The Direction of mobile evolution examined through the NTT DoCoMo strategy, Mobile Frontier

NTT DoCoMo is Japan\u27s biggest mobile service provider. They added extra value into cellular phone as telephone , and contributed to the explosive spread of the mobile phone in Japan. They have still led Japan as a country with the world\u27s largest mobile Internet. The mobile phone now changes our lifestyles or work styles, and has a great influence also on business. In 1997, NTT DoCoMo created the company vision towards the year 2010, Mobile Frontier . It consists of five concepts, named MAGIC , and indicates the mobile phone figure in the future as a whole. I regard it as a guideline of this paper, and examine the direction of mobile evolution by researching the following topics: the present situation, the issues needed to realize each concept, and the future. At first, I state the background of the mobile phone spread in Japan and the cultural aspects peculiar to Japan. After that, I examine the mobile evolution along with the five concepts. The objective of this paper is to refer to and understand the vision of a leading company in the telecommunication field, and consider mobile communications\u27 influence and applications in the future. The goal is to expand knowledge in the present situation of the mobile phone and the trend towards future mobile, and to examine the direction the Mobile Frontier aims

The Rise of the Wireless Internet

The introduction of the mobile phone revolutionised the way people traditionally communicated with one another. People suddenly became accessible independent of their location, at any time of the day or week. A salesperson in business for instance, who was always on the road could now be reached and could in turn make phone calls conveniently between customer meetings. Bundled with the basic mobile voice service was messaging in the form of voice or text. The latter has especially proven to be a useful and cost-effective method for conveying a short message. Collectively residential and business mobile subscribers use the short message service (SMS) to send millions of text messages per day (each not more than 160 characters in length). Information \u27push and pull\u27 services in the form of SMS, such as the latest sports results or betting odds, are now commonplace value-added features offered by second-generation (2G) mobile service providers

Securing against fraud in mobile communications : system design and development in 3G mobile networks

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-124).Network security ensures the consistency, integrity, and reliability of telecommunications systems. Authorized network access prevents fraudulent communications and maintains the availability of the systems. However, limited development time, cost reduction pressure and requirement for high reliability in software development have forced mobile carriers to implement the insufficient and inflexible authentication mechanisms. Technical specifications including network architecture, network protocols, and security algorithm are widely available to the public. In addition, both secured and unsecured networks are interconnected by global roaming services. The inadequate system design will make the mobile systems vulnerable to unauthorized access to mobile communications. Compared with GSM mobile systems, 3G mobile systems are equipped with more robust and flexible security mechanisms. The official position taken by mobile carriers, such as NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and Vodafone, is that fraudulent communications, usually in the form of cloned mobile phones, are impossible with their 3G mobile systems. Examining the NTT DoCoMo's case, however, we find that this statement is based on weak security assumptions.(cont.) In order to avoid potential threats and to secure the 3G mobile systems, this thesis (1) explores the security architecture and mechanisms in 3G systems, (2) analyzes the current platform architecture and platform innovations of the network software, and (3) suggests a secure system design and development.by Yujiro Mochizuki.S.M

Mobile commerce business models and technologies towards success

Mobile commerce is any transaction with a monetary value that is conducted via a mobile telecommunications network. This thesis tries to examine the factors leading to the success of mobile commerce as well as factors that may hinder its success. This research is separated into five parts: In the first part of this thesis, an analysis of wired e-commerce businesses is made; followed by advantages of mobile commerce over wired e-commerce. In the second part of this thesis, new wireless business models that are expected to generate substantial revenue flows as well as some successful examples of these business models are discussed. In the third part of this thesis, advances in wireless technologies that will lead to the success of mobile commerce are discussed. In the fourth part of this thesis, competition strategies and revenue structure of mobile commerce are discussed. And finally, in the fifth part of this thesis, drawbacks of wireless technologies towards the success of mobile commerce as well as how they can be overcome are discussed. The research and the conclusion suggest that although wireless technologies and their related business models are fairly new, they are growing at rapid speed. These are incredible sources of revenue. Once the factors hindering their usability, reliability, development and deployment are overcome, mobile technologies show great potential as revenue generators for both existing and newly developing businesse

Mobile commerce in China: potential and prospective.

by Au-Yeung Kiu-Wai, Dai Lu Yan.Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 58).ABSTRACT --- p.iiTABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.ivLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS --- p.viLIST OF TABLES --- p.viiCHAPTERChapter I --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1Background --- p.1Definition of Mobile Commerce --- p.2Chapter II --- MOBILE COMMERCE MODELS --- p.3Chapter III --- MARKET POTENTIAL IN CHINA --- p.8Critical Factors in Market Development --- p.8Market Potential in China --- p.9Chapter IV --- Methodology --- p.16Chapter V --- Finding and Analysis --- p.18Descriptive Analysis --- p.18Correlation and Regression Test --- p.23Demography of Interviewees --- p.24Chapter VI --- Recommendations --- p.28Five Forces Analysis --- p.28Strategies for M-commerce --- p.32Chapter VII --- Limitation --- p.40Chapter VIII --- Conclusion --- p.41APPENDIX l-Table --- p.43APPENDIX 2- Questionnaire --- p.52BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.5

A Taxonomy of Internet Appliances

The world is evolving from one in which almost all access to the Internet comes from personal computers (PCs) to one in which so-called Internet appliances (IAs) will make up a greater share of end-user equipment. Today's PC is a general-purpose, highly configurable and extensible device ? an "intelligent end-node" of the sort the Internet's designers had in mind. As such, it allows users much freedom of choice (such as which service provider to use, which Web sites to visit, and which new software to download) in exchange for dealing with associated complexity. An IA is a device connected to the Internet, but beyond that there is little consensus on functionality and target markets. There is, however, general agreement that it reduces the level of complexity seen by the user. A variety of approaches to reducing complexity are being pursued. These fall on a spectrum from totally fixing the function of devices, to automating the configuration of more general purpose systems. In the middle are devices whose functions appear more or less fixed to the user, but which retain some limited capability for upgrade through their Internet connection

Micropayment business in Finland- forming the basis for development of micropayment methods and business

Micropayments provide companies and individual persons a way to obtain potentially a great deal of revenue for the digital content (such as music, games). At the moment lot ofdigital content is either not provided at all or is provided for free. The micropayment business has a great revenue potential in future. So far only few companies have managed to reach considerable success. Mobile test bed countries such as Finland have the entire infrastructureneeded in micropayments and a very high utilization rate of Internet and mobile phones. Despite of this, micropayments are not very popular. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First it aims at discovering and comparing different micropayment methods proposed. Second, it outlines the current status in Finland and proposes avenues that should be taken in order to make the micropayment business more attractive and profitable

Mcommerce - a vision in time

Global mCommerce revenues are expected to grow from $400 million in 2000, to 22.2 billion by 2005 (Raczkowski, 2002) mCommerce is a key driver in developing the global information society, with applications emerging in numerous areas including banking, financial services, security services and shopping (Khalifa and Cheng, 2002). With optimistic projections regarding its growth, many researchers are actively determining the future of mCommerce. In this paper, we have tried to synthesise some predictions and evolving definitions, explored security as a critical impediment and developing solutions; investigated the mPayment scenario; and derived a futuristic research framework. Specifically, we have attempted to capture the moving mCommerce scenario in present time, with a special focus into mPayments.<br /

Device- versus Network-Centric Authentication Paradigms for Mobile Devices: Operational and Perceptual Trade-Offs

The increasing capability and functionality of mobile devices is leading to a corresponding increase in the need for security to prevent unauthorised access. Indeed, as the data and services accessed via mobile devices become more sensitive, the existing method of user authentication (predominately based upon Personal Identification Numbers) appears increasingly insufficient. An alternative basis for authentication is offered by biometric approaches; which have the potential to be implemented in a non-intrusive manner and also enable authentication to be applied in an ongoing manner, beyond initial point-of-entry. However, the implementation of any authentication mechanism, particularly biometric approaches, introduces considerations of where the main elements of functionality (such as the processing of authentication data, decisions making, and storing user templates/profiles) should reside. At the extremes, there are two alternatives: a device-centric paradigm, in which the aforementioned aspects are handled locally; or a network-centric paradigm, in which the actions occur remotely and under the jurisdiction of the network operator. This paper examines the alternatives and determines that each context introduces considerations in relation to the privacy of user data, the processing and storage of authentication data, network bandwidth demands, and service availability. In view of the various advantages and disadvantages, it is concluded that a hybrid approach represents the most feasible solution; enabling data storage and processing to be split between the two locations depending upon individual circumstances. This represents the most flexible approach, and will enable an authentication architecture to be more adaptable to the needs of different users, devices and security requirements

5G-crosshaul: an SDN/NFV integrated fronthaul/backhaul transport network architecture

This article proposes an innovative architecture design for a 5G transport solution (dubbed 5G-Crosshaul) targeting the integration of existing and new fronthaul and backhaul technologies and interfaces. At the heart of the proposed design lie an SDN/NFV-based management and orchestration entity (XCI), and an Ethernet-based packet forwarding entity (XFE) supporting various fronthaul and backhaul traffic QoS profiles. The XCI lever-ages widespread architectural frameworks for NFV (ETSI NFV) and SDN (Open Daylight and ONOS). It opens the 5G transport network as a service for innovative network applications on top (e.g., multi-tenancy, resource management), provisioning the required network and IT resources in a flexible, cost-effective, and abstract manner. The proposed design supports the concept of network slicing pushed by the industry for realizing a truly flexible, sharable, and cost-effective future 5G system.This work has been funded by the EU H2020 project “5G- Crosshaul: The 5G Integrated Fronthaul/Backhaul” (Grant no. 671598)