NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.-To move device interconnectivity from enticing theory to practical reality, the new Wireless Research Center of the University of California at Berkeley has formed a bi-coastal collaboration with the Wireless Information Network Laboratory at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
“We started the Wireless Research Center to apply and leverage semiconductor communications theory and systems engineering,” said Robert W. Brodersen, a professor in Berkeley’s department of electrical engineering and computer sciences.
“As we close the century, semiconductor technology has reached the point where it can drive communications systems. Our model is to collaborate as much as possible to create true wireless communications systems in silicon.”
Brodersen spoke at the recent “WINLAB/Berkeley Focus ’99 on Radio Networks for Everything,” hosted by the Rutgers University laboratory. WINLAB possesses a depth of experience and expertise in radio-frequency and related computer systems research.
In its mission statement, Berkeley WRC said its initial goal is to develop “universal radio … the definition of an approach which would supersede the present standards-setting process for spectral allocation.”
Universally adaptable radio links are needed because no one is sure what the killer application will be, Brodersen said.
“The new approach would allow exploitation of the scaling of [Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor] technologies as well as new communication and information theoretic results, while also adapting to the ever-changing service demands of wireless connectivity,” the BWRC mission statement said.
CMOS is a technology for making integrated circuits that require very little power to operate.
“Exploration of how to make more efficient use of the unlicensed bands will be the initial target, but the long-term goal is to provide a logical, scalable framework for efficient use of scarce spectral resources,” the mission statement said.
The demand for bandwidth in cellular applications is growing exponentially while the supply of RF spectrum available for them remains fixed, said Sergio Verdu, a professor of electrical engineering at Princeton University, located in New Jersey about 25 miles south of Rutgers. Verdu spent 1998 as a visiting professor to Berkeley’s electrical engineering and computer sciences department.
“A variety of technologies has been proposed recently to make use of the spectrum in a more efficient way than existing digital wireless systems,” Verdu said.
“Key to those technologies is the implementation of sophisticated digital signal processing in the receiver.”
Today’s shortcomings in interconnectivity are multiple and apparent, said Anthony Joseph, a professor at Berkeley’s EECS department.
“There is a lack of network deployment. The software drivers are not plug-and-play, so the applications often fail. The radio interfaces are fixed and unreliable. The cost is high,” he said.
“I have talked to a number of telecom (service) providers that say analog (cellular) can support data, but the configuration challenges are unfathomable. Automatic configuration is needed instead of a [personal identification number]. (It is) a smart-card functionality that knows to contact one and then alternate access points to find and drive devices.”
Furthermore, Joseph said there is a need for modular and personalized air interfaces. Another requirement is a reduction in the “amount of word error rates, [to enable] dynamic adaptation to (each) application’s requirements for switching between networks.”
Ericsson Inc., Nokia Corp., IBM Corp., Toshiba and Intel Corp., joined by nearly 700 other companies, are working on Bluetooth, a developing standard to promote interconnectivity between mobile and fixed wireless devices and stationary wireline devices, like personal computers. Bluetooth ’99, the first public Bluetooth conference, will convene June 8-11 in London.
“The Bluetooth radio system … makes use of frequency hopping in the [Industrial Scientific and Medical] band at 2.45 GHz,” said Jaap Haartsen, senior scientist for mobile systems at Ericsson Mobile Communications, Lund, Sweden.
“The air interface enables the design of low-cost and low-power radio transceivers, which leads the way toward embedded radios providing ubiquitous connectivity between devices. [It] has been optimized to withstand interference on the ISM band from jammers and uncoordinated co-users.”
In a related development, Convergence Corp., Atlanta, announced June 1 it will make its new DeviceTalk available to original equipment manufacturers by early 2000.
DeviceTalk “is among the first software applications to employ Bluetooth technology … (and) is the first introduction of a software suite compatible with Bluetooth,” Convergence said.
DeviceTalk will enable wireless links among PCs, personal digital assistants, cellular phones, pagers, printers, headsets, and local area network and wide area network access points, the company said.
