Interview with Siavash Alamouti- CTO of Intel’s Wireless Mobility Group: article #1 posted, sneak look at article #2

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Please read the article #1 here:

http://www.wimax.com/commentary/blog/blog-2009/august-2009/why-cellular-carriers-have-not-delivered-on-the-promise-of-the-mobile-internet-0806

Article #2 has been published at:

http://www.wimax.com/commentary/blog/blog-2009/august-2009/how-the-mobile-internet-can-be-realized-through-new-technologies-applications-0810

Here’s the lead-in:Realizing the Mobile Internet- new functions, technology and innovative applications

Abstract:

In the second article resulting from our in depth interview, Siavash Alamouti, CTO of Intel’s Mobile Wireless Group comments on the roadmap, potential new applications, functions, and technical requirements for 4G mobile networks. Specifically, he envisions several intriguing mobile Internet applications and value added services, delineates major performance and feature upgrades for 4G (it is not an evolution from 3G as many think), identifies several technical issues/ problems to be resolved, and explains why LTE is not the panacea many believe it to be.
 

Introduction

Siavash (and many other knowledgeable professionals) have clearly stated that mobile broadband needs to evolve from its current primitive state (a packet overlay to a cellular TDM network), to a wireless broadband network that can accommodate much higher bandwidth per user and overall traffic capacity. A network optimized for mobile voice cannot be “upgraded” to handle high numbers of high bandwidth mobile Internet users that access rich multi-media content or are uploading/ downloading large video and multi-media files.        

In particular, more spectrum is needed for an acceptable subscriber service level along with higher capacity backhaul and a different network architecture. Alamouti states that the mobile Internet requires a technology revolution to accommodate multi-Mbps subscriber connections from many simultaneous users. Clearly, the more bandwidth available per user, the more people benefit from the web. That is, if the mobile Internet service is reasonably priced (which it’s not now on 3G networks).

To obtain low cost per bit, much higher spectrum efficiency is needed than can be achieved by 3G or 3.5G networks. All now agree that 4G networks will be characterized by OFDM, MIMO, and all IP transport. Mobile WiMAX has these features now; LTE will once it’s deployed. Here’s an illustration of the timeline envisioned for the mobile broadband Internet to be realized:

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