The road to higher data speeds for wireless networks is rooted in voice technology, but Flarion Technologies, a new venture company formed by Lucent Technologies Inc., hopes to bypass that road and develop a technology rooted in data.
Flarion is developing flash-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, a fourth-generation signal-processing technology that supports high data rates at very low latencies over a distributed Internet Protocol-based wireless network. The technology will provide users with an always-on wireless connection and real-time interactive and multimedia applications at data rates ranging from 384 kilobits per second to 3 Megabits per second, Flarion said.
OFDM technology is used today in a fixed environment in AT&T Wireless’ fixed network, otherwise known as Project Angel.
“Since we were designing a system to do data, we explicitly picked a technology that can provide us very quick feedback and reliable data services at relatively low latencies,” said Rajiv Laroia, chief technology officer and founder of Flarion.
Whereas most technology standards, such as Code Division Multiple Access and Time Division Multiple Access, were established to handle primarily voice traffic, flash-OFDM is designed to handle primarily data, but support voice services as well.
According to Laroia, third-generation upgrades to CDMA and TDMA technology might not be as reliable or efficient in delivering data as is possible, and these upgrades might not be able to support the anticipated high demands for data that will be placed on cellular networks in the future.
“We believe the definition of 3G data is limiting. The way we define data is all of data needs to be interactive,” said Ray Dolan, president and chief executive officer of Flarion.
Flash-OFDM specifically addresses these needs, Laroia said.
“Wireless channels are not stable channels. You receive multiple copies of the signal because it bounces off various objects. OFDM is robust against all these channel impairments,” Laroia said. “It has tremendous advantages if you have a large area covering multiple base stations. It also provides frequency diversity if the channel fades … “
The flash-OFDM system will consist of base stations, software, modems chipsets and “radio routers,” devices at the base stations that are unique to the flash-OFDM system.
Flash-OFDM was not designed to interoperate with other technology standards, but instead operates alongside an existing network, said Dolan. The carrier would manage parallel networks, much like the way Cellular Digital Packet Data networks are operated today.
“A carrier can deploy collocated, independent base stations or some integrated channel card” if they added flash-OFDM to their network, Dolan explained.
A technical trial of the technology is set to begin in the fourth quarter and extend into the first quarter of 2001, followed by a test network deployment in cooperation with a wireless carrier, Flarion said.
Headquartered in Bedminster, N.J., Flarion employs about 40 people, many of whom came from Bell Labs. Its first-round financing was co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Charles River Ventures, with an additional investment by Pequot Capital. Lucent said it retains a minority ownership through its New Ventures Group.
