 Is
it time to WAP
marine communications
into i-mode?
If
you haven't heard about i-mode already, you're going to hear
plenty about it soon. Chances are, you think that surfing the
web is something you do with a PC and modem. In Japan, right
now, some seven million people (and the number is growing daily)
think that the web is something you access from your cell phone.
Those seven million people are using low
cost i-mode technology to access the internet. They send and
receive e-mails, get information such as weather forecasts, and
for that matter restaurant reviews. They perform transactions
such as on-line banking. They play on-line games.
For a long time now, two items high on
the maritime communications wish list could be described as telephony
that's as simple and cost effective as cellular and web access
from the ship.î
If you think about the types of web-based
application that the ship might wish to access, the sort of e-mail,
information retrieval and transaction functions possible with
i-mode would meet most requirements.
Before looking more closely at i-phone,
let's look at how cellular-like access from the ship is progressing.
In the U.S., VHF provider Maritel is advancing
rapidly with its plans
for the Marinet, which promises users in U.S.
waters and on U.S. waterways pretty much all the same user benefits
as advanced cellular telephony and then some.
Worldwide, while Iridium may now be unfortunate
history, the Globalstar satellite system now offers a satellite
phone service that, in essence, gives users satellite service
from a small, convenient phone, wherever cellular is not available.
Global star, incidentally, now offers a marine kit designed so
that mobile phone customers can enjoy the versatility of a portable
phone on deck and on shore, while also allowing for use inside
the cabin when the phone is placed in its cradle (a separate
corded/privacy handset for indoor use is included). The marine
kits omni-directional antenna can be attached to a mast or rail.
The marine kit panel base, which can be attached to any horizontal
or vertical surface, including overhead, looks similar to other
boat radio equipment and can be installed easily by an amateur
or marine technician.
Globalstar Marine Kits are currently available
for Qualcomm phones. Models for Telit and Ericsson phones will
be available soon.
Larger vessels, with a need for a permanently
mounted telephone solution for owners, passengers, or crew, can
install a Globalstar fixed access unit, manufactured by Ericsson
or Qualcomm.
The latest development from Globalstar,
a
dual-mode satellite and GSM communications terminal
for seagoing ships, made its debut at Posidonia
INTERNET
ACCESS
Earlier this
year, Qualcomm and Globalstar demonstrated Internet access and
packet data capability via the Globalstar satcom system at the
Wireless 2000 event. After successfully completing numerous development
tests of packet data for Globalstar, Qualcomm has announced that
the service will be ready for commercial field trials late this
summer, followed by a phased integration available to all Globalstar
Service Providers. This service will allow users in virtually
any populated area in the world to communicate with their corporate
data networks and access the Internet, or to send and receive
e-mail messages.
Internet access, in this case, involves
connecting the satphone to a laptop computer to access email
and transmit information from virtually any location at data
rates of up to 9.6 kbps.
WHAT ABOUT
WAP?
Surprisingly,
perhaps, nobody in the marine communications marketplace is talking
much about WAP (Wireless Applications Protocol).WAP was developed
because content is now readily available on the Internet, and
there needs to be a way of making it easily available to mobile
terminals. One of the reasons why the mobile industry has got
so excited about WAP is because it combines two of the fastest
growing industries: wireless and the Internet.
Motorola,
Nokia, Ericsson and software company Phone.com (formerly Unwired
Planet) were the initial partners that teamed up to develop and
deploy WAP, which is a standard for how content from the Internet
is filtered for mobile communications.
WAP is envisaged
as a comprehensive and scaleable protocol designed for use with:
- any mobile
phone from those with a one line display to a smart phone
- any existing
or planned wireless service such as SMS, Data, Unstructured Supplementary
Services Data (USSD) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
- any mobile
network standard such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA),
Global System for Mobiles (GSM), or Universal Mobile Telephone
System (UMTS)
- multiple
input terminals such as keypads, keyboards, touch-screens and
styluses.
Wireless Application Protocol incorporates
a relatively simple micro-browser into the mobile phone. Microbrowser-based
services and applications reside temporarily on servers, not
permanently in phones.
If you want to delve deeply into WAP complexities, click here. But, basically,
a WAP-compliant phone uses its built-in micro-browser to make
a request in for information or service. This request is passed
to a WAP Gateway that then retrieves the information from a Internet
server either in standard HTML format or preferably directly
prepared for wireless terminals using Wireless Markup Language.
If the content being retrieved is in HTML format, a filter in
the Wireless Application Protocol Server may try to translate
it into WML. The requested information is then sent from the
WAP Gateway to the WAP client, using whatever mobile network
bearer service is available and most appropriate.
So WAP is the same as i-mode? Not exactly.
Japanese cellular provider NTT
DoCoMo got weary with waiting for the WAP community to reach
a consensus and went ahead with its own proprietary WAP protocol,
i-mode. [If you want chapter-and-verse on i-mode direct from
NTT DoCoMo, click here]
It's been a runaway success and now has
seven million users. Basically, those seven million users (and
growing rapidly, click here
for the current tally!) can use their cell phones to access all
manner of services and receive a broad range of information.
They can access that information via a menu bar tailored to their
type of information need or they can just type in a web address.
There are two types of i-mode providers. The first tier pays
NTT DoCoMo to be included on the menu bar of the i-mode phone.
The other tier comprises anyone else who cares to provide a version
of their web site in a special lean version of standard worldwide
web HTML language.
The speed of the connection is only 9.6
kbps--but i-mode uses a packet-switching technology, that enables
all the services we mentioned, and many others, to be delivered
very satisfactorily. The success of i-mode has been such that
a number of analysts are now asking themselves whether the future
of the internet may have more to do with mobile access, rather
than access from a PC or even a laptop.
Very, very clearly there are lessons in
all this for the maritime industry. Don't be too surprised if
NTT DoCoMo starts providing marine-oriented i-phone services.
It already offers a maritime satellite service over the geostationary
NSTAR satellite covering the waters up to 200 (370 km) miles
around Japan. It offers a maritime telephone service, using some
130 base stations, to cover waters up to 100 km offshore.
WHAT'S
INMARSAT UP TO
So, what is
the giant of maritime communications, Inmarsat, up to while all this is going on?
It is promoting something called SOFIA (Standard Offline Internet
Application). It is intended to achieve rather more than WAP,
because it is an approach for designing applications that can
then be designed to work with the WAP protocol. According to
Inmarsat, the application then gains two fold; the WAP protocol
effectively delivers the content to the user, and the SOFIA design
ensures that the application is using the WAP protocol in the
most efficient way.î
Inmarsat is,
apparently, looking to deliver maritime applications that go
somewhat beyond what i-mode delivers its seven million users.
These include applications for such things as engine and onboard
equipment telemetry for remote diagnosis, intranet access for
crewing, schedules and port information, on-line manuals and
port information database access.
This more
ambitious than i-mode approach makes sense because Inmarsat is
generally delivering information to an onboard PC, rather than
a hand-held phone.
FOURTH-GENERATION
SATELLITES
On another
track, Inmarsat has now awarded the contract for construction
of three satellites for its fourth generation broadband satellite
network, the Inmarsat I-4. The new Broadband Global Area Network,
will enable Inmarsat to deliver Internet and intranet content
and solutions, video-on-demand, video conferencing, fax, e-mail,
voice and LAN access at speeds up to 432 kbps virtually anywhere
in the world via notebook or palm top computers. The $1.4 billion
network--planned to be operational during 2004--will also be
compatible with third generation (3G) mobile systems. ML
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