Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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Qualcomm Gets Serious About Multimedia Distribution
By Sue Marek
October 12, 2004
news@2 direct

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=document&doc_id=136201&verticalID=34&vertic...

The push to efficiently deliver quality video and audio to handsets is triggering some high-powered innovation at Qualcomm. Building on its March debut of the company's content distribution system called MediaFlo, Qualcomm today announced two more products -- 1xEV-DO Platinum Multicast and FLO -- intended to help carriers efficiently deliver content to their customers.

Typically cellular systems are designed to unicast data, meaning that each cell site sends packets of data to one handset at a time. But with multicasting, which Qualcomm first introduced last spring with its EV-DO Gold Multicast system, cell operators are able to broadcast one packet of data to multiple users simultaneously by using time division multiplexing technology.


The EV-DO Platinum Multicast system announced today turns this system up a notch by allowing the network to reserve the same time division multiplexing time slot for all cells in a region and then transmitting one or more common packets within the reserved slot to all users in the region. Mobile devices receive the same packet from multiple cells using orthogonal frequency division multiplex waveform technology to improve reception.

"Multicasting is important when you have a lot of users that want the same data, like video. You can now send the data to everyone simultaneously," says Jeffrey Belk, senior vice president of marketing at Qualcomm.

The EV-DO Platinum Multicast system will be supported by handsets with the MSM 6800 series chipsets and cell sites with the CSM 6800 series chipsets and will be backward compatible with EV-DO Gold Multicast system and the regular EV-DO networks.

The second multicast technology, called FLO, is intended for operators with a big commitment to content because it requires dedicated spectrum and additional towers. Like Platinum Multicast, FLO transmits packets using OFDM but, while complementary to existing cellular networks such as 1XRTT, EV-DO or W-CDMA, it requires a different network. Belk says the benefit of FLO is it would lower the cost for the operator to deliver high-quality video and ultimately means that operators could deliver more channels of content and better quality content. Although the quality of the video will depend on the carrier's implementation of FLO, the system will allow for real-time video distribution.

Qualcomm anticipates that these two new technologies, FLO and EV-DO Platinum Multicast, will be in network trials in 2005.