3 to provide "coverage" units

bealtine

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/12190/comms/3-in-technology-deal-to-ensure-quality-in-door-broadband

3 in technology deal to ensure quality in-door broadband

30.01.2009
3 Ireland, which last week signed a €223m contract with the Irish Government to bring the country to 100pc broadband connectivity, has signed a deal with a Californian tech firm Nextivity to provide consumers with devices that boosts the broadband signal in their homes.

Mobile operator 3 revealed last week it is to create 170 jobs on the strength of the €223m Government contract for the National Broadband Scheme (NBS).

The mobile operator will deploy and upgrade its network of 3G infrastructure to enable citizens to access high-speed broadband via its cellular network.

Ireland currently has over 1.2 million broadband subscribers, and the NBS will provide the remaining 10pc of our population — or approximately 33pc of the area of the country — with broadband services.

It is therefore envisaged Ireland will have 100pc coverage by September 2010 — half of the area under the scheme will be covered by the end of this year.

Under this new deal with Nextivity, 3 will sell Smart Repeater devices that will enable people who live in homes where the broadband signal is obstructed by building materials like concrete – known as packet loss – to boost the signal around the house.

These devices sit at windows of homes and interact with the mobile base station and in turn transmit the enhanced signal throughout the house.

Tim Bresien of Nextivity explained that the technology enables optimal in-home voice and data while overcoming packet loss.

The company has also deployed Smart Repeaters in T-Mobile stores across the Netherlands.

“Often what happens is materials in walls, ceilings and floors generally absorb the radio frequency (RF),” explained George Lamb of Nextivity.

The veteran research team at San Diego-based Nextivity developed its technology over an intensive two-year period.

“3 quickly recognised the fact that while a lot of people wanted to use high-speed wireless, not many were willing to stand outside in their gardens just to get it. The packet loss typically eroding a quality wireless connection could be the difference between a 7.2Mbps connection and a 3.8Mbps connection.

The Smart Repeater consists of two boxes – one near the house window and one inside the home – that transmit the data between them on the same frequency as Wi-Fi before it’s re-broadcast at a cellular frequency of 2.1GHz.

Nextivity Smart Repeater

“3 could have easily decided to deliver the broadband to the window – as per its contract – but they wanted to make sure that no matter where you were in your home you could use your HSPA dongle or handsets to get proper quality voice and broadband. It’s good that they are thinking ahead and making plans in this area,” Lamb said.

Lamb, who designed the user interface for the Smart Repeater product, said the system is designed to be used by anybody from a child to an elderly adult. “You literally take it out of the box and plug it in, that’s it.”

Bresien said that while every home in the NBS will not require a Smart Repeater, “3 is being very proactive by including these plug-and-play devices in their strategy.”

By John Kennedy

watty

So since one is OUTSIDE our Wifi is going to be congested too.

And it won't work well if you have a video sender. Stupid.

The TENDER was for Broadband to be delivered inside the home. Not for a Mobile service to your window.

RedLedbetter

Did you see the network diagram provided by Nextivity (on siliconrep).... oh man this is brilliant..... the end device isn't a PC or even a laptop..... the end device is a mobile phone That's quality!!!

Sponge Bob

I blame silicon republic for not having a clue about the difference in the first place

These 'femto ' cells are unlicenced UNLESS they remain in the ownership of 3 , don't dare buy one yourself , OK !

RedLedbetter

Ye, but I meant by the diagram is that I can see the DCENR throwing up the same diagram, but getting one of the guys from Miami Ink to do a cover up job on the mobile phone and replace it with a laptop...... "No, no.... nothing to do with mobile phone networks.... t'is a totally different tehnomologoly".

watty

Sorry, it's 5.8Ghz, so interferes with Budget Wireless Broadband suppliers and 802.11n WiFi.

Not affected by Video Senders. Unless you bought one of the CE marked but illegal according to Comreg video senders that is on 5.xGHz from Argos, Maplin and others.

Not weather proofed, so blocked by some windows.

Has this actually really been trialled? Why not the much cheaper and more functional Dovado, Netgear, Dlink etc WiFi routers at the window. Then you get WiFi, ethernet, Firewall.

There is NO effective firewall on Modem dongle direct on PC.

It wouldn't be that they want to discourage more than one connection? This scheme means WiFi gadgets such as Archos, DS, PSP, iTouch, WiFi mode on phones don't work and a second laptop or PC needs a second account. Alternatively £ only understand PHONES and not IT. This is a PHONE handset solution.

Wasteful, inflexible, expensive and inappropriate as part of a data connection strategy for homes to Internet.

Silicon Republic printing press release and no analysis.

bealtine

Sponge Bob wrote: »

I blame silicon republic for not having a clue about the difference in the first place

Too many words there. Let me adjust it for you, "I blame silicon republic for not having a clue"
Now there that's much better...

Sponge Bob

These femto cells are a regulatory nightmare. They must be on siteviewer for example under current regs

If the indoor and out door units use the same tx and rx spectrum pair they willl interfere with each other ( as indeed could the cpe with the outdoor unit )

Therefore they will use a different spectrum pair indoor ....meaning they will interfere with some other service like Meteor or Voda or O2 , thoughts Watty !!!!!

watty

It's CDMA, not GSM

So frightningly it CAN use the same spectrum.
but 3dB SNR penalty.

3 would be breaking their licence to use it on spectrum that isn't theirs.

There are now EVDO/CDMA and 3G femto cells for sale in USA, retail. These are used to to connect your phone call via Broadband instead of a landline or DECT cordless. 3 seem to have found a new use.

The US ones have a built in GPS. Unless in the licenced locality it shuts down. You could fake the GPS signals and then have local Verizon US cellular calls in Ireland. If you had real Broadband to plug it into.

You have 100% possibility of faking GPS sucessfully and 70% chance of being able to find BB to connect it to in Ireland.

Sponge Bob

mmmmm

Lots of American tourists go past my door all summer . I could spoof a verizon wireless cell and freak them out

PogMoThoin

Completely OT but.........

Sponge Bob wrote: »

mmmmm

Lots of American tourists go past my door all summer . I could spoof a verizon wireless cell and freak them out

What summer? and what tourists for that matter?

cowboy1981

watty wrote: »

Not weather proofed, so blocked by some windows.

What will they do if your house doesn't have a window in the wall facing the 3 mast? Statistically, a significant proportion of houses must face the wrong way? Will they have to take Satellite?

watty

The signal is VERY poor if all windows face away from the mast. However if there where 750 to 1500 masts rather 160 maybe any side of house would face a mast. With the 160 planned you might not receive a signal at all or it might be full.

Also some types of energy saver double glazing block the signal entirely.

These femto-repeater "coverage units" are a waste of money and ineffectual compared to other cheaper solutions.

cowboy1981

watty wrote: »

Also some types of energy saver double glazing block the signal entirely.

I guess Eamonn Ryan will have to ban the use of energy saving double glazing in the NBS regions!

crawler

I am going to set myself up for a slap....

I think it's a good idea - better than not having it and unlikely to suffer from interference in the indoor unlicensed bit due to demographic of the NBS.

Waits for slaps.....

Ordinary Joe

I've trialled this stuff, it works pretty well in crappy indoor urban coverage, it will boost the signal but you need an ok signal at your window (max 3km LoS from mast at 2.1GHz), how this works in the NBS area will be interesting to see.

Typically "3" masts are in "urban" centres in Rural Ireland to minimise the "pay-away" for National Roaming. To get the cell plan they are talking about to work from their existing urban site base plus the extra ones they talk about means they need a cell radius of 20-25km. Effectively this means there won't be a strong enough signal without a high gain outdoor antennna...which kind of negates the need for the $250 booster in the first place. More engineering brilliance from "3" !!

In short, This stuff is good (12uSec round trip delay caused by the use of the 5.8GHz spectrum) is urban areas with poor indoor coverage - its built for SME use . Its a red herring for NBS

samhail

i wonder how long its going to take them to put that into their tv slogans

watty

Ordinary Joe wrote: »

To get the cell plan they are talking about to work from their existing urban site base plus the extra ones they talk about means they need a cell radius of 20-25km. Effectively this means there won't be a strong enough signal without a high gain outdoor antenna...which kind of negates the need for the $250 booster in the first place. More engineering brilliance from "3" !!

At 3km I'd want an outdoor router +cat5E POE (no loss, whereas loss on feeder for 2.1GHz is gross). A Dovado/Dlink/Linksys/Netgear whoever outdoor box with USB 3G modem and cat5e power + ethernet to indoor switch+ wifi is cheaper and works MUCh better and allows wiFi gadgets and more than one PC.

20km??

I knew 160 new masts was 1/4 to 1/8 or so of what is needed. But 20km? Not feasible for 1Mbps even on an empty sector.

There was ONE European country that OECD counted 3G/HSDPA for Broadband, but ONLY sectors with exclusively fixed outdoor aerials. Then you can engineer signal level and contention.

cowboy1981

watty wrote: »

There was ONE European country that OECD counted 3G/HSDPA for Broadband, but ONLY sectors with exclusively fixed outdoor aerials. Then you can engineer signal level and contention.

This proposal by 3 has all the hallmarks of being drawn up by someone in an office in London, or perhaps Hong Kong, who has never visited very rural Ireland. Remote farmhouses are typically tucked away in sheltered cuts in mountain valleys - so that they have a stream for water supply, and surrounded by a copse of tall trees for shelter. Also most farmhouses built large barns on the windward side of the house to provide further shelter. This is the traditional way of building in rural Ireland, and the topography is still the same even if the houses have been replaced with modern bungalows. If you want to get a 3G signal into these homes, you would typically need to put up a pole with an antenna some distance away from the house to clear all the obstacles.

This contract is a complete joke - it needs to be exposed before they waste 79M of taxpayers and EU money on something that hasn't a hope of working.

Ordinary Joe

watty wrote: »

I knew 160 new masts was 1/4 to 1/8 or so of what is needed. But 20km? Not feasible for 1Mbps even on an empty sector.

There was ONE European country that OECD counted 3G/HSDPA for Broadband, but ONLY sectors with exclusively fixed outdoor aerials. Then you can engineer signal level and contention.

The other interesting point to note in using existing 3G sites for rural coverage is that typically 3G coverage is optimised for coverage within 2-3km of the mast using tilt antennas.

So if you want coverage outside that range you need a second set of antennas (using a dedicated carrier) oriented for distant pickup with high gain antennas or destroy your coverage close to the antenna, although some would argue that few will notice given the "3" performance to date !

Sponge Bob

crawler wrote: »

I am going to set myself up for a slap....

I think it's a good idea - better than not having it and unlikely to suffer from interference in the indoor unlicensed bit due to demographic of the NBS.

Waits for slaps.....

Eh !!

It is a good idea if used in an orderly manner . You presume phsyical separation will ensure orderly spectrum re-use while I presume that there will be trouble as these things cluster in interference hotspots and that there should be a limit per sector with a bias toward the 2-4 km band at the outside of the sectoral radius .

However I am extremely sceptical of the whole thing .

3 have promised 400 cells will be used , 160 of those are new. I assume a generous standard 4 sectors per mast in NBS areas to guarantee service .

A 3g mast can only do 3km really , lets be nice to 3 and assume that these boxes bring the service areas to 4km from the mast .

This still only gives us 650 x 4km ( pi x r2) 3.14 x 16km or 50km sq coverage x 400 = 20k km squared where the state has an area of about 70k km squared

This means that slightly under 30% of the land area of the state can be covered adequately and thats before terrain factors ( mountains) kick in .

They are being very optimistic ....if you look at this map

http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/88747560-B409-444A-9B1A-E4AC6498BE44/0/NBSCoverageMAp.pdf

thebman

Isn't the most likely reason for the introduction of these so if anyone complains about speeds received, they'll try to sell them on of these things and hope they go away.

If someone does buy it and doesn't get full speeds, the network setup will now be complicated enough that they can say anything.

It stinks of a half arse measure so when people say the NBS is failing, they can say well those people need to buy our additional box.

crawler

I am only commenting on the box - not the NBS

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Eh !!

It is a good idea if used in an orderly manner . You presume phsyical separation will ensure orderly spectrum re-use while I presume that there will be trouble as these things cluster in interference hotspots and that there should be a limit per sector with a bias toward the 2-4 km band at the outside of the sectoral radius .

However I am extremely sceptical of the whole thing .

3 have promised 400 cells will be used , 160 of those are new. I assume a generous standard 4 sectors per mast in NBS areas to guarantee service .

A 3g mast can only do 3km really , lets be nice to 3 and assume that these boxes bring the service areas to 4km from the mast .

This still only gives us 650 x 4km ( pi x r2) 3.14 x 16km or 50km sq coverage x 400 = 20k km squared where the state has an area of about 70k km squared

This means that slightly under 30% of the land area of the state can be covered adequately and thats before terrain factors ( mountains) kick in .

They are being very optimistic ....if you look at this map

http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/88747560-B409-444A-9B1A-E4AC6498BE44/0/NBSCoverageMAp.pdf

watty

But the box is a bad (and more expensive) idea compared to a Router that takes the USB modem and has WiFi and ethernet.

These boxes use WiFi without giving it to the user and provide no firewall. They are only any use for instore demos. One box at display window and the other at back of the metal warehouse so people can try the 3G phone/Gadget. Or maybe an office, but one box on window inside glass (outside metal radio blocking ventian blinds) and the other in the middle of the cubicle area. They are stupidest idea for data coverage where WiFi/ethernet via firewall/NAT/Router makes more sense. A 4 port ethernet switch + WiFi with USB host for EDGE/3G/HSPA modem is under €50 to an ISP.

dr.quirk

watty wrote: »

Not weather proofed, so blocked by some windows.

Would anybody know where to find 3G signal data relating specifically to windows ?

There are two main coatings used in modern double-glazed windows. One is a tin oxide the other is primarily multiple layers of silver/oxide. All but one of the windows in my house have one type of coating and the remaining window has the other type. As a result I have a significant difference in signal strength (crudely measured by a 3G phone) between different roooms. The window industry would not be aware of this issue.

Building Regs will require windows with progressively lower u-values and this is typically achieved by having coatings on both panes of a double-glazed unit (as oppossed to one pane being coated presently) or using triple-glazing with two coatings. Therefore I would expect the incidence of problems to increase.

I laughed when I heard the contract had been awarded to those clowns. Up until last summer I had 3 mobile broadband and the speed - in West Dublin never mind the back of wherever - was typically worse then my old 56k dial-up. This at a time when I had single-glazed (non-coated) windows. Currently on O2 mobile and signal is usually tolerable.

cowboy1981

dr.quirk wrote: »

Building Regs will require windows with progressively lower u-values and this is typically achieved by having coatings on both panes of a double-glazed unit (as oppossed to one pane being coated presently) or using triple-glazing with two coatings. Therefore I would expect the incidence of problems to increase.

The solution to this is to install a Femtocell inside your house connected to an Ethernet port on your fixed-line Broadband router. This way, you are not dependent on the 3G signals getting through your window and you get fixed line quality Broadband on your mobile devices. Many office buildings already use similar solutions to distribute 3G inside the building. Office buildings with re-inforced concrete and modern high quality double glazing are particularly poor for 3G penetration. Cheap Femtocells for domestic use are not available yet in Ireland, and can only be installed with the co-operation of your mobile operator. Prices elsewhere are getting down to around the $100 level for these devices. (Of course, completely irrelevant for NBS customers, because the NBS has excluded DSL from the contract. )

As you say, double glazing will keep getting better and will inevitably block more wireless signals. Good insulation saves more money on heating bills than using cheap and nasty midband services saves on fixed line bills, so Femtocells are the best long term solution.

bealtine

cowboy1981 wrote: »

The solution to this is to install a Femtocell inside your house connected to an Ethernet port on your fixed-line Broadband router. .

Umm the NBS is designed for areas that can't already get fixed-line broadband and will rely on those "nasty" 3G signals in the first place so femtocells aren't much use:)

The "coverage units" are to boost the 3G signal.
It's all so badly thought out that the whole plan is descending into a farce.

watty

I think he knows this

He is talking about the more general issue of Mobile phone calls inside the energy efficient house NOT in uncovered area:

(Of course, completely irrelevant for NBS customers, because the NBS has excluded DSL from the contract. )

Sponge Bob

I can see the logic for carrier installed femto cells in offices where a lot of their customers are , they make money on termination and origination of calls and would lose that business otherwise...particularly termination

I fail to see how any but the busiest customers would justify one at home. The best Femtocell for home use would be a VoIP ATA with Dect Functionality

watty

We need a way then to redirect an incoming call to a Mobile to VOIP instead. A major problem in these homes is no incoming calls either

Headshot

(hopefully im in the right thread)
taught this might interest ireland offline

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION No. 221

Dail Eireann


To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the speeds that mobile broadband can provide to customers in comparison to standard broadband; if speeds have been agreed with a company (details supplied) as part of their service level agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (Mr E Ryan)



As part of the National Broadband Scheme (NBS) contract, 3 will deliver the following minimum speeds at launch at the edge of cell:

· Minimum download speed will be 1.2 Mbps while the maximum download speed is 5Mbps and
· Minimum upload speed is 200Kbps while the maximum upload speed will be 5Mbps.


These speeds are comparable to what is currently available in the marketplace in urban areas. Additionally, the service will have a contention ratio of 36:1, a latency of 120 milliseconds and a 15 gigabit (12 down, 3 up) inclusive monthly allowance limit.


Under the terms of the contract, the NBS broadband products will be upgraded to higher specifications (speeds, contention and data caps) in July 2010 and October 2012 without any increase in the monthly recurring charge.

In recognition of the fact that some areas will be very difficult to reach using standard infrastructure, 3 will make available a satellite product, which is expected to cover around 5% of the NBS areas. The satellite product will have a minimum download speed of 1Mbps, a minimum upload speed of 128kbps, a maximum contention ratio of 48:1, latency of 800 milliseconds and an 11 gigabit (10 down, 1 up) inclusive monthly allowance limit.

I am satisfied that the NBS will provide speeds comparable with products available in the market for urban areas and greatly assist in bridging the digital divide.