SINGAPORE-An air of triumph permeated last week’s second annual CDMA World Congress as the supporters of Code Division Multiple Access celebrated the past year’s network launches, announced a unified branding plan and prepared to enter the next millennium with a platform for advanced wireless services.
With more than 50 CDMA networks operating globally, this year’s World Congress presented ample opportunity for the CDMA camp to scorn critics. “Four years ago, they said CDMA wouldn’t work in a lab. Three years ago, they said it wouldn’t work in the field …” taunted a video released by the CDMA Development Group. Today, 2.75 million paying customers use CDMA networks, noted Perry LaForge, CDG executive director.
LaForge opened the World Congress by announcing to some 800 attendees the launch of cdmaOne, a brand name designed to provide a cohesive identity for a family of CDMA-based services. The new moniker encompasses standards terminology such as Interim Standard-95, IS-96, IS-98, IS-99, IS-6 and IS-41. The name also is targeted at dissuading people from calling IS-95 “narrowband CDMA,” as opposed to what is called broadband CDMA, a CDMA variety developed and backed by InterDigital Communications Corp. in King of Prussia, Pa. The cdmaOne concept plays into the CDG’s master plan of positioning IS-95 and related derivatives as a foundation for next-generation multimedia and high-speed data services.
IS-95 operates in 1.25 megahertz of spectrum while B-CDMA uses upward of 5 megahertz, the latter being the minimum-size spectrum chunk considered by many as essential for video and multimedia transmissions. However, LaForge bristled at the description of IS-95 as “narrowband,” saying that name is “particularly galling” because cdmaOne is the only “worldwide wideband wireless standard.” Global System for Mobile communications technology, in comparison, uses 200 kilohertz of bandwidth divided among eight time slots.
InterDigital, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Siemens AG have shown how B-CDMA can be used for wireless local loop applications and have touted the technology for Internet and multimedia communications.
The CDG continued its advanced services campaign on the second day of the World Congress. The group joined Lucent Technologies Inc., Motorola Inc., Northern Telecom Ltd. and Qualcomm Inc. to announce an alliance to develop next-generation specifications for CDMA using bandwidths of 3 megahertz and more.
“The four vendors here are not trying to ram a standard down anybody’s throat,” commented Tony Hennen, senior vice president and general manager of Motorola’s Cellular Infrastructure Group Product Operations.
Carriers, particularly those in Asia, are requesting that manufacturers work on third-generation, or 3G, services, according to the vendors.
Earlier this year, the CDG announced its Advanced Systems Initiative, an effort within the group to provide a forum to discuss next-generation technological needs and applications. The four vendors will work with the ASI task force. By basing 3G development on current CDMA technology, the CDG members hope to provide a migration path for operators.
An independent initiative for wideband CDMA launched earlier by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo could provide information for integration into the CDG’s 3G development. “There are applications for NTT’s project,” Hennen said. “No one in Japan wants a Japan-only project.”
Proposed 3G standards will meet or exceed the International Telecommunications Union’s requirements for high-speed data transport to a single subscriber, the CDG said. The International Telecommunications Union’s Task Group 8/1 on International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000) hopes to develop universal, advanced systems that could be used around the year 2000 in the 2 GHz frequency band. Requirements include wireless data rates of 144 kilobits per second at mobile speeds, 384 kbps at pedestrian speeds and 2 megabits per second in a fixed locale.
Data analyst Ira Brodsky challenged the manufacturers to justify their plans for 3G development, saying, “I don’t see big demand yet for 384 K pedestrian access” to data services. Admitted Qualcomm’s John Major, “There is a certain amount of faith in this vision.” The vendors want to have an advanced platform available “as the need arises,” Major added.
CDMA will be competing with other technologies such as GSM and Japan’s Personal Handyphone System for ITU recognition under IMT-2000. The European Community is backing GSM as foundation for its 3G vision, which is being developed as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, or UMTS. The four companies working on advanced CDMA specs also are working on developing other third-generation standards. “There will be more than one 3G standard,” Hennen noted. However, it is unclear how exactly the ITU will deal with an onslaught of standards proposals.
Also at the show, Lucent disclosed a symmetrical high-speed wireless data software/firmware solution. Symmetrical 64-kilobit data capabilities are part of IS-96 Revision B, which has been presented to the Telecommunications Industry Association for balloting. “We had debates about whether we really needed this high speed for the uplink,” said Lucent Vice President of Marketing Scott Erickson, noting most data is downloaded to personal computers rather than uploaded. However, he added, “We didn’t want to design a network and find out 12 months from now that Bill Gates has designed an application that requires symmetrical data.”
The CDG also announced support for extension of cdmaOne to the 900 MHz and 1.8 GHz bands. Both spectrum bands are used across Europe and other regions for wireless telephony and are a traditional bastion of GSM and DCT 1800 technologies. In turn, Lucent announced it will produce CDMA equipment for use at 1.8 GHz.
“There was only one technology (DCT 1800) available for 1.8,” noted Erickson. “This gives operators a choice.”
Citing a recent announcement by Britain’s Vodafone plc that it will join Qualcomm to test CDMA as an interface to Vodafone’s GSM network, LaForge said the carrier knows “the limitations of their existing technology and they know they will have to compete with CDMA in the international market.” Such tests also will set the stage for 3G networks that could be served by multiple air interfaces.
Tammy Parker, a writer and consultant based in Boulder, Colo., just completed a book on wireless data.
