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Technology Stocks : WiMAX & Qualcomm: OFDM Technologies for BWA -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric L who wrote (11)	8/21/2005 12:05:49 PM
From: Eric L	Respond to of 86

TI Says: "OFDM is Cool" >> OFDM is Cool Bill Krenik Wireless Advanced Architectures Manager Texas Investment tinyurl.com Maybe I date myself, but it seems to me that the word “cool” best describes a wireless technology called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). I think it’s about the neatest thing–there’s another word from my youth–developed thus far to provide multiple access as we seek the most efficient use of spectrum within wireless cells. OFDM elegantly overcomes the problem of fade in a multipath environment without requiring either band filtering or equalization across wide channel bandwidth. Consequently, it is especially well-suited for broadband wireless in such applications as Wi-Fi®, WiMAX and UWB. The technology provides throughput advantages over CDMA systems that will become increasingly important as demand for wireless broadband services grows. To help explain why I think OFDM is so cool, let me offer a quick tutorial. I don’t want to get into mathematical complexity here. I’ll just touch a couple of high spots. If you look at the history of OFDM, you'll find that the concept dates back to about the 1950s -- around the time that the word cool took on meanings that had nothing to do with temperature. It was in the 1950s that engineers realized that signal fade could be overcome by transmitting essentially the same signal over several frequencies at the same time. By linearly modulating sinusoids, they could transmit orthogonal signals in frequencies very close together without out-of-band interference. The trouble, however, was that radios still relied on vacuum tubes and all broadcasts were analog. There was no practical way for engineers to put their theory to use. But with the advent of digital signals, the theory of OFDM became reality. Finally, it was possible to transmit data across a large number of frequencies within a channel. With appropriate interleave schemes, no duplication of data from one frequency to another was necessary. If a small bit of the transmission was lost on one frequency, other frequencies would convey enough of the whole to permit recovery with error correcting codes. Though OFDM has been an option, technically, for a decade or more, the wireless industry grew up with simpler approaches to multiple access. The underlying idea was to isolate each user onto a frequency by one of three techniques: assigning an extremely narrow frequency range to each user; assigning specific time slices to each; or encoding data bits to distinguish one user from another. These approaches have been refined over the years. Bluetooth® wireless technology, for example, assigns a frequency to each user but hops from one frequency to another to look for one without fade or interference problems. CDMA replaces each bit in the data stream with a code, then uses signal processing techniques to separate the desired signal from interferers at the receiver. Recently, though, wireless operators have begun to pay greater attention to OFDM because it uses spectrum efficiently and provides greater capacity than CDMA. Studies conducted by Texas Instruments show that the actual system throughput advantage that OFDM delivers over other widely-used technologies is in the range of 5 percent to 25 percent. The diagrams below illustrate what TI found when we measured throughput at pedestrian walking speeds. The advantage OFDM offers at vehicle driving speeds are slightly smaller. [see graphic at link] I point out all of this to put the benefits of OFDM into factual perspective. The throughput advantage, while not measured in orders of magnitude, is impressive nonetheless. The technology offers other important advantages, too. It is: • Robust to multi-path • Extremely flexible, offering choices of number of carriers, cyclic prefix length, modulation, interleave time and frequency, etc. • Excellent for wide channel bandwidths, requiring no difficult equalization • Well-suited to multiple antennae in MIMO systems As I look down the road to the future of wireless, I see more and more new wireless air interface technologies adopting OFDM. IEEE802.11a/g, ultra-wideband, IEEE802.16d/e, and even some WAN technologies are making use of OFDM already. In broadcast data services and mobile television, various industry standards such as DVB-H, ISDB-T, and DMB all incorporate OFDM. At TI, our wireless OFDM activity includes WLAN production chipset solutions for 802.11 a/g and product development activity for DVB-H and ISDB-T; the standards supported by TI's "Hollywood" single-chip solution for live digital tv on cellphones. With an eye toward future technologies, TI proposed the multi-band OFDM version of UWB and is actively involved in research regarding advanced OFDM systems such as IEEE802.16. In the brutally objective world of high-performance communications, where even minor enhancements in system efficiency can translate to bottom line profits for service providers, OFDM has become a technology of choice for a very wide range of wireless systems. There’s no other way to put it. OFDM is cool. << - Eric -

To: Eric L who wrote (11)	8/21/2005 1:02:57 PM
From: Eric L	Respond to of 86

QUALCOMM's Flarion: "TI Inside" >> QUALCOMM August 11 CC: Message 21620068 TIM LONG, BANK OF AMERICA SECURITIES: Thank you. I believe Flarion was working with Texas Instruments on the silicon side. Can you tell me if this acquisition in any way is going to change the strategy as far as partners on the silicon side, if that would have any impact on timing of getting this technology deployed? Thank you. DR. PAUL JACOBS: So our intent right now is to allow them to continue to work on the path that they are on in terms of bringing out their new chipsets but clearly it's to our benefit to try and aggregate the volumes that we get with the volumes that we have on the CDMA chips into the future. << >> EuroTelcoblog: Contracts and Handsets (July 2004) tinyurl.com Flarion seems to be pursuing a strategy of getting the technology embedded in networks first, then using the carriers' leverage with handset suppliers to produce units in volume. The company remarked that it believes all it needs is one commercial order for handset production to kick off, and that such an order may not be far off. The chipset, developed in cooperation with Texas Instruments and Philips, is ready for production, and there is a prototype handset, which can be viewed in the factsheet .. flarion.com ... and also in high resolution here: flarion.com It is interesting to note that Motorola is the networking partner for Flarion's public safety trial in Washington D.C., particularly in light of Motorola's apparent leadership position in integration of other technologies into GSM handsets (BT's Bluephone, expected Wi-Fi integration), and also its long-standing relationship with Nextel. << flarion.com >> Interview with Mike Gallagher, president of Flarion Technologies (January 2003) tinyurl.com Q. You have raised funding from Cisco Systems, formed alliances with companies such as Fujitsu, HP, Flextronics, Philips and Texas Instruments, and initiated field trials in Korea with SK Telecom and Hanaro Telecom. Explain how Flarion is planning on going to market. Flarion’s go-to-market strategy: A. Sell direct to licensed mobile operators. Provide availability of Flarion’s mobile broadband products. Products include the RadioRouter™ base station, PC 1000™ Network Interface Card (PCMCIA form factor) and FLR 1500™ Mobile Broadband Chipset. Flarion’s base station and PC Card products will be manufactured by Flextronics and our chipset by Texas Instruments and Philips Semiconductor. All products will be available January 2003. Flarion will also have reference designs to license to OEM companies. ... Alliance program. The program includes over 27 leaders and innovators in fields that complement Flarion’s core products and skills. Flarion works with these companies to deliver a complete system offering to its customers. Current members include Cisco, Dynamicsoft, Flextronics, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Invertix, Northrop Grumman, Philips, Powerwave, Ricoh, Siemens and Texas Instruments to name a few. << >> Flarion and Flextronics Enter into Agreement to Manufacture RadioRouter® and PC Cards for flash-OFDM™ System Flarion PR Bedminster, N.J. September 19, 2002 tinyurl.com Flarion Technologies, the architect of the flash-OFDMTM mobile broadband system for licensed operators, today announced its production plans for the RadioRouterTM base station, FLR1500TM Chipset, and the PC1000TM wireless modems for mobilizing laptops and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). As a central piece of its product strategy, Flarion has contracted with Flextronics, a global provider of operational services focused on delivering design, engineering, testing, manufacturing and logistics solutions to technology companies, to produce its RadioRouter and PC Card products. Flarion previously announced alliances with Philips and Texas Instruments for chipset manufacturing. Flarion plans to release its products for production in December 2002. "Flarion is taking advantage of manufacturing options that, until recently, have not been widely used by the incumbents or available to challengers in the wireless industry," said Ray Dolan, Flarion's CEO. "With the Flextronics relationship, Flarion has leveled the playing field and put in place the foundation on which to commercialize the most compelling mobile broadband network system available. This is a win-win for Flarion and mobile operators." With Flarion's flash-OFDM system, operators now have the tools to offer profitable mobile broadband services -- over a nationwide network -- that cost 5-10 times less than any competing technology. Flarion's system seamlessly connects mobile data users with a LAN-like experience, accessible from anywhere, anytime. The mobile network service is easy and intuitive to use, by simply plugging in a PC card to a notebook or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). It can be offered at price points that will excite both enterprise customers and mass-market customers. "We are very excited about our relationship with Flarion, and the promise of Flarion's technology. Flextronics' global manufacturing leadership gives Flarion and its mobile operator customers the flexibility to scale to market demands for mobilized broadband access to the Internet," said Kevin L. Gonor, vice president, business development for Flextronics. Flarion's Network System Solution * flash-OFDMTM technology: At the heart of the Flarion system is the flash-OFDM air interface, a packet-switched wireless access technology that seamlessly transports Internet Protocol (IP) services over-the-air between the network and devices. It requires only 1.25 MHz of paired radio spectrum. The technology is frequency-band-agnostic and can operate in licensed frequencies up to 3.5 GHz. flash-OFDM supports vehicular mobility of up to 200 mph and interoperability with Wireless LAN systems. * RadioRouterTM base station: Flarion's RadioRouter provides wide area wireless access and IP packet routing. The system is capable of connecting large numbers of fully mobile users in a macro-cellular environment (Wide Area Network) to the Internet. The RadioRouter offers an average sustainable throughput of 1.5 Mbps per sector in only 1.25 MHz of paired radio spectrum and burst rates as high as 3Mbps. The RadioRouter defines the true mobile edge of the IP core network, thereby enhancing and simplifying IP service creation and provisioning. * PC1000TM Wireless Terminal: The Flarion PC card terminals are PCMCIA plug-and-play cards compatible with existing and standard computing devices, such as notebooks, PDAs and IP-based digital cameras and require no changes to host operating systems, applications or content. The standard 'Type 2' (single slot) PCMCIA cards provide an air link to the operator's flash-OFDM mobile network, offering each user secure access to the network with average speed of 1.5 Mbps. * Element Management System (EMS): Incorporated into the RadioRouter product is Flarion's EMS, which performs fault configuration accounting, performance, and security functions for the flash-OFDM network. The Flarion EMS is fully standards-based, including support for SNMP, J2EE, and CORBA interfaces. This allows an operator to integrate EMS into existing network management architecture, and to manage and control the distributed flash-OFDM system from a regional or national Network Operations Center (NOC). * FLR1500TM Chipset: Incorporates Flarion's custom baseband digital and mixed signal RF ASICs, in conjunction with commercially available components. It can be integrated with a range of host devices including portable computers, PDAs, mobile phones, digital cameras, gaming consoles. "We believe Flarion is causing many wireless carriers to rethink current network migration paths, especially given the wireless industry's well-documented difficulties in raising new capital," said Ned Zachar, director of Telecom Services Research at Thomas Weisel Partners. "Flarion's superior data rates are likely to be created at a much lower cost compared to conventional 3G, which could give carriers that adopt the Flarion solution a distinct marketing advantage with higher-spending business customers." ... <snip rest> << - Eric -

To: Eric L who wrote (11)	8/21/2005 1:15:21 PM
From: Eric L	Respond to of 86

TI Chipsets for 802.16d/e WiMax and WiBro ... ... are now sampling. It should be noted that although TI is active in 802.16 as is QUALCOMM, neuther TI or QUALCOMM are members of WiMAX Forum. >> TI's RF chipsets support WiMAX and WiBro News Story from Texas Instruments Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team 25 April 2005 electronicstalk.com Texas Instruments has expanded its portfolio of complete wireless signal-chain solutions for broadband wireless access, introducing three new radio frequency chipsets. Texas Instruments has expanded its portfolio of complete wireless signal-chain solutions for broadband wireless access, introducing three radio frequency (RF) chipsets, the TRF11xx chipset at 2.5GHz, the TRF12xx chipset at 3.5GHz and the TRF24xx chipset at 5.8GHz. TI's new chipsets are designed to support IEEE802.16d/e standard RF front end for wireless basestations, access points as well as equipment backhaul, point-to-point microwave and public safety band applications. These new chipsets are capable of supporting both emerging WiMAX and WiBro applications based on the IEEE802.16 standard, as well as the more traditional fixed wireless access. 'TI is working with equipment providers to build a solid foundation to deploy any type of broadband infrastructure demanded in the future', said David Briggs, TI's Analog Wireless Infrastructure Business Manager. 'We understand that as carriers look to incorporate the newest applications that they expect technologies, such as 802.16, to be readily available'. 'TI is best equipped to ensure that equipment providers have the tools and flexibility they need to support emerging access technologies in the shortest timeframe'. Both the TRF112xx chipset at 2.5GHz and the TRF122xx chipset at 3.5GHz consist of four chips, each with fully integrated super heterodyne receivers and transmitters. These RF chipsets are capable of supporting frequency division duplex (FDD), half frequency division duplex (HFDD) and time division duplex (TDD) modes with a real interface at low IF to the data conversion subsystem. TI's flexible RF chipsets are compliant with today's demanding mask requirements, and the receivers feature excellent sensitivity and blocker suppression. The TRF11xx at 2.5GHz and the TRF12xx at 3.5GHz are also complemented by the optimised power amplifiers, TRF1123 and TRF1223. Supporting a range of frequencies between 2.1-2.7 and 3.3-3.8GHz, these power amplifiers provide excellent output third order intercept point (OIP3) of 45dBm or better, enabling the support of complex OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) signals. These power amplifiers can also be used as driver amplifiers in applications requiring larger output power. TI's new TRF2432 and TRF2436 heterodyne transceiver chipset is the most integrated solution available, with two chips. Consisting of an IF and RF transceiver, the chips support the 4.9-5.9GHz air interface frequency band. The chipset supports TDD mode with complex I/Q interface. This highly integrated chipset reduces space, making for easier design while saving bill of material (BOM) cost. TI offers a complete analogue signal chain solution for wireless infrastructure OEMs with its ADS5500 analogue-to digital-convertor (ADC) and its DAC5687 digital-to-analogue convertor. Both convertors can be supported by the digital up or down convertor, GC5016 which is capable of handling wide bandwidths of up to 20MHz. The CDC7005 can simultaneously clock each of these mixed signal chips with low jitter performance, maximising the performance capabilities of particular ADCs. TI also offers a next generation programmable digital signal processor (DSP) capable of handling multiple air interface standards and a range of basestation form factors on a single chip. The TMS320TCI6482 DSP at 1GHz performs at nearly twice the clock speed of other available solutions, yet consumes only 3W of power, making it the industry's most power efficient DSP for wireless infrastructure systems. TI's flexible chipsets and complete signal chain offerings enable OEMs to support new technologies in the most cost-effective manner. All three TI chipsets - the TRF11xx at 2.5GHz, the TRF12xx at 3.5GHz and the TRF24xx at 5.8GHz - are now sampling. << - Eric -

To: Eric L who wrote (11)	8/21/2005 1:41:11 PM
From: Eric L	Respond to of 86

Nortel & TI: HSOPA for 3GPP 3GSM UMTS Networks HSOPA = High-Speed OFDM Packet Access technology >> HSOPA: The Next Step For GSM? HSDPA isn't here yet, but vendors are already contemplating their next move. Sue Marek May 15, 2005 Wireless Week wirelessweek.com Cingular Wireless made high-speed downlink packet access, or HSDPA, a familiar industry term last year when the carrier announced its intention to deploy the packet data technology throughout its network at the same time that it's upgrading to UMTS. HSDPA technology has been demonstrated and tested but is still months away from commercial reality. Cingular is expected to have some commercial HSDPA markets deployed later this year and in early 2006. Of course, working hand-in-hand with HSDPA, which increases downlink speeds, is HSUPA, or high-speed uplink packet access – the comparable uplink technology that is currently being standardized by the 3GPP. When deployed together, the two technologies promise as much as 14.4 Mbps downlink speeds and 5.8 Mbps uplink, enabling operators to offer applications that require more symmetric data speeds such as real-time person-to-person mobile gaming. While the data speeds that HSDPA and HSUPA provide may seem like more than enough for the anticipated data applications, vendors already are looking at the next phase in the race for faster network data speeds. Behind this push to look beyond HSDPA and HSUPA is the impending competition from other technologies such as 802.16e. One possibility is HSOPA, or high-speed OFDM packet access technology. Nortel Networks is behind this concept, which incorporates orthogonal frequency division multiplexing and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technologies. For the past few years, the company has been encouraging the 3GPP to support OFDM. According to Nortel executives, the company made 70 contributions on OFDM to the 3GPP from June 2002 through June 2004 in hopes of convincing the standards body that OFDM is a suitable technology for 3GPP-standardized evolution based on the HSDPA architecture. In April, Nortel submitted its OFDM/MIMO proposal at the 3GPP meeting in Beijing. Analysts say Nortel is pushing the technology as part of its strategy to position itself as a technology leader. "Nortel is trying to prove it's a strong vendor. They want to show that they are in a position to set standards," says Peter Jarich, principal wireless analyst with Current Analysis. Nortel insists that HSOPA is just a concept that will require collaboration from the rest of the 3GPP. Alan Pritchard, marketing vice president for GSM and UMTS at Nortel, says the company is trying to build a consensus around this concept. "MIMO and OFDM will have a role in CDMA and UMTS," Pritchard says. "That's our view. You have these technologies available and there's no reason why these approaches can't be applied in the 3GPP environment." Nortel has some intellectual property rights that are part of its proposed HSOPA solution. However, Pritchard says that while the company would like for the HSOPA technology to include its IPR, it doesn't want its IPR to delay or stop this concept from moving forward. "We do have IPRs, but we are not vested in using them," Pritchard says. OFDM Advantage What OFDM and MIMO can bring to the GSM world is a higher speed downlink connection. By combining OFDM air interface with MIMO at the physical layer, Nortel believes it can support peak rates of as much as 37 Mbps. The prototype architecture used to evaluate the system concept is based on a UMTS frequency-division duplex framework with 5 MHz bandwidth and UMTS signal timing. The downlink is based on a MIMO-OFDM air interface with two transmit antennas and up to four receive antennas. The OFDM subcarrier spacing is 6.2 kHz. The uplink is based on an enhanced W-CDMA uplink supporting peak data rates of 2 Mbps. Besides faster speeds, HSOPA is expected to dramatically reduce costs because OFDM allows more capacity with a given amount of spectrum. That efficiency will be important, says Pritchard, when operators deploy services such as VoIP. Plus, Nortel estimates a round trip latency delay of 20 to 40 milliseconds vs. 65 milliseconds with HSDPA. "OFDM is not just a downlink improvement, but also a quantum improvement in latency," Pritchard says. Of course, OFDM proponents are thrilled about the possibility of OFDM being incorporated into the GSM migration path. "Look at what has taken place during the last five years," says Ronny Haraldsvik, vice president of global communications and marketing at Flarion Technologies. "It's becoming more apparent that all roads lead to OFDM." Analysts agree that incorporating OFDM into the 3GPP standard is a good idea. "Nortel isn't really proposing a product as much as they are announcing a strategy to migrate toward OFDM," says Phil Marshall, director, wireless/mobile technologies at the Yankee Group. However, Marshall believes carriers ultimately will need more than 5 MHz of spectrum to make the most of OFDM's technology advantage. "OFDM is more appropriately positioned with more than 5 MHz of spectrum. I think carriers will need 20 MHz of spectrum so they may implement it in a different frequency band as an overlay service." Nortel Not Alone Texas Instruments is working with Nortel on HSOPA, but the company says the work is still at the theoretical level. "We are doing modeling studies and analysis," says Bill Krenik, wireless advanced architectures manager at Texas Instruments. Krenik warns that HSOPA is just one of many concepts that are being submitted to the 3GPP. "At this phase in the 3GPP standards process, there are a lot of ideas being considered," he says. "The standards body is hearing from a lot of people about what the technology should be and what the long-term evolution of 3GPP is." Krenik adds that many of those proposed technologies include OFDM. Of course, one key issue is whatever standard the 3GPP approves, it must be backward compliant to the rest of the 3GPP standard technologies. If HSOPA should move forward in the standards procedure, Nortel estimates the technology will make its commercial debut sometime around late 2007 or early 2008. << - Eric -