ST. LOUIS-U.S. wireless operators will slowly migrate from CDMA networks to Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing technology as they move from third generation to fourth generation, according to a report from the Rysavy Research and Datacomm Research Co.
The study predicts that wireless local area networks, fixed broadband wireless and mobile phone networks will all move to OFDM in the next several years for more efficient wireless data transmissions. Originally patented by Bell Labs in 1970, OFDM splits datastreams into multiple RF channels, each of which is sent over a subcarrier frequency.
“(OFDM) sends data across multiple radio channels, each at a lower rate, combating interference effects that become unmanageable at very high data rates with systems such as CDMA,” said Peter Rysavy, president of Rysavy Research and author of the report. “The advantages of OFDM and particularly MIMO-OFDM in a wide range of applications become more pronounced as the wireless industry moves to higher data speeds.
“But CDMA, whether CDMA2000 or W-CDMA, still has a long way to evolve, and it will be several years before vendors must switch to OFDM,” Rysavy added.
