The Advanced Infrastructure Solutions (AIS) division of computer giant, IBM, is targeting three particular market opportunities
in the Asia Pacific region. These include public wireless local areas networks
(PWLANs), ad-hoc networks, and citywide broadband.
“PWLAN is really booming worldwide,” says Ryutaro Kusumoto, business development
manager for Advanced Infrastructure Solutions at IBM Asia Pacific. “Particularly
in China, Korea, Japan and Singapore. IBM is in a position to pursue these opportunities.”
Kusumoto, in Sydney this week, was previously president of Silicon
Valley-based start-up, Whistle Communications, before IBM acquired the company in 1999.
“IBM has done a fair bit of business in PWLAN for the enterprise,” he says.
“For example, a number of customers have integrated WLAN on university campuses.
The spotlight is now on the public space, which we consider to be great social
infrastructure.”
Kusumoto continues, “the deployment of 3G has been delayed and hasn’t really
lived up to earlier promises. PWLAN is a great bridge between 2.5G and 3G.
Carriers find it interesting and useful to supplement services.”
The largest move by IBM into the PWLAN space has been the creation of a
wholesale hotspot developer.
In December, IBM formed
Cometa Networks with AT&T and Intel. The company, backed by venture
capitalists Apax Partners and 3i, predicts the development
of 20 000 hotspots in the United States by 2004. By that time, users will be
within five minutes of a hotspot.
McDonalds is one of the
largest customers to date. In March, they announced a pilot program for ten of the golden arches in Manhattan,
New York.
The trial coincided with the launch of Intel’s Centrino, mobile technology for laptops that features built-in wireless
capability.
Kusumoto believes the integration of IEEE 802.11x in laptops and other
handheld devices will drive usage of PWLAN, which requires a critical mass to be
commercial viable.
The growing hype surrounding PWLAN, however, provides an opportunity to
exploit the shortcomings of third generation mobile technologies (3G), which has
been plagued by deployment delays and speeds lower than promised.
Security and privacy remain the key inhibitors for enterprise use of PWLAN,
he says.
Perhaps more interesting than going for a slice of the hotspot pie, however,
are trials exploring citywide broadband. IBM are testing the technology in
one US county, which vary in area from a couple hundred to fifty thousand square
kilometres, and in population from about a thousand people to about ten million.
“This technology is both first and last mile,” says Kusumoto,
“based on a derivative or advancement of 802.11x.”
Ad hoc or mesh networks use technology such as multi-hopping that allows for
peer to peer wireless routing where each subscriber device acts as a repeater
and a router for all other devices on the network.
Multi-hopping,
patented by Mesh Networks,
creates a robust meshed network that automatically routes around congestion
and line-of-sight obstacles, while improving throughput as subscriber density
increases.
The network does not depend on GPS for subscriber geo-location, making it
particularly useful for emergency services.
In ad-hoc or infrastructureless networks, a collection of nodes can form a
temporary network without any centralised authority.
Kusomoto also points to other emerging standards such as 802.16 and
802.20 in overcoming some of the limitations of 802.11 such as congestion and
the need for line-of-sight.
“Multi-hopping solves this problem,” he says. “802.16 can be a hub for 802.11a
b and g. You you can fill the whole area with some kind of frequency range.
“Some cities the United Kingdom have citywide broadband. They have become self-sufficient
in communications and don’t need a telco.”
He continues, PWLAN speeds are far superior to 3G at 10Mbps to 50Mbps. “However,
they will be complementary technologies as PWLAN will only represent five percent
of the coverage of CDMA in two or three years time.”
Set up in 1999, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE) 802.16 Working Group on Broadband
Wireless Access Standards are supporting the development of broadband wireless
metropolitan area networks.
The aim of the IEEE P802.20
Standard “is to develop the specification for an
efficient packet based air interface that is optimized for the transport of IP
based services,” according to the organisation. “The goal is to enable worldwide
deployment of affordable, ubiquitous, always-on and interoperable multi-vendor
mobile broadband wireless access networks that meet the needs of business and
residential end user markets.”
Kusumoto believes the critical mass required to develop a solid business case
for PWLAN is slowly building. “Thousands of wireless ISPs
operate in the world,” he says. “The big question is how can it be commercially
successful.”
Initiatives such as the Wireless Broadband Alliance
are a step in the right direction, according to Kusumoto. The Alliance has five
major telcos including Korea Telecom, China Netcom,
Malaysia’s Maxis Communications
Berhad, and Singapore’s StarHub.
Key pilot projects of the Alliance include interoperability of WiFi roaming
throughout Asia to simplify communications and billing for business travelers in
the region.
Kusumoto believes that greater interoperability will allow PWLANs to become a
valuable social infrastructure. “Back in the IT boom in the late 1990s,” he
says, “everyone took part in a land grab. If one operator takes McDonalds and
one takes Burger King and they can’t communicate, that’s a big problem.”
The key, he concludes, “is a roaming service among providers where eventually
the access charge will be close to zero.”
Reprinted from Australia.Internet.com..
