|
Jim Barthold
A high-speed data delivery standards battle could be looming for the re-emergent broadband fixed wireless industry.
Wi-LAN Inc. and Philips Electronics North America Corp. subsidiary Philips Semiconductors used last week's Broadband Wireless World Forum in San Francisco to promote orthogonal frequency division multiplexing for high-speed data delivery over wireless networks.
Wi-LAN's patented technology uses Wideband OFDM, a different approach than that supported by a Cisco Systems Inc./Broadcom Corp. consortium that supports Vector OFDM (VOFDM).
The battle could delay implementation of broadband wireless, and thus competition to cable, if wireless carriers prolong deployment decisions while evaluating both technologies.
"What we've really done is taken that (frequency) band and spread it wide," explained Wanda Posehn, Wi-LAN's marketing VP. "It flattens the OFDM technology and gives it a broader space to blend itself through, and therefore pushes the information through much more quickly."
This new technology, she said, increases OFDM's flexibility, adding that WOFDM goes a step beyond the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard. The group will develop standards and lobby organizations such as IEEE and others to recognize those standards, she said.
Steve Smith, Cisco's market development director, downplayed the potential drama of the variant transport platforms.
"I'm not sure I'd react that strongly to a company of that size and that set of partners," he scoffed.
The rancor didn't ruffle one long-time wireless vendor.
"There's a lot of noise out there," said John Frederick, VP/GM of ADC Telecommunications Inc.'s broadband wireless access business unit. "The key questions really boil down to whether the technology is available in low-cost chips to allow low-cost subscriber equipment and is it available now. I have no idea how Wi-LAN is positioned on that. What I can tell you is we're using high-volume, low-cost chips in our equipment. It's available now and it's very cost-effective."
ADC, he said, follows DOCSIS-Plus or wireless DOCSIS standards for its "single carrier" service.
"It all gets into a question of what's here today, what's promised," he continued. "There are a lot of claims being made in the industry and the facts will tend to speak for themselves when some of this gets out there."
In the meantime, the brouhaha could slow down what has been a resurgent wireless industry basing its hopes on high-speed data delivery.
"In theory that could be what happens, but I am confident in the set of providers who are building equipment and our customers who are supportive of this that that won't happen," concluded Cisco's Smith.
While Cisco also supports 802.11, its twist adds vectorization to the mix meaning "we can combine signal-to-noise for multiple antennas. We can use that technology to close links that other technologies can't," Smith said.
Vectorization helps eliminate line-of-sight and noise problems but it has its drawbacks, Posehn countered.
"There's no way you're going to use vectors to get mobility," she noted. "That's the benefit of OFDM technology as a whole. It can go mobile."
OFDM travels well, she said, giving wireless data users access from almost anywhere.
"It will be networks in that special restaurant where you have to get business done, networks in a baseball stadium so you can be alerted immediately if something is going on at home," she pointed out.
She noted that the OFDM Forum's membership will embrace methods other than wideband because they "have their own concepts and ideas." Cisco's group, she maintained, is "very focused on delivering Cisco's technology as a standard."
That's partially true, Smith conceded, but it's not proprietary.
"We have very strong partnerships in Broadcom, Motorola, TI and Toshiba to name a few, that are actually developing products that are based on this VOFDM standard," he said. "It's our intent to make the chipsets open, non-licensed, free-of-charge to anybody who wants to use those."
So, if it's all OFDM, what's the difference?
"There are some patents filed by us and Wi-LAN that address certain different aspects of the technology," Smith explained.
Posehn agreed that this is the divisive point between the two groups.
"Quite a bit of our interest has come in terms of our technology that we have patented," she noted.
There's also timing. Smith said that the Cisco technology has been available for three months. "We will be going into some very important trials of the technology very shortly," Smith said.
Posehn said Wi-LAN launched its first product last June, but didn't say in what market.
OFDM Forum Supporters * Wi-LAN Inc.
* Philips Electronics North America Corp.
* Semiconductors Subsidiary
* Sony Corp.
* LM Ericsson
* California Department of Transportation
VOFDM Supporters * Motorola Inc.
* Broadcom Corp.
* Texas Instruments Inc.
* Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
* Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.
* Pace Micro Technology plc
* Bechtel Telecommunications Inc.
* KPMG Consulting
* LCC International Inc.
* Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS)
SOURCE: Cable World research
Back to this issue
|
