Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Nokia (NOK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnG who wrote (5398)	6/9/2000 9:10:00 PM
From: JohnG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

W-CDMA researcher points out some limits. JohnG telecomasia.net October 1998 Planning next century?s wireless network: 3G, 4G and beyond NTT DoCoMo is not only the world?s largest wireless operator ? it also owns the second largest wireless research lab in the world. And that lab is currently spearheading the push for W-CDMA: a technology which should open up capacity and dramatically increase the functionality of mobile networks in the 21st Century In this interview with Telecom Asia journalist Swee-han Yap, Dr. Kohei Satoh, who heads the W-CDMA research team at NTT DoCoMo, discusses NTT?s plans for its 3G system and a fourth-generation system down the line. Why is NTT favoring W-CDMA over its existing PDC standard? We have limited spectrum in the 800-MHz and 1.5-GHz frequency band. And with the number of subscribers already past the 40 million mark, there is a need to increase capacity quickly. The Ministry of Post and Telecommunication?s forecast is that in 2000, there will be more than 50 million subscribers. However, since bandwidth is limited, Japan tried to introduce new system which utilizes a new frequency band which provides more capacity and the target is to provide capacity which is twice that of the PDC system. Why choose to upgrade via W-CDMA and not another technology? In our discussion with ARIB [Association of Radio Industries and Business], we discussed the merits of adopting a TDMA or CDMA system. We finally decided on a W-CDMA system. What we hope to achieve with our third-generation mobile communication network is to adopt W-CDMA as our radio interface and an evolved GSM system as our core network. Because GSM is used world-wide, this is an important step for Japan since this will facilitate global roaming. What kind of applications will run on the new W-CDMA system? This is an important but difficult question to answer. Now on PDC, our major services include voice and data, but only low bit-rate data. So our hope is to increase the bit rate speed for data transmission substantially which is especially important for mobile email and Internet access. Typically, a subscriber gets 9.6-kbps data but last year we introduced packet switching for data transfer which offers up to 24.4-kbps. However our packet-based data coverage area is limited. We?re not quite decided on what new services are going to be introduced but our top priority is to provide high-speed mobile Internet. Full-motion video is also in our target list. But we?re still in the discussion stage about the kind of applications we?re going to introduce on the W-CDMA system. Why is high-speed Internet access such a priority? Now, we can only provide 9.6-kbps transmission rates but user demand is much higher than that. In Japanese offices, customers get 1-Mbps or 2-Mbps transfer rates but with a handset they can only get 9.6 kbps, which is quite limited. What are the advantages of using W-CDMA? It?s a very promising technology for multimedia services. It uses variable rate processing techniques, which means it could easily achieve multi-rate transmission. The technology?s use of a wider bandwidth means it can transmit full-motion video in addition to voice, data and still images. Because the transmitted data is spread over a wide band, W-CDMA reduces the effects of interference, noise and changes in received power compared to current mobile technologies. The high-quality data transmission and high frequency efficiency is similar with what?s available on ISDN networks. It also eliminates the complexity of system configurations. This means that even when transmitting large volumes of data, it can avoid complex system configurations which cuts down the cost of transmission. How far does NTT hope to take W-CDMA? Our target, as discussed with the ITU, is to take indoor transmission rates up to 2 Mbps and outdoor transmission up to 384 kbps. 384 kbps is the optimum transmission speed for pedestrian users while 144 kbps is for users traveling in fast-moving vehicles. Do you plan to abandon your PDC network and go straight to W-CDMA in 2000? No, we?re planning to continue running both the W-CDMA network and the PDC network for awhile. At first, the W-CDMA system will only offer limited coverage, so we?ll still be operating a big PDC network and we will work towards integrating these two systems for better efficiency. We know it?s going to take a while to actually migrate our subscribers from the old network to the new. We?re going to take at least five years to do it but hopefully we?ll be able to accomplish it in not more than five years, but the actual time required is really not known. Do you think migrating from the PDC to W-CDMA technology is going to be a difficult process? Yes, I think so. First of all, there is the problem of migrating from TDMA-based PDC which operates on 800 MHz and 1.5 GHz to CDMA-based W-CDMA which runs on 2.2 GHz. There is also the different bit rate, which is going to complicate matters. The two technologies utilize different transmission and switching schemes. We?re going to move into ATM-based switching for our W-CDMA system which is quite different from what?s used on the PDC network. What kind of handsets are going to be used on the W-CDMA network? We?re going to introduce voice handsets similar to those used on PDC. For high bit-rate data transmission, there will be the new videophones. We?re also planning to introduce dual-mode phones which will operate on both PDC and W-CDMA systems. I personally believe dual-mode terminals will be an important step towards migrating the PDC subscribers to the new W-CDMA network. Do you feel Japan is disadvantaged in the telecom research arena because GSM or D-AMPS technologies are used in other parts of the world? No, I don?t see that as being a problem. For instance, on the IMT-2000 issue, we have good working relationships with R&D labs of different telcos and manufacturers locally as well as abroad, especially in Europe where there are multiple operators in each market and different manufacturing companies. Domestically, we discuss with manufacturers ways to improve the PDC technology and work together to develop new services for PDC. Do you think worldwide deployment of 3G networks is going to be difficult since some of the 3G spectrum is already used for 1.9-GHz PCS networks? I think this is only true for the U.S. Half of its allocated IMT-2000 band is used up for PCS systems. But the US used the wider portion of its IMT-2000 band for PCS, leaving its less wide portion free for 3G systems. And global roaming requires the less wide band anyway. So that does not present a problem. What are NTT?s fourth-generation plans? We plan to introduce a fourth generation system by 2010. It used to be one generation spanned a decade but now each generation only takes five years. There are plans to introduce broadband ISDN in our fourth-generation system and introducing data transmission speeds up to 10 Mbps. We would like to use a higher frequency band in our fourth-generation system which could be microwave or millimeter wave band. So we?re currently doing research on frequency band technology and the feasibility of running a higher frequency band system. What do you see as important wireless trends in Japan? I think there are three key words: multimedia, personal and global. Multimedia or mobile data will be an important trend. Subscribers will send more emails, images, and video. The cellular handset will increasingly become a consumer-market product and not one just for corporate people. The PDC service is only for Japan which is quite a limited area. We see the next generation of mobile communication networks to be ones that adopt a global standard which will enable roaming on a world-wide scale and we hope that will be W-CDMA. This is going to be quite important in Japan especially for people who travel widely for business. Now when we go to South Korea, we need CDMA phones, and when we go to India or Singapore we need GSM terminals. With the adoption of a global standard, we will be able to use one terminal world-wide. Related stories:

To: JohnG who wrote (5398)	6/10/2000 10:28:00 AM
From: Raymond	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

John! Who are Grahame Lynch & Tony Chan. I think they are either lazy and not trying to find out the facts or having some hidden agenda. There are some thing in the article that are completly false For example. "NTT DoCoMo still predicts that it will rollout a W-CDMA system next year, albeit using a local Japanese FDD interface rather than the TDD interface specified internationally". The WCDMA standard has two modes .The FDD mode which was proposed by Ericsson,Nokia and Docomo ... and the TDD mode which was proposed by Siemens,Nortel and... for the vote in ETSI.ETSI decided to use both modes but the WCDMA should be used in the paired bands. FDD is also what will be rolled out in Japan and for example at Vodaphone and BT.FDD will be used as a base for all initial WCDMA networks.TDD will probably come later.So NTT Docomo and Europe is using exactly the same standard. Another thing "Ericsson can demonstrate a system that weighs 240 lb and is so big that it is housed in a minivan" What does that say .Nothing It only means that size hasn't been any issue for Ericsson in the experimental system. Why don't they mention the Panasonic WCDMA test mobile with built in videoscreen at a little bit more than 100 gram or the NEC mobile which weights under 100 gram.This is for the experimental models.If they can make asics and mobiles at this size for the experimental system it will of course be possible to do them for the real system when they put much bigger resources in to the design.The asics is the core of the mobile.I don't think that any of the big mobile vendors will use any external suppliers for the asics.Then they are to dependent of another company.My guess is that even if QCOM will make a WCDMA asic none of the big mobile vendors will buy them But the last is just my opinion /R ETSI