Software center

India is emerging as a software powerhouse and the center of choice for global handset vendors when it comes to software stacks and applications.

Pradeep Chakraborty, Correspondent, EDN Asia/India -- EDN, 11/1/2004

Although India is a huge consumer base for mobile phones and has attracted some hardware development, the country is making its mark in embedded-software development. Indeed, India is emerging as a software powerhouse and the center of choice for global handset vendors when it comes to software stacks and applications.

From the handset perspective, global companies such as Motorola, ZTE, LG, and Huawei are driving software development in India. On the software side, players including Sasken Communication Technologies, Epigon Mediaware Technologies, Quorant, Hughes Software Systems, and Wipro Technologies offer software in the form of stacks, modules, or complete reference platforms.

Sasken has carved a niche with the broadest base of handset software as well as platform development, component development, and even product and regulatory testing. The company developed software deployed in handsets used in Japan's FOMA (Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access) network (NTT DoCoMo's 3G service) as well as GSM/GPRS stacks that have been used in a handset deployed in Taiwan.

According to Milind Gandhe, general manager of strategic planning, Sasken is a key partner with Texas Instruments for OMAP and has a historically strong relationship with Japanese vendors. The company has participated in the design of several NEC handsets. According to Gandhe, 13 handsets feature Sasken's multimedia software. Of these, four have been deployed in Taiwan, and nine have been deployed in Japan. Of these nine, seven are FOMA handsets, and two others have been deployed for Hutch 3. The company's Strawberra multimedia package goes into the handsets for the FOMA and Hutch 3 networks; the Strawberra MMS Client goes into the handsets for Taiwan.

Both 2 and 2.5G phones use Sasken's GSM/GPRS wireless-protocol stack. A handset deployed in the Taiwanese market uses a Taiwanese IC company's chip set and Sasken's GSM/GPRS stack. Three other models, all in Asia, are in the pipeline. Meanwhile, a network in Korea is currently field-testing Sasken's Strawberra videophone terminal, as is a wire-line network in the United Kingdom.

Epigon Mediaware Technologies is developing voice and video codecs for next-generation phones that Canada-based Atsana is developing. These phones amalgamate numerous multimedia technologies and offer newer capabilities, such as video on demand.

According to Singaram Jayakumar, Epigon's chief technology officer, Epigon is domain-independent in the sense that mobile phones can be either CDMA or GSM. "All multimedia codecs will be coming onto the phones," he says. "These multimode phones will work across all networks." The company performs all the IP (intellectual-property) work at its Bangalore development center.

Quorant is customizing the GUIs of mobile phones. Sunil Kumar, regional business manager, says MMS has been evolving quite significantly. Quorant is building MMS clients for several leading handset vendors.

"We can develop the user interface and middleware for specific chip sets for any vendor that wants to develop operator- or phone-specific features," Kumar says. "Games require lots of flash memory. We build the gaming application or animations, as well. We also develop device drivers for external ports."

Quorant is also working for some third parties, developing video-telephony applications on 3G phones for customers. "We can work on GSM and CDMA platforms for third parties," Kumar notes. He agrees with Sasken's Gandhe and Epigon's Jayakumar that more handset vendors are coming to Indian companies to develop client applications.

Even North American companies are setting up software-development centers in India. Gurgaon-based HSS (Hughes Software Systems) is focusing on mobile-phone software. Ajay Gupta, assistant vice president, says HSS does protocol stacks targeting the 3G space. He believes that operating systems such as Symbian, Windows CE, and Linux will all have a major role to play.

At the application level, HSS is offering the micro SIP stack, which supports applications such as push to talk and voice. Several Asian vendors are using this approach.

Finally, Wipro Technologies is in the handset-design and -development space. Its customizable Aqua Linux phone-reference-design framework offers dedicated product-realization support. The modular reference design brings together an application processor, a Linux OS, the associated drivers, and the applications for a mobile device. Aqua enables device manufacturers and component vendors to integrate their products and generate a standardized, low-cost device.

As a reference implementation, Wipro developed the architecture by choosing an OMAP 1510 processor, Wavecom GSM stack, and Montavista Linux. The company integrated these modules by porting the operating system to the hardware, enabling the associated set of drivers, and developing the voice call, SMS, PIM, modem handler, and soft-keypad applications.