Cisco to drive standards for broadband wireless Internet services

BANGALORE: Cisco Systems Inc. has announced that it was joining forces with ten companies to drive open standards for broadband wireless Internet services. Founding partners in this wireless standards-based partnership include Motorola, Broadcom Corp, Texas Instruments, Samsung, Toshiba, Pace Micro Technology, Bechtel Telecommunications, KPMG, LCC International and EDS.

This technology delivers two-way, voice and video communications over the air to both homes and businesses, enabling speedy services. "Cisco's goal is to bring the Internet revolution to as many people as possible, and our new wireless technology and partners will play a key role. With a global team of silicon, consumer electronics and services partners we will bring innovative new access options to our customers," said Cisco executive vice president Don Listwin.

According to a company press release, the ecosystem of partners will work to standardize the Media Access Control (MAC) and leading-edge wireless Vector Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VOFDM) Physical Layer that enables robust, cost-effective, interoperable wireless solutions to be offered by multiple vendors. By establishing an open ecosystem of partners that include low-cost Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) suppliers and integrated chip suppliers, Cisco will facilitate the production of an open standard broadband wireless solution with multiple supply sources. The wireless technologies developed by Cisco and its partners are based on VOFDM technologies, The VOFDM systems are powered by a suite of next generation Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) and ultra-high speed programmable digital signal processors (DSP) provided by Broadcom Corp and Texas Instruments, respectively.