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The WAVE Report on Digital Media
3D --- Media Creation --- Shared Space ---Published by 4th Wave, Inc.--- Issue #0528------------------7/15/05 |
The WAVE Report is Searchable on
http://www.3dlinks.com
http://www.wave-report.com
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0528.2 Automated Testing
New Cognizant Survey Shows that Customers Save up to 80% of Costs Using Automated Testing
0528.3 Camera Mobility
OmniVision Launches Improved 1.3 Megapixel CameraChip for Mobile Applications
0528.4 Anti-Terrorism Surveillance
Creative Vistas Introduces ''Abandoned Object Detection,'' an Anti-Terrorism Feature, to Iview-360
0528.5 Microsoft Vulnerabilities
0528.6 VoIP Quality Assessment
Where Is the Dial Tone? Asks Keynote Study of Internet Telephone Service
0528.7 WiFi Made Easy
0528.8 WiMAX Advances
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0528.1 Story of the Issue
***14th IST Mobile and Wireless Communications Summit 2005
By John Latta
Dresden, Germany
June 20 – 22, 2005
We are seeing a significant change this year at this conference. OFDM is a major topic of conversation. In fact, it is seriously being considered by 3GPP in the standards efforts. The implications of this can be significant in that OFDM is the technology under WiMAX. Many US companies have much to gain if OFDM becomes the technology foundation for the next generation wireless standard in Europe, and by default the rest of the world.
The conference enrollment is up to 800. In spite of this being the premier event for the presentation of research funded by the EU under the IST program there are many participants from around the world. We note an especially strong presence from Asia but virtually nothing from the U.S.
We were frankly mystified that there was no U.S. presence. There was a special panel on 4G efforts in Asia and the pace there is even faster than in Europe. But it is like the U.S. does not exist. But contrary to last year WiMAX, that is, OFDM and MIMO, is being taken very seriously.
The IST event remains the best forum to understand what is happening in Europe in mobile communications.
Europe Launches i2010
The European Commission announced i2010 as a major initiative to improve competitiveness of Europe. When the member states of the EU can agree on a budget for the period from 2007 to 2012 this initiative will result in spending of nearly $1B € a year for research. If successful, one of the intents is to create a single European information space and vault Europe ahead of the U.S. in terms of the impact of ICT.
i2010 – Will Europe Vault Ahead of the U.S. in ICT?
Joao Shcwarz Da Silva, the Director of Communication and Network Technologies, under the DG Information Society and Media, European Commission, gave the first talk. Last week the EC announced the i2010 initiative. It said much about global competitiveness and the role of technology.
The EU Lisbon Summit was held in 2000. This is the basis for much of the planning in the EU. The bad news is that the average growth rate for the EU member states was set at 3% but it has declined since then and is now near ½%.
At the same time there is a widening gap between labor productivity in the U.S. and the EU. In 2000 this gap was – 5%, that is, of the GDP per hour worked, and has now grown to – 8% in 2003.
One of the reasons for this is that the U.S. ICT productivity growth in the services sector has been at 2.45% while it is only 1.54% in the EU-15. The most dramatic improvement in growth in the U.S. has been in the ICT Using Services sector. That is, the sector which could be seen as the most important, the use of ICT, is where the EU-15 has lagged the most.
There is concern also about the sustainability of the world. It is here where the EU leads the U.S. It is the expectation that with rapid adoption of ICT it is possible to match the demands on the planet to what it can support. According to the World3 HEF (Human Ecological Footprint) we are moving to a condition, without action, that will require 2.5 planets in resources by 2050 to sustain the world.
A major issue is the continuing digital divides. Data was shown for the penetration of digital technologies that includes: broadband, wireline and mobile. In some countries in Europe the penetration of broadband and wireline remains near zero while in Luxembourg the wireless penetration is above 120%.
To address these issues a two areas are the focus:
To create a single European Information space
This includes NGN, IP based core, security, open source and spectrum trading.
Innovation and investment in R&D
The budget would rise 28% and reach approximately 1B € a year.
The scope of the program is very broad.
Inclusion, better public services and quality of life.
Particular emphasis was paid to the aging population.
This is a very ambitious effort. If successful it could change the role that Europe plays in information technology. We can already see the leadership that Europe plays in the research efforts in wireless and in other areas such as Ambient Intelligence.
The implementation of this plan is on hold. The inability of the member EU member states to agree on the 2007 – 2012 budget framework has left the research investment portion in limbo. It remains to be seen how this will unfold and the impact that it has in the research investment.
Vodafone Shouts about UMTS
The CTO of Vodafone, Hartmut Kremling discussed going from Technology Push to Market Pull.
Vodafone now offers in Germany access on the UMTS network:
Mobile TV with 15 channels including CNN. Video telephony is possible between cellular users. MP3 music can be downloaded as a service.
The Vodafone card for the Notebook makes possible the wireless office and data solutions for the enterprise market.
Vodafone is going right to the center of the fixed line market with is Universal Fixed Home Access. That is, there is a box one can buy from Vodafone that will connect to the UMTS network and is provides for all home telephony, using existing phones in the home, and broadband to the PCs in the home.
Last Christmas Vodafone offered a special deal at launch and since then the traffic on UMTS has exceeded that of the GPRS network.
In a subsequent talk, Hartmut asked the question – as the rates increase and the density of the network rises it appears that the willingness of consumer to pay goes down at the same rate. Where are the economics under these conditions he asked?
Seimens Shows 1GB/s
Seimens took a view beyond 3G. Helmut Lagger looked the future.
They predict that the total market for VoIP will cross the PSTN by 2010 and totally dominate voice by 2016.
Siemens is prepared to have complete HSDPA end-to-end solutions ready for commercial use by the second half of 2005.
In November 2004 Siemens demonstrated 1Gb/s over 100 MHz of spectrum using 3 X 5 antennas in a MIMO OFDM demonstration. They see the future direction going to N X M antennas with MIMO OFDM.
What is the Role of OFDM?
G. Winder of the Fraunhofer German-Sino Lab in Berlin presented a paper on “Concept of an OFDM HSDPA Air Interface for UMTS DL.” He cited as part of the talk the increasing interest in OFDM at 3GPP. His talk showed how OFDM could be used as part of the interface with UMTS. We wonder how practical the approach is but to have looked at this is intriguing. One of the most interesting charts was about the motivation for the study. It said:
The reason for the OFDM air interface as a downlink in 3GPP is that it has:
Higher implementation efficiency
Higher throughput
MIMO from scratchAn HSDPA extension that uses OFDM HSDPA has these advantages:
Higher granularity
Even higher throughput
More fairness and
Coordinated interference control
Thus there is much to watch from the increasing interests in OFDM in Europe.
4G in Asia
At special session, presenters from Asia discussed efforts on 4G in their respective countries. The development efforts, including China, are well along. This poses significant challenges to the European efforts to continue to lead in wireless communications technology as the transition is made from 3G to 4G.
We summarize comments made by country in the assessment of 4G technologies and deployment.
Korea
One of the requirements for 4G terminals is that they be a personal mobile gateway. Modules which can support this gateway include:
3D
Audio
Fuel Cells
Low power MPU
Intelligent terminal Software platform
Personal networking
Multi-antenna array
SDR based multi-air interface module4G has become a battle ground with the attempt by two different technologies to reach standardization. Coming from the narrow band mobile side is cellular. Its path is 3G, HSDPA and to 4G. On the fixed wireless side 802.16 technologies are seeking a position in mobile as a direct competitor to cellular – this is the nomadic approach.
It is not clear which will dominate 4G or if it will be both.
The position of 3GPP is that this is an evolution of WCDMA. The expected data rate is 100Mb/s downlink with 50Mb/s uplink at 20MHz bandwidth. It is expected that the specification for this will be completed in 2006.
Within the 3GPP2 there is an evolution plan which has as a strong candidate OFDM. The target here is also 100Mb/s at 20MHz spectrum.
WiBro on Korea has, in fact, become 802.16e. A standard is expected for this in mid-2005 and it has 50Mb/s with AAS and MIMO. Note this is approximately the same target as 3GPP and the accelerated pace of 802.16e is putting pressure on 3GPP.
The ITU has cited that the frequency around 3.4GHz as the most promising for 4G. Korea and Japan and most European countries are considering the spectrum from 3 – 4GHz for 4G. It is expected that WRC-07 will identify and allocate spectrum for 4G.
The WiBro terminals will begin as cards or the radios will be built into notebooks, then migrate to smartphones and in phase 3 become converged terminals.
Three operators have been selected for WiBro: KT, SK Telecom and Hanaro-telecom.
There is to be a service demonstration at APEC Summit in 2005.
Operations are to begin by 2Q 2006 in Seoul.
Japan
4G will initially migrate from HSDPA and evolve from 3G (Super 3G). Japan, NTT DoCoMo, has submitted a study item called UTRA and UTRAN to the 3GPP. One of the intents of this study item is that there will be a smooth introduction of 4G from 3G.
A real 4G system could required up to 100MHz of bandwidth.
The UTRA air interface have support for multiple bandwidths but the emphasis is on bandwidths greater than 5MHz. The data rate is to be 100Mb/s downlink and 50MB/s uplink. In the downlink it is expected that the radio access will be OFDM.
The target for 4G is 1Gb/s in low mobileity conditions and 100Mb/s in high mobileity. The proposal by NTT DoCoMo is that the same air interface be used for hot spots as isolated cells as indoor environments. Only the radio parameters would change. This technique is called Variable Spreading Factor (VSF) – Spread OFDM.
Note that this proposal overcomes one of the shortfalls of 802.16 where the fixed and mobile versions cannot be implemented in the same radio.
Tests have been done in a dense NLOS environment in Japan that achieved 200 – 300 Mb/s. The vehicle speed was 30km/hour. A throughput of 100Mb/s was accomplished over 90% of the measure course of the test area.
In the laboratory tests were accomplished with MIMO of greater than 1Gb/s.
China
China is implementing the FuTURE program. This is a radio experiment environment to meet the wireless needs of China.
Phase III which runs from 2005 to 2010 focuses on a trial and pre-commercial system based on standards.
The target is a 40 – 100Mb/s at high moving speeds and 100Mb/s second at low speeds. The transmission method will be OFDM with MIMO.
Siemens – A Download Away
HSDPA will be available for Siemens base stations by the end of 2005. We should expect to see offerings of a service in early 2006. No operators have announced service plans and it is normal that they not do this until just before service availability.
The data rates for mobile are 1 – 2Mb/s and fixed 14Mb/s.
An operating base station was being shown in the booth. Only one company has shown terminals, handsets for HSDPA, Samsung had a prototype at CeBIT. But it is not expected that terminals will happen at roll out. As with UMTS when it rolled out, it is expected that the sales will be of cards which plug into the PC Card slot on notebooks. Later there will be terminals, cell phones, once the service offerings are in place.
Where is the US?
Again, we find it curious that both Europe and Asia are well represented here but not the U.S. This is a discussion and networking forum for B3G and 4G technologies. 802.16 is a major player. We did not see one individual on the attendee list from the U.S.
BMW – Loading a Car with Wireless Technologies
At CeBIT the WAVE saw the BMW Connected Drive. Here, BMW was showing an example of the efforts of Research and Technology within the BMW Group. This adds a whole meaning to being connected.
It was the only car on the show floor. It was always busy. The Germans love their automobiles. None of this is for production and it was clear that the demo was only to show what can be done.
The car has WiFi, UMTS, Ku Band satellite receiver for direct broadcast television, and Bluetooth. It is the intent that it will automatically connect to each radio technology based on the function and best technology to use. The driver does not have to worry about technology, signal strength or any such issues. I asked about the CAT 5 cable and got stares – something like – “A cable on a BMW?”
The front panel was impressive. 10” high resolution touch screen. One can control music tastes just by the touch of a button.
The cache is 40GB but as it was said – storage is cheap. This is a part of BMW/DW/IRT personal radio service based on a carousel fed cache.
The vehicle had FhG SatCom which allowed IPv6 broadcast over DVB.
When asked about driver distraction, that was put off as an actual design issue for a production automobile. Put in another way – “Someone could really get sucked into this.”
BMW is a part of these European efforts where the car is involved.
DAIDALOS
teleco platforms for provisioning and delivery of pervasive services
IP GST
Telematics framework and safety oriented broadcast services, all car companies in Europe are a part of this.
PReVENT
Vehicle to Vehicle geocast safety applications. This is an active implement to avoid collisions.
Mobile Ky-Band Demonstrator
Mobile Ku-Band television and personal radio data broadcast service
With BMW Connected Drive, a driver can get a BMW e-mail address – for some worth the price of the car alone. With this research car one can link up anywhere at any speed and watch digital television at the same time. The WAVE left with:
Just cool technology but on second thought I better be in the back seat and not driving. All that is needed now is a CAT 5 cable.
Simplicity – Talk Talk Talk - Words are Easier than Actions
This panel session explored the critical issue of taking complexity out of technology. The focus is the cellular phone. Here is a summary of what the speakers said.
Nokia Research
We need consumer research.
University College London
I have an 8 week old daughter and do not want to be here. I tried to get a picture of her on my cell phone and even send a picture from my cell phone home. Nothing worked. It was miserable.
University of Roma
Intel’s Public HotSpot instructions are a nightmare. In all we have lots of problems with simplicity of devices and how to use them. The simplicity project in the EU is to add another layer to simplify. And we need standards.
Daaa.
Motorola
We need simplicity because consumers demand it and if we do not do it we cannot enter emerging markets. As a result Motorola has designed a phone which is easy to use.
Daaa.
Philips
Philips has announced it has embraced simplicity with the new slogan – Sense and Simplicity. We will do better and we are researching the issue.
Daaa.
Vodafone
Vodafone has introduced the Vodafone Simply handsets. These have simple features. Even the contract is “transparent.” Our technicians in the call center are not to use phone jargon.
Daaa.
KDDI (Japan)
It is not clear that Japanese customer wants a phone with simplicity, We like complex devices. But we did introduce the TU-KA simple mobile phone. We are the only carrier with such a phone.
This phone was the simplest of all shown. It was just like a regular land line phone with only one function – dial numbers and connect. KDDI got it right,
NO Daaa.
In the end we were left feeling hollow. Here are all these high powered individuals talking about doing something and only one really did much.
In the Vodafone presentation interesting statistics were quoted – by April 2006 60% of the German population would have access to UMTS indoors and 74% outdoors. This has allowed Vodafone to offer Universal Fixed Access. One only has to disconnect the land line phone, fax and even CAT 5 to the computer and plug it into this router. Bingo – everything in the home now works over the wireless network. In the booth I asked – Deutsch Telecom must hate Vodafone?
As the bandwidth and penetration increases there is the opportunity to further erode existing businesses. Another example of this was cited in Korea where the television habits are changing. Individuals will now watch the news on television on their mobile phones during lunch at work and on the evening commute home.
This is but the beginning of the impact of 3G and the level of the service offerings will significantly increase with 4G, which is not likely to roll out until 2010.
WAVE Comments
Much was made in Joao Shcwarz Da Silva’s talk about the lack of European competitiveness in the services sector and with a particular emphasis on labor productivity. It is the premise that ICT can improve this. Further, the EU GDP growth is stalled. Nothing was said about why these are happening. One has to only be in Europe for a short time to realize that the social state conditions are very different than in the U.S. The public expects more in the way of social services. This creates a significant drain on the economies. Also the EU has very strict work rules, which compared to the U.S., is a drag on productivity. Even in one small area, for example, there seems to be far more holidays for the workers in Germany. In sum, it seems a lot to ask for ICT technology to address these issues.
It has been 10 years in coming but 3G with UMTS is a major step forward. Here in Europe it is not infrequent that one sees the bright red Vodafone adapter cards plugged into notebooks. Vodafone was singing the praises for what UMTS has done in terms of traffic generation. One even has a choice of 15 television channels on a cell phone. But as the WAVE saw at 3GSM World, the next step is close at hand – HSDPA. This promises 1 – 2Mb/s in mobile and 14Mb/s in fixed. The major advantage of HSDPA is that it is only a software upgrade to the existing UMTS base stations. The software will be available by the end of the year and services should begin in early 2006. As the WAVE found out, both at 3GSM and here at IST Wireless, do not expect to see phones but PC Cards when the service begins. The target market is the mobile professional with a notebook.
The WAVE has been critical of the viability of the triple play on cell phones. We are seeing early reports on the usage of cell phones for television. It is too early to tell if this is a significant revenue generator. Certainly Vodafone hopes so. But the bigger issue is: from a consumer standpoint there is no bandwidth need on the horizon beyond television. Thus, we are left wondering why is there such great emphasis on reaching 100Mb/s and even 1Gb/s wireless? Even at 1Gb/s the speakers said that the users will only want the channel for a very short period of time. Thus, one has to seriously question the premise:
Make wireless bandwidth available and they will come?
***New Cognizant Survey Shows that Customers Save up to 80% of Costs Using Automated Testing; Customers Can Also Cut Down Testing Time by Over 90%
TEANECK, N.J.
July 13, 2005
Cognizant Technology Solutions announced the results of a new study that shows that automated software testing can deliver more than 80% cost savings when compared with manual testing. In addition, the survey of Cognizant's clients reveals that test automation can cut execution time by over 90%. The clients surveyed credit test automation with accelerating iterative development and enabling the delivery of more business functionality in shorter release cycles.
The study also notes that one major obstacle to test automation - the effort required to setup the automation - can be greatly mitigated through "framework-driven" automation. Framework-driven test automation is an innovative approach that leverages reusable automation components, along with tools from leading vendors, to dramatically reduce the setup and maintenance costs associated with test automation. The Cognizant survey shows that organizations who adopted this approach to test automation were able to see a positive ROI on their automation efforts as soon as the second release of an application, with up to a 60% savings achievable by the third release.
"In 2002, software defects cost $60 billion to fix, and 50% of software development costs were related to finding and fixing defects," said Lance Travis in the April 2005 report, "Offshore Remote Application Testing Can Cut Cost of Quality by up to 75%," released by AMR research. "Software defects continue to proliferate, but the cost of ensuring quality is high, and software testing can account for 30% of development time."
***OmniVision Launches Improved 1.3 Megapixel CameraChip for Mobile Applications
SUNNYVALE, Calif.
July 13, 2005
OmniVision Technologies, Inc. launched its OV9655, a newly improved 1.3 megapixel CMOS image sensor (CIS) for mobile applications. With significant improvements in its pixel performance, the new sensor offers added features and higher image quality.
One key feature of the OV9655 is an LCD scaler, which allows handset makers to scale images to the exact size of the phone and eliminates any horizontal or vertical scaling bars on the LCD screen without the need for a more expensive backend DSP. In addition, the OV9655's improved DSP process improves the sensor's image processing capabilities, resulting in greatly enhanced image quality.
The OV9655 is based on OmniVision's proprietary OmniPixel technology platform, which has proven critical in meeting customers' high image-quality requirements. The OmniPixel technology's unique pixel architecture significantly increases the signal-to-noise ratio, which enables the OV9655 to perform exceptionally well in low-light conditions.
The OV9655 is a 1/4-inch, low-voltage CIS offering the full functionality of a single-chip SXGA (1280 x 1024) camera and image processor. It supports image sizes SXGA, VGA and any size scaling down from VGA to 40x30. The OV9655 also has a strobe mode that allows it to work with an external flash or LED.
The OV9655 provides full-frame, sub-sampled, scaled or windowed 8-bit/10-bit images in a wide range of formats controlled through a serial camera control bus (SCCB) interface. All required image processing functions including exposure control, gamma, white balance, color saturation, hue control, white pixel canceling and noise canceling are programmable through the SCCB interface.
0528.4 Anti-Terrorism Surveillance
***Creative Vistas Introduces ''Abandoned Object Detection,'' an Anti-Terrorism Feature, to Iview-360
WHITBY, Ontario
July 13, 2005
Creative Vistas, Inc. has announced that it has introduced a feature called "Abandoned Object Detection," an anti-terrorism feature, to its Iview-360 camera product line.
Iview-360, a breakthrough technology for the surveillance industry, is a panoramic camera that provides a 360-degree view of an area for complete situational awareness. It also provides the user the ability to digitally zoom in on any particular region within its coverage. Iview-360 provides many virtual EPTZ (Electronic Pan Tilt Zoom) cameras to replace many conventional cameras, thus significantly reducing equipment and installation costs.
The "Abandoned Object Detection" is a feature that allows a user to detect unattended baggage at a location. This feature can be extremely effective in areas such as airports, transportation sectors such as train and bus terminals, stadiums and general public areas. This can be used as an anti-terrorism tool to detect possible terrorism threats. The Iview-360 is able to detect an unattended object of a specified shape and send an alarm signal to the appropriate authority directly or to a PDA using the Iview- DVMS (Digital Video Management System). The system, using software and its multiple virtual Electronic Pan Tilt and Zoom (ePTZ) cameras, can further zoom in to the object and track its motion within a specified area. This will be done while simultaneously providing a "situational awareness" around the general region of coverage.
According to Creative Vistas, the Iview-360 technology can be extremely effective in preventing possible terrorist attacks as well as other security breaches. It has a wide variety of applications within various sectors within the surveillance market including airports, government, military, commercial, financial, education, retail, and healthcare.
Terrorist acts are taking place globally, and it is imperative to provide mechanisms to possibly prevent these attacks. Iview family of digital video technologies can aid in possibly preventing such terrorist threats and attacks.
http://www.actechnical.com/products/cctv.php#
0528.5 Microsoft Vulnerabilities
***TippingPoint and Juniper Networks Provide Zero Day Protection for Microsoft Internet Explorer Vulnerability
AUSTIN, Texas
July 12, 2005
TippingPoint, a division of 3Com, announced that it preemptively provided customers protection for all vulnerabilities disclosed by Microsoft on Tuesday. In the case of the critical Internet Explorer (IE) vulnerability, TippingPoint customers were already protected from this zero day vulnerability through specialized IE security filters developed by TippingPoint's Digital Vaccine team last year, well before the discovery of the vulnerability.
At this same time, Juniper Networks, Inc. announced its Intrusion Detection and Protection (IDP) security systems and ISG 2000 firewall and virtual private network (VPN) system with IDP are able to protect against a critical Microsoft vulnerability announcements. Juniper Networks' dedicated security team has been able to provide coverage for this attack since June 30, 2005.
A zero day vulnerability refers to a security flaw for which there is no vendor patch available at the time it is disclosed to the public. This is exacerbated when exploit code targeting the vulnerability gets published, which is what occurred with the IE vulnerability. The vulnerability was disclosed on June 29 through a public security mailing list. It was soon followed by exploit code published on July 2. Yesterday, reports claimed the exploit code was being used by malicious websites to infect computer systems with Trojans. Microsoft made the IE vulnerability patch available for download on July 5 in a security advisory, and made the patch widely available today by releasing the security bulletin.
The TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention Systems were inoculated against these threats through the Digital Vaccine service, which provides timely security filters, also known as Virtual Software Patches. TippingPoint's Digital Vaccine service preemptively defends against zero day attacks targeting vulnerabilities, including those announced in this month's Microsoft bulletin.
Juniper Networks IDP systems, running operating code versions 3.0 and above, and ISG 2000 firewall/VPN system with IDP, protect against this vulnerability, which could allow for remote attackers to gain control of affected systems.
The following bulletins were announced by Microsoft:
(1) MS05-035
Vulnerability in Microsoft Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution
(Rating: Critical)
(2) MS05-036
Vulnerability in Microsoft Color Management Module Could Allow Remote Code Execution (Rating: Critical)
(3) MS05-037
Vulnerability in JView Profiler Could Allow Remote Code Execution (Rating: Critical)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/Security/default.mspx
http://www.tippingpoint.com/products_certifications.html
http://www.juniper.net/products/
0528.6 VoIP Quality Assessment
***Where Is the Dial Tone? Asks Keynote Study of Internet Telephone Service; First of Its Kind Ranking of Voice over IP (VoIP) Quality Reveals Need for Considerable Improvement in Service
SAN MATEO, Calif.
July 12, 2005
New competitive intelligence from Keynote Systems reveals the need for considerable improvement in overall service quality from the leading providers of Internet telephone service (VoIP). The results of the Keynote VoIP Competitive Intelligence Study, the first of its kind to benchmark and rank the quality of VoIP as perceived by end-users were released this week. For the study, Keynote ranked six leading VoIP providers on critical performance factors that influence the end-user experience using Keynote's VoIP Perspective measurement service.
Included in the study were AT&T CallVantage, Packet 8, Primus Lingo, SkypeOut, Verizon Voicewing and Vonage in the New York and San Francisco metro areas. To understand the impact of underlying network performance on call quality, the VoIP telephone calls were carried on three business-class networks: AT&T, Sprint and UUNET. In addition, the study captured the impact of the last-mile on call quality by measuring each of the six providers on residential DSL lines from SBC and Verizon and residential cable lines from Comcast and Time Warner Cable as well.
Vonage ranked first overall in the Keynote study as the most reliable VoIP service provider with a normalized rank of over 80 points on a scale of 0-100. Keynote found a significant gap in reliability between Vonage and the lowest ranking providers. In spite of its high average, Vonage still has room for improvement on the Dropped Calls performance factor.
AT&T CallVantage led all other providers in audio clarity with a noticeable gap between AT&T CallVantage and its competitors. Here, as well, AT&T CallVantage has room for improvement on geographic variability on the audio delay factor -- a leading cause of conversational disruption. The importance of conversation disruption grows with the importance of the information being imparted during a conversation. Overlapping conversation breaks down human ability to understand when to stop or start talking resulting in disruption of conversation and missed information, which could be critical, for example, during a 911 call.
A key take-way from the study is that Internet telephone service is not yet up to the standards to which users are accustomed when using standard "plain old telephone service" (POTS) and VoIP providers have some work to do to capitalize effectively on the growing consumer adoption of VoIP service.
Moreover, not everything impacting the VoIP service quality is under the control of the provider. The Keynote study found that the underlying network carrier could make a dramatic difference in service reliability and audio clarity. Specifically, Keynote recommends that VoIP service providers address the audio delay in their calls to minimize conversational disruption and reduce the variability in performance experienced by callers in different cities.
The data for the study was collected over a five-week period from May 21 to June 25, 2005 to assess market readiness, compare leading providers to each other and analyze the impact of the underlying network by comparing the call quality of leading VoIP providers in San Francisco and New York to traditional Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN).
With this study, Keynote continues to extend its brand to include emerging technologies such as VoIP, streaming and wireless, which increasingly are core technologies of the enterprise. As Voice over Internet Protocol emerges as an influential technology that promises to cut consumer phone bills and enterprise communications expenses, the Keynote rankings help assess VoIP readiness and highlight market leadership among the various providers.
***PRISMIQ Introduces WiFi-Compliant Wireless USB2.0 Adapter; New PRISMIQ Mini-Fi Instantly Connects Desktop and Notebook Computers to a Home Network Eliminating Need to Install a PCI Card or Wireless Bridge
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.
July 12, 2005
PRISMIQ, Inc. has announced the availability of the PRISMIQ Mini-Fi, a Wi-Fi compliant (IEEE 802.11g) wireless USB2.0 adapter that instantly connects desktop and notebook computers to a home network. Easy to install and configure, the Mini-Fi eliminates the need to run wires through walls and ceilings by allowing access to places where wires cannot go -- making it the easiest way to connect a desktop PC to a network and eliminating the need to install a PCI card or buy a wireless bridge.
PRISMIQ Mini-Fi: Simple, Flexible Home Networking
Smaller than a pack of gum, the Mini-Fi plugs into any USB2.0 or USB1.1 jack to connect to the Internet and computers at home, work, or public wireless hotspots. It provides superior performance and interoperability within a mixed mode network (802.11b and 802.11g). Additionally, the Mini-Fi is backwards compliant with all 802.11b and 802.11b+ wireless equipment, allowing for automatic interoperability with the most widely used wireless network.
PRISMIQ Mini-Fi features include:
-- Compliance with IEEE 802.11b and 802.11g standards for 2.4GHz Wireless LAN
-- USB2.0 compliant
-- USB plug and play
-- Backward compatible with 802.11b
-- Support for 64/128/256-Bit WEP Encryption
-- Support for WPA Encryption
-- Up to 54 Mbps
-- Integrated antenna
-- Support for Windows 98SE/2000/ME/XP
-- Low power consumption
***The WiMAX Forum Showcases Equipment and Breadth of Applications, Opens Test Lab Some of First Equipment to Enter Test Lab Used for Vancouver, BC, Demos
SAN JOSE, CA and VANCOUVER, BC
07/13/2005
WiMAX technology has taken a bold step onto the proving grounds this week in Vancouver, BC, and Malaga, Spain. During the WiMAX Forum quarterly members' meeting in Canada, several application demos -- ranging from Xbox wireless console gaming over WiMAX to WiMAX-based streaming media -- are being showcased. Half a world away in Spain, the WiMAX Forum Certification test lab at Cetecom has opened and begun testing some of the same equipment in use at the members' meeting in Canada.
More than 400 participants from WiMAX Forum member companies are attending the event in Vancouver, where there have been keynote speeches from Nortel and KT (Korea Telecom). Also at the event, demonstrations from Nortel, Microsoft, Disney, Logitech, Cisco, AT&T, AudioCodes, Kencast, Ixia and Skype are running on a variety of WiMAX technology vendor systems from companies including Alvarion, Proxim, Redline and Wavesat. The demos, which support the message that WiMAX is real, represent the five key WiMAX application types: VoIP, streaming media, interactive gaming, Web browsing and file transfer/media download. The success of the demos indicates that WiMAX systems are efficient at running multiple classes of applications simultaneously.
As a leading sponsor of the event, Nortel is providing wired and wireless LAN connections and IP phones to attendees at the Vancouver event. Nortel also presented its findings on the business potential of 802.16e in a keynote speech on July 12. Nortel, a global telecommunications leader in wireless infrastructure and advanced 3G technologies, has been contributing to the 802.16 standard by helping to develop underlying technologies like OFDM and MIMO for more than six years.
Another leading event supporter, KT, presented a keynote speech concerning its vision for wireless broadband service and mobile WiMAX, known as "WiBRO" in Korea. KT, a leading service provider in Korea, has committed resources toward developing services and applications that will support mobile WiMAX/WiBRO implementations. Supporting mobility for wireless broadband is one of the key goals of the WiMAX Forum.
Also at the meeting in Vancouver, the Yankee Group presented its report, "The Role of WiMAX in a World of Ubiquitous, Personal Broadband Services." The report places WiMAX in the context of existing broadband and mobile trends and offers insight on WiMAX business models, WiMAX positioning and current and future challenges for WiMAX, while addressing those challenges and future application and deployment scenarios.
WiMAX Forum Certification testing will continue at Cetecom labs in Spain, and the first WiMAX Forum Certified™ products -- those that are certified as conformant to the standard and interoperable with other vendors' products -- are expected to be available in the November/December timeframe.
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