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

1. Fixed Data Access: Last Mile backhaul, DSL replacement, Femotcells
2. Data Mobility: Notebook, MID, UMPC, Handset
3. Embedded: Security Cameras, Game consoles, Wireless HDMI, Digital cameras
4. 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
 

Thursday, June 04, 2009 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (13)

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!

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.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (2)

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."



 

Sunday, May 24, 2009 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (3)

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.


 

Monday, March 30, 2009 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (2)

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.



 

Monday, March 23, 2009 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (5)

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.





 

Sunday, March 15, 2009 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (5)

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:
 

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.



 

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

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?



 

Wednesday, March 04, 2009 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

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.

 

Monday, February 09, 2009 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (6)

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


 

Wednesday, January 28, 2009 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (1)