Javier Gozalvez Senior Editor

MOBILE RADIO

Ultra Mobile Broadband

Beyond 3G

he CDMA Development Group (CDG) announced they have selected Ultra Mobile Broadband as the brand name to describe the advanced technologies and services that will be supported by the CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision C (Rev. C) standard. The new standard is expected to be published early in the second quarter of 2007 and become commercially available on a global basis in early 2009. With the ability to support peak download speeds as high as 280 Mbps in a mobile environment, Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) represents a major break-through in the delivery of next generation mobile broadband services. UMB is an evolutionary upgrade within the family of CDMA2000 standards that can be deployed in existing or new spectrum allocations using scalable bandwidths up to 20 MHz. UMB enhances the performance and capabilities of CDMA2000 by combining the best aspects of the following air interface techniques; CDMA, TDM, OFDM, and OFDMA. UMB also incorporates Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) and Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) advanced antenna techniques to provide even greater capacity, coverage, and quality in deployments with multiple antennas. The sophisticated UMB control mechanisms use the above
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MVT.2007.899513

techniques to optimize the transmission of variable length packets for each application based upon the end-to-end system capabilities and the quality of service (QoS) requirements of each application and user. To support ubiquitous and universal access, UMB supports inter-technology hand-offs and seamless operation with existing CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO systems. The Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) and CDG also announced the publication of a Technology Evolution Framework (TEF) white paper to define the future evolution path of CDMA2000. This document, available for download on the 3GPP2 website, serves as an industry roadmap for the next major technological breakthroughs expected in mobile communications and its interoperation with other wireless networks (e.g., Wi-Fi), cable networks, and wireline networks over the next 10 years. Ericsson and 3 Italia have achieved what they claim is the first successful establishment of mobile data connections based on Enhanced Uplink in a commercial network. Ericssons Enhanced Uplink, employing HSPA technology, has delivered uplink speeds of 1.4 Mbps and potential peak downlink speeds of 14.4 Mbps. Subscriber service offerings based on HSPA on the uplink and faster downlink speeds are set to reach the market in early 2007. Nokia and Singaporean mobile oper-

ator MobileOne have also carried out High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) data calls in Southeast Asia. The call was conducted in a test environment using a Nokia Flexi WCDMA Base Station and Nokias HSUPA-capable device. The successful trial proved that the connection from the device to the 3G network can now reach a data rate of 1.45 Mbps which is up to 4 times over existing 3G speeds.

Research and Technology

Qualcomm has announced the availability of what it claims is the worlds first chipset offering full support for Draft 2.0 of the IEEE 802.11n standard. The AGN400 chipset is the fourth generation 802.11n-compliant chipset from Airgo Networks and features Airgos True MIMO Gen-N technology. True MIMO Gen-N capitalizes on Airgos patented innovations in multiple antenna technology to extend the effective range and bolster data throughput for consumer Wi-Fi and next-generation wireless digital home entertainment devices. Motorola announced that it has successfully completed a trial to demonstrate the feasibility of alternative power systems that can support remote GSM Base Stations (BTS). The trial concluded that a combination of solar cells and wind turbines can generate 1,200 watts in a continual cycle; enough to drive a mid-sized BTS and support a microwave backhaul installation. Powering BTS sites

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in both developed and emerging markets is a challenge for operators because of the high cost or difficulty of provisioning mains electrical power. Motorolas green-powered BTS can replace or reduce the load on mains power and can also remove the need for power generators that require continual re-fueling and security. In collaboration with Bristol, Bath and Surrey Universities, Motorola successfully ran the yearlong test at its GSM facility in Swindon, UK. During the trials, Motorola used a combination of solar and wind power to run a GSM base station and charge batteries that kick in when the solar or wind power is insufficient. Motorolas alternative power solutions are now available to trial in live networks across the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions. Staccato Communications and South Koreas SK Telecom unveiled plans for the delivery of Ultra Wideband (UWB) mobile phone services. SK Telecom has selected Staccato for the companys UWB silicon products and for the Ripcord single-chip, all CMOS-based family of solutions. Services developed and launched by SK Telecom and Staccato will be standardized and offered worldwide to other operators after initial launch in Korea. With the choice of the WiMedia Common Radio Platform as the foundation for the project, SK Telecom and Staccato are developing together applications using several protocols. This benefit is enabled by Staccatos PIK MAC technology, which is a Protocol Independent Kernel, based on a custom implementation of hardware acceleration and ARM9 software control. This patent pending technology enables the simultaneous operation of Certified Wireless USB, WiNet, Bluetooth 3.0 and other potential protocols at speeds up to 480 Mbps. Products will initially launch with WiMedia radios using spectrum below 6 GHz (band group 1, band 3) and add above 6 GHz operation when the WiMedia

Alliance completes the certification process for these bands. Samsung has launched what it claims is the worlds first mobile phone featuring an optical joystick. Users utilize the optical joystick key by placing their finger and moving a cursor to navigate through the menu. Optical sensors will read and react to users finger movement, thus breaking down the traditional four-way menu navigation and providing 360 degrees of freedom. Through an illumination sensor, the Samsung V960 also includes a Smart Lighting feature that automatically controls the brightness of the LCD screen and keypad. Analog Devices has launched what it claims is the first dual 14-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to achieve sampling rates of 150 mega samples per second (MSPS). Supporting all 3G base station wireless standards, including W-CDMA, CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA, the AD9640 is the only dual 14-bit ADC that samples at rates beyond 135 MSPS, a common requirement for the emerging WiMAX standard. With the AD9640, base station designers are able to reach higher sampling rates with one dual ADC, enabling a 50% reduction in board space requirements. The CSIRO ICT Centre in New South Wales (Australia) claims it has achieved over 6 Gbps over a point to point wireless connection with the highest efficiency (2.4 bits/s/Hz) ever achieved for such a system. According to the researchers, the system is suitable for situations where a high speed link is needed but it is too expensive or logistically difficult to lay fibre, such as in congested urban environments, and across valleys and rivers. The system operates at 85 GHz in the millimetre-wave part of the electromagnetic spectrum (above 55 GHz). Panasonic Mobile Communications announced the development of a radio wave propagation simulation system for next-generation wireless

communication system (3G LTE/IMTSystems Beyond 2000). The simulation system enables the user to conduct analysis of radio wave propagation within a given environment for the next-generation wireless transmission method such as MIMO and Multi-Hopping propagation. Panasonic has applied or registered for 6 patents on the new radio wave propagation simulation system. Softbank Mobile Corp in Japan has launched what it claims is the worlds first live IMS network over 3G. The end-to-end IMS system has been supplied solely by Ericsson, which has provided all the infrastructure, system integration and support services. Ericssons IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) includes a converged IMS core infrastructure, as well as application servers and service enablers for common functions that can be reused for multiple fixed and mobile applications. Services include Circle Talk (push-totalk) and HotStatus (presence, group list management).

WiMAX
Intel has announced design completion of its first mobile WiMAX baseband chip. Combined with the companys previously announced single-chip, multi-band WiMAX/Wi-Fi radio, the pair creates a complete chipset called the Intel WiMAX Connection 2300. For the first time, Intel incorporated MIMO functionality into the baseband chip to enhance the signal quality and throughput of wireless bandwidth. The baseband chip also has low power requirements for increased battery life and lower thermals to support smaller and thinner designs. With the initial Intel WiMAX Connection 2300 chipset design now complete, Intel plans to focus on validating and testing the product, with plans to sample both card and module forms beginning in late 2007. According to Nortel and Chunghwa Telecom, a new Mobile WiMAX network in the northeastern

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county of Yilan is to become the first fully integrated broadband wireless network driven by a local government under the Mobile-Taiwan (M-Taiwan) project. Nortel is providing Chunghwa Telecom with next generation Mobile WiMAX base stations, based on the IEEE 802.16e standard, incorporating Nortels patented MIMO antenna technology. Alvarion has introduced two new converged solutions combining Wi-Fi functionality with both WiMAX and pre-WiMAX products. Each WI2 solution consists of an outdoor Wi-Fi access point with integrated power module capable of connecting to various commercial power sources, either a BreezeMAX or BreezeACCESS VL unit for backhaul and network management software.

tumor risk and cellular telephone use among either short-term or longterm users. Moreover, the scientists claim that the narrow confidence intervals obtained provide evidence that any large association of risk of cancer and cellular telephone use can be excluded.

3G News
Nortel and Telefnica O2 Czech Republic have successfully demonstrated Europes first CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev A call in the Telefnica O2 Czech Republic network at 450 MHz radio spectrum. The call was enabled by a simple upgrade from 1xEV-DO Rev 0 to Rev A technology. Using the same 1.25 MHz channel, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev A provides both forward and reverse links with more capacity and higher data rates, with up to 3.1 Mbps in the forward link and 1.8 Mbps in the reverse link. In addition to the Nortel upgrade, the demonstration was achieved using an ADU-500A CDMA EV-DO Rev A wireless modem from AnyDATA. Huawei announced that it has completed video phone and HSDPA 3.6 Mbps services trials on a network in Europe using UMTS 900 MHz and that it plans to continue to conduct multiple UMTS 900 MHz field trials in Australia and Europe. Huaweis new generation Node B supports UMTS 850 MHz, 900 MHz as well as AWS frequencies of 1700 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz and 2100 MHz. Huaweis UMTS 900 MHz solutions completely re-use the existing GSM 900 MHzs frequencies and infrastructures including base station cabinets, antenna lines and power feeders, causing a reduction in CAPEX and enabling the provision of wireless broadband services. Siemens Networks has developed a single base station that can be operated simultaneously as a GSM and WCDMA station. In particular, Siemens has developed products that enable W-CDMA data to be transmitted on the GSM 900 MHz frequency. The network components are all GSM and W-CDMA

Health Risk Effects

A long-term study, carried out by the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Denmark and published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, has found no increased incidence of cancer among mobile phone users. The objective of this study was to investigate cancer risk among Danish cellular telephone users who were followed for up to 21 years. This study is an extended follow-up of a large nationwide cohort of 420 095 persons whose first cellular telephone subscription was between 1982 and 1995 and who were followed through 2002 for cancer incidence. According to the scientist, cellular telephone use was not associated with increased risk for brain tumors, acoustic neuromas, salivary gland tumors, eye tumors, or leukemias. Among long-term subscribers of 10 years or more, cellular telephone use was not associated with increased risk for brain tumors, and there was no trend with time since first subscription. The risk for smoking-related cancers was decreased among men but increased among women. As a result the scientists concluded that they found no evidence for an association between

capablefrom network access to the core network and transport and network control. If the same 900 MHz frequency is used, it is possible to keep on using not only all sites, but also antennas, cables and important parts of the GSM base station. Even more cost savings can be achieved through the operation of a combined GSM/WCDMA network since operations, maintenance and the core network are shared. The new Mobile Access Gateway Surpass hiD3105 makes a major contribution in this respect. It converts and moves data optimally between TDM, ATM and IP networks. This any-to-any functionality for GSM/W-CDMA, support of future standards such as LTE, and the possibility of integrating DSL networks reduces line leasing costs, in some cases by up to 80%. The multi-standard network controller makes a similarly positive contribution; 500 GSM and 512 WCDMA base stations can be controlled using a single device. Brasil Telecom has announced it will study the technical feasibility of implementing a 3G network using the 1.8 GHz frequency band for which it already holds a concession license.

Mobile TV
Ericsson and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) have launched a trial of personalized mobile TV advertising. The trial sees advertisers employ customized marketing with individual mobile TV viewers, with content provided by agency partner, Proximity Oslo, a part of the Global BBDO network. The two-month trial is open to the public. Volunteers will be able to access NRKs two TV channels and five of its radio channels. A made-formobile 24/7 TV program will also be available during the trial. Customers can use their handsets to interact with the shows host via voting and chatting, and can contribute content by uploading photos and video clips. Advertisements will be interactive, customized to ensure their relevance to individual users, and tailored to

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the users age, gender, location and personal interests. Content will be accessed via a downloadable client, a Java application providing fast channel switching, interactivity and the new personal advertising features. Qualcomm and British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB) have announced the successful completion of a joint technical trial of Qualcomms MediaFLOTM System in the United Kingdom. The technical trial, conducted over two months in Cambridge, featured 11 channels from the BSkyB content menu delivered to non-commercial devices from Qualcomm and aimed to demonstrate the performance of the MediaFLO System in both laboratory and mixed field test environments. Factors such as total throughput, single frequency network (SFN), network acquisition, channel switching times, layered modulation and video codec performance were evaluated. BSkyB and Qualcomm conducted the trial, along with infrastructure provider Arqiva, to explore new opportunities to deliver video services to mobile devices. The MediaFLO System is an end-to-end solution that enables broadcasting of high-quality video streams, audio-only streams, Clipcast media and IP datacasting to mobile handsets. Telephia and Roundbox have announced a partnership to develop on-device audience measurement for mobile broadcast applications, including Mobile TV, using technology on the subscribers handset. The two companies are creating an interface between Roundboxs mobile broadcast software and Telephias on-device metering platform that will allow them to log viewing behavior on panelist handsets and report it to a central server.

Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) Auction completed September 18, 2006 (Auction No. 66). The grant of these licenses will promote the further deployment of broadband services across the United States, as they can be used to provide a wide array of innovative wireless services and technologies, including voice, data, video, and other wireless broadband services. The licenses granted represent $12.2 billion of the $13.7 billion in total net high bids from Auction No. 66. This $12.2 billion in auction revenue will nearly double the approximately $14 billion in total revenue transferred to the U.S. Treasury from all previous FCC auctions combined. This revenue will also fully fund the estimated cost of relocating the federal government operations currently occupying the lower half of the AWS band (17101755 MHz), as required by the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act (CSEA). Sprint has announced it has upgraded the Sprint Power Vision NetworkSM with the faster EV-DO Revision A technology in 10 additional markets (New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Detroit, Denver, Baltimore, Providence and New Jersey), covering now more than 60 million people. Sprint Power Vision users should experience significantly faster average upload speeds of 300400 kbps. Average download speeds should also increase to 450800 kbps. Leap Wireless has acquired 13 spectrum licenses from Urban Comm-North Carolina Inc. The licenses cover areas with more than 4.9 million potential customers in North and South Carolina markets.

Industry Forecasts and Surveys

According to Infonetics Research worldwide RAN equipment sales increased 9% to $ $9.58 billion between 2Q06 and 3Q06, wireless LAN equipment sales 19% to $780.03 million, WiMAX equipment sales 23% to $173.53 million, and outdoor

US Mobile Market
The Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has granted 550 of the 1,087 licenses won in the

mesh equipment sales 38% to $121.40 million. The firm also expects worldwide RAN equipment sales to reach $35.86 billion in 2009 and the number of mobile subscribers to grow to 3.39 billion worldwide in 2009. Infonetics Research forecasts that worldwide WLAN equipment sales will reach $3. 82 billion in 2009 with North America accounting for 46% of all WLAN equipment revenue in 3Q06, EMEA for 29%, Asia Pacific 20%, and CALA 5%. Finally, the company also believes that worldwide WiMAX equipment revenues will reach $3.26 billion in 2009 and that worldwide outdoor wireless mesh access node sales will reach $1.17 billion in 2009. BBDO Consulting has conducted an FMC-market survey that revealed that over 65% of fixed and mobile operators will have implemented Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) services into their product suites over the next three years. When asked to define the types of services or benefits they associate with FMC, 75% of respondents chose a dualmode handset, 34% one phone bill, 27% a home zone rate plan, 13% voicemail convergence and 9% a Skype-like solution. As for planning to implement FMC, 26% of respondents said they have already implemented it, 11% said they planned on implementing some services by the end of 2006, 18% said they planned on doing it by 2007, and 13% said they intended to implement some FMC services within the next 3 years. The firm Berg Insight has predicted that 60% of WCDMA handset shipped worldwide will have integrated GPS/Galileo receivers by 2010. A report from Parks Associates predicts that annual sales and shipments of wireless multimediacapable devices, including home networking gears, personal computers, and fixed and mobile consumer electronics, will grow from 2.5 million units in 2006 to nearly 52 million

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units by year-end 2010, due in large part to standardization in the market.

Public Safety
The FCC has adopted a Ninth Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes a national, centralized approach to maximize public safety access to interoperable, broadband spectrum in the 700 MHz band. In addition, the initiative seeks to promote the deployment of advanced broadband applications, related radio technologies, and modern, IPbased system architecture. The proposals contained in this item are designed to meet the following public safety objectives: (1) opportunities for broadband, national, interoperable use of 700 MHz spectrum; (2) new sources of funding for the build-out and operation of the national public safety network; (3) economies of scale and scope in production and competition in supply to maximize cost effectiveness; (4) efficient spectrum use; (5) network robustness and survivability; and (6) flexible, modern IP-based wireless system architecture. Specifically, this item proposes that the Commission (1) allocate 12 megahertz of the 700 MHz public safety spectrum from wideband to broadband use; (2) assign this spectrum nationwide to a single national public safety broadband licensee; (3) permit the national public safety broadband licensee also to operate on a secondary basis on the narrowband public safety spectrum in the 700 MHz band; (4) permit the licensee to use its assigned spectrum to provide public safety entities with voluntary access to a public safety broadband service on a fee-for-service basis; (5)

permit the licensee to provide unconditionally preemptible access to its assigned spectrum to commercial service providers on a secondary basis, through leases or in the form of public/private partnerships; (6) facilitate the shared use of CMRS infrastructure for the efficient provision of public safety broadband service; and (7) establish performance requirements for interoperability, build-out, preemption of commercial access, and system robustness.

Other News
TeliaSoneras Spanish mobile operator, Yoigo, has launched its low cost 3G network in Spain, becoming the fourth 3G operator in Spain. Yoigo launched mobile operations based on its own 3G network combined with national 2G roaming. The UMTS Forum has announced that the global 3G mobile industry is on the brink of gaining its first 100 million UMTS/WCDMA customers. According to data supplied by mobile market information provider Wireless Intelligence, the 100 million subscriber milestone is due to be passed at the start of 2007. According to the latest figures from The Mobile World, there are now over 2.6 billion mobile users in the world. The firm has also revealed that of Europes 20.8 million net new mobile customers in Q3 2006, 5.9 million adopted WCDMA technology. The overall ratio of GSM to W-CDMA net additions remained the same between the second and third quarters, at 71.4 parts GSM to 28.4 parts WCDMA. In absolute terms, Europe had almost 39 million 3G customers at the end of September 2006, up from just over 16 million at the end of September 2005, which corresponds to an annual growth rate of 140%. Europes largest 3G market is Italy with 14.6 million 3G users. Nortel has announced that it has reached a definitive agreement for the sale of certain assets and the transfer of certain liabilities related to the companys UMTS access business to Alcatel-Lucent. Approximately 1,700 of Nortels UMTS access business employees will transfer to Alcatel-Lucent.

Spectrum licenses
Ofcom has announced proposals for the UKs largest single release of radio spectrum, which could be used for a range of new services such as mobile broadband and advanced wireless services. The consultation document seeks views on proposals to auction licences to use three spectrum bands: 25002690 MHz, 20102025 MHz and 22902300 MHz. In total 215 MHz will be available. Ofcom proposes to release the spectrum on a technology and service neutral basis. This will allow organisations to decide how best to use the spectrum within certain minimum technical specifications to prevent harmful interference. The proposals are part of a wider Ofcom programme to release around 400 MHz of prime spectrum to the market over the next few years, creating major opportunities for extra innovation and competition in wireless services. The programme includes a dozen different bands including the spectrum freed up by digital television switchover, or Digital Dividend, in which Ofcom will publish proposals shortly.

FOREWORD (continued from page 3)

head of the Mobile Core R&D Department. Dr Chua has carried out research in various areas of communication networks and has published more than 180 papers in these areas in international refereed journals and conferences. His current research interests are in wireless networks (in particular wireless sensor networks) and optical burst switched networks. He is a recipient of an IEEE 3rd Millennium medal.

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