The Mobile Handset Platform for Service Delivery

Welcome to the Bell Labs Technical Journal special issue on the Mobile Handset Platform for Service Delivery. The notion of what a mobile phone is and the tasks that it is expected to discharge has undergone a rapid evolution in the past few years. In many ways the evolution of the mobile handset has paralleled our definition of being connected. It is no longer enough to be able to have a real-time verbal conversation. Modern handsets are required to support a wider, richer version of communicating: via social networking sites, Internet video calls, and various textual exchange mechanisms. Add to this personal entertainment: resident and streaming music and video. The handset is also increasingly becoming a mechanism for e-commerce: from traditional web commerce experiences to specialized applications for everything from ordering takeout to paying at a parking meter. With the convergence of 1) high performance low power processors, 2) bright, high resolution screens, 3) the ability to bridge multiple wireless communication technologies, and 4) increasing wireless wide area network (WAN) data coverage, the stage is set for a smart mobile handset a new device that marries the functions of a traditional PC with that of a mobile phone. The burgeoning capabilities of the modern mobile handset pose a number of opportunities and technical challenges. This issue of the Bell Labs Technical Journal explores a few of the challenges and potential applications for a smart handset and the network infrastructure requirements, such as security, that are needed. (C) 2011 Alcatel-Lucent.