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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (21588)	5/25/2007 3:59:32 PM
From: axial	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46821

Hi Frank - The following isn't directly related to the WiFi/WiMax debate, but rather, to "how we got here". It should be remembered that the OFDM Forum was founded by players who already had a significant stake in what you could call the "incumbent-centric" view of telecomms and RF usage. "Called the OFDM Forum, its founding members include L.M. Ericsson AB, Nokia Oyj, Philips Semiconductors, Sony Corp. and Wi-LAN Inc. Paris-based Alcatel SA is the latest recruit." findarticles.com Newer readers can get a better sense of the commercial alliances behind the WiFi/WiMax controversy if they're aware of the background. We'll leave the shootout at 802.11g for another day ;-) *Note: I don't care one way or the other who "wins": WiFi or WiMax. This is history, not advocacy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The Wideband OFDM Camp The Wideband OFDM (W-OFDM) camp is led by Wi-Lan of Calgary, which has patents on many aspects of this technology. Wi-Lan is one of the founders of the OFDM Forum (www.ofdm-forum.com), which has a number of major players behind it, including Alcatel, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia. Wi-Lan’s W-OFDM, known as Multi-code Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (MC-DSSS) spreads the information being transmitted over a wider bandwidth than standard OFDM, allowing individual carriers to be spread farther apart, and therefore reduces the effects of frequency errors. Wi-Lan claims that their technology is thus more resistant to multi-path fading and fading of portions of the frequency range. Wideband OFDM is not only being considered for use in broadband wireless, but it is also incorporated in ETSI BRAN HiperLAN/2 and the 802.11a standard, which is a recently developed, higher performance second generation of the popular 802.11b ‘wireless ethernet’ standard known as WiFi. The Vector OFDM Camp** A competing group is the Broadband Wireless Internet Forum (BWIF; www.bwif.org), led by Cisco, but also counting Texas Instruments, Analog Devices and Andrew Corp. and others as members. Its choice, Vector OFDM (VOFDM), uses two antennas to add space diversity to the time and frequency diversity already provided by basic OFDM. Since fading of signals is often very different at two places just a short distance apart, the use of two antennas significantly increases the possibility that a usable signal will be received at the other end of the channel... " ... According to Roger Marks, Technical Contact for 802.16, the IEEE standards organization has already approved a single carrier solution (i.e. not OFDM) in the 10-66 GHz frequency bands for publication as 802.16.2. It is expected to be publicly available before the end of 2001. This will not, however, provide the needed non-line-of-sight and bit-rate capabilities. OFDM proponents are happier about a second standard, known as 802.16a, which will provide for both single carrier and OFDM approaches in the unlicensed 2-11 GHz bands. There is even a third standard in the works, 802.16b, which targets the 5-6 GHz band and will only support OFDM. Both of these are scheduled for publication in 2002. The Wideband OFDM camp was well represented at 802.16 meetings, and provided a great deal of input. One industry group, known as the DSL Consortium, was so happy with the work that they were doing, that they closed up shop entirely. This organization, including Nortel, decided they had attained their goal of ensuring an industry standard was developed. The BWIF forum, however, made no official representations, although according to Struhsaker, their input would still be welcome..." cnp-wireless.com Also... telephonyonline.com Jim