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Nortel Builds WiMAX Ecosystem to Ensure a True Mobile Broadband Experience

   
   

 

 
   
New Partners Added to Ecosystem to Deliver End-to-End WiMAX Solutions
 
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(MARKET WIRE)--Jun 20, 2007 -- Nortel(1) (Toronto:NT.TO - News)(NYSE:NT - News) has selected ZyXEL Communications, one of the world's leading device manufacturers, to join the growing ecosystem of companies working with Nortel to deliver broadband wireless communications solutions around the world based on WiMAX technology. Nortel is also working with leading WiMAX chipset manufacturers to include chipsets, which will enable WiMAX capabilities in a variety of devices, in Nortel's end-to-end WiMAX solutions.

A strong WiMAX ecosystem is important to meeting the mobility demands in the era of Hyperconnectivity where everything that can be connected to the network, will be connected, encompassing person-to-person communication, person-to-machine and machine-to-machine.

Nortel's WiMAX ecosystem will allow service providers to take advantage of the opportunities of a hyperconnected world with end-to-end solutions delivering the high-bandwidth capacity and super-fast transmission speeds essential to real-time mobile applications such as VoIP and video. The true mobile broadband experience that can be offered over WiMAX delivers the potential to participate in a video-conference from a mobile phone while waiting for a flight, or to let the kids pass the time on long road trips by playing on-line video games from the backseat of the car.

"The development of a complete WiMAX ecosystem, including infrastructure, chipsets and devices, is integral to the real world success of WiMAX technology," said Peter MacKinnon, general manager, Nortel WiMAX and Wireless Mesh and chairman, LG-Nortel JV. "Nortel is driving the development of its WiMAX ecosystem by supporting and pursuing relationships with leading device and chipset manufacturers like ZyXEL, Runcom and Sequans, to name a few."

Nortel will work with ZyXEL, Runcom, Sequans and others to offer service providers a variety of end to end WiMAX solutions. These solution offerings will include ZyXEL PCMCIA cards and customer premises equipment (CPE), such as indoor and outdoor residential gateways, which will be bundled for sale with Nortel's WiMAX infrastructure technology.

Building on the collaboration between Nortel and Runcom that was announced on October 10, 2006, the two companies have entered into the commercial phase of an agreement to include Runcom's MIMO-based RNA200 chipset - which enables mobile WiMAX capabilities within devices such as phones and laptops - as part of Nortel's end-to-end WiMAX solutions.

Furthering the breadth of the WiMAX ecosystem, Nortel has successfully conducted initial interoperability testing of MIMO-based WiMAX products with Sequans. This testing was conducted at Nortel's R&D labs in Ottawa and included testing over live air of MIMO Matrix B which is the technology that makes WiMAX and 4G three times more spectrally efficient than HSPA.

Additional interoperability testing of Nortel's MIMO-enabled WiMAX solutions occurred at the WiMAX Forum's third annual Mobile WiMAX PlugFest in Sophia Antipolis, France. This event brought together 33 Mobile WiMAX equipment developers to test and showcase the interoperability of their products. This was the first time the WiMAX Forum has tested key mobility features such as MIMO. Nortel will continue to build on these successes at its Center of Excellence - WiMAX 4G Ecosystem in Taipei where vendors and manufacturers work together to drive the development of WiMAX.

"Our total solution will include devices essential to easy uptake of WiMAX services," said Stone Tseng, director, WiMAX 4G Ecosystem, Nortel. "Simple CPE connectivity devices like PCMCIA cards, USB dongles, indoor and outdoor CPE with Ethernet and VoIP options will be available in the coming months, but that's just the beginning. Nortel will continue to work with various ecosystem partners to bring handsets, smart phones, PDAs and other advanced WiMAX devices to market over the next 12 to 24 months."

About ZyXEL Communications

ZyXEL Communications Corp. (Tokyo:2391.T - News), headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is the world's largest residential gateway provider (In-Stat, 2006). ZyXEL's comprehensive Internet Protocol-based (IP) networking solutions include access multiplexors, customer premise equipment, Internet security and Wireless LAN equipment, enabling high-performance network services for SOHO, small to mid-sized businesses and service providers. ZyXEL works closely with worldwide network equipment vendors, telecommunications companies, ISPs, and other major businesses. For more information, visit the company's website at http://www.zyxel.com.(2)

For media enquiries about ZyXEL please contact: Bob Menzies, Lages & Associates, 949-453-8080, bob@lages.com.

About Sequans

SEQUANS Communications is a leading supplier of fixed and mobile WiMAX silicon and software based on 802.16 d/e standards. Offering base station and subscriber station system-on-chips (SOCs) for both fixed and mobile WiMAX (802.16-2004 and 802.16e-2005), Sequans offers equipment manufacturers an all-in-one solution with full MAC and PHY functionality, enabling them to build the complete range of WiMAX network components: high-end and pico base stations, outdoor and indoor subscriber terminals, home gateways, and all types of mobile devices. Sequans, along with its RF partners, provide the most complete WiMAX solution available to system manufacturers today. Please visit www.sequans.com.(2)

For media enquiries about Sequans please contact: Kimberly Tassin, 206.654.1001, Kimberly@sequans.com.

About Nortel

Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that make the promise of Business Made Simple a reality for our customers. Our next-generation technologies, for both service provider and enterprise networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications. Nortel's technologies are designed to help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they need it. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries around the world. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.

Certain statements in this press release may contain words such as "could", "expects", "may", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "targets", "envisions", "seeks" and other similar language and are considered forward-looking statements or information under applicable securities legislation. These statements are based on Nortel's current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the operating environment, economies and markets in which Nortel operates. These statements are subject to important assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict and the actual outcome may be materially different from those contemplated in forward-looking statements. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see Nortel's Annual Report on Form10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other securities filings with the SEC. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Nortel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

(1)Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel Networks.

(2)This is a 3rd party link as described in our Web linking practices.

Use of the terms "partner" and "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership between Nortel and any other party.

Contacts:
     Nortel
     Karen Monaghan
     (613) 763-1133
     Email: kmonagha@nortel.com
      
     Nortel
     Greta Brown
     +44 1628 432968
     Email: gretab@nortel.com
     Website: http://www.nortel.com
   
   
What WiMAX Means for the Enterprise, Mark Whitton

A few weeks ago, Forbes published a list of the top 10 technologies destined to change the way we live. Fuel cells, gene therapy, and haptics, a technology that enables users to interact with virtual objects, were just a few of the innovations making the list, so was VoIP. Rounding out the top 10 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, more commonly referred to as WiMAX an emerging wireless standard that has seen a meteoric rise in global interest, across every geographic region and among all industry players in only a few short years.

In spite of its high profile, a considerable amount of confusion persists. Questions abound as to how WiMAX will fit in the world of wireless communications. Will it replace WiFi? Will it compete with 3G cellular systems? What kinds of providers will offer it? This last question brings some interesting scenarios to mind looking ahead at the type of competitive landscape WiMAX could help create. That is certainly worth exploring, but lets stay focused here on the end user, considering primarily the implications of WiMAX for enterprise users and what IT managers need to do to prepare for this revolutionary technology.

Internet Everywhere
Blackberry and other PDA devices take a subset of enterprise applications like calendars, contact lists, e-mail, etc. and deliver them beyond the enterprises walls. Cellular phones long ago breached this barrier and now enable virtually all voice services through a network of public operators, and have thus blurred the line between office and personal communication services. WiMAX will take desktop computing and morph it into the mobile laptop and other devices yet to be introduced enabling the Internet to be virtually anywhere and the laptop to be truly mobile as the cell phone is today.

As mobile professionals and consumers begin to see their computers as personal, mobile, ever-present devices akin to cell phones, they will change their behavior and demands, similar to what happened with the cellular evolution. Laptops will become dual-duty office/personal devices, blending public and private data communication services. IT managers will need to prepare for this virtualization of the boundary around their networks a boundary that will soon be found inside their employees personal computing devices. Security, services, partnerships with infrastructure vendors and network operators, all will be impacted.

How WiMAX Works
WiMAX is designed to deliver broadband multimedia data ubiquitously over wireless links at several times the speed of traditional circuit-switched wireless systems, and over a far greater coverage area than todays proprietary wireless local network (WLAN) access solutions, such as 802.11 (WiFi) technology.

Where WiFi enables affordable broadband Internet access within short-range hot spots, at distances measured in tens of meters, WiMAX is designed to deliver the same access at similar costs, but across tens of kilometers and ultimately, with greater performance and higher speeds. In short, where WiFi provides high bandwidth but not distance, and current cellular systems provide distance, but not high bandwidth, WiMAX will provide both.

WiMAX will give users uninterrupted and untethered access to a rich variety of high-bandwidth services not only around offices, homes, coffee shops, airports, and hotels, but also as users roam in rural, suburban, and metropolitan areas.

Whats more, with WiMAX, users will no longer perceive wireless Internet access as being inferior in quality compared with todays fixed DSL and cable access offers. Instead, WiMAX is expected to bring long-sought-after performance parity between wireless and wired Internet access.

These capabilities are possible because the standard upon which WiMAX technology is based IEEE 802.16 is being designed from the ground up to be truly broadband and packet based. A non-line-of-sight technology, IEEE 802.16e (the e refers to the mobile version of the standard) is based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and OFDM with multiple access (OFDMA), a new air interface that brings significantly improved levels of spectral efficiency, data throughput, and capacity compared to previous generations of radio technologies. Moreover, when combined with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna processing technology, the resulting OFDM-MIMO combination can boost capacity and performance even further.

Will WiMAX Replace WiFi?
WiMAX and WiFi are somewhat independent, addressing slightly different needs. WiMAX uses private, licensed spectrum and provides WiFi-like service with guaranteed performance to larger public areas, similar in coverage to cellular networks today. WiFi uses shared spectrum and operates at short distances, making it ideal for low-cost, private networks (where usage of the network is constrained to an office building or campus) or free public systems (where service guarantees are not required).

Companies like Intel are committed to delivering dual-mode chipsets (WiFi + WiMAX) for next-generation devices. This would allow a user to access WiFi in the office, school, or home, and then roam onto a public WiMAX network after leaving the WiFi coverage area. WiMAX can also deliver the last-mile connection to a home or office where cable or DSL service doesnt reach.

Will WiMAX Have Any Performance Problems?
Early WLANs struggled with security and latency issues. WiMAX is being implemented based on WLAN lessons learned and will be equivalent to WLAN state-of-the-art security. And, WiMAX wont suffer from the same performance problems in cases where it is deployed in licensed spectrum (which is where the majority of it will be deployed), or in low-density rural areas using unlicensed spectrum. This is because a single network owner engineers and controls the usage and configuration of the network, avoiding the tragedy of commons scenario in public WiFi networks. At the same time, WiMAX will share WiFis most attractive attributes: ease of use, high-speed connections, and a wide variety of low-cost devices available through conventional outlets.

Will WiMAX Compete With Cellular Or 3G?
A lot of debate has centered around whether these two technologies will compete with or actually complement one another. The truth is, the answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no. 3G is coming up from the voice world trying to do as much data/Internet functions as it can, but its stretched pretty far. Theres going to be a limit as to how much more broadband it can get. Also, the more broadband youre pulling, the bigger the screen has to be because theres a relationship between a devices size and how much bandwidth it requires. WiMAX makes more sense for laptops than handsets. On the other hand, WiMAX isnt designed for mobile voice. It will offer a better version of data than 3G, but it becomes challenging to offer voice with WiMAX when roaming.

Is WiMAX Currently Available?
The fixed 802.12-2004 standard is now available and well-suited for the last-mile-type access mentioned above where cable or DSL service cant be economically provisioned to a home or office. In North America alone, there is a significant rural market of under-served communities that fixed WiMAX can address.

The first of these 802.12-2004 networks will launch later this summer in Alberta, Canada. Once up and running, it will operate in the 3.5GHz spectrum band and be available to roughly 80 percent of SAB residents and businesses, equipping them with fixed broadband wireless access at data rates between one and three Mbps. It will also support services like e-mail, high-speed Internet access, multimedia applications including streaming video and music, VoIP and other real-time business collaboration services, in addition to video surveillance and remote telemetry.

Specifications for the mobile version of WiMAX, or 802.16-2005 (formerly e), were announced at the end of 2005. Expect to see trials this summer with commercial deployments in 2007. Korea will be a good place to watch in the coming months as the country becomes an early-mover with its own homegrown version of mobile WiMAX called WiBro, short for wireless broadband.

So, how does an enterprise prepare for WiMAX?
By 2008, WiMAX connectivity will be embedded in the base silicon of most new laptops alongside WiFi as a standard capability. Even before this, WiMAX will be enabled through laptop cards or dedicated devices with costs ranging from $100 to $500. The next two years give IT managers time to ready their networks, taking into account the security and mobility infrastructure needed to support a broad range of computing and communication devices that will inevitably access their systems and applications via multiple public and private networks. Now is the time to learn about the new capabilities WiMAX is expected to deliver and invest in a mobility infrastructure that will anchor WiMAX devices in the home network and create the service provider partnerships required to enable public roaming for employees and clients.

WiMAX Delivering A Truly Mobile, Internet Everywhere Lifestyle
WiMAX skeptics contend that the technology has a long way to go and isnt really necessary given the wireless networks already in place. No, WiMAX wont change things overnight or immediately have all of the capabilities that come with a technologies evolution and maturation. Getting to an Internet everywhere point will take time. The world experienced a similar evolution with cellular technology. The difference now expectations are higher. Weve already become so accustomed to being able to use our mobile phones at any moment, anywhere. That's only been the norm for the past decade. The next phase is coming, maybe even faster. WiMAX will be everywhere. Figuratively speaking, it will leak through the walls. Think now about how it will impact the enterprise and, as Forbes predicts, change the way we live it.

Mark Whitton is vice president and general manager, Nortel WiMAX Networks at Nortel. For more information, please visit the company online at www.nortel.com (news - alerts).

If you are interested in purchasing reprints of this article (in either print or PDF format), please visit Reprint Management Services online at www.reprintbuyer.com or contact a representative via e-mail at tmcnet@reprintbuyer.com or by phone at 800-290-5460.

Source: www.tmcnet.com

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