Transcript Standards Wars: Next Generation Mobile Telephony

Standards Wars: Next
Generation Mobile Telephony
Theory and Practice
• Standards essential to network industries
• Standards can be
– Unilateral: Microsoft Windows/Sony Betamax
– consortium-led: Java/Linux/VHS
– government-defined: ITU ATM/BSB ’squarial’
• Globalisation drives common standards
internationally
• Mobile phones classic case study
Wireless broadband
• Satellite
• Broadband Fixed Wireless:
– Tele2; Telewest; NTL; PipingHot Networks
• WAN: 3G Mobile Telephony
– 64Kb/s
• LAN: Wireless Ethernet
– 11Mb/s NOW; 22Mb/s 2002;72Mb/s 2003
• Personal Area Networks (PANs)
– Bluetooth standard/wireless headsets
– Talking fridges/security alarms/wireless homes
Four generations of wireless
• 1G: early analogue ‘bricks’
– 1980s ‘yuppie’ sales tool
• 2G: dual band handsets, SMS-enabled
– GSM handsets – Nokia/Ericsson
• 3G: universal standard?
– ‘always-on’, ‘broadband’ packet-switched
• 4G: broadband to challenge wires
– 72Mb/s wireless Ethernet
– Laptop/Personal Digital Assistant suited
Wide Area Networks
(WANs): Laws of physics
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Spectrum
Power
Reception
Processing
Spectrum: How wireless works
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Each generation has new standards/handsets
Mobile: new spectrum for each generation
1G: 450KHz
2G: 900/1800KHz
3G: 2200KHz
4G: 5700KHz (5.7MHz)
Higher frequencies
– have shorter ranges
– require higher powered devices
Power
• Battery life drained by:
– complex reception devices
• Dual-triple band
– multiple programs
• Running software programs
• SMS; WAP; ringtones
– memory requirements
• Flash memory
• Hard disks
• Progress:
– From simple ‘bricks’ to FOMA 3G 16-bit colour
video phones
Reception
• Security and roaming require ‘clever’ devices
• 1G handsets resulted in ‘Squidgygate’
– Analogue easily ‘wiretapped’
• European law requires intelligent networks:
– caller ID and logging usage
• This is NOT Internet:
– intelligent devices and dumb networks illegal
• Solutions based on ATM not TCP/IP
Processing
• Mobile terminals moving from dumb to
smart: laptops and PDAs
• ‘Crunching’ data in digital radio packets
• Needs high powered processing
• Moore’s Law permits this
– doubling microprocessor power every 18
months
Public wireless solutions
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From ‘one size fits all’ national network
To individually tailored packages
Global roaming solutions
4G may not follow 3G
– RIM Blackberry is GPRS email device
– 4G ‘WiFi’ installed in millions of laptops
– Data more global than phone standards
Wireless Devices: The Future
1G Standards
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National analogue solutions
National champion equipment vendors
Selling to monopoly or duopoly network
Sole notable multinational solution:
Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT)
Which became:
Global System for Mobile GSM
2G: Dual Band/Dual Standard
• 900/1800KHz
– Digital standard: more security/quality
– SMS texting/ringtone download
• Europe has single standard:
– GSM900/1800
– Supported by Commission
– Driven by Ericsson and Nokia ousting Euroheavyweights Siemens/Alcatel/Philips
• US has multiple standards:
– CDMA/TDMA/GSM
– 1900KHz band
3G: IMT-2000 CDMA standard
• US-Euro compromise
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Accepted by ITU – UN telecoms body
CDMA accepted
Qualcomm-Ericsson patent swap
Brokered by USTR/Commission
• Scramble to convince other markets:
– Most of Asia GSM 2G
– Most of Americas TDMA/CDMA 2G
• China/Korea/Japan own standards
– Japan far ahead in technology and market
– Korea using simple CDMA technology
Deploying 3G
• 3G rolled out in UK and Italy
• Need more base stations
– Shorter range and higher bandwidth
– Vodafone has announced 64Kb/s maximum
– ITU definition is 144Kb/s (ISDN 128Kb/s)
• Handsets melt
– High colour/high power/high cost/high faults
• Hybrid 2.5G networks effective
– GPRS at 28Kb/s
– On existing base stations
So 3G has difficulties
• Costs:
– Spectrum in Europe
– Transition in Asia
– Standards in US
– Handsets everywhere
• Benefits:
– This is not wireless broadband
– Bit rate too low for video/extranet
– Will your fridge talk to the store?
4G:Business-Ready Broadband
• Difference between Local Area Networks
(LANs) and WANs is:
– Base stations
– Bandwidth
– Regulation
– Standards
• Base stations:
– Need more for broadband
– Can costs be kept low?
• Bandwidth & Regulation:
– What does it cost? Nothing
– How can it be used? With great caution
• Standards:
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Use of TCP-IP
Intelligent devices ‘hop’ between frequencies
Global standards set by IEEE in US
Pushed by Microsoft-Intel-Cisco-Compaq
Standards
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Spectrum
Power
Reception
Processing
Spectrum
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Global free spectrum for private use:
Assumption: usage discrete, localised
WLANs now public, outdoor, networked
Roaming, nomadic use increasing
– Airport ‘hotspots’, coffee bar broadband
– Industrial Scientific Medical bands
• used by microwave ovens, emergency services
• 2.4GHz current ‘WiFi’ commercial use
– Except in UK: [1] ‘pollution’ [2] equity for 3G
• 5.7GHz consultation: better WLAN
Power
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Base stations for WiFi are cheap: £50
Range c.150m, line of sight best
Directional attenae up to 10km
Best for ‘hotspotting’: bursts of data
– Rabbit phone in Hong Kong; PCS in Japan
• Devices need to be dual-standard
– GPRS/WiFi for instance
• Corporate extranet/audio/video applications
• Japan: FOMA videophone limited battery life
Reception
• How to retrofit WLAN into telco
networks?
• Security, data transfer, roaming
• Current standard inadequate
• European 4G standard HIPERLan2
• US ‘WiFi5’ now converging on Europe
• Microsoft leading 802.1x security
• Data compatible – voice applications?
Processing
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All corporate laptops are Windows-enabled
NOW all WiFi-enabled as well
MAC layer processor-heavy
IS this a PDA and laptop device?
Multiple-standard chips being developed
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WiFi, WiFi5, 802.11g
2.4, 5.7GHz
Euro and US frequencies
Add GSM/GPRS/CDMA mobile reception
And US, European, Japanese 3G standards…
Who wins?
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Global standards driven by cartels
Intel in microprocessors
Microsoft in operating systems
Cisco in routers and switchers
Far bigger players than Nokia-Ericsson
Data market bigger than voice
Totally new challenge for Commission officials
Winners
• Microsoft:
– security layer built into WindowsXP
• Intel/Cisco/3Com:
– WiFi chipsets, complements PC/PDA/IP
• Data-ready mobile networks
– Lobbying for 3G revenues: Vodafone, Orange
• Multimedia application developers
– video/audio/graphic-rich environment
• Corporate networks
– mobile employees in sales, logistics
Relative Losers
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Voice-dependent networks
Japanese videophone
European manufacturers – Ericsson
Bluetooth as LAN – now PAN
European lead in mobile
ETSI-BRAN and ITU as standardsetters
Standards Conclusions
• Might is right
– Wintel beats Nordics
• The paranoid survive
– IP over ATM
• Corporates lead governments
– IEEE not ETSI/ITU
• World is going wireless
– Data standards for multinationals