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Robert Edwards, Respected Paging Pioneer, Dies At Age 85

W2KKC — SK^*

ROBERT "BOB" EDWARDS, "The father of paging," 85, of West Allenhurst, OCEAN TOWNSHIP

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 12/13/05

ROBERT "BOB" EDWARDS, "The father of paging," 85, of West Allenhurst, OCEAN TOWNSHIP, died Sunday, Dec. 11, at his home. Born in Yonkers, N.Y., he resided in Rumson and Tenafly before moving to West Allenhurst. Mr. Edwards was an experienced engineer and industrialist. He founded and built two public multi-million dollar business concerns involved in telecommunications, EAC Industries and Radiofone Corporation. Bob was a wonderful person. He loved life and people and fulfilled all of his dreams.

He was predeceased by four brothers, Morris, Nelson, Philip, and George Edwards. Surviving are his beloved wife of 33 years, Barbara Maroselli Edwards; a son, Marc and his wife Linda Edwards of East Windsor; two daughters, Jennifer Edwards Kaye and her husband Jeffrey of West Allenhurst, and Barbara Fredericks of Austin, Texas; two sisters, Adele Arslan of Red Bank, and Rose Fiegel of Ocala, Fla.; and seven grandchildren, Charlotte, Michael, Christopher, Jonathan, David, Eric and Jeffrey.

Visitation will be from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the John E. Day Funeral Home, 85 Riverside Ave., Red Bank. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 9 a.m. Thursday at St. James Roman Catholic Church, Red Bank. Entombment will follow in St. Catherine's Cemetery, Sea Girt. Memorial donations in Bob's memory can be made to Make A Wish Foundation, 1034 Salem Road, PO Box 4028, Union, NJ 07083.

Source: Asbury Park Press

Through Mr. Edwards’ guidance, the radio pager took its place alongside the telephone as a vital everyday communications mode in the United States. Radiofone, because of its many innovations in the paging field, grew at twice the national average for paging companies, and became, after 10 years of operation, the largest radio paging operation in the United States, both in terms of geographic area and number of pagers served. As cellular telephone technology moved into the telecommunications spotlight, Edwards positioned Radiofone to take advantage of this new technology by directing the design and engineering of a New York metropolitan area cellular system that eventually became the Federal Communications Commission approved system for that market.

Background

In 1954, Mr. Edwards joined Mack Trucks, Inc., as Vice President of its electronic division. This division was engaged in the design and construction of military communications equipment.

In 1955, Mr. Edwards founded and organized EAC Industries, Inc. (EAC), to acquire the electronics division of Mack Trucks, Inc. Under Mr. Edwards’ leadership, EAC became a major supplier of electronic and communications products to the United States Armed Forces. It also became a conglomerate, with the creation several divisions, one of which became the largest producer of storm and screen door hardware in the United States. EAC also formed an international division, called EAC International, which operated in France and Italy, and became the purchasing agent for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) located in Châteauroux, France, and as such, provided millions of dollars of spare parts for NATO’s military forces.

Through Mr. Edwards’ innovations and inventiveness, EAC succeeded in developing communications and radar products which met previously unattainable U.S. Government accuracy standards. Under Mr. Edwards’ guidance, EAC grew to become a multimillion dollar enterprise, listed on the American Stock Exchange. At EAC, Mr. Edwards was credited with innovations such as the first use of quartz oscillators to keep time (the quartz watch and clock movement of today). EAC also developed and patented an ultrasonic device for the brewing industry, which allowed breweries around the world to increase their production by almost tenfold, and making possible the throwaway bottle. This technology is still currently being used in every major brewery around the world. Mr. Edwards is the holder of a number of patents on components and processes in the electronics industry.

Upon invitation of the Central Intelligence Agency, EAC formed a Systems Engineering Group at the University of Michigan to design, and reduce the size, of the electronic recording gear utilized in the U2 spy aircraft, which information and details have recently been declassified.

After more than 11 years with EAC Mr. Edwards formed Radiofone Corporation. With Radiofone, Edwards brought the concept of radio paging to the forefront of personal communications. From just a concept in 1971, Edwards built a radio paging network that spanned 20,000 square miles encompassing a population of over 20 million people with 95 transmitter/receivers in the system. By 1981, the system was delivering 1.5 million paging messages per month.

Edwards pioneered Radiofone to a number of "firsts" in the paging industry:

• The concept and implementation of multi-state wide area paging was accomplished via the design of the necessary central office equipment needed to control this network concept.
• Use of Concentrators and T-Carrier technology in a paging network to speed up paging service and allow greater volume of traffic at minimal cost by using fewer telephone circuits.
• Through development of new technology and negotiating agreement with other paging entities, Radiofone became the first paging company in the nation to furnish paging service via satellite from New York to Chicago and Los Angeles.
• Digital and Alphanumeric Paging—Through his work with major paging manufacturers both in the United States and Japan, Edwards assisted in the design and function of the numeric display and alphanumeric display pagers. As such, Radiofone was the first to offer these services to the public. Today, these paging services represent 90% of the radio paging market.

In 1982 Radiofone was sold to broadcasting conglomerate, Metromedia Inc. Metromedia chose Edwards to head its new nationwide Telecommunications division by naming him Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of this division. He was also later elected Vice President of Metromedia Inc. During Mr. Edwards’ tenure at Metromedia, he engineered and coordinated the cellular mobile telephone system application that was ultimately chosen by the Federal Communications Commission as the superior cellular system for the New York City market (the largest in the nation). Edwards’ design placed emphasis on a larger number of cells in order to better accommodate portable cellular phones which he saw as the future of cellular demand. Today, this design concept is followed throughout the world in the construction of cellular systems.

Later, Mr. Edwards was President of International Telemessaging Services Inc., which operated a nationwide paging system in Venezuela.

The book Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution, by James B. Murray, speaks about everyone who was involved in the creation of the cellular industry. There are stories about Bob Edwards and his meetings with Stu Sobnick and the quick sale to John Kluge, and then his continued work on the cellular licenses. (pp. 7-8)

Editor's note: Many years ago, Mr. Edwards told me the story of how he first got the idea of displaying a telephone number on a pager. He called Motorola and asked them to develop a new pager for him. Motorola declined, so he flew to Japan and presented the idea to NEC who built the first numeric display pager. It became wildly successful. I asked my friend Jim Page, who is a retired Motorola Vice President, and who also knew Mr. Edwards very well, to clarify the story for me. Following is his response:

Hi Brad,

Sorry to hear of Mr. Edwards passing. He was a great man. I also heard the story you mentioned second hand but heard it was an offer to anyone in the industry and was accompanied by a million dollars up front which was unprecedented at the time. Whether it was made specifically to Motorola, NEC, Panasonic or others I don't know. As you know, the pager was actually constructed by NEC and was featured in his annual report that year and NEC had an exclusive for some period of time thereafter. He went on to pre-announce, and then pioneer, the NEC UHF display pager in America.

Once the UHF system was up and running, Mr. Edwards consistently turned in 40-60% subscriber growth every year. As a marketing guy, I was excited to show him around our factory and interview him one day in Boynton Beach and I asked him what his secret was in turning in such consistently high growth rates. Specifically, I asked him what his advertising strategy was. He burst out laughing, “I don't advertise at all,” was his surprising response. “In fact, I had to cut back my pay scale because my salesmen were making more money than I was.” He went on to describe how he would compete based on equivalent price with greater coverage than anyone else could offer. It seems that UHF, which many felt wouldn't work in New York's urban canyons, worked extremely well and was in fact his competitive edge (coverage map attached). It was also a significant entree for NEC into the United States and, if memory serves, Radiofone was the only national account that was serviced by NEC America and not serviced by National Marketing Inc., NEC's distributor in the United States. Despite all of this, Mr. Edwards kept a close personal relationship with Motorola over the years and bought many, many pagers from us.

I considered Mr. Edwards one of the true founding fathers of the paging industry. He was a brilliant CEO and a true gentleman. I always considered him the dominant carrier in the nation's largest market, and he wore that banner well. For those of us who had the good fortune to know him, he will be greatly missed.

Regards,

Jim Page

Radiofone Coverage Map—1981 Annual Report (Complements of Jim Page.)

* Silent key refers to an amateur radio operator who has deceased. The term is frequently abbreviated SK. The key in the term refers to a telegraph key, the instrument that all early amateur radio operators, as well as many contemporary amateur radio operators, have used to send Morse code. The term SK is used to refer to any amateur radio operator who has deceased, regardless of whether or not they were known to have actively used a telegraph key or Morse code in their communications.

When transmitted as two Morse code characters without separating audio delay, SK is a Morse code prosign meaning "end of communications." [Wikipedia]

FCC and OSHA Mandate RF Site Compliance for Safety

From: Steve Lemons sgl929@verizon.net
Subject: RF Safety 101
Date: January 4, 2006 3:26:10 PM CST

Even though the FCC's deadline for RF site compliance was September of 2000, many sites are still not compliant and are subject to potential violations and fines.  In addition, any injuries that might occur are potential liabilities that cannot be ignored. 

The responsibility for compliance lies with many different entities:

Luckily, site compliance for RF safety is usually reasonably straightforward and manageable. Whenever possible, the site should be engineered to keep the levels of RF exposure below the Uncontrolled levels. By accomplishing this task, the site does not require exposure restrictions. If this goal cannot be met, the site must be Controlled which requires the following steps:

Many rooftop and tower sites have been populated with warning signs without the accompanying safety plans or training. Any warning sign should be substantiated and the necessary steps of compliance put into action.

Determining if the level is beyond the limits can be determined with electronic instruments or sometimes by mathematical calculations. The key is knowing if the levels will exceed the limits by any means.

Some work situations are best suited by outfitting workers with personal monitors that alert the wearer when the RF power density exceeds certain levels. As Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), these devices add additional training and inspection requirements under OSHA's PPE guidelines. These "anti-surprise" devices can greatly enhance a safety program's effectiveness.  

Much hoopla within the industry has been expended on "Categorical Exclusion" that is called out within the compliance guidelines.  Licensee's and site owner/managers should be weary of jumping through this loophole without fully understanding its limitations. The FCC has reminded the industry a number of times that nobody is excluded from compliance to the exposure guidelines.  And further, OSHA's compliance requires that all employees have the right to know about hazards in the workplace. Whether the worker is a radio technician or a window washer, exposure hazards must be understood and controlled.

Whether the hazard is rattlesnakes or RF energy; employees, tenants, visitors, workers, and the public have the right to know about the hazard. 

The Office of Engineering and Technology's publication 65 (http://www.fcc.gov/oet/info/documents/bulletins/#65) provides the specific levels for the Controlled and Uncontrolled environments.  The Uncontrolled level is a ceiling limit that cannot be exceeded while the Controlled level is an exposure time limit. 

DCI has produced a video that addresses RF Safety Compliance. The video is divided into ten chapters: RF Safety Basics, Regulatory Brief - FCC, Regulatory Brief - OSHA, Antenna Basics, MPE Math, Health Considerations, RF Signage, RF Site Compliance, PPE, and Summary.  Testing is also available for training certification.

Compliance regulations include: 47 C.F.R. 1.1307(b), OSHA 1910.268, 1910.97, 1910.132, and 1910.147. Links to the regulations and guidelines are located on DCI’s website at www.dcico.com/rfsafety.

Steve Lemons
DCI, Inc.
www.dcico.com
sgl929@verizon.net

Blackberry?

From: ronald.wojtylko@velocitawireless.com
Subject: Blackberry
Date: January 5, 2006 8:58:52 AM CST
To: brad@braddye.com

Brad,

I am writing in response to the letter in your Friday, December 16th Letters to the Editor section sent by Carter Blumeyer, I would like to clarify some BlackBerry issues.

I work for Velocita Wireless and as you know our network was the first network to carry BlackBerry. When someone like Mr. Blumeyer makes a statement like “The cellular phone and Blackberry systems are so overloaded with the public trying to communicate they lock up and slow down to a snail’s pace” It should be stated that what is being referred to is BlackBerry on the cellular networks. Interactive Messaging, Blackberry, AVL and all the other data services that run on Mobitex suffered low to no impact in the New Orleans area during or after Hurricane Katrina.

The primary reason for this survivability is simplicity. The Mobitex network base stations are able to run on 1000 watt portable generators, utilize both a low speed digital circuit and a dial line for redundancy, are capable of running over frame relay satellite networks such as ViaSat and can run on IP satellite networks such as DirecWay. Couple this with the fact that most of our markets have at least one very robust built out boomer site and you have a survivable network.

One of Velocita Wireless’ most daunting tasks is network differentiation. The vast majority of people now lump Blackberry together as a device that is acquired from a cellular company. Blackberry on Mobitex is not subject to the same “complexity of network” issues that affect cellular.

I would also like to point out that BlackBerry is a software service and not a device. Just because someone is using a RIM 950 or RIM 957 does not mean it is running BlackBerry. A lot of the FEMA and DoD devices use our Interactive Messaging software instead which is not tied to a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) but rather use our own gateways.

Ronald Wojtylko
Area Field Engineer
Velocita Wireless
Alabama-Florida

Telecom Industry Insider Rupert Galliers-Pratt, Chairman/CEO of Vistula Communications, Identifies Key VoIP Trends to Watch in 2006

New York, NY—FOR RELEASE

Heading into 2006, Vistula Communications Services, Inc. (OTCBB: VSTL) will continue to enable telecom firms and ISPs to configure and deliver Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to customers, quickly, easily and with no up-front-costs, driven by VoIP innovation which is revolutionizing the world’s telephone infrastructure for both the consumer and enterprise markets.

“VoIP is beginning to break out into a more rapid period of growth, driven not only by the rollout of VoIP services by trusted telecommunications providers, but also by new players, such as cable providers,” according to Mr. Galliers-Pratt, Chairman and Chief Executive Office, Vistula Communications. “However, it is important to remember that the market for VoIP services is still in the very early stages of development and acceptance and carriers and equipment vendors will need to plan for the long haul.”

The more mainstream acceptance of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology was perhaps the biggest telecom story of 2005, fueled, in part, by eBay’s $2.6 billion acquisition of Skype Technologies, and according to Mr. Galliers-Pratt, the following trends and predictions are what could make headlines in 2006:

1. Competitive Practices: We could possibly see the beginnings of VoIP “walled gardens” by the Internet Access Providers, who may start to block VoIP calls from major VoIP providers and only open channels for their own services in an attempt to regain and build revenues from voice services.

2. Consolidation/Partnerships: Major Internet players such as Yahoo! and Google, will continue to develop key strategic partnerships, pr merge with or acquire Internet Access Providers to secure access and enhance services with their VoIP offering. Pure play VoIP providers, may be squeezed from the market or most likely become acquisition targets.

3. Broadband Penetration: Broadband will continue to grow aggressively throughout the world and continue to fuel the availability of VoIP services to residential customers.

4. Wireless: Wireless will continue to grow in leaps and bounds and the pending 3G roll-out will be the catalyst for Mobile Operators to embrace VoIP services, as the most effective technology to bring mobility and increased connectivity between businesses mobile and fixed PBX extensions. VoIP will also begin to erode the “Roaming” premiums, due to the growth of WiFi and integrated networks.

5. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP): SIP will likely become the standard delivery mechanism for VoIP calls, threatening the position of traditional PBX manufacturers, as SIP enables Internet Access Providers a standard upon which to offer even more cost effective, hosted, and feature-rich services.

6. IP Transit Exchanges: The possible emergence of IP Transit Exchanges will handle and balance traffic across the internet and enable things like the interconnection of different VoIP services. It will also mean better management of the Internet so that quality of service will improve so much so that there will no longer be a need for companies to require private dedicated bandwidth making call quality and speed per dollar a better deal. Ultimately this means that the internet will be more usable and will bang another nail in the coffin of traditional telephony. This may not all happen during 2006 though and would be a trend to watch for the next 5 years.

7. Regulatory Threats: VoIP service providers will likely do an increasingly better job of working with solutions providers and national and local 911 authorities, as well as becoming compliant with the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). Other traditional voice service regulatory standards will be increasingly applied to VoIP providers and may level the playing field a bit.

8. Video/Multimedia: VoIP, which is capable of being more than simply telephone technology, may become effectively capable of providing an even greater set of feature-rich multimedia services that provide audio, full-motion video and other multimedia communications services such as video conferencing.

About Vistula
Vistula is a telecommunications company providing hosted, managed VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services to carriers, service providers and transit network operators. Vistula features solutions that enable telecommunications providers to rapidly deploy VoIP services over converged infrastructure through an integrated applications suite. Vistula have already signed Telstra’s Global business unit as their first customer and other international carriers and ISPs have installed and are currently testing the V-Cube™ platform. Vistula trades on the OTCBB under the symbol: VSTL. For more information visit: www.vistula.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which reflect management's expectations regarding future events and speak only as of the date hereof. Vistula’s actual results, performance or achievements may differ significantly from the results, performance or achievements discussed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such a difference include material changes in our business or prospects, difficulties obtaining financing to fund our operations, failure to establish brand recognition for our products, failure to retain existing customers or attract new customers, failure to compete effectively in our industry, general market and economic conditions, the introduction of, and changes in laws and regulations governing our industry and our products and services, and other factors that are detailed from time to time in Vistula’s SEC reports, including those detailed in our Annual Report on Form 10-KSB for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004. Vistula disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

- END -

Source: Vistula Press Release

VoIP Week in Review from TMCnet: Ending the Year with VoIP

[December 30, 2005]

By JOHANNE TORRES
TMCnet VoIP Minute Watch Columnist

Even if this week was a short one for most of us in the industry, that didn't keep the VoIP Minute Watch away from reporting on the latest scoops about the biggest names.

IP phone service carrier SOFTBANK BB Corp. and JAPAN TELECOM CO. LTD. announced on Wednesday that they are currently working with Microsoft Corp. to develop an integrated communications service which combines VoIP, e-mail, Internet access, groupware, presence, instant messaging (IM) and desktop services with network infrastructure. The three companies have formed a partnership in order to offer the combined service to businesses.

Linking the Microsoft system for VoIP services with BB Phone's voice platform and JAPAN TELECOM's managed network service will enable small and midsize businesses to integrate enterprise-class communications services, including VoIP services. Microsoft's system bundles hosted versions of Microsoft server products including Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and Windows SharePoint Services with Sylantro Systems Corp.'s Application Feature Server. The companies plan to begin trials of the integrated communications services during spring of 2006.

It seems like the holidays made telecom big guns Covad and Verizon be nice and make up before the year is over. The companies announced on Wednesday that they have agreed to a comprehensive settlement that resolves all pending litigation and other legal quarrels between them. The agreement includes the dismissal of both Covad's pending antitrust case against Verizon, and a separate suit that Verizon had filed against Covad. The settlement provides a full resolution to all billing disputes.

Media technology provider Thomson announced this week that it launched a suite of wireless VoIP devices, comprised of multiple play residential gateways and IP DECT phones that integrate wideband audio functionality. Through wideband audio, operators and service providers will be able to offer users near-CD quality sound.

New Jersey-based VoIP service provider Vonage Holdings Corp. announced on Thursday it is offering a $100 mail-in-rebate on certified devices sold in over 9,000 retail locations within the U.S. The promotion will run from January 1st to February 4th, 2006.

Verizon recently announced that it was tapped by Southern New Hampshire Medical Center to install a new SONET telecom voice and data network to serve the community and its patients who visit the its new emergency room, an expanded cardiac care unit. The partnership will enable the medical center to integrate telecommunications between its new facilities with the rest of its offices.

Avaya Inc. announced that it was recently tapped by Xinjiang Unicom, a Chinese mobile phone carrier. Xinjiang Unicom adopted the Avaya IP Contact Center system to provide services to its users across Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, one of the largest areas in all the province-level administrative regions of China. The carrier serves about 1.89 million of mobile phone subscribers, in addition to clients in other business segments.

And finally, I know everyone is chilling those cava and champagne bottles to ring in the New Year this weekend. The VoIP Minute Watch reported on a very cool webcast MSN is doing tomorrow live from the Time Square in New York City. Thanks to Microsoft Corp. and its Windows Video service, on this New Year's Eve, online visitors from all over the world will be able to enjoy a live video and audio feed of the New York City party coverage. This is the second consecutive year that MSN Video has webcast the Times Square New Year's Eve festivities.

Visitors will be able to watch live performances and a number of exclusive online entertainment appearances featuring as many as 26 cameras and multiple streams bringing six hours of broadband content directly from Times Square. The webcast will include a multistream, multicamera look at many performances and celebrations happening in and around the New York City-Times Square location. 

New Year's Eve 2006 revelers from all around the world can now experience nonstop streams covering NYC's Times Square New Year's Eve countdown event in real time via an exclusive webcast from MSN Video. The live event in Times Square on December 31 begins at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST.

There you have it folks, another exciting week in the VoIP industry! We shall meet next year! Stay tuned and read the VoIP Minute Watch for the latest news…

Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit Johanne Torres' columnist page.

Source: TMCnet

Smart Wi-Fi Completes the Triple Play

1/3/2006
by Selina Lo, CEO Ruckus Wireless

Providers are salivating over the prospect of delivering consumers the coveted, and over-hyped, "triple play" of voice, video and data over a single broadband connection. As competition intensifies, the service provider's ability to rapidly acquire and activate subscribers, reduce deployment costs, offer new services and enhance the subscriber experience will be critical to its survival. IP-based services help with all this.

Yet an essential element to triple play delivery has been largely ignored: in-home distribution. Until now, most providers wanted nothing to do with home networks. They are ridden with support costs, finger pointing and deployment headaches. But now, with the onslaught of IP-based digital services and IP-encapsulated content, they are forced to care. If consumers can't get this new digital content around their homes, they won't buy it. That's a big problem.

According to Gartner Research, in-home distribution is widely seen, but rarely reported, as the real key to getting users to switch to new digital services. It is also one of the biggest obstacles facing the adoption of "next generation" multimedia services, and one of the main reasons consumers haven't more broadly embraced services like IPTV.

With the anticipated explosion of IPTV subscribers to over 72 million in the next five years, providers in Hong Kong and Italy are already reporting that the rejection rate of these new services can be as high as 30 percent when the installer shows up at the door with a spool of Category 5 Ethernet cabling. So what's the problem?

The broadband connection typically comes into the home through the basement or office—far away from the devices that need it. And the content being delivered over broadband is now digital, wrapped in IP. That's a problem for most consumer electronics in the living room or bedroom that don't understand IP. This has forced consumers to install new wiring or cabling around the home.

Not only is cable installation inconvenient and disruptive for the consumers, but it adds anywhere from $200 to $500 to the pre-subscriber startup cost which, in most cases, the service provider must absorb.

Given its widespread popularity and use within the home, Wi-Fi would be an obvious solution to this problem. Yet conventional consumer Wi-Fi was designed primarily for data applications and provides poor transport for multimedia traffic.

Consequently, most carriers are currently using, or exploring, a range of not-so-great alternatives. And many are hoping that new Wi-Fi technology will solve nearly all these problems. Today's most popular choices are:

• Coaxial cabling (promoted by MoCA, the Multimedia over Coax Alliance)
• In-home powerlines (marketed by the HomePlug Alliance
• Conventional Category 5 Ethernet wiring
• New "Smart Wi-Fi" (based on intelligent 802.11 technology)

The Cost of Cabling
With the exception of new homes, coaxial cabling—almost exclusively found in the U.S.—is anything but ubiquitous. Even if it was, it requires expensive conversion equipment and low-cost (and impossible to find) coaxial receivers for devices such as laptops and multimedia consumer electronics.

That being said, coaxial cabling does provide high-data rates and decent quality of service (QoS) mechanisms to support isochronous video traffic. But as a full-fledged networking technology, the economics of coax everywhere in the home makes the technology cost prohibitive.

Category 5 Ethernet suffers from many of the same problems. Few homes, even in the U.S., are wired for Ethernet throughout. And putting it there takes time and money. Many forward-thinking service providers, such as SureWest in California, who are delivering 20 Mbps of broadband IP connectivity to tens of thousands of subscribers, like the predictability of wires to support their IP-based services.

What they don't like, though, is having to send workers to install Ethernet throughout subscribers' homes, which can take five or six hours. For the consumer, just the cost alone of painting and patching walls is a non-starter for Ethernet. It can get really expensive, really fast.

Carriers are now turning to more promising technologies for in-home multimedia distribution such as IP over powerline and new smart Wi-Fi systems.

The Power Play
It seems to make sense. Every TV or consumer electronic device needs power and must be close to a power plug. And many of the new powerline systems are rated with theoretical capacities of up to 200 Mbps. So why not run the digital information over the same power infrastructure? Good idea, just don't look too close.

Not designed or well-suited for point-to-multipoint networking, powerline as an all- purpose networking technology leaves much to be desired. Every IP-enabled device, including laptops, must plug into a powerline adapter. This adds cost. And while IP over in-home powerlines typically works well within the same room over the same circuit, after that, it's caveat emptor.

The problem is this, pushing data through a power infrastructure originally designed to deliver power, not data, introduces a unique set of challenges that haven't been solved:

Performance degrades with increasing load:  Each additional load will change the impedance profile of the powerline.  In general these loads, and particularly capacitive loads, will create an attenuated signal.  In addition, rapidly changing loads create increased noise.  This all translates to a lower signal and higher amount of noise.

Location-dependent performance:  Since performance deteriorates when the signal crosses circuits, breaker boxes, and surge protectors, each location provides different performance characteristics for a powerline adapter.

Interference from household equipment and neighbors:  Anything with a duty cycle (for example a dimmer or a microwave oven) will interfere with powerline networking. Powerline is sensitive to pulse noise from appliances such as elevators and hair dryers. In multiple-dwelling-units, interference from neighbors (whether it's their appliances or their own powerline network) causes performance problems.

Inconsistent performance:  When connecting a halogen lamp to the same circuit, tests have shown performance decreases of 30—60%; a surge protector on one end of the link saw drops of 15—100%; surge protectors on both sides of the link reduced throughput 45—100%; a hair dryer can reduce throughput by 60—100%

Because of these constantly changing problems present in powerline networks, service providers rolling out triple play services over the in-home power infrastructure run into a huge problem:  inconsistent performance.

Real-world testing has shown inconsistent performance with the use of surge protectors, halogen lamps, and hair dryers and problems in delivering a consistent data rate across different circuits, due to the effects of both distance and traversal of circuit breaker panels. A subscriber watching IPTV over their powerline network today may well find their solution is not working the next week due to a change in their power environment.

What About Wi-Fi?
Wi-Fi effectively eliminates the wiring problems associated with all the other alternatives. But Wi-Fi has difficulties of its own in delivering multimedia traffic due to range limitations, unpredictable performance, inadequate quality of service and gratuitous handling of multicast traffic.

Consumers love the technology and have proven it with their pocket books. Wi-Fi media devices in the home are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 104.7 percent over the next five years. In fact, analysts recently reported that Wi-Fi LANs recently surpassed Ethernet as the home network of choice.

But Wi-Fi was developed for delay-tolerant data applications and relies on higher level TCP protocols for error correction and packet re-transmissions. Most service providers have tried to stream video over Wi-Fi and have found the results less than acceptable.

Because Wi-Fi is a shared medium that transmits signals in every direction, it is hard to control. Because signals are dispersed on multiple paths, they may arrive out of phase, creating a condition called multi-path fading. This results in reduced and unpredictable signal strength, temporary dead spots and packet errors.

Anything and everything, even people, can get in the way of the signal, causing interference that makes video not worth watching. Even with emerging, higher capacity standards, such as 802.11n, video quality is unpredictable at best.

Advances in compression technology now enable a single stream of MPEG-2 standard definition video to be transmitted at about 5 Mbps. A single MPEG-2 HD stream eats about 15 to 20 Mbps. MPEG-4 effectively cuts this in half. This shows that more bandwidth isn't the panacea for video distribution over Wi-Fi or any technology for that matter.

Many Wi-Fi vendors would have you think that the 802.11e QoS standard will make wireless multimedia a breeze, but in reality it's just not enough. 802.11e doesn't regulate how Wi-Fi devices classify traffic to the various priority levels, nor does it make any specifications on how to direct the traffic queues.

802.11e is great for prioritizing simple applications like a single voice call or general purpose data applications but the real world is quite different. 802.11e provides four queue types (voice, video, data and background). But what happens when you have many voice calls or several video streams? And how do you differentiate between really important streaming TV and stored video on demand?

The more pressing problems are stabilizing the link and controlling access to the medium. Controlling who gets on the 802.11 network, part of the 802.11e Scheduled Access portion, is the hard part and yet to be implemented by vendors in any meaningful way.

Finally new services, such as IPTV, are delivered from the provider head as an IP multicast stream. Today's Wi-Fi products treat multicast as best-effort traffic giving it the lowest bandwidth possible. This virtually ensures unwatchable video as there are no mechanisms in place to ensure the packets arrived or the quality of the signal path.

Smart Wi-Fi to the Rescue?
So-called "smart Wi-Fi" technology, that combines MIMO antenna arrays and fancy traffic engineering software, has recently been developed to solve these problems.

Unlike conventional Wi-Fi, smart Wi-Fi determines what signal paths are available and the quality of these paths given the location of a specific endpoint and the traffic being transmitted to it.

Smart Wi-Fi technology continually ranks and monitors the paths using a number of metrics (e.g. signal-to-noise ratio, throughput, packet errors, jitter, signal strength, etc.) to determine the quality of any Wi-Fi link. Unlike consumer-grade Wi-Fi technology, smart Wi-Fi signals are also focused in a specific direction, minimizing interference and maximizing range and coverage.

If interference or signal quality degrades, these systems quickly switch or steer Wi-Fi signals over a better path in milliseconds to maintain consistent high data rates while minimizing packet errors and retransmissions.

Innovations in sophisticated QoS software automatically classify different types of IP traffic prior to transmission over smart antennas to ensure the appropriate bandwidth schedule for different traffic profiles. This guarantees that video traffic, for instance, doesn't degrade in the presence of massive data use.

Smart Wi-Fi systems also identify and handle multicast traffic differently. Smart Wi-Fi systems analyze and sort incoming traffic into queues as specified by 802.11e. Multicast streams are tuned and prioritized to ensure the same service quality levels equivalent to unicast traffic.

A stable Wi-Fi link is only a foundation on which to build the priority queuing to allow a single in-home network to service voice, broadcast quality video and data in the home.

Conclusion
Triple play services from broadband providers will significantly enrich the landscape for home entertainment and communications services. But providers need to quickly solve the problems at home because the last 25 meters represents a key part of the triple-play infrastructure that has largely been ignored.

While many alternatives are available, today there is no clear winner. Consumers want a wireless solution and smart Wi-Fi, if it can live up to its hype and cool demonstrations, looks to have the most promise. But the jury is still out.

Meanwhile carriers will have to hedge with a wired and wireless option that can keep subscribers happy at home with all the new digital multimedia content and services coming down the pipe.

About the Author

Selina Lo is CEO of Ruckus Wireless.  She is known for her ability to capitalize on emerging trends, create new markets and innovate new technology. Previously Ms. Lo was the former vice president within Nortel Networks' Content Business Unit, which acquired Alteon WebSystems, a public networking equipment supplier, in 2000 for $7.8 billion. At Alteon, Ms. Lo served as vice president of Marketing from its inception through IPO and the Nortel acquisition. Prior to Alteon, Ms. Lo was the vice president of marketing at the Centillion Business Unit of Bay Networks which was purchased by Bay Networks in 1994. Ms. Lo's career also includes several management roles at Network Equipment Technologies and Hewlett Packard. She holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley.

Source: Converge Digest

I think 2006 will prove to an interesting year. I would, once again, like to encourage everyone to consider sending in comments, and original articles about wireless messaging, telemetry, or any of the other topics that we cover in this newsletter. For many years I didn't write anything about radio communications. I always felt like there were so many people more qualified than I, that it would be presumptuous for me to write, and pretend to be "an expert." Then one day someone told me that even though there might be people more qualified, they were not writing articles! My other fear was that if I made a mistake, everyone would laugh at me. The reality is, when I make mistakes it always brings in corrections and constructive criticism. If people laugh, they must all do it behind my back, because almost all the comments that I have been receiving have been very positive.

So take the plunge! Write something. Just about everyone is good at something. We need to share our knowledge and experience. None of us were born with these abilities—someone taught us everything we know. So, it's payback time. Please let me hear from you.

With best regards,	Brad Dye Wireless Messaging Consultant P.O. Box 266 Fairfield, IL 62837 USA
	Skype:	braddye		WIRELESS MESSAGING
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January 1—Thought for the Day In the new year, I will live one day at a time. I will make each day one of preparation for better things ahead. I will not dwell on the past or the future, only on the present. I will bury every fear of the future, all thoughts of unkindness and bitterness, all my dislikes, my resentments, my sense of failure, my disappointments, in others and in myself, my gloom and my despondency. I will leave all these things buried and go forward, in this new year, into a new life. —Twenty-Four Hours a Day
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