Software aims to help consumers untangle wireless devices
Published Tuesday, September 21, 1999, in the San Jose Mercury News
A cell phone to serve many masters
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.' |
