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To: Clarksterh who wrote (24346)	3/18/1999 2:50:00 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Time Domain and TM-UWB technology Okay, I've read the Web page better and it is indeed a monocycle monopoly and not a monopole monopoly. Now I'm an expert, so hear this!! I did some checking and you did indeed cover it well Clark. Thanks for the help. Q! does not likely view the subject with much interest or concern at this time. Professor Scholtz of USC who authored papers referred to in the Time Domain web page is a reputable theoretician. The significance of TM-UWB is not clear, but if it is significant it will first be utilized for radar, military or deep space communications for a long time before it becomes practical for commercial multiple access communications. Note that the people at Time Domain are associated with radar and space applications not commercial communications. Their ideas regarding commercial communications are of the King Lear variety "I shall do such things, I know not what, but they shall be the terrors of the earth!" CDMA was around a long time before Q! developed the commercial implementation; close to 30 years. I am distinguishing between CDMA and spread spectrum which was around much longer. The key to Q!'s success was power control, soft-handoff and exploitation of the rake receiver concept which was around a long time. Before that, CDMA was used in military networks which operated at a small fraction of the capacity that TDMA could offer. The real key to operating CDMA efficiently is power control. George Gilder's dream and the idea of TM-UWB to spread the spectrum so wide that each signal is insignificant to all other receivers is a pipe dream. It only seems good as long as there is so much bandwidth available that bandwidth efficiency is no concern. As soon as you start talking about large numbers of users who want more and more capacity in the best parts of the spectrum, the arguments go astray. I have a rule of thumb. The more revolutionary a capability is, the longer it takes to figure out how to use it. Look at how long it took to develop killer applications for the laser; from its discovery in the late forties to the mid eighties. People worked on all kinds of laser applications before the 1980s but with limited success. I don't think we have to worry that Q! is going to pull an ostrich act like Ericy has done. They are extremely well tied into academia and researchers in the forefront of communication theory and technology. They are very quick to seize on new concepts without the cloud of an NIH [not invented here] syndrome. Q! people are receptive to new ideas and thorough in their evaluation of technologies and applications. Q! is very thorough and sophisticated. They are self-confident and arrogant at times, but never ignorant, lazy, or sloppy. This is an occupational hazard of the best and brightest. A tendency to hubris. In 10 or 20 years from now, when the original creative combination which made Q! what it is becoming has long gone, there is a danger than Q! will be like the IBM of the 1980s. Bestride the world with an impregnable 'monopoly', anti-trust cases all around and customers applying for permission to use the only systems worth using. So it seems we don't need to panic over Time Domain and TM-UWB. But let's hope The New Paradigm doesn't shorten that 30 year cycle to a monocycle before we have spread the world's spectrum with cdmaOne. Mqurice [I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew taking on George Gilder and the 13,000 scientists again! He probably won't notice this...shhhhh. Just as a matter of prudent self-defence, the above is mostly stuff told to me = the "I'm just following orders" defence. Actually, to be a little sychophantic, I thought George Gilder's main spectrum idea was more to have spectrum navigated on, like planes in the sky, using any sky you like as long as you don't bump into somebody else. But using CDMA techniques. Thus not allocating spectrum to any particular plane or keeping a huge chunk of space open from New York to Tokyo for a single plane to fly down the corridor [which is how analogue and TDMA work though TDMA does put more planes in the same corridor at regular intervals].