Wireless Convergence Research Articles

An Efficient FFT Processor for DAB Receiver Using Circuit-Sharing Pipeline Design

With the upcoming fourth generation wireless systems and convergence of multiple radio standards into a single terminal, building blocks are needed that can be configured for computing various algorithms used in different standards. Given these trends and requirements, in our previous paper we successfully proposed a circuit-sharing design for the DAB receiver to integrate the FFT (fast Fourier transform) and IMDCT (inverse modified discrete cosine transform) operations into the same functional circuit. The proposed technique reduces hardware overhead, enhances circuit efficiency and significantly reduces the cost of DAB receivers. To further improve the efficiency of our previous work, this investigation proposes another alternative design named the circuit-sharing pipeline design (CSPD) using a single processor with a pipeline scheme to combine two functions, FFT and IMDCT, into the same circuit. The proposed method reduces the required chip area and cost of DAB receivers. Analyzing the existing relationship among IMDCT, DCT (discrete cosine transform) and FFT, the IMDCT function can be replaced using a FFT function. Therefore, it is not necessary to design an extra circuit for IMDCT. The arithmetic unit in the FFT processor can be significantly reduced due to employing the pipeline scheme. Consequently, the circuit redundancies in the IMDCT and FFT functions can be easily eliminated to allow exploitation of the decreased chip area. Results of this study demonstrate that the proposed design can provide advantages such as low gate count and small memory size in the DAB (digital audio broadcasting) receiver.

Laser-free inter-networking hybrid base stations towards convergence of wireless and wired access networks

A laser-free base station scheme that can be integrated with an optical network unit for overlaying the transport of wireless signals in an optical access network is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. It is shown that this scheme has the potential to establish inter-communication among neighbouring base stations to provide simultaneous access to wireless and wired services.

The common RRM approach to admission control for converged heterogeneous wireless networks

As the wireless environment becomes ever more populated and complex, individual networks offering single or restricted services will become ever more uncompetitive. Common radio resource management algorithms and strategies are used in heterogeneous or converged wireless networks to integrate multiple physical radio interfaces to support different levels of data rates, mobility, and traffic. Admission control in a common RRM environment is used to select the most appropriate wireless access based on service type, user preference, and network load. This is used to provide a balance between real-time and non-real-time traffic across the available access technologies. The development of common radio resource management strategies requires a suitable platform of coupled access networks and is the motivation behind the development of a converged wireless test platform. The tightly coupled platform supports voice and data call setup and delivery over UMTS and WLAN

TECHNOLOGIES ON THE FUTURE CONVERGED WIRELESS AND MOBILITY PLATFORM {Guest Editorial}

The articles in this special issue focus on technologies on the future converged wireless and mobility platform. The issue presents recent research and development on this emerging topic focusing on security, quality of service (QoS), mobility management, system architecture, resource management, admission control, and medium access control.

Persico and Streit to Speak at RFIC Symposium in Honolulu, 3-5 June 2007

RFIC in Honolulu, Hawaii from 3-5 June 2007 will feature 15 workshops and tutorials, 30 oral sessions, two panels and an interactive forum. Renowed industry leaders will provide keynote addresses on "Wireless Convergence - Your Phone is Not Just a Phone Anymore" (Charles Persico) and "Technology Directions for Future RF Applications" (Dwight C. Streit).

When networks collide

Convergence, the term used to describe two or more disparate technologies coming together to provide additional functionality or improve efficiency. However, one particular technology convergence often exposes an organisation to potential risks, even if a conscious decision has been made not to integrate it into the business. That is the convergence of wireless and wired IP networks. The aim of this paper is to identify the risks associated with implementing wireless networks, and the risks associated with not implementing sufficient controls in detecting unauthorised wireless networks.

Hybrid Multiplexing of Multiband Optical Access Technologies Towards an Integrated DWDM Network

A hybrid multiplexing scheme with the capability to multiplex optical millimeter-wave, baseband, and intermediate frequency signals is proposed and demonstrated. The proposed scheme enables the convergence of last mile wireless and wireline technologies, leading to an integrated dense wavelength-division multiplexed network in the access and metro domain

PROGRESSIVE CHALLENGES IN HORTICULTURAL SUPPLY CHAINS: SOME FUTURE CHALLENGES

To meet the increasingly complex demands of global supermarkets, future successful horticultural sectors must utilise new enabling technologies currently being developed and becoming available. Genetic technology, nanotechnology and information technology is a triad of technologies driving change in supply chains world wide. Miniature sensors within products or loads, transmitting signals via satellite to a home base, will monitor real time variations in product state and environment, allowing action to avert undue stress and quality deterioration to plants and products both pre and postharvest. Genetic technology will create new plant forms, functions and composition, enabling desirable attributes to be incorporated into food to meet consumer needs, including specific health conferring attributes that will selectively enhance personal performance criteria based on age or vocation. Product variability will be reduced through improved seed and plant selection and breeding, by management utilising physiological knowledge, and by fast, accurate and consistent postharvest sorting and packing systems. Postharvest deterioration will be reduced within supply chains by controlling physiological processes, such as ethylene biosynthesis or action, that contribute to senescence. Traceability will become more important and the 'tool box' provided by the information and computer revolution will allow faster, more accurate identification of products throughout the entire supply chain. RFID (radio frequency identification) will become the norm as a convergence of broadband, wireless and handheld multifunctional devices allow instant communication globally. Transport modalities will change with new and faster transport networks being developed, including the Trans Asian railway from East and South Asia to Western Asia and Europe, the new generation of super large planes, (Airbus 380), and fast ships with 7 day point to point delivery from Chicago to Frankfurt. Nanotechnologies linked with the information and computer and genetic technologies, will provide a new revolution for agriculture and horticulture in the 21 st century. Applications for sensing of environment, product, and location will become the norm; new types of interactive and modulating packaging will be available that interact with sensors and miniature machines that will manipulate control systems to ensure quality is maintained through the supply chain. Smaller, faster, smarter and more flexible will be the motto for successful 21st century companies; those supply chains that do not confront the challenge and adopt these technologies, will not survive.

Network architecture and medium access control for deploying third generation (3G) wireless systems over CATV networks

We propose a novel and cost-effective approach for the deployment of third generation (3G) wireless systems over hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) CATV networks. The main goal is to facilitate 3G deployment over the existing CATV plant and reduce the large cost required for building a dedicated last mile infrastructure for 3G access networks. Our proposal reduces the last mile cost by sharing the existing CATV network and using the standard equipment and protocols of data-over-cable systems interface specifications (DOCSIS). This allows rapid deployment of 3G wireless systems, facilitates convergence of wireless and wireline networks and paves the way towards all IP wireless networks. Enhancements to the DOCSIS medium access control (MAC) protocol must be implemented in order to support Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees for 3G data and signaling traffic. This paper presents the proposed 3G over CATV network architecture and DOCSIS medium access control (MAC) enhancements for enabling the support of QoS guarantees for 3G data and signaling traffic. The proposed MAC enhancements can reduce the access delay for delay-sensitive traffic by 30 to 40% over existing DOCSIS MAC without compromising QoS guarantees for other traffic classes, or the DOCSIS channel utilization. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The impact of competition and technology on telecommunications regulation: call for further research on regulatory procedures and the convergence of wireless, wireline, and cable

Discussions between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and communications policy makers and regulators in other countries have gleaned several clusters of issues where further research would directly benefit them. Recently, there have been two notable shifts. First, as the acceptance of the competition model over the monopoly model for telecommunications markets takes deep effect in regulators all over the world, questions regarding process and procedure for regulation are becoming ever more urgent. This paper discusses current questions regarding decision making, enforcement, and understanding consumer issues that arise often in the FCC's discussions with other regulators. Second, technological change is potentially shifting market definitions. In the FCC's discussion with other regulators over the last two years, the overlap of wireline telecom, wireless telecom and cable television has become more pronounced.

A multilayered mobility management scheme for auto-configured wireless IP networks

The convergence of wireless and IP has led to the need for IP to handle mobility. The Mobile IP protocol was developed to facilitate IP mobility. However, it has a number of shortcomings for dynamically auto-configured networks. Mobility protocols like Mobile IP with Location Registers (MIP-LR) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) have been developed to address some of its shortcomings. Micromobility protocols like Cellular IP have been developed to address other shortcomings of Mobile IP. We present a new integrated mobility management scheme that advantageously combines the strengths of SIP and MIP-LR with the benefits of a micromobility management protocol similar to Cellular IP. A prototype implementation of our scheme is explained, and lessons learned in the prototyping process are presented.

Economic Tussles in the Public Mobile Access Market

The convergence of different wireless and fixed access systems into a common seamless access platform has accelerated the conflict of economic interests between players in traditionally separate market sectors. Whereas technology systems have predictable and desirable behaviour — and therefore evolution — the players in the converging market sectors have not. This paper argues that, in its original vision, the systems specifying the business interactions between mobile users and access providers (the business interface) have not been designed to take into account the unpredictability of the outcome of economic tussles. The mobile industry encoded in its designs the result of past contentions, not allowing for their variation. Because the market currently does not capture the business opportunities created by the convergence of heterogeneous access networks, the designs of the business interface should now be reconsidered to accommodate such convergence and allow for evolution. We have therefore formulated a set of principles for the design of the business interface. The application of these principles highlighted specific limitations of the current interface. On the basis of this study, we conclude that the future business interface should allow providers to disseminate their offers to customers (possibly not end users) in an automated way; and customers to select offers in an automated and intelligent way, and then dynamically establish ad hoc business relationships with providers. In addition, end users should be able to hold, at the same time, more than one business relationship with different providers, without experiencing any switching barriers. Finally, providers should be able to dynamically reconfigure their metering capabilities on visited networks' systems without having adjacent providers to necessarily support their charging capabilities.

New Media

The Internet has served as an important conduit of diverse news and activism during both the US-led wars against Iraq, in 1991 and again in 2003. In 1991, the Internet was largely a tool for academics in the West, defence researchers in the US and international NGOs; content was largely in plain text format on e-mail discussion lists and Usenet newsgroups. In 2003, the full glory of global Internet communications via multimedia websites, e-mail news feeds, blogs and online fundraising was joined by a plethora of wireless technologies ranging from SMS news alerts to user-submitted photographs of anti-war rallies. This article raises some key criticism of mainstream US coverage of the US-led wars against Iraq; illustrates the wide spectrum of resources that the Internet offers for critical thinkers, communication scholars, concerned citizens and progressive activists; and highlights the crucial role that the Internet and convergent wireless media can play as the “second superpower” of global public opinion.

Wireless and wireline convergence

Recent changes in the United States telecommunications industry — both regulatory and market driven — provide an environment for integrating wireless and wireline services and the infrastructure used to provide them. Changes in the industry have created competition in local access, deregulation that allows bundling of services and one-stop shopping, and multiple personal communication services (PCS) licensees, each with the desire to differentiate its service offering with value-added capabilities. Integrating wireless and wireline services enables service providers to offer a seamless wireless/wireline service and help control infrastructure and ongoing administrative costs. This paper highlights some advantages for integrating these systems in the U.S. market today. We describe a vision of the long-term services architecture for a functional solution and several near-term product concepts designed to provide an integrated wireless/wireline service.

Provision of Services Via the Wireless Application Protocol: A Strategic Perspective

Throughout the 1990s, the technological development and market penetration of mobile phones and other mobile handsets, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), was very strong. Recently, the convergence of wireless and the Internet has occurred - bringing 'the Internet in your pocket' for which the potential applications are many and various, including shopping, banking, news feeds and e-mail. Under the present technological constraints of low bandwidths and high latency in wireless networks, as well as the low power and small screens of handheld devices, a key standard has emerged for Internet service provision - the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). WAP provides the means for bringing the Internet and a range of services to the wireless consumer. As such, WAP has created a whole new set of dynamics in the wireless industry driven by this new era of value-added service provision. This paper explores the strategic implications of WAP service provision, drawing on a number of analytical frameworks. T...

Wireless convergence architecture: a case study using GSM and wireless LAN

The evolution of wireless networks has motivated the expansion of the static business environment to a mobile and wireless one. However, current and forthcoming wireless technologies are characterized by different attributes, regarding coverage area, offered bandwidth and delay. The transparent conjunction of various wireless technologies into a single mobile terminal can further boost the wireless explosion. This paper presents the Wireless Convergence Architecture (WCA) that incorporates different wireless interfaces under the same mobile terminal. Depending on the location and the availability of the underlying wireless network, automatic and seamless switching is performed to the most appropriate wireless network interface. Special care is taken to maintain continuous connectivity at the transport layer (TCP). WCA introduces software components both at the terminal and network side. A specific implementation is presented, based on two complementary wireless technologies --- in terms of coverage area --- an IEEE 802.11-compliant in the short local and a GSM in the wide area. To demonstrate the operational correctness of the architecture, experiments were performed using standard and proprietary networking applications.