IMS keynoters cite wireless convergence with a healthcare emphasis
Rick Nelson, Chief Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 6/6/2007 11:39:00 AM
Honolulu, HI. Keynote speakers at the IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium yesterday predicted an ever expanding role for wireless communications as RF technologies evolve and new standards emerge. Anil Kripalani of Qualcomm predicted a strong future for 3G Long Term Evolution (LTE), while Ryuji Kohno of Yokohama National University emphasized healthcare applications.
Kripalani, senior VP for global technology affairs at Qualcomm, opened by contending that the future will bring fixed-mobile convergence: “Convergence is the buzzword, as wireless converges with consumer electronics.” Wireless handheld devices, he said, will let consumers make purchases, navigate, watch TV, and access the Internet while they are on the move. What’s more, wireless mobile devices will interact with smart buildings and provide support for enhanced health care. In short, he said, the phone is becoming the “fourth screen”—complementing the movie screen, the television, and the computer monitor.
Now, he said, more than billion people have access to 160 3G mobile broadband networks worldwide. HSDPA, he said, is supported by 147operators in 67 countries. He added that 129 operators are committed to EVDO and that 62 networks are commercially available in 37 countries.
3G broadband wireless is focused on evolution toward an all IP core supporting multiple air interfaces, he said. User behavior, he added, is trending from wired to wireless and thereby driving fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) and the emergence of IP multimedia system (IMS) optimizations. But consumers moving to wireless want the same rich experience they’ve had with wired systems, he emphasized, including the ability to share user-created content over social-networking sites. Helping to enable that will be increasingly powerful mobile processors, he said, which are now available in dual-core versions operating at 1 GHz.
Multimode devices, he said, will support several air interfaces, including 3GPP, 3GPP2, FLO/DVB-H, and 802.11, and handsets supporting these standards can serve as WAN gateways for other consumer-electronics devices, which will connect via 802.11, UWB, Bluetooth, or NFC (near field communication) interfaces.
Kripalani said that he expects LTE (the 3GPP Long Term Evolution strategy) to be the platform that supports emerging mobile applications. He was sharply critical of WiMAX and its proponents’ marketing claims that WiMAX will support 75 Mbps throughput over 30 miles at speeds to 120 km/hr., saying WiMAX won’t support those ratings simultaneously. He also said that LTE offers larger cell sites (to reduce the number of sites required in rural areas), better spectral efficiency (to support the capacity requirements of urban areas), and lower latency (down to 16 ms). In addition, he said that WiMAX is in its infancy and competing with mature 3G technologies.
The advantages of 3G LTE, he concluded, will make the cell phone the heart of applications including push-to-talk services, position-location services, mobile commerce, telematics, and healthcare. Tomorrow’s cell phone, he said, will entertain, amaze, and even make phone calls.
In a follow-up keynote, Ryuji Kohno, Ph.D., a professor and director of the Center of Medical Information and Communication Technology at Yokohama National University, zeroed in on healthcare applications.
“If we look at what’s next in info-communication technology (ICT),” he said, “a ubiquitous medical healthcare system using advanced ICT technologies such as UWB, SDR, and MIMO holds great promise for both academia and industry.” Advanced medical info-communication technology (ICT), he added, can help address the healthcare problems of aging populations, particularly in Europe and Japan. The Japanese government, he said, is engaged in a significant effort to promote medical ICT.
He described a variety of wearable or implantable wireless healthcare applications and noted that such devices as a capsule endoscope that can be swallowed are already in use. He urged attendees to make progress in the medical ICT area and in particular emphasized the importance of developing standards such as the IEEE 802.15 Body Area Network (BAN).
He concluded, “The next direction of microwave and RF technology innovation must be medical.”
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