A New Global Ubiquitous Consumer Environment for 4G Wireless Communications

A changed wireless environment for 4G and future generations of wireless communications is addressed in this chapter. This change is primarily focussed on making the end user of wireless services more central and more a consumer in the global wireless environment than heretofore. In the ‘Ubiquitous Consumer Wireless World (UCWW)’ –the descriptive name for this new wireless environment paradigm– the global supply of wireless communications services is founded on the new Consumer-centric Business Model (CBM). This is a radical change and departure from present globally pervasive business model for service delivery based on the user being a subscriber, called appropriately the Subscriber-centric Business Model (SBM). The reasons and background for the drive to bring about this changed wireless environment are reviewed, with the main body of the chapter focusing on descriptions of the technological composition of two of the new core infrastructural enabling elements. These are the third-party authentication, authorization, and accounting (3P-AAA) service, and the service advertisement, discovery, and association (ADA) through newly defined wireless billboard channels (WBCs). The former, 3P-AAA, arises from the need to bring about a separation of the supply of the AAA service from the supply of the communications service, which is necessary to ensure the consumer character of the user and to promote and safeguard all the new benefits that will flow for users, new consumer-oriented wireless access network providers, and other stakeholders through this new wireless environment. As there will be restructuring implications for the operation and location of charging and billing functions, treatment of this aspect is also included. The latter, ADA & WBCs, arises in tandem with this separation of services, the consequent metric of business success changing from ‘number of subscribers’ to ‘number of consumer transactions and service purchases’ and the need, therefore, for a new direct ‘push’ advertisement means for service providers to attract consumers and for consumers to be continually up-to-date on new service offerings. The proposals for protocol interfaces and architectures for both these elements are explored and discussed, with those aspects needing to be addressed in global standardization activities highlighted.