IPWireless unveiled its TDtv mobile television solution that would allow mobile operators to leverage existing unpaired 3G spectrum.
TDtv combines IPWireless’ commercial UMTS TD-CDMA platform and the newly defined 3GPP Release 6 Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Standard (MBMS. IP Wireless cited several strategic, performance, and economic advantages over alternative mobile TV solutions. These include:
- TDtv operates in the universal unpaired 3G spectrum bands that are available across Europe and Asia at 1900MHz and 2010MHz. It allows UMTS operators to fully utilize their existing spectrum and base stations to offer subscribers attractive mobile TV and multimedia packages without impacting other voice and data 3G services. Several operators in Europe are expected to announce TDtv trials in their 1900MHz unpaired 3G spectrum during the first half of this year. In Japan, IPMobile plans to trial the technology for their services in their recently awarded 2010MHz spectrum. The solution will also be made available to operators in the other frequency bands that IPWireless supports globally, including the 2.5GHz band.
- With TDtv, UMTS operators can deliver up to 50 channels of TV for standard mobile phone screens, or 15 higher quality QVGA channels, all in their existing 5MHz of unpaired 3G spectrum. For operators that have 10MHz of spectrum in any of the bands supported, the solution can deliver twice the number of channels or increase the quality of their service offerings. And unlike current unicast mobile TV services that take additional network bandwidth for every subscriber using the service, TDtv leverages MBMS to allow an infinite number of customers to watch the same channel or use the same network bandwidth. Operators can also deliver digital audio or other IP data cast services to enhance their service offerings.
- TDtv promises better integration with WCDMA systems than other Mobile TV technologies. TDtv architecture is designed to seamlessly integrate with WCDMA on both the network and device side. At the cell site, the very low cost TDtv base stations can be co-sited on existing WCDMA sites without additional regulatory issues. The solution integrates with WCDMA at the core network level resulting in easier billing and other back office integration. By utilizing the Broadcast Multicast Service Center (BMSC) as defined in the 3GPP standard, the two networks can work in unison to deliver services to subscribers.
- On the device side, IPWireless is partnering to integrate TDtv into existing WCDMA devices at very low cost. Initial two-chip TD-CDMA/WCMDA handsets or larger screen devices will be able to reuse much of the WCDMA RF to lower cost and reduce size. Ultimately, TDtv will be integrated into WCDMA chipsets. Because TD-CDMA can reuse many of the existing WCDMA stacks, this adds a very minimal cost to the device.
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- IPWireless technology operates in a non line-of-sight environment allowing fast wireless data access indoor, outdoor and in vehicular mobility environments. The system gain (link budget) is typically higher than 2G cellular systems allowing cells to be larger than that of typical cellular / PCS systems, or alternatively similar size with greater building penetration probability. Cell radius will depend upon deployment strategy, but can be as small as a microcell or as large as 29km.
- IPWireless’ current product line is optimized for data rate of up to 16 Mbps carrying IP traffic.