Network Technology
Network Technology

Network Technology

DoCoMo Picks Super 3G Vendors

DoCoMo has chosen Motorola Inc. and NEC Corp. to supply handsets for its so-called super 3G network, an industry source said. The source said Fujitsu Ltd. would supply the base stations for the network, which is an upgrade to DoCoMo’s existing 3G infrastructure. DoCoMo Technology Inc. President Kouta Kinoshita told a news conference earlier this week that the mobile operator had selected equipment vendors for the network in October, but he did not provide their names.

KDDI's Aggressive EV-DO Upgrade

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) has reported that KDDI is strengthening its technological and differentiated services lead in Japan by upgrading its CDMA network to so-called Revision A. Rev A’s most compelling benefit will be a dramatic increase in uplink speeds up to 1.8 Mbps and downlink speeds up to 3.1 Mbps, as compared to EV-DO Release 0 that supports speeds up to 153.6 kbps and 2.4Mbps, respectively. KDDI has already announced the availability of two handsets from Toshiba, the W47T and DRAPE, to support the commercial launch of its advanced broadband technology services by December 2006.

Wireless HD Coming in 2008

A collection of the biggest powers in consumer electronics, including LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, and SiBEAM announced today that they are teaming together to ratify a standard for wireless high-def signal transmission. United as a technology group going under the name WirelessHD, the companies aim to have a finalized specification in spring 2007. The WirelessHD (WiHD) standard will allow for uncompressed, digital transmission of HD video and audio signals, essentially making it equivalent, in theory, to wireless HDMI.

Sierra Wireless Teams with Tomen Electronics

Sierra Wireless and Tomen Electronics Corp. today announced they have signed an agreement that designates Tomen as the primary distributor for all Sierra Wireless products in Japan, marking the formal entry of Sierra Wireless into the Japanese 3G wireless market. Under the terms of the agreement, Tomen will offer sales, integration support, and field application engineering support for all Sierra Wireless products in Japan, including both the AirCard and embedded module product lines.

Nortel and Qualcomm Trial HSUPA

Option’s announced that they have successfully completed the industry’s first demonstration of live HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) data card calls reaching a wireless uplink transmission rate of 1.3 Mbps and a wireless downlink of 2.7 Mbps at application level. A laptop fitted with an Option HSUPA data card (category 3 in uplink, cat 6 in downlink) based on QUALCOMM Mobile Station Modem MSM7200 chipset and commercial HSDPA/HSUPA network equipment from Nortel were used to achieve the new record data speeds. Commercial availability of “HSUPA-Ready” and full HSUPA products from Option are planned for the first half of 2007.

Strix Wins Big Japanese Mesh Deal

WiFi mesh startup Strix Systems Inc. has scored one of the largest multi-city 802.11 municipal deals yet announced, working with an NTT Group subsidiary to unwire a hundred cities in Japan over the next couple of years. The firm is working with NTT West and Network Value Components to deploy the network, which will use Strix’s Access/One OWS and IWS modular mesh products to provide voice, video, and data services in both indoor and outdoor settings. Nan Chen, Strix’s VP of marketing, says that the network could cover “about 50 million people” by the time it is completed, although he’s not sure which cities NTT plans to include in the deployment.

DoCoMo and HP Announce Sensor Platform

NTT DoCoMo and Hewlett-Packard just announced they have been conducting joint research with the goals of developing a new application platform to interconnect cellular telephone systems and sensor networks and the development of a prototype of new middleware platform. Designed to work with networks found in homes and businesses that utilize sensors relying on a variety of transmission methods the Sensor Network Middleware Platform enables interactive communication between those networks and mobile phones.

Solectek Chooses Fujitsu WiMAX

Solectek Corporation has selected the MB87M3550 Fixed WiMAX SoC from Fujitsu Microelectronics as the standard silicon for integration into its new WiMAX-compliant series of SkyWay-MAX base stations and subscriber units. The SkyWay-MAX system will be available in limited quantities at the end of 2006, and will be generally available during the first quarter of 2007.

Renesas Ships Sample SH-Mobile G2 Chips

Renesas Technology Corp. today announced that it has begun shipping samples of the SH-Mobile G2, a single-chip LSI for dual-mode HSDPA/W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE mobile phones. The LSI was jointly developed with NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Fujitsu Limited, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and Sharp Corporation, and evaluation samples have been shipped to these handset manufacturers since the end of September 2006. Renesas plans to begin volume production of the SH-Mobile G2 in the third quarter of 2007 and will offer the W-CDMA mobile phone platform worldwide to W-CDMA and FOMA handsets.

DoCoMo Announces HSDPA Data Card

NTT DoCoMo announced today that starting September 29, they will market the FOMA M2501 HIGH-SPEED PCMCIA Type II data card [ .jpg image ] for speedy mobile packet transmissions with PCs. Downlink speeds of up to 3.6Mbps are available in HSDPA service areas in Japan. The card works on W-CDMA, GSM and GPRS networks.