successful with their Java powered mobile phone offboard Navigation service - they just signed a contract with Motorola around their solution ActivePilot and are working since years with Falk, Mobilkom and many others. Jentro is working since years together with Sun - I will never forget my first project with them about a converged services showcase in 2000 called Daypath (that's why I joined Sun) and a crazy one in 2003 around a jet-engine powered kickboard (codename KickJet).

Tuesday February 13, 2007

The Sun Open Telecommunications Platform (Sun OTP) is the result of a collaborative effort from Sun and members of the Telecommunications Platform Initiative (TPI) that have come together to develop the requirements for a standardized, integrated telecommunications platform to simplify technology integration by enabling design, development and supply chain efficiencies.

Recognizing that technology integration is a common challenge for all Network Equipment Providers (NEPs), the TPI aims to create and foster telecommunications industry collaboration and establish best in class architecture and definition of an integrated platform.

By coming together to define industry platform requirements, NEPs can focus their resources on their core business and not on the underlying base platform. Although important, the base platform is not a primary point of differentiation for NEPs. Instead, the value is in the applications that NEPs build on top of Sun OTP.

As a result of this collaboration, Sun developed Sun OTP as a uniform foundation to help simplify technology integration by enabling design, development, and supply chain efficiencies. Requirements for Sun OTP are therefore, 100% TPI driven.

What is Sun OTP
Sun OTP is a Carrier Grade solution for NEP application development, deployment and hosting that leverages commercial off-the-shelf components.

Sun OTP delivers a fully integrated software stack with full software support and end-to-end Life-Cycle Management services for the life of the solution, as a single product offering. Sun OTP enables NEPs to re-invest their valuable R&D resources in the development of value-added applications and services that matter most to them.

The diagram above shows a graphical representation of the Sun OTP high level conceptual architecture. The basic building blocks of Sun OTP are shown in dark blue while the top portion called "OEM Value Added Services" represents the NEP value added applications.

Sun OTP building blocks include the HA middleware and the application and platform management software, operating in a Solaris 10 environment and pre-tested and qualified on a specific set of hardware.

Optional Application Middleware services will also be available, referred to as expansion packs, that may include application services, SAF, or realtime application services.

Life-Cycle Management

Life-Cycle Management (LCM) provides the methodology for end-to-end management of the service life-cycle, from initial design support to service retirement. LCM ensures continued reliability throughout the entire life of the services in a manner that is relevant to NEPs.

LCM includes service design support, sustaining activities, an extended cycle for bug-fixes, committed release schedules, platform-wide patch releases, and a single point of contact for issue resolution.

In addition, LCM provides a significant opportunity for NEPs to reduce their Total Cost of Ownership due to economies of scale and amortization of LCM costs over higher volumes.

Monday February 12, 2007

The 3GSM World Congress combines the world's largest exhibition for the mobile industry with a cutting edge congress featuring the most prominent Chief Executives representing mobile operators, vendors and content owners from across the world. And so is Sun again here and will present the most actual products and solutions.

Personally I'm facing around 25 meetings - in less than 4 days. Looking forward to meet many people again which I haven't seen for months and sometimes for an year. 3GSM is great to stay in touch and give update. And wednesday evening we'll have our customer and partner party. And this will be a great event again!

Wednesday February 07, 2007

By integrating state of the art server and storage technologies, the Sun Fire X4500 Server (aka Thumper) delivers the remarkable performance of a four-way x64 server and the highest storage density available, with 24 TB in 4U of rack space. This system also delivers incredibly high data throughput for about half the cost of traditional solutions.

Now some german colleagues presented how developers can built their own Thumper system with a notebook, some USB hubs and a dozen USB sticks. Key is the usage of Solaris 10. I'm so sorry that you will not understand it if you don't speak german at all - but you HAVE to have at least a look at the movie in CSI-Munich style...

The best version can be found here but if you want, you can download it as well (MPEG4/H.264 - 142MB).

Rolf Kersten writes in his blog how they did it.

Have fun!

Monday February 05, 2007

Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D) will be presenting its AySystem for the first time at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona from February 12-15, 2007. Usable worldwide, this GSM/GPRS solution consists of the Ay terminal as the basis communication device and AyPilot.com portal, a web interface which can be used for centralized security and monitoring applications as well as for configuring and monitoring the basis devices. Based on Java technology, the system is suitable both for mobile applications in the private sphere and for companies who want to protect their employees and monitor objects.

Three sensors are integrated in the Ay device for detecting temperature, volume and motion. If a predefined sensor threshold is exceeded, an alert is triggered via the GSM/GPRS mobile radio network. The system settings can be entered and adjusted remotely via the web interface. In the same way, the measured values of the sensors can be read, displayed, analyzed and integrated into customer specific applications. The Ay device is the same size as a stack of playing cards and is fitted with four touch-sensitive function keys, a large display which can be used as a button and a loudspeaker which functions as a siren as well. The user only has to press the button to trigger emergency calls in the form of a telephone call or an SMS. Another important feature is the two-way communication function that can be used for telephone calls or sending and receiving SMS messages. The device functions can be set as required via the AyPilot.com web interface. The only requirement is access to the Internet. As an alternative, the configuration can be done by the user on the device itself using the function keys and the display to enter settings directly. For professional applications, the device is preferably configured and remotely controlled from a central location, so that configuration by the user is not necessary.

For customized solutions, the modular-design device can be easily supplemented with AySnapOn expansion modules and programmed by means of Java technology. A GPS module, for example, can be used for locating people and objects and a camera can be added for extending the security functions. The web interface, AyPilot.com, can easily be adapted to the requirements of companies that themselves have wireless communication components and are looking for a server solution for their own individual applications.

The list of potential AySystem applications is almost endless. Thanks to the intuitive, easy-to-use display and the function keys, the Ay user can trigger special actions via mobile radio quickly and easily. There are applications suitable for children and people with infirmities, as well as for security guards and field personnel. In addition, the three integrated sensors for temperature, volume and movement enable a wide range of uses, from individual object monitoring to the management of entire vehicle fleets. Thanks to its open interfaces, the AySystem accelerates time-to-market and requires only low initial investment overhead for the mobile radio operator or business customer. Moreover, the system is scalable both in terms of the hardware, due to the snap-on concept, and as regards software in the form of a Java client-server solution. It can grow as requirements increase.