NEW REPORT RELEASED TODAY OUTLINES ARCHITECTURE FOR NEXT GENERATION INTERNET-ENABLED MOBILE SOLUTIONS

Contacts:

Catherine Bergstrom
McKie | Headstrom PR
, ext. 2

Michelle Olesiejuk
Mobile Wireless Internet Forum (MWIF)

For Immediate Release

Mobile Wireless Internet Forums Network Reference Architecture Outlines Global Architecture for Mobile Devices and Internet Connectivity

Las Vegas - May 8, 2001 ­ Bringing the world¹s leading mobile players in harmony with the Internet community is a daunting task, but that is what exactly the Mobile Wireless Internet Forum does. And today, the Mobile Wireless Internet Forum¹s (MWIF) Technical Committee is pleased to announced the release of the second version of its industry-wide reference, "Network Reference Architecture Technical Report MTR-004, Version 2." As a technology and market catalyst, this report describes and defines the instrumental architecture that further enables the integration of mobile access networks with IP-based solutions to be merged into next generation mobile devices. Copies of the report are free and available at mwif.org.

"As other groups strive to bring consensus as to the how the next generation mobile Internet market will evolve, this report stands to accelerate the process and groundwork for these discussions and help to resolve a clear direction," said Dean Sirovica, MWIF founder and president, who is also the managing director of strategic technology at Vodafone. "The MWIF Architecture Working Group identified gaps between architectures being developed by these groups, and by diligently and quickly resolving these voids, we are confident that this new Network Reference Architecture will further improve the time to market for new mobile Internet products and technologies."

The report is a result of more than nine months of worldwide group collaboration, industry comments, and balloting. The Network Reference Architecture highlights logical functions, physical implementations, IP protocol extensions, and reference point criteria. As well, the report diagrams, describes, and defines the following Core Network Functional Entities and Reference Points:

• IP, Access and Signaling Gateways
• Authentication, Authorization and Accounting Servers
• Billing Management
• Communication Session Manager (CSM)
• Configuration Management
• Service Discovery Server
• Global Name Server (GNS) and Location Server
• IP Address Manager and Geographic Location Manager (GLM)
• Media Gateway (MG) and Controller (MGC)
• Mobility and Resource Managers
• Multimedia Resource Controller (MRC) and Function (MRF)
• Policy and Profile Servers

"It is important to have solid industry agreement because interoperability is a key component to the success of next generation wireless infrastructures." Rebecca Diercks, Director of Wireless Research at Cahners In-Stat Group. "MWIF is the authoritative industry organization because they adhere to a stringent research approach, which includes the leading global wireless players having buy-in to the distribution methods and reference points that are outlined in this report."

About Mobile Wireless Internet Forum

Founded in January 2000, the Mobile Wireless Internet Forum (MWIF) is as a nonprofit organization whose mission is to drive acceptance and adoption of mobile wireless and Internet architectures. MWIF and its global list of members publish studies, discoveries and conclusions in technical reports. Membership is open to any organization with an interest in promoting the vision of influencing global wireless industry standards and improving interoperability of mobile technologies with Internet standards. Membership information and technical reports can be found at mwif.org.