L.M. Ericsson’s offer to compromise on third-generation technology may not change the International Telecommunication Union’s action on Dec. 31. The ITU is likely to halt any work on Code Division Multiple Access-based proposals unless intellectual-property-right issues are resolved by the end of the year.
Sweden-based Ericsson last week offered a proposal to harmonize 3G standards W-CDMA technology, based on the GSM platform, and cdmaOne-based cdma2000 technology by reducing the chip rate of W-CDMA from 4.096 Megachips per second to 3.84 Mcps. The chip rate has been the major area of contention between W-CDMA proponents and cdma2000 backers, who say the higher chip rate makes the technology incompatible with today’s cdmaOne systems. Ericsson and many Global System for Mobile communications operators say a significant capacity advantage exists with a higher chip rate, while cdma2000 advocates point to studies that say no capacity advantages exist.
But the 3.84 Mcps chip rate still is incompatible, say cdmaOne operators and vendors. Cdma2000 systems need to operate using 3.68 Mcps, they say.
“The whole thing is kind of predictable and somewhat laughable,” said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDMA Development Group. “What happened to all these issues of a major performance advantage? None of that essentially was true. Now it’s even ludicrous to argue that 3.8 has an advantage over 3.68 … We are proceeding forward with our proposals. ITU or not, we’re moving forward.”
Ericsson’s move follows an ITU announcement earlier last week that indicated the international standards body only may be able to consider radio transmission technology proposals for IMT-2000 that are based on Time Division Multiple Access technology if the dispute surrounding IPR of CDMA proposals are not resolved by the end of the year.
The ITU requires patent holders related to any of the 3G proposals to submit a written statement, either waiving their rights or committing to negotiate licenses on a nondiscriminatory basis and on reasonable terms and conditions by the end of the year.
To date, said the ITU, two of the statements received are upholding IPRs on CDMA-based technology proposals-one by Ericsson and one by Qualcomm.
Ericsson said it holds patents for both W-CDMA and cdma2000 technologies and will grant the patents only if other companies, like Qualcomm, reciprocate. Qualcomm, which also says it owns patents for both technologies, has laid out three fairness principals under which it would grant licenses. Those principals require that a single, converged CDMA standard be selected for 3G technology; that the converged standard must accommodate both ANSI-41 and GSM MAP standards; and that disputes on specific technological points should be resolved by selecting the proposal that demonstrates technical superiority.
Qualcomm officially said it welcomes Ericsson’s public support for the convergence of the two proposals, and said the proposed chip rate of 3.84 Mcps applies to its third fairness principle that calls for resolving technical points through testing.
“Qualcomm is unaware of any analysis that suggests that 3.84 Mcps has demonstrable performance or cost advantage relative to 3.6864 Mcps, while the latter is evolutionary with an existing technology, cdmaOne,” the company said in a press release.
“I view this as a step in the right direction,” said Anil Kripilani, Qualcomm’s vice president for planning and international administration. “We like the fact that they’ve moved [on the chip rate], and we’d like to see more movement on that particular item … Backward compatibility is important to the cdmaOne community.”
The 3.84 Mcps chip rate is nothing new, however. It was the original chip rate proposal for the W-CDMA standard chosen by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. When Japan’s NTT DoCoMo hooked up with Ericsson to create a 3G system, the chip rate was changed to 4.096 Mcps. For nearly a year, this proposed chip rate has been debated in standards bodies around the world, with the cdmaOne community rejecting it because it lacks backward compatibility. Ericsson said economies of scale can be achieved by producing dual-mode phones with both chip rates. Cdma2000 proponents say they have yet to see any proof that handsets will be cheaper using that solution.
Ericsson says this is the last chance for compromise as it will not move the chip rate any lower than 3.84 Mcps.
“We have concerns about sacrificing performance the further you go down the chip rate,” said John Giere, vice president for public affairs with Ericsson Inc. in New York. “We are willing to trade performance capabilities to bring in the last person from the cold … This is the last step. They can either accept it or reject it.”
It’s unclear, however, if Ericsson will stay committed to the 3.84 Mcps chip rate. Giere said Ericsson may find its customers don’t want to sacrifice the capacity advantage it says the standard has over the cdma2000 proposal.
“Many customers may not like this sacrifice,” said Giere. “We will build what customers demand.”
The GSM North American Alliance, made up of North American GSM operators, said it is studying Ericsson’s proposal. North American GSM carriers have continually insisted on deploying the higher chip rate of 4.096 Mcps, saying they want the highest capacity throughput possible. NTT DoCoMo, which is working with Ericsson to build a 3G system by 2001, championed the higher chip rate as well.
Gary Jones, director of standards policy with Omnipoint Corp. in Bethesda, Md., said, however, the change in chip rate is a reasonable compromise.
“We’re supportive of anything that gets systems off and running. We’re not the people who have had a hard-line stance on what we want on 3G systems. The fact that we’re willing to accept some reduction in capacity to facilitate this compromise should count for something.”
Some GSM operators are concerned that today’s cdmaOne carriers will have a leg up in migrating to 3G systems if they move to the 3.68 Mcps chip rate. They want a level playing field, say industry experts.
“4.096 or 3.84 is a start over for everyone,” said Keith Paglusch, senior vice president of technical services and network operations with Sprint PCS.
Qualcomm’s Kripilani believes a resolution over IPR issues will not be made by Dec. 31, and the ITU will be forced to stop all work on the majority of the CDMA-related proposals. The ITU hopes to develop a family of 3G standards by March that will be capable of delivering Internet-friendly mobile phones.
“We expect that if everything doesn’t come to a formal resolution by the end of the year, then there will be outside discussions,” said Kripilani. “We hope that there will be a continued desire for convergence that will keep taking us forward.”
Kripilani added that a number of other technical issues were not mentioned by Ericsson, including asynchronization vs. synchronization of base stations. Ericsson said other technical issues will be debated in the public forum.
“Some of them simply just can’t be done even if there is a fervent spirit on both sides,” said Giere.
