GSM BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE INTERVIEW
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JULY 2021
THE INTERVIEW
Stephen Temple
GSM story 30 years later. p.4-5
TECH HIGHLIGHTS
A Security Token for GSM.
p.20-21
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Back to the future: GSM.
p.13-16
BACK
TO THE
FUTURE:
GSM
Editorial The Interview
Stephen Temple,
GSM story and its legacy
30 years later.
P4/5
Meet the New
This edition pays
Standards People
P6/7
tribute to the big New Member
bang that GSM Interview
brought about in Tommi Flink,
CEO of Magister Solution.
ICT. P8/9
CCSA
Interview
Zemin Yang,
On 1 July 1991 the former Finnish prime within the GSM committee, reminds us Former Secretary General
minister Harri Holkeri made the world’s of the SMS invention, yet another form of of CCSA.
first GSM call, calling the deputy mayor communication GSM enabled.
of the city of Tampere. That was 30 years P10/11
In the Spotlight section, I outline why
ago.
without GSM, we would probably not
This “back to the future” July edition pays be talking about 5G or 6G as we do In the Spotlight
tribute to the big bang that GSM brought today and how this mobile system
in ICT. Of course, GSM was one of the set the foundations of the current Back to the future: GSM
first success stories of ETSI and one of international standardization principles
and its ecosystem. Zemin Yang, the
P13-16
the reasons why we were set up in the
first place, but more importantly it was former Secretary General of China
going to benefit the world’s population, Communications Standards Association Tech Highlights
facilitating global access to mobile (CCSA), granted us an exclusive
communications. With 2 billion GSM interview on how GSM shaped China’s A Security Token for GSM.
connections in 2006, and more than telecommunications and contributed to
today’s innovations. In our New Member
P20/21
5 billion unique mobile subscribers to
date*, GSM laid the foundations of the Interview, Magister’s CEO, Tommy Flink,
ICT landscape and its standards as we bridges the gap between “earth” and What’s On?
know today. “space” to enter the 6G era.
Upcoming events.
To revisit part of the GSM story and But there’s more for you to read - our
understand how it shaped the future, cooperation agreement with O-RAN P27
we have asked the pioneers of these Alliance, the start of 3GPP and our 2021
exciting times to give us their insights. In new fellows to name a few.
The Interview Stephen Temple, who
Enjoy! The ETSI Mag
When younger people around you talk Edited and published by ETSI
drafted the GSM MoU, recounts the story about 5G, now you can tell them how it
as he experienced it and outlines his view Quarterly edition
all started! Copyright ETSI 2021
of the GSM legacy. Chris van Diepenbeek,
Chair of the first committee for Radio Enjoy reading! Director of Publications: Nadja Rachow
Equipment and Systems, leads us on a Editor-in-Chief: Claire Boyer
Luis Jorge Romero, Design: Le Principe de Stappler
journey to the CEPT. Klaus Vedder, Chair
Director-General ETSI
of our Smart Card Platform committee
Editorial office: ETSI,
shares with us the start of a second 650 route des Lucioles,
ETSI success story, the SIM card, and its 06560 Valbonne France
evolution, while Kevin Holley, the former Tel.: +33 (0)4 92 94 43 35
ETSI Chair of the data services group *Source: GSMA enjoy@etsi.org
2 ENJOY THE ETSI MAG
News Roundup
UCAAT 2021:
UCAAT
19-21 October 2021 Testing at the edge
ETSI is pleased to announce the 8th edition of UCAAT, the User
Conference on Advanced Automated Testing. This year’s UCAAT
will take place as a virtual event in October 2021. The event
provides a platform for the testing community – including users,
vendors, service providers and researchers from many different
application domains – to share experiences and learn about the
latest advances in the industrial use of test automation.
Test process automation has proven to increase productivity
and product quality. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted and
increased the demands on various IT systems and services in terms
of interoperability, scalability, and adaptability, test automation is
essential for delivering agile solutions in uncertain times. Sharing
knowledge and learning from the experience of others helps
everyone to become better prepared for future challenges.
UCAAT is dedicated to the practical engineering and application
aspects of automated testing, including experiences from the use
of new techniques for test automation, advanced test automation
processes, and standardized testing languages and methodologies
for test automation in different application domains, such as IT
services, telecommunications, transportation, healthcare, finance
and smart cities. Keep an eye on our website for latest news and
agenda.
oneM2M new website brand new section called “Using
oneM2M” which is specifically
ETSI is a preeminent member of oneM2M. The global standards dedicated to developers and
initiative that was launched in 2012 now brings together more service providers and that makes
than 200 players from many diverse business domains and it easier to learn how to build and
has successfully been developing IoT standards to enable deploy oneM2M standards for
interoperable, secure, and simple-to-deploy services for the IoT end-to-end IoT systems. The new oneM2M web site also tracks
ecosystem since then. global deployments using oneM2M standards and includes
oneM2M has just released a revamped web site with a new interviews with industry leaders in its ‘Executive Viewpoints’
layout and new functionalities. This oneM2M web site includes a section. Check the new web site at www.oneM2M.org
3GPP new marker next two years, as Release 17 features move towards their
scheduled completion by June 2022.
Recently, the thoughts of the Technical Specifications Groups From Release 18 onwards, the Partners have agreed that a new
(TSG) in 3GPP have turned to the prioritization process for the 5G-Advanced logo will be shown on the cover sheet of Technical
Reports and Specifications. The new release will further evolve
features and use cases identified for 5G, justifying the creation of
this mid-generation marker.
Recently, the RAN TSG held its Workshop on the new radio
features for 5G-Advanced, ending on 2. Details of the outcome of
that event are the focus of a recent news article at www.3gpp.org.
In parallel, 3GPP TSG SA has made progress on their studies
for Release 18 – which will also carry the new 5G-Advanced
branding and they too will hold a Release 18 workshop, starting
on 9 September.
ENJOY THE ETSI MAG 3
The Interview
In this exclusive interview,
Stephen Temple reveals the
exciting GSM story and its
legacy thirty years later.
What was the main driver for the
GSM project?
The main political driver for GSM was
to find a solution to the great European
problem of the time – fragmentation due
to countries adopting different mobile
technologies and different frequency
bands. If somebody had wanted to drive
across Europe and stay in contact, their
car would have been so full of radio
boxes that there would have been no
room for any passengers. Even worse
Stephen Temple
was the likelihood of being stopped at a
border and told that foreign car phones
were illegal.
Stephen Temple was a DTI Official who wrote the GSM having triggered the transformation of the mobile phone into a
Memorandum of Understanding that committed European mass-market consumer product. He led the UK’s role in setting
mobile operators to support the GSM standard and roll out GSM up ETSI and was elected as the first Chairman of its Technical
networks by 1991. He wrote the DTI Consultation Document Assembly. He has been involved in every generation of cellular
Phones on the Move, that extended GSM’s use to the 1800 mobile technology, created the concept of 5G pioneer frequency
MHz band for small hand portables and widely recognized as bands and recently edited the IET Guide 6G for Policy Makers.
4 ENJOY THE ETSI MAG The first analogue phone to fit in a shirt pocket (shown above) arrived in 1986, giving GSM
a huge competitive mountain to climb upon its launch in 1991.
network technology innovation goals
by many ‘customers and suppliers’.
“The main political Such focus unleashes enormous “The main legacy
driver for GSM was economic forces. The involvement of is the timing and
manufacturers in GSM standard setting
to find a solution to also occurred just in time. A high degree
synchronisation of
the great European of professionalism was introduced that mobile generations.”
problem of the time: allowed ETSI to produce thousands of
pages of GSM technical specifications to
fragmentation.” support the launch of GSM by 1991. That approach to mobile network technology
professionalism has endured. advances. It was an inevitability that
4G would become a next-generation
It was ‘the problem of the age’ that How did GSM cooperation innovation, in spite of efforts to call it a
GSM was required to solve rather than manage to endure when so much long-term evolution. The marketing value
addressing any shortcomings of 1G competition was unleashed with of the ‘G’ label was just too good to
technology. Indeed, several 1G analogue the launch of GSM? ignore. 5G picked up on the pattern and
networks were quite good. The first It is true that the GSM spectrum was was made a next-generation technology
analogue mobile phone to fit in a shirt used to implement a competition-based by design.
pocket had arrived five years ahead of mobile network market across Europe.
the launch of GSM in 1991. The market Enormous thought went into drafting the What has been lost from the GSM
alone could not have got GSM off the GSM Memorandum of Understanding on legacy?
ground against competition from rapidly where close cooperation was essential A major GSM success was SMS
advancing analogue cellular technology. and where competition was paramount. messaging. A high degree of cooperation
When politics gets mixed up with Cooperation was to be total in the between mobile operators made this
technology standards things usually take ‘cake baking’ phase and competition possible. This level of cooperation over
a turn for the worse. But in this case, it paramount in subsequently fighting ‘new public services’ fizzled out with 3G.
was ‘good politics’. GSM had a strong It has left the mobile operators doing
ethical dimension of openness, balance the heavy lifting for mobile infrastructure
of interests and everyone pulling together “The mix of cooperation and the tech giants largely enjoying the
to expand the public good. I am reminded fruits of new services. As a result, the ‘G’
of this today when I hear some research
and competition business model is becoming ever more
leaders calling for 6G to address the underpins today’s challenging.
great societal challenges of today’s age. phenomenally Do you see this GSM legacy
What role did ETSI play in GSM’s successful global enduring?
success? As 5G has been such a roller coaster,
mobile industry.”
The big driver for creating ETSI was to people have asked – does the world
bring manufacturers into a balanced need another ‘G’? I have given this
partnership with telecoms network some thought. ETSI’s creation of the
operators in setting telecommunications for ‘the largest slice of the cake’. This ‘G’ approach for GSM invented a tool
standards. GSM was ETSI’s first flagship delineated ‘pre-competitive’ phase for that addresses a particular class of
project and test case for this super- mobile generations allowed a friendly competitive market ‘innovation failure’
national network and customer-supplier coming-together of engineers from for interoperable networks, where
partnership. Success required the largely competing companies for collaborative nothing can happen unless an entire
monopolistic network operators to research and standard setting. Such industrial ecosystem acts together. But
change their mindset. They had to look a thoughtful mix of cooperation the question about the arrival of 6G is
beyond national advantage and align and competition underpins today’s academic, as the momentum towards
their technology goals and, in doing so, phenomenally successful global mobile 6G appears unstoppable. What remains
bring their industry supply chains into industry. wide open for debate is its shared goals.
line with the shared goals. The success The best traditions of ETSI’s GSM legacy
What other aspects of the GSM
of GSM and every subsequent mobile would be for ETSI to support the call for
legacy do you still see today?
generation flows from this alignment of these shared 6G goals to have a global
The main one is the timing and focus on addressing the great societal
synchronization of mobile generations. problem of today.
“GSM was ETSI’s first The GSM Memorandum of Understanding
synchronized the procurement cycles Dedication: To my three comrades-in-
flagship project and of a large number of mobile network arms who were with me navigating the
test case for this super- operators. Then a very deliberate decision political choppy waters in the run-up to
was taken by ETSI officials to frustrate the 1991 GSM launch – Philippe Dupuis
national network and any chance of the UMTS wideband (France), Armin Silberhorne (Germany)
customer-supplier technology arriving too early to become and Renzo Failli (Italy), and to Thomas
partnership.” a competing standard. UMTS was a Haug (Sweden) who captained the GSM
third-generation technology by design. ship into calmer ETSI waters whilst all
Yes, it was ETSI that established the ‘G’ this was going on.
ENJOY THE ETSI MAG 5
Meet the New Standards People
Welcome to our NEW
members
Acconeer AB, Sweden
Based on research from Lund University, Acconeer has created
a unique radar solution that brings new opportunities for human
interaction with technology. The radar sensor is based on pulsed
coherent radar technology and combines extremely low power
consumption with high accuracy. The small size, only 5x5 mm,
and low power consumption are ideal for compact battery-driven
and mobile devices.
ACCS, United Kingdom
The Age Check Certification Scheme is an independent 3rd Consort Digital, India
party certification scheme for providers of age restricted goods,
content or services. The scheme can be utilised to provide full Consort Digital provides solutions for Mission Critical users, highly
conformity assessment in accordance with all aspects of age mobile users such as rail, mass transit systems, mining assets
restricted sales. Their scheme has developed an award-winning and public safety as well solutions for instant communication
Android & iOS App, deployed to 18/19 year old test purchasers including call prioritization. All their solutions support open
throughout the UK – enabling them to offer a fully configurable standards and leading technologies. Services range from design,
test purchasing services. engineering, feasibility studies, installation and commissioning,
integration and operation and maintenance.
Arqit Ltd, United Kingdom
Arqit has invented a unique quantum encryption technology
DIGG, Sweden
which makes the communications links of any networked device The Agency for Digital Government is a new government
secure against current and future forms of cyber attack – even authority, created to think creatively, address new challenges
an attack from a quantum computer. Arqit’s product, called and identify new opportunities in Sweden. The task job is to
QuantumCloud™ creates unbreakable software encryption keys support and promote – to benefit everyone. For example, DIGG
which are easy and efficient to use remotely with no hardware or is working to improve digital accessibility on all public websites
disruption to software required. and digital platforms. They also support digital post, digital
identity, e-commerce and e-invoicing.
Broadbit, Slovakia
BroadBit is developing revolutionary new batteries using novel
Eurofins Digital Testing, Belgium
sodium-based chemistries to power the future green economy. Eurofins Digital Testing, and its division Eurofins Cyber Security,
They are commercializing the technology for next generation is a global leader in independent Quality Assurance, testing and
electric vehicles, portable electronics, starters and grid energy cybersecurity for software systems and devices with operations
storage. Their batteries enable increased range/use time, longer in Belgium, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and
lifetime, reduced cost, environmental friendliness and scalable the USA. They help businesses in mediatech, fintech, energy,
to any production volume. They are also developing a battery governmental and the other industries assure quality in their
capable of fully recharging in 5 mins. digital transformations towards Industry 4.0.
CERTH, Greece INCERT, Luxembourg
The Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas is listed among INCERT manages critical infrastructures used for issuing
the TOP-20 E.U. research institutions. CERTH has important Luxembourg eTravel documents such as ePassports, eID cards
scientific and technological achievements in many areas including and eResidence permits and their verification at the border
energy, environment, industry, mechatronics, information and control. They have improved their knowledge by representing
communication, transportation & sustainable mobility, health, the State of Luxembourg in international organisations like ICAO,
agro-biotechnology, smart farming, safety & security, as well as ISO, European commission driving us always at the top of the
several cross-disciplinary scientific areas. trends and technologies.
6 ENJOY THE ETSI MAG
LoRa Alliance, USA
The LoRa Alliance® is an open, non-profit association. Their
members promote the LoRaWAN® protocol as the leading open
global standard for secure, carrier-grade IoT LPWAN connectivity.
With the technical flexibility to address a broad range of IoT
applications, both static and mobile, and a certification program
to guarantee interoperability, LoRaWAN® has already been
deployed by major mobile network operators globally.
PQSHIELD LTD, United Kingdom
Their world-class researchers and engineers are co-authors
Magister Solutions Ltd, Finland of multiple finalist algorithms within the NIST Post-Quantum
Magister Solutions specializes in communication network Cryptography Standardisation Process, which aims to define
simulation and emulation tools and services for modelling real standards for the next generation of public-key cryptography.
world telecom (satellite and terrestrial) in detail. By simulating Their technology enables them to transition from legacy systems,
communication networks they are creating undetected so they can leverage upcoming public-key cryptography
knowledge that fosters the mobile, satellite and emerging standards across hardware, software and communication. And
industry development. They deliver internationally recognized they ensure that compliance with international standards (FIPS,
services starting from designing new radio resource management etc.) and commercial value is fast and frictionless.
concepts and algorithms to high end software solutions used in
the space industry.
Tampere university, Finland
Tampere University is one of the most multidisciplinary
octoScope, USA universities in Finland. Almost all internationally recognised
octoScope is the market leader in isolated, repeatable and fields of study are represented and their research groups and
automated wireless personal testbeds. Their patented technology projects conduct multidisciplinary research across institutional
redefines the accuracy, stability, economics and value of over- boundaries. Technology and social sciences have come together
the-air wireless testing. The octoBox testbeds are configurable in a unique way with research groups and projects conducting
for automated regression test sequences with a range of airlink multidisciplinary research across institutional boundaries. Their
conditions and interference scenarios. Their solutions are used international community includes students and staff from more
by customers in the robotics, medical, mobile, WiFi, military and than 80 countries.
connected car markets.
WiTricity, USA
OneWeb, United Kingdom WiTricity was founded to commercialize a new technology for
OneWeb is a global communications network powered by a wireless electricity invented and patented two years earlier
constellation of 650 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, enabling by a team of physicists from the Massachusetts Institute of
high-speed, low latency connectivity for governments, Technology (MIT). The team proved the magnetic fields of
businesses, and communities everywhere around the world. two properly designed devices with closely matched resonant
OneWeb’s satellites, together with a network of global gateway frequencies can couple into a single continuous magnetic field,
stations and a range of User Terminals, will provide an affordable, enabling the transfer of power from one device to the other at
fast, high bandwidth, low-latency communications service high efficiency and over a distance range that is useful for real-
connected to the IoT, and a pathway to 5G. world applications.
ENJOY THE ETSI MAG 7
New Member Interview
Tommi Flink, CEO of
Magister Solution, tells us
why SatCom network
simulations help the telco
ecosystem evolve into
the next generations of
telecommunications.
Magister has evolved with the
market’s requirements – what
were the main milestones?
Since the company was founded in
2005, we have been developing network-
level simulators that incorporate users,
devices (terminals, base stations,
controllers, core network), radio access
technology and services. Simulators
allow companies to benefit from detailed,
realistic modelling for their wireless
system behaviour, interactions and
protocols without investing in prototypes
or commercial systems. They proved
very useful, e.g. for 3GPP standardization
activities.
Tommi Flink
CEO and co-owner of Magister Solutions
Tommi Flink has more than 20 years of aspects such as a high level of usability It is important for companies to develop
experience working in the ICT industry, and service-based delivery models will their own area of expertise and the best
many years of which were spent on also become more and more important possible way to create value for their
financial industry products and services. in B2B services, and at the same time partners and customers at Magister
Mr Flink received his MSc degree in emerging technologies like Artificial Solutions is to provide world-class
computer sciences from the University Intelligence and Blockchain will have a SATCOM network simulations.
of Jyväskylä in 2001. He believes that major impact on the world around us.
8 ENJOY THE ETSI MAG
simulation results as part of standards have the network when you are building
studies. the scenarios, have to evaluate what key
“Network simulations
In the past, simulators produced for metrics to follow, how many users you will
enable the execution have, how many or what kind of satellites
customers directly or within the ESA
of reliable simulations project have been very difficult to use. you will use, and whether you will use 5G
without extensive In the mobile industry, large companies standards, DVB-S2 or otherwise.
development processes.” might have their own R&D teams or
subcontractors. As we have built several And can your simulators also
validated simulators in the past, we have be useful for the emerging
For about 10 years, we have been involved harnessed this experience to provide megaconstellation players such
in several European Space Agency (ESA) the SatCom industry with an alternative
as Space X?
activities, developing network simulators independent, vendor-neutral and user-
for the European SatCom industry. Then, friendly solution. And this expertise is Indeed, there is a need to produce
in order to be able to provide more used in the standardization world, in the satellites within much shorter time frames,
value to the industry and productize RAN 3GPP group for instance, which is which makes more streamlined design
our extensive knowledge of system very important for us.
and simulation processes necessary.
simulations, we went one step further A more efficient simulation workflow is
and developed a service through which Standardization seems to be
essential for your activities – is also required due to the changes in the
we are able to offer network simulations
with built-in analytics, visualizations and this related to the development satellite industry with the introduction
scalable cloud computing. So instead of of your 5G network/system of megaconstellations. Our simulation
providing, for example, an open-source simulator? services can be beneficial for companies
simulator delivered to ESA, which might like Space X or OneWeb, where we
Yes, we think that 5G has the unique
not be used outside the project, we potential to become the first global could model their satellite constellation
offer a new service, targeting the whole standardized system for both terrestrial networks in specific simulators.
SatCom industry. and satellite connectivity with multiple We can build simulators modelling the bits
As an independent vendor, instead use cases such as high throughput
and pieces of their constellation, starting
of building only customer-specific connectivity to reach uncovered areas;
mobile satellite services for maritime with the number of satellites, the orbits
“black box” solutions, our goal is to
productize our services for a wide range or avionic segments; and global IoT of satellites, but especially the satellite
of customers. It enables the execution services. connectivity, in other words the protocols
of reliable simulations without extensive So we are developing a 5G system
development processes, even for the simulator that will be used to study
companies without a dedicated team “Our simulation services
and evaluate different technical
and long history in such simulations. alternatives and concepts, focusing can be beneficial for
especially on NTN. Active participation in Space X or OneWeb.”
Why was it important to develop standardization work is just not possible
this software as a service for the without the ability to provide relevant
satellite industry? Didn’t they simulation results, and standardization
already have simulators? that are used for communicating between
will help us build even better simulation the ground and the satellites. Our service
As you know, satellite communications are services. Our involvement in 3GPP
helps our customers experiment and
becoming more and more complex with, standardization work is also related to
our EU Horizon 2020 R&D projects, understand how many satellites are
for example, the co-existence of multiple
which have as a target the successful required, what orbits should be used,
wireless technologies. It will also grow
with the introduction of 5G Non-Terrestrial standardization of 5G NTN as well as its what air interface protocols should be
Networks (NTN) and new players entering potential enhancements in future 6G. used to optimize link performance, and
the market like Amazon or Space X. what kind of advanced radio response
Most satellite vendors and these Besides R&D and standardization management algorithms should be
newcomers play an active role in ETSI support, what else do you offer implemented into their systems so that
and 3GPP standardization, but they need the industry? they can optimize their network capacity.
the network simulation capabilities and
In addition to standardization and R&D
activities, the service can be used as a So would you say you’re already
demonstrator for SatCom companies to looking to bridge the gap between
“In the past, simulators show to their customers and operators. “earth” and “space” to enter the
have been very difficult They are able to demonstrate the 6G era?
to use.” capabilities of their existing and even
future features and networks. That’s the Definitely! Simulations are a great tool to
benefit of simulators: you don’t need to make it happen.
ENJOY THE ETSI MAG 9
CCSA Interview
After signing the
cooperation agreement
between ETSI and CCSA
in April, Mr. Zemin Yang
granted us an exclusive
interview.
The first GSM network was
launched in China in 1995, do
you think it helped accelerate
standardization activities in
China?
The history of mobile communication
network development – which
represents vital infrastructure in human
society – seems like a myth, following
Moore’s Law from the first generation
of 2C to the fifth generation of 2B in
only 40 years. During this process,
the second generation of mobile
communication technology, such as
GSM, realized the digital revolution
of mobile communication itself and
raised the curtain for the rapid and
dazzling development of broadband
mobile Internet. The fundamental logic
of this story might be that, for a mobile
communication industry with almost
unlimited business prospects, its
limiting factors seem to be only radio
spectrum and enabling technology.
Therefore, it continues to attract high-
intensity technological innovations and
investment of capital.
Zemin Yang
Mr. Zemin Yang, Professor of Engineering, graduated from General of China Communications Standards Association
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) in (CCSA). His focus has been on communication and remote
1982, and received a master’s degree from the University of information processing, and he has many years of experience
Surrey in 1991. He held several positions as Director General of in communications network architecture design and ICT
RITT, President of CATR (China Academy of Telecommunication industrial policy research.
Research), and the Vice Chair of the Council, Secretary
10 ENJOY THE ETSI MAGAlmost synchronized with the something likely from the CCSA side,
development process of mobile e.g. the special workflow of our vertical
communications is China’s opening-up to industry members to develop their own “China’s R & D results
the outside world and the shift to market- standards for their IoT applications. can directly contribute
oriented economic system reform, which IoT applications represented by 5G2B to international
led to the rapid development of China’s are a completely unfamiliar challenge
economy and the rapid release of the
common standards.”
to ICT enterprises all over the world. It
energy of China’s huge single market. will be of great value for standardization
With the opening of the first GSM network organizations in different regions for
in China in 1995, the bulk of the Chinese exchanging experiences and the lessons From my understanding of CCSA member
gained from their own practice. units, most Chinese enterprises welcome
or even look forward to high-level
In my opinion, the more profound competition. Fair competition between
“GSM has achieved significance of the cooperation between the best peers in the industry makes
great success in China.” CCSA and ETSI is that the deep it possible to have a unified standard
understanding and trust of the two encompassing the best technical
organizations can help their members solutions, which is the fundamental source
market chose GSM technology. GSM understand each other’s members, of standards for market acceptance and
has achieved great success in China, industry and each other’s countries, huge new value for end users, and the
and at the same time, it has aroused which may go beyond the scope of only way for ICT enterprises to succeed
the active support and investment of standardization activities themselves. in their own businesses. In this regard,
Chinese industry in the follow-up mobile Although the fundamental orientation CCSA member companies are very
communication technology standard of ETSI is to serve the cause of confident in their abilities.
innovation activities, which is reflected ICT technological innovation and
in the increase in the contribution rate of standardization in Europe, because of its What are the key ICT technologies
Chinese enterprises to the core patents global openness, it plays a particularly your standards research will focus
of 3GPP standards. CCSA, as one of important role in the ecological on in the coming years?
the Organizational Partners of 3GPP, is environment of global standards. For
deeply impressed by this. In the light of the commitment and
example, 3GPP has created great
mandate of CCSA to revolutionize
commercial success with 3G and 4G
You have a long-standing industries through paving the way
mobile communication technology and
relationship with ETSI, what is for the standardization of the digital
opened the 5G2B mobile communication
your role and your involvement economy, we are currently looking at
technology era in just 20 years. I must
with us? several technological trends which were
say that the special role played by ETSI considered essential components to
My relationship with ETSI began when I in 3GPP is obvious to all Organizational bring industry – as well as human society
met D.G. Karl-Heinz Rosenbrock, in the Partners. – to the next level of prosperity and
late 1990s when I was the director of sustainability.
RITT, the Communications Standards Over your career in
Institute of MPT China. His introduction to standardization, have you seen These trends include 5G Advanced
the organizational structure and working any benefits for your country from toolkits, which consist of the Ultra-Dense
mechanism of ETSI was essential for us this worldwide cooperation? Networking, Re-configurable Intelligence
to envision the future work of CCSA at Surface, Further Uplink Enhancements
I think there are many reasons for Chinese for Verticals, Mesh Networking, NR
that time. And his motto as the manager industry to welcome the broadest
of the standards organization taught me based Massive Connection, and
cooperation in the global standard-
the word “compromise”. I kept going to intrinsic AI, which is certainly what the
setting activities of the ICT industry. First
borrow “good ideas” from ETSI until the of all, China’s industry has been investing communication industry is pursuing by
current age of D.G. Luis Jorge Romero, heavily in its efficient innovation system, taking advantage of the outcomes of AI in
and I gained several from both of them. In and the resulting R & D results can directly information industry. Another trend is the
return, I shared with my ETSI colleagues contribute to future international common exciting but challenging goal of Carbon
standards. Neutrality. For instance, Solar Powered
Infrastructure, Advanced Cooling System
Secondly, the performance-to-price
or Energy Harvesting.
“ETSI plays an ratio of China’s products is sufficiently
competitive in the market. Of course,
important role in the we hope that the common standards
ecological environment formed through the broadest international I would like to take this opportunity to
cooperation can assist the formation of express my sincere thanks to my ETSI
of global standards.” colleagues who have worked with me
the largest single market, and we do not
want to see the market divided. happily and helped me.
ENJOY THE ETSI MAG 11Tech Highlights
Quality of experience:
a key requirement for end users
Aware of the importance of speech transmission requirements from the perspective of
a user’s quality of service, ETSI sets standards for handsfree, handset and headset VoIP
terminals, in narrowband and wideband.
standards and reports are the basis for
ITU-T SG12’s own work.
Successful global
implementation
National mobile network benchmarking
and scoring campaigns are of great
importance to mobile network operators.
ETSI has therefore developed TR 103 559
to meet these requirements, with regard
to the area and population to be covered,
© ETSI Countries where methods in TR 103 559 are used as best practice the collection and aggregation of test
results, and the weighting of the various
Standards relating to terminals and The committee has also standardized aspects tested. The report takes into
networks for speech and media quality, subjective and objective methodologies account the rapid development of mobile
end-to-end single media and multimedia for the qualification and performance technology and the consumer habits of
transmission performance are essential requirements of the new ETSI speech users, as users’ quality of experience
for end users. The ETSI Technical codec for encoding and decoding digital changes over time, by parameterizing
Committee on Speech and multimedia speech signals, in cooperation with individual factors that contribute to the
Transmission Quality (TC STQ) the DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless score.
successfully handles these standards. Telecommunications) group.
The tests assess telephony, video
It also develops Quality of Service
(QoS) parameters for networks and
services and Quality of Experience (QoE)
Measuring 5G streaming, data throughput and more
interactive applications such as browsing,
descriptors and methods. To ensure performance social media and messaging. The results
collected from the various areas are
alignment with other standard-setting
To meet the requirements of mobile individually and collectively weighted and
organizations and facilitate industry
networks, the subgroup STQ Mobile summarized by an overall score.
implementation, the group provides
focuses on QoS and QoE aspects for
guidance and background information For greater authority, the scoring
popular services in mobile networks, as
on effectively applying the standards and methodology is based on a set of
well as parameters and test scenarios
methods created. standardized market KPIs and provides
for assessing network capabilities in
As well as creating a large number of 5G performance measurements. STQ governance and implementation
standards for speech transmission Mobile liaises with 3GPP and other principles as well as concrete realizations.
requirements, the committee has standards organizations to support the TR 103 559 describes its scoring method
developed a specification offering development of methods and equipment with full transparency for the benefit of
guidance and detailing the methodology used for characterizing existing and future implementors, network providers and
to objectively assess the listening effort network telecommunications services, regulatory authorities, and has been
required by a user during a voice call. both landline and mobile. Several of its applied on a global scale.
12 ENJOY THE ETSI MAGIn the Spotlight
BACK TO
THE FUTURE:
GSM
ENJOY THE ETSI MAG 13In the Spotlight
A tribute to GSM:
30th Anniversary of GSM’s first call
In celebrating its 30th Anniversary, the time has come to look back over GSM. Much of
what we take for granted today is the result of this big bang in ICT history. Let’s have a
quick review of some of these principles that constitute our foundations today and guide
our evolution in the future. Without GSM, we would probably not be talking about 5G or 6G
as we do today. So “what has GSM ever done for us?”
regardless of who had produced it.
Design This meant that full networks could be
principles set the built and further expanded using pieces
groundwork
from many different manufacturers,
which would foster competition. And
one of the important pieces here was
Mob
Whether you call them design principles, the mobile terminal itself. Now, various
or fundamentals, or “constraints imposed manufacturers could produce handsets
by the conditions of the environment”, the that would operate on all networks.
development of GSM followed a series of Interoperability became then a vital 2G
requirements that today constitute the concept. 1990-199
basis of the design of our new systems, Digital - voice, t
which nobody would challenge. Another very relevant concept developed early data ser
at this time was the split between the user
First, the system had to fit the identification and the terminal. The birth
requirements of many different countries. of the SIM card. The rights of a customer
It needed to be a joint effort and decisions to use the network would be associated
had to be taken based on consensus.
Every interested party played a role in
the definition and development of the
Cooperation,
system, starting with governments and
administrations, which had to create the consensus building
proper environment for the system to and interoperability
land and grow, but also the operators became undisputable
who would have to deploy and run the
system and, lastly, the manufacturers
principles.
that would need to develop it.
The conditions for all these stakeholders 1980 1990
to a SIM card, under a standardized form
to work together had to be agreed upon. factor, that would fit in all available mobile
Cooperation and consensus building terminals. In this way, a user could easily CEPT creates Groupe Spécial Mobile to
became undisputable principles. 1982
swap terminals with no need to make a pan-European cellular mobile system
Bearing in mind the stated requirements, changes in the operator’s databases. GSM MoU, operator agreement signed b
This provoked huge new dynamics in 1987
the system to be developed had to be commit to deploy GSM.
modular, fitting into a commonly agreed the marketplace and a great variation in
the availability of mobile terminals, which 1988 ETSI created, asked to develop the GSM
architecture where the key interfaces
now develops devices from sensors to
-which would eventually define how 1990 First GSM specifications (ETSI TC GSM) -
smartphones, to cars and beyond.
the system would be developed, built
and operated- needed to be carefully The split between the subscription
specified. With this system, every single and the terminal used turned out to be
piece of the puzzle could fit with the rest, fundamental.
14 ENJOY THE ETSI MAGsecurity in mind; making the cloning of Another important concept that started
SIM cards extremely complex (as it is with GSM is that the system was
The split between the not only the SIM card that supports the designed to offer services beyond mobile
subscription and the user’s credentials) and cyphering the telephony. At the time, voice was the
terminal used turned communications. When communications main means of communication. With
are cyphered and the identity of the
out to be fundamental. users protected, law enforcement bodies
GSM, mobile data started to be enabled.
But, most importantly, technology
must be enabled to intervene if required
provided additional hooks to enable
by the authorities. The means for lawful
One of the biggest challenges of existing interception are also embedded in GSM. the creation of value-added services,
mobile telephony was fraud and security. like SMS, cell broadcast, etc. Not all of
It was easy to clone handsets, tamper We could say that the concept of them worked from the start but making
“security by design” started to settle these technologies available allowed the
with users’ identities and listen to
with GSM. The means to enable law market to devise new uses and business
conversations over the air. In leveraging enforcement agencies to perform their
the SIM card -as well as through other models.
duties as required by the authorities were
means- GSM was designed with also developed.
Mass market
along the way
Having designed a flexible, scalable,
bile Phone Evolution multi-vendor system that was embraced
by EU member states from the beginning,
GSM was able to achieve fantastic
economies of scale from very early on, a
phenomenon never before experienced
in mobile telephony. But a few barriers
3G 4G 5G still had to be broken to unleash the full
99, 1999-2009 2009-2019 June 2019 potential of the technology.
text and Smartphones, High speed data, The Internet of First, the spectrum of use for this
rvices PC modems new sectors everything
come to cellular technology had to be harmonized. GSM
Public safety, was to be a pan-European system,
transport, adopted by all member states. It would
broadcast,
industrial IoT… have to enable a single system all
throughout Europe. Borders would
need to be removed, and terminal
equipment should be able to cross them
freely. Type approval of devices had to
be homogenized across the different
nations and was eventually replaced
by a self-declaration of conformity from
the manufacturers, which enabled much
faster and cheaper access to market.
2000 2010 2020 With all this, another advancement was
to become fundamental. To make of it a
truly pan-European system, customers
design 1991 World’s first GSM call.. from an operator in one country should
m.
1992 First SMS sent. be able to connect to the system
by 13 countries, beyond the boundaries of their own
ETSI creates 3GPP to specify the UMTS Terrestrial
1998 operator. International roaming was
Radio Access Network.
M standard. institutionalized: operators would set
1999 First UMTS specifications, 3GPP Release 1999 - also called 3G.
- also called 2G. 2009 First LTE specifications, leading to LTE-Advanced - also called 4G.
International roaming
was institutionalized.
© ETSI
ENJOY THE ETSI MAG 15In the Spotlight
With GSM and its evolution, being
connected everywhere and at all times
has become a basic need. Like water
or electricity. People might leave home
without their wallet, but never without
their mobile. Our device contains all
we need for our daily lives: it is not just
a communication device but connects
us to (and integrates us in) the society.
Our files, our pictures, our videos, our
entertainment, our games, our contacts,
our payment means… everything is
there. Going beyond mobile telephony
itself, it is also a fundamental tool for
many economic sectors’ productivity.
People may leave home
without their wallet,
never without their
handset.
Our behaviour, our economy, our society
at large is hugely influenced by what
GSM started.
Furthermore, the way in which we
Vintage mobiles, courtesy of Stephen Temple.
now understand how our world of
model, where voice was no longer the communication develops stands on
only service bringing in revenue. The the foundations that GSM set: global
Voice was no longer the cooperation and high-quality standards
quest for different value-added services
only service bringing and sources of income was starting that embrace the latest developments
revenues. -and has been expanding since. In this from research and the requirements from
search, one lesson learned is that value the market are key.
could come from unexpected sources: GSM was an achievement beyond the
the conditions so that customers from
manufacturers and service providers technology itself. The GSM standard
one operator would be able to receive
were no longer the “only source of allowed billions of people to access
service from another operator.
wisdom”. The mass market being mobile services and communicate with
With the explosion in demand and the addressed, this further pushed the need each other. It was the starting seed for
ease of swapping devices, service to seek additional sources of revenue by many new approaches which have
providers envisaged new ways of bringing envisaging mobile connectivity solutions enabled and given birth to various new
more customers to their networks. Two tailored to different sectors. initiatives and improvements. It provided
initiatives are worth remembering: the the encouragement to try and fail (as the
subsidization of mobile terminals in
exchange for long-term subscriptions
A growing impact of the blow would be softened by
and prepayment schemes. Both were ecosystem everyone taking it) and the willingness
to accept and embrace great ideas,
fundamental in growing the subscriber no matter their origin. GSM sowed the
GSM sparked a very profound change in
base and bringing mobile services seeds of our very rich and fast-growing
the environment and the ways in which
to most of the population, and both ecosystem.
we behave. In the very early days of
leveraged the technological capabilities
mobile telephony, pre-GSM, a mobile
that GSM provided. Yes but, apart from this, “what has GSM
phone was a luxury device only available
ever done for us?”
Another aspect which is important to to the very wealthy. Its value was still to
highlight is the changes to the business be proven. n Luis Jorge Romero, Director-General, ETSI.
16 ENJOY THE ETSI MAGSMS
The invention of texting
In the mid-1980s, mobile phones were huge and battery hungry. People carried
radiopagers so that they could switch off their phone to save battery. These radiopagers
evolved to allow short text messages to be received so that customers would know why
someone was trying to contact them.
characters, so it seemed plausible to
aim to double that to 180 characters.
Unfortunately, the signalling packets
defined by the ITU Blue Book, after taking
away the overhead, limited the length of
the short message to 140 bytes. This
was still felt to be a reasonable goal and,
due to the clever idea of using 7 bits per
character instead of 8, was increased to
a 160-character limit. ETSI later allowed
for longer messages, increasing the
number further by splitting the text into
several message packets.
In time, mobile phone manufacturers
improved their interfaces so that keying
in text messages became easier and
operators – seeing the market uptake
and its potential – began offering SMS at
low cost or for free. Yet mobile networks
were interconnected for voice but not
for text. It took a couple of years for
operators to develop the community by
providing interconnectivity for SMS. This,
together with lower cost subscriptions,
further opened up the use of SMS for
younger people, who soon developed the
new youth led shorthand language. And
so texting was born.
While the first digital mobile radio system attempted via the mobile network to ETSI played a key role in the development
for Europe was being developed, the idea wherever the device happened to be. of the standard for SMS but also in the
came from a Franco-German paper to There was a retry capability in case the development of young engineers with
integrate this kind of capability into the device was out of coverage or switched great knowledge of how the system
mobile phones themselves using digital off. And then there was the ability to worked and enthusiasm for the new
signalling. This eliminated the need to generate a message from the device medium.
carry a radiopager as phone battery itself, even if nobody believed that this
consumption was improving significantly, would be useful for the mass market as n Kevin Holley, BT, 3GPP lead delegate and former
and people could now leave their phones keying in a text message using a mobile Chair of ETSI TC SMG WG 4 (Data Services).
switched on. phone keypad would be too arduous for
most people.
This led to the detailed development in
ETSI of the technical specification for The length of the short message was
SMS. Messages were collected in an a key discussion point at the time. To go further: ‘The GSM Short Message
SMS ‘Service Centre’, and delivery was Alphanumeric pagers were limited to 90 Service’ by Kevin Holley.
ENJOY THE ETSI MAG 17New Fellows
The ETSI Fellowship programme rewards individuals who have made an outstanding
personal contribution to ETSI, to building the work of ETSI, or to raising its reputation in
specific sectors of standardization. Meet our 2021 new Fellows!
Management to request the use of radio technical contributions in the late 1990s to
Dr. Gabrielle spectrum. the promotion of OFDM-technology for
Owen She strengthened internal cooperation
broadband wireless LANs and MANs.
between the ETSI radio groups as well as Furthermore, he established a close
Coordinator Engineering for Spectrum
the external cooperation with CEPT/ECC. cooperation between ETSI and IEEE 802
Management, Radiocommunications
Gabrielle Owen became a member of the wireless working groups (.11 and .16) in
Agency NL, Ministry of Economic Affairs
ETSI Board in 2017 and served as Vice his capacity as the ETSI BRAN chairman,
and Climate.
Chair of the ETSI Board from September and was the key driver behind the global
Dr. Gabrielle Owen 2018 to December 2020. harmonization of OFDM technologies for
joined the ETSI
broadband wireless LANs and MANs.
Technical Committee
Electromagnetic Dr. Jamshid From 2003 to 2010, Jamshid represented
Compatibility and Radio
Matters (TC ERM) in
Khun-Jush his company in 3GPP WG RAN4 and was
a key contributor to the standardization
2002 and was the Chair Vice President, Technical Standards, of RF performance requirements for
of TC ERM as well as the Operational Qualcomm CDMA Technologies GmbH. UMTS and LTE. At the same time, he
Coordination Group R&TTE (OCG Since 1996, Jamshid was an active member of ETSI MSG
R&TTE), from 2005-2013. More than 400 has been a key member TFES, where he contributed to the
deliverables were published during her of several ETSI development of Harmonised European
chairmanship of TC ERM, including many Technical Bodies, Norms (HENs) for UMTS, cdma2000 and
Harmonized Standards under the Projects and Task LTE. As the ETSI JTFER chair, Jamshid
European Directive for radio equipment Groups for broadband led the ETSI activities respecting HENs
and dozens of ETSI System Reference and mobile radio access for Reconfigurable Radio Systems as well
documents which were submitted to the networks. As the chairman of ETSI TC as for the preparation of related System
CEPT/ECC Working Group Frequency BRAN physical layer group, he made key Reference Documents.
18 ENJOY THE ETSI MAGIn addition to his ETSI Board He is mainly involved in acoustics,
membership since 2011, Jamshid has Charles Brookson speech signal processing and its
made considerable contributions to the Director, Zeata Security Ltd. perceptual effects, QOS & QOE topics,
development of HENs for Radio LANs measurement technology and speech
Charles Brookson OBE
in recent years as well as for Intelligent transmission quality.
CEng FIET FRSA has
Transportation Systems and spectrum
been involved in He is active in ITU-T, ETSI, 3GPP, GCF,
sharing techniques for such systems in
Security since the late IEEE, TIA, CTIA, DKE and VDA. In ITU, he
5.9 GHz.
1970s and has been chaired the ITU-T focus group CarCom.
promoting and He is Rapporteur for various questions
Nurit Sprecher participating in Security in ITU-T SG12. He was rapporteur for a
variety of work items in ETSI, he is vice
Head of Management, Virtualization in ETSI from the start. He was involved in
the early days of GSM and Chaired the chair of ETSI technical committee STQ
& Application Enablement
Algorithm Expert Group and was involved and was chair of STQ from 2016 – 2020.
Standardization, Nokia.
in security CEPT and SMG10 security.
He has authored more than 150 scientific
Nurit initiated and led
Within ETSI he helped set up TC SEC, papers and holds five patents. He is
the industry effort to set
and when it closed in 2002, helped set member of ASA, IEEE, VDE and DEGA
up the ETSI ISG MEC
up TC LI and became Chairman of OCG where he was chair of the “Speech
and successfully
Security to coordinate security within Communication” committee.
positioned the MEC
ETSI.
technology as a key
building block and In 2006 he started the first ETSI Security Anthony Wiles
enabler for 5G, IoT and mission-critical, Workshop, which still continues today, Former ETSI CTI Director.
vertical solutions. Nurit worked to and helped produce the first Security
establish strong collaboration across the White paper. Anthony joined the ETSI
industry to ensure the leverage of the staff in 1995. His firm
Charles initiated the Board process to
MEC work. She has driven a powerful belief in the importance
launch TC CYBER in 2014, and was the
industry effort with members and officials of the technical quality
first Chair for four years, and Vice Chair
of the ETSI MEC and 3GPP SA6 groups of ETSI standards and
for a further two years.
to create a synergic edge computing the need for state-of-
architecture, to avoid industry He continues to participate in Security the-art approaches to
fragmentation and to accelerate time-to- initiatives, meetings and Workshops. standards development and testing
market. guided his whole career at the Institute.
Playing an instrumental role in the Dr.-Ing. Hans Anthony was deeply involved in the
creation of the ETSI ISG ZSM, she has
worked to strengthen cooperation with Wilhelm Gierlich development of the widely used testing
methodology ISO/IEC 9646. He was leader
the relevant standards bodies and open- Managing Director Telecom Division, of the TC MTS Specialist Task Force that
source projects to promote alignment, HEAD acoustics GmbH, Germany.
developed the test specification language
leverage synergies and ensure that end-
Dr.-Ing. H. W. Gierlich TTCN-3, which became the cornerstone
to-end AI-empowered automation can be
started his professional of 3GPP RAN5 UE conformance testing.
efficiently achieved.
career in 1983 at the
As Director of ETSI’s Centre for Testing
Nurit has spent many years working as an Institute for
and Interoperability, Anthony ensured
expert system architect and technologist, Communication
defining the carrier-grade network and the team adapted its support to widely
Engineering at RWTH,
service architecture evolution. She diverse standards making activities, as
Aachen. In February
contributed to many projects carried out demonstrated by the many ETSI groups
1988 he received a Ph. D. in electrical
in IETF, ITU-T SG15, IEEE and BBF and that include interoperability testing
engineering. In 1989 he joined HEAD
has participated in core discussions on (Plugtests™) as an integral step in their
acoustics GmbH in Aachen as Vice
the Next Generation Network with Tier-1 standards development.
President. From 1999 to 2014 he was
carriers and several governments.
head of the HEAD acoustics telecom His legacy is an ETSI Secretariat
Nurit is a distinguished member of the division. Since 2014 he has been resource that is unique in the world of
Nokia technical committee. Managing Director at HEAD acoustics. standardization.
ENJOY THE ETSI MAG 19You can also read
