Wireless data prices fall, usage booms

Mobile data traffic ramped up between four- and eightfold in 2007 thanks to the knockout combination of dramatically decreasing prices and faster network downlink speeds, according to a report from Heavy Reading.

The surge in data traffic is extremely good news for operators, but the challenge they now face is how to withstand the reductions in data prices without destroying their business models and becoming mere bit-pipe providers.

In 2007, an eightfold increase in data traffic compared with 2006 levels was common for mobile operators that introduced competitive flat-rate data plans and weren't carrying much data traffic prior to the deployment of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) technology, according to the report, "Flat IP Architectures in Mobile Networks: From 3G to LTE."

For operators with a lot of pre-HSPA 3G data traffic and without competitive flat-rate data plans, three- and fourfold increases in data traffic in 2007 were common.

Gabriel Brown, Heavy Reading senior analyst and the report's author, says it' is "no wonder that data usage is growing because performance is getting better and prices are coming down. 2007 was the breakthrough year. You're getting 1 Mbit/s to 2 Mbit/s downlink routinely, and prices have come down massively."

According to Brown's report, data traffic volumes at Telefónica O2 Europe plc doubled every quarter in 2007 after it launched a one Euro ($1.59) per day flat-rate service using USB modems in Spain. And T-Mobile International AG recorded a 57 percent increase in 3G data volumes in the third quarter last year compared with the previous three-month period.

Brown stresses that the increase in mobile data usage is primarily due to lower tariffs -- prices declined more than 300 percent in 2007, according to the report.

Now operators have to decide how low they can take their prices, and how they deal with the impact of the data surge on their business plans and strategies. "Mobile operators are essentially becoming ISPs," says Brown. "They are going down the bit-pipe road. They don't want to do that, particularly, but what should they do?"

In Europe, the price competition is most aggressive in markets where 3 Group is present, such as Austria, Italy, Sweden, and the U.K. 3 shook up the U.K. market in August last year with a £10 ($20) per month offer for a USB mobile broadband service.

The operator is reportedly ready to cut that offer by 50 percent to £5 ($10) per month.

Original article

133 Million WiMAX Users by 2012

The WiMAX Forum announced it projects more than 133 million WiMAX users globally by 2012. The forecast is based on the results of an independently commissioned research study to be published in April 2008. Additional data from the study estimates that approximately 70 percent of the forecasted WiMAX users by 2012 will utilize mobile and portable WiMAX devices to access broadband Internet services.

The report entitled, WiMAX Forum Worldwide Subscriber and User Forecasts, examines the progress of WiMAX service providers, equipment vendors, content developers and users in regions around the world. The preliminary results released at CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas reflect the accelerated growth of the WiMAX ecosystem, the acceptance of WiMAX technology and demand for mobile Internet services across the world.

"WiMAX is here now and is the catalyst in the global marketplace to grow demand for mobile broadband Internet access," said Ron Resnick, president of the WiMAX Forum. "This new subscriber and user forecast is a solid proof point of the future growth of the thriving mobile Internet ecosystem and presents reasonable predictions of the positive progress our industry is working to achieve."

According to the study, a key driver of WiMAX subscriber and user growth will be the ambitious adoption of WiMAX technology in specific regions, including Asia Pacific and the Americas, where WiMAX technology is anticipated to be the leading technology selected to deliver broadband Internet access to a greater geography of these regional populations.

Further signifying the rapid growth of the WiMAX ecosystem, the first Mobile WiMAX Certified products are expected to achieve certification in Q2 2008. This milestone will foster additional growth for the more than 260 service providers deploying WiMAX services in 110 countries worldwide. The WiMAX Forum estimates that by 2011 there will be more than 1,000 Mobile WiMAX Forum Certified products found throughout the world.

New WIPS from Aruba

Aruba Networks, a global leader in user-centric networks and secure mobility solutions, today announced a new version of its RFprotect Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (WIPS) software that allows users to define their own attack-detection signatures and defend against previously unknown, undisclosed, or unpatched vulnerabilities (zero-day attacks). These user-defined signatures can be implemented almost immediately, enhancing security and giving users more control over their threat vulnerability. All other wireless intrusion prevention systems require the supplying vendor to provide updates, leaving customers vulnerable in the meantime when a new attack is developed.

In addition, Aruba customers will be able to make their user-defined signatures available to others by contributing them to the Wireless Vulnerabilities and Exploits (WVE) database at www.wve.org, a community vulnerabilities database. Aruba has long been an active participant in the WVE Project.

"Security is an unending, iterative process in which the best defense is built by rapidly integrating updates about real or potential attacks as quickly as possible," said Rajeev Shah, Aruba's wireless IDS product manager. "User-defined threat definitions are used successfully in other segments of the security market, and we're pleased to be the first to make it available for WIPS."

The new software represents the full integration of the RFprotect software that Aruba acquired from Network Chemistry in 2007. RFprotect software automatically detects network vulnerabilities and contains unauthorized clients and adhocs even as they roam. With its customizable security policies, RFprotect software delivers organization-specific security policy enforcement, reduces false positives, and generates reports to meet compliance requirements.

Originally acquired from Network Chemistry in 2007, RFprotect software automatically detects network vulnerabilities and contains unauthorized clients and adhocs even as they roam. Featuring customizable security policies, RFprotect software delivers organization-specific security policy enforcement, reduces false positives, and generates reports to meet compliance requirements. The new RFprotect software has been integrated into Aruba's secure mobility solutions to enhance Layer 1-2 security capabilities.

"It is important that interval between the detection of a security threat and its mitigation be as short as possible because of the vulnerability created by the gap," said Paul DeBeasi, senior analyst at Burton Group. "Collaboratively developing, testing, and disseminating security features, including user-defined signatures, can minimize the vulnerability more rapidly than relying on a single vendor for periodic updates. This method has been used effectively in areas such as virus detection, and is an innovative way to enhance WIPS security."

The new RFprotect software will be shipping early this summer, and will be introduced at Interop Las Vegas, April 29 May 1, booth 1262, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

802.11n for Enterprise

Enterprise equipment developers have done their research and are incorporating additional technologies into 802.11n equipment and by doing so should garner some impressive wireless network performance characteristics:

1. The physical data rate selection algorithm (whew) has the tough job of determining what data transfer rate should be used based on the measured signal strength. 802.11a/g uses 12 steps from 1Mbps to 54Mbps. Whereas 802.11n has a total of 88 incremental data rate steps, which provides a more granular drop off when the signal strength weakens.
2. 802.11a/g uses transmit diversity which is useful and logical as the device transmits from the antenna that displayed the best reception characteristics during the last receive cycle. 802.11n uses spatial multiplexing, a technique that divides the information to be transmitted into independent and separately encoded data signals called streams. Each data stream is then transmitted from an independent antenna. The 802.11n standard allows up to four transmit streams. This is an interesting concept that increases data transmission capacity by multiplexing or reusing the space dimension multiple times.
   
3. In order to be able to transmit multiple data streams, designers had to rework OFDM, which is the digital multi-carrier modulation scheme used by 802.11a/g. MIMO-OFDM used by 802.11n devices is the results. MIMO-OFDM is viewed by many as the most singularly significant development of 802.11n.
4. 802.11a/g networks do not work well in multipath environments as I discussed in an earlier post. Basically having multiple—slightly different in phase or timing due to the environment—copies of the same transmitted RF signal arrive at the receiving antenna, drives the receiver nuts to put it politely. Since the real world is mostly a multipath environment, 802.11n was developed to make use of the slight differences exhibited by the arriving RF signals to distinguish the different data streams being transmitted.
   
5. Channel size is one determinant of how much data can be passed over a wireless link. The 802.11a/g standard uses 20 MHz channels and history has proven that amount of bandwidth to be a limiting factor. In the past few years equipment developers have tried to improve the physical transfer rate of data by using proprietary technology which combined adjacent channels to support greater data rates. The 802.11n standard describes how to use the much wider 40 MHz channels—that are easy to implement, cost effective, and only require moderate increases in digital signal processing. If properly implemented, 40-MHz channels can provide greater than two times the usable channel bandwidth.
6. By design, TCP/IP traffic requires error-free transmission of data and one of the controls used to regulate the processing of traffic is the ACK bit. The ACK bit is sent by the receiver to acknowledge receipt of each frame, which turns out to be significant management overhead just for receipt verification. One way to improve throughput would be to devise a way to acknowledge the receipt but more efficiently. That is exactly what 802.11n does with the Block-ACK. By removing the need for one acknowledgment frame for every data frame, the amount of overhead required for the ACK frames, as well as preamble and framing, is reduced.
7. No stone was unturned when the developers were looking at ways to improve throughput and efficiency. Even the lowly guard interval was tweaked. The guard interval is used to prevent data loss from propagation anomalies as well as interference created if the following transmission starts too soon. Can that interval be reduced? It would help throughput, even if just slightly. 802.11n specifies two guard intervals 400ns and 800ns. If optimal conditions exist the 802.11n device will drop down to the 400ns guard interval to reduce what is considered unnecessary idle time.

The 802.11n equipment developers are not satisfied with just these improvements. Smart antennas, multiple radios, and mesh technology are some heavy duty technologies that are being added to enterprise 802.11n appliances, which will allow 802.11n gear to evermore approach wired network parameters.

WLAN spectrum analysis from AirDefence

AirDefense has released a new version of its wireless intrusion-prevention software for enterprise wireless LANs, which adds an optional software application for analysing and troubleshooting the physical layer of enterprises' wireless environments.

The 7.3 version of AirDefense Enterprise can use two Wi-Fi radio frequencies, 2.4 and 5GHz, to detect possible interference from Bluetooth devices, microwave ovens or other radios. The new software program works with the vendor's existing radio sensors, analyses the data it collects from them, and displays the results.
Also new is a centralised management console that spans scores of AirDefense appliances. In the past, each appliance was managed by its own console.

AirDefense also introduced three appliance models: replacements for its existing low-end and midrange servers, managing up to 150 and 500 sensors respectively; and a new high-end device, with redundant hard drives and power supplies, that can manage at least 37,000 active wireless devices.

Additionally, the vendor's existing optional Advanced Forensics application has been updated so that it can analyse traffic patterns and radio behaviour (325 variables in all) over much longer periods of time, now months or even years.

Spectrum analysis traditionally has been the domain of specialised and often expensive tools. They can be more or less portable devices, used for personally scanning a specific location, or sensor systems that blanket a site and constantly monitor the air waves.

Airdefense's archrival AirMagnet introduced spectrum analysis in its intrusion-prevention software in 2006. That was based on an OEM deal with Cognio for its Spectrum Expert product. Cisco bought Cognio in 2007 and rebranded the product.

AirDefense decided to write its own spectrum-analysis software that could exploit the data collected by its existing radio sensors.

Other changes include new code that can pull information about devices on a Cisco WLAN from Cisco's WLAN controllers. A new tool called Device Manager creates a table-based view of information on devices in a given area, such as all access points assigned to channel six.

A starter AirDefense Enterprise 7.3 kit begins at US$8,000 (£4050) for one appliance, software, and five sensors. Each additional sensor is $995 (£500). The Spectrum Analysis module costs $195 (£100) per sensor; the Advanced Forensics module is also $195 per sensor.

See more info here