EDUCAUSE Southwest Regional Conference 2003 Wireless Convergence More

EDUCAUSE Southwest Regional Conference 2003 Wireless Convergence: More or Less the Sum of its Parts? Doug Jackson Director, Technology Customer Services UT Dallas Copyright Doug Jackson 2003. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for noncommercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

More or Less the Sum of its Parts? • Basic Technology Concepts • Wi. Fi b-a-g • Bluetooth • Cellular 2/2. 5/3 G • Convergence • Driving Forces • General Trends • Projects & Timelines • Wrapup

Basic Technology Concepts Wi. Fi b-a-g (802. 11 wireless lans)

Basic Technology Concepts Wi. Fi b-a-g IEEE Standards for Wireless LAN Spread Spectrum Radio Technology (802. 11) • 802. 11 b- 2. 4 GHz @11 mbps • 802. 11 a- 5 GHz @54 mbps • 802. 11 g- 2. 4 GHz @54 mpbs • 802. 11 e- Qo. S services • 802. 11 i- 802. 1 x security

Basic Technology Concepts Wi. Fi b-a-g Access Point - network device that links wireless stations to the wired network- $900 -$500/unit Wireless NIC cards- USB or PC card -radio transceivers for the end users -$795/card $595/card $275/card $150/card $85/card

Basic Technology Concepts Wi. Fi b-a-g 802. 11 b- 11 Mbps DSSS, 2. 4 GHz spectrum, failovers to 5. 5, 2, 1 Mbps 802. 11 a- 54 Mbps max, 5 GHz spectrum, failovers to 48, 36, 24, 18, 12, 6 Mbps 802. 11 g -54 Mbps max, 2. 4 GHz spectrum, backward compatible with 802. 11 b (not ratified yet)

Basic Technology Concepts Wi. Fi b-a-g 802. 11 c- work moved to 802. 1 D 802. 11 d- Extensions in other Regulatory Domains 802. 11 e -MAC Enhancements-Security/Qo. S 802. 11 f- Inter-Access Point Protocol 802. 11 h- Spectrum Managed 5 Ghz 802. 11 i- Enhanced Security (TKIP and 802. 1 x)

Basic Technology Concepts Wi. Fi b-a-g 802. 11 b 802. 11 a 802. 11 g Frequency band 2. 4 GHz 5 GHz 2. 4 GHz Max data rate 11 Mbps 54 Mbps Worldwide US Worldwide Hiperlan devices Cordless phone Microwave oven Bluetooth availability Interference sources Cordless phone Microwave oven Bluetooth The Rules of Thumb of Radio Higher data rates usually imply shorter transmission range Higher power output increases range, but increases power consumption (less battery life) The higher the frequency, the higher the data rate (but smaller range).

Basic Technology Concepts Wi. Fi b-a-g 802. 11 b 802. 11 a @100 Mw @40 Mw 802. 11 g estimates 50 ft 11 Mbps 54 Mbps 100 ft 11 Mbps 36 Mbps 125 ft 11 Mbps 12 Mbps 11 Mbps 150 ft 5. 5 Mbps 6 Mbps 5. 5 Mbps 250 ft 2 Mbps 350 ft 1 Mbps ?

Basic Technology Concepts Bluetooth

Basic Technology Concepts Bluetooth What is “Bluetooth”? • Wireless lan technology (10 meters) or PAN • 2. 4 GHz band with 1 Mbps speed • Spread spectrum frequency-hopping • “always on” user-transparent cable-replacement • Combination of packet-switching & circuitswitching (good for data & voice) • 3 voice channels - 64 Kbps each

Basic Technology Concepts Bluetooth Why “Bluetooth”? • Low power • Economical • Transparently connects “office” devices • Laptop • Desktop • PDA • Phone • printer • Bridging capability: network-pda-phone

Basic Technology Concepts Bluetooth Why “Bluetooth”? • Master-slave piconets • Less susceptible to interference • Capable of connecting a mix of multiple piconets into “scatternet” • Service discovery protocol allows invisible interaction of various “trusted” devices

Basic Technology Concepts Cellular

Basic Technology Concepts Cellular Basic Cellular Technologies • 2 G (2 nd generation) - Digital phones with speeds upto 14. 4 K • 2. 5 G - Digital service with higher speeds and packet based always-on service (~144 K) • 3 G • 144 K in high-mobility environments • 384 K in low-mobility • 2 M indoor connections

Basic Technology Concepts Cellular Basic Cellular Technologies • Cellular operates at 800, 1800 and 1900 MHz • Competing technologies (and Acronym obsessive) - GSM, TDMA, CDMA, GPRS, EDGE, ? ? • Basic technology competitors are CDMA and GSM/GPRS • SIP (Session Initiated Protocol) now replacing H. 323 for voice over IP (audio services)

Basic Technology Concepts Cellular Basic Cellular Technology Services • GPRS - AT&T, TMobile, Cingular, others • CDMA - Sprint, Verizon • CDMA roadmap (Sprint) • Current service 144 kbps (50 -70 typical) • 2003 - 288 kbps (may skip for next phase) • 2003 - 2. 2 Mbps • 2004 - 3 to 5 Mbps • Current technology in place on towers

Basic Technology Concepts Cellular Basic Cellular Technology Services • GPRS - AT&T, TMobile, Cingular, others • Current service ~70 kbps (35 kbps) • 2004 - 288 kbps • 2005 (or later) - 2. 2 Mbps • Current towers must be upgraded for each phase • AT&T has put a hold on “ 3 G” deployments

Convergence: Driving Forces What is “convergence”? • 802. 11 - 802. 15 - cellular wireless technologies all competing for customers • 802. 11 WLANs offer “hotspots” at nominal cost (sometimes “free”) • Cellular services used worldwide • 802. 15 Bluetooth offers bridging options for WLAN and cellular services

Convergence: Driving Forces Why “convergence”? • Eliminate disparate devices • Eliminate/reduce disparate services (and billing) • Laundry list of 802. 11 matches current cellular services • Different services available in different locations/environments

Convergence: Driving Forces Why “convergence”? Some issues… • Convergence will be the “ 4 G” service • Telco carriers fear being “left out” of new technology • No clear revenue model exists for new hybrid data-voice services • Cellular carriers don’t want the “taint” of suspect security inherent in WLANs

Convergence: General Trends Alliances, Partnerships, Coalitions, … • AT&T, Intel, IBM (and investors) form “Cometa”, a company to provide wireless hot spots across the country • Motorola, Proxim and Avaya form partnership to provide seamless roaming between Wi. Fi and cellular networks • HP and Transat Technologies collaborating on project to link 2 G/3 G to Wi. Fi “hotspots”

Convergence: General Trends Competing Technologies… • BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) is now being planned with the IEEE 802. 16 standard for 10 GHz to 66 GHz as well as 802. 16 e (2 GHz to 11 GHz), new Wi. MAX (similar to Wi. Fi) • IPWireless offers broadband mobile services (1. 9 & 2. 5 GHz) with 2. 5 Mbps speeds at upto 80 mph (cell sites cover 500 x 802. 11 b area) • UWB (Ultra. Wide. Band) is an emerging short-distance technology operating at 100 Mbps to 500 Mbps (Bluetooth is 1 Mbps)

Wrapup Impact of these technologies moving toward Convergence… • Hybrid 802. 11 b/a/g cards offering cellular services • Seamless roaming between WLANs (free access) and cellular (billed service) • Best signal connectivity and/or Least connectivity (user selectable? )

Wrapup Impact of these technologies moving toward Convergence… • Dual Wi. Fi/cellular phones using SIP • 6 party conference call with 1 -button drop/add/transfer functions • Single mailbox for user, regardless of service type (WLAN, Cellular, etc) • Service charges that take into account roaming between free and cost wireless environments

Wrapup Thank You! This presentation can be found at the following URL: http: //www. utdallas. edu/ir/wlans

Wrapup URLs Pittsburgh Public Hotspots: http: //www. telerama. com/ Bluetooth SIG: http: //www. bluetooth. com/ DSSS and Bluetooth coexistence: http: //www. wi-fi. org/downloads/Coexistence_Paper_Intersil_Aug 18. pdf

Wrapup URLs FCC 3 G Service Description: http: //www. fcc. gov/3 G/ 3 G “mobile multimedia” resources page: http: //www. mobile 3 g. com/

Wrapup URLs UWB background: http: //www. uwb. org/faqs. html Sprint BWA FAQ: http: //www. sprintbroadband. com/status. FAQ. html World. Com BWA Services: http: //www. worldcom. com/us/products/access/broadband/wireless/

Wrapup Terms CDMA- “Code Division Multiple Access” Spread spectrum technology for managing multiple access by assigning digital codes and broadcasting the signal across a broader spectrum. TDMA- “Time Division Multiple Access” Technology for managing multiple access by dividing channels (available radio spectrum) into time slots with access in a round-robin fashion. CDMA advantages over TDMA- call clarity, network capacity, more service provisioning, improved privacy, fewer dropped calls, fewer upgrades at the tower.

Wrapup Terms GSM- “Global System for Mobile telecommunications” Designed as international digital cellular service based upon TDMA. European version operates in 900 and 1800 MHz band is not compatible with North American 1900 MHz version. Multi-band GSM phones can overcome this problem. GPRS- “General Packet Radio Service” GPRS for GSM provides higher-speed data services for mobile users. It is a packet-switching technology better suited to the “bursty” nature of data communications.

Wrapup Terms EDGE - “Enhanced Data for Global Evolution” EDGE for GSM offers 300 Kbps (or better) and both circuit-switched and packet-switched data communications. Use an adaptive modulation scheme and is designed for GSM operators that do not have third-generation licenses but wish to remain competitive with wideband services. “True” 3 G Technologies: Wideband cdma. One, W-CDMA, and W-CDMA/NA are three competing wideband CDMA technologies for “true” 3 G services. A TDMA solution for 3 G is also being considered.