ITU 150th Anniversary (1865-2015)

 

The 150 ITU 1865 2015 logo is copyright to the International Telecommunications Union

and reproduced with kind permission

This May 2015 the International Telecommunications Union reaches its 150 Anniversary,   http://itu150.org/home/ .

So what has happened in the world between 1865-2015? I thought I would highlight some events that usually go under the radar:

- football clubs established at that time : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_football_clubs
- some cyclists have been pedalling for a really long time : https://velocipedists.wordpress.com/
- as well as a bygone era in railway : http://talyllyn.co.uk/150-1865-2015Gala
- Nokia started out as a wood pulp mill : http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia

For more well known events just search the world wide web (www).

The ITU plays an important global role producing technical reports, recommendations and guidance on telecommunications, cellular and satellite, to name just a few technology sectors. That influence should never be underestimated. Indeed, the work of the ITU impacts on mobile forensics and cybercrime too. I have recorded a few trewmte blogs as examples.

International Telecommunications Union and CSA
http://trewmte.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/international-telecommunications-union.html

CSA - Site Survey Method 2
http://trewmte.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/csa-site-survey-method-2.html

CSA - Site Survey Method 2/ITU
http://trewmte.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/csa-site-survey-method-2itu.html


Cybercrime: procedures, deterrent and investigation
http://trewmte.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/cybercrime-procedures-deterrent-and.html

It seems to me fitting that since I have gained so much knowledge and understanding from the work of the ITU that to pay tribute to them is to invite readers to visit their website celebrating the 150 anniversary of this phenomenal and great institution known as the International Telecommunications Union:

http://itu150.org/about/

International Telecommunications Union and CSA

International Telecommunications Union and CSA

Were the standards to be made binding that could have political implications / ramifications regarding national sovereignty etc. However, a standard adopted by the ITU are called "recommendations". The recommendations carry a voluntary adoption by members states. The recommendations can though become directly or indirectly binding if it is incorporated into member states legislation where the legislation refers to a particular ITU recommendation. That would have a direct binding agreement. An indirect binding agreement could be where European legislation does not mention ITU recommendation per se but refers to CEPT or ETSI standards that become recorded that are in-turn derived from ITU recommendations. Were there to be an inextricable link requiring identical wording for CEPT/ESTI standard/ITU recommendation then that may amount to an indirect binding agreement with or to the ITU recommendation.

CSA - Site Survey Method 2/ITU - http://cellsiteanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/csa-site-survey-method-2itu.html

As this discussion relates to CSA and identified recommendations listed here ( http://cellsiteanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/csa-survey-method-2.html ) the detail below highlights the radio subject matter from the division ITU-R.

CSA - Site Survey Method 2/ITU

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) combines standards making capability and also has regulatory functions specific to mobile telecommunications. Therefore the ITU goes beyond standards making that may not create obligations in contrast with issuing regulatory measures that clearly do create regulation for it members who are signatories to the Convention.

 

 

Three important functions of the ITU are:

1) Regulation and Recommendations

Where there is an international aspect involved the ITU has the responsibility to manage the radio-frequency spectrum. The ITU allocates frequency bands to certain applications that would make use of the RF bands (see list below) e.g. Radio/Television Broadcast; Microwave Links; Radio-Astronomy; Mobile Telephony. The technical means and the physical nature of the frequency bands form the basis of the allocations. That is to say where a frequency band can be used and doesn't interfere with prescribed wide-ranging criteria; and the technical means exists or can be developed that enables the physical radio medium to be manipulated for use. Member states are bound to this allocation prepared by the ITU but assigning the frequencies to users is within the power and autonomy for each member state. ITU decisions are, in principle, binding to its members. The relevance behind that statement is that the ITU origins began to facilitate and enable subsequent amendments of the agreements to be agreed upon made at the Interntaional Telegrahy Convention of 1865. The principle of being bound only comes into effect when member states ( http://www.itu.int/online/mm/scripts/mm.list?_search=ITUstates&_languageid=1 ) ratify the text of an evolving Convention. Changes to any text in the Convention thereafter also need to be ratified. A member state ( http://www.itu.int/en/membership/Documents/signatories-pp10.pdf compare with http://www.itu.int/en/membership/Documents/signatories-pp06.pdf ) failing to ratify new text is not bound by it thus watering down the effects of any binding powers over national sovereignty.

Essentially, whilst understanding ITU's can make decisions when it comes to Band allocations we know that ITU does not hold regulatory functions when it comes to standards. When dealing with interntional bodies like ITU the term standard, as we commonly understand it, is more profound at the ITU's level. This is because international technical issues are being addressed. Were the standards to be made binding that could have political implications / ramifications regarding national sovereignty etc. However, a standard adopted by the ITU are called "recommendations". The recommendations carry a voluntary adoption by members states. The recommendations can though become directly or indirectly binding if it is incorporated into member states legislation where the legislation refers to a particular ITU recommendation. That would have a direct binding agreement. An indirect binding agreement could be where European legislation does not mention ITU recommendation per se but refers to CEPT or ETSI standards that become recorded that are in-turn derived from ITU recommendations. Were there to be an inextricable link requiring identical wording for CEPT/ESTI standard/ITU recommendation then that may amount to an indirect binding agreement with or to the ITU recommendation. It may be accepted that *CEPT/ETSI might be in the driving seat but isn't this nothing more than that old adage 'What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet...(Romeo and Juliet)?'

* At an appropriate juncture in another discussion CEPT/ETSI will also be discussed.

2) Recommendations as Standards

ITU draws up standards (recommendations) and provides them to the telecommunications community that are relevant for telecommunications between countries.  There are numerous diverse tasks requiring standards under the umbrella and responsibility of the ITU that are prepared and developed by numerous advisory groups that are split into divisions.

As this discussion relates to CSA and identified recommendations listed here ( http://cellsiteanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/csa-survey-method-2.html ) the detail below highlights the radio subject matter from the division ITU-R.

Radio:
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-R/Pages/default.aspx
-- http://www.itu.int/pub/R-REG
--- http://www.itu.int/en/membership/Documents/WRC-12.pdf
--- http://www.itu.int/en/membership/Documents/signatories-wrc07.pdf
---- http://www.itu.int/pub/R-REC

Individual Recommendations for allocated bands
BO - Satellite delivery
BR - Recording for production, archival and play-out; film for television
BS - Broadcasting service (sound)
BT - Broadcasting service (television)
F - Fixed service
M - Mobile, radiodetermination, amateur and related satellite services
http://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-M/e
P - Radiowave propagation
http://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-P/e
RA - Radio astronomy
RS - Remote sensing systems
S - Fixed-satellite service
SA - Space applications and meteorology
SF - Frequency sharing and coordination between fixed-satellite and fixed service systems
SM - Spectrum management
SNG - Satellite news gathering
TF - Time signals and frequency standards emissions
V - Vocabulary and related subjects

Telecommunications
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/Pages/default.aspx

Development
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Pages/default.aspx

Whether a member state has signed up to using the standards (recommendations) or not predominantly it is inescapable the technical information in the standards provides useful advice to countries and industry concerning: interconnection, access, terminal device standards, reference standards etc. Certainly in the areas of GSM, TDMA, CDMA, WCDMA/UMTS-UTRA etc many of those standards specific to these technologies constantly refer to ITU recommendations, thus further underpinning how useful ITU recmmendations are to use as references and guidance for cell site analysis.

3) Forums and Facilitors

Agreements between members require a commonality in understanding as to the reliability of international services available; thus technical services and commercial agreements need to be acceptable to both parties. ITU offers forums that help facilitate international agreements.


Final thoughts

The intention of this mini-overview about ITU recommendations was to demonstrate the value they offer given that they have weight due to the requirement of reliability to assist commonality and provide useful guidance for member states for that purpose. When dealing with CSA we are usually not involved at the member state level but at the operational performance of radio communications and services at the local level of which the ITU recommendations can and do provide useful reference material for reports and useful knowledge, skill and experience when conducting in the field surveys.

CSA - Site Survey Method 2

The purpose of these CSA - Site Survey Method discussions invites examiners, technicians and students to consider the wider area analysis involved in cell site analysis (CSA) beyond simply conducting radio test measurements at site and producing test results from particular Masts.

The wider area analysis enables examiners, technicians and students to suggest why coverage is being detected at particular locations. The coverage detected may not be LOS (line of sight) but due to NLOS (non line of sight). With these two radio scenarios there are a wide range of propagation models/components that are commonly referred to and used for mobile (cellular) communications.

Uniformity for CSA surveys is not impossible and has been established by industry and mobile radio network operators and radio architects/designers. It is simply due to lack of consensus in the forensic community that has largely stopped consensus. The latter state has arisen because of the way investigations have been subjected to intervening factors/limitation imposed, caused by constraints: financial constraints; knowledge, skill and experience constraints; timing constraints; combination of constraints. Can you imagine a DNA or Blood specialist giving evidence in court and stating the results I obtained are these but I have no clue as to why those results would be obtained at a particular juncture/point in the examination / survey and there is no consensus in industry as to what I should refer to as a criteria or norm.

CSA can be defined by five practical forensic headings:

1) Call-Billing Records/Cell Details/Operational Records/Network Records;
2) Radio Coverage and Mast-Tower BTS;
3) Radio Coverage and Mobile Station-Smartphone;
4) Radio Coverage and Geo-Clutter;
5) Radio Coverage and Scene of Crime.

It is agreed that each heading will have its own subset headings but for each of the main five headings it is possible to produce primers for each. It is also accepted that another reason for naming convention consensus yet to be achieved in the forensic community is due to the disparate range of definitions by industry. Mobile Forensics must develop a generic title and statement. This would not only assist the prosecution and defence to have firm ground upon which to question/cross examine a witness but aid the court to understand submissions. And this is only right and proper. With medical principals and practices it roughly takes 10-20 years to accept/understand each medical terms, yet we find after 30 years of cellular radio technology the courts and legal profession still struggle to get to grips with mobile cellular terminology and techniques. Thus using headings such as those above with appropriate descriptions attached to them should reduce or remove that problem. The following discussion illustrates established norms that are available that can be used consensually between expert, forensic and legal parties. 

The discussion in CSA - Site Survey Methods form subsets of 2), 3), 4) and 5). By way of illustration in the discussion here [ http://cellsiteanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/csa-site-survey-method-1.html ] it refers to affects to radio coverage. The examiner, technician and student having obtained all the information at 1) above may wish to then consider 2) and 4) above.

                                      

The above photo of a Mast-BTS/NodeB/eNodeB shows an example of identified radio transmssion technology that the examiner, technician and student should identify at first instance to comprehend (a) communications transmissions available and (b) the services to be obtained from this type of multi-basestation.

The examiner, technician and student are ultimately considering scenarios into which radio-coverage will be propagated. These will not just simply be the standard radio coverage frequencies allocated to GSM/W-CDMA/CDMA/LTE etc but also microwave links for backhaul of the sites traffic where no landline backhaul is possible.

It follows therefore background knowledge about propagation, models and survey profiles etc can assist how an examiner, technican and student may plan on-site surveys and radio test measurements or those components that might be involved in the results detected. Some examples are:

Walfish-Ikegami
Basic algorithm: COST 231 Model (ETR 364, COST 231 Final Report)
Type: Point-to-area (multipoint)
Frequency: about 800 MHz - 2 GHz
Distance: up to 5 km
  
SUI
Basic algorithm: IEEE 802.16
Type: Point-to-area (multipoint)
Frequency: about 2 GHz - 5 GHz
Distance: up to 70 km

Hata
Type: Point-to-point
Frequency: 150MHz - 1500 MHz
Distance: 1Km to 20 MHz
Allows for correction factor where mobile is different from baseline height 1.5m

Okumura-Hata
Type: Point-to-multipoint
Frequency: ~ 150 MHz - 2 GHz
Distance: up to 100 km

Line of Sight
Basic algorithm: ITU-R P.452-14
Type: Point-to-point and Point-to-multipoint
Frequency: about 700 MHz - 40 GHz
Distance: up to 100 - 150 km

Additional:
ITU-R P.1411 provides guidance on outdoor propagation for systems that operate under distances 1 km, and over the frequency range 300 MHz to 100 GHz

ITU-R P.1546 provides guidance on outdoor propagation for systems that operate over distances of 1 km and greater, and over the frequency range 30 MHz to 3 GHz

Effective Antenna Height:
Absolute
Profile
Average
Relative
Slope

Analysing point to point/area components:

Examiners, technicians and students should note I have used in these examples the ITU (international telecommunications union) recommendations adopted around the world by its members. This means whether the CSA is located in Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa, North America etc these are useful recommendations to consider and refer to in final reports. Put another way there should be nothing in a final report that should have be made-up (false statement) by the report's author.

Free space path loss: ITU-R P.525-2
Fresnel zone ellipsoids: ITU-R P.526-11
Path clearance: ITU-R P.530-13

Reflection, Diffraction, Scattering and Attenuation:
Specific attenuation: ITU-R P.676-8
Preciptation attenuation: ITU-R P.837-5
Specific Rain attentuation: ITU-R P.838-3
Rain Height Model ITU-R P.839-3
Hydrometeors attenuation: ITU-R P.530-13
Fog attenuation: ITU-R P.840-5
Single knife-edge: ITU-R P.526-11
Deygout: ITU-R P.526-11
Average: ITU-R P.530-15
Spherical Earth: ITU-R P.526-11
Reflection: ITU-R-REC-P.527-3
Multipath: ITU-R-REC-P.1407-5
Scattering due to RET: ITU-R P.833-5
Vegetation: ITU-R-REC-P.833-8
Polar and Desert Dry Temperatures: ITU-R-REC-P.841-4
Buildings: ITU-R-REC-P.1812-3
Building Materials and Structures: ITU-R-REC-P.2040-0 

There are of course other regional specific cellular transmission technology standards for North American, Europe etc e.g. ETR 364: Digital cellular telecommunications system; Radio network planning aspects. These shall be referred to in another discussion.

PLEASE NOTE: The page will be updated with other ITU recommendations from time to time.