Sunday, March 13, 2005

CDMA2000 1xEV-DO (Rev. A) Promises IP Flexibility, Higher Data Rates

At this week's CTIA Wireless 2005 in New Orleans, Qualcomm is demonstrating significant improvements in wireless services enabled by CDMA2000(R) 1xEV-DO Rev. A, including VoIP over EV-DO, higher data rates, pilot interference cancellation (PIC), and Platinum Multicast.


Mobile operators implementing Rev. A throughout their network will be able to take advantage of wireless IP-based capabilities. This would include the deployment of more flexible IP network elements using distributed network architectures. Qualcomm predicts that the ability to offer VoIP services over Rev. A-based networks will profoundly enhance operators' service offerings by enabling the combination of high-quality voice with a wide variety of applications, such as interactive 3D gaming among large groups of players, instant messaging with full multimedia content and video telephony.


Rev. A offers improved peak data rates on both the forward and reverse links. On the forward link, peak data rates increase to 3.1 Mbps, while reverse link peak speeds have increased to 1.8 Mbps. Rev. A offers higher sector capacity within the same 1.25 MHz carrier, allowing operators to support more users and richer applications. Rev. A has twice the sector capacity of Release 0 on the reverse link and 1.2 times sector capacity on the forward link. Rev. A is fully backward compatible and interoperable with deployed EV-DO networks and devices around the world.


Pilot Interference Cancellation (PIC) employs advanced techniques to reduce interference on the CDMA reverse link. It improves the reverse link capacity by removing the pilot interference, which improves the signal-to-noise ratio. By removing pilot signal interference, an operator can increase capacity by an estimated 15%-20% for VoIP applications. Qualcomm expects future products supporting Rev. A to introduce full interference cancellation, thus approaching the ultimate theoretical capacity of a multiple-access reverse link.


Platinum Multicast is proposed as the next evolutionary step of EV-DO multicast technologies. Platinum Multicast provides an extremely cost-effective method for wireless operators to deliver a multitude of video and audio channels to a large subscriber population over Rev. A-based cellular networks coupled with a content delivery system such as the MediaFLO media distribution system, with more than three times the capacity of Gold Multicast. This higher capacity translates into more channels of content or higher resolution content with the same number of channels. Higher capacity also results in a proportionately lower cost per bit transferred over the air.
http://www.qualcomm.com

  • Rev. A is supported by QUALCOMM's CSM6800 and MSM6800 chipsets.