Analysis of the relationship between 3G, WLAN and Bluetooth

I. BACKGROUND

Because of the current commercial situation in Japan and the 3G test conducted in Europe did not achieve the expected results, 3g-foma operators 3G plans are further postponed , the company has also been WLAN (Wireless LAN) and 2.5G GPRS integration on the agenda, in order to strengthen the broadband and applicability of wireless Internet access, to fill the 3G delay brought about by some of the market and technology space; Meanwhile, telecom and Netcom are also using WLAN to intervene in wireless data field, and try broadband, Wireless, data and other concepts to confuse the user on 3G, WLAN, Bluetooth relationship among the three.

In this context, it may be proposed that 3G will be the 2.5G and WLAN joint attack? And what is the status of Bluetooth in this relationship? What is the relationship between these three technologies? This paper will explain and analyze the technical attribute and support environment.

Ii. Overview

3G, WLAN, Bluetooth these three technologies are essentially complementary, although they may be competitive on the edge.

WLAN is currently widely used in the technology is 802.11 families, it is the first wireless LAN standard published by IEEE in 1997, and now the 802.11b, which is frequently mentioned in the media, is approved in September 1999, and it is also called Wi-Fi (sounds a bit like the music enthusiasts say Hi-Fi), Can support a shared access rate of 11Mbps , similar to the 802.11A technology, it uses the 5GHz frequency band, its speed is as high as 54Mbps, the frequency division uses the OFDM (orthogonal frequency divide multiplexing) technology, but the barrier-free access distance drops to 30-50 meters; last year's new candidate, 802.11g, is actually a hybrid standard that adapts to the 802.11B standard, Also conforms to the 802.11A standard, it is 5 times times faster than the 802.11b rate, and is compatible with 802.11B. (Computer science)

Bluetooth technology is based on Low-cost near-distance wireless connectivity for fixed and mobile devices in the communication environment to establish a special connection to the open global norms, Working in the 2.4GHz band, currently can support 1Mbps data rates, support data and voice services, the current access to accessibility distance of 10 meters (launch power is 4dBm). Bluetooth technology research group SIG in early 2001 has introduced Bluetooth 1.1 standard (channel data transmission rate of 1Mbps), the end of 2001, the introduction of the Bluetooth Standard 2.0 version (channel data transfer rate of 2Mbps). Because Bluetooth and 802.11b are working on the 2.4GHz band, there is interference between each other, literature data shows that the use of DSSS direct sequence spread of 802.11b of its transmitting power of 20DBM, will make Bluetooth packet loss rate of 13.46%, So last April the IEEE Pan (Personal Area Network) Working Group proposed a bill that would enable Bluetooth and 802.11b to work simultaneously to avoid interference with each other.

3G was first proposed in 1985 by the International Telecommunication Union, considering that the system may enter the market in about 2000 years, working band at 2000MHz, and the highest business rate of 2000Kbps, so in 1996 officially renamed to IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunication-2000). 3g is a global roaming mobile communication network which can provide a variety of types and high quality multimedia services, which can realize static 2Mbps transmission speed, medium and low speed 384Kbps, high speed 144Kbps rate communication network, but because of the difference of interests of various countries and manufacturers, it produces the current three main technical standards WCDMA, CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA, while the focus on WCDMA (3GPP) and CDMA2000 (3GPP2), with the 3GPP and 3GPP2 standardization work gradually in-depth and stable, The ITU also looks to the next generation of mobile communications standards, called Beyond 3G, that provide a higher wireless transmission rate and a unified and flexible full IP network platform.

Three, different technical attributes

The WLAN provides high bandwidth, but it is within a limited coverage area (short distances in buildings and outdoors). According to most industry estimates, even 1000 WLANs do not provide enough coverage on a single metropolitan area. In contrast, 3G networks support mobility across wide-area networks, but data throughput is significantly slower than WLAN. Because 3G and WLAN have different advantages and limitations in coverage area and bandwidth, the two technologies support different applications and meet different needs. To this extent, they do not pose a competitive threat to each other but complement one another.

Because 3G, wireless LAN, and Bluetooth networks differ in their technical properties, they are also different in their supported features and applications.

(1) 3G support mobility, WLAN Wireless LAN Support portability

The 3 G network is built on a cellular architecture and is best suited to support data services in mobile environments. The cellular architecture supports signal switching between different hives, providing the user with full network coverage mobility, which is often extended through roaming protocols between different network operators. Of course, the bandwidth available to mobile users is limited.

WLAN Wireless LAN provides a large amount of bandwidth, but it covers a limited area (up to 100 meters in the room). The applications it supports are often accessed through portable data-centric devices such as laptops, rather than by phone-centric devices. PDAs and similar small devices are also starting to configure WLAN connectivity, although the process is still in its infancy. Bluetooth networks are only suitable for very short distances, and in many cases they are used only as substitutes for cables.

(2) 3G support voice and data, WLAN Wireless LAN main support data

Voice and data signals differ in many important ways: speech signals can be wrong but not tolerated, and data signals can allow delays but do not tolerate errors. Therefore, a network optimized for data is not suitable for transmitting voice signals. Conversely, a network optimized for voice is not suitable for data signals. In contrast to the fact that WLANs are primarily used to support data signals, 3G networks are designed to support both voice and data signals.

While WLAN is evolving towards integrated telephony, its current structure lacks the required architecture to support a higher level of application like voice, multimedia, and content: for example, the architecture that adapts to service quality, scalability, and billing mechanism requirements. There are a handful of countries where large telecom operators offer WLAN Wireless LAN services (such as the "Tianyi" WLAN service of Shanghai Telecom), although they are still immature in roaming, covering and billing integration.

Iv. capacity, interference and leading forces

It is well known that WLANs can provide much greater bandwidth than 3G networks. While this assumption is correct, you should also note that WLANs are a shared bandwidth technology. In the shared-band technology, the bandwidth available is divided among users. In other words, the fact that a wireless LAN can provide 11Mbps of bandwidth does not mean that 10 users are using 11Mbps capacity at the same time. Although 3G networks are also subject to capacity constraints, packet-switched cellular technology allows them to support a larger number of users at a high capacity. And because WLANs run on unlicensed bands, they are also more susceptible to other technologies, such as Bluetooth, that run in the same band.

At the same time, the different leading forces lead to different development direction of technology. WLANs are led by data communications rather than by telecommunications vendors. The leaders here are traditional corporate networking companies such as Agere, Cisco, 3Com, IBM, D-link and others. Wireless LAN vendors define mobility with their own LAN experience (like portability). Therefore, they are defined differently than the definitions used by the 3G mobile infrastructure equipment manufacturer. Many WLAN companies focus only on providing "transmission lines" without much interest in what is being transmitted in these lines.

On the other hand, 3G infrastructure vendors (such as Alcatel, Ericsson, Lucent, Nokia, Nortel, Motorola, Samsung and Siemens) come from the traditional telecommunications world. Their focus is mobility, which seeks to enhance mobile voice services by leveraging mobile data services that can generate larger revenue streams for telecom network operators.

Mobility management presents serious challenges to people, but it also represents a huge revenue opportunity. In a mobile environment, a phone number usually belongs to a person rather than a place, so the network knows who you are and knows where you are and when you are. This makes it possible to personalize information services that can be converted into huge gains in the future.

In the case of Bluetooth, manufacturers such as Nokia and Ericsson are looking for Bluetooth technology just to add functionality to their devices, and they don't necessarily regard Bluetooth as another pure wireless LAN standard.

V. Supply channels and business models

There is a significant difference between WLAN and Bluetooth supply channels and the supply channels of 3G communication systems. Most wireless LAN and Bluetooth device manufacturers use OEM relationships to simplify sales and distribution processes. Perhaps because they consider themselves to provide only wireless connectivity, WLAN and Bluetooth vendors are not specifically involved in the actual delivery of the service. In particular, Bluetooth itself in the support of mobile services is not safe or strong enough, but the technology on the chip, can only be OEM way in the Bluetooth manufacturer and the specific equipment manufacturers transfer.

But at the same time, because the emerging world of such mobile data services is still not well defined: In this world, it is not clear what type of service or the business model that provides these services is successful, so equipment manufacturers (especially 3G vendors) are actively exploring different service delivery patterns. Enables you to effectively sell network solutions and devices to mobile operators. And the telecom operators are also in the same starting line, for the future service content and business model to think hard. But it is quite obvious that WLAN and the 3G business model are as important as the other: business providers that provide WLAN services (possibly large telecommunications operators, or just ordinary ISPs) only provide the user with the infrastructure, and the user must purchase or rent WLAN access devices to connect to the wireless LAN; , 3G operators are likely to provide users with 3G terminal price subsidies to attract users to join their 3G network.

However, if you can handle the WLAN and 3G or 2.5G at the level of business technology integration, such as in the WLAN environment based on GSM/GPRS SIM card authentication technology, can also enable telecom operators to better establish their own unique business model, to make full use of the original billing system and customer relations.

To sum up, we can think that 3G, WLAN and Bluetooth technology attributes are very different, is complementary, although the edge of the existence of competition between the parts.