Presence is the ability to know if someone with whom you want to communicate is accessible and available and what device (mobile phone, PC, PDA or landline phone) they are using to communicate. “Presence helps users make decisions about how they communicate. It’s the notion of communicating in real time based on the powerful attributes of presence and availability,” says Max Seguineau, CEO at Antepo.
Antepo has worked with Orange Communications to develop Messenger, a real-time, presence-aware, Orange-branded instant messaging (IM) service that allows subscribers to send text messages to one another over their Windows PC, PDA, Treo or WAP phone. Subscribers create their own contact list and know who on the list is available to chat by reviewing their status, which can be listed as “Busy,” “Do Not Disturb,” “Available,” “In a Meeting” and so on. Messenger users can also identify how the individuals on their contact list are connected to the network—if they are using a PC, PDA or mobile phone.
Presence Architecture
Presence-based services depend on reliable information about a user’s status. AOL, MSN and Yahoo IM users are familiar with changing their status to Available, Out to Lunch, and so on, but they must do so manually.
Presence advocates want to automate user status information. The general consensus is that most people are lazy, and they will not spend the necessary time to update their status throughout the day.
“The reality is that people live in the moment,” says Laurie Frick, chief marketing officer at SoloMio. “IM updates are not reliable, and even when people are in a meeting, they may be willing to take a call based on who the call is from.”
“The information must be up-to-date and reliable,” says Jonathan Rosenberg, chief scientist at dynamicsoft. “You need to be able to extract user information from applications, network elements and the phone and match it to user preferences and privacy policies.”
Updating users’ status does impact the network architecture—especially if presence information is distributed across multiple services. For a single presence application, the effect on the network is minimal. If an operator sticks with one voice application, for example presence-based click-to-talk or instant voice conferencing, few network infrastructure additions are required. (For examples of other presence-based services, see “Nascent Service Sector Proposes Presence-Enabled Offerings,” p. 52).
When describing how presence-based services will evolve, Teltier’s CTO Guda Venkatesh says, “Initially, operators will have only one or two services. To add other applications, they will need to decide if each application will access the network individually, or if they will have a centralized presence and availability infrastructure that can respond to multiple applications.”
In this single or dual service scenario, in which operators offer only instant messaging or instant voice conferencing, presence information is stored in the application. To support multiple presence-enabled services, however, operators will need a presence server that will store and update an individual’s information and user privacy preferences, which limits who can receive a user’s status information.
To get users’ presence status, the server gathers the information from multiple network elements, probes or the user’s laptop, handset or PDA. The Home Location Register (HLR) can identify if a phone is turned on, off or busy with a call, and it can describe roughly where a user is located. The Visitor Location Register (VLR) contains information about subscribers who are roaming. Wireless gateways provide information about a user’s location. Network sniffers can pull out information about devices on a wired network. The authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) server has information about what applications users are logged into. And the SS7 and Intelligent Network (IN) could provide presence data about landline phones on the PSTN. To retrieve this information, a presence server would need to create interfaces to all these elements using Parlay, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI) and other Web services protocols.
Will operators support an interface to all—or any—of these elements? Teltier’s Venkatesh says yes. “If the application proves that it is useful to operators, then they will add more intrusion to the network.”
For a single presence-enabled service, such as click-to-talk, the application relies solely on the HLR for presence information. George Hallenbeck, CEO at Evolving Systems, says depending on a single location is not the most trustworthy strategy. He advocates mobile operators build a centralized presence infrastructure that supports multiple applications.
“It doesn’t make sense to save presence data in different places. The applications will collect information at random times,” he explains. “One application’s presence information may be outdated, causing uncertainty among subscribers.” For example, one application may request presence information every 10 minutes. Another application may gather the information when initiated by the subscriber. The lag time could cause the status on one application to be “Available” but on the other application, which just received an update, the status is marked “Unavailable.”
Hallenbeck says another problem with storing presence information in the application is the HLR. “The HLR was not designed to provide this information on a regular basis,” he says. “Interfaces to the data are nominal, and getting continuous updates is difficult. You need other sources to ensure the information’s accuracy, and it needs to be stored in a single source.”
Increased Network Traffic
Every presence status change initiates network traffic. The numbers significantly increase when presence-based services cross into the enterprise. Futurists foresee enterprise applications, such as Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes becoming presence-enabled and presence information crossing networks and being applied to all devices—laptops, PCs, cell phones, landline phones and PDAs.
“The enterprise provides more information about users. Calendar and address applications, as well as the PBX, can provide presence information that enables any number of services that enhance productivity,” says dynamicsoft’s Rosenberg. “These services are particularly compelling when enterprise connectivity is integrated with the wireless environment.”
Once the wired and wireless infrastructure intermingle, subscribers would have a broad view of everyone’s status in their desktop email address list and phone contact list. If a salesperson was out in the field and needed to ask a question to his boss immediately, he could look on his phone and see that his boss was in a meeting and only taking text messages. A remote worker trying to get in touch with her team could quickly look at her contact list and identify who was available for calls.
The toll on the network to enable
regular, continuous updates is quite large. The typical office employee has anywhere from 75 to 200 contacts in his email address book. When the employee’s status changes, an update would have to be sent to the entire list of contacts. When any contact’sstatus changes, it would trigger an update. Given the size of most contact listsand the number of subscribers, operators are hesitant to roll this type of serviceout to customers. “This is a substantial concern for wireless carriers, especially because it must be transferred over the air,” says Rosenberg.
The status updates are smaller than SMS, explains John Trembley, director of telecom and network at TimesTen, but operators may still have trouble maintaining the high numbers.
To reduce the network toll, Rosenberg says the market needs efficient protocols that do not waste bandwidth, and application developers need to build in stopgaps that reduce the flood of data. Some services, for example, could request updates only when the subscriber accesses the applications. Instead of constant updates occurring throughout the day, the status update will appear only by request.
Service providers could attach a cost to presence-enabling a small subset of the address list. Subscribers may be willing to pay $5 to $10 a month to presence-enable 10 or so contacts, such as their immediate work group, family members or closest friends, rather than keeping track of the status of their entire contact list.
While these measures will reduce traffic by limiting status updates, Teltier’sVenkatesh argues that some of these traffic concerns are exaggerated. He saysthat most traffic will be contained to IP networks, which are much easier tomanage.
“We must have smart algorithms so that we don’t add network traffic,” he says. “If we can contain updates to 2.5G and 3G networks, we can get presence information from data channels on a GSM phone or within the CDMA network. We have more mechanisms to control and limit IP traffic.”
Billing Models
With such an immature market, no one is sure what type of billing model subscribers or mobile operators will accept. In many cases, the application developers expect the services will generate revenue by driving additional billable minutes. Higher call completions translate to more billable minutes.
“The first step is to increase SMS traffic and data air time. The next step will be to monetize presence information because it helps subscribers communicate better,” says Steven Borne, senior marketing manger, Americas at Comverse.
How to monetize the services is up for debate. Antepo’s Seguineau saysthat service providers can’t bill for the services individually. “They must bepart of a bigger package.”
Dynamicsoft’s Rosenberg disagrees. “These services won’t work if they are bundled in to current packages for an additional fee. Presence changes may happen when you are not looking. The information is pushed at you and subscribers may not be aware of every change. Subscribers may have to pay based on the size of their address book or the amount of times they change their status per day.”
Companies with presence platforms are keeping their platforms flexible enough to accommodate any billing scenario. The architectures can capture multiple events and relay them to mediation engines. The hard part for everyone, though, is not knowing what events will be billable. Everyone is waiting to see if the services are adopted and if subscribers will pay for them.
“We did meet with operators and tried to collect requirements regarding what they wanted to bill. They said, ‘We don’t know,’ so we developed an architecture that can create CDRs for interesting events,” says Teltier’s Venkatesh.
Comverse’s Borne says some of the problem is directly tied to the billing systems. “If we say the platform must be integrated with the billing system, operators start to squirm and say that will take a year at least. We can deliver records and events in formats they need, but the operators are not interested in an integration project.”
Mass Market Appeal?
These applications may limp out of the gate unless mobile operators are willing to share presence information across networks. A contact list that is limited to AT&T Wireless subscribers will hold little interest for subscribers of other wireless service providers. The more appealing strategy would be that the subscriber is able to add anyone to his buddy list.
The Wireless Village, a forum founded by Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia, is hustling to protect the mobile network from being usurped by Yahoo, MSN and AOL. The group does not want mobile IM to be monopolized by the portals’ closed proprietary networks. The Presence and Availability Forum (PAM) is also defining guidelines and protocols to distribute messaging and presence information in the mobile environment.
Sharing presence information will depend on the industry establishing standard protocols for communicating the updates, and operators establishing network traffic contracts. As in many cases, the technology is less of an issue than the business relationships. Operators must first define the costs and settlement process for presence information to traverse multiple service provider networks.
SMS was the first application to break through network boundaries. Hopefully, operators will take what they learned from this data service and apply it to upcoming 2.5G and 3G services.
Companies emphasize that these services, especially presence, must be voice-centric. “Presence will only explode if it’s associated with voice. The fact that these services can trigger calls, drive more voice minutes and increase customer loyalty is key for mobile operators,” says SoloMio’s Frick. “Many operators have been disappointed by content and data services. They are seeking back-to-basic services that drive additional voice minutes, draw high value subscribers and create subscriber loyalty.”
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Nascent Service Sector Proposes Presence-Enabled Offerings Instant messaging has already gained a strong following. Presence companies seek to enrich these concepts with the following new services: Active address book. A subscriber’s contact list in his email application is Intelligent contact list. Similar to the active address book, this subscriber service applies presence to the mobile phone’s contact list. Subscribers scroll through their mobile phone’s contact list to see who is available. As the subscriber views the list, each name has an icon designating the contact’s status. Click-to-talk. In today’s service, when you click you don’t know if you’ll actually talk. If the service included the user’s status, the caller would know if the person they are calling is available. Friend finder. This service is targeted at teenagers. When a subscriber visits the mall, he presses a button that sends a “beacon” to everyone on his friend list who is within a half mile of him. This beacon alerts buddies that their pal is nearby, and they can request his specific location if they want to join him to cruise the mall. Presence in workgroups. Some organizations have subject matter experts that are key contributors to projects. Information about these individuals’ skill set could be combined with presence information to improve productivity and efficiency. If a group is working on a project that needs a notary signature, for example, the team could scroll through their contact list to see who in the company is a notary and if they are available to notarize the document. |
