Wi-Fi Allocation and Definitions Part Two

Soft key
A key below the phone's display that performs whatever function is listed on the display.

SOHO (small office/home office)
A market that consists of individuals that work some of their time at home and some of their time in an office.

Spectrum allocation
Federal government designation of a range of frequencies for a category of use or uses. For example, the FCC allocated the 1900 MHz band for personal communications services. Allocation, typically accomplished in years-long FCC proceedings, tracks new technology development. However, the FCC can shift existing allocations to accommodate changes in spectrum demand. As an example, some UHF television channels were recently reallocated to public safety.

Spectrum assignment
Federal government authorization for use of specific frequencies or frequency pairs within a given allocation, usually at stated a geographic location(s). Mobile communications authorizations are typically granted to private users, such as oil companies, or to common carriers, such as cellular and paging operators. Spectrum auctions and/or frequency coordination processes, which consider potential interference to existing users, may apply.

Spectrum cap
A limit to the allocated spectrum designated for a specific service.

Spectrum etiquette
Scheme under which various brands of equipment for unlicensed-band communications can share the same frequencies. For example, a 'listen-before-talk' etiquette would have all devices first sense if a channel is clear.

Spread spectrum
Jamming-resistant and initially devised for military use, this radio transmission technology 'spreads' information over greater bandwidth than necessary for interference tolerance and is now a commercial technology.

SRAM (static random access memory)
A memory technology used in pagers and handsets. So named because it requires no refresh cycle, as required by dynamic RAM (DRAM) and therefore consumes less power. SRAM maintains data only while power is applied.

SS7 (Signaling System 7)
An international high speed signaling backbone for the public switched telephone network.

Standby time
The amount of time a subscriber can leave a fully charged handset turned on to receive incoming calls before the phone will discharge the batteries.

Stratospheric platform
Blimp-like platform for wireless telephone service in urban areas.

Strongest signal
The concept that a wireless 911 call should be routed to the cell site with the strongest link to the phone, regardless of which carrier holds the caller as a customer. The strength of the call's setup link isn't always equal to that of the link the cell assigns for voice traffic; the latter can be weaker.

Subordinated debt
A corporate debt that is considered secondary to so-called 'senior' obligations both in terms of priority of payment and in claims to corporate as sets during bankruptcy. Financial analysts have said C-Block PCS carriers have had difficulty borrowing money in the capital markets because those loans would be subordinated to the debt they owe the government for their licenses.

Subscriber fraud
A deception deliberately practiced by an impostor to secure wireless service with intent to avoid payment. This is in contrast to bad debt, which occurs when a known person or company has a payment obligation overdue and the debt cannot be collected.

Subscriber profiling
The process of compiling subscriber usage information (such as frequency of calls, locations called to or from and monthly airtime usage), typically to identify potentially fraudulent use or to identify customers likely to terminate service.

Symbian
The joint venture between Ericsson Inc., Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and Psion to develop new operating systems based on Psion's EPOC32 platform for small mobile devices including wireless phones or handheld personal computers.

System Identification Number (SID)
A unique number assigned to every wireless operator in the United States that is then programmed into the phones that subscriber's to that service purchase.


TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol)TopInternet protocol suite developed by the U.S Department of Defense in the 1970s. TCP governs the exchange of sequential data. IP routes outgoing and recognizes incoming messages.

TDMA (time division multiple access)
A digital air interface technology used in cellular, PCS and ESMR networks.

Telematics
The integration of wireless communications, vehicle monitoring systems and location devices.

Termination charges
Fees that wireless telephone companies pay to complete calls on wireline phone networks or vice versa.

TETRA (terrestrial trunked radio)
An open digital trunked radio standard defined by the European Telecommunications Standardization Institute.

Thin client
A pen-based tablet computer used on a wireless local area network.

Third-generation
A new standard that promises to offer increased capacity and high-speed data applications up to 2 megabits. It also will integrate pico-, micro- and macrocellular technology and allow global roaming. (Also see '3G.')

TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association)
A trade group representing manufacturers and suppliers of communications and information technology products. TIA is a standards-developing organization accredited by the American National Standards Institute.

Tri-Mode
The term applied to a phone that will work on 800 MHz analog, 800 MHz digital and 1900 MHz (also known as 1.9 GHz) frequencies.

Tri-mode handset
Phones that work on three frequencies, typically using 1900 MHz, 800 MHz digital or reverting to 800 MHz analog cellular when digital is not available.

Triangulation
The lengthy process of pinning down a caller's location using radio receivers, a compass and a map.

Triple band
A network infrastructure or wireless phone designed to operate in three frequency bands.

Trunking
Spectrum-efficient technology that establishes a queue to handle demand for voice or data channels.

Tumbling
The process of changing the Electronic Serial Number (ESN) in a single phone each time that a phone call is made, thus allowing the user to make calls and have then illegally charged to someone else's number.

Turnkey
an entire system with hardware and software assembled and installed by a vendor and sold as a total package.


UHF (Ultra high frequency)TopReferring to radio channels in the 300 MHz to 3 GHz band.

ULS (Universal Licensing System)
The new Wireless Telecommunications Bureau program under which electronic filing of license applications and reports of changes to licenses creates a database that can be accessed remotely for searches. Using ULS, for example, the user can learn all the specialized mobile radio licenses in a given region.

UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)
Europe's approach to standardization for third-generation cellular systems.

Unified messaging
Software technology that allows carriers and Internet service providers to manage customer e-mail, voice and fax messages from any phone, PC or information device.

Universal service
The government's aim, starting in the 1930s, of providing phone service to all, regardless of distance from the switch or ability to pay. Today, universal service encompasses those aims, plus a subsidy to public schools, libraries and rural health care facilities for telecom services.

Unvalidated phone
A wireless phone lacking a service contract. Also called an unregistered phone.

Uplink
The portion of a telecommunications path from the ground to the satellite. Also referred to as the forward link.

USAT (ultra small aperture terminal)
Satellite receive dishes for telemetry and other remote monitoring, usually smaller than VSATs.

UWC-136
A third-generation wireless standard proposal based on TDMA technology that was developed by the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium and is one of the 3G candidates submitted to the International Telecommunication Union by the United States.

UWCC (Universal Wireless Communications Consortium)
An industry group supporting IS-136 time division multiple access and IS-41 wireless intelligent network technology.


VCXO (voltage-controlled crystal oscillator)TopA crystal oscillator is an oscillator in which the frequency is controlled by a piezoelectric crystal. Types of crystal oscillators include voltage-controlled crystal oscillators (VCXO), temperature-compensated crystal oscillators (TCXO), oven-controlled crystal oscillators (OCXO), temperature-compensated-voltage controlled crystal oscillators (TCVCXO), oven-controlled voltage-controlled crystal oscillators (OCVCXO), microcomputer-compensated crystal oscillators (MCXO), and rubidium crystal oscillators (RbXO).

VHF (very high frequency)
Referring to radio channels in the 30 to 300 MHz band.

VLR (visitor location register)
A network database that holds information about roaming customers.

Voice activation
A feature that allows a subscriber to dial a phone by spoken commands.

Voice recognition
The capability for cellular phones, PCs and other communications devices to be activated or controlled by voice commands.

VPN
Virtual Private Network. VPNs use the Internet as the transport backbone to securely connect a business with remote offices, partners and employees from virtually anywhere. VPNs are inexpensive to install and operate, and analysts say that most workers who use them believe their productivity increases when away from the office. In wireless, VPNs are used as an added layer of security -- especially for corporations using Wi-Fi or 802.11b wireless networks.

VSAT (very small aperature terminal)
A small satellite dish installed at end-user locations.


W-CDMA (wideband code division multiple access)TopThe third generation standard offered to the International Telecommunication Union by GSM proponents.

WCS (wireless communications services)
Frequencies in the 2.3 GHz band designated for general fixed wireless use.

Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi, also known as 802.11b, is a leading wireless networking standard and operates in the unlicensed spectrum at 2.4 GHz, which is the same frequency band used by cordless phones, microwave ovens and Bluetooth. It uses a direct sequence spread spectrum modulation scheme.

Wi-Fi is capable of transmitting data normally at distances up to about 300 feet at a data rate of 11 megabits per second. Because the spectrum is shared with other users, the rates fall as more users log on. Security is provided by the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) specification, which is relatively easy to break

Wi-Fi5
Wi-Fi5 refers to the 802.11a wireless networking standard, a technology that operates in the unlicensed 5 GHz band and can deliver data wirelessly at speeds up to 54 Mbps. Wi-Fi5 uses the same medium access controller as Wi-Fi but a different physical layer so it is not compatible.

WIN (wireless intelligent network)
The architecture of the wireless switched network that allows carriers to provide enhanced and customized services for mobile telephones.

Windows CE
The Microsoft operating system developed for handheld computing devices. Variations of Windows CE also may eventually become a platform for applications used by communications devices such as wireless phones or two-way pagers.

Wireless
Using the radio-frequency spectrum for transmitting and receiving voice, data and video signals for communications.

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
A protocol designed for advanced wireless devices allowing the easy transmission of data signals, particularly Internet content, to micro-browsers built into the device's software.

Wireless Internet
An RF-based service that provides access Internet e-mail and/or the World Wide Web.

Wireless IP
The packet data protocol standard for sending wireless data over the Internet.

Wireless IT (wireless information technology)
The monitoring, manipulating and troubleshooting of computer equipment through a wireless network.

Wireless LAN (local area network)
Local area network using wireless transmissions, such as radio or infrared instead of phone lines or fiber-optic cable to connect data devices.

Wireless PBX
Equipment that allows employees or customers within a building or limited area to use wireless handsets connected to an office's private branch exchange system.

WLL (wireless local loop)
A fixed service that competes with or substitutes for local wireline phone service.

World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC)
Biennual meetings of International Telecommunication Union member nations to discuss and resolve global spectrum allocation issues.

WPDA (Wireless Partnership for Donor Awareness)
The industry's effort to raise organ and tissue donor awareness.

WTO (World Trade Organization)
An intergovernmental organization set up in 1995 to oversee the rules of international trade, thus helping smooth the flow of trade, resolve disputes and organize trade negotiations. The Geneva-based group, created as successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, in 1997 negotiated the agreement to open trade and investment in basic telecommunications and information technology products.


X.25TopA specification from the Consultative Committee on International Telephone and Telegraph on layered protocols connecting computer terminals to a public, packet-switched network.

xDSL
Designation for digital subscriber line technology enabling simultaneous two-way transmission of voice and high-speed data over ordinary copper phone lines.


Zero coupon bondTopA debt instrument that pays all accrued interest at the bond's maturity instead of making regular cash payments to the bondholder during the life of the bond. Many PCS and other wireless companies used zero-coupon bonds to finance their startups to ease the burden on their cash flows during their early years of operation.

Zulu time
Synonymous with Greenwich Meridian Time, a time designation used in satellite systems.

Why Isn't Broadband Wireless Happening? A High Level Check List By Steve Stroh.

BWIA is happening. But the fact that it’s happening is only apparent in the aggregate – stepping back and looking at the big picture, which few are equipped to really do.
There's an incredible lack of understanding about BWIA in the general press. When they do write about it, they generally get the story wrong with numerous and serious errors of omission or commission.
There were some really spectacular failures in the BWIA –Winstar, Teligent, ART, XO, and Metricom, as well as the “cessation of broadband wireless businesses” by Sprint, Worldcom, and AT&T Wireless. Those failures, upon examination, had far more to do with typical dot-com mentalities, excesses, and weak business plans. These failures have severely “clouded the picture” for BWIA companies and systems that will follow.
Cost-effective, feature complete BWIA systems were promoted too far in advance of being really ready. They’re ready now.
Much of the action, and excitement, and the strongest technical development is happening in license-exempt portions of spectrum, and “unlicensed” has an immediate handicap for FCC mindshare, investment, and overall skepticism.
Way too few understand that making effective, reliable use of license-exempt spectrum is largely an engineering exercise and a willingness to continually invest in your technology. I call this the “Darwinian Effect Of License-exempt Wireless”
There is considerable anecdotal evidence that there is a widespread, and perhaps coordinated campaign underway (David Isenberg’s term is “the Teleban” to discredit BWIA in general (and in particular license-exempt BWIA systems and companies) with the effect of starving out BWIA vendors and service providers for investment capital.
Broadband Wireless Internet Access Is The Wave Of Wave Of The Present
The Copper Noose Around The Telco’s Necks
The Cook Report of April/May, 2002 paints a convincing picture that major US telecommunications companies are in severe crisis – whether or not they meet textbook or legalistic meanings of a state of crisis. A secondary discussion is why the telecommunications industry has failed to provide broadband services ubiquitously, inexpensively, and at much higher speeds and quality than is currently being delivered.

The question asked, but not answered in that issue is what happens if… or more chilling, what happens when the telecommunications companies do collapse? Immediate and widespread layoffs are a given, being by far the primary corporate method of conserving scarce capital. Because of the absolutely critical role of telephone service – literally life or death hinges on the success of a 911 telephone call, massive, immediate, poorly-planned layoffs in the telecommunications industry are the nightmare scenario! Without the army of skilled technicians constantly maintaining the copper wire-based telecommunications infrastructure, entropy triumphs and lack of maintenance begins to kill the existing telecommunications infrastructure.

But, whether the crisis comes sooner than almost anyone expects – a declaration of bankruptcy by one or major telecommunications companies with little warning (such as happened with Enron), or a gradual dawning of the realities of the situation by government, regulators, and investors, the result will be the same – only the timing, and how much disruption will result, is in question.

The only realistic answer is to such a scenario is to transition the US telecommunications system to an infrastructure that fundamentally does not need (nearly as big) an army of skilled technicians to maintain it. The telecommunications system can no longer afford that luxury. But, if not a telecommunications infrastructure based on copper wires, as we have had in the US for over a century, steadily increasing in capability and sophistication… then what?

Broadband Wireless / License-exempt Wireless Internet Access
This issue explores one possible answer – Broadband Wireless, specifically a type of Broadband Wireless that does not require expensive spectrum licenses. In the pages of the report, the term “Unlicensed Wireless”, or “No License Wireless” is used. A slightly more illustrative term is “License-exempt Wireless”, as that phrase sets the tone that a spectrum license is not required in particular spectrums, as long as the technical requirements are observed.

Widespread recognition of the capabilities of license-exempt wireless has only begun to emerge in the minds of many, because of the emergence of the widespread availability of inexpensive 802.11b Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology. But there are numerous other types of Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) technology. As I read through the drafts of this issue, I had two primary concerns:
• That readers would be left with the impression that BWIA technology was potentially useful, and
• That 802.11b was the primary BWIA technology in use today.
When Gordon Cook generously offered some space in this (already large) issue to enlarge on these concerns, I was honored to do so.

So, Where’s The Broadband Wireless Internet Access Revolution?
All around you, actually, but that would be getting slightly ahead of the story. It’s illuminating, at this point, to discuss some issues regarding BWIA.

BWIA is happening. But the fact that it’s happening is only apparent in the aggregate – stepping back and looking at the big picture, which few are equipped to really do.
There's an incredible lack of understanding about BWIA in the general press. When they do write about it, they generally get the story wrong with numerous and serious errors of omission or commission.
There were some really spectacular failures in the BWIA –Winstar, Teligent, ART, XO, and Metricom, as well as the “cessation of broadband wireless businesses” by Sprint, Worldcom, and AT&T Wireless. Those failures, upon examination, had far more to do with typical dot-com mentalities, excesses, and weak business plans. These failures have severely “clouded the picture” for BWIA companies and systems that will follow.
Cost-effective, feature complete BWIA systems were promoted too far in advance of being really ready. They’re ready now.
Much of the action, and excitement, and the strongest technical development is happening in license-exempt portions of spectrum, and “unlicensed” has an immediate handicap for FCC mindshare, investment, and overall skepticism.
Way too few understand that making effective, reliable use of license-exempt spectrum is largely an engineering exercise and a willingness to continually invest in your technology. I call this the “Darwinian Effect Of License-exempt Wireless.”
There is considerable anecdotal evidence that there is a widespread, and perhaps coordinated campaign underway (David Isenberg’s term is “the Teleban” to discredit BWIA in general (and in particular license-exempt BWIA systems and companies) with the effect of starving out BWIA vendors and service providers for investment capital.
For more information about “Where’s The Broadband Wireless Internet Access Revolution?”, I highly recommend, and concur with the conclusions in a seminal article written Patrick Leary, Alvarion’s Chief Evangelist titled The Secret Truths of the Broadband Wireless Industry. Leary’s article can be found at http://www.bbwexchange.com/Broadband%20Wireless%20Stories/2002/alvarion022002.htm. [link is no longer valid.]
BWIA And Fiber – Near Perfect Complements
Broadband Wireless, in all its forms, in conjunction with cost-effectively deployed optical fiber builds, is poised to make the copper-based local loop obsolete. There is no higher “bits-per-second-per-buck” (bps/$) ratio than opportunistically installed fiber optic cable– in existing trenches, in existing conduits, in greenfield deployments where it’s easy, fast, and cheap to trench, and on existing utility poles. The “problem with fiber” comes from trying to route fiber “at any cost”. When fiber “has gotta go there”, the cost of installing that segment of fiber – across an interstate highway, down a city block, into a building without existing conduits, is measured in “degrees of obscene”.

In almost every case, the fiber backbone companies failed to realize (as has been so often repeated in the history of business) that they were in the high bandwidth communications business. They thought they were in the deploy fiber optic cable everywhere business. That lack of understanding will ultimately (and already has) cost many companies their corporate lives and consumers and businesses an early opportunity for fast, inexpensive Internet access.

What the fiber backbone companies should have been doing was to take a holistic approach to what is really their core mission (high bandwidth communications) and deployed fiber optic cable wherever it was cost-effective to do so, including those rare, cost-effective last-mile opportunities. Where it was problematic or cost-prohibitive to deploy fiber optic cable in the last mile, there are any number of cost-effective wireless high-bandwidth technologies that can be used to bridge the last mile. Using such wireless technologies would have allowed many, many more “on ramps” for fiber bandwidth, and the picture of the telecommunications industry would likely be radically different. Instead of an Isenberg permacession, investment and customer fees would be flowing to the fiber backbone companies and they would be actively displacing the incumbent telecommunications companies.

Despite the size of this particular issue of The Cook Report On Internet (and the resulting tensions of “one more article?” versus “this is a periodical!”), to explore the full scope of the emerging Broadband Wireless Internet Access industry would require a book. In the paragraphs that follow, I’ll tell only a few particularly illustrative stories – a small corner of what is in reality a very large canvas.

802.11b Is Not The Only BWIA Technology
First things first… 802.11b, or Wi-Fi as it’s becoming better known, was developed as a Wireless Local Area Network (Wireless LAN, or WLAN) technology. Local, as in very short range. In that niche, indoor, short range wireless networking, 802.11b works very well indeed. 802.11b/Wi-Fi has recently come to prominence because many are using inexpensive 802.11b equipment to provide BWIA service to “Wireless Hot Spots”. Many are using 802.11b equipment, often modified to the point of not being legal to use, to construct “Free Wireless Networks” such as NYC Wireless, SFNet, and Seattle Wireless. The former application is a good fit for 802.11b; the latter is not. But, the Free Wireless Networks folks are, in fact, making 802.11b equipment work for such purposes – after a fashion. They’re using 802.11b because it’s the only BWIA technology that’s readily available for personal use, and relatively inexpensive. That they have to build their own antennas and modify 802.11b equipment is almost a bonus – an excuse to tinker. You’re hearing more about 802.11b/Wi-Fi equipment because such “beat the system” stories are always popular and so receive more press attention.

Many, many companies make BWIA equipment. My rolling list of BWIA companies, to which I add whenever I discover a new one, and purge when I hear of a merger or cessation of business, currently stands at 169 companies. Generally I don’t include any companies that make “Enterprise” WLAN equipment – for example, 3Com. Nor do I include any companies that make Bluetooth equipment. 169 companies, many with their own proprietary systems, makes for a huge variety of potential BWIA solutions. For example, Free Space Optical can be thought of as “fiber optics… without the fiber”, but has nothing to do with 802.11b. 57-64 GHz is another section of spectrum that is license-exempt – no 802.11b in use there either. Motorola’s new Canopy system uses a proprietary modulation scheme operating in the 5 GHz license-exempt band, and Canopy does not interoperate with 802.11b. Bottom line is that, by far, 802.11b is not the only BWIA technology currently in use, and it is certainly not necessarily the most appropriate to use in every situation.