SAN JOSE, Calif. -- October 26, 1999 -- Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced that it is joining forces with 10 leading companies to drive open standards for broadband wireless Internet services.
Founding partners in this new wireless standards-based partnership include wireless equipment and integration leader Motorola; advanced silicon solutions leader Broadcom Corporation; worldwide leader in DSP and analog, Texas Instruments; consumer electronics leaders Samsung, Toshiba and Pace Micro Technology; and technology and integration leaders Bechtel Telecommunications, KPMG Consulting, LCC International and EDS. Cisco is leading the formation of this open wireless ecosystem of partners to stimulate the rapid development of innovative consumer devices and appliances based on cutting-edge technologies.
At the core of this coalition is a new technology that delivers two-way data, voice and video communications over the air to both homes and businesses, enabling high-speed services comparable to today's most advanced cable networks. The new wireless technology works well in congested city, suburban and rural environments by overcoming the line-of-sight, distance reach, subscriber coverage, installation, and antenna size problems of existing proprietary wireless systems mainly in the lower frequency microwave bands.
"Cisco's goal is to bring the Internet revolution to as many people as possible, and our new wireless technology and partners will play a key role. With a global team of silicon, consumer electronics and services partners we will bring innovative new access options to our customers," said Don Listwin, executive vice president of Cisco Systems. "It is exciting to now offer wireless technologies which can help expand the global on-line community."
The ecosystem of partners will work to standardize the Media Access Control (MAC) and leading-edge wireless Vector Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VOFDM) Physical Layer that enables robust, cost-effective, interoperable wireless solutions to be offered by multiple vendors. By establishing an open ecosystem of partners that include low-cost Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) suppliers and integrated chip suppliers, Cisco will facilitate the production of an open standard broadband wireless solution with multiple supply sources.
VOFDM technology lowers the cost of provisioning a wireless network while increasing the overall subscriber coverage. Consumers and businesses will now be able to receive broadband access in more areas at more affordable costs. Products based on the new VOFDM standard will begin to rollout before the end of 1999.
This open multivendor standard will drive down infrastructure deployment cost, CPE device cost and installation costs and decrease the risks associated with choosing a single vendor, proprietary solution. As deployed in point-to-point and broad point-to-multipoint deployments, network products based on the VOFDM technologies will deliver high-speed, high-reliability Internet and frame relay access, packet local and long distance business telephony services, and Virtual Private Networks (VPN), making broadband wireless another true multiservice access option for businesses and consumers.
"Motorola is committed to enabling the broadband fixed wireless Internet market with our leading equipment solutions and wireless system integration capability," said Rickie Currens, corporate vice president and general manager of the Ground Systems Division at Motorola Satcom. "This new VOFDM approach and standards-based partnership is the right combination to jump start this explosive new Internet access opportunity. We are excited to be a major part of the breakthrough innovation in wireless technology and end to end Internet services now being developed by this best of breed global leadership team."
The wireless technologies developed by Cisco and its partners are based on new radio frequency (RF), VOFDM technologies. The VOFDM systems are powered by a suite of next-generation ASICs and ultra-high speed programmable digital signal processors (DSP) provided by Broadcom Corporation and Texas Instruments, respectively.
"We have been working with Cisco on this new wireless technology for two years now and we are excited to support and help drive a standard based on VOFDM," said Gregg Lowe, vice president of World Wide ASICs at Texas Instruments. "TI is a leader in DSP and analog, and is a natural partner for Cisco in driving this standard. Our industry leading programmable DSP capability has played a key role in enabling products based on this technology and we are planning to drive VOFDM to the next level; low cost consumer CPE based on our programmable DSP and ASIC capability."
"This wireless breakthrough dramatically changes the global availability of broadband Internet services. By eliminating requirements for wireline networks from the service provider to the home, we will accelerate the introduction and adoption of broadband services throughout the world. Samsung is strongly in favor of the broadband wireless open standards which will assist us in delivering an exciting new generation of broadband wireless technology products," said Yougsoo Ryu, executive vice president of Samsung's broadband network terminal division.
The implementation of VOFDM has won praise from industry leading technologists. "In contrast to the other emerging solutions for mass market broadband fixed wireless access, VOFDM technology is extremely robust in the presence of interference and multi-path fading that occurs in real life wireless environments," said Dr. Henry Samueli, Broadcom's co-founder, chief technical officer and vice president of research and development. "Our goal is to create cost-effective silicon solutions for mass deployment of consumer premises devices. We have analyzed all of the technology alternatives for broadband fixed wireless and this advanced solution is the only one that enables reliable communication in obstructed wireless links where line-of-sight connections are not practical. In addition, the technology works very well in line-of-sight links with ground and vegetation clutter that often disables other solutions. VOFDM technology increases customer coverage, reduces installation cost and significantly improves service economics. We consider this technology innovative and clearly capable of accelerating universal access to wireless broadband Internet services worldwide."
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