Software Engineers Take The Lead In Telecoms

Thu Feb 17, 2011 | By Absar Taqvi

Often my fellow RF engineers phrase the feeling this way: "one software engineer is better than 20 RF engineers. He is the pet boy of our manager." In my third year of engineering we were made to attend a presentation which was to help us in choosing a project that makes sense. The presenter talked about developing some xyz thing for mapinfo, some abc algorithm to transfer google earth info to another real time location based software. In short, he indirectly said “wake up you fools and start coding!”.

I have been trying to learn the back end programming of two to three telecom related softwares and something revealed itself to me: you can add your flavor. You simply can.

Software entrepreneurship in telecom is a multimillion dollar business. If you do not trust me, ask the cost of ASSET, TEMS or Actix. It is absolutely possible to venture in. Someone right here did take the plunge; it is happening and it is happening with full force. He is Salman Bakhtiyar- Mobilink’s ex RF manager. Will soon be writing about him and his entrepreneurial venture too.

While writing this I am just struck with an idea. Anyone of you can build up his or her own blog and write about the real time problems you face while designing, optimizing, rolling out and maintaining a network. Something which can be a big hit is the instruction code(s) for checking alarms with a vendors’ equipment and etcetera. If you think its unethical and an intellectual property of a vendor, I can prove it is not.

70% of the queries which surface on zumbeel’s yahoo group are related to the instructions and commands to do some x y z task on a vendor’s equipment, so it can be a big thing. If you do not have time to set up and run a blog, let me know; I will do it for you.

Reverting back to software skills and its impact. See last sunday's dawn or a job website you trust and thrill yourself with the vacant slots for personnel of software expertise. Do not waver if the listed programming requirements exceed your skill set; it's all the same. How? Let's start from GW Basic- the algorithm or psuedo-code you need to develop to print your name 10 timnes would be the same if you shift to Turbo C, C++, Java or even PIC microprocessor based Pic Basic. Only the syntax differs; the apparent code varies.

Bring it on!

Tags:

java software engineering C++ pakistan telecom

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Software Engineers Take The Lead In Telecoms

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Comments(5)

Random_thoughts on:Thu Feb 17, 2011

I had worked in development of some of the drive test solutions, signalling analyzers,PBS and telecom related software's used in industry. It's nice area and i am glad you brought up this point. just to highlight few issues and positives in the area. -> some of the protocols which 1-2 engineers can just write in 2-3 months can be sold in millions of dollars just for one customer. once you have base software then adding new technology is easy and returns are massive. -> most of the advanced features/technologies are blocked by companies who sells these products. there are lot of patents out there. it's not like one can go,copy the software features add few new and sell them cheap. it might not be difficult to develop but it needs some knowledge of the area so one doesn't end up infringing the rights of others. For a new start up filling patents is costly(50k ) so even if u develop something new it's not so easy to block it. -> getting latest technical specs is expensive and getting license to use those specs commercially also costs. -> getting real time traffic is not easy. there are lot of legal contracts and things involved here, in my experience most companies only give this data if they are buying your solution or co-developing a new technology with your team. without running the software on real time traffic it's difficult to test/sell. -> There are lot of open sources projects going on in this area. For someone new and interested to make a switch that's a good point to start. wireshark/asterisk are few examples.

Atif Ahsan on:Mon Feb 21, 2011

Very interesting topic you have touched here Absar. Unfortunately telecom design industry is not as open minded as the internet industry. For example, take the case of baseband chips used in handsets. There are a handful manufacturers of these and unlike the case of network card manufacturers not everyone can start making baseband chips for GSM mobiles. It is also quite evident that the amount of discussion on the internet about telecom technologies is much lower than TCP/IP and other networking technologies. With this situation also comes the opportunity to explore this unexplored territory. I would recommend you and your readers to read Herald Welte's blog. He is the founder of OpenBSC project and has done some very interesting reverse engineering stuff in the GSM domain.

Absar on:Mon Feb 21, 2011

Great great recommendation Atif. I will try getting in touch with Harald too and make him do some videos for us. In fact, if you are interested in delivering a lecture or two, let me know.

Atif Ahsan on:Fri Feb 25, 2011

Thanks for the offer Absar but I am going to pass for now. However, you can find some talks given by Herald Welte at 21C3 and FOSS conferences on youtube.

Syed Umar on:Tue Mar 01, 2011

Just one clarification to Atif's comment that "telecom design industry is not as open minded as the internet". Actually chips used in GSM/CDMA/UMTS handsets are all based on standards published and available on 3GPP/3GPP2 and other non-profit standards bodies websites. Anyone can start designing based on these standards. Obviously the telecom standards are a bit more complex and require more time

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