Mobile Multimedia Broadcast and Network Mobility Demonstrated
Mobile multimedia broadcast services keep the user informed in his area of interest. To provide always the best IPv6 connectivity in particular when sitting in vehicles - a car was equipped with a mobile router selecting UMTS, DVB-T or WLAN and using Ethernet, Bluetooth or WLAN as second hop in the car. More than 50 participants from Europe, Japan and North-Africa visited the demonstrations at the HyWiN workshop. Emerging services such as sports-clips distribution, regional news, traffic and tourist information services, one-to-many video and audio streaming demand for efficient support of large user groups on the move. OverDRiVE combines the strength of mobile communication and digital broadcasting to achieve time bound delivery of multimedia services to large user groups. OverDRiVE identifies and evaluates UMTS enhancements and develops hybrid systems co-ordination schemes for mobile multicast. Mobile multicast will keep people in touch with what is going on at the moment by multimedia representations including text, images and video information. The demonstrator showed IPv6 based fast handover enhancements for mobile multicast and a group management solution - a cornerstone for the development of MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service, a new feature for 3GPP Release 6). Mobile Multicast will enable people to follow interesting events whenever and wherever they want in almost real-time, and in a resource and cost efficient way, by employing multicast distribution when appropriate. The demonstration featured transparent IPv6 multicast connectivity while moving between different access systems such as WLAN, emulated MBMS, and DVB as also the mobility into moving vehicles with own radio access. Continuous Internet connectivity to moving vehicles opens up new opportunities for applications, enhancing the driving experience while streamlining vehicle maintenance process. In addition to Web browsing and multimedia streaming for passengers, new services are possible, such as Internet-based region-specific driver orientation, remote supervision and control, telemetric services as well as automatic software updates to vehicle equipment. Today IPv6 provides mobility support for individual network nodes. But native support for moving networks, such as cars, buses, and trains is missing. OverDRiVE developed and demonstrated IPv6 protocol enhancements to provide seamless IP connectivity to complete IPv6 network while changing access systems. A mobile router that connects the moving network to the access systems handles all the mobility management tasks and provides on the other hand intra-vehicular connectivity for hosts inside the moving network using Bluetooth, wireless LAN and Ethernet. The test setup consisted of a DaimlerChrysler E-Class equipped with a prototypical mobile router running LIVSIX IPv6 mobility stack realizing seamless wireless LAN and UMTS access and DVB-T reception for web pages download and video streaming. Applications like a car web server allowing authorized users to monitor cars status and perform certain actions remotely. Certified OEM software could be downloaded to the car to dynamically update the application in the car. In addition adaptive multimedia streaming were shown to demonstrate the great benefits of seamless connectivity for IP networks. ,The OverDRiVE partners are actively contributing their results to 3GPP for MBMS standardisation and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to standardise network mobility. The OverDRiVE partners are Ericsson (co-ordinator), DaimlerChrysler, France Télécom R&D, Motorola, Radio Televisione Italiana, RWTH Aachen, University of Bonn, and the University of Surrey. Further Reading: OverDRiVE and HyWiN demonstrations.,Contact:,Dr. Ralf Tönjes ,Ericsson Eurolab Deutschland ,Ericsson Allee 1,D-52134 Herzogenrath,Germany,Tel: +49 2407 5757812,Fax: +49 2407 575400,E-mail: Ralf.Toenjes@ericsson.com,
Countries
Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom