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BWIF Examines Quality and Costs for Alternative 
Fixed and Portable Broadband Wireless Systems

    Piscataway, NJ,  October 10, 2001 - The member companies of the Broadband Wireless Internet Forum (BWIF) today announced the results of a comparison study regarding adapting current 3-G technologies based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) as a possible alternative transmission system for delivering fixed wireless, non-line-of-sight, high-speed broadband services.

    The results published today in a White Paper titled "BWIF-Bringing Broadband Wireless Access Indoors"     conclude that the trade-offs in quality would be unacceptable to consumers and too expensive for service providers.

    Current 3-G systems developed for mobile applications deliver Quality of Service (QoS) acceptable in the mobile environment for consumers. But consumers have much higher expectations surrounding Internet access, streaming audio and video and other high-rate data services. Customers using existing wire-based access systems, such as DSL, cable and fiber, will not accept the slower data rates that CDMA-systems would deliver in a fixed wireless environment.

    The costs for providing a 3-G fixed wireless system would also be unacceptable to service providers, the White Paper explains. The principal reason for this is the necessity to construct many additional base stations to deliver CDMA-type services in a fixed wireless system. For example, The Chicago metropolitan area would need 15 base stations to provide fixed wireless broadband service using technologies such as Vector Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VOFDM). In contrast, CDMA-type 3-G systems would require 1208 base stations to cover the same geographic area.

    In addition, more spectrum is needed to deliver CDMA-type services in a fixed wireless system. The CDMA-type 3G systems use omni-directional antennas, as contrasted with VOFDM systems that use directional antennas.  As much as six times more spectrum may be needed to deliver the same level of service. The current high cost of spectrum is a significant bar to adopting such technologies.

    The authors acknowledge carrier concerns regarding the higher cost of rooftop antennas, as compared to the portable self-install antennas that are proposed for CDMA-type service. An alternative solution is a self-install, under-the-eaves antenna that would reduce or eliminate truck rolls, but still keep infrastructure costs manageable.

    The White Paper was developed with input from the member companies of BWIF and went through numerous review stages. It is based on both published research and laboratory simulations. The paper concludes that VOFDM, a specification supported by BWIF, offers a superior technology for delivering non-line-of-sight broadband services.

    Also published today as a companion White Paper is a related study titled "Frequency Division Duplexing and Time Division Duplexing for Broadband Wireless Applications. Copies of both White Papers are available for download at the BWIF website: http://www.bwif.org. 

    About BWIF
    The Broadband Wireless Internet Forum is a program of the IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization (IEEE-ISTO). The work of the Forum, supported by more than 50 member companies, is based on utilizing Vector Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VOFDM), BWIF's technology foundation for the development of fixed broadband wireless specifications.

    The BWIF-approved Version 1.0 Specifications have been available since late August 2000 to BWIF members. Equipment meeting the BWIF specifications is now in production. Members of BWIF are committed to drive product roadmaps that will lower product costs, simplify deployment of advanced services, and ensure the availability of interoperable solutions based on VOFDM technology. BWIF members agree to cross-license to other BWIF members the technologies required to implement the VOFDM specifications on a worldwide, royalty-free basis. The goal of BWIF is to facilitate cost-effective, broadband wireless access solutions, with industry leading performance and reliability for compelling end-user applications such as high-speed Internet access, premium streaming audio and video content, and voice.

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