Archive for wi-fi

| December 7, 2010
Comments Off on More Wi-Fi Patent Legal Wrangling

More Wi-Fi Patent Legal Wrangling

TMore Wi-Fi Patent Legal Wranglinghe wireless patent wars wage on. Ericsson, (ERIC) the Swedish telecommunications giant has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against a number of companies for alleged patent infringement of its IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi products reports CENS.com. CENS.com says the businesses named in Ericsson’s lawsuit include:

The CENS.com article says the lawsuit involves all WLAN (wireless local area network) devices either incorporating chipsets supplied by:

or OEM products made by:

Foxconn logoTech Connect reports that Ericsson claims, the companies named are offering products that violate one or more of the following WLAN patents (number/title):

  • 6,466,568 – ‘Multi-rate radiocommunication systems and terminals’
  • 5,771,468 – ‘Multi-purpose base station’
  • 6,519,223 – ‘System and method for implementing a semi-reliable retransmission protocol’
  • 6,330,435 – ‘Data packet discard notification’
  • 6,772,215 – ‘Method for minimizing feedback responses in ARQ protocols
  • 6,424,625 – ‘Method and apparatus for discarding packets in a data network having automatic repeat request’
  • 6,173,352 – ‘Mobile computer mounted apparatus for controlling enablement and indicating the operational status of a wireless communication’
  • 5,987,019 – ‘Multi-rate radiocommunication systems and terminals’
  • 5,790,516 – ‘Pulse shaping for data transmission in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed system’

D-Link logoEricsson requested the infringing companies to compensate its losses and asked the court to ban the sales of the infringing products. D-Link told CENS.com they cannot give any comment because the company had not received any file from the court. But it will not affect the sales of its products. Acer told CENS.com that its legal department had received the related notice and has started judicial procedures.

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I have covered other WLAN patent suits here and here. While I’m no patent lawyer, what this says to me is that the WLAN market is starting to level off and firms are looking for “other” ways to make some money without producing products. A business tactic fresh from the 1980s.

I also noticed that this suit between a European firm (Ericsson) and Asian firms (Acer, Netgear, and D-Link) was brought in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. This seems to be a favorite place for firms to sue each other, I wonder if anyone has ever investigated why this court is so popular for alleged patent troll cases.

One of the things that we instituted a while ago, in our RFP’s and contract’s is a clause that requires the VAR and the manufacturer to hold the end-user harmless in regards to patent suits the VAR or manufacturer may get entangled in.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: wi-fi | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
| June 5, 2010
Comments Off on Aussies Strike Wi-Fi Again

Aussies Strike Wi-Fi Again

Aussies Strike Wi-Fi AgainAustralia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Texas again according to an article on :Rethink Wireless. The Aussies have slapped AT&T, (T) T-Mobile, and Verizon (VZ), with patent lawsuits. The Australian science agency, emboldened by its settlements over Wi-Fi patents with Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft is now going after U.S. retailers.

CSIROAccording to the article, patent trolling is a lucrative business, for CSIRO. In 2009 CSIRO brought in about $205m in royalties largely because of a massive out-of-court settlement. CSIRO made a deal with 14 vendors including Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Toshiba, and HP (which I wrote about here). According to CSIRO’s annual report, this settlement helped turn its budgeted deficit of $34.2M into a profit of $122M. The CSIRO now claims 161 active patent licensees. Many licensees are connected to the patent issued in 1996, which CSIRO says includes all 802.11 Wi-Fi products.

Wi-Fi patent trolling plan

ATT logoIn the article, Nigel Poole, executive director in charge of commercialization at CSIRO says this is a deliberate plan. “There’s a legal strategy here that has been thought through very carefully and to a layperson, it looks like a pincer movement. You’ve got court action CSIRO says its proceeds from royalties are invested in new research, and presumably, that could lead to new patents and licensing claims.”

Broadcom and Atheros have counter-sued CSIRO on the behalf of the Wi-Fi industry to have the patent declared invalid.

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Seems the Australians have gotten pretty good at patent trolling. Maybe they can build their entire broadband infrastructure on the backs of U.S. consumers. Too bad the U.S. government didn’t think of this first.

This should be a big test for AT&T. AT&T is testing Wi-Fi data offload for smartphone users by creating a giant pilot Wi-Fi hot zone in New York City’s Times Square. The pilot will offer its mobile broadband customers free access.  It is widely believed that after the pilot AT&T may deploy more hot zones in other areas across the country.

Many of AT&T’s smartphones support auto-authentication at AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots. The automation makes it seamless for subscribers to connect to its 21,000 hot spots. AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega has indicated in the past that offloading data traffic onto Wi-Fi would play a large role in curbing its overwhelming data growth.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: wi-fi | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
| February 17, 2010
Comments Off on Wireless Gigabit

Wireless Gigabit

WiGig AllianceThe Wireless Gigabit Alliance has completed specs for a technology designed to deliver as much as 7 Gbps of wireless bandwidth in the 60 GHz band. The new technology, WiGig has the support of technology giants such as Intel, Broadcom, and Atheros. The technology is expected to have enough capacity to deliver high-def video streams up to 10 meters. WiGig’s anticipated road map includes system certifications in 2010 and WiGig based products to market in 2011.

Supplement other wireless technologies

According to the WGA, WiGig is not designed to replace 802.11 or Bluetooth but rather to supplement it. WiGig is a device-to-device (p2p) network and does not need a central hub or router that could easily turn into a congestion point. WiGig uses beamforming to extend its range beyond the 10-meter range and will automatically switch to 802.11n Wi-Fi.  “Our technology is backward compatible with existing Wi-Fi, and we fall back to 802.11n and 802.11g when we can’t connect at [7 Gbps] speeds,” Ali Sadri, told TechNewsWorld. “We’re based on 802.11, so our spec is not replacing Wi-Fi but extending it to 10 to 20 times faster than Wi-Fi.”

“By complementing Wi-Fi and enabling multi-gigabit speeds, the versatile specification is a very significant achievement on the road to the next generation of wireless LAN products,” says Craig Mathias, a Principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group.

Integrate WiGig into Wi-Fi chipsets

It is reported that Intel, Broadcom, and Atheros all have plans to integrate WiGig into Wi-Fi chipsets. “Ultimately, the question is how many different kinds of radios do you really need?” says Farpoint’s Mathias, “There’s not just competition from Wi-Fi and wireless HD but also cellular technologies such as 3G, LTE or WiMax … A lot of people anticipate 60 GHz products that will include 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi as well,” said Bill McFarland, chief technology officer of Atheros, and a WiGig member. “I definitely think we can support tri-band at 65 nm,” he added.

WiGig will include protocol adaptation layers to support specific system interfaces including data buses for PC peripherals and display interfaces for HDTVs, monitors, and projectors. WiGig will include advanced security and power management for WiGig devices. “We’re rapidly paving the way for the introduction of the next generation of high-performance wireless products – PCs, mobile handsets, TVs and displays, Blu-ray disc players, digital cameras, and many more,” said Doctor Ali Sadri of Intel and president and chairman of the Wireless Gigabit Alliance

The need for fast wireless data transfer plays into two big trends: the proliferation of multimedia and the increasing cable clutter that users have to deal with. “NVIDIA recognizes the general market trend toward wire-free interfaces. Today, display interfaces are at an inflection point where the next generation solutions will feature wireless display connections for PCs, game consoles, notebooks, and mobile devices with PC monitors and TVs,” said Devang Sachdev, Technology Marketing Manager at NVIDIA and WiGig Board Member.

60 GHz loses strength quickly

The biggest knock against WiGig is that signals at 60 GHz get absorbed by oxygen, meaning they lose strength quickly. Steel or concrete walls and even people in the room can be degraded or stop the 60 GHz signal. However, Intel’s Sadri says there is a solution. A 60 GHz antenna is just 2.5 millimeters long,  small enough that a lot of them can be packed into even a thin TV set or a mobile handset. Put 32 antennas on the transmitting and receiving ends, and you can send enough steered beams to compensate for the losses the signal experiences over distance.

In the 60 GHz spectrum, WiGig is likely to run into some competition. The IEEE is introducing a follow-up to 802.11n Wi-Fi standards called 802.11ad.  The IEEE 802.11ad standard will also be based on the 60 GHz spectrum but is not expected before 2012.  Mathias says, “The WiGig Alliance hopes to get a head start now and they might submit their standard to the 802.11ad group to be included in the specification.” The Wireless HD consortium also supports a third 60-gigahertz wireless networking plan for uncompressed HD video. Sony and Samsung are backers of all three 60 GHz plans.

It is likely that IEEE 802,11ad and Wireless HD will find it hard to compete against a general-purpose WiGig standard that can do uncompressed wireless HD video and more.

Members of the WGA include:·

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| February 8, 2010
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Wi-Fi Harvester

Wi-Fi Harvester Computerworld reports that RCA demonstrated a prototype device that converts Wi-Fi radio signals into DC power to charge wireless devices. The W-iFi Hotspot Power Harvester, also known as Airnergy, was shown at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show. RCA’s device was able to charge a BlackBerry Bold with about 30 percent power in 90 minutes using Wi-Fi access points located nearby, according to an RCA official recorded on video by Geeky-Gadgets.com. The amount of charging time depends on a user’s proximity to the Wi-Fi hot spot.

The Airnergy unit stores the charge in an internal lithium battery, so you don’t necessarily have to be in a Wi-Fi hot spot to recharge your device. The device is about 2 in. by 3 in. in size and will sell for $39 to $49 this summer. RCA said it is developing a smaller version that would replace a battery inside a hand-held device and sell for about $60. That smaller version could ship in 2011.

Other wireless chargers

Demonstrations of wireless chargers have been a staple of CES for several years, and some products promised in 2008 have not materialized. Some products, such as the Dell Latitude Z laptop, allow charging by placing the laptop directly on a wireless charging stand. Fulton Innovation LLC, (I wrote about here) showed products and prototypes at CES. One Fulton technology concept powers a 12-watt light bulb from a transmitter placed 35 inches away. Powermat USA showed new wireless charging mats for handheld computers at prices ranging from $39 to $149, and the company’s CEO said Powermat has sold 750,000 devices since the company launched two months ago.

There is much skepticism over this product. The inverse-square law roughly says in this case that the signal would decrease in intensity inversely proportional to the square of the distance. Double the distance and signal strength drops by a fourth and so on. Thus at the distance at which most people find themselves from access points, the amount of energy available is minute.

Here is an article from SensorMag.com that describes how RF energy harvesting works.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| December 18, 2009
Comments Off on Super-Size My Wi-Fi

Super-Size My Wi-Fi

Super-Size My Wi-Fi McDonald’s Corp. will soon start offering free wireless Internet access at its U.S. restaurants according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal. Starting in mid-January, McDonald’s will lift the $2.95 fee that it had charged customers for two hours of Wi-Fi Internet access, available at about 11,000 of its 14,000 domestic locations, McDonald’s USA Chief Information Officer David Grooms said in an interview.

mcdonalds-logoThe free access is a partnership with AT&T (T), which provides McDonald’s stores with wireless Internet. Free Wi-Fi is part of the fast-food chain’s transformation from its hamburger roots into a hang-out destination. Over at Mashable.com they speculate that McDonald’s plans to start selling frappes and smoothies in mid-2010 as another part of the transformation.

Mashable.com writes that at&t purchased the Texas-based Wi-Fi hotspot operator Wayport in 2008 for $275 million in cash. The privately held company administered over 80,000 Wi-Fi hotspots all over the world for airports and large organizations like Wyndham, Four Seasons, and McDonald’s restaurants nationwide.

Stacey Higgenbotham over at GigaOm wrote in 2008 that at&t made this deal to off-load the mobile data network, “allows AT&T to provide its customers with more places to do their bandwidth-sucking applications. Already, AT&T is willing to let iPhone and BlackBerry users access its Wi-Fi hotspots free at Starbucks. It also means AT&T can hold out a bit longer before deploying its 4G LTE network, which is designed for data.”

This is nothing but a holding action so at&t can launch more rich-content phones like Apple’s iPhone and the Blackberry Bold and keep their old network in place. AT&T already requires iPhone users to use their Wi-Fi connection to download files from iTunes and prohibits bandwidth-intensive applications such as P2P sharing. According to GigaOM, part of the reason for this is the limitations of its HSPA network. While fast, it isn’t designed to handle the continuous streams of data a song download or video upload requires. 3G is still designed for voice traffic, which is intermittent and much less bandwidth-intensive. The network has a data overlay, but that, too, is designed for bursts of data and not continuous streams. If too many people need continuous streams of data get on, it clogs the network, leaving other subscribers unable to access it.

This move will allow AT&T to delay deploying its 4G LTE network, and charge heavy users more. Ralph de la Vega, president, and chief executive for mobility and consumer markets at at&t said “We’re going to try to focus on making sure we give incentives to those small percentages to either reduce or modify their usage, so they don’t crowd out the customers on those same cell sites,” he said. The company might consider a “pricing scheme that addresses the usage,” Mr. de la Vega said in the New York Times.

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There are questions that this partnership between McDonald’s and at&t raises:

  • Will the service be  ‘gated’ via some kind of time code on your receipt, or will be truly free?
  • Will usage be monitored?
  • What does the idea of people hanging out at McD’s to troll Facebook do to the idea of a “fast food” restaurant?

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Remember, you get what you pay for.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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