Blog entries in category: Equipment
WiMAX Chip Companies Ponder the Future of 4G Networks
Key issues in evolving wireless networks to 4G, the WiMAX eco-system and next generation air interface silicon were addressed by four leading semiconductor companies at IEEE ComSoc SCV panel session. Intel's 4G Visionary also offers his views.
Abstract:
Four leading WiMAX semiconductor companies - Sequans, Beceem, GCT and Wavesat-
presented their outlook for 4G networks and related silicon at the May 13th IEEE
ComSoc panel session entitled, "Semiconductor Evolution to 4G: Mobile WiMAX, LTE,
and other 4G technologies." This article will summarize that session and include
additional comments from other experts on the journey to 4G mobile networks.
Before we dive deeper, let's consider what 4G actually means and network
operator challenges that are driving them to deploy 4G networks.
Backgrounder: 4G definitions and challenges ahead
- To the standards purist (like this author) 4G networks will be based on ITU-R IMT Advanced recommendations, which are not yet completed. It is expected that LTE Advanced (3GPP version 10?) and the 4G version of WiMAX (IEEE 802.16m) will meet the LTE Advanced requirements and will be accepted as 4G standards. For more on the purist's view of 4G, please see reference 3. below.
- Many others believe that the initial version of LTE (3GPP release 8) and Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) are 4G network technologies, because they already have the key building blocks required by 4G: OFDMA, flat- all IP- network, fixed or mobile operation, MIMO, hybrid ARQ (Automatic Repeat reQuest- for repeat transmission of mis-received packets) at the PHY layer, multi-megabit speeds delivered to users, etc. Those folks say that only incremental advancements will be made in future ("official 4G") versions of the respective standard.
- China may have its own 4G standards as well, making for a very confused 4G world. For example, China Mobile is said to be planning for a TDD version of LTE that will be backward compatible with TD-SCDMA and GSM.
- Whatever you think 4G really is, the wireless network operators will be forced to move forward with their 4G deployments in the next two to four years. Why? The amount of mobile data and video traffic continues to explode and 3G networks (which are packet over TDM overlays) will not be able to handle the speed requirements of many simultaneous mobile data/video users. Data caps (e.g. bandwidth metering) will have to be instituted which will frustrate and annoy users.
Let's take a look at some of the challenges mobile network operators face on
their evolution from 3G to 4G networks. We have previously written that smart
phones and "all-in-one" gadgets are driving the need for more bandwidth and QOS.
This past week, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson stated that networks were becoming
choked by increased smart phone data traffic. This dynamic is already
accelerating the movement to 3.5G mobile data networks and will eventually push
operators to 4G. Reason: 4G networks offer more bandwidth per user, are more
bandwidth efficient (e.g. OFDMA and MIMO), and are "all IP" packet based (vs.
TDM overlays). For more on how network operators might deal with the mobile data
explosion, please see reference 4. below.
Notebooks and netbooks will be heavy user 4G clients, because they are capable
of much higher sustained throughput when uploading or downloading large
(multimedia, video or zip) files. Multiple concurrent PC users will likely
stress test a 4G network's performance guarantees. In particular, 4G networks
will need to provide large amounts of bandwidth to multiple simultaneous users
along with QOS for differentiated services and applications.
But what are those new services and applications? A huge problem for wireless
operators is that their revenues are not keeping pace with the great increase in
network bandwidth consumed and the need for QOS to support multimedia and "rich
media" applications. Hence, revenue producing services must be developed and
come to market quickly for operators to get a decent ROI on their investments in
next generation mobile broadband networks.
Mobile video, gaming, music streaming, smart grid sensors, location based
services/ advertising, and other applications have been hyped for years, but no
sustainable business model(s) has yet been developed for them. Eventually, the
market will determine the apps and revenue models (charging vs. advertising)
that succeed or fail.
Session Presentation Highlights:
Lars Johnsson of Beceem expressed what seemed to be a consensus view of the four
semiconductor company panelists: "Wireless is the hard part, silicon is the easy
part." The basic premise is that the algorithms needed to achieve good
performance on an OFDMA based wireless broadband link is more difficult then
designing the silicon for that same link- especially when the end point is in
motion. The broadband wireless design challenge starts with constantly changing
signal strength and it gets more difficult once the terminal starts moving. Some
of the wireless design issues Lars identified were: signal tracking (to improve
performance under all conditions), channel estimation (allows for better
decoding), high-speed mobility, hand-off (from one base station to another),
maximum likelihood receiver (improves receiver sensitivity), interference
detection, and noise cancellation.
Ambroise Popper of Sequans stated that many core silicon functional blocks, now
used in WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e-2005) can be leveraged for 4G: the OFDM
modulator/demodulator, FEC, Channel estimation, and MIMO processing. Sequans
plans to facilitate a smooth evolution to 4G for
WiMAX network operators. They plan to develop and offer converged dual-mode IC's
for backwards compatibility with Mobile WiMAX devices. Those components will
fully support the existing 802.16e and either 802.16m or LTE (dependent on
market demand). They see efficient low-power implementation and radio
performance as key differentiators between 4G and Mobile WiMAX/802.16e.
Sequans CEO Georges Karam believes WiMAX/802.16e is providing economies of scale
to network operators that plan to offer both fixed broadband wireless and mobile
services. Of course, the big semiconductor growth opportunity is in the mobile
space, since all the smart terminal devices and gadgets would contain 4G chips
and radios. Georges believes that LTE is the future, but the issue is when will
it be commercially realizable to large number of customers? He predicts that LTE
won't happen till 2012. Nonetheless, Sequans plans to sample an LTE chip set
(baseband and RF) sometime next year. It will evolve over the next three to five
years to meet network operator requirements and have backward compatibility via
dual modes.
Alex Sum of GCT presented a very pragmatic assessment of the WiMAX vs LTE
debates. He first highlighted the cellular, WiMAX, and Wireless LAN paths, which
all converge to 4G.
Alex believes that most WiMAX operators are 'green field' operators, while
legacy cellcos are generally looking to LTE. The Greenfield WiMAX carriers are
characterized by the following attributes:
- They do NOT own existing cellular networks (with a few exceptions ), but in large #s
- They provide low cost alternatives to higher cost DSL, and high cost 3G services
- They provide data speed much better than current 3G, and even 3.5G cellular
- They are serving developed, as well as under-developed countries
- They are meeting the 'market hunger' for high, uninterrupted data speed
- With mobile dual mode devices available, it levels the wireless playing field
- IEEE 802.16m, if it is released in time, will match those higher performances of LTE
Alex correctly observes that most 3G cellular operators are committed to LTE deployments. The LTE line-up includes an awesome bunch of cellco's: Verizon and Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, KDDI, DoCoMo, CMCC (China Mobile is planning TDD-LTE). Here are some of Alex's observations and expectations for LTE:
- LTE FDD development is ahead of TDD by at least six months (FDD needs two transmit/receive chains and is hence more expensive to implement than a TDD component)
- Just like UMTS and WiMAX, initial LTE device introduction will follow a maturation trend, but of course there will be some surprises
- LTE will be data-centric with PC data cards, USB dongles, and smart phones
- Femto APs will be developed and installed within homes and buildings (for better indoor penetration and to take traffic off cellular networks)
- Finally, embedded devices and handsets will become available
From GCT's perspective, WiMAX is and continues to be a very viable market. It is
a growing into a very large world market, certainly not a niche. It will pay off
handsomely for all those who have invested and persisted. The strong eco-system
being built-up by WiMAX will enable IEEE 802.16m to prove itself to be a strong
competitor for LTE. WiMAX and LTE are both OFDMA based, so they could be
complimentary offerings, and could even converge. GCT is keeping a close eye on
the industrial trend and commercial developments.
Editors Note: GCT's Mobile WiMAX Wave 2 single-chip GDM7205, which supports both
2.3GHz and 2.5GHz, has been integrated into LG Innotek's new M-WiMAX SIP module.
This module is said to be the smallest Mobile WiMAX module available today.
Raj Singh, CEO of Wavesat- an innovator in multimode 4G baseband chipsets -
touted the company's Odyssey architecture, where a single vendor programmable
chipset can be used to support WiMAX/802.16e, LTE and XGP in different versions/
part numbers. A vendor programmable Air-Interface chip architecture was said to
offer flexibility and "uncompromised" performance. The following Odyssey
attributes were highlighted:
- Programmable 4G PHY layer
- WiMAX Wave 2 (MIMO Matrix A & B, beam-forming and Hybrid-ARQ), LTE Cat 3, XG-P 1.0 (Japanese version of 4G)
- TDD & FDD with channelization of up to 20 MHz
- Adaptive modulation schemes (up to QAM-256 in DL and UL), up to 1K FFT, multi-zone support per frame and advanced FEC techniques
- Enhanced Security Protocol (EAP, AES and PKMv2)
- OTA In-field programmable
Raj suggested there were several 4G market segments, defined by category:
- Fixed Data Access: Last Mile backhaul, DSL replacement, Femotcells
- Data Mobility: Notebook, MID, UMPC, Handset
- Embedded: Security Cameras, Game consoles, Wireless HDMI, Digital cameras
- Voice: VoIP, GSM, CDMA
There might be several 4G Wireless Standards in different parts of the world,
with some countries going with WiMAX, others with LTE, or their own home grown
versions of 4G (e.g. Japan and China). [Author's Note: If there were too many 4G
variants, the worldwide 4G market could be fractured, with insufficient volumes
to drive prices down. Further, there would be serious interworking and roaming
problems for users that traveled.]
Advances in semiconductor technology were seen as an enabler of 4G network and
device capabilities. In particular:
- Very dense process geometry
- Very low power (needed for long battery life)
- Mixed signal availability on bulk CMOS
- CMOS volume drives pricing
- Dense geometries allow significant integration
4G Discussion Topics:
The consensus belief of the four participants was that WiMAX/ 802.16e is a very
credible competitor to 3G networks and it will be a commercial success - even if
true mobility doesn't happen on a large scale. The networking technology just
"won't be as sexy." While all of the companies mentioned are offering WiMAX
components, only Sequans and Wavesat stated they were also developing LTE chips/
chip sets.
During the panel session, Ambroise Popper of Sequans said it was not likely for
a semiconductor company to combine 3G and Mobile WiMAX on the same chip/ chip
set, because those two wireless networks would generally not be built out by the
same network operator. (Again, the one exception we know of is SPRINT, which has
its EVDO based 3G network and will be a MVNO for Clearwire's Mobile WiMAX
service.),
Jose P. Puthenkulam- Intel's WiMAX Standards Director and 4G visionary- recently
commented on the MVNO model and shared network approach to offering 4G services:
"I feel the model where every operator goes out and builds a nationwide wireless
network is broken. It creates an entire duplicate network infrastructure and
results in more costs being passed on to the end user. With network sharing and
MVNO models, there is more scale and also better capital efficiency and overall
end users will get more affordable services."
Jose also has a strong opinion on mobile VoIP: "I see Mobile VoIP happening on
WiMAX first even before LTE. The reason is that today 3G networks have been
designed to also support Circuit Switched (CS) voice. So as 3G voice is
primarily still going to be circuit switched, there will be a push to continue
CS voice over LTE networks to maintain seamless behavior.
One huge advantage for WiMAX is that it has no legacy (backward compatible
network) and therefore will be able to always use Mobile VoIP. That allows for
rich augmentation of voice services. However LTE networks with CS voice will be
the same old cellular voice (to be backward compatible with 2G and 3G) for some
time to come."
More from Jose in a two-part wimax.com interview, to be published in the very
near future.
References:
1. The May 13th ComSoc session presentations and speaker bios can be accessed
from:
http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/comsoc/ComSoc_2009_Presentations.php
2. At our March 25th meeting, Intel presented a Mobile WiMAX Update and IEEE
802.16m (the 4G version of WiMAX). Presentation is at:
http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/comsoc/Talk_032509_WiMAXUpdate.pdf
3. Are LTE and mobile WiMAX really 4G networks? A look at ITU-R IMT Advanced
Requirements
http://viodi.com/2008/12/30/itu-r-imt/
4. How will wireless network operators cope with the coming bandwidth
bottlenecks of the 'Zettabyte Era?'
http://wimaxcommunity.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-will-wireless-network
_____
tags:
Sequans Leads with Broad WiMAX Portfolio & Performance Advantages
WiMAX semiconductor company Sequans Communications leverages its broad product portfolio, experience and superior performance advantages for leadership in the WiMAX marketplace. Interview with Georges Karam, CEO Sequans Communications.
Introduction - Why Sequans?
Sequans is one of the leaders in the WiMAX semiconductor business. We suspect
this is due to their broad product line-up, excellent IC performance, and a very
pragmatic market focus. Unlike some WiMAX chip companies that only focus on a
particular class of end product (e.g. Intel on notebooks, netbooks, and MIDs),
Sequans has components that can be used for any type of WiMAX equipment, gadget
or device. They are selling chips for both fixed and mobile WiMAX, base stations
as well as subscriber units, VoIP CPE, USB dongles, smart phones, and other
devices. Indeed, the company seems to have the broadest range of WiMAX
components among all the WiMAX chip companies.
Component performance features are quite impressive. They include excellent
receiver sensitivity (which can increase link budget and/or result in lower bit
error rates), up-link as well as down-link MIMO (with 2 transmitters and 2
receivers per base band component), low power consumption (crucial for mobile
device battery life), and very high throughput per channel (for your video
apps). Many of these features can be used on a stand-alone basis, but others
(e.g. up-link MIMO) can be more effectively exploited by using Sequans
components at both ends of a WiMAX radio link, i.e. in the Base Station and
Subscriber Unit. The company is now targeting pico-base stations as a
significant growth opportunity (more on this later in the article).
Multi-country design, development and testing make a very interesting Sequans
story. The company has engineering operations in France, UK, Israel, and the
Ukraine. [There's also a business development and sales office in Cupertino, CA
where this interview took place.] Proper chip partitioning, task assignments and
co-ordination of a complex chip design are quite an accomplishment, in this
author's opinion (he is a former datacom chip architect). IP video conferencing
is effectively used on a regular basis for design review meetings and other
co-operative engineering efforts. Based on their track record of getting product
to market, this design and development methodology works quite well. It could be
a model for other high tech start-ups.
Company History
In September 2003, seven former co-workers founded Sequans Communications. They
had previously all worked together in Paris, designing custom silicon for cable
modem termination systems at Pacific Broadband Communications- a company that
had been sold to Juniper Networks in 2001. The initial business plan was
focusing on fixed WiMAX, which at the time was being standardized by IEEE
802.16d and was the main focus of the WiMAX Forum.
The co-founders believed there were sufficient similarities between the DOCSIS
and WiMAX (IEEE 802.16d) MAC sub-layers to give them a head start. Sequans
founder and CEO Georges Karam identified the following common MAC functions:
control scheduling, uplink ranging channel, Uplink and Downlink channel maps,
bandwidth requests, grants and scheduling. The OFDM based WiMAX PHY was a
technology that the team was also familiar with from past design experiences.
CEO Georges Karam and Chief Scientist Hikmet Sari were early pioneers in OFDMA
technology for CATV networks . The Sequans engineers had also acquired analog
and RF design expertise, which proved to be invaluable in the design of the RF
front-end component of a WiMAX chip set.
Having raised 1.5M Euros in June of 2004- deemed to be sufficient start-up
capital-the co-founders hired a core group of engineers that had worked at
Pacific Broadband. The new company started designing Fixed WiMAX base station
and subscriber station chips in the second quarter of 2004. Later that year, the
802.16d-2004 standard was finalized. By October 2004, Sequans had completed the
design of an FPGA based fixed WiMAX solution that was used by equipment maker
Airspan. In September 2005, samples of the SQN2010 base station and SQN1010
subscriber station components became available.
About the same time that the Fixed WiMAX standard was finalized, Intel, KT, and
the WiMAX Forum started a campaign to accelerate standardization of OFDMA based
IEEE 802.16e "Mobile WiMAX," which could be used for either fixed or mobile
WiMAX deployments. Sequans responded to that challenge by designing the SQN1110
- Wave 1 mobile station chip (see chip scorecard chart below). This component
was available in summer of 2006. It was followed by the SQN1130 and SQN2130:
Wave 2 base station and mobile station chips for 802.16e-2005, which came to
market in March 2007 and July 2007, respectively. The SQN1130 is embedded in the
HTC smart phone being sold by Scartel in Russia (see photo).

The SQN1210 multi-frequency combo chip is the latest Sequans component. It's an
integrated 802.16e baseband and RF chip, which promises to lower costs of
handheld WiMAX devices, such as smart phones and MIDs. We expect it will be used
in many low cost WiMAX devices.
So in less than five years of actual operations, Sequans has designed nine
different WiMAX components and got each of them working properly. That short
time from conception/design -to-market is quite impressive. But what's even more
amazing is that all of the commercially available Sequans components worked on
the first silicon spin- a very rare feat indeed!
| Sequans chipsets: 9 chips working on the first spin over last 4 years | |
|---|---|
| SQN2010 | Base Station chip for 802.16-2004 Sept'05 |
| SQN1010 | Subscriber Station chip for 802.16-2004 Sept'05 |
| SQN1110 | Wave 1 Mobile Station chip for 802.16e 2005 Jul'06 |
| SQN1130 | Wave 2 Mobile Station chip for 802.16e 2005 Mar'07 |
| SQN2130 | Base Station chip for 802.16e 2005 Jul'07 |
| SQN1140 | Mobile Station RFIC for 802.16e 2005 (2.3-2.7 GHz) Feb'08 |
| SQN1145 | Mobile Station RFIC for 802.16e 2005 (3.3-3.8 GHz) May'08 |
| SQN1170 | Wave 2 Mobile Station single-chip for 802.16e 2005 (2.3-2.7 GHz) May'08 |
| SQN1210 | Wave 2 Mobile Station single-die triple-band for 802.16e 2005 (2.3-2.7 GHz, 3.3-to-3.8 GHz) Jan'09 |
Financing: efficiency of capital and low burn rates
Since its inception, the company has raised a total of 40M Euros and has a 10M Euro credit line. They have used capital very efficiently and judiciously, especially as a percentage of sales (see table below). Sequans has taken nine products to market, while spending less than 30M Euros on design and development of those same products.
| Sequans Annual Revenue($USD) | |
|---|---|
| 2005 | $2.5M |
| 2006 | $7M |
| 2007 | $15M |
| 2008 | $23M |
Fixed/Nomadic WiMAX now, Mobile WiMAX soon?
To date, Sequans is only producing WiMAX components. They hope to solidify their
strong revenue position in fixed and nomadic WiMAX while waiting and hoping that
(truly) mobile WiMAX becomes a commercial success. Fixed/nomadic WiMAX customers
include Huawei, ZTE, Alcatel, and other companies.
Editors note: We are all waiting to see real mobile WiMAX results (e.g.
deployments, subscriber growth and revenues) from Clearwire in the U.S., UQ
Communications in Japan, KT's WiBro in Korea, Scartel in Russia, Taiwan's WiMAX
Year One, Packet 1 in Malaysia, etc).
Sequans components are currently being used in equipment that has been deployed
in several WiMAX networks. Those include Clearwire Xohm (formerly SPRINT) in
Baltimore, MD (with Zyxel CPE), Scartel in Russia (HTC smart phone), Packet One
in Malaysia (Gemtek CPE), Reliance in India (Telsima 802.16d Base Station and
CPE), and Mobilink in Pakistan (Gigaset CPE). Here are some specific uses for
the Sequans IC's:
- The SQN1130 chip is used in Fixed WiMAX CPE including: out door modems (ODU), desktop modems, VoIP modems, gateways (WiMAX + VoIP + WiFi combo)
- The SQN1130 & SQN1170 are used in USB dongles and in Embedded modules: mini-cards, half mini-cards, and dedicated modules (a bare die version of SQN1130).
- The HTC smart phone deployed in Russia uses the SQN1130.
- We expect future WiMAX smart phones and hand held gadgets to use the recently introduced SQN1210.
The Sequans Competitive Advantage: low cost and diversification
Mr. Karam claims Sequans' silicon produces the lowest cost CPE for fixed/
nomadic WiMAX. He cited a WiMAX CPE box with both high-speed Internet access and
VoIP with a target cost of between $60 and $100. Those two services are being
offered by almost all of the WiMAX operates providing service to homes and small
businesses. Another example is a USB dongle (external WiMAX modem), which a
network operator often pays less then $60 for. Georges believes that CPE vendors
are using "forward pricing" to lower their prices in anticipation of greatly
increased demand from more subscribers. One key factor contributing to low WiMAX
CPE costs is the absence of IPR issues, like the royalties and licensing fees
imposed by Qualcomm, Ericsson and others for their 3G patents (a subject this
author researched for Nokia).
Diversification for Sequans currently comes from being in all types of WiMAX
markets:
- Base Station and CPE end-to-end silicon solution (see illustration below)
- 802.16d and 802.16e silicon now, 802.16m (4G version of WiMAX standard) later if mobile WiMAX is commercially successful
We think it's significant that Sequans is the only chipmaker to have its
components certified for both base stations and subscriber stations for both
fixed and Mobile WiMAX. [The term "WiMAX Forum Certified™" is a trademark of the
WiMAX Forum].
New Growth Opportunities: WiMAX and LTE
Pico base stations are seen as a near term WiMAX growth opportunity for
Sequans. The larger macro base stations are much more expensive, but not nearly
as cost effective. Macro base stations support multiple sectors to realize a
large cell size (signal coverage) and to penetrate buildings for indoor use.
Pico base stations are much smaller, with much lower power consumption. While
supporting a smaller cell size with 300m to 700m range radios, more of them will
be required for a given geographical area. Up till now, smaller base stations
needed ASICs or custom VLSIs to be competitive. But Sequans hopes to change that
with lower cost standard components. Mr. Karam says that UQ and Clearwire are
currently evaluating pico base stations, which are becoming "a very strong
industry trend." The SQN2130 is being designed into pico base stations. Work has
just started on Femto Base Stations, with customers initially using the SQN2130.
Some of the Sequans customers in this space are Alvarion, ZTE and Harris-Stratex.

The company is also involved in unlicensed WiMAX - mostly a proprietary market
in Eastern Europe at 5.8GHz frequency- with Alvarion and Motorola counted as
customers. In anticipation of the US broadband stimulus funding, the company is
also investigating 3.65GHz "lightly licensed" WiMAX as an opportunity (as are
many small, independent network operators).
Beyond mobile WiMAX, Sequans sees LTE as a growth opportunity- not as a backup
plan. Due to use of OFDMA, the LTE PHY layer is similar to 802.16e-2005. Hence,
those OFDMA design aspects are being carried forward in LTE components currently
in design and expected to be available sometime in 2010. Issues for the LTE chip
design include: LTE market development (not just hype), time to market, power
consumption, and die size. An optimized LTE chip is being developed, rather than
a combo LTE/WiMAX chip as some other semiconductor vendors have alluded to.
Source: The information in this article was obtained in a "no holds barred"
interview with CEO Georges Karam and in discussions with PLM Director Ambroise
Popper, who recently participated in an IEEE ComSoc SCV 4G panel session
Part II of this article will examine Sequans strategic view of 4G mobile
networks (LTE and 802.16e evolving to 802.16m). We will also include views and
opinions of other semiconductor companies that participated in the May 13th
ComSoc-SCV panel session, moderated by this author.
_____
tags:
Introducing "Private Mobile WiMAX"
How one company is leveraging the 802.16e mobile WiMAX technology profile to work over a wide range of spectrum and channel sizes to serve the demands for smart grid and other niche vertical applications. Interview with Stewart Kantor, CEO of Full Spectrum.
New electrical utility smart grid and other vertical applications are placing
ever-increasing demands on existing data networks. Starting initially with
smart meters, electric utilities are needing to use their existing data networks
for new mission critical distribution automation applications - including
re-routing power in real-time from one geography to another where it is needed
most.
Today most utilities typically operate their own private wireless mobile
networks , delivering voice and a limited amount of data connectivity over a
wide variety of technologies in both licensed and unlicensed bands.
While unlicensed spectrum solutions may have worked in the past in the most
remote rural areas, the increase in new smart grid and work-force applications
has driven the need for licensed solutions that can deliver consistent, high
data throughput without possible interference from other networks.
Of course obtaining licensed spectrum comes with its own set of challenges.
Utilities are not always able find the spectrum they need, and assuming they do,
are often at the mercy of obtaining it from the spectrum holder.
One company founded in 2006 has come up with an interesting approach. "We
went out and listened to what customers said they wanted," says Stewart Kantor,
CEO of Full Spectrum. "One of the things that utilities told us is that
they wanted to use licensed frequencies with their existing tower locations."
In fact according to Kantor, almost every utility in the country has their own
tower sites for their existing private LAN mobile radio systems. "They all
have mission critical voice applications that they run on their own," says
Kantor. "What we wanted to do was use their existing tower infrastructure
with our base stations over the same frequencies they use for LAN mobile radio
and provide them similar coverage."
Coverage is indeed one of the challenges as some utilities have up to 50% of
their service area not covered by their existing networks. Utilities often
operate in a mix of dense urban to extreme rural areas and need to flexibility
of operating in both.
The solution came in the form of a highly-customizable software defined radio.
The company has developed a single radio that covers all frequencies between
40-958GHz. The operator can tune it based on the frequencies he has access
and only needs to change the antenna. "We took the mobile WiMAX standard
and modified it to work in low frequencies below 1GHz and in very narrow
channels at higher power," says Kantor. "For example, in the 217MHz band
there are 2x 500 kHz channels that we can operate 4 watts of transmit power and
can do this for both mobile and fixed data."
In fact, Kantor often refers to Full Spectrum's technology as "inverted WiMAX"
since it replaces high spectrum, wide channels and low power with low spectrum,
narrow channels and high transmit power.
While the negative side of using narrow channels is less throughput or data
capacity, the advantage is that it propagates much further. Of course
customers that need higher data rates can achieve them assuming they have more
spectrum to work with. Additionally, because of their lightly loaded
network approach, utilities can increase data throughput with aggressive
frequency reuse, taking the same narrow channels and using them in three sectors
to increase data rate three times when needed.
"Take the Sprint/Clearwire network in Baltimore as an example," says Kantor.
"Utilizing 2.5GHz spectrum in a 5MHz channel at 200 milliwatts provides a
coverage area of about 1.5-2 miles (12 square miles). With our technology
operating at 217MHz utilizing 500MHz channels at 4 watts, we are able to achieve
a coverage radius of 20 miles (1,200 square miles)." The savings from not having
to put additional towers can add up quickly, with additional towers costing up
to $250,000 each, not to mention the long lead times required.
But just how much capacity do utilities really need and what kind of performance
can they get with such narrow channels? In the past, the data demands of devices
have been low, but the proliferation in the number of units and the use of new
application such as video is pushing this further.
"Today utilities that use 9.6kbps to communicate are now looking for 1Mbps,"
says Kantor. "They want to do video streaming for security and Wi-Fi at
the sub-station for VoIP phones, and other work-force applications. While
not all of the device may be operating at high speed, there are now literally
thousands of smart grid devices and the network needs to be able to handle all
of them reporting frequently."
"For our radios, a good average number between QPSK modulation and 64-QAM at
2bits per second per Hertz in a 500kHz channel would be around 1 Mbps," says
Kantor. "Customers that have 6MHz of spectrum to work with can achieve up
to 12 Mbps, increase this to 36Mbps with 3 sectors and frequency reuse."

Typical customer Land Mobile Tower Site
But why not just piggy-back off the data networks of one of the major 3G or 4G
carriers? With their new data networks being built-out, Verizon, AT&T and others
are aggressively marketing their services to utilities for smart meters as well
as other M2M (machine to machine) applications in other industries.
"While providing services for automated meter reading is very competitive with
many cellular companies participating, we feel that utilities are eventually are
going to want to move to a licensed, private solution," says Kantor. "Some
utilities may choose to use cellular in the short term, but with the complexity
of smart grid technologies will eventually want to move to their own private
network, especially with something this mission critical."
Although not able to disclose the names of specific companies, Full Spectrum is
planning pilots this summer with several large US public utilities, testing the
equipment and applications in various frequency bands and channel sizes.
They will be testing performance of frequency, range, data-rate as well as
distribution automation and mobile workforce management applications. The
results of the testing will be used to determine which applications work best in
a given spectrum and geography.
So why use mobile WiMAX as opposed to other wireless technologies? "We often
have to explain to customers why we chose WiMAX," says Kantor. "We could
have chosen LTE and made the changes, but we figured the robustness of WiMAX for
TDD and quality of what you get with the standard made it the right choice."
_____
tags:
Samsung Leaks New WiMAX Handheld Device
Samsung provides details on the development of a new WiMAX MID (mobile internet device). Device is expected to be the first handheld WiMAX device in the U.S. and will operate on Clearwire's WiMAX network.
Based on an RSS feed from its website, Samsung provided details on a new WiMAX
handheld device dubbed the SWD-M100 Mondi. The Mondi is expected to be the
first handheld WiMAX device in the U.S. and will operate on Clearwire's
WiMAX network. Clearwire is planning to launch an additional 8 markets
this year including Atlanta, Las Vegas, Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas/Ft.
Worth, Honolulu, Philadelphia and Seattle. Overall the company plans to
cover 120M Americans in 80 markets by the end of 2010.

Samsung SWD-M100 Mondi
Based on pictures and other information, it has a 4.3-inch touch screen display,
WiMAX, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, a microSD card slot, a rear 3
Megapixel camera and a front facing 0.3 Megapixel camera for video calls, TV-out
and an accelerometer. Reports are that the device will run Windows Mobile.
The SWD-M100 Mondi resembles the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet and OQO model 2+.
Nokia subsequently decided to discontinue their product. Samsung has not
announced a date for launch, although more details could be provided during CTIA
in Las Vegas this week.
_____
tags:
WCA Panel Session: Femtocells Impact on Mobile Broadband Technologies
Wireless companies are turning to technologies such as femtocells to further expand coverage and off-load traffic from their congested networks. Summary of Wireless Communication Alliance (WCA) pannel session with leading experts on March 17th in Sunnyvale, California.
Background:
Femtocells are low power
3G/4G cellular base stations which can be thought of as wireless Access Points
(AP's). Instead of a WiFi Access Point we're all familiar with, a
femtocell could be a UMTS, CDMA/EVDO, LTE, or Mobile WiMAX Access Point,
depending on the underlying mobile network technology. The bi-directional
voice and data traffic is taken off the respective wireless network and placed
on the broadband internet connection at the home or office. Femtocell
suppliers claim they'll be capable of communicating at 3G (HSDPA) and 4G (LTE,
mobile WiMAX) speeds, depending on the bandwidth of the broadband internet
connection (which could be a bottleneck).
Femtocells will provide mobile handset and notebook PC coverage in a home or
business with typically 2- 4 simultaneously active users. Picocells are
larger APs designed for enterprise use, with higher output power, to handle more
simultaneous users. No changes are required to the handset, notebook PC,
or other mobile devices. The residential and enterprise femtocell markets
have very different requirements and operators will likely target one of those
market segments. Some carriers see the need for enterprise femtocells
creating a bigger market opportunity than residential. With few exceptions
(e.g. T- Mobile USA), femtocells are preferred to WiFi APs by mobile
carriers.

Sprint Femtocell
The Femto Forum is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 2007, to
promote femtocell deployment worldwide. They have published results of a
comprehensive study
project, which shows a positive femtocell business case.
On March 17th 2009 the Wireless Communication
Alliance (WCA) Mobile SIG sponsored a panel on Femtocell technology
and business models. The participants were as follows:
Moderator and Presenter:
Stefan Scheinert, Principal, Scheinert Telecom
Panelists:
- Peter Walther, Product Manager, mimoOn
- Dror Nahumi, Partner, Norwest Venture Partners
- Behzad Mohebbi, CTO, Nextivity
- Tom McQuade, VP NA Sales, picoChip
- Michelle Pampin, Wireless Backhaul Specialist
Discussion:
One primary goal of femtocells is to take traffic off the mobile network, which
operators have paid a substantial spectrum license fee to own and use for mobile
services. With more and more voice and data traffic originating or
terminating in homes or offices, this would free up spectrum for users on the
move. It could permit more mobile users per cell site, OR smaller and
cheaper base stations (with less output power), OR higher speeds per mobile
user. However, this is all dependent on the broadband internet connection
and ISP policy regarding femtocell traffic. For example, a DSL connection
would probably not provide enough bandwidth to carry traffic from multiple home
or enterprise femtocell users. If the ISP is not the same as the mobile
provider, it could block the traffic or at least throttle it back (e.g.
Comcast and Bit Torrent). Why should the ISP give a free ride for traffic
that would otherwise be on the mobile operator's network?
Are femtocells the answer?
There are several competing technologies, including:
- Unlicensed Mobile Access or UMA (WiFi based)- As noted earlier in this
article, T Mobile is using this approach to provide VoIP over WiFi in the home,
with GSM cellular voice outside. Users get dual mode handsets and calls
automatically switch from one wireless medium to the other. But we suspect
this might be a stop-gap measure until femtocells are ready for commercial
deployment (see below).
- Macro Base Stations- with more output power: Seimens, Nokia, Ericsson are
expected to build these higher throughput Base Stations (with up to 300 M
bit/sec aggregate data rate).
- Repeaters- favored over femtocells when there is no high speed backhaul
available, or the operators do not want to use femtocells. It was stated
that LTE will likely use repeaters, rather then femtocells, due to higher speeds
not supported by the broadband Internet connection. Vodafone, which has
also conducted femtocell trials in a number of European countries, is said to be
expanding its trials of repeaters in several European locations, although the
company has admitted it would continue to evaluate both femtocells and
repeaters.
Market Assessment: Norwest Venture Partners believes these different
alternatives have created enough confusion to delay the femtocell market.
As a result, the market has been slow to take off and difficult to justify.
And even if the market for femtocells picks up, it might be difficult for a
start-up to make money.
Critical Issues for Femtocell Deployment
(Source: Stefan Scheinert):
- Femtocell AP Box cost should be < $100
- Location awareness required, because Femtocells use licensed spectrum
- Macro network interference (from other femtocells and outside mobile network
cells) requires dynamic management, i.e. an interference detector/sniffer
to measure power strength of neighboring cells.
- Security and integrity of femtocell traffic over the Internet using the
femtocell backhaul or broadband Internet connection.
- Plug and play with auto configuration on power up.
Author's Opinion: Another issue (similar to WiFi free-loading) is
how to ensure individual femtocells are only accessible to the homeowner or
business paying for their use. Some type of automatic authentication will
be required prior to use.
Deployment of Femtocells:
There are a large number of operators participating in the Femto Forum, which
advocates for deployments in the near future. Semiconductor company
picoChip stated that they have licensed their femtocell technology to IP Access,
which is working with Cisco to get femtocells deployed at AT&T. Cisco is
contributing Self Organizing Network software to this femtocell initiative.
Three cities trials were said to take place in 3Q 09 with commercial deployment
scheduled for 4Q09. In checking with my trusted colleague at AT&T, I was
told that currently there are internal femtocell trials within the company, but
nothing else has been announced.
We hear that there are many carrier field trials of femtocells, but no results
have been announced. Many different variants of femtocell technologies are
being trialed, according to our sources. For example, T-Mobile (which has
deployed VoIP over WiFi in the U.S.) has completed several trials with
femtocells, and invested in the UK-based femtocell manufacturer Ubiquisys.
It is said that the company plans to launch a commercial service using the
technology by mid-year in Germany.
"Femtocell rollouts to date have been limited, controlled ones," said Aditya
Kaul, an ABI Research senior analyst. "Shipments at the end of 2008 were
in the few hundred thousands, and at the end of 2009 should climb towards a
million but will fall short." ABI Research expects that 2010 will see shipments
climbing well above a million units. Indeed, vendors are gearing up for a
big push, Kaul said. One of the industry's main silicon suppliers,
picoChip recently announced a multi-million dollar injection of funding.
Kaul said he expects that the funding will "probably be geared toward a ramp-up
and that there is "a lot of similar activity behind the scenes, and new
partnerships which point to preparation for a major market expansion."
Late in 2009 or early in 2010, ABI Research said it expects an announcement of a
multi-city commercial femtocell deployment by one of the major mobile operators,
which may encourage other operators to follow suite. Until now,
large-scale femtocell deployments have only been simulated in computer models:
real-world rollouts could pose challenges. Price is one: ABI
Research believes that although femtocell business models could be enabled at
various price points, low-cost femtocells (under $100) are essential to bridge
the gap between niche market and mass-market deployments.
Nonetheless, "These challenges are all valid, but none of them are show-stoppers
- there's no 'elephant in the room' that will pose a major obstacle to
large-scale deployment," according to Kaul. For more information, please
see:
Recession Slows Femtocell Deployments, but Only Temporarily, According to
ABI Research
There was some uncertainty expressed by the panelists, as to which network
operator would actually deploy and maintain the femtocells. We think it
will be the mobile operator that is offloading network traffic and providing
better indoor reception to its customers. But Michelle Pampin, Wireless
Backhaul Specialist, stated that it would be the provider of the broadband
Internet service (who controls the QoS for the femtocell traffic that's
backhauled to the public Internet). Panel Moderator Stefan Scheinert told
me privately that Michelle was not correct, i.e. that the mobile operator
would own and sell the femtocells to end users/ enterprises.
Here's a chart of Femtocell Deployment status in Europe.
Any WiMAX Femtocells?
There has been a lot of speculation about Comcast providing femtocells for its
mobile WiMAX deployments (i.e. the Clearwire reseller agreement in Portland, OR
and the cities targeted for mobile WiMAX build-outs in 2009-2010). But at
this time, there are more questions than answers.
Comcast initially said that femtocells would be part of its WiMAX strategy, but
nothing was said about it when its Portland,OR WiMAX service was announced last
week (reselling Clearwire's CLEAR). Comcast's Sr VP for wireless and
technology, Dave Williams, said in June 2008 that a key element of the Clearwire
investment and partnership was to reserve 5 MHz of spectrum for WiMax femtocell
deployments. That spectrum would also be available for use by any of the
Clearwire consortium members, which includes Comcast, fellow cable MSOs Bright
House Networks and Time Warner Cable Inc. as well as Google and Intel
Corp.
"We'll be pushing WiMax femtocells because we have a good customer base in the
home -- we sell HDTV, VOIP, and high-speed Internet connectivity. We want
to take that experience in the home and add mobility," Williams told Unstrung at
the time. But Comcast has not said anything more about WiMAX femtocells-
at least not publicly.
Conclusions and Companies to Watch:
As with so many new technologies, the jury is still out on femtocells especially
for Mobile WiMAX, which has yet to establish a critical mass of subscribers.
We are most concerned about the broadband internet connection being a potential
bottleneck (especially if it is DSL) and the broadband ISP blocking, metering or
restricting femtocell traffic on its network. Stefan does not think the
ISP will actually block femtocell traffic (note that the FCC fined Comcast for
doing this). So there is a likely to be some contractual agreement between
the mobile operator supplying the femtocells and the broadband ISP.
We would watch picoChip, which appears to have
leading edge femtocell technology. Also,
Percello is an Israeli start-up femtocell
manufacturer to keep an eye on. They are designing a low-cost, high
performance femtocell 3G W-CDMA baseband processor chip.
_____
tags:
Beceem Counts on Superior Performance to Power WiMAX Networks
Pure-play WiMAX semiconductor company Beceem utilizes innovative technologies to squeeze increased performance out of Mobile WiMAX networks - including 3.5GHz deemed by many suitable only for fixed applications. Interview with Lars Johnsson, VP Marketing & Business Development for Beceem.
Beceem is a well-funded, five year old, fab-less, WiMAX semiconductor company
that is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, but with a large design center in
Bangalore, India. Its components are currently used in terminal devices
that access South Korea's WiBro network, Sprint's XOHM, Clearwire's CLEAR,
WorldMax (Netherlands), and UQ Communication's Mobile WiMAX network (now being
trailed in Japan). Beceem claims to have a "secret sauce" that enables its
components to perform better than the competition, especially when the WiMAX
terminals/ devices are in motion. Through innovative mobility technology,
they believe they have the capability to create a new global market for mobility
applications in the 3.5GHz WiMAX spectrum.
I recently met with Lars Johnsson, Beceem's VP of Marketing and Business
Development, to discuss the company's technology, strategy, and view of Mobile
WiMAX networks in different countries.
Company in Good Financial Shape: Having raised over $100M from tier
1 VCs (including Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Intel Capital, and DoCoMo
Capital), Beceem has sufficient funding and revenue to sustain operations
throughout 2009 and expect to become cash flow positive in 2010. However,
the company has cast its lot with the success of Mobile WiMAX. In that
sense, Beceem is one of the few "pure-play" Mobile WiMAX semiconductor
companies.
Engineering Excellence: Beceem's engineering team is split between
Bangalore, India (software development) and Santa Clara, CA (system engineering,
applications engineering, and field support). Dr. Paulraj, a pioneer
in MIMO antenna technology and expert in algorithm development, serves as CTO.
The company's expertise is built around a systems approach to channel estimation
and its integral combination with link adaptation. Channel estimation is
important to enable the transmission system (in this case wireless) to always
operate at peak efficiency. Link adaptation is the tool that enables
instant application of the most useful combinations of prominent wireless
broadband techniques used in Mobile WiMAX networks. Algorithms have been
developed to: sustain high speed while in motion (including at 3.5GHz band); to
achieve very high spectral density (bits/sec/Hz), which translates into high
performance at lower transmitted signal power; and to get excellent performance
given a fixed link budget (total power loss from transmitter to receiving
entity).
Checkpoints of Success: Beceem has already realized some important
milestones on its path to profitability. The company was the first to
market with:
- A pre-WiMAX Baseband + RF chipset (MS100) in 2005;
- A WiMAX Forum "wave 1" Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e compliant) chip set
-released January 2006 and the first such chip set to be certified by the WiMAX
Forum.
- A Wave 2 Mobile WiMAX chipset - released in December 2006 and first to be
qualified for use in Sprint's XOHM network in December 2007. The chipset
was part of the first set of Wave 2 WiMAX Forum certified chips in June 2008.
- The first completely integrated single chip Mobile WiMAX solution-in April
2008. It was AT4 certified for use in Clearwire's CLEAR network in January
2009.
In addition to the "firsts to market" noted above, the company claims the Mobile
WiMAX speed record at 33M bits/sec- in May 2007. That speed was measured
during live field-testing, as user information throughput (above the 802.16e MAC
sub-layer), between a Base Station and a USB dongle that was attached to a
laptop PC. Very fast handoffs (between base stations) have also been
realized (under 50ms) using Beceem's components embedded into WiMAX terminals on
the move.
A full set of Beceem Press Releases, detailing the company's accomplishments
can be found here.
WiMAX standards participation: Over the years, Beceem has actively
contributed to the IEEE 802.16 standard efforts as well as to the WiMAX Forum
profile definitions. A Beceem representative co-chairs the WiMAX Forum
Certification Group. More importantly, Beceem has been one of a small set
of companies that have participated in all the Mobile WiMAX plug-fests since
their inception. They have actively contributed to the definition of WiMAX
interoperability testing and associated test scripts. Interoperability
will be hugely important for Mobile WiMAX, because the Base Station and the
(numerous) devices/ terminals will be made by different vendors, using different
designs and components.
Flagship Product: The BCSM250, introduced in April 2008, is the
first complete, single chip Mobile WiMAX solution. The 65nm chip, contains
all the baseband (MAC, PHY) functionality as well as the RF front end (normally
implemented with discrete analog components). This fully integrated Air
Interface chip can operate at any one of the three approved frequency bands for
Mobile WiMAX- 2.3G, 2.5G, or 3.5GHz. The tri-band capability provides
"economy of scale" advantages to Beceem's OEM customers. They can use the
same circuit design to support Mobile WiMAX networks that operate at any one of
those bands.

Beceem BCSM250 chip, operating on Clear WiMAX network
Today, most Mobile WiMAX networks that offer true mobility do so at either 2.3G
or 2.5GHz. Some "Mobile WiMAX" networks offer fixed access at 3.5GHz (but
Beceem is aiming to change that by supporting full mobility at that frequency
band- more later in this article).
Mobile WiMAX Operator Feedback: UQ Communications, Clearwire, and
WorldMax
1. The BCSM250 was integrated into a USB dongle and a PC card made by
NEC-AT for use in UQ's pre-commercial Mobile WiMAX trial in Japan. The
devices have performed "extremely well" during testing and in the early stages
of the trial, according to Lars.
2. Clearwire has specified Mobile WiMAX performance metrics can now be
only met by the BCSM250. That chip is embedded in a Motorola USB dongle
and external CPE (WiMAX modem + VoIP) that has been accessing the CLEAR network
in Portland, OR. Feedback from Clearwire and selected customers has been
very positive. (One CLEAR user posted his terrific user experience on the
IEEE ComSoc discussion group, maintained by this author).
3. Worldmax is using Beceem's technology to deploy a nationwide Mobile
WiMAX network in the Netherlands. The company's Aerea service is currently
deployed as a city-wide hot zone in Amsterdam. What makes the network
unique is that it operates with true mobility at 3.5GHz.
Early
results have been quite encouraging.

Sprint dual-mode EVDO/WiMAX USB dongle utilizing Beceem chip
While Worldmax is the first proof point for Mobile WiMAX at 3.5GHz, Beceem hopes
to make this happen in many countries where that spectrum is commercially
available and at a much lower cost then a 2.3G or 2.5GHz license. The
engineering team has leveraged its expertise in signal processing, smart antenna
technologies (e.g. MIMO and beam forming), and algorithm development to
minimize the effects of Doppler shifts (see explanation below). The result
is a new chip technology that can maintain high speed, mobile communications at
high frequencies, like 3.5GHz. Indeed, the BCSM250 chip will be the major
driver to bring full mobility to the 3.5 GHz WiMAX market.
Editors Note: Doppler shifts (or more precisely the Doppler Effect)
occur when a wireless device is in motion. These shifts in frequency and
wavelength result from a source moving with respect to the medium, a receiver
moving with respect to the medium, or even a moving medium. As modulated
symbols are transmitted, they interfere with one another, creating a phenomenon
known as Inter Symbol Interference (ISI). ISI complicates symbol detection
at the receiver, often producing an unacceptably high bit error rate. The
Doppler Effect is more pronounced at higher frequencies- say above 3GHz.
Consequently, there is a perception that 3.5GHz spectrum, widely available
outside the U.S., should not be used for Mobile WiMAX.
Forward Reference: At CTIA next month, Beceem plans to release a
new RF chip design that will further progress its full spectrum Mobile WiMAX
agenda. They will also announce a new reference design for the BCSM250
fully integrated, Mobile WiMAX chip.
What Countries are Important for the Mobile WiMAX market in 2009?
While earlier having touted the huge potential of WiMAX in India, Lars now says,
"India has great upside (potential for revenue), but it's not essential for
Mobile WiMAX to succeed. It's more important for Mobile WiMAX in Japan (UQ
Communications and KDD) to be successful in 2009. But Clearwire is the
most important Mobile WiMAX network for Beceem, because they are the exclusive
provider of components for the terminals/ devices that access the CLEAR network.
Conclusion: Beceem has its eyes completely focused on making Mobile
WiMAX a commercial success. It is offering OEMs top performance, very
efficient operation (spectrum and link budget), highly integrated components for
terminals and devices. The ability to be a catalyst in moving operators to
deploy 3.5GHz "true" Mobile WiMAX is particularly relevant, because of the
global (x-U.S.) availability of that lower cost spectrum. Beceem thinks
they can make mobility work well at 3.5GHz, having learned from their
experiences with Mobile WiMAX tests, trials and early deployments at 2.3G and
2.5GHz.
But there is a big risk for Beceem. The company is operating without a
safety net, as they have no products for other broadband wireless markets and no
back-up plan. While they do have long-term plans to include LTE in their
product portfolio, the intermediate term prospects all depend on Mobile WiMAX
taking off. Let's all hope it does, and in a big way.
_____
tags:
Wavesat Positioned for Growth Independent of 4G Technology Winner(s)
While many debate which flavor of 4G will prevail - WiMAX or LTE, mobile broadband semiconductor company Wavesat utilizes a flexible, multi-mode architecture approach to deliver "future-proof" 4G solutions. Interview with Raj Singh, CEO Wavesat.
Wavesat is a privately held, fabless, Montreal based, semiconductor company that
has been shipping broadband wireless components for over three years. The
company received $11.7M in funding earlier this year and expects to be
profitable by September 2009. Wavesat has had several key design wins with
several network equipment, device and circuit card OEMs, including NEC, Huawei,
Asus, Aperto Networks, and Redline. They also have close relationships
with many carriers including SK Telecom, UQ Communications, Telecom Italia and
Vodafone. I recently chatted with CEO Raj Singh about the company's
mission, direction, and strategy.
"We're keen to be thought of as a 4G semiconductor company," Raj said.
While agnostic as to which 4G technology ultimately wins, Wavesat plans to
participate in the market lift-off of mobile broadband and is already doing so.
The key to the company's success is their programmable Wireless Air Interface
silicon, which can support multiple OFDMA based 4G technologies (and perhaps
HSPA) with different firmware.
Wavesat's OD8500 BWA baseband chip is currently in field trials with
WillCom in Japan for a 4G technology known as "XG-PHS." That Japanese mobile
technology operates at 2.5GHz using 10MHz channels with 350Km/hour speeds-
faster than Mobile WiMAX. It will permit users to get broadband Internet
access while riding "bullet trains" (AKA Shinkansen) in Japan. The SAME
CHIP also supports IEEE 802.16e and will be embedded in a small module within
handheld consumer devices that are used in UQ Communications Mobile WiMAX
network (also in Japan).

Wavesat WiMAX OD8500 chip
The OD8500 contains an embedded micro-processor and firmware (residing in
instruction memory), which together implement all the protocol specific
functions of the 3G+ and 4G technologies. These functions include: frame
processing, FEC, MIMO, beam forming, FFT for signal processing, etc. An
on-chip DSP based "crypto engine" handles encryption/security protocols such as:
EAP, AES, and PKMv2.
What about performance? Wavesat claims the chip can support raw data
rates of 46.1M bit/sec on the DL and 11.7M bit/sec on the UL. Adaptive
modulation schemes, up to 256 QAM are supported. In addition to the
OD8500, Wavesat also provides reference designs for a WiMAX CPE station, a
Mobile WiMAX Express card, and a Mobile WiMAX dongle form-factor.

Wavesat USB Dongle
Wavesat's flexible chip architecture has been very well received by OEMs, who
are using the OD8500 to build a single (vendor programmable) device that will
operate on many different BWA networks. Here are some examples:
|
Technology |
Operator |
|
2.3GHz WiBro |
SK Telecom, South Korea |
|
2.5GHz Mobile WiMAX |
UQ Communications, Japan |
|
3.5GHz WiMAX |
Telecom Italia, Eastern European wireless telcos |
|
Future LTE |
Vodafone in Europe, DoCoMo and KDD in Japan |
Main Benefit: The OEM realizes economies of scale by using the same Air
Interface component in multiple broadband wireless markets.
What's the extra cost for programmability? Surprisingly, there is only a
1% penalty in terms of die size/chip area compared with a hard wired single
protocol BWA chip, according to Raj.
Additional benefit: There's another important advantage of
programmability- fine grained idle power management and control.
This involves sensing any chip element/cell not in use and clocking it to a
lower rate gracefully, while maintaining the state machine. This is in
sharp contrast to a hard-wired, pipelined chip which requires more circuitry to
manage the power budget. That is crucially important to prolonged battery
life in handheld devices which facilitates greater mobility.
The HSPA conundrum: 3G HSPA/HSPDA is not OFDMA based. Should it be
supported on-chip and if so, how? Raj believes that HSPA has to be implemented
in hand held devices for LTE to be successful. That's because LTE will not
replace 3G/HSPA overnight. When LTE starts to be deployed- perhaps in 2
years- Wavesat will have a different firmware version of their OD8500 which will
support LTE and HSPA.
Currently, SK Telecom sells devices which support WiBro and HSPA. Those
devices will have a Wavesat chip for WiBro and a Qualcom chip for HSPA.
Mobile device functions like handover, roaming, and authentication are
implemented in OD8500 firmware - for both directions of transition (HSPA to
WiBro and vice-versa). When a mobile device moves between these two
networks a new connection is made and the user is authenticated, before the
existing connection is broken. The Wavesat chip handles this "make before
break" functionality.
Market segments: Raj sees several types of equipment using Wavesat's
Programmable Air Interface components:
- Embedded CPE: machine-to-machine, digital game players, hand held cameras
- Notebooks, Netbooks, Dongles: for mobile broadband Internet access
- Fixed access CPE: external modems for wireless broadband (e.g. Reliance
and Tata in India; PT Harrif in Indonesia)
New Business Models for Broadband Wireless IC Companies:
"A BWA semiconductor company that doesn't talk to the carriers won't be
successful. It's the only business model that works," states Mr.
Singh. The carriers should be perceived as the end customer for the IC
company, according to Raj. The OEM has become the systems integrator of
the technology specified by the carrier and implemented by the chip company.
The IC company's goal should be to evangelize their proprietary technology to
the wireless carrier who will in turn provide feedback about desirable future
features and also recommend OEMs. For example, UQ Communications in Japan
recommended NEC and In Frontier to Wavesat after hearing about the advantages of
their programmable silicon.
Outlook for Mobile WiMAX, MIDs, and Smart Phones
Raj believes that Mobile WiMAX will happen, independent of WiMAX MIDs being
successful. "Mobile WiMAX provides broadband wireless everywhere,"
according to Mr. Singh. He correctly observes that laptops with
embedded WiFi are used extensively in developed countries- at home and at hot
spots. This has given users the experience and desire to go on line
anywhere. Netbooks will accelerate this trend.
But 3G does NOT provide for a very good Internet experience, whereas Mobile
WiMAX does. Realizing this dynamic, Telecom Italia is giving their
customers a free netbook with embedded Mobile WiMAX capability in hopes of
stimulating the market. Acer and other Taiwanese notebook vendors have
announced integrated Mobile WiMAX adapters in their products. And, of
course, this is Intel's main mission for Mobile WiMAX- to get it embedded into
notebooks and sub- notebook/netbook PCs.
Can Mobile WiMAX thrive without MIDs? Raj thinks so. He says
MIDs are NOT a pre-requisite for Mobile WiMAX's success. "In these
recessionary times, consumers may be reluctant to spend discretionary funds on
new gadgets," Raj stated and we agree!
WiMAX Smart Phones? They are a small market near term, says Mr.
Singh. "Mobile WiMAX chip costs would need to come down dramatically to
get the WiMAX Smart Phone market to ramp," Raj stated. To stimulate demand
for such handheld devices they must be attractively priced. But the device
cost can only come down if the associated component costs drop significantly (as
a result of increased systems integration on chip).
Conclusion: Wavesat seems to be very well positioned to adapt to whatever
the market might bring for 3G+ or 4G wireless broadband. The flexibility
of their programmable Air Interface chip architecture serves to "future proof"
many BWA terminal designs. This is because the same printed circuit card
can be used for multiple broadband wireless networks- now and in the future.
_____
tags:
WiMAX gear maker Telsima acquired by Harris Stratex Networks
Harris Stratex Networks has acquired Telsima for $12 million in cash. Harris Stratex specializes in mobile network backhaul equipment, while Telsima supplies Wimax products.
The two already agreed in September 2008 to work together on full network
systems.
"The demand for rich media services is growing at an explosive rate, creating
the need for faster and more flexible wireless networking solutions," said
Harald Braun, president and chief executive officer of Harris Stratex Networks.
"In our close working relationship with Telsima we have been greatly impressed
by their technology and expertise. We believe the combination of those
qualities and Harris Stratex in-house innovation will significantly enhance our
ability to expand into new and emerging markets."
Telsima's product portfolio includes IEEE 802.16d and 16e compatible base
stations, fixed and mobile subscriber devices, access services network gateways
and network management tools. Telsima has offices in Sunnyvale,
California, Bangalore, Gurgaon and Mumbai in India and Trzin-Ljublijana,
Slovenia.
Noted
blogger Om Malik wrote the following:
"The sad part of the Telsima story is that the company is getting sold at a time
when it is beginning to get some traction. Not only does it have one of the best
and most complete WiMAX product portfolios, it has also signed up customers such
as Neotel of South Africa, Tata Communications of India and is in the running
for a $1 billion WiMAX network being built by Indian telecom carrier BSNL. Many
Telsima-powered WiMAX networks were being put to work in Easter Europe. Harris,
it seems is getting quite a bargain."
We concur, but point out that funding to sustain operations and grow is
incredibly difficult in this harsh economic environment where credit markets are
still frozen for smaller companies.
Could this be the first of several acquisitions of struggling WiMAX equipment
makers?
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Taiwan Government Awards 9 WiMAX Certificates to 6 Companies
On February 5th, the Ministry of Economic Affairs Industrial Development Bureau "Taiwan Action Office" presented the first batch of certificates for the planned nationwide Taiwanese WiMAX network. A total of six base station and CPE vendors were given certificates and approved for commercial WiMAX operations.
Established in 2007, the "Taiwan Action Office" (referred to as IOT in Chinese)
is responsible for verifying WiMAX product conformance and interoperability.
To pursue this objective, the IOT is chartered with building a model WiMAX
interoperability environment and for the development of WiMAX testing
technologies for certification of WiMAX compliant equipment. The goal is
to promote interoperability on Taiwan's forthcoming nationwide WiMAX network,
increasing competition and therefore lowering costs. There are over 100
measurement parameters that are validated during the WiMAX conformance testing
procedures performed by IOT.
The Product Certifications were given to six domestic companies: Accton Wireless Broadband, D-Link, Tecom, Apaq Technology, Quanta Microsystems and Quanta
Friends of Electronics and Technology. Two foreign companies,
Alcatel-Lucent and NEC also received WiMAX certification logos.
This WiMAX product certification follows the January 12th announcement where
five network operators received Taiwan WiMax licenses. The operators
agreed to setup a "split-off center" which solves the problem of charging
customers who are roaming between different operators.
Under the M-Taiwan Applications Promotion Program, the Taiwan government and
domestic companies both have invested heavily in the development of WiMAX.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) of Taiwan signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOUs) with leading international companies including Intel, NEC,
Nortel, R&S, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia-Siemens, Sprint-Nextel and Starent.
This cooperation facilitates interoperability product tests. One goal is
to give local manufacturers a quick path into the international supply chain for
WiMAX equipment and devices.
M-Taiwan Program is building up a local WiMAX industrial chain step by step.
With the support of the government, 364 companies have invested in the
development and manufacturing of key ICs, terminal devices, base stations as
well as testing certificates, content development, and operations. A
nationwide Taiwan WiMAX industry eco-system from service to core technologies
shall be completed sometime in 2009.
Intel has invested $500M in the M-Taiwan (WiMAX) program. Both
Alcatel-Lucent and NEC have their WiMAX research centers in Taiwan.
Opinion: This is an important step to get WiMAX equipment (Base
Stations and Devices) certified for commercial operation. The Taiwan
operators have not yet announced any date for launch of commercial operations.
We expect that news will be forthcoming in the next few months.
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Next Generation CPE for Next Generation Networks
Although this years CES was decidedly tamer than years past, the annual electronics mega-show brought us a barrage of new mobile handsets and devices designed to help consumers better take advantage of the high-speed data rates available on existing 3G networks.
New 3G devices making their debut included a slew of Ultra-Mobile PCs and
Netbooks such as the Sony P-series Lifestyle PC as well as new handsets
including Palm's entry into the next generation touchscreen handset market with
the Pre.
Today's mobile handsets are already capable of browsing the web, downloading
music over the air, and uploading pictures and video to social networking sites
such as Facebook; and 4G networks will only help to enhance this experience with
much faster data rates. As a result handset manufacturers will continue to
develop more mobile broadband-centric devices like Palm's Pre and T-Mobile's G1.
It may be a while though before we see these devices on next-generation LTE and
mobile WiMAX networks. Initial CPE devices on these 4G networks will be
limited to USB dongles and PC cards along with a few embedded laptops.
Much like in the early stages of 3G network deployments, operators will seed the
market with low cost USB dongles and PC cards followed by roll outs of 4G
handsets as the price of 4G chipsets begin to decline. Remember, even the
first generation iPhone was on AT&T's EDGE network during its initial launch.
Many devices in the short term will include dual-mode 3G/4G devices like
Franklin Wireless's combination WiMAX/EVDO PC card available from Sprint 4G and
in areas with limited 3G coverage we will see some dual-mode EDGE/4G devices.
Not until 4G networks have near ubiquitous coverage, or at least coverage in
most major metropolitan areas, will we see a variety of 4G only CPE. The
first 4G handsets will most certainly be dual-mode as LTE and mobile WiMAX will
only serve data applications with legacy GSM and CDMA networks handling the
voice traffic.
In the long term however, 4G networks will help to usher in a new era of
connected devices. The multi-megabit data rates promised by LTE and mobile
WiMAX will open the door for entirely new devices and applications which would
have been impractical or even impossible on 3G networks. These
applications include everything from mobile video conferencing to in-car HD
video streaming.
Consumers will also begin to connect multiple devices to the mobile data
network. The number of devices each consumer has connected to the network
is expected to increase as many consumers will have both their laptop or ultra
mobile device as well as their mobile handset on a mobile data plan.
Meanwhile, as the price of 4G chips continues to decline, other devices such as
digital picture frames, GPS devices, vehicle security systems and possibly even
some home appliances might be connected to the network.
The adoption of 4G technology and the uptake of these new devices will hinge
upon the ability of operators to offer attractive "all you can eat" data plans
to consumers. Flat-rate pricing, or a lack thereof, will greatly impact
the market for 4G technologies. Consumers will be hesitant to connect
multiple devices to a mobile data network if they constantly have to monitor
their data usage to avoid costly overage charges.
Operators will also have to rethink their business models as far as contracts
are concerned. It's unlikely that consumers will be willing to sign
lengthy contracts for each device connected to the network. As a result,
pricing plans for devices such as personal media players and GPS devices will be
similar to the initial month to month plans available on the Sprint/Clearwire
networks in Baltimore and Portland.
This isn't to say subsidies will go away entirely. In some regions
(Western Europe) we're already seeing deeply subsidized, sometimes even free,
laptops as incentive for consumers to sign up for data services. The
subsidization of laptops and cell phones will continue with the rollout of 4G
networks as a way for operators to lock in consumers for an extended period of
time while unsubsidized USB dongles, PC cards, etc. will provide operators
with an alternative revenue stream.
The availability of ad-hoc month to month service will also have a significant
impact on the retail channels used to purchase these connected devices,
particularly in the short term for USB dongles and PC cards. These devices
will likely be purchased without a subsidy (which essentially eliminates the
need for a contract) and will be available at a variety of "big-box" retail
outlets.
Longer-term, IMS Research believes that the business model for 4G services will
resemble a hybrid between Wi-Fi networks and existing cellular networks with a
wide variety of devices connected and always on.
Bob Perez
Broadband & Networking
IMS Research
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