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Ruckus Wireless unveiled “Smart N”, a new antenna and signal control technology for 802.11n access points. The wireless equipment maker plans to conduct a demonstration of the product at the Consumer Electronics Show, which will take place in Las Vegas in January 2007. The new solution involves several radios and antennas working concurrently and can regulate the RF energy during data transmission, thus optimizing performance and reliability. It allows for simultaneous voice, video and data streaming.
Via [pcmag.com]

At the IEEE Globecom 2006 Expo in San Francisco, Intel announced plans to integrate a pre-802.11n technology in its Centrino chips next year. The 802.11n standard, which promises better performance than the current WiFi technology, is not likely to be ratified until the first half of 2008.

Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney expressed concerns regarding decisions like that by Intel. He said that a prestandard version might function well in homes where it is deployed as a closed looped technology but could bring interoperability issues in enterprises that have heterogeneous wireless infrastructure.

At that same gathering, Intel officials promoted Ultra Wideband or UWB. Alan Crouch, who heads Intel’s Communications Technology Lab, expects the short range wireless technology to start gaining acceptance in 2007 and become popular in the consumer market. Crouch believes UWB will become a future version of Bluetooth. David Leeper, senior principal engineer for UWB at Intel, claimed UWB “can do video streaming at very low power.” He said downloading a full-length movie through UWB would only take 80 seconds.
Via [computerworld.com]

A new Veriwave test debunked notions that wireless standards — 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g — have zero error in data transmission. It found an “unavoidable packet loss” due to the fundamental transmission protocol used in wireless networks.

The 802.11 standards supposedly have “foolproof” mechanisms that allow for detection of corrupt data and retransmission. The test demonstrated that such system is much weaker than previously thought. Because each packet only has a single bit parity check, a receiving station may be vulnerable to mistaking the size and speed of an incoming packet and be blinded for “milliseconds” in case it detects a longer data stream than what was actually transmitted. As it fails to obtain any acknowledgment of the packet, the sending station would then retransmit it but would eventually cancel this action and drop the packet because the receiving station has stopped waiting for the mistaken longer stream.

According to Tom Alexander of Veriwave, the error is “extremely small, around .001 percent.” Still, the loss is “never zero” and “that’s not what the protocol says.” Aruba architect Partha Narasimhan believes the problem could become very evident in voice applications. Veriwave noted the same issue in a secure hand-off using EAP and could prompt a system reset and a 30-second break.
Via [techworld.com]

Vodacom is buying a 26 percent stake in G-Mobile Holdings, a company that owns WiFi and broadband provider WirelessG. In a statement, the leading cellphone operator in South Africa said it considers “WiFi as an ideal complement to its 3G HSDPA mobile broadband services as it provides an alternative means of connectivity.” It did not disclose the financial details of the agreement. Early in November, the company revealed that it is in advanced discussions to acquire a 10 percent stake in WBS Holdings, owner of wireless broadband provider iBurst and which holds a license to roll out WiMax long-distance wireless broadband service.
Via [fin24.co.za]

The WiMax World event has one message: both fixed and mobile WiMax are real and companies are ready to supply the market with products using the technology. Mobile WiMax, in particular, is expected to become a hit in 2007 and seen as a major rival to cellular technologies such as EV-DO Revisions B and C and 3GPP’s Long Term Evolution. Participants to the event also see a massive uptake in WiMax in Asia next year and in the U.S. by 2008.

Among the vendors at the show include Motorola, which put its mobile WiMax equipment on display. Chip makers Beceem, Intel, Runcom and Texas Instruments were also present. Metro-scale Wi-Fi vendors also participated in the event: ADC showed a weatherized variant of the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array, and Siemens brought its BelAir product. Wireless solutions vendor picoChip unveiled a reference design for a single-board “femtocell” implementation, which could allow for the deployment of metro-scale WiMax in cheap, limited-range mesh nodes with correspondent customer premises equipment.
Via [techworld.com]

A group of security researchers discovered a flaw in Broadcom’s BCMWL5.SYS wireless driver that could make a Wi-Fi enabled laptop prone to security risks. The said buffer overflow error could enable hackers to stage kernel-mode code and take advantage of the security opening through the Metasploit Module. The Zeroday Emergency Response Team or ZERT believes the defect “can be used to inject any standard Windows payload into a vulnerable system.”

According to ZERT, the flaw is triggered when a Wi-Fi card performs a background scan of available wireless networks. A user is therefore at risk if he or she uses a wireless card-enabled laptop in any public place such as an airport or a coffee shop. The proximity of hackers to the scene, according to the advisory, would depend on their antenna and signal strength.

ZERT advised users who believe their laptops have the flaw to check the manufacturer’s website for updates. It urged Microsoft to issue a patch, which it said “could be of a significant help to get ahead of this threat.”
Via [internetnews.com]

Several vendors have unveiled various dual-mode solutions that allow for call handovers between WiFi and cellular networks.

WakeMed Health & Hospitals looks to acquire software from Aruba Wireless Networks, which can support dual-mode phones. To date, the medical center has provided 650 SpectraLink voice handsets and 500 cell phones to its nurses. The ability to combine both services, according to John Tuman, director of network services at WakeMed, would be valuable. The new software, which is due to be released next year, will run on the Aruba 6000 Mobility Controller switch that the healthcare company plans to install this month.

Symbol Technologies, meanwhile, announced it will begin shipping the new RFS7000 RF switch — a wireless switch for dual-mode phone handovers — also next year. Siemens Communications likewise plans to integrate such capability to its HiPath product line by late 2007 or early 2008.
Via [computerworld.com]

Samsung Electronics disclosed that it has already sold mobile WiMax equipment to a client in China and will provide similar equipment to another. Hwan Woo Chung, a vice president at Samsung’s Mobile WiMax Group, declined to state the clients’ names and just told delegates to a conference in Singapore to “see early next year what will happen there.” The first customer, Chung said, has no plan to deploy a nationwide mobile WiMax network but will employ the technology for “special applications” in several Chinese provinces.

Samsung offers mobile WiMax technology with downlink speeds of up to 10.2Mbps, which can travel at 120 kilometers per hour. The company expects such speeds to increase to nearly 40Mbps by the third quarter of 2007. Chungs said Samsung has over 20 existing contracts for mobile WiMax trial networks this year.
Via [infoworld.nl]

IraqTel chose Redline Communications’ RedMAX products for a proposed WiMax network in Iraq. The country will initially deploy the network, the first of its kind in the war-torn country, in Basrah.

Recently, Redline announced its partnership with I-Systems to provide wireless broadband service in Lake Llanquihue, Chile. The service uses Redline’s AN-50e, part of the RedConnex line of broadband wireless infrastructure products, and offers high-speed wireless connections over distances reaching up to 32 kilometers to customers in the region.

Early this month, the company unveiled AN-80i, a carrier-class broadband wireless product that can render connection speeds of as high as 108 Mbps, and uses the license-exempt 5.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz frequency bands. The solution allows for voice, video and data services, and is intended for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint applications.
Via [wirelessweek.com]

Google wants access to as many as 1,500 city light poles in San Francisco for its own test network and exclusive from the citywide WiFi network that it proposed to the city. Google’s project partner, EarthLink, voiced the search giant’s request to city officials, which it said is a condition for Google’s participation in the project. The city earlier selected the proposal from the two companies to build and run the network at no cost to the city in exchange for the use of light poles and other areas where they can install access points. Brian Roberts, a senior policy analyst for the city, believes the request would not be accommodated under ongoing negotiations as it is well beyond the proposal presented to officials.
Via [pcworld.com]

The Wireless Silicon Valley task force is looking into plans by Bangalore to become “the second city in the world to be fully WiMax enabled.” Taiwan earlier claimed to be the first city providing its residents wireless connection anywhere, anytime.

The subject of Wireless Silicon Valley’s discussion ensued from an article in Hindustan Times written by Puneet Mehrotra. The writer believes the prospect that Bangalore would be ahead in the wireless race should not be a surprise as “it’s definitely not a rule that all the inventions and technological developments of the world will only take place in Silicon Valley.” Brian Moura, the co-chair of Wireless Silicon Valley, downplayed the perceived competition, saying “this isn’t so much about a race, it’s about setting up a wireless platform and doing it right.”

A group of companies including IBM and Cisco will build the Wireless Silicon Valley network, which aims to cater to as many as 2.4 million people in the South Bay area. The companies hope to establish one square-mile pilot programs in four communities in early 2007. According to IBM’s Brent Grotz, the network will initially use WiFi technology but could later be upgraded to WiMax.
Via [mercurynews.com]

Brasil Telecom Participações (BrT) looks to offer mobile WiMax to residents in the southern Brazilian cities of Porto Alegre and Curitiba. Dante Nardelli, who heads BrT’s technology and technical planning division, said the two cities are home to 200,500 broadband customers, which the company sees as potential WiMax users.

BrT’s WiMax unit Vant already obtained licenses in the 3.5Ghz and 10.5Ghz bands in 2003, and was hoping to also get licenses in the 5GHz and 10GHz spectra. Brazil’s third largest fixed line operator is currently waiting for the decision of national telecoms regulator Anatel as to whether concession contract holders can bid for licenses in areas where they have ongoing concession contracts.

The country is host to about 250 WiMax networks, which are either in operation or in the trial stage. Most, however, use the fixed or nomadic system.
Via [cellular-news.com]

Reports of ill effects on health have forced some schools in the U.K. to switch off their wireless networks. One such school is Carmarthenshire comprehensive Ysgol Pantycelyn. Headteacher Hywel Pugh said that, though the county council and central government gave assurances that wireless networks are safe, the school decided to take down WiFi due to parents’ concerns. The Stowe School in Buckinghamshire took the same action after a teacher fell violently ill allegedly due to radiation poisoning.

According to Sir William Stewart, who heads the Health Protection Agency, health risks associated with WiFi have become more evident over the last five years, and it is understandable if schools take precautionary steps. A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills maintained that it would be “up to individual schools to decide” on the matter.
Via [computeractive.co.uk]

A ruling by a federal judge in Tyler, Texas upheld the validity of a 1996 patent obtained by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) on a technology used in implementing wireless standards developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The said patent owned by Australia’s national science agency involves a key method for sending wireless signals via orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation. IEEE standards such as 802.11a, 802.11g and the proposed 802.11n, which is due to be ratified next year, all employ OFDM for wireless data transmission.

Judge Leonard Davis’ verdict also affirmed that WiFi routing gear maker Buffalo Technology has committed patent infringement. Unless it wins an appeal, the company could be required to pay no less than $1.5 million in damages to CSIRO.

Daniel J. Furniss of Townsend and Townsend and Crew, the law firm representing CSIRO, believes the decision could eventually translate to royalties being paid to the agency by over 100 companies. According to Furniss, CSIRO’s resolve to sue Buffalo ensued from the latter’s reluctance to discuss the agency’s claims. He did not give a specific number as to the amount of money CSIRO hopes to gain due to future license agreements.
Via [news.com.com]

LG Wireless is acquiring Alvarion’s Cellular Mobile business for $15 million. Alvarion believes the unit is not only a good fit for LG but also serves the best interest of shareholders. The deal, according to Alvarion President and CEO Tzvika Friedman, will also enable the company to devote all its resources to WiMax. The said technology accounts for a third of the company’s $54 million revenue for the third quarter. Alvarion disclosed that it has over 100 commercial deployments and 120 ongoing WiMax trials at present.
Via [wirelessweek.com]