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Telecoms equipment supplier Nokia Siemens said that the Apple iOS 4.2 update for the iPhone and iPad incorporates technology which optimises performance, battery life and network congestion.
In a post on the Nokia Siemens Networks blog, the company said that with the iOS update Apple is “joining efforts to cut smartphone signalling down to size.” The firm claimed testing had revealed that iOS supports the so-called “Network Controlled Fast Dormancy” technology which is designed to cut down on the network traffic required when phone radios switch between idle and active-state modes.
“The new Apple software release supports this way of working on networks that have the technology implemented. Nokia also implemented the technology in its smartphones earlier this year,” said Nokia Siemens representative Leslie Shannon.
“When it has gathered the information it needs, usually working in the background so you don’t even notice it’s happening, some smartphones then switch immediately into the idle state in order to conserve battery power. So when you next want some data from the network, the smartphone has to reconnect. This involves the network and phone exchanging many small signals.”
“All this disconnecting and reconnecting takes time and can cause a frustratingly slow network response. On the other hand, leaving the smartphone in an active mode all the time drains the battery very quickly.”
Shannon said that the firm had introduced technology which avoided putting handsets into ‘idle’ mode, or keeping them in an active state which would otherwise drain battery quickly but rather an intermediate state.
“From here, a smartphone can wake up much more quickly and needs to send far fewer signals to and from the network to start a data connection. You get a fast network response and a longer battery life.”
Nokia Siemens said that the potential battery savings were so great that a “Middle Eastern operator” found that smartphones using the technology on a compatible network offered a battery life of 11 hours compared to usage on a rival network using equipment that doesn’t support Network Controlled Fast Dormancy.
