Fixed-Mobile Convergence

What is Fixed-Mobile Convergence? - getting the right service anytime anywhere. A service tailored to your terminal, bandwidth, context. Today a single service exists as a number of stovepipe solutions on different access technologies. For example you can get today’s weather by sending and receiving an SMS using a GSM phone or you can use a laptop to connect to the Internet through a WiFi hotspot (for which you pay) and browse a free weather map on the BBC. The Blackberry is a stovepipe mobile Email solution because mobile handsets provide only SMS.

The Ambition of BT's FMC research is to eliminate these stovepipes offering levels of seamlessnes as technology and handsets develop:

Common bill - the simplest form of convergence
Single sign on - with one strong authentication mechanism
Common Services - adapted to your terminal/bandwidth etc
Seamless Service - with handover and seamless switching between technologies

Our work fits above actual access technologies such as WLAN and WiMAX and below the Applications Development Platform and provides functionality such as:

Authentication using a SIM-based single sign-on
Mobility SIP and Mobile IP to achieve (seamless) handover
21C Mobility architecture creation of a testbed including many 21C common capabilities
QoS Simple, end to end, QoS options, such as codec switching.

The Fixed-Mobile Convergence research theme is led by Dave Wisely.

See our projects.