Wi-Fi systems Broadband wireless: future telecom

Life has undeniably changed for the global telecom industry. For India, which saw- sify-announcing it had setup 120 Wi-Fi hotspots in Bangalore last year, technology for people has always been an issue. As the world moves to broadband internet (an estimated 30 million Wi-Fi networks have been installed worldwide and are being added at the rate of one every seven seconds), the Bangalore example shows that technologies being used around the world are touching the lives of Indians too. One such emerging technology is Wi-MAX, touted by Maloney as the big brother of Wi-Fi. While the latter allows the user to surf the internet at speeds of over 384 kbps in a limited area like an airport lounge or a coffee shop, Wi-MAX stretches the possibility further. In technical terms, Wi-MAX refers to the 802.16a standard for wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN) technology hat will provide a wireless alternative to cable, digital subscriber line and t1, e1 for last mile broadcast access. It will also be used for connecting 802.11 (Wi-Fi) hotspots to the internet. For users, Wi-MAX will mean more broadband access choices, particularly in urban centers where building access is difficult, in the suburbs where the user is too far from the central office and in rural areas which have poor telecom infrastructure. Unlike Wi-Fi, which provides access within a limited area (300 ft), its big brother version provides up to 70 km of service area range. It provides total data rates of up to 280 Mbps per base station, enough to support thousands of users. Wi-MAX solutions will hit the market by the year-end.

Maloney, who believes that a majority of people will access the internet through the wireless technology in the future, best describes the relevance of these technologies. He feels that Wi-Fi and WiMAX will work together to enable companies to reach out. And, he makes it a point to underline the potential of these technologies for developing countries like India where the traditional wireless infrastructure is yet to reach a vast majority. For Indian customers, perhaps the most cost conscious in the world, the possibility of voice becoming free, even as other value-added data services are being charged, is a tantalizing prospect.

Ready for a Wi-Fi rollout

Patrick Gelsinger, 41, is an Intel lifer who joined the company in 1979 as a teenager straight out of technical school. He is credited with playing a key role in the chips giant development He said distributed computing is not a fad and is here to stay. In clientserver computing you end up with big servers and little clients as you dont need a lot of power on the desktop. When you go fully distributed computing, now each node in the network- whether it is a handheld device or a big mainframe- becomes a node in that network and are able to access and utilize resources across the network. Intel has earmarked a significant sum of money for Wi-Fi development. In a market such as India, you do not have that level of wired infrastructure and as such there is not an incumbent who is arguing against a wireless roll-out. In that sense, in some ways countries like India will be more amenable to a wireless roll-out as it saves the cost of deploying a wired network.

Spectrum regulation making it broadly available by the government. Also a rich set of service providers-existing ones or new telecom companies- to start up and rolling out such networks in the country. Not just surfing on the internet, but unique applications such as voice-over-internet protocols (VOIP), which can be very interesting in India as voice services are still comparatively weakly deployed in the country. That would potentially be a key demand driver. The beauty of Wi-Fi technology is that the cost of infrastructure is quite low. In places like India, it is going to be an interesting test.

In the words of Sean Maloney (Intel executive vice-president)

Cisco has announced the launch of a Wi-Fi phone. Intel is also working on this. Sean says it is about using voice over IP technology through a wireless device. Phones have been built and pilot tests have been done. But the power consumption when he phone is not being used is too high at present. The problem with WiFi is that it is constantly broadcasting, hence increasing power consumption. Then you also have a locality issue. Wi-Fi has a very small cell size. Therefore, you create hotspots like hotels and coffee shops where you can access Wi-Fi. But how to convert this into a mobile technology? One way is to have cells that overlap each other so that you can move from one to the other easily. The other issue is roaming. A couple of companies offer phones in Europe. The first application of Wi-Fi is switching from CDMA or GSM when one enters a Wi-Fi hotspot. Whenever a user enters a Wi-Fi hotspot like a building or a hotel he can switch to the Wi-Fi network. That way he will save a lot on telephone charges.

The Wi-Fi call is absolutely clear and almost in stereo. The clarity of a Wi-Fi system is as clear as of a CD player.

Going wireless is quite cheap

Vivian Hudson, general manager & president of GSM, GPRS, EDGE, at Nortel Networks-a company that is focused on communication technology and infrastructure to enable value-added IP data, voice and multimedia services spanning wireless networks, enterprise networks, wireless networks and optical networks, compares Indian telecom market with other markets: Demand for telecom services here is right up there with New York City. In that sense, it is a tremendous challenge for operators. The advantage is that all big cities here have huge demand. An other plus point is that all GSM networks here are relatively later day employments. The market is also not too fragmented. The United States has six operators. The networks are in place in India and penetration is increasing. The cost point of going wireless is quite cheap. It is becoming an instrument for economic development. As far India is compared with China, China is pushing communication to the rural countryside and taking it to the masses. The country also built an optical backbone and hen focused on wireless communication. India too is following the same path.

What is GSM-R??

GSM-R is meant for the railways and is solution that provides effective communication on rail networks. There are six GSM-R networks in the world including Germany, Italy, Slovak republic and Sweden. Essentially GSM-R creates a group call application for a railway communication network.

Wi-Fi: the next killer application in offing

Ravi Swami Nathan, vice-president, personal system group, HP India, responsible for the entire range of consumer and commercial PCs and laptops speaks about mobile computing devices and Wi-Fi in India: Wi-Fi growth can be divided into two phases. Firstly, public areas like hotels, clubs and airports will get the wireless connectivity. In the second phase, in 3 to 4 years, the momentum would be much greater. Big corporate especially those dealing with technology should be early adopters. Many upcoming educational institutions could also be major clientele as providing the latest in technology gives them an edge. The market of mobile computing devices, laptops and PDAs will be boosted by fast adoption of Wi-Fi. The ability to connect to your corporate network or internet while on the move could become the next killer application. One major problem is the duty structure, but the government is expected to slowly take down such duties to an acceptable level. Security is very important issue with Wi-Fi. Since all information is through air, it is vital to make sure to provide a secure access system. For corporate users, it is important that no unauthorized person can tap into their network. The next major security issue is

division of spectrums for Wi-Fi by the government. So far only 802.11b standard having capacity of 11mbps has been open up while 802.11a/g offering 54mbps is yet to opened due to its usage by defense services. India is a turning into a value sensitive market rather then cost sensitive. Initially Wi-Fi applications are expected to be expensive. But as market size increases, the prices will come down substantially.

Wireless communication
Wireless communication system includes cellular telephones, radios, telegraphs, satellite telephones, laptop computers etc. they are used primarily to transmit private communication. It allows people great flexibility while communicating because they do not need to remain at a fixed location. Wireless communication devices are useful in places where communication services are only temporarily needed such as outdoor festivals or large sporting events. These technologies are also useful for communicating in remote locations such as mountains, deserts, where wireless based telephone devices might not exist. Business people use wireless devices such as cellular phones to stay in contact with colleagues and clients while traveling. All wireless communication devices use radio waves to transmit and receive signals. These devices operate on different radio frequencies so that signals from one device will not overlap and interfere with nearby transmissions from other devices. Currently, telecommunication companies throughout the world are activating more wireless service subscriptions. Wireless communication is becoming increasingly popular because of the convenience and mobility it affords; the expanded availability of radio frequencies for transmitting which make it possible to handle a large volume of

calls; &improvement in technology, which have added other services such as internet access and improved the clarity of voice transmission.

Principles of Wireless Communication

Wireless communication begins with a message that is converted into electric signals by a device called the transmitter. There are two types of transmitters: Analog & Digital. An analog transmitter sends electronic signals as modulated radio waves. The analog transmitter modulates the radio waves to carry the electronic signal and then sends the modified radio signal through space. A digital transmitter encodes electronic signal by converting message into a binary code, the series of zeros and ones that are the basis of all computer programming. The encoded electronic signal is then sent as a radio wave device known as receivers. Receivers decode or demodulate the radio waves and reproduce the original message over a speaker.

Drawbacks of Wireless Communication

Wireless communication provides more flexibility than wire-based systems but there are some drawbacks: Wireless communications are limited by the range of transmitter and receiver. Since radio waves travel through atmosphere they can be disturbed by electrical interference such as lightning that cause static.

Modes of transmission

Wireless communication system involves either one-way transmission in which a person merely receives a notice of a message. Pager is a simple example of one-way transmission. When a person dials a pager number, the pager company sends a radio signal to the desired pager. The encoded signal triggers the pager circuitry and notifies the customer carrying the pager of the incoming call with a ton e or a vibrator. The other is two-way transmission which requires both a transmitter as well as a receiver for sending and receiving signals. The common example of two-way transmission is cellular phones so that back-&forth communication between two people can be maintained.

How does Wireless Communication work?

Cellular radio phones also called cell p-hones communicate by sending radio signals to a cell tower. Each cell tower has a certain range within which it can receive radio signals. The range of each tower overlaps with that of another tower so as a mobile cell phone uses travel communication is interrupted. To communicate with a user of a wired telephone, the cell phone radio signals are routed from the cell tower to a mobile switching centre which in turn routes the signals to the telephone company. The signals then travel over telephone lines to reach a wired telephone.

Voice Recognition Technology

Most mobile phone handsets are great examples of VR technology.

Voice recognition (VR) technology makes computers recognize your speech and even talk to you. It makes life easier and faster. VR essentially enables the conversation of sound, words or phrases spoken into electrical signals. These are then transformed into coding patterns at one end and decrypted at the other to retain its meaning. Your computer can recognize your voice in two ways- by template matching where he program is first trained with the users voice input before the users voice is recognized. Example: voice activated phone books in many mobile phones. Although this application has an accuracy of 98%, there is a limitation on the number of user profiles that can be created due to memory constraint. The other method of VR does not need a program trained by the user. It simply attempts to match the expected inputs and the digitized voice inputs. Newer technology now allows you to dictate up to 160 words a minute and some program can also understand slang. Voice recognition is rapidly increasing its presence in business and corporate mainstreams. The technology has found a critical use in the case of people suffering from problems like dyslexia or a stress injury like carpal tunnel syndrome, the bane of typists. VR software can perform all the functions that windows doesediting, reading out the menus and even web search. In India, VR software is marketed by IBM Dragon. Dragon was among the first to launch its Naturally Speaking product. A couple of Dragon products also come with a digital recorder, which makes it convenient to dictate text on the move or when you arent near a personal computer. Voice recognition software also make mistakes- loud external noises, inarticulate or slurred speech, similar sounding words and slang in most cases will most probably give strange results. It is

more convenient to use a combination of mouse, keyboard and speech as this saves you a lot of repetition. Voice recognition is fast gaining grounds with improvements being made by the day. Speech integration and embedded technology will give it a wider usage.

Wireless Application Protocol(WAP Technology)

The mobile internet relies on a new set of standards, known as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The WAP standard consists of a variety of components, including network transfer protocols, security capabilities, and an application environment integrating a browser markup language, scripting and telephony. The WAP standard represents the first successful attempt to establish a broadly accepted environment for delivering information, data and services to both enterprises and consumer users over wireless networks. Several companies have deployed wireless middleware solutions that extend the wireless protocol in an effort to improve throughput, reliability, or user experience.

Need for mobile internet standards

The wireless industry was deadlocked in its effort to create a mobile internet standard in mid-1997, preventing the establishment of a successful, growth-oriented business. For handset manufacturers, infrastructure providers and content developers to invest,

sufficiently large-scale service deployments were needed. For network operators to deploy services, sufficiently high-quality handsets, infrastructure and content were required. Each attempt at defining a standard had been initiated by one of these industry segments, but each eventually failed to gain the necessary acceptance from other segments. A single standard for the mobile internet was clearly needed to help galvanize and unify the market. The Wireless data market, 1997:
Software and hardware providers and tool vendors Handset manufacturers

content developers

Awaiting large market of enterprise and consumer users and large-scale service deployments

DEADLOCK
Awaiting nonproprietary and low-cost availability of quality handsets, infrastructure and content

Network operators

Initiation of WAP standards

In June 1997, AT&T Wireless Services (AWS) hosted a meeting in Seattle, Washington, that brought together representatives of Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and unwired planet (now called

phone.com). Each of these companies had previously made an independent effort or attempt to develop and deploy a wireless data solution. The resulting efforts to develop a standard, known as the wireless application protocol (WAP), were announced on June 26, 1997.

The WAP standard:

contents protocols

Content provider Network operator Service provider

The WAP Architecture

WAP standard is layered, meaning that the standards rest on top of one another and therefore, depend on one another to provide services. Protocol layering is commonly employed to simplify

networking designs by dividing them into functional layers and assigning protocols to perform each layers task in addition to exposing an interface to the layer above it, each layer may expose an interface directly to application and services. The WAP Architecture:
Application layer (WAE) Session layer (WSP) Transaction layer (WTP) Security layer (WTLS) Datagram transport layer (WDP)

JAVA support to Cellular Phones

Java holds biggest promise for cellular phones globally. With the proliferation of cellular phones, Java could be the next big differentiator. Java applications make the screen customizable. Java

enabled handsets offer consumers a big edge. Java has made movies or short clips possible in cell phones. JSPs (Java Server Pages) provide a method for supporting the separation of data and data representation. In this environment, the data is encapsulated in a Java Bean. The JSP document is compiled, using a JSP compiler, into a servlet, that is installed on the application server. Markup contained in the JSP is transformed into Java commands to output that text directly to the output stream. When the request reaches the application server, logic analyses it to determine the most appropriate JSP to apply. The corresponding servlet is then invoked. The servlet outputs the final document, which essentially merges the static markup contained in the original JSP with the dynamic data provided by the Java Bean. In this way, the data source can provide data in any format- including XML- and a Java Bean will supply an interface to that data. A multimode application serves a collection of JSPs for delivering content in markup languages that are suitable for a variety of client browsers. Supporting a new browser markup language simply involves writing and completing a new JSP at the application server. Most important, this does not require modifications to the existing JavaBeans or data.

Modes of Wireless communication

Wireless communication system has changed as Technology has improved. Several different systems are used today, all of which operate on different radio frequencies. New Technologies are being developed to provide greater service & reliability.

Sea & Air Transceivers

First wireless communication devices were radio telegraphs. A telegraph is a device that sends simple electrical pulses along copper wires or through the air as radio waves. The pulses were caused by contact between 2 metal surfaces & receivers interpreted these electrical pulses as tones & beeps. A code of long and short signals was developed to represent the letters of the alphabet and in this way coded messages could be sent between telegraphs. Radio telegraphs used radio waves rather than wire telegraph lines o send and receive messages. Radio telegraphs sent telegraph signals over long distances and were ideal for ship-to-shore communication. Bulky radio telegraphs were installed on ship as early as 1899 and were widely used by 1905. Maritime & aviation telecommunication systems now use highfrequency radios & satellites capable of transmitting speech & text rather than wireless telegraphy to send messages. Aircraft pilots use radios to communicate with air traffic controllers at airports and also to communicate with other pilots. Navigation beacons are equipped with transmitters that send automated signal to help ships & aircrafts in distress determine their positions. While high frequency radio can transmit signals over long distances, the quality of signals can be diminished by bad weather or by electrical interference in the atmosphere, which is often caused by radiation from the sun.

Handheld Radio Transceivers

Police, fire & other emergency organizations as well as the military have used 2-way radio communications since 1930s. Early vehicles based radios were large, heavy units. After the invention of transistors in 1948, radio shrank in size to small handheld radio transceivers. Public 2-way radios with several frequency options are widely available as well. Usually, limited in range to a few miles, these units are great aids for such mobile professional as

construction workers, film crews, event planners and security personnel. Simple 2-way radios, called walkie-talkie, have been popular children toys of years. Most walkie-talkies broadcast on channel 14 of the Citizen Band (CB), a range of frequencies grouped into channels and allocated for public use. CB radios can transmit and receive on 40 different channels. An un-licensed radio service, the family radio service, allows individuals to use high frequency wireless devices with a range of up to 32 kilometers.

Shortwave Transceivers
Long range broadcast services and frequencies, in what is known as the shortwave radio band (with frequencies of 3 to 30 MHz), are available for amateur or ham radio operators. Shortwave radio broadcasts can travel long distances because of the concentration of ionized, or electrically charged, particles in the layer of atmosphere known as ionosphere. The ionosphere reflects radio signals, so that signals transmitted upwards are reflected back to the earth. The skipping of waves against the ionosphere can greatly increase the range of transmission. These broadcasts can travel thousands of kilometers. Under certain conditions & on special clear channel frequencies, listeners of AM radio can receive a signal from several time zones away. Shortwave radio listeners sometimes can receive signals from the other side of the world. The degree of reflectivity of ionosphere depends on the time of day. During daylight hours, the ionosphere has the concentration of ions necessary for reflecting radio waves only at the higher frequencies of the shortwave band. At night, the ionosphere has the concentration necessary for reflecting lower frequencies within the lower parts of the shortwave band. If there is an adequate concentration of ions, the radio waves simply continue through the ionosphere into space.

Satellite Communication

Satellite communication services connect users directly to the telephone network from almost anywhere in the world. Special telephones are available to consumers that communicate directly with communication satellites orbiting earth. The satellites transmit these signals to the ground stations that are connected to the telephone system. These satellite services, while more expensive than cellular or other wireless services, give users access to the telephone network in areas of the world where no wireless or cellular services exists. Satellite phones are also able to deliver video images through videophones that are tiny cameras and transmit their images via satellite phone.

Laptop Computers & Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)

Wireless communication also enables mobile users of laptop computers & PDAs to stay connected. By installing a radio modem to computer devices, users can enhance productivity & accessibility. Radio modems provide the same function as modems that operate with conventional wire-based networks. They modulate and demodulate signals to mimic digital bit streams, the same format used by computers. Modem-equipped computers & PDAs provide mobile, wireless access to e-mail & internet sites.