An 18-month old company out of Silicon Valley is promising its technology will expand wireless carriers’ coverage by up to 300 percent by addressing what it sees as the “weak link” in cellular infrastructure-the radio.
MDiversity Inc., which is led by Bill Howe, former president of Intel Japan, launched last week, having spent the last 15 months developing proprietary software that will enable the implementation of macrodiversity. Macrodiversity is a wireless network enhancement technology that improves spectrum efficiency by having a cellular terminal simultaneously communicate with multiple access points, the company said.
“Having your cellular terminal or handset simultaneously communicate with multiple base stations allows you to find a stronger link,” Howe said. “Having a cellular handset be aware of not just one base station, but multiple base stations” improves the spectrum efficiency of the network.
In its study and development of its macrodiversity-enabling software solution, mDiversty said it recorded system gains of 8 dB to 12 dB on the uplink, and 6 dB to 8 dB on the downlink. The company claims its software also will decrease mobile transmit power by as much as 94 percent, reduce dropped calls and increase capacity and data rate speeds by 100 percent. The technology requires no changes to the handset and works with both voice and data applications.
It seems all companies in the hunt to invent a technology that will remedy the inevitable spectrum crunch view the delivery method of the radio signal as the culprit of wasteful spectrum use.
MDiversity attacks the problem at the base station, whereas ArrayComm Inc., another Silicon Valley company working to improve spectrum efficiency, is focusing on the antenna to tighten up the delivery of bandwidth. ArrayComm’s i-Burst technology works by configuring the antenna to deliver a signal directly to the receiver, instead of broadcasting it in all directions.
Howe and other management members have been traveling the world during the last few months, speaking with infrastructure manufacturers and carriers about its forthcoming technology. Howe said the company’s initial target is GSM networks because GSM has the largest installed base in the world.
“It’s a natural place to start for just that reason,” said Howe.
MDiversity’s first product will be a GSM product, but the company also will develop versions to support TDMA, EDGE, CDMA and wideband-CDMA networks. Howe said it will begin beta testing next summer, and in the meantime, will continue to strengthen and improve the software.
Based in San Jose, Calif., privately held mDiversity employs about 30 people and has raised about $11 million in funding to date. Dr. Robert M. Yandrofski, current chairman of the board, founded the company in the spring of 1999.
