Talk:Generic Access Network

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The word "connexion" is used... A typo?212.143.17.66

You changed it already, but no, it's not. Look it up in your dictionary, or even Wikitionary. ----Broccoli 21:57, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Roaming onto PSTN?

A GAN mobile cannot roam from 802.11 to PSTN. That would require a physical connection to the local loop. Rather, it can move from 802.11/bluetooth/any IP provider to the GERAN (GSM) or UTRAN (UMTS) network.

[edit] Expand please

Customers can enjoy one bill for their internet and cell phone plans.

Why? I don't see why the ISP and cellular service provider would even have to be the same company.

All it says is "Can", though it's a dubious benefit. Customers of BellSouth can "enjoy" one bill for their internet and cellphone plans already. Billing isn't really that relevent. This part really needs to be deleted. Squiggleslash 15:34, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Because handsets must listen to two different radio technologies, they must have two radios on board. Both radios must be scanning for networks at all times, in case the user roams into an area where a Wi-Fi network exists. Battery life may be limited.

Battery life is limited as a direct result of this, right? How much power is used by each radio? Can they be turned off if not in use?

At this stage, the question is being asked too early. GSM radios under normal circumstances usually last anything from three to ten days depending on the battery and manufacturer. My Wifi-enabled Nintendo DS can sit listening for 802.11 traffic for around eight hours in my experience, but that's some other type of battery, and the DS doesn't shut off most of the hardware when it's listening for "One cartridge games".

At the same time, realistically, both radios do not need to be on all the time. While the 802.11 connection is strong, the GSM radio can be turned off completely. The 802.11 connection can be polled periodically, if the GSM signal is low, or if network activity is about to start. While I'm not intimate with the precise details of the UMA specification, it's hard for me to believe at least some of these options aren't available. Squiggleslash 15:34, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

All data from the handset goes through the carrier's servers and is chargeable. Subscribers might wonder why they are being charged for data that is going over their own internet connections, when they can use other devices, such as laptops, for no extra charge.

Why would data which passes through my own personal wireless network go through my cellular provider's servers? So phones like the Nokia 6136, Samsung SGH-T709, and the T-Mobile SDA cannot connect to regular wireless networks? They can only connect through the cell provider's servers? Is there any technical reason for this or is it just a way to make money for nothing? — Omegatron 00:38, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Data that you route through your phone will be routed through the provider's servers.

The thing to understand is that GAN/UMA (you know, I'm just going to call it UMA. Only the 3GPP and this article call it "GAN") aims to make your 802.11 AP just another tower on the GSM network. It has limitations, but that's the gist of what it's trying to do. The upside is that the whole transitioning between the "real" GSM towers and your AP is seamless. You can be on the phone. You can be downloading a web page. Nothing will be interrupted. You'll not have to restart anything.

The downside is that occasionally it's not optimal. If two people are using UMA, it makes sense to route calls between them directly rather than via the cellphone provider's servers, but that's difficult to implement without far more layers of complexity. If someone is surfing the net, argubly it's better they receive the data directly from their WLAN than routed over the cellphone operator's network, but if you tried to do that, every time they walk out of range of the WLAN, the data is going to get lost and nobody is going to even realise that's what's happened.

It's a great looking technology, but many of the optimal "hacks" people want for it aren't going to work or be easy to implement in anything approaching an elegant fashion. Perhaps 4G and IPv6 will fix many of these issues by creating a clean architecture we can start afresh with, but for now, this is way better than nothing at all Squiggleslash 15:34, 29 September 2006 (UTC)