Presentation Material as of March, 2000
DoCoMo’s i-mode
Toward Mobile Multimedia in 3G
March 29, 2000
IETF 47, Plenary Session
NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc.
Gateway Business Department &
Multimedia Laboratories
What is i-mode ?
• Mobile ISP and portal service from NTT DoCoMo, Japan
• Very light weight i-mode phone set with cellular phone &
Internet capability (71g/2.5Oz)
• Internet service using PDC-P(Personal Digital CellularPacket)
• Subset of HTML 3.0 for content description
• Started Operation in Feb. 1999
• Rapidly growing- 5 million users in ONE YEAR
• Over 7,500 Information Providers, growing rapidly
Outline of Presentation
• Internet access from 2G cellular phone network
– Current i-mode service
• Overview
• Technology review
• Roadmap to 3G cellular phone and Internet
Increase of Subscriber Number of i-mode
We have successfully introduced the ”positive feedback” process of the Internet into the
wireless world. Increase of applications/contents attracts more user and increase of
5,159,184 (3/19)
user number attracts more applications/contents.
4,500/w
50,000/w～
70,000/w
24,000/w
80,000/w～
110,000/w
5,000,000
200,000/w～
250,000/w
502i
501i
4,000,000
3,000,000
2,000,000
1,000,000
P501i
D501i, N501i
Launched
F501i
F502i, D502i, N502i, P502i
3/6
2/21
2/7
1/24
1/10
12/27
12/13
11/29
11/15
11/1
10/18
10/4
9/20
9/6
8/23
8/9
7/26
7/12
6/28
6/14
5/31
5/17
5/3
4/19
4/5
3/22
3/8
2/22
0
NTT DoCoMo Confidential
i-mode Subscriber Growth Projection
Feb. 12th
Exceeded four
million users !
# of Subs
（000）
5,000
Oct. 18th
Exceeded two
million users !
4,000
4493
3742
Aug. 8th
Exceeded one
million users !
2,000
2655
5
Feb
1999
58 139
Mar
Apr.
252
May
Mar. 15th
Exceeded five
million users
1,293
457
June
(Original-2 forcast)
1,733
857
1,000
4,000
(Original forecast)
3,000
3131
3,000
0
Dec. 23rd
Exceeded three
million users !
July
Aug.
Sep.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
2000
Feb.
Mar.
Strategy: The Mobile ISP and Portal
When you focus on the number of Internet users for private use, it is far from ’critical mass’ for
major IP in Japan. However, if you can count on all cellular phone users of DoCoMo, IP can
easily reach economies of scale for its own service.
Japanese Market
ISP
Information
Provider
Private-LAN
Personal PC-User
3-4million
Internet
Information
Provider
Internet User
Around 17 million
DoCoMo
Gateway
Server
DoCoMo
Cellular Phone User
28 million
Cellular Phone User 48 million
Source: Telecommunications Carriers Association, Dec 99,
Japanese Government
Japanese Population: 125 million
Service Overview
We offer a portal homepage customized by user profile so that users can easily access
Information Providers’ web sites.
DoCoMo “i-mode”
Voice
(PDC)
(incl.
e-mail)
Transaction
Information
・Banking
・Security Trading
・Ticket Reservation
・Airline Information/Reservation
・Credit Card Information
・Book Sales
etc.
・News Updates ・Weather Information
・Sports News
・Stock Quotes
・Business/Technology News
・Town Information
・Horse Racing Information
etc.
Data base
Entertainment
・Telephone Directory Search
(Yellowpage)
・Restaurant Guide
・Dictionary Service
・Cooking Recipe
・Network Game ・Character Download
・Horoscope/Fortune telling
・Karaoke Information/ Song Check
・FM Radio Information
・Club Event Information
etc.
etc.
Information Bill Collection System
Portal Service Based on User Profile DB
Cellular-phone Network
Internet Web Sites
mail
(PDC-P)
Technical Objective
• To provide personal Internet Web and mail service on digital
cellular phone network - PDC (Personal Digital Cellular)
• Packet mode to enable charges only on the amount of
data transferred- (PDC-P)
• Mail: Push mail delivery to make the phone more
attractive
• Web: Subset of HTML to lower the entry barrier for
content providers by enabling them to use existing tools
and contents
• IP Technology to enable i-mode
• HTTP, SMTP, TCP/IP, ...
i-mode uses PDC Packet
• Packet based charges (PDC-P) perfect for Web browsing
– PDC-P network enables less expensive charges for text based data exchange.
– Mobile phone is always ‘stand by’ to get/receive data.
I-mode
Servers
Information
provider
HTTP
Internet
IP
Packet Data
DoCoMo’s
Packet
User
DB
Network
Billing
DB
(PDC-P)
IP
PDC: Personal Digital Cellular
DoCoMo’s
Network Voice, Data via Modem
(PDC)
Current Architecture of “i-mode”
“HTML”, “HTTP” Layer Pass-through
Off the shelf Web server
HTML
(subset)
HTML
(subset)
HTTP
(HTTPS)
HTTP
(HTTPS)
TL
TＬ
Call ctl
Call ctl IP (PMAP)
LAPD-M
LAPD-M Link Layer
Phy. Layer
Cellular Phone
Phy. Layer Phy. Layer
PPM
(Packet Processing Module)
Radio
IP (PMAP)
TCP
TCP
IP
IP
Link Layer Link Layer
Link Layer
Phy. Layer
Phy. Layer
Phy. Layer
M-PGW
(M-Packet Gateway Module)
Corporate Network
Information Provider
Internet
Current i-mode protocol stack
-radio portion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Layer
Error Rate
System
Data Rate
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AP
E free
HTTP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TL
Mostly E free Stop-Go ARQ/Push/Connection oriented 9.6Kbps 1400B/pkt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Link Layer 10-6 or better
LAPD-M’ Selective Repeat ARQ
14kbps(3ch TDMA)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Phy. Layer 10-2-10-4
p/4 shifted QPSK FEC/BCH
42kbps
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------LAPD-M’ and TL are standard of ARIB: RCR STD27X
ARIB(Association of Radio Industries and Business)
WWW.ARIB.OR.JP
i-mode specifications
• Web page :
Total size
GIF picture
Trans.
• Mail message :
Total size
Trans.
• Bandwidth:
• Frequency:
5Kbyte(max), 2KByte(recommended)
94x72 pixel
HTTP
500 bytes (250 Japanese characters)
TL Push
9,600 bit/sec
800MHz
HTML Based Content Description
Subset of HTML 3.0 with some additional tags*
– No need to learn special language to deliver content
Registration
Day of Birth
Year <
>
Month <
>
Day <
>
1.SEND
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Registration</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY >
<DIV>Registration</DIV>
Day of Birth<br>
<Form Action=“mailto:”Method=“POST”>
Year<INPUT TYPE = “TEXT” NAME =“TEXT” VALUE =“”SIZE = “2”
MAXLENGTH = “2” ALIGN = TOP><br>
Month<INPUT TYPE = “TEXT” NAME =“TEXT” VALUE =“”SIZE = “2”
MAXLENGTH = “2” ALIGN = TOP><br>
Day<INPUT TYPE = “TEXT” NAME =“TEXT” VALUE =“”SIZE = “2”
MAXLENGTH = “2” ALIGN = TOP><br>
<INPUT TYPE = “SUBMIT” NAME =“Submit” VALUE = “1.SEND”
ALIGN = TOP>
</BODY>
</HTML>
© Mainichi Shimbun
* “Phone To” tag added
i-mode Roadmap to 3G
Success of i-mode will lead to smooth introduction of IMT-2000 which enables 64k384k bps high speed access from mobile devices. Even before 3G, we are making
extensive efforts for enhancing i-mode platform by introducing Intranet package
solutions in 1999 and,
3rd Generation
then, Java technology in 2000.
Rich (Visual,
High Speed)
Colored
LCD
Java
・Music
Intranet
Packages
・Video
・TV Conference
・Game
i-mode
launch
・Groupware
Web access
・Security function
・Homepage
Fall,
1999
・TV Telephone
・Mobile TV
・Interactive TV
Portal Link
・e-mail
Feb. 1999
Intranet
NOW
Fall,
2000
Spring,
2001
i-mode Evolution 2; Java Capable i-mode Phone
Java will enable
• application/content providers to distribute
software (applets) to cellular phones.
• Users to download applets including
interactive games, to manage servers,
security enhancing module and so on.
To be introduced in late 2000.
i-mode phone with KVM(KJava)
runs 3D maze game.
3G to use W-CDMA
Wideband CDMA will
•Enable up to 384Kbps speed
•Provide richer content for i-mode; video, audio, etc.
Further convergence to Internet standards
Conclusion
Strategies
 Leverage widely accepted technology and advance the
technology
 Subset of HTML for content description
 Leverage IP based architecture
 Initial focus on personalized services and usage
 Packet based charges with PDC-P favour for Web browsing
applications
3G direction
 Further convergence to IETF Internet standard
 Open discussions in IETF
Contact-1
Thank you!
Max HATA
Multimedia Labs,
NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc
(NTT DoCoMo)
Ichiro OKAJIMA
Wireless Labs,
hata@mml.yrp.nttdocomo.co.jp
NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc
(NTT DoCoMo)
Hiroshi INAMUA
Multimedia Labs,
okajima@mlab.yrp.nttdocomo.co.jp
NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc
(NTT DoCoMo)
inamura@mml.yrp.nttdocomo.co.jp
Contact-2
Takeshi NATSUNO
Media Director, Gateway Business Department
NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc
(NTT DoCoMo)
natsuno@nttdocomo.co.jp
David MACDONALD
Project Coordinator, Gateway Business Department
NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc
(NTT DoCoMo)
macdonald@nttdocomo.co.jp