Premium Switching Blends

A great cup of coffee is one of life's simple pleasures. To capitalize on this, brewers have sought to blend the varieties of their premium beans into the ultimate cup of jo. Today's switch vendors have taken a similar approach to bringing innovation and evolution to wireless carriers. These top vendors already market a variety of base-station equipment and switching technologies to answer the changing needs and tastes of the industry. Rather than unveiling a brand new "bean," vendors at Wireless '98 blended their premium offerings to give carriers answers to their questions of capacity, performance, speed and preparation for future markets.

Lucent In the process of preparing for third-generation (3G) applications, the solutions of yesteryear are preserved through backward compatibility. The Flexent Wireless Network platform empowers carriers to provision new services more rapidly and yet protect their previous investments in Autoplex wireless systems. This is accomplished thanks to a computer system that controls smaller and less complex base-station hardware.

Bob Sellinger, Lucent Wireless Networks Group marketing director, explained that the modular design of Flexent prepares carriers to adapt the data-intensive wideband services for any of the 3G wireless systems. Rather than focus on hardware, the company is offering software to evolve today's current network solutions.

The application processor, microcell base station and Ethernet interface node are the earliest components of the Flexent platform. The application processor is a cluster of up to eight high-reliability computers that can handle many control functions. The base station is one-third the size of Lucent's current minicell products and allows carriers to extend network coverage as easily into high-traffic buildings as into low-traffic areas. The interface node enables a single Flexent MSC to support more than 1,000 microcells.

According to Jim Brewington, Lucent group president, Flexent will usher in 3G and not sacrifice any of the strengths of the Autoplex line. Virtual private networking is one potential application. The software can partition physical elements such as base stations to support network-defined user groups for specialized calling and billing plans. For example, business customers can create custom numbering plans that mimic office or campus dialing plans.

The AP, which is used in Lucent's AMPS-based networks, and the base-station controller, which is used in the company's GSM networks, both will use the same processors.

Flexent offers appeal for Lucent's CDMA as well as its TDMA customers. CDMA carriers can boost capacity in large venues such as shopping centers, airports and stadiums by using Flexent microcell or third-party integrated in-building antenna distribution systems. TDMA carriers can segment their networks for public and private virtual networking by using the standard digital control channel.

Ericsson Ericsson encouraged its own 3G movement endorsing the adoption of the set of standards established by the Universal Wireless Consortium to deliver IMT-2000 wideband wireless multimedia capabilities in its networks. This would enable IS-136 carriers to offer IMT-2000 services including high-speed data and multimedia applications on their existing networks, reducing additional infrastructure investment. This movement more closely links the IS-136 technology with GSM for future wideband services. According to Ericsson, the blending of this technology into a single base moves the industry one step closer to the development of a world phone, which would provide all of these services on both IS-136 and GSM networks in all bands.

Ericsson also has combined the competencies of its public wireless communications and enterprise business communications to form a Wireless Office Services product unit. The goal of the unit is to provide subscribers mobility through a single business phone with one number and with nationwide roaming. For subscribers, this solution offers an alternative to wired in-building systems for businesses that require mobility in and out of the office. For carriers, it offers a new approach for businesses looking for productivity solutions. The company plans to take advantage of the approximately 80 million subscribers who are using AMPS and digital based on IS-136.

Motorola CIG Continuing to focus on its current CDMA and GSM infrastructure developments, Motorola announced GSM base stations dedicated to in-building coverage and capacity. It also announced GSM 900 and 1800 fixed wireless terminals that would allow carriers to offer fixed location telephony through their GSM-based network infrastructure. Building on multilayer GSM techniques, the M-Cell Access base station incorporates distributed architecture designs to provide flexibility and high capacity for in-building demand.

For microcellular coverage, the M-Cell Arena is the company's 3G 2-carrier microcellular base station. According to the company, the Arena's synthesizer frequency hopping (SFH) can increase capacity while also reusing frequency. SFH permits a single cell to use more than one frequency by hopping from one to another in each successive TDMA time frame.

As a way to help carriers increase their minutes of use while reducing their costs, Motorola also introduced its SC 4812 6-sector CDMA cell site. According to the company, it provides twice the call-carrying capacity of any other single-frame CDMA base station. The SC 4812 supports the 8kb/s enhanced variable rate coder vocoder, which with the 6-sector site design can enable carriers to obtain at least 16 times the capacity of 3-sector analog networks.

Nortel Economical was the watchword for Nortel. The company introduced the Small Wireless Switch, a compact mobile and fixed wireless digital switching system designed for as few as 50 subscribers or as many as 10,000. The switch provides digital and analog wireless service, including roaming, optional redundancy and an extensive feature set in a small footprint to reduce real estate and maintenance costs. The small switch provides similar features and operations as the DMS-MTX system.

Nortel also unveiled its GSM integrated MicroNode, a digital mobility switching system, which is a scaleable solution for wireless deployment."For our ope rators, reducing costs is the name of the game," said Bruce Marrett, GSM Americas Wireless Networks general manager. "And this efficient plug-and-play option for regional market coverage will help."

By locating the unit regionally, carriers can reduce their backhaul costs. The unit is ideal for rural markets, campus environments and remote communities. The MicroNode will support from 1,000 to 20,000 subscribers.

Easing analog-to-digital transition is the FC800 scaleable CDMA digital base station with a small footprint. This product also allows co-location with existing analog base stations. The FCP800 combines power and channel elements as well as RF components into a single cabinet. The scaleable design allows for migration from an omnidirectional configuration to a 3-sector design. It features very low receive sensitivity for improved coverage and an integrated duplexer for easy overlay of existing networks.

Qualcomm Qualcomm's approach promised the industry "the quickest way to data" by introducing a multifaceted initiative to deliver integrated end-to-end wireless data solutions for CDMA. According to Irwin Jacobs, Qualcomm chairman & CEO, the initiative will allow carriers to link to the Internet and support enterprise networks in making it easier for businesses to access information. The company plans to make this a reality by blending elements already in place, including its cdmaOne IS-95 equipment; associated CDMA subscriber handsets; Internet messaging with Eudora, its own Internet messaging software; OmniTRACS 2-way mobile satellite communications and tracking system; and its application-specific integrated circuits. According to Jacobs, Qualcomm plans to put all of these elements together to provide a seamless offering.

In conjunction with this announcement, Qualcomm has begun development efforts that support IS-95-B CDMA system enhancements. These enhancements will permit data rates of greater than 14.4kb/s. The IS-95-B specifications have been written so that manufacturers potentially can support data rates of up to 115kb/s. Although 115kb/s is the optimum goal, Qualcomm said it initially plans to support data rates between 28.8kb/s and 57.6kb/s on the forward link and 14.4kb/s on the reverse link. According to company literature, the reason for this asymmetric approach is because subscribers are more likely to receive more data than they would send over the air.

At last year's Wireless '97 trade show, the company demonstrated basic packet data services. This year, Qualcomm introduced its Dormant Mode and Mobile IP modes to enhance these basic packet data capabilities. The Dormant Mode allows network resources to be used only when data is being sent or received. The data connection then goes dormant after a specified period of time has passed without any data packets being transmitted. While in the dormant mode, a point-to-point protocol connection is maintained without actively using a traffic channel.

When a subscriber needs to send or receive a data packet, the traffic channel is automatically re-activated. Mobile IP uses Cisco's Internetwork Operating System software and allows wireless users to maintain a continuous data connection and keep a single IP address while roaming on the CDMA network.

Good to the Last Drop Most stores feature kiosks containing a variety of coffee beans for shoppers to mix to provide their own blend of java. The same seemed apparent at Wireless '98, where wireless carriers could find the special ingredient to make the premium blend for their networks and deliver the right flavor for their customers.

Nick Kauser, AT&T Wireless Services executive vice president & CTO, said the idea of building out another network and overlaying the second generation is "daunting." He said it makes more sense to enhance the services carriers already have and to make third generation (3G) efforts "transitional rather than revolutionary."

With that said, Kauser helped the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium (UWCC) announce its solution for 3G of TDMA IS-136 to meet IMT-2000 requirements. Called UWC-136, the solution answers the high-speed data application requirements of IMT-2000. It provides a path for carriers using IS-136 through IS-136+ and ultimately to IS-136HS, the high-speed element.

The interim step of IS-136+ provides higher packet data rates of up to 43.2kb/s in the existing 30kHz bandwidth. IS-136HS provides data rates up to 384kb/s for wide-area coverage in all environments and faster than 2Mb/s for in-building coverage. IS-136+, combined with adaptive channel allocation, advanced modulation and vocoder enhancements, is said to increase the capacity of AMPS 10 times.

IS-136 currently meets 85% of the IMT-2000 requirements. IS-136+ will meet 92% of the requirements by the end of this year, and IS-136HS will meet all of the requirements by the end of 1999.

According to UWCC, the first market for 3G will be indoor applications for business customers. After that, the goal is to implement high-capacity outdoor/vehicular services that require high-speed data. For now, however, many are focusing on high-speed packet data in the evolution of interface technologies.

"Will voice ever be packetized?" Kauser queried. "Until that question is answered, it is not clear whether 3G will affect voice."

This announcement comes on the heels of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute announcement to accept a combined W-CDMA and TD-CDMA proposal. According to Leo Nikkari, UWCC vice president of strategy and programs, this is the "first step" for ETSI in developing a complete standard to meet all IMT-2000 requirements. Further, Nikkari predicted that there would be multiple 3G technologies in the future.