Satellite mobile multimedia services in the UMTS-the SUMO project

The UMTS will become a global standard for third-generation mobile systems. Satellites will be an essential part of the UMTS without which global coverage will not be practicable. To provide mobile multimedia services seamlessly via satellites as well as radio-terrestrial networks, full interoperability needs to be ensured. Therefore a testbed representing a complete UMTS system is being developed in order to demonstrate mobile multimedia service provision from a multimode terminal. This terminal will allow a choice between different satellite access schemes, as well as constellations (LEO etc.), and radio-terrestrial access. A range of application services based on H.324M, MPEG-4 and others will be evaluated on the testbed. This paper describes the novel features of this testbed.