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

1. Spectrum

2. Power

3. Reception

4. Processing

Spectrum: How wireless works

• 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

• 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

• 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 Euro-

heavyweights Siemens/Alcatel/Philips

• US has multiple standards:– CDMA/TDMA/GSM– 1900KHz band

3G: IMT-2000 CDMA standard

• US-Euro compromise– 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:– Use of TCP-IP– Intelligent devices ‘hop’ between frequencies– Global standards set by IEEE in US– Pushed by Microsoft-Intel-Cisco-Compaq

Standards

• Spectrum

• Power

• Reception

• Processing

Spectrum

• 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

• 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

• 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

– 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?

• 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

• Voice-dependent networks

• Japanese videophone

• European manufacturers – Ericsson

• Bluetooth as LAN – now PAN

• European lead in mobile

• ETSI-BRAN and ITU as standard-setters

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