Bringing HSDPA to market must have involved a lot of debate, compromise and even horse-trading in the standards bodies, mustn’t it? Perhaps not. We asked a representative of Icera, a company at the sharp end of development, given that its first baseband processor and modem software, launched in 2005, is designed to support HSDPA, UMTS, GSM and EDGE multimode capability, to let us know what it thinks.
Icera is, obviously, a strong supporter of HSDPA. Nigel Toon, VP of sales and marketing, notes that the high-speed downlink packet access extension to WCDMA is “a pressing requirement” because, like many observers, he feels that this represents the first time that cellular technology can really offer a broadband-like service. Toon notes that ADSL and cable modems opened up the wired internet with fast access and reasonable charges and services became usable and attractive to consumers; this resulted in accelerated take-up. “With HSPDA there is the improvement in network capacity for high-speed data services for the operator,” he says. “For the consumer there is the availability of a wireless broadband access technology. Couple these two items with improved network response times and you get a technology with the ability to open up wireless data services in a similar way that DSL did for the internet. Put simply, HSDPA has the ability to enable responsive high-speed data services that consumers will enjoy - with reduced costs to the operators.”
So what have been the main standardisation challenges in bringing this new era to wireless? “With cellular standards there are always many options and possibilities. Not all of them can be mapped to ways in which the network will actually be used to deploy services. The challenge is to decide which options will not really support a valid service and therefore should not be included in the standard. It is always tempting to try to include everything just because it can be done. However, each item will require development and test effort so including obscure or irrelevant items can slow down the development and deployment process.”
How does he feel standards bodies have responded? “With regards to HSDPA the standards bodies did a good job of constraining the requirements to a well defined set. This speeded up the process of standardisation,” he says.
That aside, Icera does not believe that the standardisation of HSDPA was particularly different from any of the previous standards work. In fact as an extension of the 3GPP WCDMA standards the scope was a little more constrained than the original UMTS specifications given that much of the air interface had already been defined. “The focus of the standards body was quite well defined, which in general leads to clear goals and enhanced cooperation,” says Toon.
Were there other pressures? “There is always pressure to speed up the standardisation process in the cellular market. This is one of the most competitive and fast-paced markets in the world. Operators and manufacturers are constantly working on the next requirements. Pressure for HSDPA is coming from CDMA 1xEVDO and from the need to deploy new services to drive higher average revenue per user,” Toon points out.
Which brings us to the company’s own solution. Given its position in the value chain, how easy has it been to keep up with standards definitions? “In a conventional silicon-based solution new standards requirements or changes typically require silicon changes,” he explains. “This requires a minimum of four months (one month design plus three months silicon fabrication). In reality most changes will require six to 12 months and will only go to fabrication after the standards are finalised due to the high cost of fine geometry silicon masks. Icera can update its solution entirely in software.” In fact, the company does not need to wait for standards work to be finalised in order to deploy a new solution. Software upgrades can be provided ahead of finished standards, say for trials and prototypes. “When the standards work is completed a final tweaked version of the software can be delivered.”
And will be, presumably, for HSUPA as well. But is the need to standardise HSUPA really as compelling? “Yes,” says Toon. “HSUPA will bring further reductions in network latency. To the consumer this will appear as a faster more responsive network. HSUPA will also provide a high-speed uplink service so business users can send large files as well as receive them.”
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