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We live in a mobile world with an appetite for a rich palette of services that are required on demand, any time, any where. The services cover a diverse range of applications such as the ubiquitous telephone call, email, web browsing, and multimedia to name a few. SDA Asia spoke to SOMA Networks' Dr Frank Van Heeswyk about his views on Wireless Broadband, VoIP, WiMAX services, and also about what the future holds for wireless and mobility space.

SDA: What in your view is VoIP? Although it is touted to have more advantages than disadvantages, do you think it still lacks perfection?

Dr Frank Van Heeswyk: VoIP is a critical application necessary to provide a positive business case for carriers, and on the consumer side, it will be the future for consumer telephony. It offers true flexibility without being tied to old world telcos.

Quality VoIP requires highly skilled advanced engineering to offer toll-quality voice service. To offer the quality of service and capacity to drive strong economics for carriers (which in turn translates into lower prices and more features for consumers), one needs products and networks designed specifically to support VoIP.

SDA: What in your view makes wireless broadband and VoIP such sought-after approaches in enterprise business? Do you believe they can stand their ground as ‘the next big thing’ or are they only passing trends?

FvH: Wireless BB and VoIP is a very compelling combination of technologies. Key reasons include:

• Mobility/portability: Wireless BB unteathers people from their home phones and desks and gives them the freedom to access services whenever and where ever they want.
  
• Application integration: VoIP is but one of the applications that can be delivered on a wireless BB system. Web browsing, gaming, television, and email are a few of the other applications that can be integrated with VoIP onto a single mobile device. Integration enables the consumer to access all services through a single device and improves the operators business case through the addition of value added applications.
  
• System efficiencies: VoIP can deliver voice on a single converged network. The network provider no longer needs to deploy a network for voice and a network for other services. Network integration lowers the cost of delivering multiple services to the end customer.
  
• The WiMAX platform has all these characteristics. It has mobility through wireless access; end user devices can deliver a multitude of services; and the single delivery network is QoS enabled to deliver multiple services including VoIP.

SDA: SOMA Networks recently partnered with SANYO to release the SoftAir system, complete with a new base station and CPE. Please tell us a bit more about the new system. Why should WLAN users be excited about the new release?

FvH: SANYO is a global leader in consumer electronics and has vast experience with developing smaller, more advanced wireless devices. The SOMA-SANYO release of the SoftAir system is the culmination of the SOMA SoftAir system and SANYO's platform design expertise. This partnership marries SOMA's extensive expertise in developing advanced wireless systems with SANYO's ability to create leading edge telecom platforms. Two of the major platform components of the SoftAir system are the infrastructure base station (the "NPM") and the subscriber CPE (the 'SP'). The NPM's size and weight reduction simplify it's deployment and enable installation in a wider range of difficult to deploy scenarios such as space limited equipment rooms and wiring closets. The SP wireless broadband gateway is a compact, extremely easy to use, plug-and-play device that offers reliable high-speed Internet access and voice services. With a self-directing internal antenna, the SOMAport offers true indoor NLOS capability. We have developed a highly integrated System-on-Chip (SoC), enhancing reliability, cost-performance and a compact footprint. Furthermore, SOMAport 400 is available with IEEE802.11 (WiFi) option allowing the system to be connected via wireless LAN.

SDA: The new CPE is said to have developed in jumps and leaps over traditionally’dumb’ modems. However, what were the problems faced initially during development. What challenges still lie ahead in the area of wireless and mobility?

FvH: Until the advent of the SOMAport, CPEs available on the market typically only provided a dumb pipe that connected the users’ end devices (e.g., computer) to the Internet over a wireless link. There were no capabilities for adding intelligent or managed services. The SOMAport broke new ground by enabling the operator to deploy and manage value added services on the CPE. Voice is the first and one of the most highly valued services that is supported.

Adding voice to the CPE is not without its challenges however. Voice requires session initiation protocol (SIP) clients to manage voice calls, and voice coders to digitally encode and decode the voice. Transporting voice over wireless requires strict QoS to ensure the land line quality of the voice call that is expected by the end user. And sophisticated radio resource management is required to ensure that voice is appropriately provisioned and managed over the wireless link. All these challenges must be overcome to bring quality voice to the end user over the wireless link.

And there are still challenges that lie ahead. It is SOMA's and the wireless industry's vision to support a vast range of applications over the wireless link. The applications cover the range of voice, web browsing, television, email, and gaming to name a few. All of these applications will co-exist on the same shared wireless link. The QoS and management features of the end-to-end system must be able to keep pace with the demands of these additional applications.

Fortunately, the wireless standards framework set down by the WiMAX forum is well positioned to address this challenge. The WiMAX standard and SOMA's previous experience with voice form a powerful team for dealing with the challenges that lie ahead in this area.

SDA: Can you tell us a bit more about the benefits of an ‘all-IP multimedia system’?

FvH: The benefits of all-IP multimedia system include:

• Future proof
  
• All application are migrating to all IP for flexibility and scalability
  
• Single network for all applications: no more need for separate networks, there is one single network rather than two separate networks for voice and one for data. which makes it easier and less expensive for the carrier to deploy and maintain with less infrastructure = cost savings (i.e., fewer pieces of hardware) and operational cost savings (i.e., fewer people to manage it).
  
• Application integration onto single a single user platform: the SOMAport offers 3-in-1 functionality meanin gyou have a data router, a voice box and a wifi access point all in one device, One device that integrates all the applications. One device for the user to carry.
  
• Ease of new application deployment: the network features can support diverse application demands (bandwidth, latency, random access). The end user devices are configurable and software upgradeable. New applications can be added without changing devices.

SDA: What are the issues organisations of different sizes must consider before opting for a wireless solution?

FvH: Initial cost, ease of deployment, maintenance, scalability, support, and obsolescence are the issues that need to be considered by all organisations when selecting a wireless solution. The importance to each of these varies with the size of the organisation. For example, a small organisation is typically more front end cost sensitive than a large organisation and may be willing to sacrifice obsolescence and ease of deployment to keep the capital costs low. A large organization may be willing to spend more up front but is looking for good support and a predictable life span of the solution.

Wireless solutions are well suited to being the best solutions in all of these spheres for all sizes of organizations. The ubiquitous availability of hardware ensures they have low initial cost. The fact that they are wireless means they are easy and inexpensive to deploy. The systems are scalable through the addition of more wireless base stations. And now, with the advent of WiMAX, the base stations can be connected in a unified network that enables mobility and can be centrally managed.

SDA: Are there any supplementary services a customer must look out for?

FvH: Licensed spectrum, legacy infrastructure and comnsideration of the mix of services the carrier is looking to offer - infrastructure requirements are driven by additional services.

SDA: What are the top five questions a customer must ask a vendor before choosing a wireless solution?

FvH: The top five questions are:

• Capacity and coverage? How much throughput and how much coverage?
  
• Spectrum? What spectrum does it use? Is it license or unlicensed?
  
• QoS? Does it support QoS to ensure that the various services/applications can be reliably delivered? Does it support voice?
  
• Scalable? How do I add more capacity as my needs grow? Is there a technology evolution path that will add capacity in the future?
  
• Upgradeable? Can the system be software upgraded in the field to add new features/services?

SDA: SOMA Networks has partnered with different service providers such as Pacific Internet, Mobile One and Broadsoft in the last few years. How have the partners contributed to the research done by scientists at SOMA? Are there any more partnerships in the pipeline?

FvH: As and end-to-end solutions company, SOMA has to cover a very large technology space to ensure a quality end-to-end product. Our customers and partners play an important role in this ongoing challenge. It is through the continuing relationships with our customers that we gain understanding of their needs, their customer's needs, and the technologies they use in their systems. Likewise, our ongoing relationships with our partners keeps us abreast of their technological developments and equips us with the knowledge required to integrate those developments into SOMA products to solve our customers problems and/or add new value to their products. These ongoing customer and vendor relationships along with SOMA's philosophy of continuous innovation ensures that SOMA is always in tune with evolving technologies and the changing market place.

SDA: SOMA was recently picked by Milmex Systemy Komputerowe in Poland to provide WiMAX services. This new area of wireless communication is all the rage at present. What in your view makes WiMAX a leader in the wireless arena?

FvH: Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e-2005) is the most advanced wireless solution because:

• Smart antennas: improves coverage and capacity of the system and hence sets a new bar for the economics of wireless systems (i.e., lowest cost per bit delivered).
  
• It is an international standard: the standard was developed by representatives from service providers, equipment providers, system integrators, chip manufacturers, and end users from around the globe. This international community developed a standard that address the needs of most markets around the globe.
  
• The international ecosystem brings down price of equipment through larger economices of scale.
  
• Uses spectrum that is readily available around the world: The large market will lead to a multitude of equipment providers which will bring the cost down. The global spectrum enables devices to roam all over the world.
  
• All IP network: WiMAX is the first wireless standard to be designed from the ground-up to leverage the power of the internet and to use IP all the way to the edge of the wireless network. The all-IP architecture enables the delivery of all the applications available on IP systems today and into the future.

SDA: What, in your view, does the future hold for wireless and mobility? Can you predict the road wireless development will take in the next five years?

FvH: Wireless and mobility are the future of access. We live in a mobile world with an appetite for a rich palette of services that are required on demand, any time, any where. The services cover a diverse range of applications such as the ubiquitous telephone call, email, web browsing, and multimedia to name a few. Only wireless systems can meet these demands. To meet these demands wireless systems will have to have infrastructures that support IP, over broadband speeds, have ubiquitous coverage, are low cost, and are available around the world.

We are not at this point today. Some systems today have good coverage but aren't offering broadband speeds. Others offer high bandwidth but with spotty coverage. Few support all IP infrastructures and can deliver a vast array of services (SOMA is the exception on this front). The industry will make progress on all these fronts over the next five years. WiMAX is the only standard positioned to deliver on all these fronts in a relatively short time frame. The combination of various next gen technologies into one standard such as mobile WiMAX will offer the only all IP, broadband, large coverage, low cost, world wide standard that can meet future challenges.