[IP] Intel-led alliance stirs angst over future wireless spec
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 1, 2005 7:42:16 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Intel-led alliance stirs angst over future
wireless spec
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Intel-led alliance stirs angst over future wireless spec
Patrick Mannion
(08/31/2005 10:45 AM EDT)
URL: <http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=170102117>
MANHASSET, N.Y. — Intel has convinced fellow chip makers Broadcom,
Atheros and Marvell to join forces outside of an IEEE wireless LAN
group to develop an interoperable physical and media access control
(MAC) layer scheduled to be presented for IEEE acceptance by November.
By working independently of the IEEE's 802.11n next-generation task
group, Intel has angered task group members who accuse the Intel-led
alliance of everything from co-opting the IEEE process to outright
antitrust violations that could draw Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
scrutiny.
Suspicions have been amplified by the PC-centric nature of the
alliance as well as the secretive approach the group has taken,
including the signing of nondisclosure agreements. The omission of
Airgo Networks Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.) from the alliance has also
fueled accusations that the alliance is trying to offset Airgo’s
competitive advantage.
Airgo is the only company shipping a multiple input, multiple output
(MIMO) product. All agree that MIMO will be integral to whatever spec
comes out of the 802.11n group,. Airgo is claiming a two-year
advantage over competitors.
Intel's gambit comes at a critical time for the task group who's
members are under customer pressure to complete next-generation WLAN
implementations by early next year. Continued pressure from
proliferating ultrawideband (UWB) options for video only add to the
pressure.
The two groups backing proposals before the IEEE agreed to merge
their efforts last July. They are working under a November deadline
to complete a converged proposal. The groups are: WWiSE, which is led
by chip makers Broadcom, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics and
Airgo; and TGnSynch, led by Intel, Agere, Atheros and Marvell.
“It’s now a two-horse race to November,” said George Elantis, an
engineering manager at STMicroelecronics (San Jose, Calif.),
referring to the similar timelines the IEEE task group and the Intel-
led alliance have set. “This [outside alliances] has been tried
before, and while they say it’s to speed things up, I’m not
convinced. But you can’t prevent it from happening,” he said.
Airgo President Greg Raleigh agreed that the Intel move would further
delay the standards process.
Elantis also worries that the new alliance would not cater to core
customers — namely, handset manufacturers — given its PC focus. Anuj
Batra, a member of the technical staff at Texas Instruments, said he
spoke with Intel about the plan and remains neutral. “We’ve taken a
look . . . and we’re not in favor or against it,” he said.
"We would prefer an IEEE specification,” he added, which is important
for the range of applications TI is targeting. Asked about antitrust
accusations leveled against Intel in response to formation of the
alliance, Batra responded, “Antitrust is always a concern.”
Intel, Atheros and Broadcom declined to comment, but Paramesh Gopi,
general manager of Marvell Semiconductor Inc.’s Embedded and Emerging
Business Unit (Sunnyvale, Calif.), defended the group’s approach. “We
need to standardize on the codings and the basic elements of the MAC
so that we have interoperability between all the silicon players and
[achieve] some level of convergence into the specifications so we
don’t have to keep stalling it and delaying it for commercial
deployment," Gopi said.
The goal, he added, is to develop a baseline specification for
laptops that allows them to implement a basic 2x3 or 4x4 MIMO system.
"Keep in mind that we want the flexibility to discuss multicast and
network and application-level interoperability to keep it
extensible,” Gopi said. Extensibility will eventually include low-
power modes for handsets. “Whatever gets done in the handset will
probably fall out of what we’re doing here. We can’t alienate these
guys as they’ll be the main drivers.”
While conceding that Airgo succeeded in its current implementation
which is shipping in routers from Linksys and D-Link, Gopi said he
views Airgo's approach as a dead end. “Airgo has no notion of how to
implement a handset, they’ve never done one,” he said. “When you’re
trying to build a standard that’s going to be far reaching and go
into many platforms, you have to get out of the retail mindset and be
a little more charitable and think of a platform that’s has to extend.”
While many claim the alliance is delaying a spec and will lead to
nonstandard silicon, Gopi disagreed. "The same guys that go to the
IEEE meetings are part of this alliance. We can’t go and build a
Broadcom, Intel, Atheros, Marvell solution without it being blessed
by the IEEE — no one is going to accept that,” he said.
Alliance members continue to drive the specification within the IEEE,
he added." If the four silicon vendors can’t get together and decide
on interoperabilty and make the right tradeoffs, we’ll be bogged down
by a standards process which is unforgiving in terms of time. We
might as well get it settled offline. It in no way slows down the
standards process.”
The secretive nature of the discussions enables the free flow of
ideas within the alliance without fear of intellectual property being
compromised, said Gopi. “We don’t want to get stuck in any legal
issues with anyone."
[snip]
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/