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Computer Communications
Volume 26, Issue 1, 1 January 2003, Page 1

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Service architectures for the wireless world
Computer Communications, Volume 26, Issue 1, 1 January 2003, Pages 19-25
Radu Popescu-Zeletin, Stefan Abranowski, Ioannis Fikouras, Giovanni Gasbarrone, Martin Gebler, Sanneck Henning, Herma van Kranenburg, Hans Portschy, Erwin Postmann, Kimmo Raatikainen

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In the last years, a variety of concepts for service integration and corresponding systems have gained momentum. On one hand, they aim at the inter-working and integration of classical telecommunications and data communications services. On the other hand, they are focusing on universal service access from a variety of end user systems. All these systems are driven by the concept of providing several technologies to users by keeping the peculiarity of each service. From the service point of view, the participants of WWRF Working Group 2 (Wireless World Research Forum: http://www.wireless-world-research.org/) believe that the service architectures of the Wireless World will be based on service personalization, service integration, and IP-based reachability. The paper presents the rationales the framework and the architecture proposed by WWRF-WG2 based on numerous contributions (WWRF: Book of Visions (2001)) from research and industry world wide.

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Third generation (3G) mobile radio systems are currently being deployed in different regions of the world. Future systems beyond the 3G are already under discussion in international bodies and forums such as ITU, the Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF) and R&D programs of the European Union and in other regions. These systems will determine the research and standardization activities in mobile and wireless communication in the coming years. Based on the experience of the 3G, future systems will be developed mainly from the user perspective with respect to potential services and applications including traffic demands. Therefore, the WWRF was launched in 2001 as a global and open initiative of manufacturers, network operators, SMEs, R&D centers and the academic domain. WWRF is focused on the vision of such systems—the Wireless World—and potential key technologies. This paper describes the international context of activities on systems beyond 3G, the goals, objectives and structure of WWRF, the user perspective as the starting point for a future system design and the key enabling technologies for the Wireless World.

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The Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF) is a global academic and industry forum, which is contributing to the visions of future wireless communications and is identifying research topics on which to build the vision. The next two decades promises us almost unimaginable communication capabilities; the technology can deliver almost anything we want it to, but the key to success is understanding what capabilities people will find valuable, and how to simply access those capabilities. The WWRF is putting the user at the centre of its visions by identifying research, which uncovers the functionality that people will value in the future. These research topics fall into three areas; understanding the user, by studying human behaviour and needs, the development of next generation technologies becomes user requirements driven rather than technology lead; new generic application elements, in which technologies closely associated with the understanding of the user, such as virtual reality, are identified for research; and new interaction techniques, which allow for intuitive interaction between humans and the terminals and underlying network services. Studying the user, especially in these research areas, is the only way to ensure that the future wireless world meets and exceeds the expectations of people in the coming decades.

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Technology foresight has received growing attention among those involved in the shaping and implementation of science and technology (S&T) policies. However, although evaluative analyses of foresight exercises have supplied evidence on acclaimed benefits—such as the generation of future-oriented knowledge and strengthening of collaborative networks—they also point to challenges in translating foresight results into actions within research and technology development (RTD) organizations. In this article, we address these challenges by considering the work of the Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF), which has sought to promote the conception, development, and diffusion of wireless communication technologies. Specifically, by contrasting this work with well-known government-initiated foresight exercises, we typify so-called explicit, emergent, and embedded foresight activities and explore their interrelationships. Our comparative analysis points to conditions under which policy interventions may not be needed for the emergence of foresight activities that exert a major influence on RTD agendas. It also suggests several context-dependent roles for public policy, among which government-driven foresight exercises and the catalysis of more narrowly focused activities are but two examples.

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