A cell phone to serve many masters
Software aims to help consumers untangle wireless devices
BY JON HEALEY
Mercury News Staff Writer
As the wireless industry trots out the first Internet-ready ''smart phones,'' an even
smarter breed lurks over the horizon: mobile phones that can add features and
functions in the blink of an eye.
These models, which aren't likely to be sold before 2001, will be able to adapt
instantly to the different frequencies and transmission standards used around the
globe. One San Jose company wants to go even further, creating chameleon-like cell
phones that can change into portable Internet radios, game machines or pocket-size
video players.
The new approach, known as ''software-defined radio,'' could help consumers keep up with evolving wireless networks
without having to swap phones. Instead of dropping $100 or $200 for a new handset, users could add new features on
impulse through a phone call.
The wireless carriers like the idea, too, because it could ease the transition to high-capacity, multipurpose pipelines that can
handle voice, data and video. By installing the technology at their antennas, they could equip their networks to communicate
with customers no matter what kind of phone they use, new or old.
''It'll be the way of the future, there's no question about that,'' analyst Herschel Shosteck said.
Some technical and economic hurdles have to be overcome, a big one being the drain on battery life. Nevertheless, some
industry observers expect the technology to start popping up next year at the antennas, where power consumption isn't a
critical issue.
In addition to major equipment vendors like Nortel Networks and Lucent Technologies, the companies actively developing
software-defined-radio products include two South Bay start-ups, QuickSilver Technology Inc. of San Jose and Morphics
Technology of Campbell. The former plans to have its first mobile-phone products in 18 months, and the latter expects to be
installing network equipment late next year.
The driving force behind the new technology is the accelerating pace of change in the wireless industry, which wants to
augment its voice services with mobile Internet access. This acceleration threatens to yield Internet-like cycles of innovation
and obsolescence, forcing users to replace their phones frequently to take advantage of the latest services.
New smart phones
Consumers are already seeing some of this phenomenon. Wireless companies are starting to roll out information services
that work only on smart phones, or cell phones with built-in Web browsers and messaging capability.
Smart phones can be upgraded to a degree by downloading new software, but the hardware that controls how they
communicate isn't so easily changed. All mobile phones today use chips tuned to specific frequencies and transmission
standards, meaning that they'll work on some networks but not others.
That's why the phone bought from Pacific Bell Wireless, for example, won't work on the networks run by AT&T, Sprint,
Bell Atlantic or Vodafone AirTouch. The incompatibility problem will get worse over the next few years as carriers add
higher-speed, ''third generation'' networks on top of the analog and slow-speed digital ones, putting yet another frequency
into the mix.
The goal of software-defined radio is to shift those communications functions to programmable components, either in
hardware or software. That way, mobile phones and antennas can operate in multiple modes and frequency bands --
including ones that aren't yet in use.
Companies are exploring a number of different routes to that goal. Morphics and QuickSilver have developed
microprocessors that can be altered electronically, rearranging the circuits that control how wireless signals are handled.
Because the processing is still being handled by chips, not software, it can be done at the very high speeds demanded by
wireless communications, said John Watson, a co-founder of QuickSilver. And by using a single reconfigurable chip instead
of multiple customized ones, less power, space and money is consumed.
Naturally, if it were easy to do all these things, someone would already have done them.
Johan Lodenius of Qualcomm Inc., which makes mobile phones and chips, said the differences in wireless networks go well
beyond their frequencies and transmission standards. To make the leap from one standard to another is a complex task, he
said, adding, ''I have yet to see any of those solutions in practical use.''
Tower of Babel
Nor is it a simple matter to download delicate programming instructions to a phone, which is something wireless networks
don't do today, Lodenius said. ''How do you make sure they won't freeze?''
The notion of software-defined radios had an early backer in the U.S. military, which has ''more radios and bands than you
can shake a stick at,'' said Carl Panasik, a member of the technology staff at Texas Instruments. The Pentagon experimented
with the technology in the 1980s to squeeze more types of radios into jet fighters, and then in the 1990s to eliminate the
Tower of Babel on the battlefield.
''The problem,'' said Bob Miller, head of communications technology research for AT&T Labs, ''is that military systems
and commercial systems are very, very different.'' For one thing, civilians worry about costs.
AT&T Labs has with Harris Semiconductor developed a set of software-defined-radio chips for use in wireless networks.
One of its targets, Miller said, is enabling networks within office buildings to communicate with a variety of cell phones.
Morphics recently raised $13.5 million in venture capital to support its efforts. QuickSilver couldn't line up any support from
those sources, Watson said, so it is relying on corporate backers, including BellSouth.
Now the concept is being tested by the wireless carriers, who see it enabling their antennas to support current phones and
third-generation ones simultaneously. It could also allow carriers in each market to pool their capacity, letting cell phones
shift to new networks when they run into busy signals.
''That's the ultimate vision,'' said John D. Ralston, vice president of marketing and licensing for Morphics. ''Seven or eight
years from now we'll be experimenting with that level of flexibility on public wireless networks.''
What might be possible
The ability to communicate with any wireless network is important not just for cell phones, but also for other types of mobile
communications devices, such as car radios or dashboard displays that could connect wirelessly to the Internet.
Cell phones with reconfigurable chips, meanwhile, could take advantage of the increasing data capacity of wireless networks
to become multi-function information appliances, said Chris Mangum of Venture Consulting Group, a consulting firm that
aids start-ups like QuickSilver. The main limits, Watson said, are those imposed by the container the chip is in.
Among the possibilities include playing digital music or video, receiving satellite navigational signals and tuning in radio or TV
broadcasts. And it's not just the wireless carriers providing these functions, Ralston of Morphics said. With an open
standard, ''other people's neat stuff can be loaded in.''
For instance, consumers browsing the Web on their wireless phones might come across an intriguing application and
download it then and there. Although smart phones can download applications, too, phones with reconfigurable chips would
have more flexibility, Watson said.
Such adaptability is key to the evolution of mobile phones, said Stephen Blust, a top technologist at BellSouth Cellular and
chairman of the Software Defined Radio Forum.
''Phones are no longer being viewed as a voice device,'' he said. ''An infocentric appliance is where I'd like to take them.''
Contact Jon Healey at jhealey@sjmercury.com or (877) 727-5005.
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