re: 1xEV-DO from Airvana
Not surprisingly, given that Qualcomm put in a big chunk of the $41 million in venture funding Airvana has raised, Airvana is focusing on a CDMA-based standard with the indigestible name 1X EV DO, which stands for 1X evolution, data only.
>> Putting '3G' Networks In Action
Airvana targeting untethered Net access
Peter J. Howe
Boston Globe
1/7/2002
Chelmsford, MA - One of these years, the wireless companies have been telling us, we'll be enjoying ''3G'' networks that let us do high-speed Internet surfing on our laptops anywhere, take videoconferences on our cellphones, and watch full-motion video on handheld computers.
Take a ride down Turnpike Road or Warren Avenue here in the back of Airvana Inc.'s white van loaded with computer screens, and you can actually see a third-generation wireless network in action.
Airvana, a well-funded wireless-data start-up whose backers include cellphone giant Qualcomm and Sycamore Networks cofounder Desh Deshpande, is developing technology that would deliver always-on wireless access at speeds comparable to cable modems or digital subscriber line connections - in theory up to 2.4 megabits per second, or nearly double the typical maximum of cable and higher-end DSL.
''It's a little-known fact, but probably here in Chelmsford, the fastest 3G network in the world is operating,'' boasts Sanjeev Verma, an Airvana co-founder and vice president of marketing and business development, as the van tootles down a side street with a Janet Jackson video streaming, e-mail flowing, and Web pages opening like lightning.
It's not a big network: just two towers, one on top of Airvana's nondescript offices on Industrial Avenue, behind a firewood and mulch storage yard, and a second at the former Wang Towers building on the Lowell Connector.
But Airvana's founders, and some analysts who follow the company, think it could be the proof of concept for a way to fulfill the promises of super-high-speed untethered Net access, beyond the incremental improvements that companies like AT&T Wireless, Cingular, Nextel, Sprint PCS, VoiceStream, and Verizon Wireless are rolling out over the next six to 18 months. Most of those have or will boost wireless data access to the 50- to 120-kilobit-per-second range.
''Third-generation'' wireless refers to the next wave after 1G, plain old analog cellphone service, and 2G, digital wireless systems that can deliver data access at speeds of typically 9,000 to 14,400 bits per second, a pokey fraction of what you can get from a 56K dial-up modem. 3G wireless is to 2G what a DSL line or cable modem is to dial-up Net access: faster and always connected.
In the United States, wireless carriers use four different, conflicting network standards for delivering voice access. The one used by Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless is called Code Division Multiple Access, or CDMA, which was developed by Qualcomm.
Not surprisingly, given that Qualcomm put in a big chunk of the $41 million in venture funding Airvana has raised, Airvana is focusing on a CDMA-based standard with the indigestible name 1X EV DO, which stands for 1X evolution, data only.
The key selling claims for 1X EV DO are higher speed and cheaper deployment. In theory, it can deliver up to 2.4 megabits per second, four to 20 times faster than other 3G systems being developed, although in real-world use subscribers might likely see 600 to 1,000 kilobits per second. Moreover, it can be deployed within existing ''spectrum,'' or airwave licenses, unlike some 3G systems requiring scarce, expensive spectrum.
To offer high speeds, Airvana's system works by polling users in a cell site hundreds of times a second to find out what kind of service they want from the network, then allocating the maximum available capacity to whichever users are demanding the most bandwidth at that instant. It also uses Internet protocol, instead of dedicated circuits, to ''backhaul'' traffic from cell towers through the network, sharply lowering costs.
Airvana's main product is a base station network controller, a piece of network gear that would typically control 70 to 100 cell sites, each of which would be upgraded to add 1X EV DO channels. Nortel Networks has agreed to integrate Airvana cards in its base-station switches, and Cisco Systems also made a deal with Airvana to create ''end to end'' networks.
While AT&T Wireless and Cingular are spending billions of dollars rebuilding their networks for 3G, Paul R. Sargeant, Airvana vice president of product management and a former top Nortel wireless executive, said a key selling point for Airvana is that its systems could be plugged in to existing CDMA networks like those used by Sprint, Verizon, and big operators in Japan and South Korea.
''You don't have to deploy this nationally - you can do it a few markets at a time,'' Sargeant said.
Analysts familiar with the company agree it has some hot technology, but warn against overstating its potential.
Iain Gillott, of IGillott Research in Austin, Texas, said, ''If I'm the only person in the cell site, standing next to the tower on a clear day with no birds in the sky, I get 2.4 megs. In reality, in a loaded network, they're looking at 600 to 700 kilobits per second, which is still pretty good.''
Rebecca Diercks, a top wireless analyst with Cahners In-Stat, said, ''I think it's a very interesting technology that could be very successful for brand-new operators that want to compete with companies that offer DSL and cable modem service.''
Someone seeking a broadband connection for their home personal computer could plug it into an antenna device that would link wirelessly to a base station - with the advantage that you could use a laptop at your desk and take it on the road with the same fast Net links.
Both Gillott and Diercks said a big plus for Airvana is its deep executive roster, which includes former top officials at Cabletron, Ciena, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Nortel, and Qualcomm, a rich mix of wireless and networking expertise. Airvana chief executive Randy Battat and chief technology officer Vedat Eyuboglu are both Motorola alumni, as is Verma.
Deshpande, who founded Cascade Communications before helping launch Sycamore, said he was drawn to both the executive team and what he sees as the certainty that growth of data traffic will explode on wireless networks in time just as it has landline phone systems. Airvana is one of just four start-ups on whose boards Deshpande serves.
''Today, with wireless, it's 1 percent data, 99 percent voice, but data will grow over the next 10 years and subsume everything, very much like what happened in the wired network,'' Deshpande said. Looking at Airvana, Deshpande sees a young company that could boom like another data-networking pioneer.
''This,'' Deshpande said, ''is sort of like Cisco 20 years ago.'' <<
- Eric - |
