Mobile preferred mode of voice commsThe Mobile communications field is experiencing remarkable growth - outstripping and in some ways replacing traditional wireline telephones.
The market is now centred on enhanced handsets with MMS multimedia messaging capabilities, colour displays and in-built cameras.
The key enabling technology for these mobile data applications is the 2.5 and 3G networks which support efficient, always-on, packet-switched data simultaneously with traditional voice calls.We describe the main 1G network - AMPS - and the 2G networks IS-136 TDMA, IS-95 cdmaOne and GSM which are the basis for current mobile networks.
These widely differing radio and network techniques have important implications for the reliability of the service and the cost and interference problems of handsets.We discuss GSM security, SIMs, SMS text messaging, MMS and WAP - the microbrowser-based Wireless Application Protocol which is likely to gain impetus from the deployment of GPRS.
GPRS - the primary 2.5 enhancement to GSM - is discussed in detail, with special reference to its 3G compatible Quality of Service provisions.
We consider the problems inherent in using the Internet's TCP protocol with the latencies and unreliable nature of GPRS or any other mobile wireless data link.EDGE - Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution - is truly a 2.75G technology.
This extension to GSM GPRS networks provides many of the features of 3G, with data rates which are suitable for many applications.
We discuss EDGE's principles of operation and the reasons why many operators are keen to enhance their networks in this way, rather than invest in new 3G spectrum and base-stations.We discuss the five IMT-2000 3G technologies, with particular attention to IMT-DS W-CDMA and IMT-MC Multi Carrier cdma2000.
We also discuss evolutionary paths from 2G networks, Quality of Service, the GSM MAP and ANSI-41 core network architectures and some technical characteristics of handsets: their need for duplexers and their interference with hearing aids and other audio systems.Wireless broadband filling in the gapsThe Technical Wireless Broadband Report provides an overview and analysis of the most important developments and questions in this dynamic area of products, services and applications.The Wireless Broadband market in 2004 is dominated by IEEE 802.11 WiFi products using unlicensed frequencies.
We present technical and market analysis of WiFi and the emerging technologies which promise to both challenge and compliment it.We begin with low data-rate short range technologies in the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) field, and the newly developed NFCIP-1 ultra-short range standard.
These share frequencies with true broadband technologies and may used for activating broadband transactions, such as by swiping a card or placing a camera close to a printer or cell-phone.Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is a home-area-networking proposal optimised for the very high data rates of audio and large-screen video.
UWB promise of creating an entirely new market has resulted in a great deal of investment and technical development.
We report on the troubled standardisation process, the complete change in technology from pulse techniques to OFDM and on the regulatory and practical challenges UWB faces due to it using radio spectrum which other technologies, including GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and WiMax, rely upon.The second major development in Wireless Broadband is IEEE 802.16 WiMax.
The technology and standards are more advanced and robust than UWB's - and less contentious.
WiMax covers a wide range of radio frequencies and applications and is expected to lead to robust, broadband metropolitan-area networks becoming widespread by the end of the decade.
We also examine LMDS, the competing 802.20 mobile wireless broadband project and systems comparable to 802.16/20 which are available and are being deployed in 2004.We report on Bluetooth, the revised Bluetooth 1.2 standard, the IEEE 802.13 standards including the ZigBee appliance-networking standard.
We also discuss three advanced applications of wireless broadband: VoIP over 802.11 (VoWLAN), long-distance radio propagation for 802.11 point-to-point links and finally mesh networks.
Mesh networks are applicable to 802.11 and especially to 802.16 WiMax networks.
If the many propagation and routing challenges can be resolved, mesh networks will provide broad coverage of institutional and metropolitan areas with little or no requirement for a cable or fibre backhaul network.