Everything you need to know about today's wireless developments: What's hot The players The technologies

June 2, 2002

35 Min Read
A Wireless Taxonomy

Hop On Baud the Data TrainWireless data, Baby: It's all about the data.

When the first walkie talkie was created in the late 1930s, its inventor – quiet Englishman Donald L. Hings or U.S. pioneer Al Gross, depending on whom you believe – could never have envisaged that a little black box stuffed with crystals and wires would one day become the basis of a worldwide communications revolution. But the essential concept of the walkie talkie, talking to people over a radio link, has been pretty much the basis of all cellular communications.

But over the last couple of years, a new generation of wireless technologies and services has started to enable serious data communications and opened the way for a sea change in the way people view mobile communications.

In simple terms, big changes are occurring on three fronts:

  • First, networks in the U.S, Europe, and Asia are evolving from so-called second generation (2G) networks – circuit switched networks with digital air interfaces – to 2.5G and 3G systems – packet-based networks with wideband air interfaces that enable the faster transfer of data bytes.

  • Second, wireless LAN and Bluetooth systems are evolving to take the place of that mess of cables under your desk. Some even suggest that strategically positioning clusters of wireless LAN access points is a better solution for providing fast wireless data services than 3G phone networks.

  • Third, a plethora of applications are arriving for the wireless space, from standard contact, calendar, and email offerings to more esoteric shop-floor and medical applications. Location – the ability to find a caller on a network to within 100 feet or so – could be a key factor differentiating wireless applications from their deskbound counterparts, which is why we are exploring the crucial technologies in this report.



As these three waves collide, two outcomes are inevitable: lots of opportunities for users, service providers, software developers, and equipment manufacturers; and lots of confusion over what the heck is going on and how the industry is evolving.

That's where this report, the first Unstrung taxonomy, comes into play. It provides a map of current developments in wireless data – something to help folk understand what's going, recognize opportunities, and avoid pitfalls.

The report starts off with an overall picture, one that categorizes major developments and shows how they interact with each other. It then goes on to zoom in on each category to give a more detailed definition of each particular technology, recap its history, identify key trends, and list major vendors where appropriate. Each page also provides links to related articles in Unstrung.

Here's a hyperlinked summary:

Taxonomy

Wireless Applications

User Interfaces

Mobile Appliances

Billing

Mobile Data Gateways

Location Technology

Air Interfaces

Cell (or Edge) Network

Wireless LAN

Bluetooth

The wireless industry is growing up. It had its brief boom in 1999 and 2000. But all the hype about having the "Internet" on your phone and the inevitable letdown that followed scared off many potential users. Then the rapid deflation of the telecom bubble and worry about the costs of implementing third-generation services spooked investors.

But wireless in its many forms isn't going away any time soon. Investors, equipment vendors, and developers just tend to be a bit more steely-eyed these days, although, of course, many operators still can't resist hyping up technologies when they should be crowing about the services they can offer on their new networks (but that's a whole other can of worms...).

A growing number of organizations are now using wireless data for serious business purposes: From IBM Corp. working up a system that delivers wireless access to Delta Airlines' travel information, to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) putting wireless LAN links on its campus, wireless is happening.

As we put the finishing touches to this taxonomy, wireless carriers around the world are preparing to orchestrate what will likely be one of the biggest dedicated wireless data fests ever seen, providing goal-hungry soccer fans with everything from text alerts to video streams from the World Cup in South Korea.

Make no mistake, wireless data is going to change the way everybody works and plays. It's also undergoing big changes itself as new technologies emerge, as regulatory environments change, and as applications evolve.

That's why we've put together this taxonomy – to help people get a better feel for what's happening right now, and how things might change in the future. The taxonomy divides the wireless world into various segments. Subsequent pages then delve into each segment, defining technologies, identifying trends, and naming the leading players, where appropriate.

Here's the overall picture:

Here's a hyperlinked list of each market segment:

The taxonomy also makes reference to the "core network." For a lot more about this segment, check out our sister site Light Reading.

What Are They?

In essence, wireless applications deliver data from a database or other repository to a mobile device.

History

Companies first started to really talk about wireless applications in 1999 and 2000 – the salad days of the “Wireless Web” – but it is really still an emerging market, as more powerful 3G networks need to come online before some applications can be delivered.

These are the main types of wireless application:

Email/personal information management/groupware: These applications typically route email and calendar and contact information from groupware software like Notes and Exchange to a device. The Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry system is probably the best known of these.

Middleware: The plumbing software that enables, for example, page views from a database to be served up to a device, such as IBM Corp's Websphere Everyplace suite.

Mobile databases: Provided by companies like iAnywhere, these tend to consist of a cutdown database client on the device that links to the database on the corporate server.

Sales-force apps: Provided by companies such as Siebel Systems Inc. these route preselected figures and information to salespeople in the field, enabling them, for instance, to find out if they have a certain product in stock before closing a sale.Shop-floor apps: This software, which is often implemented in combination with a wireless LAN, enables users to wirelessly check and change stock requirements on the shop-floor or in the warehouse. Symbol Technologies Inc. has been a pioneer in this field.

Security: Security is one of the key concerns in a wireless environment, so firms such as Certicom Corp. are starting to provide virtual private networks (VPNs) to corporate clients that want a secure path between their data and the device.

Finance and banking: In a similar vein, financial companies are extremely sensitive about the security of their data. So companies like 724 Solutions Inc. have created software that sits behind a corporate firewall and handles financial transactions and inquiries.

Mobile management: These are applications, developed by vendors like XcelleNet Inc., to help companies discover and manage the devices they have in the enterprise.

Vertical apps: Companies like Aether Systems Inc. have made a business out of creating systems tailored for a particular market (e.g., healthcare, law enforcement, real estate) – for instance, software that keeps a doctor linked to a hospital’s central record systems as he or she does the daily rounds.

Consumer: We're talking fun and games here, people. Quite literally, although there are consumer wireless email offerings, the emphasis for companies like Digital Bridges is to exploit people's magpie tendencies by giving them shiny apps they can play on their brand-new color handsets.

Key Trends

The battle between Sun Microsystems Inc.’s mobile Java (J2ME) and Microsoft Corp.’s mobile .Net technology (and, to a lesser extent, Qualcomm Inc.'s BREW) to be the development platform of choice is likely to be the main event of the next couple of years.

Security will remain a key focus as firms continue to look for ways to ensure that wireless data is secure.

Mobile management systems will become more integrated with existing desktop management systems and corporate directories as larger players move into this space.

Market Forecasts

According to the London-based research firm Ovum Group, the enterprise wireless data market could be worth $29 billion by 2006. Ovum is less optimistic in its valuation of the wireless games market. It says it will be worth just over $4 billion by 2006.

Related Unstrung articles:

  • RIM – Soon The Database On Your Hip?
    XcelleNet Gets In Sync With Ehand
    ReefEdge Simplifies WLAN Management With CA
    Digital Bridges Turns to Artificial Intelligence
    Everypath Adds Siebel to Partners

What Are They?

The way that users access and control data on their devices.

History

User interfaces on small, memory-constrained, battery-powered wireless devices pose a few thorny problems. First: What information can a user access? Second: How do you see it on a tiny screen. And third: What can you do with that information using a device that often doesn’t even have a keyboard?

There have been several different approaches to this problem:

  • Microbrowsersthat can read handheld device markup language (HDML) and wireless markup language (WML) for WAP phones, and similarly compact HTML (cHTML) for the i-mode system in Japan. These non-standard markup languages enable compressed data to be sent over today’s narrowband networks and be read right on the handset. However, using a different format means that these browsers cannot access standard Web pages, and an entirely different set of pages has been created for WAP and i-mode phones, with varying degrees of success.

    Mobile Java (J2ME)is seen by many as the way to get developers already familiar with the code to develop applications for wireless platforms. Sun Microsystems Inc.has created various mobile Java platforms to suit the different classes of wireless devices (handheld computers, smartphones, bog-standard WAP handsets). Mobile Java didn’t really start to take off till late-2000, when NTT DoCoMoand other Asian mobile operators announced that they would start to offer Java handsets. Operators like Sprint Corp.and device vendors quickly followed suit. Qualcomm Inc.’s Brew platform and Microsoft Corp.’s emerging plans for .Net are rivals for J2ME.

    Mobile operating systemstend to have evolved from PDA operating systems. The Palm Inc.OS, Microsoft’s Pocket PC and Smartphone 2002 (both developed from Windows CE), and Symbian Ltd.’s EPOC operating system (originally created by Psion PLC) and RIMs proprietary OS, which it has just started to license, are the major players in the field. These operating systems have brought concepts like Palm’s Graffiti and on-screen "handwriting" to the table.

Key Trends

Future microbrowsers will let you see more of the Web. Better data compression techniques and more powerful devices and networks have seen the advent of true HTML browsers on high-end devices. WAP and i-mode browsers are converging so that next-gen versions will use extensible HTML (XHTML) and XML, which means that standard WAP handsets will also be able to view more content.

The next couple of years could see a battle royal among Mobile Java, .Net, and Qualcomm’s Brew. Expect to see more enterprise- and location-based applications using these platforms as their routes to the handset.

Operating systems will get more bloated as the number of applications on devices increases – more color, more touch screens, more applications using handwriting. One interesting possibility as device processing power increases is that limited speech recognition might become an integral part of these devices.

Market Forecasts

According to IDC, there will be more than 1 billion phones with WAP browsers onboard by 2003. But, while the WAP Forum said in 2001 that there were 8 million WAP users in the world, a lot of people never switch that WAP browser on. By contrast, NTT DoCoMo has 30 million-plus subscribers to its i-mode service in Japan.

ARC Group predicts that by 2003, 421 million handsets will be capable of running mobile Java applications.

Vendors

Microbrowser Vendors

Micro Java/Brew/.Net Vendors

OS Vendors

Organizations

Related Unstrung articles:

  • Bluetooth 2 Postponed?
    RIM Looks to BlackBerry Spread
    SavaJe Takes On the Big Boys
    Palm's Up? Palm's Out?
    Microsoft Gets the DTs

What Are They?

Wireless data appliances consist of two classes of device that are slowly converging. One is the humble mobile phone, which is slowly adding the personal information management features common to the other type of appliance, the handheld computer – which is, in turn, becoming wirelessly enabled.

History

The then not-so mobile phone first emerged in the late 1970s. The PDA (personal digital assistant) market first took shape in 1984 with the advent of a little organizer from Psion PLC.

Key Trends

There are two schools of thought on where appliances are going. One says that everything will converge and we will all carry one device around. The other says that one size does not fit all and, with the advent of Bluetooth, it is actually possible to create a personal area network (PAN) linking several devices on a person. Whatever happens, devices are likely to become cheaper, with a greater emphasis on design, because all will offer the same features.

Some wireless devices are also likely to become bigger, with some vendors, particularly Microsoft Corp. and its cabal, claiming touch-screen wireless tablets as the next big thing. This remains to be seen…

Market Forecasts

Some 15.5 million handheld computers will be shipped worldwide in 2002, 18 percent more than 2001's tally of 13 million, according to Gartner/Dataquest.

Handset sales for 2002 are a contentious issue among research firms. Yankee Group predicts sales of around 430 million units, but other researchers and vendors say 410 million. All in all, it's only possible to say that over 400 million units will likely be shifted this year.

PDA Vendors

Handset Vendors

What Is It?

Subscriber usage data is collected on the network, then passed to a mediation system that processes the information so that it can be read by the billing system – which then calculates what a customer owes and produces a bill.

History

In the past, operators would develop their own billing systems in-house, customized to suit their networks and the kinds of services they offered. Recently, carriers have started to buy off-the-shelf billing systems so that they can more quickly and cheaply to integrate systems with the network and offer new types of services and ways to charge for them.

There are two main billing methods at the moment.



  • Minute Buckets:This is a popular billing method in the U.S. A user buys a set amount of voice minutes – and sometimes text messages or WAP usage – for $30 or so per month and is then charged more if the allocation is exceeded.

    Pre-pay:Pre-paid services are the more popular option in Europe. Users buy a phone and then "charge" it by buying minutes of usage for a set amount, say $5, $10, or $50.

Key Trends

With the advent of wireless data services, fierce competition, and pressure to offer different services from their competitors, companies have started to look at different ways of billing, especially for data services.

  • By-the-packet billing:This has been facilitated by the advent of packet-based networks such as GPRS and CDMA 2000 1xRTT, which allows operators to charge users for the exact amount of data bytes downloaded over these systems, rather than charging for the length of the call.

Billing for data services is a key concern for carriers looking to increase average revenue per user (ARPU). However, many need to update their systems before they can offer a palette of billing permutations. NTT DoCoMo has been a leader in bringing in new billing services, such as:

  • Micropayment:There are two flavors of micropayment. One involves having a system that enables a carrier to charge a small increment (50 cents or so) above the cost for data downloaded – be it a ring tone, information from a WAP site, or a multimedia clip – and charge it to the customer's regular phone bill. The carrier can then share some of that revenue with the content developer.

    The other form of micropayment is more complicated, because it would enable customers to use their phones like credit cards, charging considerably more to their phone bills than a few cents for a download. However, enabling so-called wireless mobile walletswill be quite complicated, because, just like the wired Internet, security vendors need to develop a system of certificates and other security measures to ensure users a modicum of security when they are shopping.

Carriers and billing system vendors also talk about many other possibilities for wireless billing. However, they tend to be more of a concept than reality at the moment.

  • QOS:With new networks and billing systems, carriers can start to offer grades of service, so that enterprise customers can pay more to ensure a better, clearer service.

    Bundling:Bring together wireless and wireline charges onto one bill.

There are also simply problems of scale, as the usage of wireless systems grows, and carriers may need to deal with millions of users in an area rather than hundreds of thousands. Expect to hear plenty of talk about scaleability over the next few years.

Market Forecasts

IDC predicts that the value of the worldwide packet-based wireless billing market will increase from $94.6 million in 2001 to $855.7 million in 2005.

Vendors

Related Unstrung article:

  • Vodafone Launches Micropayment Billing

What Are They?

There are two main types of mobile data gateway. There are WAP-type gateways that enable "Wireless Web" browsing on mobile phones; and there are "store-and-forward" message gateways that support SMS (short message service) and MMS (multimedia message service).

  • Wireless Web Gateways:These gateways convert HTTP data into the properietary rendering languages so that they can be read on WAP (wireless application protocol) and i-mode phones. They perform the reverse trick on data sent from the phone to the Web.

    Message Gateways:These gateways support the ability to send short bursts of text (SMS) and images (MMS) from a mobile phone. Once the gateway (message center) receives the message it calls up the home location register (HLR) database on the cell network to find out the subscriber's status. If the user's phone is switched off, then the center stores the message and forwards it later.

History

The first SMS message was sent in February 1992. WAP and i-mode gateways emerged in the late 90s.

Key Trends

Converegence is the watchword for all these products, with combined WAP/i-mode/SMS/MMS gateways likely in the future.

Market Forecasts



U.K. consulting firm Ovum Group reckons that the MMS market will be worth more than $70 billion by 2006.

Vendors

Related Unstrung articles:

  • MultiMedia Messaging Will Be Slow to Grow, Says Report
    SMS in the U.S. -- All Upside?

What Is It?

Location technology enables network operators to find wireless device users on their networks either by calculating their position between two (or more) points on the network or tracking the device via satellite.

History

Originally developed to help ships navigate, location systems have evolved into a variety of client-side and network-based systems:

  • Global Positioning System (GPS):A system of 24 satellites for identifying earth locations, launched by the U.S. Department of Defense. By triangulation of signals from three of the satellites, a device equipped with a suitable chip can pinpoint its current location anywhere on Earth to within a few meters. However, the need for a chip inside is one of the major drawbacks of GPS in a mobile environment. It adds to the cost, weight, and power requirements of the device – three things manufacturers hate.

    Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA):This technology measures the time difference between when a mobile user is picked up at one cell site and when it is received at the next and calculates the user’s position from that data.

    Angle of Arrival:Similar to TDOA, this technology relies on several cell towers being able to pick up on the user’s angle of arrival as the signal hits the cell site. That data is then combined to get a bearing on the user. Enhanced Observed Time Difference (E-OTD) E-OTD is a more sophisticated version of TDOA. The technology has been adopted as part of the GSM standard, thus many GSM operators in Europe and the U.S. have adopted the technology.

Key Trends

Location-based technologies are one of the few areas in wireless where the U.S. has pulled ahead of Europe and Asia. This is because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has set a requirement that carriers be able to locate users making emergency calls on their networks to within 100 feet. The implementation of so-called phase II e911 technology was supposed to have been completed by October 31, 2001. However, many operators managed to get waivers from the FCC.

After the regulatory requirements are out of the way, the task for the operator is to make money out of location technology. As this happens, there are bound to be increasing concerns about user privacy if the operator is to know where they are on the network at all times.

Market Forecasts

Ovum Group predicts that the location services market will be worth $20 billion annually by 2006. The firm says that mobile commerce spinoffs such as location-aware advertising – which pumps targeted ads direct to a user’s device – will be the main drivers.

Vendors

Useful link

Related Unstrung articles

  • Agilent Claims Location Technology Advance
    TCS and Motorola
    SignalSoft Knows Where It's At
    Guide to Wireless Location Technology

What Are They?

The radio connection between a mobile phone or wireless modem and a base station, the air interface defines the modulation scheme used in that part of the network. Some standards, such as GSM, define the entire cellular network but tend to be considered standard air interfaces.

History

The first commercial mobile analog cellular network was launched in Tokyo in 1979. Scandinavia followed suit in 1981 with U.S rollouts starting in 1983. So-called second-generation (2G) networks started to roll out in the early 90s.

  • These are the major 2G digital air interfaces:

    • Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM):A digital cellular phone technology that uses TDMA transmission techniques, it is sometimes referred to as Wideband TDMA. GSM is a circuit-switched system that divides each 200kHz channel into eight 25kHz time-slots. GSM operates in the 900MHz and 1.8GHz bands in Europe and the 1.9GHz PCS band in the US. Unlike CDMA or TDMA, GSM defines the entire cellular system, not just the air interface. GSM also supports short messaging service (SMS), which enables text messages of up to 160 characters in length to be sent to and from compatible phones. SMS is probably the most successful wireless data service in the world at the moment. The GSM Associationhas said that around 3 billion SMS messages are sent each month. GSM supports data transfer speeds of up to 9.6 kbit/s and has become the de factostandard in Europe and Asia. Over 80 percent of the world’s mobile phone subscribers use GSM-compatible phones.

      Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA):A "spread spectrum," digital, cellular, air interface technology mainly used in the U.S. and parts of Asia, such as South Korea. CDMA sends multiple signals or streams of information at one time as a single signal and then unravels the separate strands at the receiving end. CDMA operates in the 800MHz band and 1.9GHz PCS band and supports data transfer speeds of up to 14.4 kbit/s. Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA):This air interface technology is used in GSM, as a digital upgrade of the AMPS analog system in the U.S. and as the basis of Personal Handyphone System (PHS) in Japan. TDMA is especially popular in the Americas. The technology divides each cellular channel into three time slots, tripling the data capacity from analog technology. TDMA was first specified as a standard in EIA/TIA Interim Standard 54 (IS-54). IS-136, a version of IS-54, is the U.S. standard for TDMA for the 850MHz and 1.9 GHz spectrums. PHS was first introduced in Japan in 1995; intended as a worldwide standard, it never made it outside of the domestic market. Using the PHS Internet Access Forum Standard (PIAFS), PHS provides up to 64 kbit/s of data transfer.Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN):iDEN is a proprietary version of the digital TDMA system developed by Motorola Inc.The technology has proved something of a dead end, even though it can support both packet- and circuit-switched data and offers data transfer rates of up to 10 kbit/s.

      Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD):A wireless data-only packet overlay for the existing analog AMPS network in the U.S., CDPD shunts data over unused intervals in the voice channels. It has a data transfer rate of 19.2 kbit/s. CDPD networks cover about 90 percent of the U.S..

    • Currently, carriers in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. are launching so-called 2.5G networks, intermediate technology that promises faster wireless data transfer rates and always-on connectivity.

      These are the major 2.5G air interfaces:

      • General Packet Radio Service (GPRS):A packet-based extension to GSM networks that has an always-on connection to the Internet and offers data transfer rates of up to 114 kbit/s. However, early adopters have found that the real-world data rates are between 20 kbit/s and 40 kbit/s. In GPRS, communication channels are allocated on a shared-use, as-packets-are-needed basis rather than dedicated to one user per call.

        CDMA 1xRTT:A packet-based extension to CDMA networks that can theoretically support data rates of 144 kbit/s. Advocates of the technology claim that this means that it actually meets the requirements for the first phase of 3G network technology. However, once again, in the real world users are finding that 1XRTT offers rates of around 50 kbit/s.

        Note:Some folks (notably U.S. carriers looking for an edge in some sort of spurious global 3G race) have taken to referring to CDMA 1xRTT as a third-gen standard. However, we here at Unstrungstill consider it an intermediate technology. Yes, we know that it can match some of the data transfer rate requirements of 3G – especially if you stand really, reallystill while testing 1xRTT phones in El Big-O™ Telecom's lab. However, it doesn’t achieve those rates in the real world, and it certainly doesn’t meet the requirements for global roaming and service availability that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)originally intended as an integral part of 3G. So, 1xRTT is a 2.5G standard. There, we said it. Don’t bother writing in to complain: The editor’s decision, as always, is final. Until next time.

    • Third-generation networks were expected to offer data transfer rates of 2 Mbit/s, fast enough to support applications such as video conferencing over the phone. However, NTT DoCoMo, which launched the world’s first commercial 3G system last year, and other carriers testing 3G systems have found that they have only been able to initially get data transfer rates of around 64 kbit/s. The networks are not now expected to hit 2 Mbit/s until 2003 or 2004. Another of the aims of 3G technology is to enable global roaming, so that users can access the same set of services the world over. Third-gen services are likely to arrive in force next year or the year after (or the next year…).

      These are the major 3G air interfaces:

      • Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE):An enhancement to the GSM and TDMA wireless communications systems – using a TDMA air interface – that increases data throughput to 384 kbit/s. EDGE uses the same basic network structure as existing 2G technologies. Some wags refer to EDGE as a 2.75G technology, because it is faster than existing networks but slower than true 3G networks were – at least originally – expected to be.

        Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS):UMTS is targeted as a 3G upgrade path for GSM operators. Derived from the IMT-2000 framework from the ITU, it has an air interface based on wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) and a core network based on GPRS/GSM.Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA):A 3G technology that increases data rates in GSM systems by using the CDMA air interface instead of TDMA. In the ITU's IMT-2000 3G specification, W-CDMA is called the Direct Sequence (DS) mode. W-CDMA is part of the UMTS specification, but it can be used as the air interface (cf. NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA network) on other systems.

        Cdma2000 1xEV-DVBased on Qualcomm Inc.’s High Data Rate technology, 1xEV cranks up data transfer rates to 2 Mbit/s. Qualcomm also has a data-only version of this specification, 1xEV-DO.

      Key Trends

      Operators worldwide are now rolling out 2.5G GPRS and CDMA systems. Third generation is expected to really start taking hold in 2005 and beyond. People are already talking about 4G systems for 2010.

      Market Forecasts

      The UMTS Forum forecasts that revenues from 3G services worldwide will represent a market worth as much as $1 trillion between now and 2010.

      Vendors

      Organizations

      Related Unstrung articles:

      • Nokia Throws Its Cap Into the Ring
        Operators Cast Doubts On GPRS
        Verizon Is Not the Nation's First
        CDMA Handsets Line Up Ahead of GSM at the Start of the Race
        Guide to Mobile Wireless Air Interface Technology

      What is it?

      In mobile telephone systems, a cell is the area covered by the base station (or transmitter/receiver). This cell is typically five or six miles in diameter, although it can be smaller or larger. A carrier organizes several cells into a cell system; when you roam outside of the localized cell system, the system can hand off to another cell site, which may be owned by another operator.

      2G Network

      Today's 2G networks are made up of the following elements:

      • Base Station Transceiver (BTS):The base station (or cell) provides cellphones with access to radio connections.

        Base station controller (BSC):The BSC handles base station switchover and power management.

        Mobile Switching Center:It forwards calls to the correct cell, links the cell site to the public telephone network, and monitors traffic for billing information.

        Home Location Register/Visited Location Register: Databases that contain subscriber information.

      As carriers move to new packet-switched 2.5G and 3G networks they will add new data and service management nodes to deal with the additional wireless data services.

      2.5G/3G network

      2.5G and 3G networks include the following elements:

      • Micromobility manager:In a packet core network the base station controller still sends voice traffic to the mobile switching center but diverts data traffic to a new node that routes data packets to and from mobile stations within its geographical service area. In GSM-derived 3G networks these are known as serving GPRS support node (SGSN); in CDMA setups they are called packet control function (PCF)nodes.

        Service (or Mobile) Gateways:Called gateway GPRS support nodes (GGSNs)in GSM-derived systems and packet data serving nodes (PDSNs)in CDMA systems, these nodes handle roaming and provisioning network-level services for the user. They allow a subscriber to access third-party networks and corporate network services.

      Key Trends

      All-IP networks are providing the current buzzzz in the industry. A voice- and data-over-IP network would be cheaper to build and make it much easier to connect the disparate forms of wireless technology that are springing up. For instance, a network could handle multiple connections, including 3G voice communications, 802.11 wireless LAN, and Bluetooth links. However, there is some debate over when these networks will actually become commercially available. Nokia Corp. is a heavyweight supporter of all-IP networks and says they will start to arrive on the scene in 2004. Othere say that they will more likely be part of the next, next wave in wireless, 4G networks, which aren't expected to start making an impact much before the end of the decade.

      Vendors

      Related Unstrung articles:

      • Mobile Infrastructure 101
        Juniper Unveils ‘Wireless Router’

      What Is It?

      A local area network (LAN) that uses radio as its transport mechanism rather than wires, a wireless LAN system routes data to laptops and other devices equipped with suitable cards via an access point connected to a wired LAN or the Internet.

      History

      The first wireless LAN was put together in 1971 at the University of Hawaii as a part of a research project called ALOHANET

      In 1990, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) 802 Executive Committee established the 802.11 Working Group to create a standard specification for WLAN networking. The standard specified an operating frequency in the 2.4GHz band.

      In 1997, the group approved IEEE 802.11 as the world's first WLAN standard with data rates of 1 and 2 Mbit/s. By 1998, the group approved two extensions to the core spec, one running at 5 GHz (802.11a) and one at 2.4 Ghz (802.11b). The 802.11b standard, also known as WiFi, has maximum data transfer rates of 11 Mbit/s at a range of up to 100 meters (300 feet); 802.11a offers maximum transfer rates of 54 Mbit/s and a range of around 200 feet.802.11b has gone on to become arguably the most popular WLAN technology in the world. Last year, the IEEE ratified the 802.11g specification, which offers data transfer speeds of up 54 Mbit/s and backwards compatibility with 802.11b.

      Key Trends

      802.11 is taking over the world.

      In Europe, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has developed the HiperLAN standard, but this appears to have lost the support of major backers, like Ericsson AB, which are now backing 802.11. The IEEE is developing a version of the 802.11a standard tailored for the European market, although this has yet to meet with full regulatory approval.

      A similar thing is happening in Japan, where the Multimedia Mobile Access Communication (MMAC) Systems Promotion Council is working on WLAN standards, but the IEEE is likely to beat them to the punch, with a WLAN standard tailored to Japanese requirements.

      In the U.S, the HomeRF home networking wireless standard has lost ground to 802.11b, with key HomeRF backers such as Intel Corp. defecting to the 802.11 spec for 2G products.

      Ultrawideband (UWB) is a technology that could potentially rival both wireless LAN technology and Bluetooth because of its ability to transmit very large amounts of data while using very little power. However, the technology has endured a tough time at the hands of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which finally granted it a limited license in February this year, for use in the 3.1GHz and 10.6GHz range and only indoors or in handheld peer-to-peer applications. However, the government body will review those rules this year, so UWB could prove to be a technology to watch.

      Market Forecasts

      Cahners In-Stat says that 8 million WLAN chipsets were sold in 2001, up more than 23 percent from 2000. The firm forecasts 2002 chipset sales will exceed 14 million units, an increase of 75 percent from 2001. For the long term, Synergy Research Group Inc. predicts that the overall WLAN market for business and home usage will grow nearly 30 percent a year to be worth around $5 billion by 2006.

      Vendors

      WLAN Chipset Vendors

      WLAN Card Vendors

      WLAN Access Point Vendors

      Organizations

      Related Unstrung articles:

      • WLAN = Windows Wireless Networking?
        Europe Reaches Wireless LAN Milestone
        Wireless LANs: Not so Fast

      What Is It?

      Bluetooth is designed as a cable replacement technology that enables users to connect devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, and laptops on the fly.

      The technology is based around a wireless radio chipset that runs over the 2.4GHz band. Bluetooth has a range of up to 30 feet and transfers data over the air at speeds of around 720 kbit/s.

      There is a common misconception that Bluetooth is a rival technology to IEEE 802.11b wireless LANs. This is not the case. Bluetooth is configured as a short-range, ad-hoc networking protocol. This means that it is set up to search out other Bluetooth devices in the vicinity and connect to them. So, for instance, a user with a Bluetooth notebook could walk into a room and automatically connect to a printer, a PDA, or a monitor and keyboard setup. This could not happen with 802.11b, as the devices would have to be configured. The specification also has extremely low power requirements, unlike 802.11b, making it suitable for battery-powered devices.

      History

      Bluetooth was conceived in 1998 by Nokia Corp., Ericsson AB, Motorola Inc., and others. Together, they created the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) to develop the specification. The body now has more than 2,000 members.

      Despite unprecedented corporate and public interest in the technology, Bluetooth has taken a long time to find its wings. The first specification was introduced in 1999. However, the first real stable specification was the 1.1 version laid down in 2001. In the time between, vendors carried out extensive interoperability tests to ensure that their Bluetooth devices actually worked with other Bluetooth hardware.

      Key Trends

      The scope of Bluetooth technology has increased since its original inception as a simple cable replacement. Now some vendors are building access points or bridges that allow Bluetooth devices to connect to wired corporate infrastructures.

      Development of faster versions of Bluetooth appear to have been put on the backburner by the SIG, in favor of continuing product development with the stable 1.1 specification.

      Vendors

      Bluetooth Chipset Vendors

      Many, the major players include:

      Bluetooth Card Vendors

      Most of the major PC and laptop vendors produce a Bluetooth card.

      Bluetooth Access Point Vendors



      Organization

      Related Unstrung article:

      • Bluetooth 2 Postponed?

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