WiMAX vs. HSPA/LTE - What Debate?
By Rhonda Wickham
CHICAGO — In a luncheon session billed as the "Great Debate of WiMAX versus HSPA/LTE," it appeared the speakers offred more points of agreement than contention.
First, everyone agreed that the U.S.market in particular and the world in general has a boundless hunger for faster speeds in the wireless broadband market. Technologies like WiMAX and other technologies such as HSPA/LTE are or will be delivering those speeds. Second, all emerging technologies need to ramp up and achieve mass market in order to achieve price ponts that will allow it to succeed.
In fact, after hearing each speaker's comments, you would have sworn that the technologies were complimentary rather than potentially competitive. However, the underlying sentiment may have been driven by the players' collection desires to play in all of the markets.
For instance, Ericsson is not focusing on WiMAX commercially but rather HSPA for its carrier customer base. However, Martin Ljungberg, director of government and industry relations, business unit network for Ericsson, insisted the company isn’t shunning WiMAX. In fact, he said the company is looking to participate in the WiMAX ecosystem, including elements such as wireless backhaul.
But he still showed off his HSPA allegiance. “HSPA is very well-established – with networks and devices available today. It is on the same network as the voice. For network operators, HSPA provides good network performance. Today, we are getting delivering speeds up to 7.2 Mbps downlink and 8.4 Mbps on the uplink.”
Likewise, Jerold Givens, Texas Instruments’general manager of the wireless infrastructure group, communication infrastructure and voice, pointed out that TI sells key components to WiMAX players as well as other 3G/4G technology players. “From our perspective, our solutions are used in WiMAX and HSPA,” Givens says. “HSPA has a definite lead, but WiMAX creates lots of potential innovation and new business models.”
And in a way of seemingly justifying the general agreement, Qualcomm’s Senior Director of Technical Marketing Samir Khazaka weighed in: “We (the wireless industry) have a tradition of a multitude of networks: wide area networks; broadcast networks such as MediaFLO; 802.11; Bluetooth; ultra wideband for connectivity; and more. All of those exist together and serve these devices. It is not always a unicast network that is going to bear all of the traffic,” he said.
In fact, Khazaka probably summed up the panel the best when he said every technology step we have seen in wireless has had to bridge from the previous technology to the new technology in a seamless fashion. He said that the real winner or winners will be those that can continue the evolution of a ubiquitous and seamless network in delivering voice and data anywhere and anytime.
Freescale Introduces New RFICs
By Monica Alleven
Freescale Semiconductor is introducing three high-power LDMOS Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs) designed to allow designers of RF power amplifiers for WiMAX base stations to reduce costs, form factors and part counts.
The devices extend Freescale's portfolio of RFICs to the two primary bands used by WiMAX - 2.7 GHz and 3.5 GHz. They use over-molded plastic packaging, which is widely used in high volume automotive applications and is more cost-effective, according to Daniel Ong, product manager for WiMAX in the RF division of Freescale.
Specifically, the MW7IC2725N and MW7IC2750N RFICs operate from 2.3 to 2.7 GHz, and the MW7IC3825N operates from 3.4 to 3.6 GHz. All three devices use Freescale's seventh-generation high-voltage (HV7) LDMOS process technology, which has been deployed worldwide in discrete field-effect transistors (FETs), as well as in RFICs for wireless applications operating at 900 MHz and 2 GHz, the company says.
RF power amplifiers in WiMAX base stations typically require three or four stages of amplification delivered by discrete RF power transistors to achieve the desired output power, but the use of RFICs presents significant advantages, Freescale says. By integrating two stages of gain in a single package, RFICs reduce the number of required individual devices.
The MW7IC2725N, MW7IC2750N and MW7IC3825N devices are sampling now, with full production expected in the first quarter of 2008.
Ceragon Advanced Ethernet Platform for Backhaul
By Wireless Week Staff
According to Infonetics Research, Ethernet microwave revenue for mobile backhaul is forecast to rise to $1.1 billion by 2010. At that time, it will represent 36% of the microwave radio in the backhaul compared to a mere 1% in 2006.
To deliver on this need, Ceragon Networks Ltd., provider of high-capacity wireless backhaul solutions, is showcasing its wireless Ethernet platform, the FibeAir IP-MAX2. The platform is designed to provide a fast reliable Ethernet transmission solution for mobile, WiMAX, private and metro area networks.
With Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) certification, Ceragon's native microwave Ethernet platform reportedly delivers up to 900 Mbps over a single channel and a single Gigabit Ethernet port for network planning and capex savings. The platform incorporates comprehensive Ethernet networking capabilities including advanced quality of service (QoS) for differentiated services, flow control and sophisticated traffic balancing.
The FibeAir IP-MAX2 uses full range, multilevel dynamic adaptive modulation for delivering maximum capacity at any given time while guaranteeing critical services. With a switchover mechanism, the platform adapts and adjusts the modulation to changing environmental conditions while ensuring zero downtime connectivity for real-time applications. In the case of dual radio operation, traffic is divided among two carriers without requiring link aggregation and is not dependent on number of MAC addresses or their momentary traffic capacity.
DRT Introduces Mini WiMAX Test Receiver
By Rhonda Wickham
Digital Receiver Technology (DRT) is demonstrating its DRT4301 WiMAX software defined radio (SDR) test receiver and showing how it can deliver measurement and monitoring of network quality. The unit offers real-time decoding of low level broadcast messages, which are critical to understanding the health of the WiMAX network.
Thanks to its SDR architecture, the 4301 platform is upgradeable and reconfigurable in the field, which allows for upgrades without taking the systems out of service. Features include quad-band tuner, removable flash device for localized logging, internal GPS, high speed interface to host, Pioneer collection tool and API for customer specific and OEM applications.
The DRT4301 offers multiprotocol support for GSM, CDMA2000, EV-DO, WCDMA and WiMAX.
Based in Germantown, Md., DRT designs, manufactures and markets DSP-based communications test and measurement equipment with a focus on high-performance RF receiver design, cellular/PCS/wireless systems design, radio communications theory and software applications.
Towerstream Focuses on Growth
By Monica Alleven
Going into WiMAX World, service provider Towerstream is firing on all cylinders after a successful IPO earlier this year.
Towerstream's message is simple, says CEO Jeff Thompson. "We're a very focused company. It's growth, growth, growth," with a business model that works, he says.
Towerstream is now in about nine major U.S. markets, including New York and Los Angeles, and plans to be in about 30 major markets by early 2010. Its primary customers are businesses in Tier 1 markets, whereas Clearwire is more geared to the consumer space in Tier 2 and 3 markets.
So far, Towerstream's model has worked successfully with pre-WiMAX gear, but the certified, official WiMAX designation should bring prices down dramatically, he says. Towerstream needs only about 1% penetration in a market to achieve success.
The company was founded in 2000 and first proved its business model in Boston in 2001. Then it was on to New York City and other markets, just as the telecom meltdown was occurring.
The model in some respects is similar to that of the former Winstar and Teligent, but the WiMAX standard wasn't available for those early entrants.
Thompson, who is one of the conference's panelists, says the company's primary competitors today are the wireline sides of AT&T and Verizon Communications.
Exalt Launches Company, Wireless Backhaul Solutions
By Rhonda Wickham
Startup companies generally look for a hook or a big contract to jumpstart their businesses and to gain recognition. Exalt Communications didn't have to look far. During the recent U.S. Open Tennis Championship in New York, a Tier 1 carrier was experiencing interference issues as it was attempting to backhaul cellular voice traffic from its portable cellular site outside Arthur Ashe Stadium. Not exactly the kind of publicity you want out there. Fortunately, Exalt was able to deploy a tri-band 5GHz backhaul link, with high resolution frequency selection capability. "The mobile carrier told us it saved the day," said Scott Basista, vice president of Transwave Communications Systems, which installed the Exalt equipment at the mobile cellular site.
Three-year-old Exalt Communications is using this week's WiMAX World to showcase its portfolio of next-generation wireless backhaul solutions and build on the New York experience with more success stories.
As operators migrate from TDM to IP networks, Exalt is taking aim at operators' pain points with its solutions. For instance, as demand grows for more IP-based voice, data and video applications, operators need more efficient backhaul solutions. With a flexible software upgradeable architecture and technology-agnostic product platform, covering multiple market segments, Exalt plans to become a 1-stop-shop of future-proof wireless backhaul solutions for service providers and enterprises deploying any access technology including GSM, WiMAX, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, Mesh, WCDMA, GPRS, HSPA and EV-DO.
The company's founder is Amir Zoufonoun. Prior to starting up this company, he was co-founder and president of Western Multiplex, a microwave solutions company. During his tenure there, Zoufonoun helped develop and introduce a number of new wireless categories and extensions including Lynx and Tsunami, with an estimated installed base of over 150,000 carrier class systems worldwide. With this new company, he says he recognized that a new approach to wireless backhaul was needed.
"Our customers are clear in their need to maximize the use of existing network assets. At the same time, they need ways in which they can flexibly and cost-effectively add more TDM and IP capacity for legacy voice and data applications, as well as emerging applications such as high speed packet data, VoIP and IP-Video," he says.
Exalt radio technology uses proprietary advanced signal processing algorithms and techniques designed to improve path resiliency, transmission reliability and spectrum efficiency. As the applications of wireless and microwave communications systems proliferate, these techniques enable Exalt systems to provide quality performance under the inevitable signal impairments due to spectrum crowding, collocation, interference and noise.
Comsearch Paves the Way for Demos
By Monica Alleven
No doubt, a lot of vendors will be conducting successful demonstrations in the exhibit hall at WiMAX World thanks to the spectrum coordination by Comsearch.
Comsearch received an extraordinary number of spectrum management requests this year compared with last year, according to Laura Fontaine, director of spectrum management at Comsearch. So the spectrum management firm will use a combination of solutions to meet the needs of exhibitors. One of the solutions, which Comsearch has used at past trade shows, calls for exhibitors to share the same channel using techniques such as limiting power and/or adjusting antenna orientation.
The spectrum management company started receiving inquires for WiMAX World back in June, and a lot of the coordination already has taken place. But for good measure, the company will do a pre-show test starting at 8 a.m. Wednesday before the exhibits open. At that time, exhibitors will be asked to turn up their products, and Comsearch staff will use a spectrum analyzer to detect interference and make any necessary adjustments.
Exhibitors primarily will be using the 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands, with most of them at 2.5. In Chicago, most 2.5 GHz spectrum is licensed or leased by Sprint, whose permission and cooperation was necessary to accommodate the exhibitors, Fontaine says.
Comsearch has been managing spectrum at wireless industry trade shows for the past 10 years. More than 200 exhibitors will be on hand for WiMAX World.
Andrew Corporation acquired Comsearch in 2003. This past June, Andrew entered into an agreement under which CommScope will acquire all the outstanding shares of Andrew in a transaction valued at $2.6 billion.
Reduced Power and Size Mark ADI's Introductions
By Rhonda Wickham
As WiMAX moves from fixed to mobile applications, device makers need smaller, more energy-efficient solutions that maintain their mobile terminals' cost, space and power budgets. Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) has introduced RF-to-digital baseband transceivers designed to do just that.
Building on the transceivers it introduced last year (AD9352 and AD9353 family), the AD9354 and AD9355 consume less power and are available in a 20% smaller package. The transceivers also add an additional receiver path for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) support.
By integrating ADCs' DACs and real-time control and calibration loops, the transceivers enable designers to eliminate all analog and RF functionality from their baseband processors.
With separate digital and analog blocks, the communications and applications processors can be manufactured in the most cost-effective digital CMOS process technologies, reducing power, package size and system design complexity. Using this "smart partitioning" of analog and digital blocks, ADI worked with WaveSat to deliver transceivers with the sensitivity and linearity it needed to accelerate WiMAX deployment.
The AD9354 and AD9355 transceivers integrate two direct-conversion receivers that provide support for MIMO technology, which ensures mobile devices achieve uninterrupted WiMAX service. The direct-conversion transmitter architecture achieves state-of-the-art error vector magnitude (EVM), maximizing network throughput. The transceivers communicate with a WiMAX terminal's baseband ASIC or FPGA using the industry standard JESD207 digital interface that Analog Devices helped to define. The data bus requires 13 pins, which is comparable to competitive products employing analog interfaces.
"By including on-chip data conversion and adding a second receiver signal chain to our transceiver architecture, Analog Devices is helping communications service providers extend WiMAX into the mobile marketplace," said Tom Gratzek, ADI business director.
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