4G Myth Busting: Intel's March 25th talk on Advanced WiMax - sponsored by IEEE Communications and Signal Processing Societies

Comment

Comment by Alan J Weissberger on June 19, 2009 at 4:44pm

Intel's Mobile Network Research Projects vs the Commercial Reality of Mobile WiMAX

While Intel has several mobile network reserach projects underway, including new VoIP capabilities for IEEE 802.16m, Mobile WiMAX based on 802.16e has not yet succeeded as a mobile network. And it won’t succeed unless there are many mobile devices for subscribers to chose from. So you think IEEE 802.16m will be widely implemented if mobile WiMAX, based on 802.16e is a commercial flop?

Whatever happened to “the Internet in Your Pocket” and WiMAX MIDs that Intel promised over 2 years ago? Once the devices become popular, apps will be developed, e.g. music streaming, mobile video on-demand, camera photo uploads, games, LBS, etc.

Here's an article describing some of Intel's mobility oriented research projects:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/18/intel-future-apple-technology-breakthoughs-moorestown.html

The latest project results will be disclosed at the IEEE ComSoc-SCV October 14th meeting by the CTO of Intel's Mobility Research Group.

Comment by Alan J Weissberger on March 25, 2009 at 11:31pm

Superb presentation on Advanced WiMAX tonight at our jointly sponsored IEEE ComSoc/SPS meeting. Was surprised to hear about all the new 16m features, including: multi user MIMO, superframes for control messages, receiving simultaneously on different frequencies, MAC enhancements to better support VoIP and broadcast/multicast traffic (important for video apps), and many, many more.

The WiMAX Forum will have its plate full, defining profiles and device/equipment classifications so that not every option has to be certified and tested for each piece of equipment. There also has to be a very good capability exchange protocol defined and used at start up time, to ensure interoperability between the BS and the endpoint device, considering all the possible configurations and options.


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Comment by Alan J Weissberger on March 25, 2009 at 3:55pm

Well Sprint says they are rolling out "4G service in many markets in 2009." The WiMAX MVNO continues to refer to the existing WiMAX (not IEEE 802.16m) as 4G. This is contrary to both IEEE 802.16 standards and the ITU-R's IMT Advanced recommendation.

"Sprint has several new 4G devices planned for 2009 and 2010, including a single-mode 4G data card, embedded laptops, a small-office-home-office broadband modem and a tri-mode phone. Sprint was the first wireless carrier to offer access to both 3G and 4G networks on one device – the 3G/4G USB Modem U300."



Sprint Extends 4G Leadership by Announcing Next U.S. Markets to Experience Sprint 4Ghttp://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090325005331&newsLang=en

Comment by Alan J Weissberger on March 18, 2009 at 12:07pm

Philip, Thanks for your illuminating comments! I agree that Atom and WiMAX are not so closely tied together. This was evident during Intel's MWC Highlights call where the Atom Processor was mentioned as the engine for 3G based MIDs (e.g LG's MID). There was not a single mention of WiMAX during that call.

Comment by Philip Solis on March 18, 2009 at 8:46am

Off the top of my head, I believe there were a few WiMAX MIDs in South Korea, although they probably have not sold in any decent volumes yet. There was also the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition, which has been canceled. It was probably canceled mostly because it would be competing against MIDs using x86 processors or Cortex-A8 or -A9 (ARM instruction set) processors, but the limited rollout of WiMAX networks certainly played a role as well too.

Delays in products like WiMAX-enabled MIDs are mostly due to the fact that networks do not have adequate coverage for device manufacturers to sell enough devices. This is currently changing with higher profile network rollouts this year from Clearwire, UQC in Japan, Scartel and others in Russia, and networks in Taiwan which have also been repeatedly delayed. There will be decent progress between rollouts this year and next year.

The other thing I would comment on briefly is that WiMAX and Atom are not tied together as closely as Intel might market sometimes. You can and will have one without the other. You'll have WiMAX in products with other processors, and you'll have Atom in devices without WiMAX. Intel works very closely with cellular modem vendors to have 3G miniCards and half miniCards in reference designs. Intel knows that WiMAX will not have as much coverage as 3G generally has overnight, so partnering with cellular modem vendors is a must.

Comment by Alan J Weissberger on March 17, 2009 at 5:24pm

What is Intel's WiMAX strategy now?

While I haven't talked with anyone from Intel lately, I believe the company wants to dominate the market for embedded WiMAX notebooks/ netbooks, similar to its successful Centrino intitiative for WiFi. That was a given, since Intel dominates the PC microprocessor market.

Intel has publicly stated that it was going after the WiMAX MID market, which it hoped to sell chip sets including the AToM processor and WiMAX/WiFi combo components. One year ago, the NY Times reported that Intel believed the next big thing in consumer gadgets would be “Internet in your pocket.” Please refer to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/technology/02chip.html

The IEEE ComSoc SCV chapter was privileged to have Rama Shukla of Intel speak in Jan 2008. Rama shared with us Intel’s initiative’s to create a new market for MIDs wth built in WiFi and WiMAX capabilities. MIDs would offer the user a much better mobile broadband experience then is possible today with smart cell phones. Here is the Meeting Summary:

http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/comsoc/Summary_011608_MIDWiMAX.pdf

But the Internet in Your Pocket has not happened yet,at least not for WiMAX MIDs.

For more on this pesky topic, please read: Were are the WiMAX MIDs hiding?
http://wimaxcommunity.ning.com/profiles/blogs/where-are-the-wimax-mids

Contrary to the comments, no WiMAX MIDs were announced as commercially available at CES or MWC.

Comment by Philip Solis on March 13, 2009 at 10:59am

This is interesting, because this basically is saying that the ITU's specific definition defines what "4G" is. But "4G" is just a shortening of "fourth generation" - specifically fourth generation mobile wireless air interfaces.

You can look at history to see where WiMAX and LTE fit in.
1G - analog (like AMPS)
2G - time division - the frequencies were digitized and time division was applied (like TDMA, GSM/GPRS/EDGE)
3G - code division - code in front of the data determined which device was allowed to hear that data - (like CDMA/EV-DO, WCDMA/HSPA)
4G - orthagonal frequency division - newer air interfaces primarily use OFDMA (like 802.16e and LTE)

Looking at it this way, it is easier to see that the fundamental technologies behind air interfaces are what has grouped them into the respective generations. Note that respective technologies can only communicate with their own kind - HSUPA can fall back to HSDPA which can fall back to WCDMA. These cannot fall back to EDGE unless there is also a 2G radio. So a 2G/3G solution also has 2G radios, and then can also fall back to EDGE and GPRS. An LTE only radio cannot communicate with HSPA. It must also have a 3G radio for that. In order to communicate with EDGE too, then it has to be a 2G/3G/4G solution.

WiMAX and LTE are certainly not 3G/CDMA technologies. Just because they are not IMT-Advanced-compliant, does not mean they are not 4G technologies. The assumption that 4G = IMT-Advanced is not true.

Also, if 802.16m can fall back to 802.16e, and LTE-Advanced can fall back to LTE, then they must surely all be 4G technologies.