re: 3GPP Picks Femtocell StandardMichelle, can you please cross check your sources? Looking back over the 3GPP documents it sure seems to me that there is very little of Kineto's original GAN based ideas in the final approach in 3GPP/RAN.
They originally wanted to re-code RANAP into GAN messages but now I see RANAP messages going all the way down to the femto.
re: 3GPP Picks Femtocell StandardYes, fun is the word! Thanks for this input. Can you drop me a line at [email protected]? I'd like to follow up with you on this.
re: 3GPP Picks Femtocell Standard It's possible the messaging in the article might be just a little on the strong side :-)
The current 3GPP work item has essentially identified what the solution will look like which is a big step forward, however there is still a lot of specification work to be done to get to the final protocol definition over the next 5 or 6 months.
Nevertheless, it is clear that there are several requirements as proposed by the Alca-Lu/Kineto/NEC/Motorola joint submission that were first realized in GAN and will now be included in the final specification. I'm thinking of areas such as UE and AP Registration with the HNB gateway in particular, as well as the potential addition of Discovery (currently FFS). These features will be supported over the proposed HNBAP layer which is a new concept for those that have not implemented a GAN-style approach previously.
The real story here, though, is that the operator community was adamant a solid femto standard was required ASAP, and that the vendor community responded quickly. That response involved compromise from all parties in various areas of their own proposed solutions to enable operator's to have confidence that things are moving in the right direction.
They originally wanted to re-code RANAP into GAN messages but now I see RANAP messages going all the way down to the femto.
Oh, isn't standards making fun!