4G Domains » ctownsend

Simplifying Point-To-Point Wireless Planning

ctownsend — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:19:45 +0000

Try to get this simple question answered: can I connect these two locations with
a wireless point-to-point link? Sounds simple, right? But in most
cases you would have to be an engineer in order to answer such a question.
And how about being able to choose which technology and vendor to work with
without the long screening process and multiple discussions with several people
in each of the companies (not to mention buying and installing)?

If you want to find out how things should really work, try a new FREE tool from
AlphiMAX at www.alphimax.com/ptp.
I only had to provide the coordinates for the two locations I wanted to connect
(there are several formats for doing that) and the planned heights of my towers.
Then I hit "estimate" – and voila:

Within no more than 30 seconds I knew (without being an engineer or leaving my
seat) that my link would not work: there was something in my path. I used
my mouse and changed the planned height of my tower by 20 feet by grabbing the
antenna on the drawn pole, hit "estimate" again and had the answer: my link
would now work. Now I could choose from a long list of possible products
that had suitable capabilities for my planned link.

I was also able to filter the results by manufacturer, antenna type, bandwidth,
or product family; compare vendor-capabilities; and select my specific domain in
the world (they actually use the product-parameters per region, taking relevant
regulations into account). How cool is that?! Even though this tool may
not be fully accurate, I got a good idea of what my options were. I could
even see how to point the antennas in azimuth and elevation, "hey Mike, did you
make sure to point the antenna on site A to 288.7 deg? And don’t get confused
with Magnetic, use True numbers, and don’t forget to up tilt it 0.9 degrees".
I feel like a pro!

Now, what else would you need? Oh, let’s see if there are any details about the
link itself. I click on one of the products and in the selected tab I see
all the information: link budget, part number, fade-margin, and more and more.

So far it seems that AlphiMAX has covered products in the unlicensed bands: 2.4,
4.5, 4.8, 4.9, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.8GHz, depending on the domain.
Alphimax were able to do so since they chose to jump-start their tool with two
of the main wireless vendors: Motorola and Alvarion, both of which have a
variety of products in these bands.

And now for the fun part..I clicked the "Map View" button and my computer
downloaded and opened Google Earth. The globe turned towards the location
I chose, my planned link was neatly placed on the map, and the two antennas were
showing on each of the planned sides. By clicking on the various parts of
the map I could see my path (and in particular trees, buildings or lakes on the
way using the satellite view from Google), the link from each of the two sites,
and the antenna heights that I plugged into the tool earlier.

The tool is provided at no charge when you register at the
AlphiMAX site. For now, the tool
only includes Motorola and Alvarion products, but the company plans to add other
products in the near future. With its easy to use interface and cool
graphics, I could see this being the go-to place for quick estimates on wireless
point-to-point links.

Wireless Broadband Growth Shows Signs of Recovery

ctownsend — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:04:57 +0000

Despite the bleak economic conditions at the first of the year, operators are
starting to show signs of recovery with increases in subscribers and service
revenue growth. This was based on analysis from
Maravedis and its 4G Counts service
that tracks 4G operator deployments and provides details on the 4G ecosystem
from over 200 operators in 92 countries.

The Maravedis webinar presented earlier in the week provided breakdowns of
network deployments, leading 4G operators, applications, usage and pricing.

According to the firm, approximately 560,000 BWA/WiMAX subscribers were added in
Q2 2009 – a 74% year-over-year growth rate since Q2 2008. The total number
of BWA (broadband wireless access) and WiMAX subscribers was around 4 million at
the end of June 2009.

Based on their survey, 332, BWA/WiMAX networks had been deployed as of June 2009
of which 42% were for fixed WiMAX (802.16d) networks, 37% for mobile WiMAX
(802.16e) networks, and the remaining 21% for proprietary networks. Also,
an additional 39 operators had committed to deploying LTE networks sometime in
the future.

The number of fixed WiMAX networks were hightest in Europe, while the most
mobile WiMAX networks were reported in the Asia/Pacific region.

Maravedis also presented the top 22 WiMAX operators Globaly in terms of the
number of subscribers. Toping the list was Clearwire in the US with over
500K subscribers, followed by Inukshuk in Canada, Korea Telecom, and Telmex
International and Axtel in Mexico.

Also interesting was the large amount of data usage reported by some operators
from their customers. Both Tatung in Taiwan and Scartel in Russia reported
close to 10GB per month of usage by their subscribers, driving by unlimited data
plans and fixed rate pricing.

The webinar also highlighted some of the limitation and challenges faced by LTE
operators including lack of harmonized spectrum, delays in the availability of
LTE devices, interoperability/standardization and possible lack of funding
caused by the economic recession.

Also emphasized were the time-to-market and wide ecosystem advantages of WiMAX,
the strength of LTE with the support of the largest mobile players, and the need
for 3G operators to continue to address traffic growth on their networks.

The recent growth numbers are encouraging news for the industry and show the
demand for broadband, especially in emerging markets. We expect that the
number of WiMAX subscribers in the next update of 4G Counts to increase
substantially with the inclusion of Russian WiMAX operator Yota which reportedly
reached 200,000 subscribers in early October, as well as Clearwire in the US
with its major market launches planned in Q4.

4G World 2009

ctownsend — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:39:38 +0000

4G World 2009, Chicago

The "4G World" conference and expo concluded Friday at the McCormick Place
convention center in downtown Chicago. The show, produced by Trends Media
& the Yankee group, featured over 150 speakers and 250 sponsors and exhibitors –
including vendors, operators and application developers from the mobile and
wireless communities.

This year was the first show with the new "4G" moniker, having broadened its
scope to include all next-generation wireless technologies. The integrated
event included content from its traditional "WiMAX World" and "Mobile Internet
World" shows as well as summits on Network Backhaul and Femtocell/Picocell
technologies. The event was also co-located with the Wireless
Communications Association International’s (WCAI) 15th Annual international
Symposium and featured sessions on broadband and wireless policy as well as
tracks on wireless broadband in emerging markets.

Expo Floor, 4G World 2009

While there were a handful of product announcements from Alvarion, Dragonwave
and others, the main theme of this year’s show was on the growing level of
maturity of the 4G ecosystem and the tremendous amount of growth and
opportunities that lie ahead. This was evidenced by the diversity of the
keynotes with presentations by traditional WiMAX and wireless broadband
companies along with those by mobile vendors including Ericsson and Qualcomm.

Ulf Ewaldsson, Vice President & Head of Product Radio at Ericsson espoused the
benefits of 3G & HSPA technologies and their enormous scale advantages, while
Tzvika Friedman, CEO at Alvarion spoke of the "openness" of WiMAX , its
availability today and the ability it has to make an impact on the world.

Bill Morrow, CEO at Clearwire provided a keynote on the second day, reiterating
the possibilities when people have unrestricted access to a true multi-megabit
wireless broadband network.

Morrow then proceeded to show a video of a drive test comparing two iPhones –
one using a 3G connection and one using WiMAX (via a portable Wi-Fi router
connected to the Clearwire network). The iPhone on the Clearwire network
experienced performance 3-5 times faster than the one on the 3G network.
"Only a 4G network can unlock the true potential of device like the iPhone,"
said Morrow.

Bill Morrow, Clearwire, 4G World 2009

Morrow expressed that much more work was needed from the ecosystem community
including lower power and multi-radio technologies, new applications from
developers, new devices and more movements towards Pico & Femto cells.

Earlier in the week, Clearwire announced their WiMAX Innovation Network in
Silicon Valley was open for developers. The developer network, which is a
precursor to commercial service planned for the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010,
will cover more than 20 square miles in Santa Clara, Mountain View and parts of
downtown Palo Alto, California. More information on the program can be

found here.

WiMAX & LTE

Of course, no wireless show would be complete without some healthy debate on
WiMAX and LTE. Bruce Brda, Sr. VP & GM for Wireless Networks, Home &
Networks Mobility for Motorola gave a nice presentation titled "LTE and WiMAX –
Convergence or Competition?"

In his presentation he outlined three possible scenarios: (1) LTE Kills WiMAX,
(2) The technologies converge, or (3) the technologies co-exist.

For LTE to kill WiMAX, Brda argues WiMAX progress would have to stall and LTE
would have to accelerate. Also, WiMAX up until now has served more as a
fixed broadband service, and LTE would have to offer a compelling reason for
operators to switch. Brda also points to the strength of the WiMAX
ecosystem with over 500 member companies, over 500 devices planned or in
development, and the 802.16m developments underway that provides an evolution
path for mobile WiMAX operators.

Bruce Brda, Motorola, 4G World 2009

Brda also believes that there is little chance the technologies will converge
into a single standard due to the many differences in the origin and development
of the technologies including industry models, technology differences, spectrum,
support for legacy systems and device ecosystems.

Instead, Brda believes the technologies will co-exist, just as UNIX and Windows
exist as operating systems, and Playstation and X-Box exist as gaming platforms.

WiMAX Momentum Continues

Last week, leading WiMAX chip company Beceem announced that they had shipped
more than 1 million terminal chips in the third quarter of 2009. The
company indicated that mobile device shipments are accelerating in the US,
Japan, Russia, Mexico, Malaysia and many other countries.

"We are witnessing a major revolution with the rapid adoption of commercial
services offering 4G mobile internet and broadband services globally, and we are
excited to play a key role in enabling the underlying device ecosystem," said
Babu Mandava, CEO of Beceem.

In a keynote on the third day, Russian WiMAX Operator Yota provided an update on
their latest progress. Yegor Ivanov, Director of Business Development for
Yota stated that the company had added 100,000 subscribers in the first 3 months
since the network was launched and is on track to double that number in the next
2 months. The company has also already covered 23 million people with
1,000 base stations in 3 Russian cities.

Besides the phenomenal growth, what was interesting was how people were using
the Yota network. Given the capabilities of WiMAX, the average traffic per
user was 9.7GB per month, 20% higher than the average ADSL/cable broadband usage
in Moscow and Saint Pertersburg. The service is sold using simple
flat-rate pricing with unlimited usage starting at $16USD per month.
Subscribers also have access to Yota’s extensive entertainment content including
music from Sony/BMG, Universal Music, EMI and others.

Conclusions

While the standards battles between WiMAX & LTE continue, the dust is begging to
settle and the operator’s choices between these two technologies is coming into
sharper focus. Berge Ayvazian, Conference Co-Chair for 4G World described
it this way: "WiMAX is coming form the IEEE and consumer electronics
industry is about making broadband ‘mobile’ – the ability to take your broadband
experience with you. LTE is coming from the 3GPP and cellular worlds is
about delivering ‘mobile broadband’ – with more emphasis on mobility."

While LTE may garner the lion’s share several years from now as a mass-market
mobile data technology, WiMAX has 2 distinct advantages: (1) Openness of the
network, and (2) its time to market advantage.

For operators with no legacy systems and with access to the spectrum available
and funding to build the network, WiMAX makes the most sense and offers a key
advantage relative to other available technologies. The Openness of WiMAX
and support of companies like Google in their partnership with Clearwire will
also help drive innovation.

For operators with an existing mobile voice business and those offering 3G
services today, the migration to LTE will be the natural choice, assuming they
are able to provide good quality of services to their customers until they can
migrate. Some vendors such as KDDI in Japan are hedging their bets –
backing WiMAX with its investments in UQ Communications as well as developing
its own LTE network.

AT&T’s recent shift in strategy away from extending its current 3G network with
HSPA+ and instead deciding to accelerate its migration to LTE is an interesting
development for HSPA networks in general. With Verizon pushing
aggressively to complete its LTE build-out, AT&T most likely did not want to
risk having a slower network or to sink additional money into a network that it
would eventually have to replace.

We should expect to see more WiMAX devices in the coming months as the ecosystem
continues to mature and more markets are deployed.

4G World 2009

ctownsend — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:39:38 +0000

4G World 2009, Chicago

Expo Floor, 4G World 2009

Bill Morrow, CEO at Clearwire provided a keynote on the second day, reiterating
the possibilities when people have unrestricted access to a true multi-megabit
wireless broadband network.

Bill Morrow, Clearwire, 4G World 2009

In his presentation he outlined three possible scenarios: (1) LTE Kills WiMAX,
(2) The technologies converge, or (3) the technologies co-exist.

Bruce Brda, Motorola, 4G World 2009

Instead, Brda believes the technologies will co-exist, just as UNIX and Windows
exist as operating systems, and Playstation and X-Box exist as gaming platforms.

We should expect to see more WiMAX devices in the coming months as the ecosystem
continues to mature and more markets are deployed.

Improved Performance in Mobile Devices with Innovative Antenna Design

ctownsend — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:27:06 +0000

While sometimes taken for granted, antenna design is becoming increasingly
important in the successful design of mobile devices and handsets. This
has become even more profound in recent years with the growing number of
technologies packed into smaller form-factors, each with different frequencies
and some utilizing multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) technologies.

The antenna is important since it is the only structure in a mobile device that
communicates directly with the network. How these structures are designed
and where they are placed inside a device can have a big impact on how the
device performs.

But designing MIMO into smaller devices comes with its own unique challenges.
With multiple antennas, more space is typically needed to ensure that the
multiple antennas operate without interfering with each other. This
problem can become even more challenging when working with technologies that
operate in close proximity – such as WiMAX at 2.5GHz and Wi-Fi at 2.4GHz.

SkyCross has solved this problem with its iMAT^TM technology (short
for isolated mode antenna technology) which enables a single antenna to function
like multiple antennas, without compromising the performance of each antenna or
the industrial design of the device. This is accomplished by utilizing a
single radiating structure with multiple feed points.

The company, founded in 2000, provides a complete host of antenna solutions for
the mobile phone, home entertainment and computing industries. The company
considers itself more of a solutions company that can apply a wide variety of
technologies depending on the needs of its customers.

"Many of our solutions are specific to each customer device," says Joe
Gifford, Vice President at SkyCross. "The product we develop is customer
specific with SkyCross technology and techniques used in an ‘artistically’
developed way to solve each customer’s problem."

The company is active in a number of technologies, including 802.11n and the
next generation of IEEE standards. This year
alone the company will ship 120 million antennas in a variety of different
market segments.

In the WiMAX space, the company works with all the major players and even
includes Intel as one of its investors (the only antenna company that Intel has
an investment in). Last year, SkyCross technology was included in Airspan’s
MiMAX Quad-Band USB dongle – the first WiMAX Forum certified USB device and
winner of several industry awards. The device was certified to operate in
the 2.5GHz band, but is also designed to operate in every frequency from 2.3GHz
to 5.9 GHz.

SkyCross technology was included in one of the first WiMAX CPEs on Sprint’s Xohm
network in Baltimore and was selected by WiMAX operator VMAX in Taiwan for use
in their USB dongle. SkyCross was also recently selected as the antenna
provider for several devices on the UQ Communications network in Japan and the
Clearwire network in the United States.

"We have developed the technology that sits on the reference design of WiMAX
chip companies such as Samsung, Beceem , Sequans, GCT and others," says Gifford.
"Some of those reference designs are then included in products produced by
Novatel, Sierra Wireless and Huawei."

The company also considers the RF approach that it takes in designing the
electrical-mechanical radiating device as part of its key advantage. "When
people think of an antenna, they typically think of a radiating metal device
that you put in a device," says Gifford. "With our approach, we develop
some type of electrical-mechanical radiating property, it could be anything as
inexpensive as possible, and we use that to excite the entire device that it is
going into. For example, with a USB dongle, we can get the entire device
to radiate."

From a cost/performance perspective, the company claims that its iMAT technology
can cut the cost in half and boost performance and efficiencies 2X when compared
to traditional technologies. With today’s smaller devices, operating at
higher frequencies and non-line of site environments, these performance gains
can be significant – improving the subscribers experience while on the network
and reducing overall network costs.

Operators such as Clearwire have taken notice and are influencing the design of
handsets by insisting that suppliers consider using SkyCross. "We have
been working with Clearwire, and they liked what they saw in the performance
metrics," says Gifford. "We do a great job, especially in small form
factors and can improve the antenna performance significantly compared to other
traditional solutions."

Improved Performance in Mobile Devices with Innovative Antenna Design

ctownsend — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:27:06 +0000

Operators Drive Best-of-Breed Strategies for 4G Networks

ctownsend — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:37:22 +0000

The build-out of new 4G networks will bring new challenges as operators try to
manage the enormous amounts of data and find new ways to monetize data traffic.
Today there are over 5 billion handsets world-wide that are running over
networks that were primarily designed to handle voice.

While overall cell phone growth has stalled, smart phones adoption continues to
be the one bright-spot in the industry. With the popularity of the iPhone
and other smart phones, mobile data usage has doubled every 6 months, but the
corresponding revenue has not kept pace and consumers have become increasingly
unwilling to pay much more.

The traditional model for most operators has been to start with voice and then
build a hand-full of walled-garden applications to generate incremental revenue.
But consumers increasingly want access to rich content and the "real internet",
not some stripped-down version. The dilemma for operators has therefore
become how to provide the access and services that their customers demand, while
still providing a reasonable return on their network investments.

WiChorus recently announced that it will be providing its SmartCore 4G packet
core solution for Clearwire’s WiMAX network. In simplest terms, the
wireless packet core is the part of the network that makes mobility possible –
providing the key interface with all devices on the network including
authentication, management and termination of sessions, among other functions.

Today’s 4G networks can be broadly grouped in 3 areas: the access network
which includes the radio base stations, the wireless packet core which manages
mobile subscribers and their sessions (which with WiMAX is known as the ASN
gateway), and the IP network which includes the routers and switches necessary
to connect to the internet.

In the past, operators would typically source complete end-to-end solutions from
the major infrastructure vendors including Motorola, Samsung, Alcatel-Lucent and
others. Under the new approach, operators are requesting that vendors
de-couple the core network from their proposals and provide quotes for each
parts of the network separately.

"This is more of a horizontal approach which takes the best-of-breed gateway and
then provides operators the ability to mix/match with various radios," says Eric
Andrews, VP of Product Management for WiChorus. "This approach also ensure
that all vendor base stations will interoperate with each other and the packet
core network selected by the operator."

This approach is also being used by other operators such as Verizon with their
planned LTE network. Verizon selected vendors Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent
for its base stations, but also selected Starent Networks for its wireless core
network.

Another advantage is cost - providing increased leverage in the
negotiations with an operator’s infrastructure vendors. With the wireless
core removed, operators can better evaluate and compare proposals on just the
base station equipment. With the recent addition of Huawei as one of
Clearwire’s infrastructure vendors, driving down costs further must certainly be
an important consideration.

Focusing on the Core

While other vendors provide complete end-to-end solutions, the company was
founded on the sole mission of building the best purpose-built 4G core network.
"The importance of the mobile core is that it help operators profit from this
new business" says Andrews. "We sit right between connecting all of these
subscribers to rich content and provide a lot of value added intelligence to
operators to enable them to do content monetization and network optimization."

The announcement with Clearwire reflects the first commercial announcement for
the 4 year-old company which has spent the last 3 years quietly developing its
technology. Last year, Clearwire issued an RFP and mandated an "open IP
core." They started with a total of 12 vendors, whittled that down to 6 and
after extensive field trials, finally selected WiChorus. The company has
not disclosed which Clearwire markets it will operate in only that they "will be
in multiple markets." WiChorus was also selected by the WiMAX Forum for use in
its certification labs as it moves beyond testing the air interface to the core
network.

But why would Clearwire not select the ASN gateway from one of its current
infrastructure providers Motorola or Samsung? "The companies who make the
best base stations are not always the ones that make the best packet cores",
said Rehan Jalil, president and CEO of the WiChorus. "This is also true in
other parts of the network such as devices, routers and switches. This
approach allows operators to select the best-of-breed equipment for each part of
their network."

"Our equipment typical has more capacity than 5, 10 or 20 of our competitor
boxes", says Andrews. "We designed the technology from the ground-up using
a state-of the art architecture that has more capacity."

Optimizing the Network

Utilizing a single vendor for the core network also ensures that operators can
offer a consistent level of services across all of their markets. For
example, content based charging and uniform level of service can be rolled out
across all markets.

Mobile data networks also provided a new set of challenges and must be actively
managed to ensure a healthy network and good quality of experience for all
subscribers. What applications or users are putting strain on the
networks? What times of day? By actively monitoring such activity,
specific polices can be developed and help shape the service levels that
operators put in place. While "throttling" internet applications has
received a lot of attention in the press, it is absolutely essentially in the
spectral confines of a mobile environment where the actions of one user can
create can create problems for the entire network.

To remain competitive, operators must also find new ways to monetize their
networks. "We have this networks intelligence and content awareness that
allows us to some interesting things with content monetization," says Andrews.
"For example, an operator might provide a premium QOS depending on the
application and derive revenue from different applications, such as gaming.
We have the intelligent infrastructure in place to make that happen."

As one of the highest profile WiMAX operators, Clearwire’s ASN strategy should
have implications for other operators. "A number of operators are now
coming to us", says Andrews. "A few years ago, operators were looking for
end-to-end solutions, now they all want best-of-breed. A lot of operators
are looking towards Clearwire and they are forcing this to be a more open
eco-system."

Operators Drive Best-of-Breed Strategies for 4G Networks

ctownsend — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:37:22 +0000

Clearwire to Commercially Launch WiMAX Services in Las Vegas on July 21st

ctownsend — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:34:01 +0000

The announcement follows launches earlier this year in Portland, Oregon and
Atlanta, Georgia. Other markets including Chicago, Charlotte, N.C.,
Dallas-Fort Worth, Honolulu, Philadelphia and Seattle are planned for later this
year.

CLEAR, the brand which Clearwire markets its mobile WiMAX services, plans to
celebrate the launch with a consumer event on July 21st at Town Square Mall on
Las Vegas Boulevard where they will showcase WiMAX products and services.

The network is extensive and covers the entire Las Vegas metro area based on
coverage maps provided by CLEAR.

Clear WiMAX Las Vegas coverage map

The Las Vegas launch is another milestone and puts Clearwire on track to
deliver on its launch promises made earlier this year. With the launch, I
suspect we may start to see more devices certified on the CLEAR WiMAX network.

Comcast Launches First WiMAX Market

ctownsend — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:39:31 +0000

With the launch, Comcast becomes the first cable MVNO (mobile virtual network
operator) in the US offering high-speed WiMAX services. Although no
further announcements have been made, Comcast will likely launch additional
markets in the coming months as its WiMAX wholesale partner Clearwire rolls out
additional cities.

The new service will be marketed as "Comcast High-Speed 2go" and will provide
mobile data to laptops, netbooks and other mobile devices over wireless networks
with download speeds of up to 4 megabits per second. Existing 3G wireless
networks typically offer download speeds between 1 and 1.5 megabits a second or
less.

Comcast will leverage its existing install base of customers, offering mobile
broadband as a bundle to its existing internet service. Comcast will offer
two different devices and service plans: The Metro data card, which is typically
installed into a laptop to allow wireless internet access, will cost $50/month
when bundled with home internet service and will only work within the WiMAX
coverage areas. A nationwide version for $70/month will allow subscribers
to get online via Sprint Nextel Corp’s 3G network where the 4G network is not
available.

Last year Comcast became one of the major investors in Clearwire, providing more
than $1 billion of the $3.2 billion Clearwire received from Google, Intel, Time
Warner and others.

Putting the weight of the Comcast brand and sales channel should be a nice boost
to WiMAX efforts in the US. Mobile WiMAX will complement nicely with
Comcast’s current internet offerings – providing a bundle of one of the best
fixed internet services with the best commercially available mobile broadband
service. Partnering with Sprint and offering a dual-mode 3g/WiMAX option
gives them access to a nation-wide 3G footprint while WiMAX networks continue to
be built-out.