NEC, Telia Trial Broadband Wireless Network
Princeton, NJ-headquartered NEC Corp. and Telia AB, Sweden's national telecommunications provider, will trial NEC's WATMnet broadband wireless network for mobile multimedia services. The trial, named Semi-mobile Broadband Radio Access (SEBRA), will test and evaluate WATMnet's ability to provide high-speed wireless Internet Protocol (IP) and ATM services. The trials should conclude in June 1999.
Telia plans to evaluate WATMnet for delivery of high-speed wireless data services to campuses, corporate buildings, factories and outdoor areas. The technology is designed to provide a wireless extension to IP or ATM-based core networks for delivery of multimedia information to portable computing devices. The SEBRA service will enable new semi-mobile broadband applications including, Internet access, video-on-demand, and teleconferencing.
WATMnet, developed by NEC USA's C&C Research Laboratories and NEC, is a broadband wireless network designed to operate in the newly defined 5 GHz U-NII bands in the US, and the European Hiperlan2 5 GHz frequency bands. WATMnet delivers data services at bit-rates up to 25 Mb/s using proprietary TDMA/TDD medium access and data link control protocols on the radio link. Dynamic mobility is supported by integrating location management and handoff enhancements into standard IP/ATM network protocols used in the core network.
The WATMnet system features NEC America Inc.'s NETNEX 8660 ATM switches with integrated mobile ATM or IP software. Radio access into the network is supported by WATMnet base stations (access points) with plug-in radio modules and integrated mobility software. User terminals in the system interface with a WATMnet network interface card (NIC) which incorporates a 5 GHz U-NII band 25 Mb/s equalized GMSK modem together with hardware support for TDMA/TDD and advanced error control features. The current trial system supports Windows '95 or Linux notebook computers with application programming interfaces (API) for QoS-based IP and ATM applications.