Nokia using Kineto UMA technology

Nokia today revealed that Kineto’s network controller and gateway is powering its Unlicensed Mobile Access platform. The technology is currently part of Nokia’s commercial solution is being tested in several trials in Europe, officials from the two companies said.

The deal is Kineto’s first with a network infrastructure provider. On the handset side, the company has previously announced agreements with Samsung and LG to incorporate its UMA client into their phones, and is selling the same client to Royal Philips Electronics to incorporate that software directly into its chipsets.

Kineto’s UMA network controller supplies the critical link between a wireless LAN or Bluetooth connection and the wireless network. A standard 3GPP, UMA allows for the offloading of GSM cellular traffic onto a local area network, using a technology that tunnels the GSM transmission over the IP connection as opposed to using a SIP-based connection, which would render the transmission in VoIP. The UMA call is then routed over the Internet to the Kineto network controller. The controller manages the connection between the local area network and the mobile switching center, authenticating authorized mobile subscribers and regulating the handoff, and extracts the GSM call from the IP transmission, passing it on to the carrier’s circuit-or packet-switched network.

Nokia said Kineto’s technology makes up the UMA elements in Nokia’s fixed-mobile convergence trial with Finnish operator Sauanlahti. Nokia, however, is not using Kineto technology in its dual-mode handsets. Pekka Viirola, Nokia Networks director of convergence network systems, said that the vendor will release GSM/W-LAN handsets the first half of next year using client technology it developed itself.