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Institute for Prospective Technological Studies Mapping European Wireless Trends and Drivers EUR 22250 EN TECHNICAL REPORT SERIES Synthesis Report
Institute forProspectiveTechnological Studies
Mapping EuropeanWireless Trendsand Drivers
EUR 22250 EN
T E C H N I C A L R E P O R T S E R I E S
Synthesis Report
Themission of the IPTS is to provide customer-driven support to the EU policy-making process by researching science-based responses to policy challenges that have both a socio-economic as well as a scientific/technological dimension.
EUR 22250 EN
Mapping European Wireless Trends and Drivers
Synthesis Report
Editors:
E. Bohlin, S. Lindmark, C. Rodríguezand J-C. Burgelman.
DG JRC-IPTS
Authors:
P. Ballon, C. Blackman, E. Bohlin, S. de Munck, S. Forge, J. Heres, A. Kips, S. Lindmark, R. Tee, W.-P. van der Laan, M. van Staden and U. Wehn de Montalvo.
TNO
April 2006
European Commission
Joint Research Centre (DG JRC)
Institute for Prospective Technological Studies
http://www.jrc.es
Legal notice
Neither the European Commission nor any
person acting on behalf of the Commission is
responsible for the use which might be made of
the following information.
Luxembourg: Office for Official
Publications of the European Communities
ISBN 92-79-02035-8
Catalogue Nr.: LF-NA-22250-EN-C
© European Communities, 2006
Reproduction is authorised provided the
source is acknowledged
Printed in Spain
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Preface
New wireless technologies like WiFi, WiMax, UWB as well as mesh and ad hoc networking are
spreading increasingly fast in Europe. Wireless technologies are now at a critical juncture because different
combinations of these could disrupt the existing mobile landscape, dominated at the moment by the GSM
and UMTS standards.
The future of the wireless communication system and the implications for Europe has been of growing
interest to the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS).1 Since 2003, several studies on the
future of the wireless communication system have been published.
IPTS launched the present study for three reasons: to map the new wireless developments in Europe;
to analyze drivers of the same and provide policy and regulatory recommendations. To that end, the term
Alternative Wireless Technologies (AWTs) has been employed to collect the various new technologies
under one umbrella. This term is being increasingly used in the trade press as well. However, a major
conclusion of the report is that the new wireless landscape will involve several types of technologies,
interconnecting with one another, and not necessarily excluding the traditional cellular technologies, but
rather complementing and reinforcing them. To that end, the report has developed technology maps to
illustrate the scope and overlaps between the various technologies.
As the new wireless landscape emerges, the trend towards Ambient Intelligence (AmI) begins to
receive general recognition. Wireless technologies will support the future AmI networks, and this report
suggests that the new wireless landscape offers the potential for seamless connectivity over various types
of data ranges and distance coverage ratios. Therefore, it seems appropriate to suggest here that this report
not only identifies AWT in the above sense, but there will be a shift towards a new form of AWTs - Ambient
Wireless Technologies. The emerging landscape of Ambient Wireless Technologies is likely to become an
issue of increasing industrial and policy attention, providing momentum for future studies on AWTs in this
new sense.
Jean-Claude Burgelman
Head of the ICT Unit, IPTS
1 IPTS, based in Seville, Spain, is one of seven research institutes that make up the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre
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Acknowledgements
A number of key individuals and organisations ensured the completion of this volume, and their
assistance has been essential.
Critical support and active advice have been provided by IPTS during the project and project
meetings by:
• Anna-Flavia Bianchi
• Marc Bogdanowicz
• Layos Nyiri
• Yves Punie
• David Osimo
• Martin Ulbrich
• Dieter Zinnbauer
The following partner organisations contributed to the report as follows:
• IMIT: Erik Bohlin (Project Manager) and Sven Lindmark (Synthesis Report, Editors of Annex 1-3)
• SCF Associates: Simon Forge and Colin Blackman (Annex 2-3)
• TNO: Pieter Ballon, Uta Wehn de Montalvo, Annemieke Kips, Mildo van Staden, Jeroen Heres,
Richard Tee, Silvain de Munck and Willem-Pieter van der Laan (Annex 1-2)
The whole team is grateful to the colleagues of DG INFSO who provided extremely valuable help
with validating the research results.
Note: This is the Synthesis Report of all the findings of MEWTAD project. The complete MEWTAD
Final Report consists of this Synthesis Report plus Annex 1-3, one for each work package (Annex 1-3,
corresponding to WP1-3). Annex 1-3 will only be available on the DG JRC-IPTS website (www.jrc.es) and
not published as printed paper copy. The findings presented herein are solely the personal opinions of the
authors, and should not be construed to represent the opinions of the European Commission.
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sExecutive summary
Background
The European ICT sector has enjoyed
outstanding success in the second generation
(2G) of mobile telecommunications. Whilst the
European industry has developed 3G systems
largely as a generational successor to 2G, a
plethora of competing (and complementing)
wireless technologies and solutions, often
stemming from the computer industry, have
entered the scene. For short, these are denoted
alternative wireless technologies (AWTs). Such
AWTs create new growth opportunities but may
also constitute a disruptive threat to existing
networks and their supporting communities.
Hence, there is a strong and urgent need to
research the usage of AWTs, as well as the trends
and drivers currently catalysing their diffusion.
Objectives
The objectives of this study are to (1) map
wireless technologies in Europe and the current
trends in development; (2) analyse the drivers that
could support these emerging technologies, with
particular emphasis on safety and security and
mobile virtual communities (MVCs); (3) examine
the effect that the regulatory environment
will have on the evolution of these alternative
wireless technologies, identify policy options and
implications for European Union (EU) member
states (MS) and provide policy recommendations.
AWT Overview
For the purposes of this study, AWTs
cover all emerging wireless technologies with
the exception of traditional cellular mobile
technologies (2G, 3G). AWTs enable, in sum,
the provisioning of existing and new services to
mobile users and allow communications between
computers, PDAs, phones, consumer electronics
devices and appliances – in office, home, and/
or public environments. AWTs may operate in
licensed or unlicensed frequency bands, and can
be applied in a number of different topologies
such as mesh networks and ad-hoc networks. The
figure below identifies and maps out a number of
Wireless Technology Overview
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ary wireless technologies; the basic dimensions are
commonly agreed upon to determine of the types
of services and business models that they are able
to support – speed and mobility.
Here we note that the current crop of
AWTs is not the final set. The mobile and
wireless arena is an extremely dynamic scene in
which technologies are adapted, extended and
converging towards ever-increasing bandwidths
and mobility. The AWTs covered in this report
are either: (1) existing in the market today, and/
or (2) on their way towards standardisation or
in advanced R&D stages, and/or (3) potentially
presenting a challenge to traditional business
models in the mobile market. Specifically, we
consider the following types and technologies:2
• short-range protocols (such as WLAN /Wi-Fi,
UWB, NFC, ZigBee and Bluetooth)
• longer-range protocols (WiMax, Flash
OFDM, 3G enhancements such as UMTS-
TDD)
• mesh and ad-hoc networking
Mapping Availability and Usage in the EU
The report presents an analysis of the
availability and usage of a number of selected
AWTs – UWB, WiMax (802.16x), Flash-OFDM
(802.20x), Wi-Fi (802.11x), Meshed and Ad-
hoc Networks and UMTS TDD – in the EU. The
technologies were selected on the basis of their
potential for the provision of alternative non-
Country UWB WLAN (pre) WiMax Flash OFDM Mesh/Ad-hoc UMTS TDD
Austria commercial deployment useBelgium commercial commercial useCyprus commercial trialCzech Rep. commercial trial useDenmark commercial commercial useEstonia commercial trialFinland commercial trial useFrance commercial commercial commercial trialGermany commercial commercial commercial commercialGreece commercial useHungary commercial deploymentIreland commercial commercial deployment deploymentItaly commercial commercialLatvia commercial commercial commercialLithuania commercial trial deploymentLuxembourg commercialMalta commercialNetherlands commercial commercial trial usePoland commercial commercialPortugal commercial commercialSlovakia commercialSlovenia commercial commercialSpain commercial commercial useSweden commercial trial use deploymentUK commercial commercial commercial commercial
Overview of Selected AWT Activity in EU25
2 For the purposes of this report, satellite- and airship-based communications as well as broadcasting technologies (e.g. DVB) are excluded.
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s(traditional) operator-centric access. The table
below brings together the observations in an
overview at country level of where these AWT
activities are taking place, along with an overview
of the phase of development.
Clearly the most dynamic markets, in terms
of the variety of AWTs being used or deployed,
are situated in Western Europe and Scandinavia.
France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands,
Sweden and the UK present the most diverse
European markets in terms of AWTs, with almost
all AWTs under review being deployed or used in
these countries.
The overview table also demonstrates that
while UWB and Flash OFDM are marginal or
non-existent on the EU market, (pre)WiMax,
Mesh/Ad-hoc technologies and UMTS-TDD
are available or being deployed in numerous,
or even most, of the EU member states. WLAN,
in the form of Wi-Fi, is by far the most mature
technology considered in this report. It has been
on the market for several years and is used by a
wide range of user groups.
We also investigate the type of operators and
their strategies regarding AWT initiatives. Clearly,
traditional operators have taken the lead in the
deployment and exploitation of AWTs throughout
most of Europe. This suggests that there are at
present constraints in Europe for AWTs being
used in a non- (traditional) operator-centric
manner, even though in some countries there
is some moderate or even strong non-operator-
centric activity.
Drivers and bottlenecks
In general, the following drivers and
bottlenecks for AWTs are mentioned most
frequently and highlighted as most important by
EU experts today.
Mobile Virtual Communities, Security and Safety and AWTs
The report explores the (potential) relationship
between mobile virtual communities (MVCs) and
AWTs. It was found that current and emerging
General AWT Drivers and Bottlenecks
Drivers Bottlenecks
- Poor fixed broadband infrastructure development in many small cities, towns, rural and remote areas across Europe.
- Government incentives, programmes and public-private partnerships to stimulate broadband connectivity.
- Competition in Wi-Fi markets, e.g. because of relatively low prices of Wi-Fi deployment, driving prices down and ensuring relatively high coverage in a number of countries.
- Success of private in-house WLANs, which might stimulate the usage of public WLANs.
- Emerging integration of AWT and mobile capabilities in dual mode handsets.
- Falling hardware prices and backhaul costs.
- Limited number of licensed operators in some markets, creating incentives for new stakeholders to enter national markets using AWTs.
- New applications and possibilities such as VoIP over wireless, deployment of AWTs on trains etc.
- Expected expansion of WiMax with mobility characteristics.
- Lack of interconnection and roaming agreements, especially between new AWT operators.
- Pricing models of public hotspot access in many EU countries still oriented towards occasional use, limiting scope of AWTs to business market.
- Licensing regimes in many EU countries imposing limitations on spectrum availability, deployment, handoff and integration of AWT cells, and generally allowing technical experiments with AWTs but no market experiments.
- Persistent standardisation problems.
- Lack of user-friendliness in access, authentication and billing procedures.
- Lack of structural advantages (in terms of speed or cost) over fixed broadband, and therefore a lack of incentives for AWTs in areas with well-developed fixed broadband infrastructure.
- Potential saturation and congestion of unlicensed spectrum in prime locations.
- Limited amount of terminals and other certified equipment in the market.
- Lack of customer education, i.e. in terms of differences between mobile and various AWTs.
- Lack of content applications.
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ary instances of MVCs are primarily related to mobile
cellular technologies (with voice and messaging
being strongly community-related). Voice over
Wireless IP has persistently been referred to as the
so-called killer application for AWTs. However,
there are still a number of barriers limiting the
market prospects (and thus community impact)
in the short to medium term. Currently, the main
development (at a modest level) is instead the
proliferation of wireless communities for the
joint deployment and operation of Wi-Fi hotspots
and clouds. Geographical and participatory
limitations of current AWTs are the main factors
hindering the development of AWT-based MVC
today.
AWT networks are finding major and
increasing usage in security, health care and
safety of everyday life. For security purposes,
AWTs lend themselves to providing police fire
and ambulance services, as well as security
services with extremely robust C4 (command /
control / communication / co-ordination) systems,
not least for alerts and disaster situations.
Safety of life and property using AWT
capability covers many areas, but two appear
particularly significant: (1) the use of wireless
sensor networks for detecting unsafe situations,
be they in a specific environment, a city, a
chemical plant, or tracking potentially hazardous
moving items such as containers; and (2) mobile
applications for vehicle and traffic management
hazards – termed telematics. AWT networks could
form the basis of a ‘second network’ to provide
the citizen with a dedicated alert channel, due
to their ubiquity, robustness and low cost relative
to other radio technologies such as mobile
cellular (as shown by a case study – WARN).
In addition, mesh forms of AWTs have inherent
resistance to attack due to their non-centralised
locus of control, and thus are attractive for this
application.
Despite the widespread use of AWTs in
emergency and security applications, perhaps
it is in the development of ubiquitous networks
for health care, including mental health, that
the greatest advances are to be seen. In health
care, AWTs can be used in several applications,
including (1) telemedicine where the ubiquity of
AWTs enables expertise and scientific monitoring
of care in the hospital to be transferred to care
in the home for aged and infirm people; (2)
numerous uses in hospital networks; (3) personal
and wearable health networks (Healthwear)
attached to the body of the patient will extend
care into the home from hospital, an area where
little success has been found so far with effective
telemedicine. These may be used for early
detection of failing mental as well as physical
conditions, by going into social interaction as
much as monitoring body parameters directly.
Finally, AWTs may be used in (4) ambulance
control and on-site support, where for instance
images can be transferred from first responders to
a moving ambulance to prepare its medicos for
the injuries and the general scene.
This report also pursues an analysis of security
threats created by AWTs including threats to the
person, personal details and data for emergency
and community services and services such as
m-commerce, including content distribution. A
summary of security challenges is shown in the
figure below.
Impacts could possibly be even greater than
the current nuisances of Internet threats, e.g.
emergency services could be brought down. New
services also bring a range of responsibilities and
vulnerabilities never seen before – the multimedia
handset equals the PC in intelligence and
programmability with Java-based applications, the
network becomes an IP packet-based transport
mechanism, with intelligent gateways and
service agents at its edges, while the IT content
server side expands in complexity and size. One
key difference in security architectures for AWT
networks, compared to previous radio networks
of cellular form, is that they may be non-operator-
centric, yielding major authentication issues.
Here we also would highlight a high-risk threat
to AWT market take-off. If such menaces get out
of control, the whole wireless market could be
undermined in the subsequent fall-out. Citizen
and consumer trust would be destroyed.
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In sum, protection of AWT systems end-to-
end is a major challenge. To be effective across
the multimedia wireless environment, security
needs to be addressed as a key component of the
overall infrastructure, with a security platform to
protect all components (servers, networks and
handsets) designed in from the start – and not
bolted on at the end.
AWTs in Korea – a Case Study
This report summarises for policy-makers
certain key lessons that we may draw from the
Korea experience, a country which has made
major strides in ICT over the past three decades.
Globally Korea is probably the most advanced
AWT market, as indicated by more than 35%
of the world’s total Wi-Fi hotspots; industrial
AWT networks such as ZigBee for RFID and
industrial sensors being piloted; most terminal
and handset devices designed and manufactured
in Korea having short-range AWTs embedded
such as Bluetooth and RFID and, not least, with
the development of the ‘Portable Internet’ using
a home-grown AWT, WiBro. In addition, there
is a strong policy drive towards an increasingly
converged broadband network environment
termed the BCN.
The drivers behind this Korean success
cannot be understood without taking the
historical context in socio-economic terms into
consideration, as well as the social environment
it has created, the social drive to move forward
including the Korean view of technology in
society. With these background factors in mind,
government intervention and orchestration of the
private sector is perhaps the key factor. Over two
decades, the Korean government has orchestrated
support for ICTs with a series of interconnected
programmes, each with defined economic
aims. The latest of these programmes – IT 839 –
includes AWTs to a high degree. Also, the Korean
regulatory regime has created a fairly level
playing field in telecommunications competition,
Security Challenges of Wideband Multimedia Elements
Source: SCF Associates
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ary with restrictions on ownership for different types
of networks, allowing and even forcing the
sharing of infrastructures according to dynamic
financial models. In addition, it has cleverly used
its revenues from spectrum licences and taxes
on operators as a strategic re-investment fund for
telecommunications infrastructure and research.
A point also notable for policy setters, with a
clear-cut policy of picking-the-winners, is that
Korea often takes a contrarian view on standards
in order to be first in new technology. Education
for adults on a mass scale in the late 1990s
further strengthened Korea’s growth. Finally, on
the demand side, trust in the use of technology
and the expected absence of misuses means
that confidence and acceptance of widespread
usage and even intrusion into everyday life are far
higher than in other cultures.
Policy analysis and implications
This study has gathered evidence indicating
that AWTs are likely to become a major
technological development with important
economic implications for Europe, especially
once the non-operator-centric model is unleashed
and competitive. There is a strong argument in
favour of Europe adopting an integrated approach
to the policy and regulatory issues arising from
AWTs (e.g. spectrum policy and regulation;
competition policy and regulation; licensing
schemes, access and interoperability, network
rollout, security policy and regulation, privacy and
data protection, standardisation, IPR including
digital copyrights, R&D, funding, education
and promotion). However, these are sensitive
issues and care needs to be taken in striking the
right balance between command-style dirigiste
intervention, which would not fit with how the
European Union and the Member States interact,
and a repetition of the experience with previous
European programmes which have been long on
time to organise and get results from. In spite of
the difficulties, the key policy conclusion from
this study is that AWTs’ real significance in the
long term means that a comprehensive European
approach to AWTs is justified. The significance of
AWTs is likely to be downplayed if left to current
market forces and those players dominated by
interests in conventional fixed wire or 2G and 3G
cellular mobile technologies. Moreover, unless
Europe grasps the mettle on AWTs and acts
positively and quickly, it will be left behind by
both North America and Asia.
This policy analysis examines AWTs by
means of a summary SWOT analysis, from the
viewpoint of the EU citizen, summarised in the
table below.
From each strength, weakness, opportunity
and threat we assess the implications for policy
and regulation (see Annex 3). In this report we
instead state policy implications and measures
thematically. First, we conclude that there is a
need for setting a blueprint for AWT development
and usages, for the next 10 years, which covers
a broadband wireless infrastructure and its
applications, and includes converging and
competing technologies. To conclude, a European
policy for AWT take-up should revolve around
the following activity areas:
1. Spectrum allocation – be it in licensed or (new)
unlicensed bands. There is a need to rethink
policy for spectrum allocation at the highest
levels for Europe, Member States, and globally
to incorporate AWTs adequately. AWTs may
need to have frequency bands currently
taken by broadcast, mobile cellular, or the
military. By WRC-07, it would be judicious
to have reconsidered the current allocation
of spectrum in view of the economic benefits
of AWTs for Europe, and abandoning existing
frequency plans. Consideration of spectrum
policy for AWTs must take into account two
key factors: (1) spectrum availability must
be matched against technology type, where
we must balance the social and commercial
importance of existing services; and (2) the
form of spectrum allocation needs to be
decided.
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sSWOT Analysis of AWTs from the Perspective of the EU Citizen
STRENGTHSAWTs fill the gaps left by cellular
Lower costs than cellular in many applications
Fast to rollout compared with cellular
Bandwidth higher than 3G
Can cut costs and delays by eliminating large capacity backhaul lines in MAN installations
Cost and installation advantages add up to a way to provide municipalities with a chance to enhance their value with mobile Internet access
Can act in mobile roaming mode (e.g. mobile WiMax)
European industry – in a good position in design coming from cellular on chips, antennae, military electronics including radar, specialist chip manufacture, despite US lead today, as Europe does have mesh software providers
Europe’s collaborative approach experience and ability
WEAKNESSESNo real place today in European telecommunications and media, nor part of an overall plan for communications
Not understood by mass markets
AWT capabilities and positioning are still not well understood by EU industry and technical centres of expertise. More effort on basic radio research is needed.
More clarity is required on spectrum needed
European mobile incumbents are well entrenched; in contrast AWTs are in a weak market position, with no champions, promotion or financial muscle
Security problems abound
European industry has been a follower so far
All successful AWT standards so far are US (IEEE series)
Europe’s forced collaborative approach on decisions and new programmes makes all policy initiatives slow
OPPORTUNITIESDesigning and producing AWT technology and equipment with the aim of developing leadership in broadband wireless (e.g. multi-mode self-adaptive terminals according to performance/cost preferences)
Export opportunities of bringing Internet connectivity to the developing world (cf. Korea’s WiBro)
Expanding scope of European industry – new ventures in consumer and verticals, especially health including frail and mental health conditions
AWTs ideal for SME involvement and start-ups – could seed a whole new EU sector of SME chains
Offer Internet access to all of Europe at low cost (and VoIP) via public and municipal access networks
High broadband penetration via wireless will stimulate feeder industries (e.g. media) & user industries (e.g. medicine)
Economic impacts of better health/elderly care at lower cost
Set standards lacking in mesh networking software and processes, possibly via Open Source software routes
THREATS
Security threats due to pervasive coverage, increased band-width, new bodily proximity connectivity (BANs). Innocent and unaware user population: Threats include: (1) attacks on emergency services; (2) attacks on the core ICT infrastruc-ture; (3) identity theft from citizens; (4) privacy threats to citizens; (5) malware attacks of all kinds on citizens, attached machines and organisations, plus the new types of attack that will come with VoIP; (6) car telematics – accidents caused by malicious messages; (7) body area networks; (8) M-com-merce threats; (9) M-Banking threats, including EFT; and (10) security threats to industrial sensor networks.
Cellular mobile industry views AWTs as a major threat.
Cellular operators, challenged by AWTs, competing with a dif-ferent business model which may outstrip the mobile busi-ness model in value to the customer.
Wireless health issues are not yet understood for cellular and non-cellular access techniques. AWTs are often likely to be worn continually and the effects of low-power continuous ra-diation needs to be examined.
2. Competition policy and regulation. To create
an active AWT-based communications
market, it will be critical to form conditions
of freedom of market entry for new players
without restrictive practices, be it in
interworking – physical attachment, protocols
at network or at application level – or in
related areas such as media content or in
dependencies such as the software for ‘media
players’ and operating systems’. In principle,
Europe may need to reconsider competition
policy with regard to telecommunications
specifically to encourage the entry of new
services from new providers over AWTs.
3. Harmonising Licensing Schemes. If a
regulated AWT market does arise, major
decisions will revolve around the forms
of licence, in terms of whether it is for
spectrum usage or a general licence to
operate with both service provision and AWT
infrastructure ownership, or a service over a
third party’s approved AWT infrastructure.
Major concerns here are the allocation
process for licences and types of licensing.
In summary, policy directions should revolve
around a lighter regulatory regime for the new
entrants, perhaps unlicensed, but with forced
interconnect to incumbents (see below).
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ary EC recommendations to the regulators
in the MS would be to view the business
case differences as an opportunity to bring
competition to what may be an oligopolistic
market – while using AWT licensing,
if deemed necessary, firstly to promote
competition by ensuring that new entrants
have licences, and secondly to ensure that
security measures are implemented.
4. Access and Interoperability. A related area
for policy decision is on the assurance of
interconnection access by the new entrants
to existing networks. Issues of roaming,
interconnection and termination charges
must be considered, with cost-based
pricing to prevent monopolistic margins
on interconnect activity. AWTs could then
provide strong local loop competition.
Assuring connection of any-to-any covers
several areas including: (1) open access;
(2) mandated mobile exchanges; (3) pricing
models extending into interconnection and
the billing settlements, with termination
and roaming agreements; (4) naming and
addressing – ENUM (e-number) scheme
for mapping a PSTN telephone number
into a typical Internet Uniform Resource
Locator (URL); (5) universal service; and (6)
emergency number obligations.
5. Network Rollout. In AWT networks,
once network interconnection is assured,
network roll-out is not contaminated with
difficult issues. However, they pose a strong
competitive threat to incumbent technology
stakeholders who may complain to the
regulators that AWT operation undermines
their USO requirements, or that AWT
operators should be regulated by heavier
taxes due to the unfair competition, or
even banned as they may be operated
by municipalities and others who are not
licensed and regulated telcos.
6. Security. Protecting citizens and businesses
by ensuring that security measures are
adequate for the challenge of maintaining
users’ confidence. A complete reform of
Internet security backed by legislation and
policy measures is needed for what should
be allowed/prevented. AWTs need to have
a security layer built into their network
architecture, as their ubiquity becomes the
users’ vulnerability.
7. Privacy needs to be ensured through data
protection legislation and current policy
on the rights of the citizen. A balance
between privacy concerns and convenience,
security and utility of AWTs must obviously
be reached – to protect efficiently against
eavesdropping on conversations, identity
and any personal data theft, and personal
tracking. Privacy protection regulations
for AWT public services will follow those
envisaged for cellular mobile for aggregation
of personal data. For privately deployed
networks, confidentiality can only be assured
if the equipment has security measures built
in as standard.
8. Standards setting, with participation of
ETSI, building on the IEEE 802 standards
series at a basic communications protocol
level, and moving up e.g. the seven-layer
model to build complete systems that can be
easily integrated into a broadband wireless
network for intelligent adaptive network
operation, using mesh network architectures
with cognitive radio front-ends for self-
organising communications structures. The
security issue is far too important to be left
to the suppliers or to ad-hoc development;
its co-ordination is an ideal task for an EC
programme.
9. Patent and Copyright Policy. IPR from
R&D in the supported initiatives for
AWT networking, including security and
application environments (such as operating
systems and microbrowsers), should all be
under open source licence and no software
patents permitted, unless they are in the
public domain. In certain contexts of peer-
to-peer content creation, this Open Source
approach to copyright would extend to
content and media copyright protection so
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sthat DRM should be available in multiple
forms. For the future, the reciprocal of DRM
(digital rights management for commercial
media content) might have to be applied in
the far wider field of personal data available
through AWTs – the notion of ‘digital privacy
management’.
10. R&D Programmes. R&D encouragement is
needed through appropriate programmes.
The current R&D programmes do not
consider the opportunities and challenges
of AWTs, and especially their applications,
for specialist areas of emergency services,
health and care of the aged. They are largely
ignorant of these areas’ importance, perhaps
even of their existence. Programmes that
specifically examine and extend existing
AWTs, as well as research for new ones, with
support for standards are needed in three
major areas:
• first, basic radio technology to further
the understanding of AWT signal
propagation, signal processing, and
identification, especially for spectrum
sharing;
• second, exploration and resolution of
all security issues, with reformulation of
the Internet structure where needed for
secure ubiquitous environments for the
citizen;
• third, applications programmes in the
vertical segments of health care, telecare
for the elderly, logistics and retail and
emergency services.
We suggest a two-step approach to
strengthening European research in these
areas. First, a European Alternative Radio
Network Research Programme should
be established as a matter of urgency,
within a timeframe of months. Then,
we suggest the formation of a European
Radiocommunications Research Institute
– ERRI – as a further initiative to pursue
the full promise of the new directions in
radio. ERRI would be a European research
and development centre for AWT radio
technologies and networking architectures.
Jointly funded by industry, national
governments and the EC, the first phase
of rapid set-up and early growth could
be through a joint programme of projects
distributed across existing universities. This
would form a launch pad for the second
phase, of setting up a permanent institute
with its own faculty and facilities at one
site. ERRI would have twin research roles,
of primary and applied research, to form an
international centre of excellence.
11. Funding, Encouragement, Education and
Promotion.
• In view of the opportunity, a
funded programme for research
and demonstrator implementations
should be set up. Here, taking the
revenues from spectrum licences and
taxes on operators for a strategic re-
investment fund for telecommunications
infrastructure and research should be
considered. In addition, SMEs and new
ventures should be encouraged and
supported with capital, programmes
of research, supply contracts for
demonstrator projects etc. A programme
for setting up and incubating AWT start-
ups should also be a major priority.
• Awareness programmes will also be
necessary in Europe, to explain the
technology and its position against
other communications and media
technologies, to show what it can do.
It would also be useful to consider
education programmes.
• Test beds. It would be most useful to
build a range of European test beds at
a national (or EU) level, the aims being
to stimulate the economy by proving
technology and, most importantly, to
educate both the work force and society
in general. The large demonstrator
projects would revolve around four main
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ary initiatives: (1) a pan-European wireless
broadband network infrastructure
(EWBNI); (2) a European citizen-alert
network (CAN), perhaps using a mesh
infrastructure; (3) a European Emergency
Services Infrastructure Network (EESIN)
only accessible by emergency services,
with an architecture for robust operation
in all situations; and (4) European
recovery network for attacks and
disasters (ERNAD), a temporary network
to be set up instantly whenever and
wherever infrastructure fails. Across
these horizontal networks may run
some specialised vertical demonstrator
projects, which are most likely to made
up of many small projects – for instance,
use of BANs in mental health for a
specific disabling condition – rather
than large horizontal networks. Health
and elderly care would also try to show
improvements in quality of care against
lowering the costs of their service. Each
demonstrator would be underpinned by
both temporary research projects and
long-term research in the ERRI institute
and in its predecessor distributed
research programme across several
research departments in leading
universities.
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Table of contents
Preface 3
Acknowledgements 5
Executive summary 7
Chapter 1. Introduction 211.1 Background 211.2 Objectives 211.3 Methodology 211.4 Work Packages and Annexes 21
1.4.1 WP1 – MappingtheExistingEuropeanWirelessLandscapeand CurrentTrends 21
1.4.2 WP2– Drivers 221.4.3 WP3 – ImplicationsofAWTsforEuropeandPolicy
Recommendations 221.4.4 WP4– SynthesisExercise 23
1.5 Structure of this Report 23
Chapter 2. AWT – Introduction and Overview 252.1 AWTs Defined 252.2 Overview of Technologies and Supporting Communities 252.3 AWT Descriptions 26
2.3.1 UWB(Ultra-Wideband) 262.3.2 WiMax(802.16x) 272.3.3 Wi-Fi(802.11x) 282.3.4 FlashOFDM(802.20) 282.3.5 MeshedandAd-hocNetworks 292.3.6 Bluetooth(IEEE802.15.1) 302.3.7 NFC(NearFieldCommunication) 302.3.8 ZigBee(IEEE802.15.4) 302.3.9 RFID 312.3.10 ExpectedenhancementsofUMTS 31
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Chapter 3. AWT Availability and Usage in the EU 353.1 Summarising AWT Activities in Europe 353.2 Wi-Fi /WLAN 36
3.2.1 KeyObservations 363.2.2 MappingWLANAvailabilityinEurope 37
3.3 Other AWTs 393.3.1 UWB 403.3.2 (Pre-)WiMax 403.3.3 Mesh/Ad-hocNetworks 413.3.4 FlashOFDM 423.3.5 UMTS-TDD 43
3.4 (Non-) Operator Centricity of AWTs in Europe 443.5 Conclusions and Future Directions for AWTs in Europe 45
Chapter 4. Drivers – MVCs, Security and Safety 474.1 General Drivers and Bottlenecks 474.2 Mobile Virtual Communities 474.3 AWTs Enabling Safety and Security Applications 484.4 AWTs as a Security Threat 50
Chapter 5. AWTS in Korea – A Case Study 555.1 Korean ICT and AWT Market 555.2 Drivers for AWT Take-up 565.3 Main Future Research Areas and the Asian Context 59
Chapter 6. Policy Analysis and Recommendations 616.1 The New Radio Evolution 61
6.1.1 TheMapforEUPolicyonAWTs 616.1.2 CurrentPolicyandRegulationConcerningAWTs 626.1.3 AWTsinsupportofEuropeanInnovationandCompetitiveness 636.1.4 TheChallengesandOpportunitiesforEurope–SWOT 646.1.5 TowardsEuropeanIndustrialPolicyforAWTs 64
6.2 Resultant Policy Recommendations 646.2.1 SpectrumPolicyandRegulation 656.2.2 CompetitionPolicyandRegulation 666.2.3 HarmonisingLicensingSchemes 666.2.4 AccessandInteroperability 676.2.5 NetworkRollout 676.2.6 SecurityPolicyandRegulation 676.2.7 PrivacyandDataProtection 686.2.8 Standards 68
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6.2.9 DRM,IPR,ContentandMediaCopyrightPolicy 696.2.10 R&DProgrammes 706.2.11Funding,Encouragement,EducationandPromotion 71
6.3 Issues for Further Research 73
References 75
List of Abbreviations 77
Annex 1: Mapping the Existing European Wireless Landscape and Current Trends
(Available on the JRC-IPTS Website - www.jrc.es)
Annex 2: Drivers (Available on the JRC-IPTS Website - www.jrc.es)
Annex 3: Implications of Alternative Wireless Technologies for Europe and
Policy Recommendations (Available on the JRC-IPTS Website - www.jrc.es)
List of tablesTable 3-1 Overview of Selected AWT Activity in EU25 35Table 3-2 Aggregated Hotspot Data 38Table 3-3 Number of EU25 Countries with Selected AWT Activity 39Table 3-4 Operator Centricity of AWT Initiatives in Europe 44Table 4-1 General AWT Drivers and Bottlenecks 47Table 4-2 AWTs and Safety/Security Applications 49Table 5-1 Key AWT and Suppliers Status in Korea 56Table 6-1 SWOT Analysis of AWTs from the Perspective of the EU Citizen 65
List of figuresFigure 2-1 Wireless Technology Overview 26Figure 3-1 Growth Estimates of AWTs in EU25 Member States 45Figure 4-1 Security Challenges of Wideband Multimedia Elements 52Figure 5-1 Korean government ICT programmes 58Figure 5-2 Korea’s Latest Medium Strategy Plan for IT – 839 60Figure 6-1 Work Programme for Establishing European Success in AWTs 72
List of mapsMap 3-1 Hotspots per 100,000 Inhabitants in EU25 plus 4 (june 2005) 38Map 3-2 Geographical Spread of Hotspots over EU 25 plus 4 (March 2005) 39Map 3-3 WiMax Activities in Europe, June 2005 41Map 3-4 Mesh / Ad-hoc Network Activities in Europe, June 2005 42Map 3-5 UMTS TDD Activities in Europe, June 2005 43
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s1. Introduction
1.1 Background
The European telecommunications and
electronics industry has enjoyed outstanding
success in the second generation (2G) of mobile
telecommunications. In a relatively short time
period, European actors have established leading
positions in system, handset, and operator levels
of the actor system. As in all lucrative industries,
this lead will not be left unchallenged. In the
ongoing transition to third-generation (3G)
mobile communications, and perhaps even more
so in the coming fourth generation (4G), Asian
and American actors are going ahead with new
initiatives. Whilst the European industry has
developed 3G systems much as a generational
successor to 2G, a plethora of competing (and
complementing) wireless technologies and
solutions, often stemming from the computer
industry, have entered the scene. For short, these
are denoted alternative wireless technologies
(AWTs). In some areas, notably wireless LAN
applications for offices, homes and “hot spots”,
they have already reached substantial usage
and diffusion. Other alternative technologies
– including WiMax, UWB and meshed and ad-
hoc networks – show promising signs of fulfilling
existent and growing user needs. If AWTs succeed,
there is a risk that the leading European position
will be seriously challenged. Hence, there is a
strong and urgent need to thoroughly research the
usage of AWTs, as well as the trends and drivers
currently catalysing their diffusion.
1.2 Objectives
The objectives of this study are:
• To map wireless technologies in Europe and
the current trends in development
• To analyse the drivers that could support
these emerging technologies, with particular
emphasis on safety and security and mobile
virtual communities (MVCs)
• To examine the effect that the regulatory
environment will have on the evolution of
these alternative wireless technologies, and
identify policy options
• To understand the implications for European
Union (EU) member states and provide
policy recommendations
1.3 Methodology
The study uses a combination of
comprehensive mappings of the AWT usage in
Europe, and in-depth case studies. The main
sources include existing research reports, other
publicly available information sources, and expert
interviews.
1.4 Work Packages and Annexes
To structure the wide-ranging questions, the
project has been organised into several work
packages (WPs), each of which is focused on
some aspect of the whole problem set. WP 1-3
are reported in separate annexes (Annexes 1-3),
while WP 4 is reported here. Annex 1-3 are only
published on the JRC-IPTS website (www.jrc.es)
1.4.1 WP 1 – Mapping the Existing European
WirelessLandscapeandCurrentTrends
The objective of WP 1 is to map present-
day developments in Europe regarding AWT in
order to assess the extent to which these wireless
technologies are disruptive to the existing (fixed
and mobile) networks. Specifically, it focuses on:
which emerging AWTs are being implemented;
which stakeholders are involved; which services
they provide; and what the current trends and
drivers are.
WP 1 is reported in Annex 1, as follows.
First, it provides an overview of the most
significant AWTs, their general characteristics,
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and constraints, and their expected impact in
the market of wireless and mobile broadband.
For a selection of these, penetration and usage
patterns throughout Europe are overviewed and
analysed. The findings from empirical research
among country experts and desk research are
summarised for each of the 25 EU countries
and for each technology. A geographical
representation of the significant alternative
wireless technologies in the EU is also provided.
By way of conclusion, emerging trends and
drivers as well as foreseeable developments in
the availability and usage of AWTs are analysed.
1.4.2 WP2–Drivers
The objective of WP 2 (reported in Annex 2)
is to explore safety and security as well as mobile
virtual communities as drivers for demand for
emerging alternative wireless technologies. WP 2
is divided into several themes:
• MVC as a driver of AWT
• Safety and security as a driver of AWT
• Korea AWT Status
First, there is an analysis of how MVCs
interact with and drive demand for AWTs. It is
carried out along two lines: (1) opportunities of
AWTs for MVCs, and (2) opportunities of MVCs
as a social platform for accelerated diffusion of
AWTs.
A second theme offers an analysis of safety
and security as a driver for AWTs, as well as the
security threats they pose. The theme is in turn
split into three parts:
• An investigation of enabling AWTs for safety
and security applications. This includes:
a number of scenarios or “vignettes”;
examination of capabilities and suitability
of AWTs in security, safety and health
applications; examination of a potential
structure for a citizens’ alert network and how
this would fit into a compound architecture
of AWTs for security and health; examples of
use of AWTs in each of the major application
domains, citing case studies of how the
technology is providing advances; and last, it
briefly examines the various business models
for the AWT networking industry.
• An analysis of security threats associated with
AWT. It provides an overview of AWT usages
and the threats they imply, and then offers an
in-depth threat analysis for those components
that have the highest vulnerabilities in the
end-to-end chain of AWT infrastructure, with
six examples of threats in everyday AWT
usage.
• Finally, a case study is presented on an
advanced application of AWT for safety and
security purposes – WARN, the Wireless
Accelerated Responder Network – a pilot
project mobile broadband network for
public safety and security for Washington
D.C. using Flash OFDM technology supplied
by Flarion.
Moreover, Annex 2 offers an in-depth case
study of AWT status in one leading market – Korea.
It includes a general overview of the Korean ICT
market, application services and the major players,
key technologies and their suppliers, the drivers for
AWT take-up in Korea (historical context, social
drivers, the important role of government support,
and the regulatory environment). Finally, the way
forward for Korea in terms of main research areas
and the Asian context, i.e. the cooperation with
China and Japan, is examined.
1.4.3 WP3–ImplicationsofAWTsforEurope
andPolicyRecommendations
Drawing on the output of WP 1 and WP 2, the
objective of WP 3 is to analyse the implications,
potential benefits and challenges of the different
technologies for the EU over the next 10 years,
in terms of the regulatory and policy situation
required for their evolution and competition, by
providing thoroughly researched and actionable
policy recommendations.
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sWP 3 is reported in a separate annex (Annex
3), as follows. First, it examines the significant
economic potential driven by AWTs and thus the
need for a suitable policy and its underpinning
in current EU policy directions, as well the
tools that could make up an appropriate policy.
Second, it sets out to answer two questions:
why an industrial policy is needed for AWTs,
and how we obtain take-up and buy-in for an
industrial policy. Third, a SWOT (Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis
is conducted. From this, Annex 3 assesses the
implications for policy and regulation, as well as
the issues raised by policy/regulation, from the
point of view of the EU citizen. Then, resultant
policy recommendations are discussed under
eleven (11) main headings. Finally, the main
concepts and recommendations are summarised
in a European policy blueprint for AWTs.
1.4.4 WP4–SynthesisExercise
This report corresponds to WP 4. i.e. the
synthesis exercise covering all issues analysed
in the previous WPs, and including an executive
summary, references and list of abbreviations.
1.5 Structure of this Report
The major content items of the final report,
corresponding to the chapter outline, are:
• Chapter 2: Overview of AWTs
• Chapter 3: Overview of AWTs’ availability
and usage in the EU
• Chapter 4: Drivers: MVC, Security and Safety
and AWTs as a security threat
• Chapter 5: Case study – AWT Status in Korea
• Chapter 6: Implications for Europe and
policy recommendations
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The objective of this chapter is to set the
stage for the subsequent ones by introducing
the concept of AWT and the main technologies
and standards involved. Section 2.1 introduces
and defines the concept of AWTs. Section 2.2
provides an overview of the most significant
AWTs and their general characteristics. Finally,
the main standards and technologies are reviewed
in Section 2.3.
2.1 AWTs Defined
In recent decades, mobile communications
have been dominated and shaped by 1G, 2G
and 3G cellular systems. From time to time,
alternative technologies have challenged these
systems, but largely failed in the market (satellite
systems such as Iridium and cordless technologies
such as Telepoint). As mobile communications
are becoming more data-capable and demand
for data communications services is increasing
following the growth of the Internet and local area
networks (LANs), new growth opportunities open
up, not only for cellular but for also for emerging
alternative technologies. Such alternatives are
here termed “Alternative Wireless Technologies”
(AWTs).
AWTs enable, in sum, the provisioning of
existing and new services to mobile users and
allow communications between computers,
PDAs, phones, consumer electronics devices
and appliances – in office, home, and/or public
environments. AWTs may operate in licensed or
unlicensed frequency bands and can be applied in
a number of different topologies such as meshed
networks and ad-hoc networks. In principle AWTs
cover all emerging wireless technologies with the
exception of cellular technologies. For the purposes
of this report, however, satellite- and airship-
based communications as well as broadcasting
technologies (e.g. DVB) are excluded.
2. AWT – Introduction and Overview
2.2 Overview of Technologies and Supporting Communities
Mobile and wireless technologies can be
characterised and categorised in a variety of ways.
However, it is commonly agreed that the basic
determinants of the types of services and business
models that they are able to support consist of
speed and mobility. While speed is a factor of the
bandwidth and latency characteristics of a particular
technology, the mobility provided is determined
by the cell range of the technology and the extent
to which seamless handover between cells is
possible. Technologies offering low data speeds
are often labelled narrowband technologies, as
opposed to broadband technologies offering high
data speeds. Technologies offering high mobility
are referred to as mobile technologies, enabling
the establishment of wide area or metropolitan
area networks; while technologies offering low
mobility constitute local or even personal area
networks, providing so-called fixed wireless
access or nomadic access.
The mobile and wireless arena is an extremely
dynamic scene in which technologies are adapted,
extended and converging towards ever-increasing
bandwidths and mobility. Most prominently,
there is a strong drive towards the development
and implementation of network technologies
offering increasing data speeds. This is fuelled by
the expectation that broadband technologies will
enable mass market uptake of innovative, rich
and user-friendly services and will allow a whole
range of market players to develop viable and
sustainable business models. Therefore, this report
focuses on new broadband technologies, offering
both high mobility and low mobility. The figure
below demonstrates the dynamic and converging
nature of mobile and wireless technologies
towards so-called fourth-generation (4G) mobile
broadband network technologies.
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The convergence of technologies implies the
convergence of different sectors and communities
supporting these technologies. While these
communities are frequently overlapping in
terms of stakeholders and their ambitions, they
are also often in conflict with different regional
and sectoral scope. Table 2-2 in Appendix 1
shows that there are EU, US as well as Asia-
centric standard bodies and consortia. Also,
communities often tend to be dominated by the
telecommunications industry or the IT and fixed
wireless industry. In addition and conjunction to
the technology development trajectories of these
industries, there is a thriving worldwide research
community working on very high-performing air
interfaces and other network technologies. Finally,
a number of proprietary technologies are already
on the market today, with the objective to set the
de facto standard in the field. These are often IP-
based technologies developed and promoted by
start-up vendors such as Flarion, Arraycomm, IP
Wireless, Redline Communications and Alvarion.
2.3 AWT Descriptions
The AWTs covered in this report are: (1)
existing in the market today and/or (2) on their
way towards standardisation or in (advanced)
R&D stages and/or (3) potentially presenting a
challenge to traditional business models in the
mobile market. Specifically, we consider the
following AWT types and technologies, each
described in the subsequent sections3:
• short-range protocols (such as WLAN /Wi-Fi,
UWB, NFC, ZigBee and Bluetooth)
• longer-range protocols (WiMax, Flash
OFDM, 3G enhancements such as UMTS-
TDD)
• meshed and ad-hoc networking
2.3.1 UWB(Ultra-Wideband)
Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is a wireless
communications technology that transmits
Figure 2‑1 Wireless Technology Overview
Sources: Adapted from Annexes 1 and 2
3 Please consult Annex 1-2 for further information and sources.
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sdata in short pulses which are spread out over
a very wide swath of spectrum. The technology
originated from military research and is
nowadays being standardised and developed
for civil application. UWB uses an extremely
wideband of spectrum to transmit the data. In
this way, the technology is able to transmit more
data in a given period of time than traditional
radio technologies. By using low power levels,
UWB has very little interference impact on other
systems. Due to the large bandwidth it is rather
insensitive itself to interference from other radio
sources. UWB allows ultra-high data rates (~
100s of Mbps) between devices, but due to the
power limitations, they must be close to each
other (at maximum ~ 20 m). Due to the strict
power limitations, UWB radios will be cheap
and consume low power. Two versions of UWB
exist, a time domain and an OFDM version.
There are several fora standardising UWB.
Within IEEE, the IEEE P802.15 Working Group
is the working group for Wireless Personal
Area Networks. The MultiBand OFDM Alliance
(MBOA) is working on standards for both the
physical and the MAC layers (IEEE 802.15.3a)
of UWB. The WiMedia Alliance is working on
developing a convergence layer that will allow
the UWB MAC layer to interface with a number
of standard protocols, such as USB, WUSB, IEEE
1394 and UPnP. Finally, protocols should be
developed take advantage of UWB. The WUSB
specification, developed through the Wireless
USB Promoter Group, and the specification of a
Protocol Adaptation Layer through the 1394 Trade
Association are examples of these.
The MAC and physical layer specifications
will be released to the MBOA member companies
at the end of 2004. Initial UWB-based products
are expected to be introduced in 2005 and it is
widely expected that substantial volumes will find
their way into consumer applications by 2006. Key
players are Intel, Agere, Intersil and USB product
vendors. TimeDomain, a very early start-up on the
time domain alternative of UWB, went broke and
vanished from the market.
2.3.2 WiMax(802.16x)
WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for
Microwave access) is a longer-range wireless
access technology based on the IEEE 802.16
standard suite. The WiMax protocol suite consists
of a number of variants. The first version (802.16)
is primarily intended for use as fixed wireless
access, as it operates in the spectrum between 10-
66 GHz requiring line of sight. But later versions
also allow for nomadic access and even mobile
operation (802.16e). The WiMax forum certified
that shared bandwidths of around 40 Mbps and
cell radii of 3-10 km, and shared bandwidths of
15 Mbps and cell radii of around 3 km, can be
expected for fixed and portable, and for mobile
application, respectively. Note however that,
in practice, reach and bandwidth will strongly
depend on transmission power (much lower for
unlicensed than for licensed bands), antennas,
protocol overhead and propagation conditions.
E.g. in the case of mobile application (requiring
omnidirectional antennas) in unlicensed bands,
the range corresponding to 15 Mbps could be
reduced to only several hundreds of meters.
Regulations allow deployment of WiMax in the
licensed 2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz (non-
line-of-sight) bands, and in the unregulated
5.8 GHz bands. Note that the Dutch regulator
restricted the use of the licensed bands to fixed
wireless access only.
WiMax can be used for leased lines,
residential access, nomadic access (hotspot) and
wide-area broadband access. Currently, only fixed
wireless access is possible. Intel has announced
implementations of WiMax cards in PDAs and
laptops in 2006, allowing nomadic access. Mobile
implementations (in phones) are not expected
before 2008. Thus depending on the area of
deployment, WiMax could be an alternative to
xDSL and FttH access, WLAN hotspots or UMTS.
The WiMax standard suite is IEEE standards
(IEEE 802.16x). The WiMax forum assures
compatibility and interoperability between IEEE
802.16x implementations through testing and
certification of equipment. Vendors with (pre-
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Agere, Alcatel, Alvarion, Fujitsu, Lucent, Samsung
and Siemens. Examples of WiMax deployment in
Europe are BT and France Telecom. BT is trialling,
in four areas, pre-WiMax technology (Alvarion)
for wireless local loop. France Telecom is trialling,
in remote area of the Pyrenees, pre-WiMax
technology (Alvarion).
2.3.3 Wi-Fi(802.11x)
Among the Wireless LAN standards, IEEE
802.11 is the most mature wireless protocol in the
unlicensed band of 2.4 GHz. It has been tested
and deployed for years in corporate, enterprise,
private and public environments. In this family
of standards, there is a continuing trend towards
higher bandwidths. It started with a shared
bandwidth of 2 Mbit/s (IEEE 802.11), via 11 Mbps
(802.11b) to 54 Mbps (802.11a, 802.11g). The
IEEE 802.11n is a new wireless specification that
promises data throughput speeds of approximately
100 Mbps. The standard uses MIMO (multiple
input / multiple output) antenna configuration
technology to achieve this. The IEEE 802.11n
standard should become backward-compatible
with 802.11 a/g systems.
The 802.11 standards suite was developed
for use in the wireless local area network (WLAN).
The coverage area of 802.11 standards can be
enhanced to the range of metropolitan area
networks (several kilometres), using directional,
high-gain antennas or using meshed network
architectures. Note that this would restrict mobile
usage of the technology. IEEE 802.11n can be
deployed similarly to its predecessors (wireless
home network, office and public access points)
but achieving higher bandwidth. The impact of
IEEE 802.11n as alternative wireless technologies
in the sense of offering non-operator-centric
access is considered relatively high.
The 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g are
ratified IEEE standards. Regarding the 802.11n
standard, there are two alliances working on
the standard: TGn Sync and WWiSE. Companies
involved in TGn Sync are Intel, Agere, Atheros,
Sony, Philips. Companies involved in WWiSE are
Broadcom, Conexant, Texas Instruments, Airgo
and STMicroelectronics.
As mentioned above, the 802.11a, 802.11b
and 802.11g are ratified IEEE standards. A first
draft specification of 801.22n should be available
in mid-to-late 2005. The Wi-Fi 802.11n standard
should be ratified in 2006-2007. Currently, there
is no agreement yet on the channel bands. TGn
Sync proposes using 40 MHz channels in the 5
GHz spectrum (used by 802.11a), while WWiSE
prefers the use of 20 MHz channels in the 2.4 GHz
band (used by 802.11b/g). “Pre-N equipment”
came on the market by the end of 2004 (Belkin,
Agere, Atheros, etc.).
At this writing, July 18th, the European
Commission announced that all member states
have to make two frequency bands – 5159-5350
MHz and 5470-5725 MHz – available for Wi-Fi
services starting November 1, 2005. The creation of
an EU-wide Wi-Fi standard is designed to help the
technology grow and to help alleviate congestion
in the 2.4 GHz version of the technology.4
2.3.4 FlashOFDM(802.20)
Flash OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing) is a longer-range AWT. The
IEEE 802.20 standard under development and
promoted by Flarion specifies a new mobile air
interface. Flash OFDM uses two paired 1.25 MHz
FDD channels within the 450 MHz, 700 MHz,
800 MHz, 1.99 GHz, 2.1 GHz and 2.3 GHz
bands. Flash OFDM promises typical average
shared bandwidths of 1 Mbps and 300 kbps
for the downlink and uplink, respectively. For
deployment in the 450 MHz band, typical average
cell radii between 2.5 km and 25 km, for indoor
urban coverage and outdoor rural coverage,
respectively, are claimed. For deployment in the
4 FierceWireless, July 18, 2005, www.fiercewireless.com
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shigher frequency bands, these will be smaller.
Flash OFDM claims low latency (~35 ms response
time), making it suitable for use for both real-time
and non-real-time services. Flash OFDM claims
to deliver these data rates, even when customer
speeds are on the order of 250 km per hour.
IEEE 802.20 can be deployed in a wireless
metropolitan area network. The impact of IEEE
802.20 as alternative wireless technologies in the
sense of offering non-operator-centric access can
become relatively high. Global acceptance of the
technology is still uncertain.
The standardisation is under responsibility
of the IEEE (802.20). The 802.20 standard is not
ratified yet and it is questionable whether this will
happen. Although the IEEE 802.20 is not a ratified
standard yet and may never be, a full equipment
portfolio (PC cards, desktop modems and radio
routers) is available from Flarion for deployment
in the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 1.99 GHz, 2.1 GHz
and 2.3 GHz bands. Equipment for deployment
in the 450 MHz band is claimed to become
commercially available at Flarion in Q2 2005.
Netgear has agreed that it will add integrated Wi-
Fi and Flash OFDM functionality in its 802.11
b/g products line. Siemens expects a 450 MHz
terminal for Flash OFDM to become available on
the market in 2006. The first commercial trial with
Flash OFDM was started with Nextel in Q2 2004.
T-Mobile trialled Flash OFDM in Europe, Telstra
in Australia and Vodafone in Japan.
2.3.5 MeshedandAd-hocNetworks
In contrast with conventional wireless local
loop architectures in which CPEs (Customer
Premises Equipment) communicate with each
other via an access point, in the case of a meshed
network architecture the traffic can travel hop
by hop through the air via intermediate CPEs to
its destination. The CPE provides the combined
functionality for customer access. Further
advantages compared to conventional wireless
local loop architecture are the relatively low
emission powers and more frequency reuse.
Dynamic routing is used to adapt to changing
radio environment, traffic conditions or network
topology. Meshed networks are based on
proprietary protocols, or built on existing protocols
such as WLAN, WiMax, UWB or Zigbee.
Besides meshed networks with fixed nodes,
meshed networks in which the nodes themselves
are mobile exist. A meshed network with mobile
nodes is also referred to as ad-hoc network.
Wireless mesh networks are expected to resolve
the limitations and to significantly improve the
performance of ad-hoc networks, wireless local
area networks (WLANs), wireless personal area
networks (WPANs), and wireless metropolitan
area networks (WMANs).5
Deploying of (fixed) meshed network offers an
opportunity for cost-efficient roll-out of a wireless
local loop. Fewer Access Points will be required,
as CPEs outside the coverage of the Access
Point will be able to reach the access point via
intermediate CPEs. Deploying meshed networks
can also be useful indoors, alleviating the need
for cabling to connect the wireless LAN access
points, as fewer access points will be required.
As a consequence the impact of (fixed) meshed
networks as alternative wireless technologies in
the sense of offering non-operator-centric access
is relatively high.
(Mobile) ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are in
the short term mainly a complement to mobile
networks. Mobile ad-hoc networks can be offered
to certain niche markets, e.g. temporary event
networks. In the very long term they might become
a replacement for mobile networks.
Regarding OSI layer 2 and layer 3 functionality
for meshed networks, there are basically two
approaches to standardisation. IEEE standardised
two routing protocols for ad-hoc networking
(MANET group). These standards only focus
on the OSI layer 3 part of meshed networking.
5 Akyildiz et al. (2005).
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2 protocols are required in meshed networking
for efficiency reasons. The IEEE 802.11s standard
that Intel and Cisco started developing in 2004,
which is expected to be ratified in 2007, is an
example of this. Furthermore, a newly formed
group within IEEE 802.16 (WiMax), Task Force F,
will develop a meshed network variant of WiMax
(IEEE 802.16f).
Examples of companies offering meshed
network equipment are MeshNetworks, Ember,
MeshCast, Radiant Networks, Packethop, Zensys,
Belair, Firetide, Strix, Intel and Cisco. Although
stable commercial products exist, they are mainly
offered by small start-up companies. They are
non-standardised proprietary solutions. Operators
in the area of meshed networks are Roam AD,
HappyConnect Almere and Skypilot.
2.3.6 Bluetooth(IEEE802.15.1)
Bluetooth is a specification for wireless
personal area networks (WPANs), named after the
Danish king Harald Blåtand (Harold Bluetooth in
English), known for his unification of previously
warring Scandinavian tribes. Analogously,
Bluetooth was intended to unify different
technologies like computers and mobile phones.
The specification was first developed by Ericsson,
and was later formalised by the Bluetooth Special
Interest Group (SIG). The SIG was formed in the
late 1990s by Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and
Nokia, and later joined by other companies.
Bluetooth is also standardised by IEEE 802.15.1.
Bluetooth is defined as operating in short-
range and mobile applications, in a personal
operating space (POS) of 10m radius. It is used in
a star configuration with one central routing and
control point, or in a single link, point to point,
as in Wi-Fi. Preferred operating frequency is in
the 2.4 GHz ISM unlicensed band, but others
are possible. It uses a complex protocol stack,
often customised for individual device profiles, so
interoperability can be a problem. The complexity
of the system implies that small numbers of devices
can be interconnected at one time.6
2.3.7 NFC(NearFieldCommunication)
Near Field Communication (NFC) includes
both a networking interface and a communication
protocol. The solution is targeted towards the
consumer electronics users, who will be able to
use a means of communication between various
devices without exerting much intellectual effort in
configuring a “network”. Using NFC, peer-to-peer
connections can be configured between devices at
a maximum of approximately 20 centimetres and
with bandwidths of 106, 212 or 424 kbps. NFC
operates in the unregulated RF band of 13.65 MHz.
With NFC in order to make devices communicate,
you bring the devices together or make them
touch. This will result in the configuration of the
peer-to-peer connection between the devices.
Eventually, once the configuration data has been
exchanged using NFC, the devices can set up and
continue communication for longer-range and
faster protocols like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Due
to the very short distance between the devices,
the communication is secured (avoidance of
unintended connections rather than protection
against malicious intent). NFC allows a device
to operate in power-saving mode (passive mode).
In passive mode, one side powers the complete
communication. Main promoters of NFC are
Philips, Sony and Nokia.
2.3.8 ZigBee(IEEE802.15.4)
ZigBee is a set of specifications built around
the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless protocol. The name
“ZigBee” is derived from the erratic zigzag
patterns many bees make between flowers when
collecting pollen. The standard itself is regulated
by a group known as the ZigBee Alliance, with
over 150 members worldwide, driven by promoter
6 Baker (2004, p. 21).
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scompanies The ZigBee Honeywell, Invensys,
Mitsubishi, Motorola, Samsung and Philips. As a
result of its simplified operations, which are one to
two full orders of magnitude less complex than a
comparable Bluetooth device, pricing for ZigBee
devices is competitive, with full nodes available
for a fraction of the cost of a Bluetooth node.7
Specification 1.0, released September 2004, is
intended for automation controls in personal health
care, industrial controls, consumer electronics,
residential and light commercial control systems,
building control, PCs and peripherals. It is
specified for license-free operation at 2.4 GHz for
up to 65,000 devices attached, with tens of metres
range up to 100 metres (400 metres achievable)
and with 250 kbps data rate.8
2.3.9 RFID
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is
more than the next generation of bar codes
– it is a variety of interfaces that can connect
computers directly to individual physical items,
and even to people. RFID tags have the potential
of containing anything from item location and
pricing information to washing instructions,
banking details and medical records. Range
varies by application from 7-15 cm for cards up
to 7.5 m for transport and logistics applications at
high power in the UHF range. RFID systems are
classified according to functionality of data carrier
– a transponder termed a ‘tag’. Transponders are
either active or passive, categorised according to
power source:
1. Passive tags: require no power source or
battery; use energy of radio wave as power
source; least expensive tag and prevalent
type.
2. Semi-passive tags: battery built into the tag
for performance of internal circuits but not to
emit radio waves.
3. Active tags: use batteries for the entire
operation, to emit radio waves, even in
absence of RFID reader.
RFID uses multiple frequencies – low, high
and ultra-high frequency. LF (125-134 MHz) and
HF (13.56 MHz) bands are harmonised globally,
but RFID uses at UHF are not. ETSI sets European
standards principally at 865-868 MHz, while USA
and Canada do so typically at 915 MHz – thus,
tags can be dual band and may have frequency
hopping.
2.3.10ExpectedenhancementsofUMTS
The state of affairs within UMTS is not static;
various extensions and enhancements are being
developed or are being considered, which may be
relevant to the assessment of the threat posed by
the alternative technologies. Therefore, we include
a brief overview of a number of developments
relevant to UMTS.
UMTS TDD
In UMTS, two modes of operation are
recognised, indicated as FDD (Frequency Division
Duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex). Duplex
relates to the two directions (uplink and downlink)
of communication between a base station and
a mobile terminal. In TDD the same frequency
(channel) is used for both directions. Separation is
achieved by time division, where transmitter and
receiver are used alternately. The fraction of the
capacity allocated to uplink and downlink can
thus be easily adapted to the demand.
There are many aspects which may lead
to favouring either of the two approaches. In
addition to technical considerations, also history
and political pressure have played a role for
recognition of FDD and TDD equally in the 3GPP
specifications. The end-effect of the technical
7 http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-zigbee.htm [Accessed July 10, 2005]8 Egan (2004).
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coverage in a large area and in situations with a
large number of users each requiring a relatively
low bit rate (e.g. voice users). TDD may be
favoured to cover a relatively small and isolated
area (e.g. a hotspot), serve a smaller number of
users with a high bit rate, and/or when the uplink/
downlink traffic pattern is highly asymmetric.
The current situation is that most manufacturers,
licensing authorities and operators (in particular
for the initial roll-out of the network) favour the
use of FDD. The technical advantage of TDD
may prevail when full coverage is achieved and
cells become smaller, and if cell capacity is still
a major issue.
Currently, FDD is operated in licensed bands
only. Major operators also acquired a license for
a frequency (5 MHz channel) allocated to TDD
use (in the bands 1910-1920 MHz and 2010-
2025 MHz). However, the authorities may declare
one or more of the frequencies for TDD use as
license-exempt. In that case, UMTS technology
may pose a threat to existing operators (including
UMTS operators), similar to the threat resulting
from alternative technologies.
Data-only TDD solutions from IPWireless
are commercially available now in the UMTS
unpaired band and in the 3.5 GHz band. End-
user devices in the form of PC cards and desktop
modems are available. Several operators in various
parts of the world are currently testing IPWireless
technology. IPWireless is likely to license its
technology to vendors who can take advantage of
manufacturing scale and ability to tackle system
integration tasks.9
The use of additional frequencies – UMTS
extension band
For future use, the band between 2.5 GHz
and 2.69 GHz has been designated as UMTS
extension band. CEPT recommended (September
9 Northstream (2005).10 The use of beam-forming antennas and/or MIMO ((Multiple Input, Multiple Output) may further increase data rates in UMTS.
(See Annex 1.)
2004) the allocation of 2 × 70 MHz for FDD use
(i.e. 14 paired frequencies/channels) and 50 MHz
for TDD use (i.e. 10 frequencies/channels). In
addition, CEPT recommends permitting only
technologies from the IMT-2000 family. If and
when these recommendations are followed
(which is expected to come into force from
January 2008), these frequencies will become
available to UMTS and unavailable for other
purposes such as WLL, 802.16a/WiMAX.
The use of HSDPA and enhanced uplink
Currently, most UMTS operators provide a
downlink data rate of at most 384 kbps, using one
of the downlink packet data capabilities defined
in 3GPP Release ’99. Since the 3GPP Release 5,
an additional physical channel has been defined
which allows a much more efficient use of the
spectrum and a higher maximum data rate. By
using adaptive modulation (up to 16-QAM),
adaptive coding and channel-based adaptive
scheduling, a High Speed Downlink Packet
Access (HSDPA) shared channel is provided
that makes the most of a given situation in terms
of propagation and interference conditions.
Depending on the conditions a shared capacity
can be provided with a maximum of 14 Mbps.
The high data rate will considerably enhance the
performance of best-effort, interactive and some
streaming services. Thus, the difference between
the maximum data rates available with UMTS
and with alternative technologies is narrowed
substantially. In addition, an ‘enhanced uplink’
has been specified, colloquially also known as
HSUPA.10
The development of a new radio interface –
OFDM and ‘Super 3G’
Anticipating formal 3GPP standardisation
activities for Release 7 and beyond, some
participants are considering enhancements to
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sthe UMTS radio interface, in particular aimed at
providing higher data rates than currently possible.
Most of the proposals use OFDM as modulation
technique, the same modulation principle as
used by IEEE 802.16(a). As some of the proposed
concepts are, to some extent, compatible with the
existing UMTS technology, its use is advocated to
fill the gap between the existing UMTS technology
and the next generation: 4G.
On December 7, 2004 a group of 26
companies, which also take part in the 3GPP
consortium, announced having agreed on
jointly working towards a significant upgrade
to the current 3G standards. The initiative is
provisionally termed ‘Super 3G’. The aims
are set high: to allow downlink bit rates on
the order of 30-100 Mbps, and to allow an
upgrade of the 3G infrastructure rather than a
replacement. The initiative is clearly a response
to the threat posed by WLAN technologies and
other AWTs. Currently, there is no indication
about the technology planned to be used to
achieve the ambitious goals. The time line is to
finalise the new standards by December 2006.
Implementation/introduction is not expected
before 2009.
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Country UWB WLAN (pre) WiMax Flash OFDM Mesh/Ad-hoc UMTS TDD Austria commercial deployment use
Belgium commercial commercial use
Cyprus commercial trial
Czech Rep. commercial trial use
Denmark commercial commercial use
Estonia commercial trial
Finland commercial trial use
France commercial commercial commercial trial
Germany commercial commercial commercial commercial
Greece commercial use
Hungary commercial deployment
Ireland commercial commercial deployment deployment
Italy commercial commercial
Latvia commercial commercial commercial
Lithuania commercial trial deployment
Luxembourg commercial
Malta commercial
Netherlands commercial commercial trial use
Poland commercial commercial
Portugal commercial commercial
Slovakia commercial
Slovenia commercial commercial
Spain commercial commercial use
Sweden commercial trial use deployment
UK commercial commercial commercial commercial
This chapter presents an analysis of the
availability and usage of the selected AWTs –
UWB, WiMax (802.16x), Flash-OFDM (802.20x),
Wi-Fi (802.11x), Meshed and Ad-hoc Networks
and UMTS TDD – in the EU. The technologies
were selected on the basis of their potential for
the provision of alternative non-(traditional)
operator-centric access.
The chapter starts with summarising key
observations and mapping the availability and
uptake of AWTs, first by providing an overview
(Section 3.1), then elaborating on public hotspot
Wi-Fi (Section 3.2) and the other AWTs (Section
3.3). Section 3.4 proceeds with an analysis of who
3. AWT Availability and Usage in the EU
provides AWT services in Europe. Finally Section
3.5 analyses implications for the future based on
observed growth trends and estimates.
3.1 Summarising AWT Activities in Europe
This section brings together the observations
regarding AWT activities in Europe from Annex 1.
Table 3-5 provide an overview at country level of
where these AWT activities are taking place, along
with an overview of the phase of development,
i.e. (market) trial, deployment, non-commercial
use and commercial availability.
Table 3‑1 Overview of Selected AWT Activity in EU25
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of the variety of AWTs being used or deployed,
are situated in Western Europe and Scandinavia.
France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands,
Sweden and the UK present the most diverse
European markets in terms of AWTs, with almost
all AWTs under review being deployed or used in
these countries.11
3.2 Wi-Fi /WLAN
3.2.1 KeyObservations
WLAN, in the form of Wi-Fi, is by far the most
mature technology considered in this report. It has
been on the market for several years and is used by
a wide range of user groups. This chapter focuses
on public hotspots, i.e. installations where access
is provided for either direct or indirect commercial
return.12 Overall, most hotspots in Europe are
commercially exploited and are resorting to direct
payment by end users. However, there is still
large diversity across individual member states. It
is possible to distinguish two models, according
to two of the leading EU countries in this field:
Estonia and the UK. In Estonia, well over 50% of
public hotspots are free to end users. In contrast,
in the UK it is estimated that only about 1% are
operated in a non-commercial manner. The various
pricing models that we have encountered include
free usage, ‘near-free’ usage (i.e. free under the
condition that a certain amount of money is
spent on other articles in the offering shop, bar or
restaurant), pay-per-hour and/or pay-per-24 hours,
and flat fee subscription, sometimes bundled with
fixed Internet or mobile subscription.
An emerging phenomenon that can be
witnessed in a number of European countries is the
establishment of wireless clouds or zones. Based
on Shamp (2004), we define them as follows:
• A Wi-Fi zone is an aggregation of cooperating
hotspots. However, the area covered by the
zone need not be continuous.
• Wi-Fi clouds offer continuous and unified
coverage over a significant portion of a city’s
or town’s geographic area, usually using
multiple hotspots.
Examples of Wi-Fi clouds and zones being
established in Europe today include Zonet, a
cooperative of Finnish WISPs that has established
Wi-Fi zones and clouds in nine cities in Finland.
Besides this, various municipal and community
initiatives have established or aim at establishing
Wi-Fi zones and clouds e.g. in Finland, Belgium,
Germany, Greece, Poland and the UK.
A cursory overview of Wi-Fi offerings
throughout Europe shows that Wi-Fi and
traditional telecommunications access are being
combined on a subscription level in at least
10 to 15 European countries. In around five
EU countries, this study has found evidence of
mobile (2G/2.5G/3G) and AWT connectivity
being combined on a technical level.
The main applications for WLAN are: (1)
WWW access; (2) access to webmail; and (3)
access to corporate intranets and applications
via VPN connections. In addition, but far more
marginally, some specific WLAN services are
being developed, mainly on a local level.13
11 A methodological note is in place here. WP 1 (see Annex 1) maps the extent of AWT diffusion for all 25 EU member states plus, in a more limited form, for the 4 candidate countries. Data sources for the targeted information were non-confidential, publicly available or publicly verifiable. To gather them, extensive desk research activity was carried out, involving academic and consultancy sources, official country- and region-specific data, the business press, specialised web information, and corporate information provided by the main AWT providers in each country. In addition, a series of in-depth telephone interviews were conducted with country experts for each of the EU25 countries. In the subsequent sections of this chapter, a further analysis and summary of all qualitative and quantitative material are presented, omitting the data on the diffusion of AWTs in the form of country fact sheets. For this we refer instead to Annex 1. In addition, detailed maps as well all background data have been made available to IPTS electronically.
12 Public hotspots are installations where access is provided for either direct commercial return (fee charged per use / atonement) or indirect returns as in the case of ‘free’ hotspots in public locations, such as hotels or cafes, to attract more customers to the core business. Free public hotspots are also often offered by municipalities, universities or communities of end users. With these types, access to the hotspot is free for the consumer at the expense of the hotspot owner.
13 Informal (2004).
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sThe primary target user group for public
hotspots is business travellers. Other major target
groups are tourists, students and other consumer
segments characterised by heavy (fixed) Internet
usage in general. Finally, some niche deployments
of public Wi-Fi (e.g. by municipalities) are
targeted to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
(SMEs) and Small Office Home Offices (SOHOs)
in rural or remote areas, disadvantaged segments
of the population and so on. The predominance
of the target groups mentioned above is reflected
in the locations where Wi-Fi hotspots are being
deployed and used. Public hotspots in the EU
are rolled out primarily in cities and towns
(i.e. in hotels, restaurants, cafes and at public
institutions) and at transport hubs (i.e. at petrol
stations, airports, railway stations).
An interesting new application of Wi-Fi,
sometimes in combination with (pre)WiMax, is
the offering of wireless connectivity on public
transport vehicles, usually on trains. This is currently
being planned or deployed in countries such as
Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands
and the UK. Another interesting application is
wireless VoIP (sometimes also labelled Voice over
Wireless or VOW). Some analysts are persistently
referring to VOW as the so-called killer application
for AWTs. However, most observers agree that a
number of technological issues of using VOIP in
the air interface,14 as well as issues relating to
the availability of terminals and expectations of
end users in terms of QoS and mobility, limit the
market prospects of VOW services in the short to
medium term.
Based on the findings and estimations
uncovered in this study, it is clear that in general,
usage of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout Europe is
still generally below commercially sustainable
thresholds (estimated as 5-10 uses per day). In
March 2004, on average there was a usage of
0.5 session / hotspot / day in Italy. In spite of
currently not being commercially sustainable, a
number of European countries, such as Sweden
and Greece, have witnessed the announcement
of further large hotspot roll-out plans. A number
of analysts have supported this by claiming that,
even in more advanced countries in terms of
Wi-Fi penetration such as the Netherlands and
Sweden, the number of hotspots is still well
below thresholds that are needed to reach a
commercially sustainable service.
3.2.2 MappingWLANAvailabilityinEurope
Number of Hotpots per Country
Table 3-2 presents aggregated data on the
number of hotspots in the EU25, as well as in
the four candidate countries.15
From Table 3-2, it is apparent that, even
though in absolute terms most hotspots are
deployed in Western Europe, with peaks in the
UK, France and Germany, each of these countries
counting around 10,000 hotspots, in relative
terms, the diffusion is (somewhat) more equally
spread (see also Map 3-1). In relative terms,
Estonia is clearly the most developed hotspot
market in Europe with almost 40 hotspots per
100,000 inhabitants. Denmark, the UK, France
and Ireland constitute a second group of countries
with the most developed and dynamic hotspot
markets in the EU, counting over 10 hotspots per
100,000 inhabitants. Malta, Germany, Austria,
Finland, Latvia, Luxemburg, the Netherlands
and Sweden can be said to be in a third group
of countries with (in relative terms) substantial
hotspot coverage, all scoring above the European
average of 6.6 hotspots per 100,000 inhabitants.
A fourth group, comprised of countries that have
a basic hotspot infrastructure, but are below
the European average, is made up of Portugal,
14 See e.g. Northstream (2005).15 The mapping of WLAN availability is based on hotspot search engines, provider websites and expert interviews. For maps
relating to geographical spread as well as to comparisons over time, data from a single directory were used. However, in order to generate maps providing a complete overview of the (absolute as well as relative) size of hotspot deployments, an extensive analysis and compilation were performed of a large number of alternative hotspot directories and ‘local’ hotspot directories, i.e. those operating with a more national or regional focus, as well as informed expert estimates, business and operator websites. For methodological details concerning the rest of the data presented in this chapter, please consult Annex 1.
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Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and
Greece. Finally, a fifth group of countries consists
of Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Cyprus, Lithuania,
Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, where hotspot
deployment is marginal or insignificant.
Geographical Spread of Hotspots over Europe
In order to visualise the geographical
spread of Wi-Fi hotspots across the EU, a
number of maps showing the location of
Table 3‑2 Aggregated Hotspot Data
Note: “Hotspots”: Total number of hotspots. “Relative”: Number of hotspots per 100,000 inhabitants.Sources: See Annex 1
Country Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Rep.Hotspots 702 553 2 42 5 250Relative 8.6 5.3 0.0 0.9 0.6 2.4Country Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany GreeceHotspots 894 516 400 8,000 7,838 188Relative 16.5 38.5 7.7 13.2 9.5 1.8Country Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxemb.Hotspots 529 430 2,600 165 22 36Relative 5.3 10.8 4.5 7.2 0.6 7.8Country Malta Netherl. Poland Portugal Romania SlovakiaHotspots 39 1,300 346 650 10 50Relative 9.8 8.0 0.9 6.2 0.0 0.9Country Slovenia Spain Sweden Turkey UK TotalHotspots 55 1,072 600 161 9,689 37,144Relative 2.7 2.7 6.7 0.2 16.1 6.6
Map 3‑1 Hotspots per 100,000 Inhabitants in EU25 plus 4 (June 2005)
Source: TNO
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shotspots within the European countries were
generated, Map 3-2 showing the spread for
EU 25 plus 4. Observe that concentrations of
dots on these maps indicate relatively high
availability of hotspots in the same area, rather
than continuous coverage.
3.3 Other AWTs
The availability and usage of AWTs other
than Wi-Fi in Europe is far more incidental.
However, despite the limited and fragmented
nature of the diffusion of these AWTs, there is
a certain dynamism related to them in many
countries. The following table shows the number
of EU25 countries where these AWTs are being
used. The overview table demonstrates that,
while UWB and Flash OFDM are marginal or
non-existent on the EU market, (pre)WiMax,
Mesh/Ad-hoc technologies and UMTS-TDD are
available or being deployed in many, or even
most, of the EU member states.
Source: TNO, based e.g. on JiWire
Table 3‑3 Number of EU25 Countries with Selected AWT Activity
Note: Every country is only counted once for each technology, i.e. if a specific AWT is being used commercially in a specific country, other activities such as non-commercial use, deployment or market trials are not counted for this country.
Technology Commercial availability Non-commercial usage Deployment (Market) Trial Total
UWB 0 0 0 0 0
(pre)WiMax 12 0 2 5 19
Flash OFDM 0 0 0 1 1
Mesh / Ad-hoc 3 9 1 1 14
UMTS-TDD 4 0 3 1 8
Map 3‑2 Geographical Spread of Hotspots over EU 25 plus 4 (March 2005)
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extent of their deployment.
3.3.1 UWB
There are several national as well as EU-
wide research projects and trials with UWB,
demonstrating some interest in the concept
of UWB from both a civilian and a military
viewpoint. However, current deployment of
UWB in Europe is non-existent, in terms of
market trials or actual deployments (according to
current public knowledge). Reasons for this are
not just regulatory bottlenecks – deployment of
the technology is currently prohibited by most EU
regulators – but also the standardisation problems
facing UWB (see Chapter 2) and the reticence of
operators towards potential interference caused by
UWB. The public announcement, in May 2005, of
the Bluetooth SIG that it plans to integrate UWB
into its standard, may facilitate the entry of UWB
on the EU market, but most observers agree that
this is not likely to materialise in the short term.
3.3.2 (Pre-)WiMax
As ‘mobile WiMax’ has not been standardised
and is currently not permitted in most European
countries, so-called ‘pre-WiMax’ deployments
that are using early WiMax technology to deliver
Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) have been taken
into account for this study. As argued by Goldman
Sachs (2004), the more attractive spectrum bands
for mobile or wireless broadband are those used
by UMTS (WCDMA) and planned for UMTS
expansion, making actual available licences
scarce. Generally in Europe, the licences awarded
for use with wireless broadband technologies
restrict the service to portable but non-mobile
applications, preventing carriers from enabling
cell handovers and thus preventing them from
competing head-on with UMTS.
Our research has uncovered the following
typical uses for (pre)WiMax throughout Europe:
• Fixed wireless broadband Internet access
in rural or remote areas for consumers and
small businesses (sometimes marketed as
‘portable DSL’). In some countries such as
Austria, WiMax operators are also starting to
offer voice telephony to their consumers.
• Alternative wireless broadband connectivity
for consumers and small businesses in city
and town centres. Usually in this case, basic
Internet connectivity is being offered in
very densely populated areas at competitive
prices.
• WiMax as a solution to fill holes in Wi-Fi
hotspot coverage and thereby create wireless
broadband access clouds or zones and the
use of WiMax to enable wireless connectivity
on trains or buses.
• Wireless broadband connectivity for large
businesses or organisations, replacing fixed
leased-line capacity and/or offering corporate
services such as managed bandwidth services
and VPN access. This is mostly in and around
cities and sometimes only within a limited
time frame.
As a rule, WiMax is offered as a subscription
service. Usually plain (broadband) Internet
connectivity is offered, but there are also attempts
to offer other services (e.g. VoIP for the consumer
market, managed services for the business market).
Speeds typically range between 512 kbps and 2
Mbps downstream and between 128 kbps and
512 kbps upstream for the consumer and small
business market, and upwards from 2 Mbps for
the business market. For WiMax on trains, pay-
per-use schemes have also been announced.
Currently WiMax constitutes a small-scale,
niche market. Little usage is being reported,
typically a few hundred customers. However, this
scale is expected to grow considerably as large trials
and deployments on a regional or even national
scale have been announced in several countries,
following the allocation of 3.5 GHz licences
throughout most of Europe. Map 3-3 shows that
most current WiMax trials and deployments are
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going on in Western Europe16. In Eastern Europe,
many new developments appear to centre around
the 450 MHz band, which is more favourable to
low capacity, wide area voice and data services
than to mobile or wireless broadband.17
3.3.3 Mesh/Ad-hocNetworks
We have adopted a broad definition of
Mesh/Ad-hoc networking in this report. Different
distinctions are commonly made between meshed
networks18, including pure client meshes (in which
every device in the network, including laptops,
PDAs and smart phones, can pass along traffic to
other devices, and thus constitutes a ‘multi-hop’
node in the network), and infrastructure meshes
Map 3‑3 WiMax Activities in Europe, June 2005
Source: TNO
16 So while most analysts (e.g. Northstream, 2005) mention Eastern Europe as the most promising market for WiMax because of its general lack of fixed broadband infrastructure in many rural and remote areas, this is not immediately observable in WiMax deployments today.
17 See e.g. Goldman Sachs (2004).18 See e.g. Vance (2004).
(in which access points and wireless routers carry
the traffic back to the wired node). The majority
of meshes in Europe today seem to consist of
infrastructure meshes.
Mesh and ad-hoc technologies in Europe are
being used by wireless communities of individuals
linking and opening up their infrastructure on a
voluntary basis. We have found few particular
services being deployed within these networks
(see Map 3-4), or even Internet connectivity;
rather, they are mostly providing each other with
basic high capacity links to one another. Another
use of mesh and ad-hoc technologies is to create
more coherent wireless zones or clouds, for either
commercial exploitation or non-commercial
usage. This is done by specialised WISPs and/or
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by municipalities, regional governments and
universities. Commercial exploitation, if any, is
on a subscription basis, typically with flat fees
of 10-30 € per month depending on data rates
(typically 128 kbps to 1 Mbps).
3.3.4 FlashOFDM
Not just in the US, but also in Europe, Flash
OFDM has been touted by analysts as one of the
most promising AWTs, citing its combination of
high throughput, high mobility, and low latency
as its major advantage. However, the deployment
of Flash OFDM is currently not permitted by
many, if any, European regulators. While most
observers have characterised Flarion’s strategy
as attempting to support operators and agencies
in Europe advocating a technology-agnostic
view of licensing19, some analysts are observing
a different European strategy, involving Flash
OFDM trying to establish itself as part of the
3GPP family of standards. In any case, it is
expected that there will be an uncertain and
lengthy process involved.
Meanwhile, we have found one first Flash
OFDM market trial on the European market
already.20 In September 2004, a Flash OFDM trial
in the Dutch city of The Hague was started by T-
Mobile. In Finland, Saunalahti, one of 7 current
bidders for 450 MHz frequencies in that country,
has announced plans to deploy a Flash OFDM
network if it should acquire a licence. Its primary
target market would be up to 150,000 users in
remote rural areas.
Map 3‑4 Mesh / Ad‑hoc Network Activities in Europe, June 2005
Source: TNO
19 See e.g. Dineen (2004).20 Hence no map is shown in this report.
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3.3.5 UMTS-TDD
Since recently, the trialling, deployment and
usage of UMTS-TDD in Europe are clearly on the
rise. The fact that the technology is admissible by
EU regulators because of its adherence to the 3GPP
family of standards is widely being regarded as the
main advantage of this technology compared to
other AWTs. In addition, many traditional mobile
operators in most of the European countries
have acquired UMTS-TDD frequency space
and licences at the time of the UMTS licensing
processes throughout Europe in 2000 and 2001.
UMTS-TDD is also being deployed by new
operators in other frequency bands, e.g. the 3.5
GHz band.
In contrast to some of the deployments of
WiMax and Mesh/Ad-hoc networks, the current
deployment and usage of UMTS-TDD in Europe
are primarily in city centres and urban areas.
While a number of offerings are aiming at the
enterprise market (e.g. the Orange trials in Lille),
most are aimed at the consumer market or at a
mixture of both (e.g. Airdata’s UMTS-TDD offering
in Germany). Some of these companies, including
Airdata, are rolling out UMTS-TDD networks with
the intention of subsequently using independent
WISPs as resellers. The proposition to the ISPs/
retailers is in this case to exclude the incumbent
from the customer relationship, as no fixed-line
connection is required any more for broadband
access.
Many operators are holding licences as well
as having roll-out plans for much larger areas than
city centres, including operators in Lithuania,
Portugal, Sweden and the UK. While coverage of
current UMTS-TDD networks is in many countries
on the order of tens of thousands of potential
customers, actual subscriber figures are on the
order of several hundreds of customers.
The main service currently offered is flat-
fee ‘portable DSL’, priced at 15 €/month and up
depending on data rates (128 kbps up to 1 Mbps).
Map 3‑5 UMTS TDD Activities in Europe, June 2005
Source: TNO
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broadband access, various operators plan to
offer a voice service over wireless broadband
that can replace subscribers’ landlines. Map
3-5 summarises current UMTS TDD activities in
Europe.
3.4 (Non-) Operator Centricity of AWTs in Europe
The likelihood of AWTs actually constituting
a considerable threat to (traditional) operators’
positions is very much dependent upon the types of actors driving the service offering, as well as on their strategies. This section briefly reviews the main types of actors and strategies vis-à-vis AWTs encountered in the European market today, in Table 3-4.
Clearly traditional operators have taken the lead in the deployment and exploitation of AWTs throughout most of Europe. Obviously, this strongly limits the scope for AWTs being used in a non- (traditional) operator-centric
manner.
Table 3‑4 Operator Centricity of AWT Initiatives in Europe
Centricity Strategy/rationale Summary observation (relating to map)
Non-operatorsindividual provision of hotspots, and the establishment of (free) wireless zones and clouds
Communitarian: communities of individualsLocation-based: municipalities and universities wishing to increase the attractiveness of their location or siteCommercial: indirect returns from increased sales of other products or services (hotels etc.)
- “Light” or “Light to Moderate” activity in most countries, consistent with most analysts’ observations
- Moderate or even strong involvement (e.g. in Estonia, Spain, Poland and UK) likely related to a mixture of active local, regional or national governmental support for AWTs, active wireless communities, and individual commercial AWT offerings in which no operators are involved
Non-traditional / new operatorse.g. new generations of WISPs
Niche players:- in segments of the business
market; or- rural and remote coverage
(Potential) mass markets operators:
- serving consumer and small business markets in urban areas (cream-skimming or competing head-on with existing networks).
- serving consumer and business markets in large areas with underdeveloped existing telecommunications infrastructure.
Strategy:- All strategies found, no strategy clearly dominating
new. Strategy followed by new entrants appears to depend primarily on the state of the market, regulatory incentives and the particular characteristics of specific AWTs.
Activity:- “Moderate” in most countries, reflecting some
dynamism in AWT markets today as to new market entry, but also the limited (and in some cases declining) impact. I.e. new AWTs often introduced by new entrants, but in Wi-Fi consolidation by traditional operators has followed.
- A few countries (e.g. Ireland, Germany, Denmark and the UK) have a more significant presence of new operators.
Traditional operator Pre-emption strategy: often by the acquisition of small new entrants, in order to discourage or preclude entry by other operators.Non-cannibalisation strategy: deployment in small niches where no overlap exists with traditional activitiesIntegration strategy with small scope for AWTs: integration of AWTs into the overall operator offering (for niche use).Integration strategy with large scope for AWTs: integration of AWTs into the overall operator offering, with AWTs constituting a considerable part of the value proposition.
Strategy:- Pre-emption and non-cannibalisation strategies visible
amongst traditional operators in many countries.- Wi-Fi and traditional telecommunications access are
being combined on a subscription level in at least 10 to 15 countries.
- Cellular (2G/2.5G/3G) and AWT combined on a technical level in around 5 EU countries.
- Thus a number of traditional operators that are moving beyond defensive strategies.
Activity:- “Strong” or “Moderate to Strong” in almost all
countries. Thus traditional operators have taken the lead in the deployment and exploitation of AWTs throughout most of Europe, which strongly limits the scope for AWTs being used in a non- (traditional) operator-centric manner.
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As an input to the debate on future scenarios
for AWTs in Europe, this section presents some
data on recent and expected growth rates. WP
1 compared the figures for each country on the
growth of hotspots from August 2004 to March
2005, and showed that growth rates are very
uneven, but can be quite impressive. While there
has been hardly any growth in most of the lagging
countries, other countries exhibit moderate but
steady growth rates of e.g. 100 hotspots per year
as in Estonia, and still others such as Germany
appear to have experienced very high growth
rates. In any case, judging by this data, there is
no reason to assume stagnation or levelling off of
investments in AWTs in Europe. In terms of future
developments, WP 1 reviews of expert estimations
for AWT growth in the short to medium term
showed mixed results. For 4 countries, little growth
is expected; for 8 countries, little to moderate
growth; and for almost half of the EU25 countries
(e.g. Austria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Italy,
Sweden and the UK), moderate growth. Only for
one country, i.e. Ireland, have moderate to strong
growth rates been estimated.
It was also illustrated that a considerable
number of current AWT service offerings are
not directly in competition with mobile or fixed
broadband, due to a lack of mobility features and
to a lack of clear price or data rate advantages
vis-à-vis fixed broadband, respectively. It was
demonstrated that, while Eastern Europe is
often mentioned as the most promising AWT
market because of a lack of fixed broadband
infrastructures in many areas, this is not visible
in the number and extent of AWT deployments
today. Estonia aside, most AWT dynamics currently
appear to be taking place in Western Europe and
Scandinavia, with the four candidate countries
scoring amongst the least developed countries in
terms of AWTs. Finally, regulatory conditions in
Figure 3‑1 Growth Estimates of AWTs in EU25 Member States
Source: TNO
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even though some regulators seem to adopt a two-
tier approach which at the same time stimulates
AWT development (e.g. in Ireland). The active
role of governments and regulators in Estonia
(with the most hotspots compared to its number of
inhabitants) and Ireland (where growth estimates
for AWTs are highest), as well as the potential
role of UMTS-TDD as an ‘acceptable’ AWT to EU
regulators, are worthwhile highlighting.
In conclusion, there is still no definitive
answer to the question: “How alternative are
alternative wireless technologies in Europe?”
This chapter has shown that, currently, traditional
telecommunications operators are leading AWT
developments, while some additional market
dynamism is being created by new operators and,
in a limited number of countries, by non-operator-
centric initiatives. Given the fact that “no operator
wants to choose a non-orthodox migration path”
(Goldman Sachs, 2004), this might lead to rather
bleak prospects for AWTs in Europe. However,
some very compelling reasons to do so make
it not impossible for traditional operators to
embrace AWTs. UMTS-TDD might be an obvious
candidate, but especially traditional operators
without UMTS-TDD licences, operators with a
stake in certain other AWTs, operators wishing to
connect and integrate their present Wi-Fi hotspots,
and operators aiming to develop in a so-called
greenfield situation, may be inclined to consider
other AWTs as well. Thus, the market potential
offered by AWTs is likely to be much more
disruptive than present developments suggest,
which in turn raises critical policy challenges and
opportunities, to be discussed in Chapter 6.
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This chapter explores drivers in particular
safety and security, as well as mobile virtual
communities as drivers of demand for emerging
alternative wireless technologies. By way of
introduction, a Section 4.1 presents a generic
overview of present and near-future drivers
and bottlenecks for AWTs in Europe that were
encountered during the research. Section 4.2
summarises observations regarding mobile virtual
communities (MVCs) as drivers of AWTs. Section
4.3 investigates enabling AWTs for safety and
security applications (including a case study),
while Section 4.4 closely inspects one specific
bottleneck for diffusion of AWTs, namely the
security threats they give rise to.
4.1 General Drivers and Bottlenecks
Table 4-1 summarises general drivers and
bottlenecks at the level of general developments
in markets, technologies and regulations – as
4. Drivers – MVCs, Security and Safety
highlighted by nearly 30 country and technology
experts who were interviewed for this study.
4.2 Mobile Virtual Communities
This section explores the (potential)
relationship between mobile virtual communities
(MVCs) and alternative wireless technologies
(AWTs), based on a quick scan of relevant
literature as well as empirical evidence.
The concept of virtual communities is an
increasingly popular one for addressing various
forms of interaction in the information society
technology domain. We approach communities
with a broad definition, exploring the emergence
of all different kinds of (social) networks in relation
to alternative wireless technologies. These could
be communities (both physical and virtual) but
also other networks and interactions between
individuals and groups of individuals. We use the
term ‘communities’ as an overarching concept
Table 4‑1 General AWT Drivers and Bottlenecks
Drivers Bottlenecks
- Poor fixed broadband infrastructure development in many small cities, towns, rural and remote areas across Europe.
- Government incentives, programmes and public-private partnerships to stimulate broadband connectivity.
- Competition in Wi-Fi markets, e.g. because of relatively low prices of Wi-Fi deployment, driving prices down and ensuring relatively high coverage in a number of countries.
- Success of private in-house WLANs, which might stimulate the usage of public WLANs.
- Emerging integration of AWT and mobile capabilities in dual mode handsets.
- Falling hardware prices and backhaul costs.- Limited number of licensed operators in some
markets, creating incentives for new stakeholders to enter national markets using AWTs.
- New applications and possibilities such as VoIP over wireless, deployment of AWTs on trains etc.
- Expected expansion of WiMax with mobility characteristics.
- Lack of interconnection and roaming agreements, especially between new AWT operators.
- Pricing models of public hotspot access in many EU countries still oriented towards occasional use, limiting scope of AWTs to business market.
- Licensing regimes in many EU countries imposing limitations on spectrum availability, deployment, handoff and integration of AWT cells, and generally allowing technical experiments with AWTs but no market experiments.
- Persistent standardisation problems.- Lack of user-friendliness in access, authentication and
billing procedures.- Lack of structural advantages (in terms of speed or
cost) over fixed broadband, and therefore a lack of incentives for AWTs in areas with well-developed fixed broadband infrastructure.
- Potential saturation and congestion of unlicensed spectrum in prime locations.
- Limited amount of terminals and other certified equipment in the market.
- Lack of customer education, i.e. in terms of differences between mobile and various AWTs.
- Lack of content applications.
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fety for a wide range of more or less structured social
contacts and networks.
The (potential) relationship between MVCs
and AWTs can be contextualised within the
general discourse on the relationships between
communities, social capital and ICTs, and
on the distinctions between communities of
birth, communities of interest, communities of
practice and networks of practice. There is also
an emerging body of literature dealing with the
relationships between mobile technologies,
virtual communities and social capital in general,
which points at strong to even extreme mutual
influences.
It should be stressed that several current and
emerging instances of MVCs are related to mobile
cellular technologies. The primary applications of
mobile technologies in the consumer market, i.e.
mobile voice telephony, short messaging service
(SMS) and multimedia messaging service (MMS)
are strongly community- and network-related. Also
ringtone downloading, the primary third-party
content application for mobile telecommunications
worldwide, exhibits a community aspect. In
addition, a number of more advanced mobile
virtual community uses of mobiles have been
reported. These include mobile blogging, mobile
location-based multiplayer games, and mobile
picture-sharing communities. Still, these are only
embryonic indications of potentially far-reaching
developments in this field.
There are a number of potential ways for AWTs
to influence (and be influenced by) MVCs, due
to the reciprocal nature of MVCs and AWSs and
the different nature of current AWT deployments
vis-à-vis mobile cellular deployments (in
particular the cost-efficiency and flat-fee pricing,
adding value for MVCs when AWTs are used).
Voice over Wireless IP has persistently been
referred to as the so-called killer application
for AWTs. However, there are still a number of
barriers limiting the market prospects (and thus
community impact) in the short to medium term.
The development of specific mobile multimedia
content made accessible through AWTs is still
in its infancy, and its impact on mobile virtual
communities can also be expected to be limited
in the short to medium term.
Instead, currently the main development
in this respect is the proliferation (be it
predominantly at a modest level, nota bene) of
wireless communities for the joint deployment and
operation of Wi-Fi hotspots and clouds. Due to the
cost characteristics of many AWTs (individual base
stations and access points are relatively cheap to
deploy), their technical characteristics (potential
to be used in ad-hoc and meshed topologies), and
main stakeholders (as they are driven primarily by
hardware industry rather than by any community
of established service providers), a new breed
of wireless communities has been developing
rapidly. These are often grassroots amateurs
that quickly found themselves and organised
as communities to enjoy the benefits of shared
resources, interests, and activities. A typical
characteristic of these wireless communities is that
they are using AWTs in a non-operator-centric way,
more precisely according to the communitarian
rationale/strategy (see Table 3-4). Looking outside
Europe, sources indicate that in the US, wireless
communities have been much more active than
in Europe or elsewhere in the world. But even in
the US, wireless community activities appear to
be completely, or at least predominantly, centred
on the provisioning of AWTs themselves.
Finally, we point at the geographical
limitations of current AWTs (offering nomadic
rather than mobile access, and constituting
wireless hotspots, clouds and zones in a limited,
local area), and at participatory limitations (related
to the high expertise and income levels of current
participants) as the main factors hindering the
development of wireless communities today.
4.3 AWTs Enabling Safety and Security Applications
AWTs networks are finding major and
increasing usage in security, health care and safety
of everyday life. The range of security and safety
applications for AWT networks is as diverse as
their technologies. Table 4-2 examine the potential
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sTable 4‑2 AWTs and Safety/Security Applications
AWT Applications in security and safetyNFC (Near Field Communication)
- Card readers, linking devices into cooperating networks including access control.- Medical applications in the NFM (near field magnetics) form, with ingested or sub-cutinaceous responder
capsules.UWB(Ultra-Wideband)
Useful for high-speed short-range communications up to 20m including:- High-resolution video with multiple channels.- Applications requiring propagation characteristics that can make walls and obstructions seem
transparent.- Electrically noisy environments.- Large warehouses, in a low data rate version.
ZigBee - Sensor networks for chemical, nuclear and hazardous zones, including noxious leak detection in public places.
- Wireless monitoring of shipping containers while in transit (US Coastguard) for chemical and radiation detection with automatic alert to shore.
- Hotel and public building systems for detection of radiation and chemicals in air conditioning.- Remote control of safety devices and complete factories and vehicle, including ships, for robot
operations.- Pipeline control and monitoring including leakages, explosive gas build-up etc.- Reporting on perishable goods including foodstuffs for temperature and state.
RFID - RFID can be used to track people as well as goods with smart tags. The US military’s Joint Total Asset Visibility (JTAV) network built over the last ten years is one of the larger RFID networks in the world – with active RFID tags and GPS locators to globally track military supplies21 .
- Typical LF security and safety applications include access control, personnel tracking, vehicle immobilisation, health care applications, authentication, and point-of-sale applications.
- Typical HF applications include patient monitoring, product authentication, and the tracking of airline baggage and smart cards and shelves for item-level tracking.
- UHF bands are highly suited to supply chain RFID applications due to the greater range for transmission of data, so UHF RFID is used with the Electronic Product Code (EPC) standard in logistics.
- Safety in food can be monitored with RFID tags that contain a threshold temperature sensor to detect whether a food item has become warmed up at some point and is no longer safe to eat.
- The high-range band is also widely used for toll collection systems on highways, manufacturing applications, and access control, especially for vehicles, to restricted areas.
- Embedded RFID can be viable for tracking bank notes and verifying passports. RFID tags may also embedded under the human skin as authentication, location and for transactions.
- RFID tags are used as environmental sensors, using an energising signal from a scanner for their transmissions.
BluetoothIEEE 802.15.1, versions 1 and 2
Criticised for weak security, Bluetooth in mobile and PC devices has a history of eavesdropping and giving out personal details without the owner’s control.Suitable for:- machine-to-machine communications in home networks and industrial networks over short distances,
where ad-hoc links need to be set up on moving into range.- Applications in medical and all emergency situations where a short-range protocol is required for point-
to-point emergency personal networks and power supply is not a problem.Wi-Fi(IEEE 802.11a,b,g, n)
Although security problems with penetration and lack of access control are rife, its ubiquity and falling price lend it to securitisation via better access control and encryption, which may hit throughput performance.It may be used as:- a short-range system for data transfer including compressed video over its 11 Mbps channel for
medical and surveillance applications.- a low-cost platform using the mesh network software which employs its protocols (see below) for an
emergency services network across a municipality.Enhancements of UMTS’
Applications may exist in both interactive and alert broadcast networks. The need for mobility for emergency services may be a limit on enhanced data rates.
Flash OFDM (802.20 candidate)
Applications are in:- communications for the US national police services, municipal police and emergency services
command, control and surveillance systems in conventional cell structure, with handover, for a broadband solution (up to 1.5 Mbps).
- social work and medical communications systems for sending visual information to experts, and also access to 3D CAD for buildings for fire-fighters.
Proprietary Mesh networksLocustworld, Tropos, Firetide, Strix
- Mesh networks are useful for safety and security applications due to their resilience in a disaster or attack situation where new deployment and resistance through redundancy are required. They are also being installed as:
- low-cost municipal networks, as the density of base stations is far lower than cellular Land Mobile Radio (LMR) for emergency services. In the USA, municipal mesh networks have been installed for the police, ambulance and fire emergency services.
- They have also been used in robot management networks – a Tropos mesh network is used for space robots by NASA in its test labs.
WiMax (802.16x)Fixed, nomadic (portable) and mobile access
- Useful in the fixed wireless mode for surveillance and for broadcast of alerts.- In the mobile roaming form, can be used for broadband video for emergency services support.- May form the basis of low-cost communications, command and control systems for city-wide
emergency services.
21 Digital ID World (2003)
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fety applications of AWTs in more detail. Clearly we
are currently still at the dawn of finding usages for
AWTs in the fields of security and safety. In sum,
the pervasiveness and ubiquity of AWTs lead to
new levels of sophistication in support (e.g. for
the elderly and frail) and for security (e.g. in giving
constant surveillance for hazards) and in medical
applications, where the field is being revised by
sensor networks and the co-ordination afforded by
broadband wireless networks for telemedicine.
The functional usages of AWT networks
in applications within the three classifications
of security, safety and care are reviewed. For
security purposes, AWTs lend themselves to
providing police fire and ambulance services, as
well as security services with extremely robust
C4 (command/control/communication/coordina-
tion) systems not least for alerts and disaster
situations.
Safety of life and property using AWT
capability covers many areas, but two appear
particularly significant: (1) the use of wireless
sensor networks for detecting unsafe situations,
be they in a specific environment, a city, a
chemical plant, or tracking potentially hazardous
moving items such as containers; (2) mobile
applications for vehicle and traffic management
hazards–termed telematics. As the hazards of
a large-scale disaster or attacks become ever
greater, we may need a way of alerting citizens
everywhere. AWT networks could form the basis
of a ‘second network’ to provide the citizen with
a dedicated alert channel, due to their ubiquity,
robustness and low cost relative to other radio
technologies such as mobile cellular (see the
case study in Box 4-1). In addition, mesh forms
of AWTs have inherent resistance to attack due
to their non-centralised locus of control, and
thus are attractive for this application.
Despite the widespread use of AWTs in
emergency and security applications, perhaps
it is in the development of ubiquitous networks
for health care, including mental health, that
the greatest advances are to be seen. In health
care AWTs can be used in several applications,
including (1) telemedicine, where the ubiquity of
AWTs enables expertise and scientific monitoring
of care in the hospital to be transferred to care in
the home for aged and infirm people; (2) numerous
uses in hospital networks; (3) personal and
wearable health networks (Healthwear) attached
to the body of the patient will extend care into the
home from hospital, an area where little success
has been found so far with effective telemedicine.
These may be used for early detection of failing
mental as well as physical conditions, by going
into social interaction as much as monitoring body
parameters directly. Finally, AWTs may be used in
(4) ambulance control and on-site support, where
for instance images can be transferred from first
responders to a moving ambulance to prepare its
medicos for the injuries and the general scene.
4.4 AWTs as a Security Threat
This section pursues an analysis of security
threats to mobile virtual communities through
AWTs, including threats to the person, personal
details and data for emergency and community
services and services such as m-commerce,
including content distribution. We can begin this
threat analysis by examining the various elements
of AWT wireless networks and their associated
security threats, in a form of standard breakdown
as illustrated below.
Taking instead the user’s view, we can
already see that there are fears about wireless
security, especially privacy, and that some AWTs
are already the subject of protest (especially those
associated with personal areas such as Bluetooth
and RFID). In the more advanced mobile markets,
the growing security threat in mobile cellular
already has a demand-side dimension that must
be assessed as part of this driver.
The national-level impacts possibly could be
even greater than the current nuisances of Internet
threats, if links into other telecommunications
networks are used to bring down the emergency
services, for instance in a Denial of Service (DoS)
attack. Liability would be attributed to security
weaknesses in the AWT network. So a key part
of the AWT applications can be expected to be
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sBox 4‑1 Case Study – WARN (Wireless Accelerated Responder Network)
Since the disastrous events of 2001, government agencies in the USA have been examining the exchange of narrowband systems for mobile broadband service. The goal is to increase the speed and efficiency of emergency response, and equip public safety with more tools to detect, prevent and respond to events, and to improve effectiveness of public safety services and personnel (especially in mobile and remote environments). The Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) in Washington DC is an example of one such agency. The Wireless Accelerated Responder Network (WARN) project grew from the US capital’s need for mobile communication for public safety and security as part of the US Homeland Security and Public Safety requirement. It was considered that a new approach was now needed to enhance detection, prevention, and for response and recovery efforts. To avoid delay, the city of Washington decided to support the entire pilot internally. In February 2004, the district administration awarded a $3 million contract for a pilot network to Motorola, as prime contractor, with its subcontractor for the key technology being Flarion Technologies. Deployment began in 2004 for a pilot test implementation, which went operational in September 2004, with an experimental temporary licence from the FCC.
The objectives of the pilot project were to demonstrate the applications and benefits of broadband wireless networks and satisfy short-term critical needs for communications not met by current systems. The network system had to provide: (1) a broadband user experience – thus it must support full motion video back from the incident scene (which indicates at least 1.5 Mbps with a 300 kbps uplink), (2) interoperation with legacy-wired networks for end-to-end transport of IP and packet-switched information, (3) end-to-end security, from wired host to wireless client, (4) cost-effective solution, (5) priority access (QoS), (6) the capability of scalability, (7) support for full vehicular mobility across a wide service area, (8) Always-on access, (9) an architecture and interfaces system such that changes to existing applications or devices are not required. The solution chosen was Flash OFDM for the broadband wireless service. Broadband wireless solutions are bandwidth-intensive, and the solution chosen for Washington DC is 100 MHz bandwidth set at the 700 MHz frequency to give good range and lower the number of base stations required for the urban cityscape.
The main challenges overcome were: (1) construction of equivalent to PMR at lower costs; (2) obtaining buy-in of user groups and success in replacing their own networks, as they have the confidence to substitute a single new AWT solution for their existing separate networks; and (3) integrating the requirements from a diverse set of users on a single network solution.
As a result, today Washington DC has the first city-wide high-speed, wireless, broadband data network capable of handling real-time voice, data and video for public safety. WARN’s network originally employed a 10-cell site network to cover the city limits at the 700 MHz frequency. Due to needs of a new basketball stadium and other local requirements, the system was easily expanded and now has 12 base-station sites. The success of the OCTO WARN network pilot has largely come from five factors: (1) capacity to carry all network traffic without saturation; (2) costs which are a fraction of the conventional contender technology, (3) flexibility to meet diverse needs among several communities of users, with a broadband capability for video voice and high speed data, (4) security and reliability of connection in service, (5) return on investment – measured not just in pure in response capability for emergencies, but in factors such as reducing police paperwork and the ability to support the community socially by, for instance, reducing the incidence of crime.
The key lesson from the case study is that this AWT technology, Flash OFDM pre-standard IEEE 802.20, provides a viable and reliable basis to deliver broadband services citywide, at lower cost than 3G mobile or conventional (2G voice) LMR. It offers reliable roaming and cell handover for high-mobility vehicles such as helicopters, to match security requirements. Also the cost of maintenance for such a multi-purpose capability is far lower. One network is shared among several user organisations, rather than each having to set up and run a separate network. Such a situation would miss the effects of scale as each network has smaller capacities and user population, with different standards and networks. This inefficiency leads to higher Capex and Opex per user.
Main sources: OCTO (user) and Flarion USA (network supplier)
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a security platform to protect all components
(servers, networks and handsets), to ensure
coherent security with constant monitoring and
management of attacks.
However, the security field in AWTs is very
young. By the random nature of their development,
with the technology often appearing from start-ups,
we can see that security is still a ‘work in progress’.
A key difference in security architectures for AWT
networks, compared to previous radio networks
of cellular form, is that they may be non-operator-
centric – and more specifically, there may be no
centralised management. Networks may be ad-
hoc with mesh styles of operation in which new
users may join the network and even carry traffic
for others in certain technologies of mesh network.
Thus there are major authentication issues to
be resolved here, specifically of creating secure
transient security relationships22 perhaps through
multi-level integrity systems23. Moreover, Mobile
IPv6, which may be used in mesh networks,
enables mobile nodes to migrate from one access
point to another, raising a new set of security issues
in establishing authenticity and also protection of
communications as a relay for others, if the handset
is used as a node. The problem of knowing who
is the valid subscriber is multiplied for roaming
users from other networks.
Figure 4‑1 Security Challenges of Wideband Multimedia Elements
Source: SCF Associates
22 Stajano and Anderson (2000). ‘Secure transient security relationships’ in the sense that a user may appear for a short commercial transaction, and then disappear, and may also be a user who has not been seen before – yet the whole transaction must be authorised, the communicating parties must be authenticated, and the information passed must remain intact and not intercepted. The relationship between buyer and seller, for instance, lasts only as long as the transaction, yet all must be secure.
23 ‘Multi-level integrity systems’ refers to the notion of security across the various layers of the network and into the application. For ad-hoc radio systems, security at the air interface level could be a physical level of data encryption with authentication of the user-handheld device and base station; whereas at the level of e-mail, integrity of the communication service could require verification of naming and addressing for source and destination as part of the integrity measures, as well as policing payload data corruption.
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sIn the future, AWTs will offer more than a
major new communications channel, but just
as 3G and 2.5G mobile cellular do, they will
bring much richer services. However, the new
services also bring a range of responsibilities and
vulnerabilities never seen before – the multimedia
handset equals the PC in intelligence and
programmability with Java-based applications,
the network becomes an IP packet-based transport
mechanism with intelligent gateways and service
agents at its edges, while the IT content server
side expands in complexity and size.
Thus looking forward over the next decade,
the threats expand from those associated with
simple communications to those associated with
applications for advanced emergency services
support as well as commercial services in m-
commerce and the like, based on some form of
Internet, intranet or extranet access over a wireless
local loop. The dimensions and range of threat that
come with these new capabilities have not been
seen before in conventional computer networks
or the Internet, and certainly not in earlier mobile
cellular such as 2G mobile. Risks to everyday
community operations and business are spread
across all system elements: the networks (fixed
radio and mobile radio access as well as wireline
backhaul); the servers and databases connected,
including digital asset repositories as well as
citizen and customer data, and on the server side,
the applications and portals.
Types of risk include all the infamous
attacks seen in the Internet world, with added
vulnerabilities of an air interface. Moreover,
access is provided for malicious software to
telephony networks which may be important for
security of life, through the mobile telephony
APIs. Thus there are strong AWT market issues of
security, many of which have already appeared
first with Wi-Fi, largely to do with confidentiality
and privacy. Here we would highlight a high-risk
threat to AWT market take-off. If such menaces get
out of control, the whole wireless market could
be undermined in the subsequent fall-out. Citizen
and consumer trust would be destroyed. There is
a risk that the whole use of the AWT networks
could be set back for some years, just as the
Internet e-commerce world has been retarded by
similar incidents. The AWT consumer market will
be extremely vulnerable to fraud and malicious
software security lapses. Given a major scandal
with viruses, fraud, identity theft, affecting the
public emergency services by blocking, spam or
location-based privacy attacks, the whole AWT
consumer market could fold. It could leave 2G’s
plain vanilla circuit-switched voice as the only
service consumers would trust.
Protection of AWT systems end-to-end is a
major challenge. Although we do not investigate
solutions in detail here, we may suggest certain
guiding principles, especially that security cannot
just be bolted on. To be effective across the
multimedia wireless environment, security needs
to be addressed as a key component of the overall
infrastructure, designed in from the start – and not
attached at the end.
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This chapter summarises for policy-makers
certain key lessons that we may draw from the AWT
experience of the Republic of Korea (henceforth
Korea or South Korea). Section 5.1 overviews
some general features of the Korean ICT and, in
more depth, AWT market. Section 5.2 analyses
the main drivers of success, and hence lessons
to be learned for policy-makers elsewhere. The
chapter ends with a view of the future by probing
into the most recent R&D and policy agenda and
how the Korean direction fits into a broader Asian
context (Section 5.3).
5.1 Korean ICT and AWT Market
Korea has made major strides in information
and communication technologies over the past
three decades. From being a country with almost
no ICT access 30-40 years ago, Korea has become
one of the top three globally in access to ICT-
based services24. A basic ingredient of Korean
life is now the availability of communication,
information and entertainment from anywhere,
at anytime and from any form of terminal, most
usually a mobile handset. Today 16% of Korea’s
GDP and 30% of exports come from the ICT
sector25. Korea is best known for its remarkable
uptake in broadband Internet access, with
broadband penetration rates accounting for
almost 25% of Internet access.26 Broadband
connections are highly used – for instance, to
listen to CD-quality audio over the web.
In competition or perhaps in a complementary
role with AWTs are mobile cellular services with
well-developed data services. Korea was one of the
first countries worldwide to launch commercial
3G mobile services, so mobile cellular operators
offer not just voice but data transmission over
CDMA2000 1X EVDO networks at speeds up
to 2.4 Mbps, for a wide range of application
services.
Globally, the most advanced AWT market
is probably Korea. Over 18,000 Wi-Fi hotspots,
over 35% of the world total, were commercially
available nationally by 2004. Industrial AWT
networks such as ZigBee for RFID and industrial
sensors are also being piloted in Korea, while
most terminal and handset devices designed and
manufactured in Korea have short-range AWTs
embedded, such as Bluetooth and RFID. For
instance, SK Telecom’s Moneta service has more
than 470,000 point-of-sale terminals that accept
payments via RFID chips embedded in mobile
handsets.
For summarising purposes, all the main
AWTs that are either under consideration for
import and/or being produced locally, and their
current status, are given in Table 5-1. Besides these
developments, the striving towards a converged
broadband network environment, termed the
BCN or Broadband Converged Network, is worth
mentioning.
Korea’s ICT industry segment for AWTs grows
out of its telecommunications and consumer
device industries. The Korean industry structure
resembles that of Japan with a few large players
and many much smaller players, not all selling
under their own brand – such as SK Telech, a tied
supplier to SK Telecom. The major players are
Samsung and LG Electronics, both with advanced
AWT capabilities. Another advanced smaller
AWT player is Pantech & Curitel (investigated
24 Top three in the sense of Internet access (via mobile as well as fixed line) and voice telephony – the other two are the USA and Japan, and, depending on how it is measured, Korea is third. In terms of broadband access lines of all kinds per head of population, Korea may well come higher.
25 Fifield (2004).26 Ibid.
5. AWTS in Korea – A Case Study
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further in Appendix 2). There are also a few large
Korean integrated circuit fabricators, often using
designs from chip designers in other countries
under licence; but some of the large players such
as Hynix concentrate on silicon chip markets that
are only peripheral to AWT manufacture.
Korea is now bringing together “mobile” and
“broadband” with development of the “Portable
Internet” using a home-grown AWT, WiBro, as
its carrier infrastructure. Mobile subscribers with
a multi-mode handset can browse the Internet at
broadband data rates, download and stream audio
and video, and hold interactive video dialogues.
5.2 Drivers for AWT Take-up
This section identifies the main drivers for
AWT take-up in Korea and the key policy lessons
to be learned from the achievements so far. First,
the Korean ICT success cannot be understood
without understanding its historical terms and the
social environment it has created.
Korean society over the past 100 years has
experienced occupation, repression and war
during the first half of the period. But over the last
50 years, the Republic of Korea has discovered a
proven and successful growth model, resembling
and following that of Japan – rebuilding a
destroyed economy and moving from heavy
engineering, with shipbuilding exports, into
lighter manufacturing, progressively entering into
cars, domestic appliances, heavy construction
equipment, electronic goods, semiconductors
and ICTs such as mobile phones. After the
Korean War, the government favoured the model
of conglomerates controlled by one family,
Table 5‑1 Key AWT and Suppliers Status in Korea
Technology Status in Korea Suppliers
Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11x) In production Samsung, LGE
WiMax (IEEE 802.16x) Under consideration as export tech-nology
LGE in alliance with Intel for consumer devices, de-veloping software and protocols, for Intel chips
Proprietary derivatives of IEEE 802.16 WiMax, specifi-cally WiBro
DevelopmentStrong drive under government sup-port aimed for 2006 mass rollout
Systems – SamsungHandsets – LGE, Samsung, Pantech & CuritelIntegrated circuits – Samsung Electronics
IEEE 802.20, or Flash OFDM Under consideration for import by operators (SK)
None – licences to manufacture considered
UWB (ultra-wideband) Under consideration – for far faster linking of video from cellphones and camcorders to other processors. In-dustry body (UWB Forum of Korea, set up. Currently, Samsung Elec-tronics is at the forefront worldwide in developing UWB technologies. Spectrum not decided in Korea.
Samsung Electronics and LGE in development for cellphones and other digital appliances. Samsung showcased a UWB hybrid wireless home network on 17 Jan 2005 at the US Consumer Electronics Show. Samsung has also demonstrated a giant high-defini-tion TV screen, with programs beamed from a media server. It expects to sell a top-end screen-server set, which looks like paintings on the wall, after the Ko-rean government allocates the spectrum for UWB.
ZigBee IEEE 802.15.4 and RFID – tags, chips and readers
In major developmentStrong drive from government sup-port based on ZigBee IEEE 802.15.4 for machine to machine communica-tions over unlicensed spectrum ISM bands at 868/915 MHz or 2.4 GHz, especially for sensor networks –be-ing taken seriously in Korea as need to catch up.
Systems and networks – LGE and Samsung Elec-tronicsHandsets – Pantech & Curitel, development by LGE and SamsungIntegrated circuits – Samsung Electronics
3G data enhancements – CDMA2000 enhance-ments including EVDO, and UMTS enhancements with HSPDA
In productionWorld leaders in CDMA 2000 EVDO technology in handsets
Systems: CDMA EVDO and W-CDMA (UMTS) HSP-DA – Samsung and LGEHandsets, EVDO and HSPDA – Pantech & Curitel, LGE and SamsungIntegrated circuits – Samsung Electronics
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sknown in Korea as the ‘Chaebol’27. Together with
government support for industry and the chaebol,
through cheap state credit, Korea gained a global
competitive edge. Government investment in the
education system produced Korea’s high-quality
workforce, skilled and well-educated but cheaper
than Japan’s for the chaebol. In the late 1990s the
Korean economy was challenged by the Asian
financial crisis and by low-cost competition from
China. The downturn effectively restructured
the Korean industry through the chaebol, away
from wide diversification, and also changed
the industrial direction nationally as Korea set
out to become a high-technology nation. The
profile of companies such as Lucky Goldstar and
Samsung changed, from being low-cost followers
in consumer goods, to being leaders both in
technology and most significantly in consumer
design, at a world level.
The intensity and psychological pressure of
the work ethic of Korea probably exceeds that
of Japan or China. Koreans work hard and have
sacrificed themselves to develop into a high-
income economy in a mere 50 years. With one
of the longest set working weeks (5.5 days) in the
industrialised world, Koreans seem destined not to
relax until they become the leading knowledge-
based IT economy. The cultural manifestation of
this pressure is referred to as the national cult of
“hurry hurry” or “Bballi Bballi” mentality that
permeates through all aspects of Korean life,
especially development of technologies such
as innovative telecommunications. Moreover,
Koreans possess a high regard for educational
achievement and see it as the goal of every
person, where education and the national goals
are inclusive. The cultural ideal of government,
government programs and society is the advance
of the whole nation, less of individuals. In
consequence IT programs, such as those for
broadband rollout, are aimed at the all the
nation – the remote villages as much as the main
population centres.
Now, with these background factors in mind,
government intervention and orchestration of
the private sector is a (perhaps the) key factor.
Government encouragement of broadband, since
the early 1990s through independent operators
and the national incumbent, has set the pace
for national renewal of the telecommunications
infrastructure. Access for broadband was initially
via a fixed infrastructure, with fibre optics, but
more recently has turned to wireless. Thus wireless
should be seen as one technology in the context
of a broadband policy which also employs fibre
installation, and DSL cabling of all types to the
home and office.
Over two decades, the Korean government
has orchestrated support for ICTs with a series
of programmes, as illustrated in the figure below
– a chain of interconnected Korean government
ICT programmes over twenty years. Note that the
strategy possesses defined economic aims. They
are tied to clear policy targets in terms of ‘Dollars
and cents’ - quite different to European or US
goals in long-term ICT programs. This point of
policy is worth noting.
The Korean regulatory regime has cleverly
used its revenues from spectrum licences and
taxes on operators as a strategic re-investment
fund for telecommunications infrastructure and
research. According to the ITU, such investments
have produced phenomenal results in Korea, for
instance establishing its position as the world’s
broadband leader. It is an example of how prudent
27 The Chaebol are large industrial conglomerate groups, based around one family, whose member companies are cemented together by complex cross-shareholdings. Their ownership structure allows the family to control through minimal shareholdings – for instance the head of Samsung, Lee Kun-hee, owns just 1.9% of stock of Samsung Electronics yet retains his management position. Their history is of being the motor for Korea’s push to developed industrial economy status, but through rapid expansion – sometimes too rapid: Daewoo’s implosion in the 1998 Asian crisis revealed debts of 14% of Korean GDP. The four largest chaebol control over 40% of the Korean GDP – they are Samsung with 62 companies, then Hyundai, Lucky Goldstar and SK – representing a total of some BUSD 287 in revenues. Although they are a Korean phenomenon, the chaebol are quite similar to Japanese conglomerate groups – especially the pre-war Zaibatsu rather than the contemporary Keiretsu. Their future is now subject to a power struggle between the government and the ruling families (Ihlwhan 2003, Jung-a 2005).
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use of spectrum fees and the right regulation in
terms of operator taxes on revenues can help
boost the overall economy, through connectivity
across society, to the benefit of the nation and of
the industry, rather than just taxing it.
A further factor is the Korean regulatory
system’s creation of a fairly level playing field
in telecommunications competition, with
an excellent example of how to ensure free
competition without dominance by the incumbent
operator. Its broadband position, which leads
the world, is driven by competition between
broadband providers. The mobile market also
exhibits vibrant market competition, with three
highly developed networks (SK Telecom, KT and
LG Telecom) while Hanaro also offers competition
from its AWT position in broadband wireless.
It is also useful for policy-makers to
understand that Korean government policy has
led to an increasingly converged broadband
network environment termed the BCN,
Broadband Converged Network. Such a
broadband converged network may be seen as a
model for similar networks around the world in
architecture and policy to bring it into being. The
policies that Korea is currently developing focus
on specific strategic industry moves and key
technologies, i.e. a policy of ‘picking winners’.
These include the creation of mandated mobile
exchanges, to integrate mobile operators’ access
to Internet services on behalf of the users, as
well as implementation of protocols like IPv6
and naming and addressing ENUM (for mapping
a PSTN telephone number into a typical
Internet Uniform Resource Locator (URL), that
is, an e-number). Note that this is necessary as
Korea’s mobile and broadband networks, while
advanced, have evolved separately; they differ
in their composition, network architecture, and
business models. Here, the key point is that the
government has pushed integration where single
operators or equipment suppliers would have
floundered in their different corporate strategies,
especially as there is no blueprint or precise
picture of the future network, only a dynamic
model to capture merging of two architectures
and communication sectors – Internet and
telecoms.
Korea’s initial experiences with these policies
show how operators of the future will need to be
regulated and the key issues. The major point may
be measures concerning restrictions on ownership
for different types of networks, allowing and even
forcing sharing of infrastructures according to
dynamic financial models, as contemplated in
the licences for the yet to be rolled out WiBro
Figure 5‑1 Korean government ICT programmes
Source: Reynolds et al. (2005)
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snetworks – a key point for regulators and policy-
makers everywhere.
As can be seen from the above, the reasons
for Korea’s success draw heavily on its socio-
economic history in the shaping of a suitable
economic environment and the move to balanced
political structure, with the formation of industrial
groups with freedom to innovate but with a
lack of investment in ‘legacy’ infrastructure and
technologies. A key factor has been the lack of
dominance by the incumbent telecommunications
operator, only privatised in 2002 with no mobile
licence, forcing it into AWTs to reply to mobile.
There are also factors to consider on the
demand side, that of the customer. Trust in the
use of technology and the expected absence
of misuse by criminal elements, or by carriers
or content providers, means that confidence
and acceptance of widespread usage and even
intrusion into everyday life is far higher than in
other cultures, where early lessons have been
that some technologies (such as the Internet)
cannot be trusted and then technology take-up
suffers. This is the related Korean social context,
which is perhaps more effective at protection
and creating a law-abiding population than
Western cultures. The lesson to be learnt is that
early security measures are paramount for all
high-technology services, and specifically for
mobile services. A further demand-side factor in
ICT growth is disposable income. Korea’s GDP
per head is one of the highest in the Asian NICs
and this high income is distributed across much
of the population, so that the funds are available
to ordinary people to buy advanced ICT devices
and services, driving rapid R&D cycles in a
comparable manner.
A point also notable for policy setters is that
Korea often takes a contrarian view on standards
in order to be first in new technology. Thus the
technology and effort behind that of WiBro has
drawn some criticism both within Korea and
outside it, in that to some extent it pre-empts the
global coming standard in this area of broadband
wireless, WiMax, also based on IEEE 802.16.
WiBro might even dissuade outsiders from
investing in WiMax within Korea. However, the
CDMA mobile 2G and 3G choice has shown that
Korea’s policy setters want a test bed at a national
level to stimulate the economy by proving
technology and, most importantly, educating
both the work force and society in general,
in order to advance the knowledge base of the
economy. The experience gained places Korean
suppliers and operators two to three years ahead
of the rest of the world in such products and the
science behind them in terms of IPR and practical
rollout.
Korea has also used its respect for education
to escape the Asian financial crisis of 1997/8.
The crisis became a turning point for society in
Korea, transforming it for the first time into an
‘Information Society’ in some meaningful way. We
draw the lesson that only a discontinuity in the
economy can precipitate a fundamental change
of direction in society, culture and outlook – in
this case towards the ‘Information Society’. Adult
ICT education on a mass scale catalysed Korea’s
growth. Ultimately, over 10 million people
received IT training. Effectively moving the whole
population to a new level of IT sophistication
strongly increased the numbers of Koreans who
participate in the information economy, as after
training they had the knowledge and interest
to make use of it. The question remains – is it
only Korea, with its early culture of a planned
command economy and social experience of
striving for growth, where such a change can be
successful?
5.3 Main Future Research Areas and the Asian Context
AWTs are an important component of Korea’s
critical path for achieving a ubiquitous network
society (“U-Korea”), and for sustaining industrial
competitiveness – the “IT 839 Strategy”. Korea
sees its goals for the strategy in purely economic
terms, aiming for US$20,000 GDP per capita. The
IT 839 project is part of the government’s efforts
to consolidate the domestic IT industry’s world
leadership. The name “839” stems from the three
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types of targets in terms of services, infrastructure
networks and technologies to be seeded. The
programme has long-term goals using measurable
deliverables on a route map of actions for mid-
to-long term milestones. Overall, its strategy is to
improve Korea’s international competitiveness,
using specific targets such as a minimum 5
per cent global market share in RFID chips by
2007, or second largest globally in embedded
software by 2010. All is carefully integrated – the
technologies and sectors chosen support the aims
for a ubiquitous network society, specifically the
three infrastructures chosen. As with all other
programmes, it is promoted through a partnership
between government and the private sector. This is
Figure 5‑2 Korea’s Latest Medium Strategy Plan for IT – 839
Source: Reynolds et al. (2005)
a policy of ‘picking winners’ through technology
assessment – though discredited elsewhere, it is
alive and well in Korea.
The development of AWTs in Korea is to
some extent linked to regional development,
often in pre-competitive projects on fundamental
standards and technology. The key directions
for research and commercial cooperation are
towards China, and also Japan, the ‘North-Eastern
Asia Trio’. This cooperation comes in various
forms, e.g. joint technology and standardisation
push in 4G, but also private-sector JVs such the
SK Telekom and China Unicom UNISK mobile
Internet service.
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The objective of this chapter, which is
based on WP 3, is to analyse the implications,
potential benefits and challenges of the different
AWTs for the EU over the next 10 years, in terms
of the policies required for their evolution and
competition, and to provide researched and
actionable policy recommendations.
The chapter is structured as follows. First in
Section 6.1 we examine the significant economic
potential, driven by AWTs, and thus the need for
a suitable policy and its underpinning in current
EU policy directions. Also we examine the tools
that could make up a policy appropriate to the
organic nature of the European Community of
Member States. We also examine AWTs by means
of a summary SWOT analysis. From this we assess
the implications for policy and regulation, as well
as the issues raised by policy/regulation, from
the point of view of the EU citizen. Section 6.2
goes into more detail on the questions of policy
and regulation, examined under eleven main
headings. Finally, in Section 6.3 some suggestions
for further studies are given.
6.1 The New Radio Evolution
6.1.1 TheMapforEUPolicyonAWTs
The rapid growth of AWTs means that focus
on a single wireless technology, which is just
on cellular mobile, at a policy, research and
industrial level, is not only inappropriate but is
also likely to result in Europe being left behind
by Asia and North America in these key enabling
technologies. Assuming a linear development
of successive generations of the one dominant
technology can no longer be a valid approach.
Rather, it is likely that a number of technologies
will co-evolve, and that many new operator
models will develop as well. As WP 1 has shown,
at present the operator-centric model dominates
the AWTs, but opportunities for future non-
operator-centric business models are likely to
grow, as competition will intensify. As the AWT
contenders enter the market, they broaden the
horizons of applications enormously as well as
multiplying the networks and access available
to the citizens, so that applications impossible
with cellular technology can be made available
ubiquitously.
Failure to firmly grasp the potential of
AWTs will leave Europe far behind in mobile
technologies, behind Asia and – unthinkable
two years ago – behind even the USA. In the
latter region, Wi-Fi and WiMax are drawing new
strengths in municipal networks and emergency
services networks, as well as being exploited in
research as the platforms for health and elderly
care. In the former region, government-led
promotions of AWTs are reformulating national
infrastructures and the market players.28
Instead, for Europe to remain competitive, a
systematic approach is needed, one which will be
appropriate to embracing all radio technologies
and considering how they fit together. Thus the
policy would not be implicitly oriented just
toward mobile cellular, with a few limited and
random efforts in areas such as RFID where
strong lobbying by industry groups makes them
known. We would have an explicit commitment
to examine all AWTs – because an AWT take-off
in Europe at an industrial level, to go beyond the
import of systems and equipment from overseas
for local service operations, will require a policy
of encouragement of innovative development
through the support of a multitude of technologies
and complementary solutions.
28 See Chapter 5 and Annex 2 on Korean AWT Status Report.
6. Policy Analysis and Recommendations
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AWTs
It is of course first necessary to assess the
current situation on policy in the EU that will
affect AWTs, including regulation. Broadly
speaking, AWTs are still too new for the EC to
have developed a coherent or complete policy.
Nevertheless, policy is urgently needed, so we
review here what is pertinent in current EU policy
in the relevant areas. These are in short:
• Telecommunications policy – the principal
policy factor in the EU has been a
general stance since 1980 of opening
the telecommunications market to more
competition, However, there are major
disparities in degrees and types of regulatory
impact across Europe.29 AWTs tend to
support and extend this policy, and do not
conflict with it.
• Broadcast and electronic media – the current
regulation is highly germane to AWTs as a
broadband medium.
• Competition policy – be it for telecommuni-
cations or for convergence with media and
content, AWTs do not fundamentally change
the current issues in competition policy, and
there is no specific policy formulation at this
time.
• Digital Rights Management (DRM) and
copyright – digital media content property
rights are the basis for transferable wealth
in the Internet world and therefore have
direct economic impacts. At a policy level,
however, AWTs do not alter the basic issues
here.
• R&D policy – many of the advances in
useful ICT policy have been underpinned
by clear policy directives to research
into new technology and to formulate
standards. However, current EU projects and
programmes are heavy on cellular, operator-
centric proposals for beyond 3G. Research
into AWTs is largely unco-ordinated in
Europe, except for standards work.
• Education and promotion policy – the EU
has less at policy level here than in some
other regions as regards the awareness and
demand-generating activities that characterise
successful take-up of new technologies,
which may accompany rollout.
There are certain new areas of policy to be
added to the above categories, which become
clear later in this chapter. Turning to the various
areas of regulation that could impact AWTs,
the only area of existing telecommunications
regulation particularly relevant to AWTs applies
to spectrum usage, and most specifically
to interference with other users. Today the
current legislation is oriented toward operator-
centric operations of telecommunications.
Opening the range of service providers to
non-telecommunications operators – be they
municipalities, hotels or other organisations
– may require a change in both public interfaces
and business processes within the regulator, to
accommodate the more informal regimes that
AWTs promise. Also, the national regulator may
have to expand to services dealing with media
content from a stance of telecommunications
only, as well as the area dealing with Internet
Service Providers, who may provide their offerings
over an AWT path built and operated by another
entity. Thus both regulation and the regulator at a
national Member State level may have to change
to incorporate these new fields as AWTs become
more important, perhaps in the direction that
Ofcom in the UK has taken of incorporating five
regulatory bodies into one.
More generally, much of the EU’s legislation
(e.g. competition law, data protection, privacy
etc.) is clearly pertinent to AWTs. However,
sophisticated policy on regulation of competition,
access, security, and so forth, specific to AWTs
and the future AWT markets, especially in
services, has not been developed. To some
29 See for example ECTA (2005).
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sextent this is because AWTs are just too new, but
it is also because AWTs do raise new issues that
are not already treated, for instance, within the
existing framework for regulation of electronic
media or competition law. With regard to
content and media policy, for example, AWTs do
not raise new issues on media ownership, digital
rights, etc.
6.1.3 AWTsinsupportofEuropeanInnovation
andCompetitiveness
In view of the promise of AWTs and their
rapid development in the USA and Asia, but
also due to the impediments to their rollout, an
EU policy for Europe is called for. This is well
in line with current European policy on R&D,
which notes that European research needs to be
essentially strengthened and that a “European
industrial policy, in particular in highly competitive
sectors such as information and communication
technologies requires the integration of research
efforts at European level” – by establishing a
critical mass of resources, particularly in key
areas for growth such as microelectronics and
telecommunications, and by strengthening
excellence through competition at the European
level and transnational collaboration.30 Policy
support of AWTs falls into the category of replying
to this call for action on a new economy, because
the nature of AWTs makes them highly relevant
to the goals set out above in a number of ways:
• AWTs have the potential to make a major
contribution to the EU’s GDP in a similar
way to the impact of cellular mobile services
over the past decade. (€106 billion of GDP
in 2004, 1.1% of total GDP in the EU15,
generating over 400,000 high-value-added
jobs.)31
• Significant growth in employment (and even
maintenance of current levels) requires a
large internal market and significant exports.
• Such technologies require a highly skilled
society to produce them, and to use all their
capabilities – an economy which can move
on from the existing technologies is now
required – so we need to boost investment
in knowledge. AWTs have the potential to
bring a wide range of knowledge-based
employment, and their usage will be
instrumental in bringing high education at
low cost to large numbers of citizens.
• AWTs can reduce the costs of our social
support services while increasing economic
output. This is essential since new ways are
needed to support an ageing population,
with its increasing life expectancy, at reduced
costs with better care.
• AWTs can advance the health services for
higher quality while reducing the costs
– be they in hospital, with telemedicine or
for telecare at home (transferring hospital
monitoring and care into the home). AWTs
bring the new medical capabilities of in-body
sensor networks, of monitoring ubiquitously,
and thus of taking medical care based on
ICTs from the realms of physiology into the
behavioural areas of mental health.
• AWTs provide affordable security and
emergency services with communications
and control systems, and could also provide
a citizen’s warning system, resistant to
disasters and attack. After the 9/11 attacks
in the USA, no commercial mobile cellular
systems worked in the districts affected. Thus
AWT can contribute to physical and national
security.
• By offering broadband access at low cost
with ubiquitous coverage, AWTs could well
spur the take-off of Internet-based commerce
in Europe for all the population. Economic
impacts would be to accelerate business
while reducing fixed costs, making Europe
far more competitive globally.
30 CEC (2004).31 Lewin, D. (2004). In addition, 1.3 million jobs depend on the cellular mobile industry, with a further 1 million jobs depending
on expenditure generated by cellular mobile (the multiplier effect): ibid.
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s • Moreover, just as the new roads in the 1920s
acted as higher-access feeders to the existing
rail networks, so AWTs could have the effect
of driving traffic onto existing, backbone IP
networks, which are sometimes underused.
This might recoup their sunk costs faster. In
general, when interconnected with existing
backhaul facilities, AWTs can further
enhance the economies of scope and scale
of backbone IP infrastructures by enabling
novel mobile applications and also by
offering new, potentially more flexible and
cost-effective mechanisms for aggregating
the traffic coming from the last mile, for
conventional fixed-line broadband services.
One example might be cheap broadband
sharing within a housing complex through
an extended Wi-Fi cloud. Framing Wi-Fi
as a cost-effective demand aggregator for
broadband is perhaps a new view which
would incorporate Wi-Fi business models.
It helps to counter the negative perception
of Wi-Fi, that it may cannibalise existing
broadband services.
• AWTs also have the power of competition to
drive down basic telecommunications prices
in cost-based competition, and to challenge
effective monopoly or oligopoly further. They
can provide a real competitive infrastructure
to compensate for the lack of success in local
loop unbundling across the EU, providing
competition to the local loop, but with an
infrastructure of local loop broadband.
6.1.4 The Challenges and Opportunities for
Europe–SWOT
Below, we examine AWTs by means of a
summary SWOT analysis, from the viewpoint of
the EU citizen. From each strength, weakness,
opportunity and threat we assess the implications
for policy and regulation (see Annex 3). In Section
6.2 we will instead state policy implications and
measures thematically.
6.1.5 Towards European Industrial Policy for
AWTs
In view of the promise of AWTs, we conclude
that, of all the types of policy available, a specific
form of encouraging (rather than forcing) yet
interventionist policy is the way forward for these
reasons:
• The lessons from analysing past successes
and failures in the innovation of radio
technologies point towards the need for a
clear set of activities driven by realistic but
effectively market-shaking goals. If there is a
case study of development to follow, then it
is that of GSM; the case study of 3G teaches
us what to avoid.
• An EU-based initiative would avoid the limits
imposed by differences in success in national
systems of both innovation for research and
encouragement of AWT service deployments,
and thus harmonise the resultant differences
across the EU in rates of AWT rollout and
usage.
• An analysis of the past also teaches us that
the current players are unlikely to relinquish
their positions, especially in the face of a
technology which tends to bring mobile
telecommunications at far lower costs, with
the promise of much higher data rates up to
broadband levels. This focus on their own
market and interests by current players would
also have the effect of stifling development
of AWTs in specialist vertical applications,
such as emergency services.
6.2 Resultant Policy Recommendations
Naturally, the exact policy requirements of
each of the AWTs currently on the market can be
expected to differ, but we can form some general
concepts of what a European policy for AWTs
should contain. It would have to cover a wide
range of issues and we elaborate briefly on the
most significant ones below.
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6.2.1 SpectrumPolicyandRegulation
The first issue is a rethinking of policy for
spectrum allocation at the highest levels for Europe,
Member States, and globally to incorporate AWTs
adequately. And now is the time. These issues
are today under debate within the ITU forum.
However, this gradual slow process via the WRCs
is at a crisis point, and inadequate for the rapidly
evolving and increasing number of new wireless
technologies. For propagation distances to be
optimised, AWTs may need to have frequency
bands currently taken by broadcast, mobile
cellular, or the military. By WRC-07, it would
be judicious to have reconsidered the current
allocation of spectra in view of the economic
benefits of AWTs for Europe, and abandoning
existing frequency plans. Such a move requires
a socio-economic basis for planning,32 and work
so far points to a far wider usage in which AWTs
would form a major part.
To conclude, spectrum needs to be given
to AWTs as part of any policy to support them.
Otherwise they will stall in Europe, just as mobile
cellular did in the US.
32 See for example Forge et al. (2005).
Table 6‑1 SWOT Analysis of AWTs from the Perspective of the EU Citizen
STRENGTHSAWTs fill the gaps left by cellular
Lower costs than cellular in many applications
Fast to rollout compared with cellular
Bandwidth higher than 3G
Can cut costs and delays by eliminating large capacity backhaul lines in MAN installations
Cost and installation advantages add up to a way to provide municipalities with a chance to enhance their value with mobile Internet access
Can act in mobile roaming mode (e.g. mobile WiMax)
European industry – in a good position in design coming from cellular on chips, antennae, military electronics including radar, specialist chip manufacture, despite US lead today, as Europe does have mesh software providers
Europe’s collaborative approach experience and ability
WEAKNESSESNo real place today in European telecommunications and media, nor part of an overall plan for communications
Not understood by mass markets
AWT capabilities and positioning are still not well understood by EU industry and technical centres of expertise. More effort on basic radio research is needed.
More clarity is required on spectrum needed
European mobile incumbents are well entrenched; in contrast AWTs are in a weak market position, with no champions, promotion or financial muscle
Security problems abound
European industry has been a follower so far
All successful AWT standards so far are US (IEEE series)
Europe’s forced collaborative approach on decisions and new programmes makes all policy initiatives slow
OPPORTUNITIESDesigning and producing AWT technology and equipment with the aim of developing leadership in broadband wireless (e.g. multi-mode self-adaptive terminals according to performance/cost preferences)
Export opportunities of bringing Internet connectivity to the developing world (cf. Korea’s WiBro)
Expanding scope of European industry – new ventures in consumer and verticals, especially health including frail and mental health conditions
AWTs ideal for SME involvement and start-ups –could seed a whole new EU sector of SME chains
Offer Internet access to all of Europe at low cost (and VoIP) via public and municipal access networks
High broadband penetration via wireless will stimulate feeder industries (e.g. media) & user industries (e.g. medicine)
Economic impacts of better health/elderly care at lower cost
Set standards lacking in mesh networking software and processes, possibly via Open Source software routes
THREATS
Security threats due to pervasive coverage, increased band-width new bodily proximity connectivity (BANs). Innocent and unaware user population: Threats include: (1) attacks on emergency services; (2) attacks on the core ICT infrastruc-ture; (3) identity theft from citizens; (4) privacy threats to citizens; (5) malware attacks of all kinds on citizens, attached machines and organisations, plus the new types of attack that will come with VoIP; (6) car telematics – accidents caused by malicious messages; (7) body area networks; (8) M-com-merce threats; (9) M-Banking threats including EFT; and (10) security threats to industrial sensor networks.
Cellular mobile industry views AWTs as a major threat.
Cellular operators, challenged by AWTs, competing with a dif-ferent business model which may outstrip the mobile busi-ness model in value to the customer.
Wireless health issues are not yet understood for cellular and non-cellular access techniques. AWTs are often likely to be worn continually and the affects of low power continuous ra-diation needs to be examined.
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Overall, the aim for a high-level policy for
AWTs would be to conserve free competition
among different segments as well as different
players – a concept of converging the related
industries (communications and media) under
a single policy. Such a policy would aim to
prevent market control by any one segment (or
any single player). Thus when we come down to
policy implementation, in competition regulation
for AWTs, we should cover the convergence of
telecommunications with media content creation,
aggregation and distribution, expanding models
to include financial industries, also considering
cross-ownership and verticalisation impacts.
In principle, Europe may need to
reconsider competition policy with regard to
telecommunications specifically to encourage
the entry of new services from new providers
over AWTs. To create an active AWT-based
communications market, it will be critical to
form conditions of freedom of market entry for
new players without restrictive practices, be it
in interworking – physical attachment, protocols
at network or at application level – or in related
areas such as media content or in dependencies
such as the software for ‘media players’ and
operating systems’. Regulation has to maintain
a level playing field for competition, in market
conditions where the world-class players are
seeking vertical integration. This means expanding
regulation models for the areas of:
• Media/broadcast-multicast and content in all
areas including protection of minors, digital
rights management, ownership of multiple
media, etc.
• Telecommunications
• Financial transactions and banking
One particular point is that the players who
are strong outside telecommunications may well
use AWTs as a way to enter the telecoms market,
offering a quadruple play of:
• Multi-channel TV
• Voice telephony of a ‘fixed’ nature but
nomadic within a building, at low cost as
VoIP voice telephony
• Mobile multi-media of all kinds, with games,
e-mail, MMS, interactive video, etc.
• High-speed Internet access, including radio
and TV – perhaps over mobile Internet
(the Portable Internet concept) rather than
broadcast
To this we may add that: (a) a converged
market model may require competition regulation
for AWTs that removes the legal barriers to cross-
ownership, where appropriate; and that (b)
the opening of AWT carrier networks to third-
party service providers should be a subject
for consideration. Also, balance is required
in the regulation between public interest and
competition considerations – the emergence
of content-sharing communities and groups,
and self-produced content, not originated by
commercial organisations, must be protected
from over-zealous copyright laws.33
6.2.3 HarmonisingLicensingSchemes
If a regulated AWT market does arise,
major decisions will revolve around the forms
33 In the systems interface area, we also need to see open interface standards published down to chipset level. For instance, Sandvig et al. 2004 note that access to development of mesh networking over Wi-Fi is now constrained by secrecy among manufacturers of network card chipsets, a highly concentrated industry. None of the dominant chipset suppliers in the Wi-Fi markets make available any interface specifications. This effectively bars any user-driven innovation, a central force for innovation in the area of mesh networking. More broadly, as radio and radio networks become increasingly defined in software, this presents a regulatory crisis. The basis for fixing spectrum allocation rules was formerly hardware, but the increasing configurability of radios may seem to create new drives among the supplier industry for interface secrecy and lock-in. Thus a new barrier to ubiquitous interoperability is raised by software interface secrecy. Competition policy will have to take this into account. A policy move towards open source software, as outlined in the IPR section, would seem to be the only logical solution that will avoid complex regulation.
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sof licence, in terms of whether it is for spectrum usage or a general licence to operate with both service provision and AWT infrastructure ownership, or a service over a third party’s approved AWT infrastructure. Major concerns here are the allocation process for licences and types of licensing.
In summary, policy directions should revolve around a lighter regulatory regime for the new entrants, perhaps unlicensed, but with forced interconnect to incumbents (see below). EC recommendations to the regulators in the MS would be to view the business case differences as an opportunity to bring competition to what may be an oligopolistic market, while using AWT licensing, if deemed necessary, firstly to promote competition by ensuring that new entrants have licences, and secondly to ensure that security measures are implemented.
6.2.4 AccessandInteroperability
A related area for policy decision is on the assurance of interconnection access by the new entrants to existing networks – be they fixed or mobile with Internet access. Issues of roaming, interconnection and termination charges must be considered, with cost-based pricing to prevent monopolistic margins on interconnect activity. AWTs could then provide strong local loop competition. Assuring connection of any-to-any covers several areas including:
• Open access: Required also at application level with AWTs for mobile services.
• Mandated mobile exchanges: Ensure that operators of all kinds have common Internet access. Requires creation of mobile exchanges – a key element of a converged network to integrate AWTs – and would also open the way for mobile content competition.
• Ownership restrictions: For different types of networks, allowing and even forcing the sharing of infrastructures according to dynamic financial models.
• Pricing models: A major barrier to AWT introduction (especially by cellular mobile
operators) is their associated pricing model.
This extends into interconnection and the
billing settlements, with termination and
roaming agreements.
• Naming and addressing: Resolving naming
and addressing conflicts is a key aim for
open access. AWTs in Europe sit in the area
of three address spaces – Internet logical
addresses (URLs), fixed number plans and
mobile number plans. The latter two vary
by country but are usually differentiated.
Suggested solutions for mobile-Internet
access include the ENUM scheme for
mapping a PSTN telephone number into a
typical Internet Uniform Resource Locator
(URL), i.e. an e-number.
• Universal service: Providing universal service
of equal provision and access for all citizens
is open to question in a mobile broadband
world.
• Emergency number obligations: Many AWT-
based public services providing voice are
likely to have to comply with the requirement
for connection of the emergency services in
each MS.
6.2.5 NetworkRollout
In AWT networks, once network
interconnection is ensured, network roll-out is not
contaminated with difficult issues. However, they
pose a strong competitive threat to incumbent
technology stakeholders who may complain to
the regulators that AWT operation undermines
their USO requirements, or that AWT operators
should be regulated by heavier taxes due to the
unfair competition, or even banned as they may
be operated by municipalities and others who are
not licensed and regulated telcos.
6.2.6 SecurityPolicyandRegulation
Security of the Internet in a ubiquitous radio
access world is a major weakness and threat
to AWTs. This will require a complete reform
of Internet security backed by legislation, and
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s policy measures are needed for what should be
allowed/prevented. AWTs need to have a security
layer built into their network architecture, as
their ubiquity becomes the users’ vulnerability.
Thus, the policy questions are raised of how to
ensure this and to police it. They require an in-
depth study of the Internet current structure
and what form it would take in a mobile radio
world. This is a major effort in terms of research
and software development, and may require a
specific programme. The security issue is far too
important to be left to the suppliers or to ad-hoc
development; its co-ordination is an ideal task for
an EC programme. 34
One way to ensure that new security
measures are taken up is to institute them in
the proposed European demonstrator projects,
having developed them in European research
programmes. Long-term R&D follow-up would
come from one stream of research in a proposed
European institute for radio research (see below).
6.2.7 PrivacyandDataProtection
AWTs present major challenges to the
privacy of the citizen if the communications are
unprotected, in that AWTs could invade every
moment of a person’s life. A balance between
privacy concerns and convenience, security
and utility of AWTs must obviously be reached
– to protect efficiently against eavesdropping
on conversations, identity and any personal
data theft, and personal tracking. Rules on work
environments and privacy of the citizen come
into play here, as do the various guidelines for
protection of privacy following the 1981 EC
guidelines.35
For privately deployed networks,
confidentiality can only be assured if the
equipment has security measures built in as
standard. This will also require a dedicated
testing and type approval process for AWT
equipment. Privacy protection regulations for
AWT public services will follow those envisaged
for cellular mobile for aggregation of personal
data. This includes the default of opting out for
direct marketing and unsolicited (commercial)
messaging of all kinds, as well as location
tracking and surveillance of all types over mobile
networks, with the requirement for a citizen’s
aware consent to opt into such monitoring and
personal access. Moreover, the requirement for
MS to ensure that public service operators divulge
customer data and caller information for calls to
the emergency services (and security services so
authorised) would probably become mandatory
for their AWT-based communications, under the
Universal Service Directive (200/22/EC).
In conclusion, although security and privacy
are different subjects, the provisions for security
of AWT operation can be applied to give privacy
through access control following the authorisation
process by the citizen owner and authentication
challenges to those who claim to be authorised
to view the private information. The key to this is
enactment of the security functions enumerated
in Chapter 4, with the pressure of the current
EC Directives on Data Protection, privacy and
citizens’ rights to privacy behind it.36
6.2.8 Standards
For the AWT market appearing over the
next decade, far more than standards for simple
34 For specific security threats that need to be handled, we refer to Annex 2 and 3.35 EC specific recommendations include: medical databanks (1981); financial payments and transactions (1990); protection of
privacy of the Internet (1999); direct marketing (1983); communication of data to third persons by public institutions (1991); protection of data in the field of telecommunications (1995); protection of personal data collected and processed for statistical purposes (1997).
36 Such rights are principally endorsed by the Council of Europe’s Convention of 28 January 1981, enacted 01 October 1985, and the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR (particularly Article 8, paragraph 2 on personal communications) and to a lesser extent the Council of Europe’s Treaty 108.
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sair interface and network-level protocols are
required if the applications that run over AWTs
are to interwork seamlessly.37 So far, our current
AWT standards have largely been formed in the
fora developing the IEEE 802 series (USA). A
simple policy of harnessing these air interface
and physical connection standards is perhaps to
be preferred for rapid industrial advance, which
will avoid unprofitable conflict, time and money
in redundant standards setting.
Building on the IEEE 802 standards series at
a basic communications protocol level, we can
illustrate useful standards-setting by moving up
the seven-layer model to build complete systems
that can be easily integrated into a broadband
wireless network. They may be selections of
existing standards in some cases. Domains to be
covered would include:
• Network Air interfaces, network protocols
and network operations, and the key network
entities and their operational behaviour.
• Handsets – any usefully defined software
characteristics such as operating system calls,
form and use of microbrowsers to display
content, etc.
• Session and application processes at the
Internet level for mechanisms and protocols.
• Content and media standards to enable
common distribution mechanisms for content
ingest and delivery.
• Security mechanisms and overall
architecture.
Building on the IEEE 802 series, European
standards efforts (in ETSI and other groups) could
also well be marshalled to attack a higher, more
sophisticated level of AWT operation. This would
enable European industry to go forward rapidly in
AWTs in the areas of: (1) a high-level, behavioural
model of the network architecture for mesh
networking, with strategies for use of participating
nodes, and for interworking with existing network
types; (2) definition of the main operations in a
self-organising or ad-hoc network for a mesh
architecture following the high-level model
– the processes and policies of management for
awareness and adaptive response, with choice of
existing standards where appropriate.
A security model and architecture to fit
with the high-level network model, which
runs end-to-end from content servers through
all network types into handsets, will also be
needed. However, standardisation of technical
developments for interworking is not enough.
There must be regulation to enforce standards
usage – for example, integrated naming and
addressing, and specifically security measures.
6.2.9 DRM,IPR,ContentandMediaCopyright
Policy
There are two problems that come with
ubiquitous networking: ubiquitous connection,
and the need for ubiquitous usage, that is, by
anyone. The strictures imposed by proprietary
standards and patents mean that both markets
and usages will be limited, but this is in the case
of a technology that needs by its very nature to
be universally accessible by all, through common
standards for interworking. The European
experience of promulgating open standards
has been quite successful in driving economic
development – the GSM example shows this, and
sets the scene for a move towards Linux and other
open software in next-generation radio systems.
It should also be noted that the AWT
network will depend on software. IPR from R&D
in the supported initiatives for AWT networking,
including security and application environments
(such as operating systems and microbrowsers),
should all be under open source licence with
no software patents permitted, unless they are
in the public domain. This is to prevent private
37 On a general note for standards policy, a key point has been made by Korea, which often takes a contrarian view on standards in order to be first in a new technology. This may be applied to the AWT standards scene in Europe.
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s patenting with patent thickets38 which will block
rapid software development. In certain contexts of
peer-to-peer content creation, this Open Source
approach to copyright would extend to content
and media copyright protection so that DRM
should be available in multiple forms.
For the future, and although it is not yet taken
up as a legal concept, the reciprocal of DRM
(digital rights management for commercial media
content) might have to be applied in the far wider
field of personal data available through AWTs
– the notion of ‘digital privacy management’
– which covers both transmitted and stored data,
enacting a set of policy rules set out by the citizen
covering external data aggregators, regarding who
holds what and which permission they have, and
then tracking their usage of such data.
6.2.10R&DProgrammes
A suitably structured and EC-led funded
programme of research and demonstrator
implementations should be set up and mobilised
as a matter of urgency. The development of AWTs
in Europe will require multiple initiatives to
encourage innovation and diffuse that innovation
effectively to build a new industrial segment.
Two main avenues are considered here, the first
a transitional start-up phase, the second a more
permanent and structured entity (see also Figure
6-1).
A European Alternative Radio Network
Research Programme should be established as a
matter of urgency, within a timeframe of months.
It should cover several well-defined areas, with
study projects for university laboratories and
industrial pre-competitive consortia, with all
results being in the public domain. The release
of classified military research in this area should
be urgently sought for Europe’s advantage.
The programme’s main research lines should
include: (1) radio propagation analysis; (2)
networking processes and architectures for
interworking and interfacing to other (existing)
networks; (3) analysis of mesh networking
algorithms; (4) analysis of techniques for sharing
spectrum based on non-frequency-constrained
propagation; (5) cognitive radio systems for SDR;
(6) spatial and directional signal multiplexing
and enhancement; (7) human interface research
for rich capability but easy-to-use handsets and
terminal devices; (6) socio-economic analysis
of user demand for new services; (8) analysis of
handset operating systems for secure hosting of
multimedia applications;.(9) analysis of security
threats; (10) content and media transmission and
management; (11) tracking of AWT development
globally; and (12) self-organising operator-less ad-
hoc networks for disaster situations, with robust
self-configuration.39
Finally, we suggest the formation of a
European Radiocommunications Research
Institute – ERRI – as a further initiative to pursue the
full promise of the new directions in radio. ERRI
would be a European research and development
centre for AWT radio technologies and networking
architectures. Jointly funded by industry, national
governments and the EC, the first phase of rapid
set-up and early growth could be through a joint
programme of projects distributed across existing
universities. This would form a launch pad for the
second phase, of setting up a permanent institute
with its own faculty and facilities at one site. ERRI
would have twin research roles, of primary and
applied research, to form an international centre
of excellence. Primary research – with a longer-
term flavour – expecting results beyond two
years in many areas, which will form the basis of
products and services beyond 2010:
• Radio propagation – especially matching
spectrum to AWTs
38 See, for example, the Forge (2004).39 In addition, there are existing EC e-initiatives that could be harnessed to provide part of the above, in particular the eMobility
Technology Platform. If this is not possible, then an alternative high-level group specifically for AWT – a kind of European ‘skunk works’ to develop AWT – could be created. Moreover, the EU’s interest in broadband deployment could also be harnessed for certain AWTs, if any political barriers raised by xDSL incumbents to wireless access can be overcome.
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s• Digital signal processing techniques for
adaptive signal identification/spectrum
sharing in a multimode environment
• New Alternative Wireless Technologies (i.e.
non-cellular) at the fundamental research
level of new operating principles and new
radio performance
• Socio-economic analysis of demand and
usages of radio technologies in future
lifestyles
• Business case analysis of AWT networks
• Health and safety aspects of AWTs and radio
propagation
• Assessment of the fundamental security
threats to radio networks
• Assessment of novel global information
structures for ubiquitous use
Applied research – more than just
communications in the applied science and
engineering covered – with short-term pilot
deployments in mind within 12 to 18 months:
• AWT security management for operational
networks, both new and already deployed,
including analysis of countering Internet
threats
• AWT management software – especially self-
organising mesh networks for immediate
deployment
• Standards and interworking for AWT
• R&D supporting AWT infrastructure projects
– citizens’ alert network etc.
• Novel AWT applications
6.2.11 Funding,Encouragement,Educationand
Promotion
Funding
In view of the opportunity, a funded
programme for research and demonstrator
implementations should be set up. Here, taking
the revenues from spectrum licences and taxes
on operators for a strategic re-investment fund for
telecommunications infrastructure and research
should be considered. In addition, SMEs and new
ventures should be encouraged and supported
with capital, programmes of research, supply
contracts for demonstrator projects etc.
Awareness and Education
One of the major drivers behind the advance
in AWT take-up in the USA and globally has
been the considerable investment in awareness
programmes by stakeholders. Such a programme
will also be necessary in Europe, to explain
the technology and its position against other
communications and media technologies, to
show what it can do in terms of its real utility,
and to show how users can obtain it and use it.
Taking awareness a stage further is required
if AWTs are to be taken up. It would useful to
consider whether education programmes similar
to the one established in Korea (see Chapter
5) could be seeded. In any case, we need to
increase public understanding of technology if
large numbers of people are to use it.
Large-Scale Demonstrator Projects for
Implementation
It would be most useful to build a range
of European test beds at a national (or EU)
level, the aims being to stimulate the economy
by proving technology and, most importantly,
to educate both the work force and society in
general. The intention would be to promote
the knowledge base of the economy. The large
demonstrator projects (size decided by the
number of MS participating at national and
local levels) would revolve around four main
initiatives (see also Figure 6-1). The first would
be a pan-European wireless broadband network
infrastructure (EWBNI). Its main function would
be to provide a robust broadband infrastructure
platform at low cost. Certain vertical application
networks could be based on EWBNI, as a
common broadband bus.
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s Second is a European citizen-alert network
(CAN), acting as a citizen’s disaster alert
network (see Annex 2), perhaps using a mesh
infrastructure. The third is a European Emergency
Services Infrastructure Network (EESIN) only
accessible by emergency services, with an
architecture for robust operation in all situations.
Fourth, we propose a European recovery network
for attacks and disasters (ERNAD), a temporary
network to be set up instantly whenever and
wherever infrastructure fails, following a natural
or man-made disaster that wipes out existing
communications infrastructure.
Vertical Industry Projects and Other Promotional
Activities
Across these horizontal networks may run
some specialised vertical demonstrator projects,
which are most likely to made up of many small
projects – for instance, use of BANs in mental
health for a specific disabling condition – rather
than large horizontal networks. Health and
elderly care would also try to show improvements
in quality of care against lowering the costs of
their services.
Seeding start-ups: A programme for setting
up and incubating AWT start-ups should be
a major priority. With companies such as
LocustWorld, with a staff of two people making
global impacts using leveraged agents, the power
of the technology combined with the energetic
agility of a small company is evident.
Links to the R&D programmes: Each
demonstrator would be underpinned by both
temporary research projects and long-term
research in the ERRI institute and in its predecessor
distributed research programme across several
research departments in leading universities.
In conclusion, the suggested programme
schedule for the R&D and demonstrator projects
and initiatives, suggested in Sections 6.2.10 and
6.2.11, are shown Figure 6-1.
Figure 6‑1 Work Programme for Establishing European Success in AWTs
Source: SCF Associates
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s6.3 Issues for Further Research
By way of conclusion, this section briefly
reviews issues that would deserve further attention
in future studies with socio-economic dimensions
similar to the present ones. The suggestions build
for example on discussions by the project at the
Interim Meeting with IPTS, but are by no means
exhaustive or complete, only serving as some
final thoughts and reflections.
• This study has shown that AWTs are
potentially disruptive to existing dominant
technologies and their supporting actor
system.40 This disruptive threat /opportunity
needs to be analysed further, e.g. by studying
(1) determinants of how many alternative
technologies a market can support; (2)
determinants of success in a competition
between alternative technologies, (3) under
what circumstances emerging technologies
are disruptive (technology-wise, market-
wise, industry-wise). This would result in
a framework which could be applied to
current and future situations of mobile
communications.41
• This study identified standardisation as a
key issue for AWTs and proposed key areas
in which Europe could regain a leading
position. However, there are many unresolved
issues concerning standardisation, and in
need of further research before actionable
policy recommendation can be produced.
To exemplify: (1) Anticipatory standard-
setting, the need for collaboration between
standardisation bodies, and the concomitant
need for rapid standardisation have rendered
the traditional framework for standard-setting
obsolete – the efficiency of the emerging
regime being, however, highly questionable.
How can an alternative regime be designed?
(2) Influencing standards in order to align
them to the technological strengths and
strategies of a firm or a nation is an often-used
strategy, and a more or less explicit purpose
of industrial policy (used by some Asian
policy-makers). Should this be considered
also for European industrial policy? (3) Can
operators and other important actor groups
be provided with incentives to contribute
more to standardisation again? (4) The pros
and cons of gateway technologies (multi-
mode terminals, and in the long run SDR)
need to be further explored in order to avoid
immature standardisation decisions related
to AWTs and 4G.
• Diffusion of service over wireless
technologies. For any mobile technology
to be commercially successful, it is
crucial to unlock the barriers to diffusion.
However, factors driving diffusion are
poorly understood. Therefore a thorough
understanding of the mechanisms driving
diffusion is needed, a framework based
on earlier research (theory and historical
case studies) being developed and applied
to specifics of wireless communications,
at innovation level (i.e. numerous specific
products/services). Finally, barriers and
drivers of diffusion can identified and
addressed.
• Why is the traditional, operator-centric
business model still dominating in Europe?
What are the particular constraints and
40 We should not forget that AWTs are not a new phenomenon, and certainly not in mobile communications. In the early 1990s, 2G cellular was challenged primarily by satellite systems such as Iridium and cordless technologies such as DECT/CT2, where cordless technologies were claimed to provide better service at lower costs, in the home, in offices and in hotspots – at that time called Telepoints. These technologies more or less failed, partly due to the momentum behind cellular and the actors supporting it. What will happen this time depends on a number of factors which are at this stage unclear.
41 The disruptiveness could be hypothesized to be determined by a number of factors, such as the capabilities of AWTs vis-à-vis attractive services and applications, terminal performance, cost issues including possibilities to make gradual investments, industry support, spectrum availability, need for variety versus economies of scale (supply and demand side), lock-in effects among incumbents, etc.
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s bottlenecks in Europe? When will the non-
operator-centric model start to grow, and
under which conditions?
• There are finally a number of issues that
deserve to be confronted:
- long-range, space- and air-based
communications, and broadcasting based
on AWTs
- entertainment services and access
- logistics & retail and the use of AWTs
- impact on future health care based on
AWTs
- opportunities and challenges for e-
government based on AWTs
- AWTs and impact on industrial sectors
such as the automotive industry.
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sReferences
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1G First generation (of cellular mobile)
2G Second generation (of cellular mobile)
2.5G Second and a half generation (of cellular mobile) with enhanced data communication capabilities represented by GPRS
3D Three Dimensional
3G Third Generation (of cellular mobile)
3.5G Third and a half Generation (of cellular mobile) with enhanced data communication capabilities
3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project
3GPP2 Third Generation Partnership Project 2
4G Fourth Generation (of mobile)
AES Advanced Encryption Standard
API Application Programming Interface
AWT Alternative Wireless Technology
B3G Beyond 3G – next generation of mobile after 3G
BAN Body Area Network
BCN Broadband Converged Network
BT British Telecom
C4 command /control /communication /co-ordination
CAD Computer Aided Design
CAN Citizens Alert Network
Capex Capital expenditure
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
CEPT Conférence Européenne des Postes et Télécommunications
CES Consumer Electronics Show
Cm centimetre
CPE Customer Premises Equipment
DECT Digital Enhanced Cordless Technologies
DMB Digital Media Broadcasting
DoS Denial of Service
DRM Digital Rights Management
DSL Digital Subscriber Line
DVB Digital Video Broadcasting
EC European Commission, or European Community
ECHR European Court of Human Rights
EEC European Economic Community
EEISN European Emergency Services Infrastructure Network (proposed here)
EFT Electronic Funds Transfer
ENUM E-number – a universal communications identifier to unify telecommunications and Internet addressing
ERNAD European Recovery Network for Attacks and Disasters (proposed here)
ERRI European Radiocommunications Research Institute (proposed here)
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
List of Abbreviations
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List
of
Abb
revi
atio
ns EU European Union
EVDO EVolution Data-Only (for CDMA 2000)
EWBNI European Wireless Broadband Network Infrastructure (proposed here)
FCC Federal Communications Commission (US federal regulator)
FDD Frequency Division Duplex
Flash OFDM AWT for broadband mobility – may come under IEEE 802.20
GHz Gigahertz
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
GPS Global Positioning System
GSM Global System for Mobile communications, originally Groupe Spéciale Mobile
HF High Frequency
HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access
HSUPA High Speed Uplink Packet Access
IBM International Business Machines
ICT Information and Communication Technology
ID Identity
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
IMIT Institute for Management of Innovation and Technology
IP Internet Protocol, also Intellectual Property
IPR Intellectual Property Rights
IPTS Institute for Prospective Technology Studies
IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6
ISM Instrumentation, Scientific and Medical (spectrum band)
ISP Internet Service Provider
IT Information Technology
ITU International Telecommunication Union
JTAV Joint Total Asset Visibility
JV Joint Venture
Kbps kilobits per second
Km kilometre
KT Korea Telecom (operator)
LAN Local Area Network
LF Low Frequency
LGE Lucky-Goldstar Electronics (supplier)
LMR Land Mobile Radio
MAC Media Access Control
MAN Metropolitan Area Network
MANET Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork
MBOA MultiBand OFDM Alliance
Mbps Megabit per second
MHz Megahertz
MIC Ministry of Information and Communication (in Korea)
MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output
Mobile-Fi Mobile Fidelity, under IEEE 802.20 standards
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MS Member State (of te EU)
ms millisecond
MVC Mobile Virtual Community
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NFC Near Field Communications
NFM Near Field Magnetics
NIC Newly Industrialized Country
OCTO Office of the Chief Technology Officer
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
Opex Operational Expenditure
OSS Open Source software
OSI Open Systems Interconnection
PAN Personal Area Network
PC Personal Computer
PDA Personal Digital Assistant
PMR Private Mobile Radio
POS Personal Operating Space
PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network
Q(1,2,3,4) First, second, third, fourth Quarter of a year)
QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QoS Quality of Service
R&D Research and Development
RFID Radio Frequency IDentification
SDR Software Defined Radio
SIG Special Interest Group
SME Small and Medium-sized Enterprise
SOHO Small Office Home Office
SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (analytical tool)
TDD Time Division Diplex
TGn Task Group N
TNO Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek TNO, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO.
TV Television
UHF Ultra High Frequency
UK United Kingdom
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
UNISK JV between Chine Unicom and SK Telecom
UPnP Universal Plug-and-Play
URL Universal Resource Locator (Internet addressing)
US United States (of America)
USB Universal Serial Bus
USO Universal Service Obligation
USN Universal Service Network
UWB Ultra Wide Band
VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol
VOW Voice Over Wireless (IP-based)
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List
of
Abb
revi
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ns WARN Wireless Accelerated Responder Network
W-CDMA Wideband–Code Division Multiple Access
WiBro Wireless Broadband
Wi-Fi (WiFi) Wireless Fidelity, under IEEE 802.11x series
WiMax Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, under IEEE 802.16x series
WISP Wireless Internet Service Provider
WLAN Wireless LAN
WLL Wireless Local Loop
WMAN Wireless MAN
WP Work Package
WPAN Wireless PAN
WRC World Radiocommunication Conference
WWiSE World Wide Spectrum Efficiency
WWW World Wide Web
WUSB Wireless USB
ZED ZigBee End Devices
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