- Who, what, where and Wi-Fi
CSR, Skyhook partner on positioning technologies
by Jim Barthold
Wed. July 2, 2008
Location, location, location.
A pair of companies with complementary technology—CSR and Skyhook Wireless—are joining to advance Wi-Fi-based location technology by merging Skyhook’s Wi-Fi positioning system with CSR’s Wi-Fi silicon.
“We’re taking advantage of the fact that Wi-Fi signals are already in the air being shot out into buildings and streets from individual access points, businesses or offices, coffee shops and what have you,” said Ted Morgan, founder-CEO of Skyhook. “We’re not using it for access; we’re not connecting to anything to get information at all; we’re using it to calculate your location.”
Skyhook’s Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) software produces location information by detecting these access points and comparing them against a known database of geo-located points that may or may not be available via more conventional satellite based-GPS systems.
“If you want to walk out into the street and get a clear view of the open sky, then you can use those aps,” said Morgan. “Our system works indoors and out the same way and works extremely well in urban areas.”
Since the Skyhook technology only recognizes fundamental information from a Wi-Fi access point—much as a Bluetooth device searches out information—it doesn’t step on privacy, said Stuart Strickland, vice president of CSR’s GPS business unit.
“There’s no inherent invasion of privacy in taking that information that’s already broadcast and remembering a history of where it’s been visible in the past … when I take my position based on knowing how close I am to a previously mapped Wi-Fi access pointy or the GPS satellites or cell towers,” he said.
CSR, he said, already delivers products that sniff out Bluetooth and GPS information to provide location information.
“We’ve very interested in having a wide range of approaches to build upon our core connectivity technology and we’ve been in discussions for some time with Skyhook about ways that we might use our Wi-Fi chips for positioning as well. They have a database that they have painstakingly developed locations of Wi-Fi access points that can be used for positioning,” Strickland said. “We’re looking to fill our the portfolio so that we have products that can address every market whether cellular or media players or personal navigation devices and provide the same level of quality in terms of seamless positioning as you go indoors or outdoors or outside your home environment.”
No money will pass hands—at least not between the two companies, although both are hoping a lot of money will pass into their hands from device makers and carriers.
“It’s a cooperative effort to provide a better product to the end customer rather than anything exchanged between us,” Strickland said. “We’re working together to try to build a market and lay the foundation for location applications which we hope to accelerate in taking off and then we’ll each benefit from contributing a piece of the solution.”
For what devices?
“We’re just announcing the availability so we’ll be working with device makers and operators as they are building out their portfolios for 2009-2010,” said Morgan. “Phones are a big market but it really is any device. It can be a personal navigation device, many music players are adding location (and) even laptops are adding GPS and they all have Wi-Fi. It really crosses the range (but) handsets are the ones where the most innovation is happening.”
- Femto Forum, NGMN Alliance pair up on 4G network evolution
Collaboration to focus on femtocells in next-gen mobile networks
by Jim Barthold
Thu. June 26, 2008
The Femto Forum and the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance (NGMN) are joining forces to make sure that femtocells are part of the evolutionary planning for fourth generation mobile networks.
The partnership brings together organizations from different perspectives, especially adding the NGMN’s operator-specific focus, to the drive toward standardized femtocell architectures that meet operator demands for next generation networks.
Much of the femto focus to date has logically been on making 3G devices more efficient in homes and small businesses, “but we’re looking out beyond that, particularly on the standardization activity for LTE and WiMAX and beyond,” said Simon Saunders, chairman of the Femto Forum. “WiMAX is in a slightly different position than LTE but when these standards are fully implemented and being spread outwards you can do the same thing as 3G.”
The combined effort, he said, aims to bring femtos to the forefront when planning fourth generation networks so that when those networks first roll out femtos are already there, rather than being added as an afterthought to boost lagging coverage.
“When you’re in an early stage with a new network, femtos allow you to seed the network and get technology into the hands of early adopters in the places that they’re most likely to have the greatest need for the service,” Saunders said.
Femtos should be particularly well suited for 4G networks, either WiMAX or LTE, which use OFDMA and MIMO (Multiple In, Multiple Out) antennas.
“A MIMO system thrives on multipath and the home is a rich source of multipath … it’s a three dimensional environment,” Saunders said. “On a femto you can have the system working on the highest data rates of the whole of your home so that the experience you get from next generation is as good as it gets.”
By working together, the Femto Forum and NGMN can “make sure we have no duplication, no overlap. We’re setting out what needs doing within the standardization arena … and we’re working with the vendors to make sure that the whole range of technology that they have in mind for femtocells is thought about in the next generation context so that they’re ready with products when the operators need them and standards are in place,” Saunders said.
It doesn’t matter, he said, whether the network is LTE or WiMAX because “there are a lot of technical commonalities. At that generic level of requirements we see a huge amount of commonality,” he said. “Whatever happens in terms of who chooses to use what in what environment, femtocells play a role.”
