I was made aware of the following statement on the Verizon wireless brochure:
LTE’s inherent support for IPV6
addressing and IMSI-based telephone number identifiers makes mass
deployments over LTE more easily achievable. The deployment of large
numbers of mobile devices (think tens of thousands) becomes much more
feasible because of LTE’s use of 15-digit IMSI telephone number
identifiers for large-scale deployments, such as M2M or embedded
wireless applications. 3G network technologies were limited by their use
of 10-digit telephone number identifiers, which made large-scale
deployments more difficult. With LTE, mass deployment of wireless
services and applications, such as VoIP, smart metering, vending, and
telematics, is now practical.
Now we know about the much touted 50 Billion connections by 2025 of which the majority would be M2M devices. So how are we going to handle the issue of addressing these many devices.
10 Billion out of 50 Billion - The Connected World
Remember the mantra of 50 Billion connected devices (blogged here and here)
but 202x, apparently 10Billion are already here. The above slide is
from a latest presentation by Chetan Sharma Consulting (embedded below).
There are already 7 Billion mobile devices (phones + dongles) and 3
Billion others. The number of others will increase with M2M being the main focus and is touted as the next big thing, especially with LTE. 3GPP is focussing very heavily on standardising the MTC and is working on new features in upcoming releases.
Coming back to the topic of connected world, the presentation is embedded below and is a good read.
In the earlier presentation here, there was a mention of the direction for the solution as below:
The IMSI structure is as shown above. So depending on how it is used
this can help alleviate the number shortage problem. 3GPP TR 23.888
gives the following information:
5.13 Key
Issue - MTC Identifiers
5.13.1 Use
Case Description
The amount of MTC Devices is expected to become 2 orders of
magnitude higher than the amount of devices for human to human communication
scenarios. This has to be taken into account for IMSI, IMEI and MSISDN.
Regulatory bodies indicate shortages of IMSIs
and MSISDNs.
The MTC Feature PS Only in TS 22.368 [2]
includes
a requirement that PS Only subscriptions shall be possible without an
MSISDN.
In principle an MSISDN is not used in any of the PS based signalling
procedures. However, it will have to be assured that all PS procedures
indeed
work and subscriptions can be uniquely identified without providing an
MSISDN.
Furthermore, TS 22.368 [2]
specifies that remote MTC Device configuration shall be supported for PS
only
subscriptions without an MSDISDN assigned. Current remote MTC Device
configuration solutions (i.e.
Device Management and Over-the-Air configuration) are based on SMS,
which assumes the use of MSISDNs. So a solution to support remote MTC
Device configuration that does not
require the use of MSISDNs is needed.
The identifiers can be categorised into:
- Internal Identifiers:
used within the 3GPP system to identify a UE using a subscription (or the
subscription itself e.g. when the
UE is not registered).
- External Identifiers: used from outside the 3GPP system (e.g. at the MTCsp
interface), to refer to a UE using a subscription (or the subscription itself
e.g. when the UE is not registered).
5.13.2 Required
Functionality
- It shall be possible to
uniquely identify the ME.
NOTE 1: This
requirement relates to the ME which is generally identified by the IMEI.
- It shall be possible to
uniquely identify the UE using a subscription or the subscription
itself.
NOTE 2: The two
requirements above also apply to human-to-human communications. However, for
Machine-Type Communication identifiers will have to be able to cater for a
number of identifiers up to two orders of magnitude higher than for
human-to-human communications.
- It shall be possible to use
the following identifiers:
1. IMSI,
for internal usage within the 3GPP operator domain, and either
2. E.164
MSISDN, for usage outside the 3GPP operator domain, or
3. Unique
identifier (e.g. FQDN), other than E.164 MSISDN, for usage outside the 3GPP operator
domain.
NOTE 3: Use of IMSI outside the 3GPP operator domain is an operator
option (i.e. not subject to standardization)
- If no (unique or common)
MSISDN is assigned to a PS only subscription, the Internal Identifier (IMSI) shall be used as charging identifier.
- It shall be possible to associate one or more External
Identifiers to the same Internal Identifier (e.g. several MSISDNs associated
with the same IMSI).
- Globally unique External Identifiers shall be supported for
identifying UEs used for MTC that must be globally reachable (i.e. irrespective
of which mobile operator owns the subscription)
- Operator specific External Identifiers (e.g. based on a private
numbering plan) may be supported for identifying UEs used for MTC that have to
be reachable only from the operator domain to which they are subscribed.
- The Internal Identifier shall be globally unique.
- Remote MTC Device
configuration shall still be supported for subscriptions without an MSISDN.
NOTE 4: Current remote MTC Device configuration
solutions (i.e. Device Management and Over-the-Air configuration) are based on SMS, which assumes
the use of MSISDNs.
