Ericsson Launches World's First IP Base Station System

Ericsson has taken the wraps off the world's first IP (Internet Protocol) wireless base station system. The system, the firm
says, clears the way for the arrival of wireless-specific Internet access devices.

Unveiling the system at the GSM World Congress event in Cannes,
France, today, Ericsson said that, by supporting native IP, carriers
can make more than 40 percent more effective use of the transport
capacity of their networks.

Because many wireless carriers already have an underlying IP
infrastructure to their GSM/PCS (global system for mobile
communications/personal communications services) networks, however,
Ericsson says that its new base station technically allows operators
to upgrade or build their networks to more efficiently handle the
huge traffic increase expected in tomorrow's mobile networks.

The system also offers - for the first time - an IP-based system for
wireless access networks with ensured quality of service for voice and
other real-time sensitive services.

For the technically-minded, the IP-BSS technology incorporates a
real-time wireless optimized implementation of the Differentiated
Services (DiffServ) standard to classify and prioritize traffic.

The firm says that this emerging standard is especially well suited to
the characteristics of wireless access networks, where traffic is well
defined and known.

Ericsson says that the prioritization of traffic in its IP-BSS makes
it possible - in an industry-first - for GSM/PCS base stations to
deliver delay-sensitive services, like voice and videoconferencing,
over IP.

Thanks to this technology, Ericsson says it is now possible to run
data traffic as low-priority traffic across a cellular network, right
alongside high-priority traffic, without any overlap problems.

This feature, the company says, leads to increased flexibility in the
dimensioning of the network and significant transmission savings
compared to current circuit-switched systems, where bandwidth is
usually peak allocated.

In a demonstration shown to attendees at the GSM World Congress today,
Ericsson showed data traffic in the form of graphic illustrations
being sent at a steady rate from Sweden to the Ericsson stand in
Cannes.

Ericsson said that the visitors could then observe how the rate of
transmission of the graphical illustrations slowed slightly, at the
same time as they experienced no delay in the voice quality of their
mobile phone call.

Ericsson's Web site is at http://www.ericsson.se.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com.