3G Technology
Gives Mobile Wireless the EDGE

A recent prototype demonstration foreshadows a world in which PCS devices will have the bandwidth to handle videoconferencing and other multimedia applications.

by Gerry Blackwell
[February 22, 2000]

Most ISPs already know about the potential of fixed wireless technologies to solve bandwidth demand problems in the short term—and maybe the long term too. But watch out for mobile wireless.

It could be another future threat to traditional ISPs—or, from a different angle, an opportunity.

Shadow of its future self
Wireless access to the Internet from mobile devices such as the new Palm VII from 3Com or smart phones like the NP1000 from NeoPoint is hot stuff right now.

But that's despite the fact today's PCS networks are desperately, pathetically bandwidth impoverished, operating at circa 1988 bit rates of 14.4 or 9.6 Kbps—or less.

That's just enough for e-mail or vital Web data worth specially encoding using WAP, the Wireless Application Protocol. WAP strips out Web graphics and compresses data.

While you can surf the open Internet using a PCS phone or a wireless modem-equipped laptop today, nobody would ever say it was fun. And it certainly isn't cheap.

But that may not be true for very long. The fun part anyway.

New standards looming
Rogers AT&T, a national PCS carrier in Canada, and Ericsson, the Swedish telecom manufacturer, recently demonstrated the first multimedia international 3G telephone call using EDGE, the network technology GSM and TDMA PCS carriers will deploy to upgrade to the international 3G standard.

Your faithful correspondent was there to experience all the excitement of political speeches in French, acronym overload and—oh yes, a five-minute wireless video call from a van-load of VIPs in Montreal to two stiffs in the back seat of a parked car in Dallas Texas.

But wait, I'd better explain the acronyms first.

3G is for third generation. (Analog cellular was the first generation, digital PCS the second). The international 3G specification calls for data throughput up to 384 Kbps when a device is stationery or moving at pedestrian speed, 128 Kbps in a car—and 2 Mbps in fixed applications.

Remember, we're talking about mobile wireless now. And this is two to six times faster than today's dial-up rates.

GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) is one of three competing non-compatible protocols used to multiplex mobile wireless network traffic. It dominates the European market but has a smaller share in North America.

TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) is one of the other competing wireless technologies. It's used by, among others, AT&T wireless, big brother to Rogers AT&T. (The third protocol is CDMA—Code Division Multiple Access.)

EDGE stands for Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution. It's a new air interface that, along with another network technology, GPRS or General Packet Radio Services, will let GSM and TDMA networks achieve 3G throughput rates.

Eventually.

No PCS operator is saying it will upgrade to EDGE soon. For one thing, there are bugs to be worked out. Rogers AT&T CTO Bob Berner says his company will likely begin commercial deployment between the end of 2001 and mid-2002.

Proof of concept?
Okay. So what did we see in Montreal?

Basically we saw two parties video conference over the air and "team" Web browse at the same time. And it worked—not well, but it worked.

One EDGE network—a single cell—linked a moving van to Ericsson's suburban Montreal R&D facility. Another single-site network linked the Dallas Ericsson facility with the parked car.

This "vee-hickle," as one of the participants referred to it, was apparently in the parking lot and not on the road because it wouldn't go. Some wag in the Montreal audience asked if they'd like us to call a tow truck.

For the long distance link, Ericsson and Rogers used the public Internet to show the technology operating in a worst-case scenario. In commercial deployments, long-haul traffic would more likely go over a managed IP network—but note that it would go over an IP network.

In the Montreal demo room, media and industry guests could see both sides of the conversation on a PC display projected on big overhead screens. We saw what the participants saw.

Plus, one screen also showed EDGE performance stats, such as how much of the bandwidth was being used for different parts of the call—voice, video, Web browsing.

How it works now
The video hogged over 200 Kbps of the 384 at times. But it didn't look that good. It was often no better than I've seen 56 Kbps streaming video on the Web—jerky, pixelated, sometimes breaking up around quick movements by participants.

Berner put this down to the fact the MPEG 4 video compression was being done in software. In EDGE-enabled phones and PDAs of the future MPGEG 4 compression-decompression will almost certainly be in firmware.

In the case of the Dallas feed, it may also have had to do with congestion on the Internet.

And when the participants in Montreal downloaded pages from the Web to a laptop, that took bandwidth away from video and audio.

There was noticeable latency in the audio as well, which again could be attributed to Internet congestion on the long distance link.

Was it really impressive? Not at the time.

But when you consider that this was prototype equipment and that the demo used the notoriously unreliable (for streaming media) public Internet, it begins to sink in that wireless multimedia Web browsing could be for real.

Imagine walking down the street listening to live Web radio on your cell phone, for example. Or having a face-to-face conversation with your broker while simultaneously making trades online.

What's in it for ISPs?
For those with substantial backbone networks, an opportunity to backhaul 3G traffic, perhaps.

Maybe partnerships with PCS carriers. Maybe if the ISP industry convinces the FCC that open access to cable nets is the right thing, the same principle will be extended to wireless networks.

Or maybe it's just another nail in the coffin you'll have to find a way to deflect.

—End