The Nomad Wireless Briefing - September/October 2006
A briefing to discuss: Unwiring the Local Authority; Building a Partnership to Deliver Wireless Public Services; Planning for a Hybrid Technical Architecture; Future of the Forum - Nomad Needs You
A briefing to discuss: Wireless Technologies Supporting Business Value; Towards Transformative Government; Rural and Urban Wireless Solutions; Future of the Forum - Nomad Needs You
A briefing to discuss: Wireless Infrastructure – Choosing the Right Business Model; Wireless Technology Choices; Preparing for Mobility – Mobile Application Characteristics; Future of the Forum – Nomad Wireless Needs You!
A briefing to discuss: The Current Wireless Landscape; Wireless Technology - an Enabler of Shared Services; Wi-Fi and WiMAX for Beginners; Drivers for Wireless - Transferable, Scalable, Affordable, Replicable; The Digital Challenge.
Wireless Infrastructure – the Right Business Model
The evolution of the Internet has placed local authorities under pressure to deliver improved service to citizens and business. Increasingly, enterprises and citizens are choosing where to be based, to work and to live, taking into account the availability of services and the effectiveness of local government. Local authorities that can provide broadband and online services will be more attractive than those that cannot.
Services are increasingly provided collaboratively by partners both public and private. In order to develop the infrastructure necessary to meet this challenge, local authorities must first choose an appropriate business model to build, fund and sustain the infrastructure. The business model must take into account existing infrastructure, funding capacity, service models and community enhancement initiatives.
A Framework for Business Modelling
Population density, level of urbanisation, community interest in the initiative and funding options are just some of the factors to consider in choosing a business model. In Europe and the UK, it is common to find community based networks (such as Manchester’s EastServe – www.eastserve.com) or commercial networks (such as BTOpenzone).
A framework like that below (Figure.1) can be used as a starting point to compare the common attributes of different models against your community’s requirements. Each ‘pillar’ represents a category of importance to the council. The Value Proposition may include how well the model helps the council to implement their transformation agenda or what the return on investment might be.
Figure 1
Business Model Types
Local Authorities have a variety of choices of business models when selecting their technology infrastructure. Some choices allow government’s greater control over the network but may require a greater capital investment and greater risk. The list below notes the type and description of potential Business Models.
Public Community - Local authority funded with free access to citizens.
Private Consortium - Privately funded with limited input from local authority.
Cooperative Wholesale - Local authority funded through in-sourcing of currently leased telecommunication services.
Public Utility / Authority - Local authority OR privately funded with usage charge to enterprise and citizens.
Non-Profit - Funded through grants, donations, etc. Often in conjunction with a social charter.
Public, Private, Social Partnership - Local authority is the anchor customer to a network provided by a consortium of public and private agencies, private investors and community members. Funded by the consortium rather than the council.
Choosing a Local Authority Model
Some local authorities have been forced into developing wireless networks where telecommunications companies are not interested in providing broadband. In the case of Shropshire (www.switchonshropshire.org.uk), this was accomplished without private sector finance. This may be the only recourse for local authorities and regional development agencies in cases of market failure. In the longer term it may not be appropriate for local authorities to divert resources from service delivery into network development.
In choosing a business model, local authorities have a legitimate role in raising the profile and awareness of broadband. The situation is less clear from a competition and state aid perspective, where local authorities begin to engage in the telecommunications business or start delivering broadband to consumers. Furthermore, local authorities have a duty to treat all businesses equally and provide an inclusive service, which may make it difficult to deliver a sustainable model for business.
Figure 2: Business Models Suitability
Figure. 2 above broadly maps local authority requirements against the framework introduced earlier. The needs of individual authorities and the financial constraints they have may limit their choice of model.
Value Chain - Choose partners with the expertise to deliver the complete solution.
Business Processes - Choose partners with a broad capability to minimise contractual difficulties, supplier management and risk.
Value Proposition - Ensure the network can effectively deliver on shared services and government transformation agendas.
Financial Model - Choose a business model that requires minimal capital investment and seek to maximise revenue from council assets.
Environment - Choose a mode of financing and operating that is in line with political and regulatory requirements.
Wireless technologies are fast maturing from hotspot zones in cafés to being the driver for enterprise efficiencies. Business and governments that make sense of the many technologies and standards have the opportunity to transform their relationship with their citizens and employees.
What are the Major Wireless Technologies?
In order to deliver mobile services, local government requires technology infrastructure and the choices are many. The selection of technology is important so that an investment today will not impede the development of services in the future, either because of the cost or inflexibility of the technology.
Amongst the most advanced and widely available wireless technologies are 3G, HSDPA (sometimes referred to as 3.5G), WiFi and WiMAX. These technologies each offer unique advantages for particular deployments and are optimised for specific usage models (see Figure. 3).
The major operational differentiators between these technologies are throughput, range and capacity for mobility. Below explains the characteristics of technology standards.
Standard: 3G Usage: Wide Area Networks (WANs)National / International Deployments. Characteristics:
Designed primarily for voice communications
Suitable for email and basic connectivity
Equipment readily available
Supports full mobility
Spectrum established.
Standard: HSDPA (3.5G) Usage: Wide Area Networks (WANs)National / International Deployments. Characteristics:
High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) combines existing 3G mobility with higher data capacity for downlink
Lower throughput than WiMAX but greater mobility. Initial download speeds in UK to be circa 1.8Mbps, rising to 3.6Mbps in 2007
HSPDA-enabled devices currently coming to market beginning with laptop data cards. Full user device integration announced for later this year
Uses existing 3G spectrum.
Standard: WiFi Usage: Local Area Networks (LANs) Indoor and privately owned outdoor deployments.Localised areas such as offices, hotspots, campuses, homes. Characteristics:
Matured standards
Unlicensed frequencies
Equipment readily available
Primarily designed for indoor implementations
Theoretical maximum throughput of 54Mbps
Range up to 100M
Spectrum allocation not an issue.
Standard: WiMAX Usage: Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs)Citywide deployments, also rural deployments to large geographic areas. Characteristics:
Ratified and maturing standards
Unlicensed and licensed frequencies
Equipment currently available for fixed standard
Designed for longer range outdoor deployments
Theoretical maximum throughput of 75Mbps
Range 2-6Km for urban deployment with significantly longer range for rural deployments
Mobile standard will deliver full mobility.
Why is Spectrum an Issue for WiMAX?
Networking technologies that operate in licensed spectrum are subject to regulatory constraints, managed in the UK by Ofcom. WiFi is delivered in unlicensed spectrum so is not concerned with the regulatory environment. The 3G spectrum is established and licenses have been acquired by service providers in the UK. Focus is currently fixed on the regulatory environment as it applies to WiMAX. WiMAX operates in 3 spectrum allocations as outlined below.
Spectrum: 2.5GHz Licensing Status (UK): Licensed Notes:
Best fit for mobile WiMAX
Award of bandwidth will be by public auction (expensive) or lobbying. The timing for this has not been fixed but should be in the 2007 timeframe
Exclusivity will be guaranteed.
Spectrum: 3.5GHz Licensing Status (UK): Licensed Notes:
Licensed for fixed and portable WiMAX
Most allocation in the hands of two ISPs
Not currently authorised for mobile services
Expensive but exclusive
Spectrum: 5.8GHz Licensing Status (UK): Unlicensed (Lightly Licensed) Notes:
Nominal charge to use the allocation
Exclusivity not guaranteed or likely
Strict thresholds on power output and this will limit range
Not suitable for mobile WiMAX.
Ofcom, has indicated that it will allow WiMAX at 2.5GHz as have other countries such as the US and Australia. However, countries such as France and Germany are sceptical, undecided or opposed to this. While it’s unrealistic to expect that all governments will adopt identical spectrum use regulation, aligning or "harmonising" key bands allows for the delivery of products that can be used almost anywhere on earth. An unlicensed example is the now nearly universal availability for WiFi in the 2.4-GHz unlicensed range.
The WiMAX community are working with various governments around the world to allow the use of WiMAX in these key bands. Increasingly, it appears that the most prudent approach would be for governments to take a technology-neutral position to global spectrum management. An approach that allows spectrum licensees the flexibility to adopt any appropriate standards-based solution for deployment in the licensed geographical area.
So, What Technology Standard to Choose?
Full mobile WiMAX is still a couple of years away whereas WiFi mesh is here now. HSDPA can use existing cellular infrastructure and is suitable when migrating from mobile phones to laptop-based usage. Each standard has been designed with a particular use in mind, so your technology choice may be guided by how you plan to use mobility. Each standard is optimised as follows:
3G - for cellular voice and moderate data-rate applications
WiFi and WiMAX - for mobile internet and IP services; and
HSDPA (or 3.5G) for data services over cellular networks.
There is no correct answer about which standard to choose. All will most likely co-exist in the future. Local authorities undecided on their technology selection should focus on the desired usage models and identify the technologies that best support those needs.
Government organisations have been deploying elementary mobile applications for years, mainly to support activities such as public safety and field service applications. Mobile applications grow from within departments and over time build linkages into other departments providing opportunities to reduce the cost of delivery of public services.
Some local governments will have over 200 business processes supported by technology and it can be a challenge to know where to start. Choose processes that can deliver:
Customer responsive council services at a lower cost in support of the council’s mandate
Value to other stakeholders such as government agencies, businesses and consumers as part of a shared service mandate and also as a means to generate revenues
Demonstrable efficiency savings - Nomad has identified a number of specific service areas where improved processes can deliver significant benefits.
Mobile Application Characteristics
In order to make your applications as effective ‘on-the-road’ as in the office, consider the differences between the two environments and where necessary re-engineer your application so that it performs effectively wherever it is needed. This is also an excellent opportunity to simplify the business rules and processes that underpin the departments’ operations and helping to make departments more efficient.
There are four key characteristics of mobile applications outlined in Figure. 4.
Figure 4: Mobile Application Characteristics
Offline Data Management When out on the road application users are likely to encounter times when they cannot connect to the network, for example, in an area with limited or no coverage. Applications should be able to operate in an off-line mode allowing forms to be completed and data captured. When network connectivity is re-established, the application should automatically re-authenticate with the network and synchronise the stored data with back-end systems.
Application Connectivity Applications that can tailor their operation based on the available network ensure the best performance. Whilst planning the design of the application you will need to consider the characteristics of different networks and adapt the data communications mechanisms to accommodate the application needs. For example, GPRS is less suitable than WiFi for large data transfers (e.g. video streaming) however it is perfectly adequate for sending short messages.
Multiple Platform Support Different client devices have different interfaces and operating characteristics (for example a laptop typically has a larger screen than a PDA). It can be expensive if you have to develop different versions of the same applications, but this cost can be minimised through adherence to standards of software development that limit any redesign to the interface. This requires that software applications are aware of the different devices and their limits for data transfer, how they manage power, the resolution and size of screens and the amount of storage they have available.
Power and Performance A challenge for mobile application design is to incorporate the fact that much of the time the client device will only be running on battery power. Applications should be designed to minimise power consumption (e.g. by reducing the number of times that storage is accessed). Different computing devices will also have different performance characteristics, so as to reduce the work that these devices have to execute, ensure that data volumes and processing requirements are low.
The Nomad Wireless Forum aim is to develop the local government agenda for wireless in order to help local authorities make the right decisions when developing and implementing outdoor wireless broadband networks.
The Forum brings together stakeholders from around the UK, including representatives from local authorities, technology partners and academia, to accelerate the adoption of wireless Internet to support social and economic development and better-managed cities, communities and regions. The Forum is an environment to foster dialogue among key decision makers from all groups.
But we need your help...
In order for us to continue development of the Forum, we need your support and input, to identify your organisations’ needs and drivers, best practice and case studies focusing on the challenges local authorities face when deploying such networks. These challenges may range from; achieving buy-in of the concept internally; proving the business case stacks up; or understanding the technology choices available.
The Nomad Wireless agenda is focused on drawing out the tangible benefits that participants expect to derive from the take up of outdoor wireless broadband networks.
There has been successful participation in the Nomad Wireless Forum meetings so far, especially from leading technology equipment vendors, service providers, and systems integrators.
As part of an effort to further the dialogue and progress made in sharing win-win solutions we need to identify the champion local authorities that wish to drive this agenda forward and shape the wireless strategy for local authorities with Nomad Wireless.
Would your local authority be willing to play a pro-active role in the wireless forum over the next year and maintain close contact with the critical suppliers shaping this market within local government?
For more infomation: Contact Bharat Jain, Project Manager, London Connects E: bharat.jain@londonconnects.gov.uk T: 0208 921 5131 / 07951 206 055
The Nomad Wireless Briefing - September/October 2006
A briefing to discuss: Unwiring the Local Authority; Building a Partnership to Deliver Wireless Public Services; Planning for a Hybrid Technical Architecture; Future of the Forum - Nomad Needs You
A briefing to discuss: Wireless Technologies Supporting Business Value; Towards Transformative Government; Rural and Urban Wireless Solutions; Future of the Forum - Nomad Needs You
A briefing to discuss: Wireless Infrastructure – Choosing the Right Business Model; Wireless Technology Choices; Preparing for Mobility – Mobile Application Characteristics; Future of the Forum – Nomad Wireless Needs You!
A briefing to discuss: The Current Wireless Landscape; Wireless Technology - an Enabler of Shared Services; Wi-Fi and WiMAX for Beginners; Drivers for Wireless - Transferable, Scalable, Affordable, Replicable; The Digital Challenge.
In this month's issue of the Nomad Wireless Briefing - July 2006:
