Evolved Packet System (EPS): The LTE and SAE Evolution of 3G UMTS

6.1 The Role of OMA

The availability of attractive end-user services is one of the main conditions for the success of a communication technology. However, being attractive is not the only condition for mass-market adoption and success. It is also critical that services are designed with a specific focus on inter-operability, not only between devices and service platforms, but also when moving across access technologies, network operators and country borders.

This becomes obvious when considering that several hundreds of handset device models have been made available worldwide for 3G technologies (either cdma2000 or UMTS), with a commercial life which does not exceed 12–18 months.

In the area of service inter-operability, the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) plays a central role. The OMA is responsible for the delivery of a set of open technical specifications for application and service frameworks. The OMA is a global organization, which includes a large list of members, mainly product and service manufacturers; most of them are also represented in standard organizations such as the 3GPP or 3GPP2.

The OMA activity is oriented towards the main existing or upcoming service definition and evolution. Here is an extract of the list of those applications:

• Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). MMS provides the possibility to exchange rich content (audio, video, text) between subscribers.
• Digital Rights Management: the OMA has defined a framework to enable secured packaging and content distribution ...