Carl Ford
| 4G is the next evolution in wireless technology. Discover how 4G will transform the wireless industry
Longview IoT Boosts Energy and Wireless Efficiency
Some of the biggest challenges slowing down the adoption of IoT are security, efficient battery usage and optimized wireless communications.One company has...
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Hallmark's Simple, Inexpensive Way to Boost Customer Satisfaction
In an effort to boost margins, companies often push more users to automated solutions such as FAQs, chatbots, voice bots and anything...
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Huawei Places the World's First 5G VoNR Video Call
Huawei recently completed the world's first voice over NR (VoNR) call. The voice and video call service was made using two Huawei...
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IGEL Advances Future of Work
IGEL is a provider of a next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s software products include IGEL OS, IGEL UD Pocket (UDP) and Universal...
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Tata Communications and Cisco Collaborate on SD-WAN
Tata Communications and Cisco have extended their partnership to enable enterprises to transform their legacy network to a customized and secure multi-cloud...
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How to Win the 50-Year-Old China Trade War
Today and this week in-fact is historic - the left and right in the U.S. agree that we have a major trade...
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Extreme Elements Enables The Autonomous Enterprise
Extreme Networks just announced Extreme Elements which in-turn enables the autonomous network and subsequently the autonomous enterprise. In a dynamic webinar, Dan...
Full Story »Loosening the Focus - MiMO Channel Emulation
May 18, 2009A few years back the dial up experience of the Internet made application delivery a troublesome experience. Today with relatively small throughput in the way of access pipes, people have found applications relatively easy to get to without knowledge of QOS. Likewise, your cell phone service has improved over the last few years with "fewer dropped calls" and the ability to "hear me now" in more places.
But the migration to 4G is going to include the use of OFDM technology and MIMO antenna strategies. In effect, it's going to improve quality by distributing the signal and making add / drop decisions on the quality of the signal. These techniques have a track record in the WiFi standard, and are the rationale for migration to both WiMAX and LTE.
This ability to move to multiple input multiple output (MIMO) is new when considering how to deliver at the carrier level, particularly given the diversity of situations. As you know with wireless antenna and battery are a large part of the analysis that has to take place. You can think of it like the days of modems, the experience then was that the weakest link in your connection was the last mile, now the weakest links will be the channels between your device and the carrier.
Verizon's LTE=Late Ten Evolution
May 14, 2009
Verizon's having Qualcomm fall on its sword earlier in the year with the announcement that LTE was delayed; Verizon's restated their commercial rollout as last half of 2010. If you recall, they were aggressively saying 2009 in 2008 and now they say 2010 in 2009. Now on the positive side, they are going to trial this year. Let's give them credit for pushing the effort ahead of the vendors.
Cisco Delivers WiMAX Wake-Up Call With Clearwire Deal
May 14, 2009
After Cisco bought WiMax radio supplier Navini in October 2007, industry watchers have waited and wondered why the biggest networking vendor wasn't doing more with WiMax in the U.S. market. Now after Wednesday's announcement of a multi-year deal between Cisco and Clearwire, the waiting is over -- and you have to think Cisco just delivered a big wake-up call about WiMax to Silicon Valley and Wall Street in one big move.
What really made the deal big news was the inclusion of Cisco's pledge to ship a mobile WiMax end-user device before year's end. The other part of the deal, which involves Clearwire using Cisco gear in its core IP network, isn't so surprising -- in any IP network of Clearwire's size, you might be more surprised not to find Cisco gear in the wiring closets.
But by pledging to develop end-user devices, Cisco is signaling to the rest of the industry (and investors, if they are listening) that WiMax is more than a curiousity.
What really made the deal big news was the inclusion of Cisco's pledge to ship a mobile WiMax end-user device before year's end. The other part of the deal, which involves Clearwire using Cisco gear in its core IP network, isn't so surprising -- in any IP network of Clearwire's size, you might be more surprised not to find Cisco gear in the wiring closets.
But by pledging to develop end-user devices, Cisco is signaling to the rest of the industry (and investors, if they are listening) that WiMax is more than a curiousity.
My GPhone gets a Needed Update
May 13, 2009As the world continues to view the smartphone market as a battle between RIM and Apple, my T-Mobile Google phone is about to get an OS update that will bring on some new features. The update will also provide improvements to the camera capture feature, GPS and G-Mail integration.
The software release includes an on screen qwerty keyboard, video recording and playback, and some widgets. While the market for third party applications is still decidedly in Apple's favor, I am excited about the prospect of receiving remote updates to my G Phone.
It is my contention that, going forward, the carriers will need to distinguish themselves beyond the type of device that they support. Once they are able to do this, remote provisioning is going to grow in the mobile market. Releases of software upgrades are common, but he question is will the carrier's participation be something more than simply distributing these upgrades? I believe the carriers will need to show a willingness to attack these provisioning issues if they do not want to be "just a dumb pipe".
Going forward it is still a question on whether there will be a shared app store, or if it will be device specific. If it is shared, a significant amount of expertise will be required by the carrier to provision these applications.
This Market is Ready to Explode
Apple has migrated 5.5 M subscribers from Verizon Wireless to its' iPhone, It's unclear if T-Mobile's net increase in subs of almost half a million is based specifically on the GPhone, but the fact remains that 23% of all cellular phones are now smartphones, up from about 17% in the first quarter of 2008. As we see sales of smartphones, as a percentage of total cellular phone sales, growing, we have to keep in mind that only two thirds of the smartphones are on a 3G network thus far.
Skype vs. DT And now the Ref Steps in..
April 13, 2009
A friend sends a note..
The European Union (EU) is reportedly preparing guidelines for wireless
carriers to allow VoIP services like Skype to run over their networks,
including punishments if they don't comply. EU commissioner (Viviane Redding) said "action" should be taken against carriers who use market power to block new services.
Apparently, the EU already has prepared a draft position to open up
smartphones to VoIP services, but lawmakers want to refine the language.
Right now, each EU country has to decide how they want to deal with blocked
services on an individual basis, and the EU is asking countries to take
legal action against carriers that "block innovative services." Deutsche
Telekom's decision to block Skype may prompt the EU to look into antitrust
charges against the carriers.
I had already commented and will continue to do so.
The European Union (EU) is reportedly preparing guidelines for wireless
carriers to allow VoIP services like Skype to run over their networks,
including punishments if they don't comply. EU commissioner (Viviane Redding) said "action" should be taken against carriers who use market power to block new services.
Apparently, the EU already has prepared a draft position to open up
smartphones to VoIP services, but lawmakers want to refine the language.
Right now, each EU country has to decide how they want to deal with blocked
services on an individual basis, and the EU is asking countries to take
legal action against carriers that "block innovative services." Deutsche
Telekom's decision to block Skype may prompt the EU to look into antitrust
charges against the carriers.
I had already commented and will continue to do so.
Open Source Net Neutrality via Google
April 10, 2009
Just in Time for wireless broadband to start playing out Google has started the M Lab and M stands for Measurement of your connectivity. The beauty of this place is not in the tools, many of which have existed for some time but the gathering point for the information.
It has its own blog, and I would suggest that it is a good spot for network engineers everywhere to gain perspective.
However, this is not a Wheatstone bridge. Being able to tell you are being throttled is not necessarily telling you who is throttling you. What it does it tells you there is smoke (if you were looking for the fire).
This is just the beginning for this site.
It may be that alternative service providers find this place to be a source for third party corroboration.
As the edge delivers applications it may be the best place to look at where problems occur.
I am somewhat disappointed that it does not have a cloud component or a widget available.
However, it's a starting point and as the wireless network moves to IP in our 4G world, I am sure we are going to need tools like this.
It has its own blog, and I would suggest that it is a good spot for network engineers everywhere to gain perspective.
However, this is not a Wheatstone bridge. Being able to tell you are being throttled is not necessarily telling you who is throttling you. What it does it tells you there is smoke (if you were looking for the fire).
This is just the beginning for this site.
It may be that alternative service providers find this place to be a source for third party corroboration.
As the edge delivers applications it may be the best place to look at where problems occur.
I am somewhat disappointed that it does not have a cloud component or a widget available.
However, it's a starting point and as the wireless network moves to IP in our 4G world, I am sure we are going to need tools like this.
Docomo Currents of Change
April 8, 2009While the rest of the world is looking at 3GPP Release 8 as part of Long Term Evolution,Senior Manager of International PR at DoComo, Shuichiro Ichikoshi, is working hard to express the trends in Japan. First of all, while the rest of the world is trying to figure out when to deploy what they are calling LTE (aka 3GPP Rel 8) , Docomo claims it will have LTE deployed at the end of this year. NTT DoCoMo has already managed to transmit data at close to 5G bps to a receiver moving at 10 kilometers per hour using 4G technology. However, the testing of LTE is undefined and internal at this moment.
In the land, where cool apps were the start of a revolution, and where a number of devices that are cool and web enabled from the get go, the iPhone is not that cool. Why? First of all the alphabet keyboard capability is not important to those countries where Kanjei characters are quicker in the menu than a spelling correcting alphabet solution. Secondly, other than the touch screen, the applications are just as compelling via iMode.
Bottom line, the Japanese are still leading the way toward our broadband future.
Terre Star's Satellite Solutions
April 7, 2009
EB Software (Elektrobit Corporation) and Terre Star demoed a prototype satellite phone that was dual mode with cellular. It raised some interesting questions for me. Unlike the expensive satellite phones of other companies, this was an incredibly elegant footprint, about the size of any other smartphone, with all the normal bells and whistles.
This system is the right size for the future and it's a guiding light in the path ahead for devices in the future and makes it hard for nomads to not be available. This phone will allow users to seamlessly and securely stay connected to both the satellite and terrestrial components of the TerreStar network.
Additionally, the system takes advantage of a roaming relationship with ATT to provide an augmented footprint. The design can be white labeled and has value in a number of situations including vertical markets. It supports video and has low power constraints.
Terre Star is building North America's first 4G IP-enabled, next generation mobile communications network over an integrated satellite-terrestrial system. TerreStar expects to be the first to offer customer-designed products and applications over a fully optimized 4G IP network.
EB is a company of 1700 employees, and is a leading developer of embedded technology solutions for automotive and wireless industries.
This system is the right size for the future and it's a guiding light in the path ahead for devices in the future and makes it hard for nomads to not be available. This phone will allow users to seamlessly and securely stay connected to both the satellite and terrestrial components of the TerreStar network.
Additionally, the system takes advantage of a roaming relationship with ATT to provide an augmented footprint. The design can be white labeled and has value in a number of situations including vertical markets. It supports video and has low power constraints.
Terre Star is building North America's first 4G IP-enabled, next generation mobile communications network over an integrated satellite-terrestrial system. TerreStar expects to be the first to offer customer-designed products and applications over a fully optimized 4G IP network.
EB is a company of 1700 employees, and is a leading developer of embedded technology solutions for automotive and wireless industries.
What Happens in Vegas, Didn't Stay Very Long
April 6, 2009
In my opinion, CTIA, which took place in Vegas last week, suffered quite a bit for a number of reasons. Now that CTIA is no longer fighting the battle with GSMA, the event was suffering from survivor's guilt.
The show could have been about the iPhone. It seemed that anyone and everyone (except Docomo) walking the aisles of CTIA was carrying an iPhone. Apple did not participate in CTIA and beyond the announcement that Skype is now on the iPhone, there was no Apple iPhone presence at the event. Without the iPhone presence at the event, applications became the subtext of the show. RIM announced its' new app store along with a series of new partnerships with content providers. Although the show was active and there was obviously business activity taking place, there was no break out news or activity taking place. The most happening thing was the FierceWireless party!
The show could have been about the iPhone. It seemed that anyone and everyone (except Docomo) walking the aisles of CTIA was carrying an iPhone. Apple did not participate in CTIA and beyond the announcement that Skype is now on the iPhone, there was no Apple iPhone presence at the event. Without the iPhone presence at the event, applications became the subtext of the show. RIM announced its' new app store along with a series of new partnerships with content providers. Although the show was active and there was obviously business activity taking place, there was no break out news or activity taking place. The most happening thing was the FierceWireless party!
Skype
April 2, 2009
Here in Vegas, I have been doing interviews with a variety of companies and talking with friends.
One observation I have is that it may be that all 10M iPhones are on the floor here. I am shocked how many people have an iPhone. They may not partner with Apple, but they certainly are impacted by it.
Skypes annoucement yesterday of its iPhone application was just icing on iPhone's cake. Their party celibrated their being number 1 in the app store and the promise of coming to the blackberry.
An Interesting story, is that Skype can make a wifi call but not a 3G call.
So who is more important in this story today? Skype or Apple?
The reason I ask is because of the best conversations I have been having asks the question does the App Store represent the future?
What does it represent to the future.
As the issues about open networking get blurred between the carriers and handsets manufacturers, the need for the Wireless Carterphone decision is apparent.
And based on the number of iPhones I saw here, I am sure the carriers get the issue. Now can they embrace the change?
One observation I have is that it may be that all 10M iPhones are on the floor here. I am shocked how many people have an iPhone. They may not partner with Apple, but they certainly are impacted by it.
Skypes annoucement yesterday of its iPhone application was just icing on iPhone's cake. Their party celibrated their being number 1 in the app store and the promise of coming to the blackberry.
An Interesting story, is that Skype can make a wifi call but not a 3G call.
So who is more important in this story today? Skype or Apple?
The reason I ask is because of the best conversations I have been having asks the question does the App Store represent the future?
What does it represent to the future.
As the issues about open networking get blurred between the carriers and handsets manufacturers, the need for the Wireless Carterphone decision is apparent.
And based on the number of iPhones I saw here, I am sure the carriers get the issue. Now can they embrace the change?
