Video over LTE

Last updated

ViLTE, an acronym for "Video over LTE ", is a conversational (i.e. person to person) video service based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core network like VoLTE. It has specific profiles for the control and VoLTE of the video service and uses LTE as the radio access medium. The service as a whole is governed by the GSM Association in PRD IR.94. [1] [2]

Contents

Mechanism

ViLTE uses the same control plane protocol as Voice over LTE (VoLTE), namely the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The IMS core network along with the applicable Application Server (AS) performs the call control. ViLTE uses the H.264 codec to encode and decode the video stream. [3] The H.264 codec delivers superior quality as compared to the low bit rate 3G-324M codec that is used in 3G conversational video calls.

It is vital that ViLTE video calls are allocated appropriate quality of service (QoS) to differentiate and prioritize this delay and jitter sensitive conversational traffic from other streaming video traffic that is not as delay or jitter sensitive. The mechanism used is called QoS Class Identifier (QCI). The ViLTE bearer traffic is typically allocated QCI=2, and the SIP-based IMS signalling QCI=5. [4]

Devices

As of February 2019 the Global Mobile Suppliers Association had identified 257 devices, virtually all of them phones, supporting ViLTE technology. [5] By August, continued momentum had seen the number of identified devices increase to 390. [6]

Many of the world’s largest handset vendors now have ViLTE capable devices on the market. As of August 2019, ViLTE devices were offered by 46 vendors/brands including Askey, BBK Electronics, Blackberry, Casper, Celkon, CENTRiC, Comio, Foxconn, General Mobile, GiONEE, HMD, HTC, Huaquin Telecom Technology, Huawei, Infinix, Infocus, Intex, Itel, Karbonn, Kult, Lanix, Lava, Lenovo, LG, LYF (Reliance Digital), Micromax, Mobiistar, Motorola, Panasonic, Reach, Samsung, Sonim, Sony Mobile, Spice Devices, Swipe Technologies, TCL, Tecno, Vestel, Xiaomi, YU (Micromax), Yulong Computer, Ziox, and ZTE. iPhones don’t support ViLTE. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used for initiating, maintaining, and terminating real-time sessions that include voice, video and messaging applications. SIP is used for signaling and controlling multimedia communication sessions in applications of Internet telephony for voice and video calls, in private IP telephone systems, in instant messaging over Internet Protocol (IP) networks as well as mobile phone calling over LTE (VoLTE).

3GP is a multimedia container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for 3G UMTS multimedia services. It is used on 3G mobile phones but can also be played on some 2G and 4G phones.

The IP Multimedia Subsystem or IP Multimedia Core Network Subsystem (IMS) is an architectural framework for delivering IP multimedia services. Historically, mobile phones have provided voice call services over a circuit-switched-style network, rather than strictly over an IP packet-switched network. Alternative methods of delivering voice (VoIP) or other multimedia services have become available on smartphones, but they have not become standardized across the industry. IMS is an architectural framework to provide such standardization.

A session border controller (SBC) is a network element deployed to protect SIP based voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks.

The next-generation network (NGN) is a body of key architectural changes in telecommunication core and access networks. The general idea behind the NGN is that one network transports all information and services by encapsulating these into IP packets, similar to those used on the Internet. NGNs are commonly built around the Internet Protocol, and therefore the term all IP is also sometimes used to describe the transformation of formerly telephone-centric networks toward NGN.

VoIP phone

A VoIP phone or IP phone uses voice over IP technologies for placing and transmitting telephone calls over an IP network, such as the Internet, instead of the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN).

Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS) is a point-to-multipoint interface specification for existing and upcoming 3GPP cellular networks, which is designed to provide efficient delivery of broadcast and multicast services, both within a cell as well as within the core network. For broadcast transmission across multiple cells, it defines transmission via single-frequency network configurations. The specification is referred to as Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (eMBMS) when transmissions are delivered through an LTE network. eMBMS is also known as LTE Broadcast.

Generic Access Network (GAN) is a protocol that extends mobile voice, data and multimedia applications over IP networks. Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) is the commercial name used by mobile carriers for external IP access into their core networks. The latest generation system is named Wi-Fi Calling or VoWiFi by a number of handset manufacturers, including Apple and Samsung, a move that is being mirrored by carriers like T-Mobile US and Vodafone. The service is dependent on IMS, IPsec, IWLAN and ePDG.

Mobile VoIP or simply mVoIP is an extension of mobility to a Voice over IP network. Two types of communication are generally supported: cordless/DECT/PCS protocols for short range or campus communications where all base stations are linked into the same LAN, and wider area communications using 3G/4G protocols.

Text over IP is a means of providing a real-time text (RTT) service that operates over IP-based networks. It complements Voice over IP (VoIP) and Video over IP.

The 3GPP has defined the Voice Call Continuity (VCC) specifications in order to describe how a voice call can be persisted, as a mobile phone moves between circuit switched and packet switched radio domains.

The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) is a not-for-profit industry organisation representing companies across the worldwide mobile ecosystem engaged in the supply of infrastructure, semiconductors, test equipment, devices, applications and mobile support services.

Video Share

Video Share is an IP Multimedia System (IMS) enabled service for mobile networks that allows users engaged in a circuit switch voice call to add a unidirectional video streaming session over the packet network during the voice call. Any of the parties on the voice call can initiate a video streaming session. There can be multiple video streaming sessions during a voice call, and each of these streaming sessions can be initiated by any of the parties on the voice call. The video source can either be the camera on the phone or a pre-recorded video clip.

Image Share

Image Share is a service for sharing images between users during a mobile phone call. It has been specified for use in a 3GPP-compliant cellular network by the GSM Association in the PRD IR.79 Image Share Interoperability Specification.

The 3GPP/NGN IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) multimedia telephony service (MMTel) is a global standard based on the IMS, offering converged, fixed and mobile real-time multimedia communication using the media capabilities such as voice, real-time video, text, file transfer and sharing of pictures, audio and video clips. With MMTel, users have the capability to add and drop media during a session. You can start with chat, add voice, add another caller, add video, share media and transfer files, and drop any of these without losing or having to end the session. MMTel is one of the registered ICSI feature tags.

Voice over LTE High-speed wireless communication functionality

Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) is a high-speed wireless communication standard for mobile phones and data terminals, including Internet of things (IoT) devices and wearables. VoLTE has up to three times more voice and data capacity than older 3G UMTS and up to six times more than 2G GSM. It uses less bandwidth because VoLTE's packet headers are smaller than those of unoptimized VoIP/LTE. VoLTE calls are usually charged at the same rate as other calls.

IMS is a set of specifications to offer multimedia services through IP protocol. This makes it possible to incorporate all kinds of services, such as voice, multimedia and data, on an accessible platform through any Internet connection.

QoS Class Identifier (QCI) is a mechanism used in 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks to ensure bearer traffic is allocated appropriate Quality of Service (QoS). Different bearer traffic requires different QoS and therefore different QCI values. QCI value 9 is typically used for the default bearer of a UE/PDN for non privileged subscribers.

Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) radio technology standard developed by 3GPP to enable a wide range of cellular devices and services. The specification was frozen in 3GPP Release 13, in June 2016. Other 3GPP IoT technologies include eMTC and EC-GSM-IoT.

Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) is a superwideband speech audio coding standard that was developed for VoLTE. It offers up to 20 kHz audio bandwidth and has high robustness to delay jitter and packet losses due to its channel aware coding and improved packet loss concealment. It has been developed in 3GPP and is described in 3GPP TS 26.441. The application areas of EVS consist of improved telephony and teleconferencing, audiovisual conferencing services, and streaming audio. Source code of both decoder and encoder in ANSI C is available as 3GPP TS 26.442 and is being updated regularly.

References

  1. "GSMA IR.94" (PDF).
  2. Lennart Norell (3 May 2013) IR.94 IMS Profile for Conversational Video Service (PDF) GSMA. Retrieved 5 January 2015
  3. "3GPP TS 26.114 - IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS); Multimedia telephony; Media handling and interaction" . Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  4. "3GPP TS 23.203 Policy and Charging Control Architecture" . Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  5. GSA: VoLTE and ViLTE: Global Market Update (February 2019)
  6. GSA: VoLTE & ViLTE: Global Market Update, August 2019
  7. GSA: VoLTE & ViLTE: Global Market Update, August 2019