The WAVE Report on Digital Media
3D --- Media Creation --- Shared Space
---Published by 4th Wave, Inc.---
Issue #0352------------------02/27/04

 

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0352.1 Hot Topics

0352.2 Story of the Issue

0352.3 Wireless

0352.4 Broadband

0352.5 3D

0352.1 Hot Topics

*** Multi-Tech Announces External Cellular Wireless USB Modem
(February 23)

Multi-Tech Systems, Inc. announced an external USB version of its cellular wireless modem in both GSM/GPRS and CDMA technologies used to communicate data, voice, and fax over cellular communications networks.

The new modems offer standards-based multi-band GSM/GPRS Class 10 and CDMA2000 1xRTT capabilities. These ready-to-deploy, standalone modems allow developers to add wireless communications to products.

The USB MultiModem MTCBA-G-UFx units are GSM models suitable for deployment anywhere in the world. The USB MultiModem MTCBA-C-UNx units are CDMA models provisioned for the specific carrier network on which they will be deployed. The modems are expected to start shipping in the second quarter of 2004.

The MultiModem GSM/GPRS and CDMA stand-alone products have water resistant, industrial chassis design with USB 1.0 Voice/Data interface connector, and SMA antenna connector.

Six LEDs provide operational status indicating power, network status, and four LEDs for serial port activity.

http://www.multitech.com


*** Ecrio Announces Push-to-Talk Over Cellular Client Software
(February 19)

Ecrio Inc announced its Push-to-talk Over Cellular (PoC) Client Software will be demonstrated at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes. This complements Ecrio's existing Instant Messaging and
Presence Services (IMPS) offering for mobile terminals, and will run on Texas Instruments' OMAP platform.

The combination of PoC and IMPS brings IMPS features such as Presence, Availability and Mood status displayed on the phone screen with the support of one-on-one and group communications. Floor control, support for a special push button and a speakerphone are provided. An SDK is available to developers for integration of the Ecrio PoC software with the target terminal.

Ecrio's PoC solution is available on native OS, Symbian OS, PocketPC, Smartphone, and PalmOS operating systems. Following the same approach as the Ecrio IMPS modular architecture, the Ecrio PoC Client Software supports integration with various chipset platforms, including TI's OMAP platform.

The Ecrio solution is interoperable with other PoC clients and servers conforming to the PoC Release 1.0 specifications that were submitted last year to the Open Mobile Alliance and supports networks based on GPRS, CDMA, EDGE and UMTS.

http://www.ti.com/wireless
http://www.ecrio.com


*** Autodesk Location Services Introduces the Autodesk LocationLogic Software Development Kit
(February 23)

Autodesk Location Services, a division of Autodesk, Inc. introduced the new Autodesk LocationLogic Software Development Kit (SDK).

The product features a collection of tools for building applications delivered through channels such as J2ME, WAP, i-mode and HTML. It provides application development built on the LocationLogic middleware platform by providing reusable API components, extensive developer documentation and sample source code. The new LocationLogic SDK is available now, and Autodesk Location Services will be demonstrating services developed with it in its corporate suite across from the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.

Some of Autodesk LocationLogic SDK's key features include:

- The ability to create location-sensitive alerts through Web services
- J2ME API that leverages the channel's user interface and allows for map rendering with pop-up windows, the display of traffic incidents along a route, and the creation and management of alerts
- Web services API with developer documentation, tools, and sample applications

The Autodesk LocationLogic SDK is compliant with the OpenGIS Location Services Specification that was officially adopted by the GIS Consortium last month. Co-authored by Autodesk, this open standard specification allows interoperability between location-enhanced applications built from the specification. The SDK supports both hosted and in-network deployments of the LocationLogic platform. It enables application development in environments such as Sun Microsystems Java, Microsoft .NET and C++.

http://www.autodesk.com

0352.2 Story of the Issue

*** CCNC 2004
By John Latta

January 6-7
Las Vegas, Nevada

This is the first CCNC conference, having been put together in only 9 months. Yet, even from the first day, it has shown the value of focusing on technology in a public forum and not getting mired in PR hype. Now some highlights.

Panasonic

It is infrequent that one hears the details of a home networking strategy from an individual in such a position as Yoshiaki Kushiki, Managing Director and Member of the board of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. His presentation was entitled “Guiding Digital Network Technology into the Consumer World.” One of the most informative aspects was the video which showed the Panasonic vision on how, in 2008, a digital network could impact the home and family. This was a scenario about the finding and placement of a puppy. In it examples were shown of:

Ultra-Thin Image Communicator
Smart-Wall TV
Personal Identification based on biometrics
Pendant Communicator
Services Navigation System
Personal Navigator
Healthcare Bracelet
Energy Management System
Robo Cleaner

One value of this video is that it showed that CE devices do not exist in isolation but are supported by complex and integrated services. It remains to be seen how Panasonic will either support the development of such an infrastructure or provide it.

In the Ubiquitous Network Panasonic placed emphasis on what consumers are concerned about:
Safety and Security for
Information and content
Network and
Services

There is also a chasm in realizing this Ubiquitous Network. In Panasonic’s view the PC is responsible for much of this. It has three problems:
Specialized skills required
Network security is poor and
PC is inconsistent with some locations in the home such as the living room and kitchen

Thus, there is a clear need for consumer devices which avoid the limitations of the PC and which can bridge the chasm. The Panasonic solution is Digitally Networked Consumer Electronics. The foundation of this is the DNA which makes CE devices successful:
Easy to connect and secure to use;
Instant availability
Human interface and
User friendly

Panasonic is already implementing this strategy in Japan. They have released products which include:
Networked Digital TV
Networked DVD recorder which can be controlled by a cellular phone
Networked camera and home gateway and
CE controller for networked white goods

Wireless plays a key role in the strategy, supporting both 802.11g and 802.11a. A 400MHz radio is also used for appliance control. More interesting is the role that power line could play. Kushiki-son cited Home Plug 2.0 which will support a signaling rate of 190Mb/s and thruput of 100Mb/s. This would enable a mixed mode system which combined wireless and power line.

Panasonic also sees the need for “Ultra Hi-Speed Wireless.” Two new wireless technologies are MIMO and UWB. He predicted that MIMO would enable 100Mb/s by 2005 and be applied to cellular systems by 2010. UWB would support 1 GB/s by 2010.

Kushiki-son also described a role for agent technologies, including Interface Agent, Interpreter Agent and a CE Agent. It was expected that the CE network would automatically determine the user need and conditions for such agents.

TNO

TNO, an independent research organization in Netherlands, described a research study on Residential Gateways. The focus was to determine:
The role of RG,
How to unbundle the RG from the home networking technology value chain and
The internetworking and interoperability requirements

The study examined many RG products. One product of the work was a RG classification model. The model was, in part based on the OSI network model.

This work is important in that it looks at the RG issues from an equipment provider perspective and seeks to understand where the market is going.

OSGi

OSGi seems to have gone silent over the last few years but in a short presentation that was certainly not the impression given today. This is an alliance and not a standards body. The focus in on creating a solution infrastructure based on creating an OSGi Service Delivery Platform. Release 3 of this platform came out in April 2003. The intent of this platform is:

To provide an open software standard for service providers, device manufactures, and others to remotely and dynamically deliver, integrate and manage a rich set of services to the building, Mobil, vehicle and other environments.

UWB

One of the more interesting presentations was given by David Leeper, Chief Technologist, Intel Capital, Ultrawideband Networking Operation. He cited a recent statement by FCC Commissioner, Michael Powell, in the recent NPRM ET 03-108.

On a real-time basis, smart radios determine their location and environment, have the flexibility to select the best frequencies to use, know how to avoid interference with existing users, and can use vacant spectrum channels.

A very interesting graph was shown of near real-time radio that operated in “Sculpted” spectrum. It asked the question – Foreshadowing Things to Come? Such a radio was stated to be possible with the combination of UWB, OFDM and Smart Radios.

Wireless Mesh Networking for the Digital Home

Presentations were given by Sony, MSR, Philips Research and Intel.

Sony

Shin Saito of Sony Japan R&D, Ubiquitous Technology Laboratory, asked the question – What’s the appropriate approach to CE-Wireless Mesh Networking? Sony’s mission statement is that now is the time to establish CE-Wireless Mesh Networking into all CE products. The advantages of mesh networking it that it enables a dynamic network with no user involvement, is decentralized and ad-hoc. From a user perspective the equipment must be “easy to get smart.” The conventional networking equipment style is not acceptable to the consumer. The need is for zero-configuration and automatic authentication and security key setting. A requirement for network association and device discovery of <1 second was stated. Bluetooth was cited and an unacceptable solution to this problem.

Sony’s assessment of mesh networking has resulted in the creation of

CW-Net (Consumer Wireless Network) Project

This project in Sony has a very broad impact, especially in technology development areas. An example was cited of one research path included:

UWB Mesh
All CMOS Integration
Middleware development

Microsoft

Richard Draves gave a presentation on the work being done at MSR in mesh networking. This was in two parts. The first described the value of mesh networking in enabling robust community networks. A user interface example was shown of how communities could be enabled where there is a shared network. Examples were shown of both community created content and commercial content. Apparently under the code name Chen this provided an interesting example of the role that a PC could play on such a network.

The second part of the presentation described an 802.11a mesh network set up in Building 113 to test mesh network performance. The only result shown was a plot of TCP Throughput vs. Path Length. It was surprising that hop length could actually be used to improve performance.

Philips Research

Jorg Habetha gave an interesting presentation on the Philips view. This was broken into four parts:
Home Networking
Automotive – Vehicle to Vehicle
Meshed Public Infrastructure Networking
Peer-to-Peer Content Sharing

The rationale given for a Home Wireless mesh is that it can be implemented in homes, such as Europe, which are difficult to service with current wireless technology, customer installation is much easier that traditional AP based networks; it is possible to bridge between various types of wireless technology and even including powerline.

One of the most interesting applications for mesh is in vehicle to vehicle communications. This is for safety and what is called “Wireless Local Danger Warning.” Such a network would allow cars to communicate autonomously on road dangers. It is claimed that the major automobile companies have projects underway. An effort is underway also in 802.11 for set up a working group. When the question was asked – why? The answer was given that:

Such a system could avoid 17% of all accidents and save 46% of the micro-economic costs.

Government programs seek to reduce road fatalities by 50% by 2010.

A case was also made for a public meshed network. This would also include Mobil access for pedestrians and automobiles.

The peer to peer networking was combined with public networking for a very interesting application called Opportunity Scout. This used a cute bull’s eye interface to show how mesh networking could scout out devices, people and content and show there proximity based on relevance to the individual. Impressive.

Intel

Lakshman Krishnamurthy of the Communications Technology Lab, Intel give a presentation on Standards based Mesh Networking for the Digital Home. One of the factors cited, now multiple times in this panel, is that mesh due to its ad hoc nature has a much higher ease of use for consumers.

The talk focused on a test run in home which used multiple AP to test mesh network performance. It was claimed that single node throughput increase, multi-node throughput increased and that latency went up by only a factor of 2ms.

These results were quite interesting but only a sample of what needs to be done to test the value and performance of home mesh networks.

It is expected that shortly a working group will be formed in IEEE to set a standard for mesh networking.

Motorola

The keynote was given by Jed Johnson, Director of Systems Engineering, Motorola Broadband Communications Sector. Key points from the presentation include:

Based on Motorola’s research the value of broadband to the home is based on three factors:
To be entertained;
To be informed and
To be connected.

These three factors are at the center of all of the product strategy.

Motorola is building a wireless handheld device that allows consumers to remain connected to AOL IM anywhere in the home.

A central thrust of the Motorola business model is around the managed home gateway. The intent is to provide universal network connectivity, always-on applications, customizable platform and for the management of devices.

The first product which fully reflects this direction is the MS1000 Managed Application Gateway. This platform uses Linux and OSGi 2.0 along with Java J2ME. The MS 1000 is targeted to any broadband provider and thus does not have a modem. When asked if this is a cable product Jed stated that the product was designed to be broadband access neutral. In fact, the first customer is not a cable company.

In response questions Jed stated that the STB market is cost driven. The lowest cost, single function box, just the cable modem, is a hot seller to the operators but the feature rich STB are not selling. Thus Jed sees the high end STB like appliances, as going to retail, while direct distribution will be the lowest cost entry STBs.

Jed was also asked about the status of middleware. It is too early to forecast but OSGi is getting traction after being stalled for a number of years.

Linux

The panel on Linux for CE was quite positive on the prospects. Of course, it was made up of Linux supporters but some of the data they presented was interesting. For example:

It is expected that Linux use will grow by 60% on a compound basis in embedded applications from 2002 to 2006. The market share will be approximately equally distributed between commercial and in house developed embedded OS’s.

Japan is showing a strong migration to Linux. This is directly impacting the use of IT Tron as the embedded OS of choice.

Sony and Panasonic joined together to work with Linux. This was considered sufficiently successful that the CE Linux Forum was established. There have been 7 working groups set up in the forum.

http://www.celinuxforum.org

OSGi

Strong statements were made about the potential role of OSGi:

OSGi is a network OS for the delivery of services.

Its key value is its ability to remotely and dynamically deploy provision, maintain and manage applications and services.

OSGi was originally established to support the home. But the platform has become valuable in many other applications. These include:
Enterprises;
Vehicles
Mobil handhelds and
Industrial environments

The objective of OSGi is to provide an open, common architecture for service providers, software vendors, gateway operators and equipment vendors to develop, deploy and manage services in a coordinated fashion.

Wave Comments

It is much too early to evaluate the value of mesh networking. Yet, over and over the value of the mesh in terms of the user and ease of use continues to be cited. Here is a technology which is quite sophisticated and, if successful, that sophistication will get buried while at the same time there is a positive consumer benefit.

Most surprising was the value of mesh for automobiles. If the promises are realized this could be a massive public gain.

The requirements for software in home networking run deep. This conference has certainly made this clear.

The fact that the PC will exist in the home is not the issue. The more important topic is Will Windows or some variant have a strong role in CE networks? An answer, based on just this conference, would be no.

0352.3 Wireless

*** Zyray Wireless introduces SPINNERchip 1.1
(February 23)

Zyray Wireless introduced SPINNERchip 1.1, a dual-mode (GSM/GPRS & WCDMA) multi-antenna diversity chipset for handsets, at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes.

Zyray's SPINNERchip SD is the first in a series of Space-Time Processing products for mobile handsets, which the company plans to release.

SPINNERchip's Single Channel MIMO implementation, which utilizes two receive antennas combined with Zyray's Smart Diversity, Optimum Combining and Adaptive Interference Cancellation techniques, provides an average improvement of 3.5 - 4.0dB in Signal to Interference Noise Ratio over single antenna solutions.

SPINNERchip is integrated as an add-on WCDMA baseband processor coupled with existing chipsets to provide dual-mode (GSM/GPRS & WCDMA) and multi mode (GSM/GPRS/EDGE & WCDMA) solutions.

http://www.zyraywireless.com

0352.4 Broadband

*** Proxim introduces New Generation of Point-to-Point Radios
(February 23)

Proxim Corporation unveiled new additions to its Lynx and Tsunami point-to-point families of license-exempt radios, the Lynx.GX and Tsunami.GX, based on Proxim's GX broadband wireless platform.

The Lynx.GX product family includes 4xT1, 8xT1, and 16xT1 models for the U.S. and Canada, and 4xE1-BNC models for the Asia Pacific market.

The Tsunami.GX 90 delivers 45 Mbps full-duplex plus two T1 channels.

Both the Lynx.GX and Tsunami.GX possess a split-box design and offer an Indoor Unit providing the user interface and power source, and a separate RF Unit, connected by intermediate-frequency cabling.

Proxim has incorporated a suite of embedded software applications, accessible via a web browser's graphical user interface that includes remote configuration and diagnostics, SNMP management and monitoring, an RSL histograph, exportable alarm log and a built-in spectrum analyzer.

Product pricing and availability is as follows:

-Lynx.GX 4T is available now in the U.S. and Canada for a list
price of USD$13,499
-Lynx.GX 8T is available now in the U.S. and Canada for a list
price of USD$14,399
-Lynx.GX 4E-BNC is available for customer evaluation now with
certification in China expected in April 2004, with a list
price of USD$13,499
-Tsunami.GX 90 + 2xT1 is available now in the U.S. and Canada
with a list price of USD$11,399

http://www.proxim.com.

0352.5 3D

*** Getronics and WholeSecurity Announce Partnership to Add 'Zero Hour' Security Component to Getronics 3D
(February 23)

Getronics and WholeSecurity announced a partnership to implement managed desktop security solution with "zero-hour" protection against Trojan horses and worms. To be part of the Getronics 3D suite of solutions, the managed service will combine WholeSecurity's technology, Confidence Online, with Getronics' service model. Both companies are participating in the RSA Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco this week.

Getronics 3D encompasses planning, deployment and support services for software, hardware and the network.

WholeSecurity's Confidence Online Enterprise Edition takes a behavior-based approach to detect and neutralize worms as Bagel-A, Blaster, Bugbear, MiMail, SoBig and Fizzer.

The partnership will enable Getronics to use Confidence Online features:
-"Zero-hour" Threat Detection:
-Patent-pending behavioral technology
-Provides detection of eavesdropping and worm without requiring updates
-No User Impact:
-Transparent to users
-No installation steps or rebooting
-No user configuration or updating

http://www.getronics.com/us
http://www.wholesecurity.com/

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