I-CDMA: DELIVERING A TRUE WIRELESS INTERNET EXPERIENCE
The most successful wireless service providers will be the ones that deliver on the promise of 3G by offering something that replicates the experience of using a wired Internet connection, offering symmetrical broadband speeds for data throughput, a consistent grade of service throughout the cell site, all at an affordable price.
Whilst applications such as WAP have been promoted as delivering wireless Internet access, many users have experienced disappointment with actual results. Although these applications address a specific need, they do not deliver on the expectation of a full-featured, wireless Internet experience. Consumers today are very aware of the Internet, and service providers will need a solid 3G solution to provide a wireless Internet offering that will not disappoint them. The overall potential for wireless services is huge. Some analysts predict that by 2010 there will be 750 million mobile users worldwide and 50% of these will use data.
Currently, wireless data services have been split into three distinctive market segments, which have been defined by IMT 2000 as: high mobility, fixed and pedestrian. A high mobility solution is one that enables data access while travelling at speeds of up to 110 kph; a fixed wireless solution is one that limits data access to a fixed location such as the home or office; a pedestrian or 'portable' solution considers the user as travelling at pedestrian speeds.
Most people would prefer to access the Internet in an environment that could be best described as portable: in the living room, from a hotel room, at the office, in an airport, in the backyard or on a beach. Internet usage is also more likely in a portable situation (compared with a high mobility
scenario) because, on average, most people spend less than 5% of their time each day travelling in a high mobility mode. Taking all of this together means that portable mode is the market segment that operators are concentrating on for broadband wireless Internet access.
Tantivy has developed a wireless data solution called I-CDMA by optimising CDMA technology from an Internet perspective. This meets the needs of the portable market segment and delivers the rich multimedia Internet promise of 3G capabilities and prepares service providers' networks for 4G as well.
I-CDMA: an Internet-centric solution for 3G
The Tantivy Access Network link (TANlink) system along with its optimised air interface, I-CDMA technology, is an end-to-end, IP-based wireless broadband solution, incorporating router technology from the cell directly to the Internet. The first generation can support peak access speeds of 368 kbit/s per user. Future product generations will evolve to even higher speeds.
Employing I-CDMA technology, the TANlink System combines speed, capacity and coverage advantages that enable operators to provide wireless broadband service 10 times more efficiently and cost-effectively than today's voice-centric systems, supporting more than 1,000 users per 1.25 MHz CDMA channel, in an 'always on' state. It is deployed as an overlay network obviating the need to build a new network from scratch. While the typical return on investment time for a network operator is seven years for traditional voice-centric systems, Tantivy's solution takes less than half the time.
I-CDMA technology can integrate easily with any existing CDMA network, it can easily co-exist with TDMA or GSM networks, or it can be deployed as an entirely new wireless network.
As well as equipment at the base station that connects to the carrier network over standard interfaces, the TANlink system includes a subscriber unit that demodulates the I-CDMA air interface signals together with a small portable antenna that provides a more reliable signal to the customer and allows the service provider to offer service to more customers.
I-CDMA technology advantages
I-CDMA technology has unique characteristics that set it apart from the alternatives:
Data rates: it supports peak rates of 1.9 Mbit/s and supports multiple simultaneous users transmitting data at peak speeds of 368 kbit/s
Symmetry: I-CDMA technology is designed to support symmetrical throughput and with a total peak throughput of up to 1.7 Mbit/s and an average throughput of 800 kbit/s, Tantivy's reverse link is the fastest in the industry today. This enables a new range of portable broadband applications, including sending e-mail with large attachments, downloading MPEG files, connecting digital cameras, video conferencing and surfing full content Web pages
Grade of service: the TANlink system integrates smart antenna technology within the wireless subscriber unit to help limit system interference and optimise the received carrier signal. This gives a significant improvement for data traffic over current IS-95 systems and proposed solutions for 3G
Capacity: I-CDMA technology provides more than 10 times the Internet data capacity of other network technologies at much lower deployment costs by minimising dead air time and optimising Internet data capacity. Statistics show that on a circuit-switched system (wire line or wireless), a typical individual accessing the Internet uses the link only 10 percent of the time and by employing a new packet-based high-speed wireless switching technique
that enables 'dead' channels to be quickly reassigned to new users I-CDMA technology minimises dead space and increases system capacity. For example, a traffic channel can be reassigned while an Internet user is reading a Web page and another user can then exploit that capacity with little impact on the first user's perceived data rate. Tantivy's I-CDMA switching and multiplexing speeds are significantly faster (order of magnitude) than other 3G proposals to date
Coverage: TANlink I-CDMA technology doubles the coverage area of the average wireless voice cell site, enabling more customers to be served with a single wireless base station. Using I-CDMA technology, wireless carriers can serve more than 1,000 users per sector, covering ranges up to five miles. For urban environments, I-CDMA can provide unmatched in-building penetration. Tantivy's use of the IS-95 footprint allows operators to cost-effectively add data services to large coverage areas through the use of existing infrastructure (cell sites, antennas, towers, base stations, monitoring equipment). Operators who offer an I-CDMA data service will be able to effectively plan and offer ubiquitous service throughout the cell coverage area because I-CDMA limits the service rates at the interior of
the cell and provides enough budget to serve the edge with similar rates.
I-CDMA provides economies of scale for service providers since it optimises key pieces of the CDMA technology to ensure greater efficiency. I-CDMA was designed to seamlessly integrate into existing cdma networks. As shown in Table 1, I-CDMA offers greater data throughput than other technologies for the same (approximate) spectrum used.
I-CDMA technology not only delivers on the promise of 3G, but its features and cost advantages can:
Help carriers retain customers and generate additional revenue
Help infrastructure manufacturers build affordable, portable wireless broadband networks
Enable application developers and equipment manufactures to improve product capability and generate sales.
Tantivy has submitted its subscriber unit smart antenna technology to the 3GPP2 forum for inclusion in the 1XRTT EV-DV International Standard. This will allow for dual mode voice and high-speed data in a single device. The first dual mode devices could occur with the rollout of EV-DV.
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