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Archive for 24. June 2009

Tag Team Internet with WiFi and Cellular 3G for Yachts

24. June 2009 by admin.

Alan Spicer Marine Telecom, along with International Marine Electronics for “Marine Electronics” services and support, provides the Tag Team System of:

3G Cellular Internet and Voice (to your PBX or Analog Telephone Equipment)

WiFi Hotspot Sharing System (longer range WiFi Hotspot shared onboard your yacht)

* Combined into your onboard wireless and wired network (or we’ll create one) to give you two least-cost choices for Internet (and voice via cellular) wherever you travel with your vessel. Cellular is a fixed monthly cost per month - usually around $60.00 for the Internet side of it (3G) plus whatever voice plan you choose. WiFi Hotspots are often free for guests of a marina - including yachts, and otherwise is relatively inexpensive even when pay per week or month - and… is usually very fast and… and International Standard.

This way you can use Cellular 3G in the US. Switch to WiFi where there isn’t cellular Internet coverage or outside of the U.S. where many marinas and such offer WiFi Hotspot access.

* Some yachts have VSAT or other satellite system such as Fleet33/55/77, Fleet Broadband, or Mini-VSAT. We can add our tag team system into those environments as well - and in many cases save you money on the Satellite Usage Bill. Many satellite services are configured for Pay-per-usage. So you use them only when that’s the only option and you must get on the Internet.

**** Alan Spicer Marine Telecom and Bryan of Internation Marine Electronics tag team on expertise … and Tag Team the Internet Access Options with WiFi Hotspot Sharing + Cellular 3G Sharing (with the bonus of Cellular Voice to your PBX or Analog Telephone system.)

Contact:

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Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net

http://www.wifiyacht.net

http://www.mobilebroadbandrouter.biz/

http://www.backupvoiceandinternet.com/

+1 954 683 3426

Posted in Main | No Comments »

Cell Life > A Primer on LTE - Long Term Evolution

24. June 2009 by admin.

Cell Life > A Primer on LTE - Long Term Evolution

April 6th, 2009

LTE or Long Term Evolution is a 4G wireless technology and is considered the next in line in the GSM evolution path after UMTS/HSPDA 3G technologies. LTE is espoused and standardized via the 3GPP or 3rd Generation Partnership Project members. 3GPP is a global telecommunications consortium having members in most GSM dominant countries. 3GPP specifications are based on GSM evolution path of wireless communications. GSM is the most prevalent wireless standard in the world and has maximum number of subscribers globally.

The impact of LTE is so big that even powerful carriers which were on the alternate CDMA path like Verizon Wireless of United States, have decided to go with LTE in their next generation 4G evolution. Firms like Verizon and MetroPCS of USA have all but dumped the CDMA technology path almost dealing a blow to the CDMA owner Qualcomm, although the latter is much more diversified so it is not really short of business models.

LTE vs WiMAX
Whereas WiMAX emerged from the WiFi IP paradigm, LTE is a result of the classic GSM technology path. LTE is behind in the race to 4G with WiMAX getting an early lead with the likes of Sprint ClearWire and several operators in Asia opting to go with WiMAX in the near term. So where WiMAX has a speed to market advantage, LTE has massive adoption and GSM parenthood to back it up.

It is widely believed by market analysts that LTE will win ultimately but WiMAX will find adoption in frontrunner communities and niche business models which tend to take up technology faster. WiMAX vendors will have you believe that speed to market is too important to ignore. History suggests otherwise in case of wireless industry. It is also believed that ultimately, wireless industry will figure out a way to wed the two 4G technologies so the end product in few years might be a nice amalgam.

So ultimately, what standard an operator uses might be a moot point in the long run. The inter-operability would be just too great to get hung up on the wireless standard. The fact that both WiMAX and LTE are all-IP means that a cross-connection will be a piece of cake at some point in future.

In terms of speed, Fixed WiMAX lacks LTE in speed but Mobile WiMAX may catch up with LTE on this front. For an overview on WiMAX, refer to our post “A Primer on WiMAX“.

LTE Technology
LTE builds on 3GPP family which includes GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) etc. LTE is an all-IP standard like its peer WiMAX. LTE allows for rich applications and business models which include ultra-high speed voice, video and data. It also enables integration with the classic internet infrastructure which is all-IP based.

HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), the 3G GSM standard popular over near-term, offers uplink speeds of 11.5 MBPS and downlink of 28 MBPS. Whereas LTE offers 75-100 MBPS Uplink speeds and 250-300 MBPS downlink speeds. Compare this with 20 MBPS U-verse speeds of AT&T wired broadband network U-verse and 50 MBPS speeds in Verizon FIOS TV service. In a nutshell, LTE will beat the fastest wired broadband delivery High Def TV today (in USA) by order of 1 to 4 or 1 to 2 depending on which wired broadband we are talking about. That said, many carriers like AT&T believe that HSPA and its faster cousin HSPA+ will compare well with early WiMAX speeds and so there is no rush to LTE yet for these kind of carriers.

Some key characteristics of LTE are described below :

Increased Data Rates and High Efficiency : LTE is based on OFDM Radio Access technology and MIMO antenna technology (just like its cousin WiMAX) which offer excellent modulation technique for achieving powerful spectral efficiency. Think of the OFDM wireless spectrum as a series of very fine and narrow wireless bands and each band gets allocated to various service providers. LTE offers higher data transmission rates while utilizing the spectrum more efficiently. This translates to an ability to support many more multitude of subscribers than is possible with pre-4G spectral frequencies. LTE is 2 to 5 times more efficient in spectrum utilization than the most advanced 3G networks.
Radio Planning : LTE signal goes far and wide and covers a larger geographic territory. LTE signal is way faster than the existing wireless transmission resulting in higher user response times.
IP environment : LTE is all-IP which permits new enhanced applications like real time voice, video, gaming, social networking and location-based services. The concept of wireless ubiquity comes alive with LTE processor chips in everything from netbooks to mobile phones to consumer devices; all these devices talk to each other seamlessly and effortlessly.
Inter-operability : LTE IP network co-operates with circuit-switched legacy networks resulting in a seamless network environment and signals are exchanged between traditional networks, the new 4G network and the IP-based internet seamlessly.

LTE Applications
LTE will enable applications previously unheard of. Wireless ubiquity is a given. All consumer devices. communication and computing resources may be enabled on the wireless network courtesy of chipmakers like Intel who are eagerly building in WiMAX and LTE in future chipsets which will be embedded in all sorts of technology devices that one can imagine. Social Networking and human-technology interaction (HTI) will take on a new meaning. Human-technology interface and resultant communication could be as seamless and as effortless as the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report makes it out to be (ok we are bragging a bit now).

Web 4.0, if you will, may just comprise the Wireless as an integral element of the hyper-connected world via LTE and WiMAX enablement. Broadband TV might not need wired cables anymore and new MVNO service providers may emerge who enable wirelessly driven TV and broadband internet. Business users might exchange massive amounts of data while on the go at the flick of a button (or touch). Interacting with your Flickr and Picasas photo streams from mobile devices might be a breeze. Games will cross wired / wireless domains and mobile location will figure in the gaming context naturally. Location-based may take a new meaning with location being the true IP beacon determining the application context in a flash, thereby offering a ultra-personalized mobile experience to the user.

LTE Timeline
Operators are just now fully deploying 3G using WCDMA or UMTS/HSPDA. WiMAX is coming in via ClearWire in USA and several operators like BSNL in India and many others in Middle East and Africa. The first LTE deployment in USA is with relatively tiny MetroPCS which may just beat the big 3 LTE carriers (AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile) in the race to 4G. Verizon is claiming 2010 LTE deployment and AT&T is taking a more patient approach and states that LTE is in 2011-12 timeframe. China is unique, as usual. They have taken the TD-SCDMA 3G route which is a “unique to China” standard. Chinese 4G strategy is not clear still. India is more LTE centric like the West with major carriers like Airtel and Vodafone adopting the LTE route. LTE in India is many years away as India’s regulator TRAI has not even awarded the 3G spectrum licenses yet.

Japan, we won’t even go there..

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Alan Spicer Marine Telecom is interested in technology developments and solutions for Satellite, Cellular, WiFi, and other wireless means that can be used for mobile communications on land and sea. ASMT serves a lot of marine customers but also serves businesses and individuals with fixed location and land-mobile applications as well.

—

Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net

http://www.wifiyacht.net

http://www.mobilebroadbandrouter.biz/

http://www.backupvoiceandinternet.com/

+1 954 683 3426

Posted in Cellular Voice and Internet | No Comments »

Ericsson Hopes to Accelerate LTE Roll-out With Patent Deals

24. June 2009 by admin.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/167202/ericsson_hopes_to_accelerate_lte_rollout_with_patent_deals.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl

Ericsson Hopes to Accelerate LTE Roll-out With Patent Deals

Mikael Ricknäs, IDG News Service

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 9:10 AM PDT

Ericsson has signed its first license agreements for patents essential to next-generation mobile networks based on LTE (Long Term Evolution), it said on Tuesday.

The individual deals and their respective terms are confidential, so Ericsson won’t name the companies that are now working on products that will support LTE, according to Gustav Brismark, vice president for patent strategies and portfolio management at Ericsson. But both infrastructure and end-user devices are included, he said.

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Alan Spicer’s Note: Long Term Evolution, LTE, is reportedly the next generation of cellular broadband … both voice and Internet. It should be what will be called 4G. I think that most cellular companies will converge into this technology - where they are now different (EVDO/CDMA, GSM/UMTS) … and hopefully that will help end users and businesses to be able to choose their carrier and use whatever cellular compatible device they want to. Perhaps this will make more unlocked devices (like the current Ericsson W25 and W35 are unlocked) available and give everyone both equipment and carrier choices to make for themselves.

Speeds will no doubt increase on Internet with 4G … wether they actually let much of that get to end users remains to be seen. With current shared bandwidth and monthly 5 Gigabyte Limits on users … I’m a little leary as to if this will actually change things much? We’ll have to wait and see.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GPP_Long_Term_Evolution

LTE (Long Term Evolution) is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) which will be introduced in 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 8. Much of 3GPP Release 8 will focus on adopting 4G mobile communications technology, including an all-IP flat networking architecture.

Overview

LTE provides downlink peak rates of at least 100Mbit/s, 50 Mbit/s^[1] in the uplink and RAN (Radio Access Network) round-trip times of less than 10ms. LTE supports flexible carrier bandwidths, from 1.4MHz up to 20MHz as well as both FDD (Frequency Division Duplexing) and TDD (Time Division Duplex).

The goals for LTE include improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum and reformed spectrum opportunities,^[1] and better integration with other open standards. The architecture that will result from this work is called EPS (Evolved Packet System) and comprises E-UTRAN (Evolved UTRAN) on the access side and EPC (Evolved Packet Core) on the core side. EPC is also known as SAE (System Architecture Evolution) and E-UTRAN is also known as LTE.

The main advantages with LTE are high throughput, low latency, plug and play, FDD and TDD in the same platform, improved end-user experience and simple architecture resulting in low operating expenditures. LTE will also support seamless connection to existing networks such as GSM, cdmaOne, W-CDMA (UMTS), and CDMA2000.^[1]

Current State

While 3GPP Release 8 has yet to be ratified as a standard, much of the standard will be oriented around upgrading UMTS to 4G mobile communications technology, which is essentially a mobile broadband system with enhanced multimedia services built on top.

The standard includes:

Peak download rates of 326.4 Mbit/s for 4×4 antennas, 172.8 Mbit/s for 2×2 antennas for every 20 MHz of spectrum. ^[2]
Peak upload rates of 86.4 Mbit/s for every 20 MHz of spectrum.^[2]
5 different terminal classes have been defined from a voice centric class up to a high end terminal that supports the peak data rates. All terminals will be able to process 20 MHz bandwidth.
At least 200 active users in every 5 MHz cell. (i.e., 200 active data clients)
Sub-5ms latency for small IP packets
Increased spectrum flexibility, with spectrum slices as small as 1.5 MHz (and as large as 20 MHz) supported (W-CDMA requires 5 MHz slices, leading to some problems with roll-outs of the technology in countries where 5 MHz is a commonly allocated amount of spectrum, and is frequently already in use with legacy standards such as 2G GSM and cdmaOne.) Limiting sizes to 5 MHz also limited the amount of bandwidth per handset
Optimal cell size of 5 km, 30 km sizes with reasonable performance, and up to 100 km cell sizes supported with acceptable performance
Co-existence with legacy standards (users can transparently start a call or transfer of data in an area using an LTE standard, and, should coverage be unavailable, continue the operation without any action on their part using GSM/GPRS or W-CDMA-based UMTS or even 3GPP2 networks such as cdmaOne or CDMA2000)
Supports MBSFN (Multicast Broadcast Single Frequency Network). This feature can deliver services such as Mobile TV using the LTE infrastructure, and is a competitor for DVB-H-based TV broadcast.
PU²RC as a practical solution for MU-MIMO has been adopted to use in 3GPP LTE standard. The detailed procedure for the general MU-MIMO operation is handed to the next release, e.g, LTE-Advanced, where further discussions will be held.

A large amount of the work is aimed at simplifying the architecture of the system, as it transits from the existing UMTS circuit + packet switching combined network, to an all-IP flat architecture system.

Carrier adoption

Most carriers supporting GSM or HSUPA networks can be expected to upgrade their networks to LTE at some stage:

Rogers Wireless has stated that they intend on initially launching their LTE network in Vancouver by February 2010, just in time for the Winter Olympics. ^[22]
AT&T Mobility has stated that they intend on upgrading to LTE as their 4G technology in 2011, but will introduce HSUPA and HSPA+ as bridge standards. ^[23]
TeliaSonera has started network built up in Stockholm and Oslo, and will follow up in Copenhagen when a license in Denmark has been bought/granted. The networks are still only for testing. There are no indication of a public live date.
T-Mobile, Vodafone, France Télécom and Telecom Italia Mobile have also announced or talked publicly about their commitment to LTE.

Despite initial development of the rival UMB standard, which was designed as an upgrade path for CDMA networks, most operators of networks based upon the latter system have also announced their intent to migrate to LTE, resulting in discontinuation of UMB development.

Verizon Wireless is presently testing its LTE network^[24] and selects Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent as Primary Network Vendors for LTE Network.
Bell Mobility plans to start LTE deployment in 2009-2010^[25]
Telus Mobility has announced that it will adopt LTE as its 4G wireless standard.^[26]
MetroPCS recently announced that it would be using LTE for its upcoming 4G network.^[27]
The newly formed China Telecom/Unicom^[28] and Japan’s KDDI^[29] have announced they have chosen LTE as their 4G network technology.
In January 2009 TeliaSonera signed a contract for an LTE network with Huawei covering Oslo, Norway. Under the agreement, Huawei will provide an end-to-end LTE solution including LTE base stations, core network and OSS (Operating Support System).
In January 2009 Ericsson and TeliaSonera announced the signing of a commercial LTE network. The roll-out of the 4G mobile broadband network will offer the highest data rates ever realized, with the best interactivity and quality. This network will cover Sweden’s capital Stockholm and the contract is Ericsson’s first for commercial deployment of LTE.