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EE Times reports the IEEE’s Standards Board, in an unprecedented move, has temporarily suspended deliberations by the 802.20 working group (pdf) on mobile broadband wireless technology.
Steve Mills, Chairman of the IEEE Standards Association Board wrote (pdf)
“Standards-development efforts conducted under the auspices of the IEEE must be conducted in a manner consistent with the principles of openness and balance, and the absence of domination. For some time now the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) has been concerned that these principles are not being observed in the IEEE 802.20 working group. In particular, IEEE-SA is concerned that disclosures of true affiliations have been materially incomplete and that IEEE 802.20 has become dominated.
The decision comes after representatives from Intel and Motorola threatened to file formal complaints about the way the working group’s chairman, Jerry Upton, allegedly handled draft proposals in favor of Qualcomm and Kyocera.
Upton referred all press inquiries to Steve Mills, chairman of the standards board, who did not return calls when this story was posted. The suspension is effective from Thursday (June 15) to Oct. 1, resulting in the cancellation of an 802.20 plenary meeting in July and an interim meeting in September.
In a statement, the IEEE said the suspension will “give the Standards Board time to consider the pending appeals [and possible additional actions independent of the appeals].”
The 802.20 group has been under a cloud for the last three years as Qualcomm reportedly made at least three efforts to influence the voting process on standards and torpedo a proposal for an orthogonal frequency-division modulaton-based standard by Flarion Inc. This process culminated last August in Qualcomm’s acquisition of Flarion for $600 million.
Since then, several working group members have alleged that Upton, though listed as an “independent consultant,” has been paid by Qualcomm. During the last three 802 general meetings, IEEE’s LAN/MAN group board has tried to tighten rules for independent consultants attending meetings as a way to avoid similar problems in the future.
A Qualcomm spokesman said late Thursday that the company would not comment on relations with independent consultants, but said regarding voting members of the working group: “Since the IEEE operates on a one-person, one-vote basis, it is not uncommon for companies to bring people to a working group, and what has been alleged for 802.20 has been evident in many 802 organizations.”
Regarding draft proposals, the Qualcomm spokesman added that only two fully-defined proposals were considered by the working group at the end of 2005, one from Qualcomm and another joint proposal from Qualcomm and Kyocera. Other full-blown proposals had not been introduced prior to the complaints at the beginning of this year.
One source involved in the deliberations said companies that have lodged complaints were active in 802.16e, and that the current dispute may in part revolve around continuing debate over the appropriate role of mobile broadband in 802.16e and 802.20.
WiMax backers like Intel and Samsung have been trying since November to get the 802.20 committee to consider alternative proposals. The goals of 802.20 and 802.16e, the so-called “mobile WiMAX” standard, are similar, although 802.20 uses licensed frequencies (below 3.5 GHz), duplex channels and fast frequency hopping across OFDM tones (adapted from Flarion’s “FLASH”) for more robust reception while moving. A draft 802.20 specification was balloted and approved on January 18th, 2006. The 802.20 draft had many of the aspects of Flarion’s proprietary duplex FLASH OFDM.
Qualcomm acquired Flarion last summer and may be trying to leverage Flarion’s intellectual property and extend its “rights” to both 802.20 and 802.16e. Soma Networks paid Qualcomm an undisclosed sum before it released an IEEE 802.16e (mobile WiMax) solution.
Qualcomm would like to extend their FLASH-OFDM technology (via Flarion), to the narrow 450 and 700 Mhz bands using their proprietary Flexband approach.
Qualcomm couldn’t get Charles Townsend to adopt MediaFLO or Flarion. Instead, Aloha Partners is using both of their nationwide, 700 Mhz channels (UHF tv channels 54 and 59), to deliver mobile television via the DVB-H standard, apparently shunning the proprietary approach of Qualcomm. Townsend has said that standards are critical for lower costs.
Public service users in the 700 Mhz band are another potential market for Qualcomm. Perhaps Nextel, through Cyren Call Communications, will adopt Qualcomm’s proprietary FlexBand or their 802.20 “standard”.
Mobile WiMAX can use both duplex channels or simplex (using COFDMA subchannels). COFDMA allows a single channel to carry both upstream and downstream communications.
When the signal is weak, fewer (but stronger) subchannels can be used in the same time slot of other upstream users on other subchannels. COFDMA, adopted by 802.16e, uses a single channel, which enables cost/effective beamforming and MIMO. That provides maximum spectrum efficiency and coverage while lowering costs, say proponents of Mobile WiMAX,
Mobile WiMAX (802.16e-2005), actually evolved from WiBro which adopted technology developed by Adaptix and its predecessor Broadstorm. Wi-LAN’s IP now belongs to former partner Fujitsu Microelectronics America, including MAC and baseband chips for 802.16-2004 (fixed WiMax).
Qualcomm signed a licensing agreement for broadband wireless patents. Some vendors and observers like Steve Sanders wonder if Qualcomm had acquired IP crucial to WiMax.
“Qualcomm and Flarion settled for $1.8 million despite disagreement with the DOJ contention [taking control of Flarion prior to the sale closing]. What grabbed me the most about this was that the allegation that Qualcomm didn’t intend to commercialize Flarion’s technology in its present form. But if Qualcomm is not wanting to leverage Flarion’s gear “as is” what does it want to do with it…
Flarion was on a path to mobility (via 802.20). Now it appears that Qualcomm is on a path to the courthouse.
In related news, Qualcomm filed another complaint with the US International Trade Commission against Nokia, saying it violated a number of its CDMA patents by selling GPRS/EDGE enabled handsets. Qualcomm filed a similar complaint last November. Nokia and Qualcomm are currently renegotiating the terms of a cross-licensing agreements for GSM technology that expire next year.
Cost-effective broadband wireless may require OFDM. Qualcomm appears to be doing everything in its power to stop it, while promoting its own proprietary MediaFLO and Flarion technologies. Whether Qualcomm can charm the heavily lawyered Intel and Motorola, of course, is another question.
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