International Conference on Systems and Networks Communications ICSNC 2006 October 29 - November 3, 2006 - Tahiti, French Polynesia

Tutorials

Topic: Broadband Wireless Access and High-Speed Wireless Data Applications
by Dr. Sanjoy Paul

Update: dowload the tutorial here (~17Meg .zip file)

Broadband wireless is the next big thing in the field of wireless access technology. While various technologies for providing broadband wireless access have been proven in the laboratories, and to a limited extent in real networks, wide-scale commercial deployment has not yet happened especially in North America and Europe. However, that's going to change in the next couple of years especially with the two largest North American wireless service providers Verizon Wireless and Cingular rolling out competing technologies in this space. Sprint and Nextel together are also poised to commercially deploy broadband wireless in North America. Korea and Japan have already proved commercial viability of broadband wireless.

The tutorial on Broadband Wireless will cover three main topics: (1) Transport, (2) Service Enablement and (3) Applications and Handsets. Transport will encompass Media Access Control (MAC), Data-Link, Network, and Signaling details with extensions to Multicast for five different types of networks: (1) CDMA2000 (1xEv-DO), (2) UMTS (HSDPA), (3) WiFi (802.11 a/b/e/g), (4) WiMAX (802.16 d), (5) WiBro (802.16 e), and (6) 4G Technologies. Service Enablement will cover industry standard IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture, components and protocols, and describe where the wireless industry is going with it. Applications and Handsets section will describe how handsets manufacturers and Applications developers are collaborating to bring novel wireless broadband services to the market. Specific applications that will be discussed are Push to Talk, Push to View, and Broadcast-Multicast.

The tutorial will not only describe the technology, but will also provide the business context and the practical implications wherever it makes sense. Potential research ideas will also be covered so that those interested in being in the frontiers of wireless broadband technology will also find the tutorial useful.

Audience:

Researchers and engineers who want to understand the complete range of broadband wireless technology spanning local area, metro area and wide area networks. Attendees will learn the fundamental differences between different wireless access technologies, and be able to appreciate why some of the technologies do and do not work in certain environments and how best to make them interoperate. The tutorial will cover in detail 3G high-speed wireless technologies optimized for data applications, namely Ev-DO for CDMA2000 networks and HSDPA for UMTS networks. Extensions of these networks to support multicast will also be discussed. WiFi, WiMAX, and WiBro variations will be discussed and contrasted with 3G wireless technologies. Some of the 4G wireless technologies will be covered subject to availability of time. Familiarity with basic protocols and IP networks is assumed, but not required.