[ORIGINAL + to] the past, present, and future of mobile video calls

Document directory

• 8 years of mobile video calls
• Today's mobile video calls
• Key to mobile video call applications
• Where is a mobile video call used?
• What will happen in the future?

I saw a good article on the Internet and reproduced it. For more information, see the appendix below.

This article
Chapter reminds people of the opinions of an expert on 3G many years ago. China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom are all pushing their 3G mobile phones starting with 18x and placing a large amount of resources for advertising. What we see in the advertisement
Are 3G scenes real? Are these applications used by anyone? However, China Unicom's advertisements are more realistic. Only one Information iPhone is China Unicom's contracted mobile phone. What is the difference between 3G and 2g, that is, IP, while 3G
The provided bandwidth does not have much to promise, because it obfuscated the concept of the total bandwidth of the base station and the bandwidth of a single mobile phone, and did not mention the billing method of paybytraffic, when a base station has a large number of people accessing the internet, the speed is not fast.
At the beginning of the development stage, this bottleneck is not obvious and needs to be supplemented by wlan in the future.

If
Using wlan to access the Internet and GPS to locate and use GPS. Currently, RFID is used for the very popular Internet of Things. In addition to video recording, mobile phones are integrated with personal consumer electronics. This concept is widely used by many shanzhai manufacturers.
Hand. The Influence of operators is declining. Therefore, operators hope to lead the industry ecosystem of mobile services and mobile phones. We should note that the operators' boast of 3G has not actually changed our lives. Most
Looking at the standard specifications of a certain operator and talking about video calls, we stayed at H.263's ancient codec. We can imagine the quality of video calls, especially in the common best
If effor's 3G Internet access is promoted to a network with QoS on a large scale, the operator needs to transform the network. As a feature of 3G, the video service has suffered a lot of difficulties in development, but has little practical experience.
Is a selling point. There is a video phone on that phone. The iPhone video phone is not a 3G video phone, but an IP video phone.

Why is the development of video calls in China slow?

• For some reason, major operators have not promoted the 3G video service. Currently, video communication is only provided for demonstration, proving that they have this advanced capability and are not commercially available.
• The circuit domain method provided by WCDMA may be better. The IP grouping domain method of cdma ims has at least the following problems in user perception:
  1. If you want to answer a video call, your mobile phone must be connected to the Internet for a long time. The Internet access fee is a problem, and the mobile phone endurance is another major problem. For Internet access fees, it is not possible for the operator to remove the traffic generated by the video phone. Once a mobile phone accesses the Internet, many built-in mobile phone services may become active, such as Im, email, this part of the traffic needs to be paid. Therefore, whether it is based on traffic or on time, it is a hassle for cost-effective consumers. Regardless of money, as long as the mobile phone accesses the internet, we often pronounce that the mobile phone will be hot and the Internet will consume power. Because of the need to manage and maintain the network, the mobile phone cannot enter deep sleep, it consumes more energy. If a video phone does not have a video phone number for a few days, the host cannot bear it because it is charged every day.
  2. The user does not know whether the recipient's mobile phone supports video phones. Even if the mobile phone supports video phones, the user does not know whether the recipient's mobile phone is connected to the Internet and is registered on IMS, therefore, most video teleconference calls fail. Users will not consider technical issues. You said that 3G video is supported, and I also bought a mobile phone that supports video. Why can't I play it. IMS can provide the PS (Presence Service) Service to solve this problem. Just like QQ and IMS, it can check whether the other party is online. This time, the problem of a chicken or an egg is solved, if my contacts are not online, why do I need to be online, why do I need to activate this service, and why do I need to buy such a mobile phone.
  3. The user finally connected a 3G domain video phone and found that the quality was intolerable. I guess the user's patience and reach the limit may begin to scold the operator, which is why the operator did not dare to launch the phone. There are two causes of poor quality: 1. Technical Problems with mobile phones, not using H. 264 The use of H.236 antique codec, whether to write screen optimization, if a frame has a problem, not enough, whether to write screen in real time, how to deal with mosaic problems, etc., image processing is a high technology, it is suitable for university research. Unfortunately, it is a pity that Chinese universities basically stick to the principle of "uniqueness. 2. Due to bandwidth problems, CDMA ensures the bandwidth of the base station and does not guarantee the bandwidth of each user. Only theoretically, the maximum bandwidth can be reached, and the minimum bandwidth is not guaranteed. The operator is vigorously developing the network card, so the bandwidth of individual users may be a bottleneck, not as mentioned when introducing 3G. QoS cannot be guaranteed due to packet loss and disorder in wireless data transmission, which needs to be solved by RevA. The problem is that China Telecom was previously Unicom (one of the worst technology carriers) the inherited network will be upgraded to support Rev.
     

Suddenly, I think of a recent topic, a college entrance examination candidate who blew his Chinese Learning talents. His blog post was plagiarized, and later I clarified that it was a post, which must be explained. I first saw a translation on visionmobile's website and found it in ifanr. I think mobile development, especially the mobile ecosystem industry chain, can also be viewed. However, it is better to see the original English version. This is not a problem with the translation. The translation is better than mine. The original blog has some comments, some people may have other analyses or raise objections, so let's take a look.

The original article can be in http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/

From the http://www.ifanr.com/13493.

. Article by Tsahi Levent-Levi from

VisionMobile

| Baryn, translated by Echokou. For more information, see the ifanr.com translation link.

.

The past, present, and future of mobile video calls

Apple has been promoting their new iPhone 4 FaceTime service, but what's new? Mobile video calls have been around for eight years. What is the current market situation? Is there any obstacle to market acceptance? What will happen in the next eight years? Today, Tsahi Levent-Levi will express its views on the above issues. Tsahi Levent-Levi is Radvison

President of technology and solution, with 8 years of Mobile Video Phone experience, involving design, development, standardization, interoperability and marketing. Welcome to follow his blog

.

The mobile video call market has been taking shape for more than eight years. Most 3G mobile phones support this function. But how many people have used it? Many people do not even know whether their cell phones support video calls. If your mobile phone has a front camera, you may be able to support it. Most of the models available in Europe and Asia have front cameras.

There are so many devices supporting video calls around the world that this service should have been widely used. What has caused a cold reception in the video call market? Where will it go?

8 years of mobile video calls

Mobile video calls started 10 years ago and I joined this wave in 2002. Initially, it was designed to provide customers with ITU-T-based H.324

ISDN video call solution (not popular), used on mobile devices after face change and renamed as 3G-324 M

. At that time there were three organizations and organizations involved: ITU-T, 3GPP (focused on Standardization) and IMTC

(Processing Interactive operations between devices ).

In October 2002, companies related to interactive operation devices included Ericsson, dilithium networks, Packet Video, radvision, sharp, and Siemens. What handheld devices were on the market at that time? Only one from sharp and several other mobile phones from Japan can be used only in Japan. By 2004, the number of companies involved reached 14, including Motorola, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung and Vodafone. It takes about four years to connect each handheld device and implement two-way video calls.

During those years, major stakeholders of standardization and interoperability were vendors that provided protocol stack implementations like radvision, as well as handheld devices and chip vendors such as Qualcomm, Nokia, and Ericsson. The rest of the companies are passive participants, either ensuring that their products can be interconnected or waiting for others to provide those capabilities. Once authentication and verification of handheld devices are involved, the main stakeholders are the service provider itself.

Today's mobile video calls

Today, we will note that some important improvements have been made to the standard at the beginning:

3G-324 M (3GPP Specification) and GCF

The authentication process ensuresEach listed video phone can interoperate with other mobile phones.

. The division of GCF test cases took more than a year to discuss the types of tests and establish a test ecosystem-including test laboratories and test tools.

Carrier needsEnsure that all 3G mobile phones sold to customers support the 3G-324 M Standard

. At least before the iPhone came out.

Roaming protocols between European and Asian carriers must be properly developed

Make sure that you can use your mobile phone to make international calls. Except in some special cases (for example, from Israel to Japan), the international roaming service must be free of defects.

Standard additional contentCall Establishment time reduced from 7-15 seconds to 1 second

. Previously, the obstacle for users to accept the video call service was that the call establishment time was too long and the operator successfully broke the obstacle.

Today, efforts are limited in the standardization and interoperability of mobile video calls. In the past two years, the frontier research on standardization and interoperability has been quite calm. The main reason is that the standards are mature and the interoperability problem has been solved, however, users still seldom use the video call service.

So where is the problem? There are enough mobile phones that support video calls. The interoperability is basically the same as that of voice calls, and the connection time is shorter. Why is it still not widely used? So, have you ever called a video? Or have you received a video call? Someone developed and authorized 3G-324 M technology to other vendors, so I called the video. However, most video calls are work-related, and few are private calls.

Key to mobile video call applications

To encourage users to use the mobile video call service, the operator has tried for several years but has little effect. The reasons why users are unwilling to buy accounts are as follows, but none of them are critical.

Price

Some people say that it is too expensive because you don't need video calls. (in some countries, the price is 6 cents a minute, but in other countries, it is the same as voice calls ). I think this is irrelevant, especially when some users do not know the video call price. Even in regions with the same cost as voice calls, users are reluctant to use text message services that are usually more expensive.

Unusual videos

: People are willing to see others, but not others. Well, how can we explain that 36% of Skype users make video calls? There is only one explanation, and only suitable applications make people happy to use video calls.

No video buttons

: People use the iPhone to take a large number of photos, and the iPhone does not have a physical photo key. Many people have been using text messages, especially for teenagers. text messages are the most important way for them to contact their friends, but they do not have the buttons for text messages (in fact, many mobile phones have some ). On most handheld devices, video calls are as troublesome as text messages (typing is not counted ). Of course, video call buttons are good, but there is no video button, but it is not why people don't use it.

All of the above statements are correct, but they are not the most important. The following are some of the more critical issues:

Video quality

: The bandwidth occupied by mobile video calls is very small: 64 k/s. Compared with 2-4 Mb/s of HD videos, the video quality is very low. Of course, the display resolution of the handheld device was not high, so this problem is okay. VGA is now very common, and even screens with higher resolutions are gradually used by smartphones, and video bandwidth needs will increase. Once it is feasible to increase the bandwidth, it requires a higher requirement on the processor's video compression capabilities-according to Moore's Law, this is also a matter of time.

Signal coverage

: In most countries, the 3G signal is only partially covered and cannot reach the 2G coverage level for the entire population. This means that if you want to call a video to someone, you need to know where he/she is-the call may fail because the recipient is not within the 3G signal coverage range.

Availability

: When using today's mobile devices, you will not raise your mobile phone to a height equal to your head, which is generally lower. However, video calls require higher mobile phones. I mentioned in my previous article that the iPad does not have a front camera, which is why mobile devices do not provide a suitable experience, unlike video calls in a conference room or notebook. The camera position is crucial-on mobile devices, the front camera forces users to put their hands in front of their faces, which is uncomfortable, especially considering that video calls are usually time-consuming. In addition, the user experience may be quite poor considering the interference of the phone's speakers, headphones, and external noise.

As soon as the iPhone was launched, carriers changed their concerns. From promoting video calls to finding more multimedia services, the operator reaches out to smart phones with touch functions. Apple has changed its traditional view of "killer apps" and switched to the long tail effect of app stores. A large number of Android devices are coming soon, and the demand for mobile video calls from handheld devices is about to rise.

Although the bandwidth and processing capability problems will naturally be solved, there will be better and more efficient processors and networks. Availability requires real innovation, which is the most critical part. Who can solve this problem will be able to bring mobile video calls to the mass market.

Where is a mobile video call used?

Video email

: Video emails are supported and rolled out by many carriers around the world. It allows you to transfer and record emails between two devices and extract emails as needed. Just as audio emails have been impacted by rapidly developing text messages and video emails, the use of limited video call services has lost its advantage.

Mobile TV VOD ):

Now, in addition to mobile TV, users have other options. Mobile video calls provide standardized solutions for most handheld devices on the market. Because mobile TV standards are split, video calls can use this market to make a fuss. For example, in Israel, you can use this method to connect to news channels on mobile phones.

Entertainment TV

: Mobile TV is great, but in addition to interactivity, it was previously considered a killer application, especially for sports programs and reality shows. In addition, video calls have been connected to sports events and monitoring functions, which has little effect.

PC to mobile

: Video calls on the desktop are used in more than 3G environments. As a result, many carriers around the world have begun to try to bridge the two.

Banking

: Banks make video communication more active. It allows users to access remote Branch specialists or contact bank counter staff remotely. They also provide these services for some mobile handheld devices-using mobile video calls. Another interesting application is to access the ATM service through video calls rather than voice calls.

Videophone Service Center

: This is simple. As long as there is a voice call service center, you can provide video call services.

Healthcare

: Mobile video calls are now widely used by doctors around the world to communicate with peers or participate in expert consultations. For example, doctors at Israeli hospitals now use mobile phones to complete their daily work and operations.

.

Replaying (VRS ):

The Video Relay Service allows lost and relistened patients to communicate with the world by means of a man-in-the-middle reporting through a video call using sign language. This adds a lot to the mobile field of video calls.

.

These use cases show that videos are not used for two-way conversations, but for unilateral real-time video communication. Generally, one party wants to see the other side of the conversation.

Medical care is an important field. One Party on the move needs the advice of experts, and more applications are available for mobile video calls. This is a unique feature of the video call system.

What will happen in the future?

We have the available mobile video call function, which has both advantages and disadvantages. But where is the future? The next step is service convergence, from circuit switching to packet switching to full IP. This requires two major changes:

1. The integration of WCDMA/HSPA into LTE. In the LTE network, the full IP network will become popular, and the network capacity and allocated bandwidth of each mobile phone will increase.

2. The standard that can run in the IP network will replace 3G-324 M, maybe as part of IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem ).

Apple has just launched the front camera and FaceTime service on the new iPhone, but it is still very limited: it can only run through WiFi, only between iPhone 4 devices. Apple has planned to publish the FaceTime protocol. To make mobile video calls a reliable solution, you must use open standards to connect different devices wherever possible.

When will it become a reality? From now on, it will take at least eight years for companies interested to build the necessary ecosystem. The problem is that these manufacturers are now focusing on providing basic LTE devices. video calls require them to rethink audio and text message technologies, such as Voice of LTE ). Once they start to pay attention to mobile video calls based on IP networks, they will find many articles to do. Standardization requires time and patience.

 

Related links:

My industry ecosystem chain and miscellaneous articles