Think More Thunk

A Perspective on the Growth of Broadband Access and WiMAX Development

President Bush said we'll all be connected by 2007, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said Democrats will ensure that will happen within 5 years. Certainly broadband coverage is growing rapidly, but the role of Government seems irrelevant to that "surge." Many technologies, explained and defined in this report, contribute. How they do so, and how quickly we get to "universal" broadband will be driven by usefulness, technological improvement, and (not least) market savvy companies.

 

Broadband access in the typical US household is on a steady growth trend. Fueled both by consumer demand for entertainment and communication as well as governmental regulatory and economic incentives, companies at all levels of the broadband services and infrastructure value chain are developing new technologies and enabling new services that will continue to push the US broadband market forward over the next 4-6 years.

 

The development of wired broadband network infrastructures in fact enable the deployment of wireless technologies. As an example, the development of fiber optic infrastructure offers a market driver for the introduction of WiMAX in developed countries.

 

There is substantial competition to WiMAX. Traditional, or wired, broadband technologies offer direct competition to fixed WiMAX and are being fueled by governmental encouragement on a global scale. The deployment of IPv6 on a global scale will mark a new era for humanity, at least those connected to technology. In order for various countries to participate in the increased security afforded as a byproduct of IPv6, the internet infrastructure technologies must be in place. These are marketed as broadband services to the consumer and the development of triple- and quadruple-play offerings which combine television broadcast, interactive content delivery, internet services, and voice communications capabilities. In this respect wired technologies such as optical fiber are in fact in competition with mobile WiMAX, in spite of the drastic difference in features each technology enables.

Comprehensive Wireless Market Evolution

All signs point towards integration of as many wireless protocols as possible into one chipset and thus one device. This is driven in part by semiconductor companies responding to the constant commoditization of chips and elimination of margins by attempting to add as much value as possible into a single RF component and thus stave off the inevitable margin erosion. The massive and single-minded effort to integrate all available RF protocols into the same component is also encouraged by regulatory bodies such as the FCC, who envision an opportunity to charge spectrum licenses not just once, but perhaps multiple times. The US military is also stimulating the effort, in large part as a self-serving means to purchase off-the-shelf parts for its 'Connected Battlefield'.

The primary growth areas for wireless components over the next 5 years are Wireless Broadband and Wireless Sensor Networks. In the Wireless Broadband segment, key emerging protocols to evaluate include LTE, IEEE 802.11n, and IEEE 802.16e (colloquialized as 'mobile WiMax'). RFID, ZigBee, and IEEE 802.15.4 are the standard protocols likely to dominate the Wireless Sensor segment over the next 10 years. In fact, potential cross-over between RFID and ZigBee, as well as possible inclusion of the IEEE 802.15.4a low data rate with location specification into a coming evolution of ZigBee, create a tangled yet very powerful scenario for wireless sensor standards.

 

For more information about wireless market evolution see our report which analyzes the primary wireless technologies and protocols in place today as well as those emerging through the standardization process.

Will ZigBee Applications run over TCP/IP?

Arch Rock Corporation submitted a draft specification to the IETF, describing an approach to implement "... a UDP/IP adaptation of the IEEE 802.15.4-based ZigBee Application Protocol that enables IP hosts to communicate using the application profiles and data models described by that protocol, over a wide range of links.  This modified version of the ZigBee Application Protocol is named CAP (Compact Application Protocol), and it is intended to provide a complete stack of application profiles, data exchange, binding operations, security protocols, and discovery to IP-networked hosts and embedded devices. The protocol's domain of applicability includes IEEE 802.15.4-based 6LoWPAN devices, but also those on conventional wired and wireless links and emerging powerline communication networks."
 
CAP is intended to extend the scope of the ZigBee Application Profiles beyond IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee networks to encompass all IP based protocols. The CAP defines a methodology for devices to run CAP services on an UDP port, and exchange ZigBee application profile messages with any other IP device or server.
 
 
Why is it important to provide ZigBee application services on IP networks?
 
ZigBee Application Profiles are well designed for operation on devices with reduced or limited resources.
 
ZigBee Application Profiles assume the existence of an underlying ZigBee network only.
 
With the addition of real-world requirements such as support for mobility, longer range, or integration into an existing IP-based network, a ZigBee-only network may not prove optimal.
 
Presently this type of interoperability with other networks is accomplished by the use of gateway devices and application compatibility bridging (i.e. BacNet to ZigBee) which can be avoided with the CAP translation to an IP network.
 
 
What are the business implications?
 
By adopting IP as the common transport protocol, CAP simplifies the deployment of large-scale sensor networks and application by reducing or eliminating the number of protocol translation nodes. This in turn enables a wider audience to take advantage of the accumulated knowledge used in the definition of the ZigBee Application Profiles. This approach also frees the ZigBee Alliance to focus on the high-value applications for wireless sensor networks such as Energy management and Industrial control.
 
While customers may not care how many layers you use, layers help you provide what the customer needs.
 
For more information about the draft specification, see http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-tolle-cap-00.txt
 
For more information about the business and market implications, please contact WTRS.