[amd, wireless phones, wireless networking, and VoIP]
hi omer,
thanks for posting, was hoping you would stop by this board...
btw... really liked the coolteaklite news... power consumption is a really big deal for co adsl chipsets... and expect that somewhere down the line fujitsu will license this (and maybe the palm...in addition to the oak)... in the last orctf cc. tamir mentioned that orctf/fujitsu was already working on next generation chipsets... this coolteaklite core would seem to be a really nice fit for the central office application...
have been wondering if the dspg relationship with amd might extend beyond the acquisition.. maybe to some future silicon? any thoughts?
thanks
s
btw.. recent discussion of dspg in the context of wireless phones, wireless networking, and VoIP reminded me of this article from jan 98... dspg compression chip used in sanyo/symbol VoIP phone for wireless lan and which used in conjunction with a gateway-router cisco "can send local wireless calls into the public switched telephone network" ... now that's a mouthfull of buzzwords... ;) ... :
---
January 19, 1998, Issue: 989
Section: News
Symbol puts voice-over-IP phone in wireless LAN
Loring Wirbel
San Jose, Calif. - Symbol Technologies Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. this week will jointly announce a voice-over-Internet Protocol wireless phone that operates as a packet service within Symbol's 2.4-GHz LAN. The system is based on a modified cellular phone manufactured by Sanyo and on a 3260 gateway router from Cisco that can send local wireless calls into the public switched telephone network.
This is not the first time the FCC's unlicensed Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) frequency bands have been used for voice services. But earlier products, from such vendors as Nortel and Spectralink, have used circuit-switched voice in ISM bands to create the equivalent of a wireless PBX.
"Such use of the ISM band is interesting, but all the market data we've seen suggestS that the entire worldwide market for wireless PBXes is in the $150 million region," said Fred Heiman, executive vice president of Symbol, a leading OEM supplier of wireless-LAN equipment to vertical industries.
Packet service
The maturation of voice-over-IP software drove Symbol to examine voice as a packet service, and Intel Corp.'s work on H.323 call-setup software for its ProShare conferencing hardware was also an important market enabler. Bob Beach, the Symbol research fellow responsible for design of the new NetVision phone, worked at Intel for several years on various telephony-related projects and has expertise in both ProShare and the Microsoft NetMeeting software suites.
The advantage of handling voice as an IP packet is that a NetVision Phone can be treated as just one more packet service within the range of the wireless LAN, letting users make in-building calls with no access charges. Improvements in voice-compression algorithms enable near-toll-quality voice service (albeit with 70-ms typical delays), with very little impact on overall LAN throughput, Heiman said.
When a gateway router supporting voice-over-IP (such as Cisco's 3260) is used at the edge of the wireless LAN, translation to public-switched-phone-network numbering plans can be made with only a typical PBX prefix, such as a "Dial 9" option, added to allow external calls. Calls to circuit-switched phones will carry toll charges, but calls to other Spectrum 24 wireless-LAN sites within a corporate network anywhere in the world will carry no public-switched-network access charges.
Cisco is announcing gateway-router support for the approach this week as Symbol's first partner. But the Spectrum 24 wireless LAN and the NetVision phones can be used with any IP-gateway products.
Symbol used a standard Sanyo cellular handset as its design base, to which it added a voice-compression chip from DSP Group Inc. and a standard industry codec for analog sampling.
The use of a single handset to provide a range of packet services is critical in the vertical markets Symbol serves, Heiman said. The modified Sanyo phone already includes pager support, important for medical and factory-floor markets. Symbol plans to embed a bar-code scanner in the next version, which will send bar-code data as IP packets, multiplexed along with voice and traditional LAN data.That version will be marketed to retail point-of-sale applications first, though Heiman also expects to see interest in integrated bar-code support among various industrial and medical applications.
Development of the vertical-market options let Symbol create a family of minimally programmable hardwired access platforms, which Heiman calls LAN appliances. As LCD and touchscreen technology matures, Symbol will look at adding such functions as Web browsing, probably based on streamlined protocols developed by Unwired Planet Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.)
"None of the handset integration would be as straightforward if the phone handset was based on a wireless-PBX concept," Heiman said. "Voice-over-IP is important for pulling the voice and data services together as protocols, which makes for easier hardware integration."
Existing users of the Spectrum 24 wireless LAN will be able to add NetVision phones into networks for roughly $500 to $600 per phone. New users will be able to create wireless-LAN/Net-Vision-phone networks at a range of prices under $10,000, depending on the desired number of nodes and access points.
Heiman said that beta products will be ready by March and that volume production is slated for the summer.
Sanyo will serve as a reseller of the phones and network nodes in global markets.
techweb.com
|
