Mobile Broadband Wireless Access

1
Mobile Broadband Wireless Access

• Samiseppo Aarnikoivu
• Juha Winter

2
Contents

• Introduction 3
• Mobile Broadband Technologies 4
• Regulation Aspects 11
• Current Market Situation 13
• Vendor Strategies 16
• Future Development 18
• Conclusions 19

3
Introduction

• Emerging telecommunications applications need
  broadband capabilities
• multimedia streaming, music download, on-line
  gaming, content browsing etc.
• Delivering these services effectively and
  affordably to the rural and mobile users is a key
  question
• Wireless WANs are seen as the solution
• Truly mobile broadband requires at least
• low latency
• transfer speed exceeding 256 kbit/s
• seamless handovers between adjacent cells

4
Mobile Broadband Technologies

• a number of different BWA technologies for both
  fixed and mobile applications
• proprietary or open standards based
• varying maturity and availability
• already on the market vs. incomplete
  specification
• scope of our paper
• WiMAX, mobile WiMAX, IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM, and
  3G (including HSDPA and TDD)

5
WiMAX

• specified in IEEE Std 802.16-2004
• non-line-of-sight (NLoS) and line-of-sight (LoS)
  operation
• wide range of frequencies
• both licensed and unlicensed bands
• radio interface based on orthogonal frequency
  division multiplexing (OFDM)
• enables data rates theoretically up to 75 Mbit/s
  with 20 MHz channel bandwidth, reality closer to
  2 Mbit/s over 5?10 km

6
Mobile WiMAX

• specified in IEEE Std 802.16e-2005
• operates in the 2 to 6 GHz range using channel
  bandwidth ranging from 1.25 to 10 MHz
• adds seamless mobility to WiMAX
• in competition with 3G cellular systems
• radio interface based on scalable OFDMA
• ? even better link budget than with WiMAX/OFDM
• data rates theoretically up to 30 Mbit/s _at_ 10 MHz
• Korean variant WiBro
• expected terminal availability by late 2006, wide
  scale deployments not until 2008

7
IEEE 802.20

• a standardization effort by IEEE Mobile Broadband
  Wireless Access Working Group
• efficient packet based air interface optimized
  for the transport of IP based services
• goal enable worldwide deployment of affordable,
  always-on, and interoperable BWA networks for
  both business and residential end user markets
• similar to mobile WiMAX
• operation in licensed bands below 3.5 GHz
• peak user data rates exceeding 1 Mbit/s at speeds
  of up to 250 km/h
• specification process not complete

8
Flash-OFDM

• Fast Low-latency Access with Seamless Handoff
  OFDM, proprietary technology developed by
  Flarion Technologies, acquired by Qualcomm
• radio interface based on OFDM in 1.25 MHz
  channels, frequency hopping utilized
• operation in licensed frequency bands (e.g., 450
  MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 1.9 GHz, and 2.1 GHz)
• all-IP based network, low latency and enhanced
  QoS support
• user data rates of 1 to 1.5 Mbit/s in DL and
  around 300 to 500 kbit/s in UL, typical latency
  50 ms

9
3G

• 3G cellular systems are currently the most widely
  deployed mobile broadband technology with a huge
  established presence
• HSDPA is a tremendous performance upgrade for
  UMTS packet data, enabling peak data rates up to
  14.4 Mbit/s, although the initial limit is 1.8
  Mbit/s
• 3GPP specifications also include a TDD version of
  UMTS where Tx and Rx functions alternate in time
• TDD requires only one band instead of two bands
  and a further guard band in FDD
• UMTS TDD is also known as TD-CDMA and has been
  commercialized by the vendor IP Wireless

10
Key Metrics
11
Regulation Aspects, 1/2

• Almost all current BWA technologies are designed
  to operate in licensed frequency bands, although
  the available bands for them may differ across
  countries and regions
• Licensed bands allow operators to manage
  frequency planning
• For unlicensed bands, different techniques are
  needed
• Although CSMA is sufficient for Wi-Fi, a much
  more stringent radio access control mechanism is
  necessary for WiMAX

12
Regulation Aspects, 2/2

• The selection of operating frequency affects not
  only cell radius but consequently also cost of
  coverage
• Lower frequency bands such as 450 and 700 MHz are
  attractive for nationwide BWA deployments

13
Current Market Situation, 1/3

• Finland
• First WiMAX networks were deployed in the rural
  areas of North Ostrobothnia and Pirkanmaa during
  the first half of 2005, similar deployments
  followed later in South Savo
• UMTS FDD networks operated by TeliaSonera, Elisa,
  and DNA Elisa with HSDPA capabilities
• UMTS TDD license granted to SkyWeb
• Flash-OFDM 450 MHz operating license granted to
  Digita in June 2006, deployment in progress

14
Current Market Situation, 2/3

• Europe
• WiMAX deployments in the UK and Sweden
• HSDPA trials on-going, mass deployments to follow
• Middle East and Africa
• growth market for 3G, Kuwait already running
  HSDPA
• Americas
• WiMAX in many major US cities, in Canada over 100
  rural/ urban areas covered, in Colombia
• HSDPA adopted by Cingular Wireless in the US,
  otherwise mostly dormant interest especially in
  Latin America
• Asia Pacific
• WiBro roll-outs in South Korea, Taiwan to follow
• HSDPA upgrades in Japan

15
Current Market Situation, 3/3

• 3G and fixed WiMAX are off to a good start in the
  developed markets, but many operators are faced
  with the difficult decision whether to wait for
  mobile WiMAX certified products

16
Vendor Strategies, 1/2

• Chipset providers, infrastructure vendors and
  handset vendors all have varying approaches

17
Vendor Strategies, 2/2

• Many vendors think that there is room for both
  technologies

18
Future Development

• 3GPP Release 6
• HSUPA provides 5.76 Mbit/s uplink and RTT of 50
  ms
• Trials are expected to begin gradually and
  commercial deployment will happen in 2007
• Medium-term enhancements
• MIMO (3GPP Release 7 as well as WiMAX)
• Network architecture improvements
• Mobile IP SIP
• 3GPP LTE (Release 8)
• Peak data rates of 200 Mbit/s for downlink and
  100 Mbit/s for uplink

19
Conclusions

• Mobile broadband wireless access is strongly
  entering the consumer markets
• Both HSDPA and mobile WiMAX enjoy widespread
  support among leading vendors and operators
• Proprietary solutions such as Flash-OFDM are more
  likely to end up as niche solutions
• Finland will provide an interesting reference
  market with all the major technologies
  represented
• User experience is the focus area
• Consumers need not know what network they are
  using as long as their services work
• Driving the vision of complementary access methods

20
Thank You!

• Questions?