Thursday, January 31, 2013

APN Configurational Issues in Android OS Enabled Phones : Part-2 (End)

Refer :- Part-1

As explained in part 1 it is must to have different QoS treatment according to the type of traffic like...


  • Web Browsing
  • MMS
  • Streaming Video
  • Gaming with high level of interactive communication mode.. 
Figure 1 : Major Customer Segment & their preferred data services

Majority of mobile customer base using internet,blackberry, MMS & corporate VPN services. In Figure 1 I have used IBM as an example of a corporate client.



 Figure 2 : Different types of Mobile Data Services Connectivity 

Figure 2 shows that the GGSN is interconnected with MMSC, IBM Corporate network (an example), BB Server & ISP for the services respectively for MMS, IBM-VPN,BES/BIS & internet browsing.

I expect that in coming days Android OS will be able to support 11 APNs [For 2G & 3G Networks]  as per 3GPP Standard TS 24.008. So that customers and the operators can benefit from each other by introducing "blackberry" kind of OTT based services.

For an example BB phones can have different APNs for MMS,internet & BB services.If the sim is subscribed to all these services then the customer can use them without having trouble in changing any APN settings.

Since most of the operators are earning their major share of Data revenue from their corporate clients, who are using for their intranet / corporate network access using VPN, it becomes unavoidable to have this ability in most of the Android OS installed phones or Tabs from Samsung, HTC , Sony etc. More and more new handset vendors are coming in to the market with the hope using the great Android OS and making it big in the market like Samsung. So it will be a disaster in future with such phones available in the market with this known issue.


As stated by Aeneas in COMMENTS Section [ with source code references] , Android OS has the ability to support multiple APNs.But the question remains same.......

"Why Android OS enabled handsets (2G / 2G+3G) are not  configured to show the option similar like Symbian / Microsoft OS Enabled Phones ? To reduce the complexity and simplify the users experience ?  why the network interface is not optimized well in smartphones "


Conclusion : Handset manufacturers using  Android OS should take immediate action in resolving this issue.


3GPP References : TS 24.008 & TS 23.107

Comments from Friends & Critics are welcome.
  
Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos B5512 phone Settings :-



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2 comments:

  1. Hello,

    I think android already supports multiple APN connections, i found this activity (which is already merged)

    https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/2b8bcfe5b74e1a34d136f4ff46e3c94397f38f82

    and it says it is related to

    "LTE Changes for Telephony including Multiple PDN support and IPV6 support"

    and in connectivitymanager.java there is already APN type IMS and CBS

    https://github.com/android/platform_frameworks_base/blob/master/core/java/android/net/ConnectivityManager.java

    what do you think?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aeneas, I have checked Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos B5512 phone 3G+2G.Even though we can enter many APN details ,it supports only one APN for active PDP Session. So a PDP session for MMS/ISP uses the APN "selected" among the list.

    Reference : http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_y_pro_duos_b5512-4371.php

    The best way to test this one is using an Android phone in live network.Which I have done and confirmed for my blog " APN Configurational Issues in Android OS Enabled Phones".


    In short Android phones don't allow Application specific APN usage during PDP Context activation, which is available in Symbion OS Phones. Your point may be valid for 4G Phones or with Android 4.0 SW level , I will try to check those ones and update in coming days.

    Regards

    ReplyDelete