High-bandwidth interface for multimedia communications over fixed wireless systems

Over the past two decades, cable television has largely supplanted over-the-air broadcast as a TV distribution medium. Several years ago, enterprising companies concluded that they could leverage the extremely wide bandwidth of cable TV systems required to deliver broadcast-quality television as a high-speed conduit for broadband data communications. This led to the birth of the cable modem. Early cable-modem equipment was vendor proprietary, so interoperability between different vendors' products was largely nonexistent. To promote interoperability, Cable Labs (the cable TV industry research arm) developed the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS 1.0), an IP-centric, point-to-multipoint standard that quickly replaced the proprietary solutions that preceded it. DOCSIS has now become the accepted cable standard. The newly released DOCSIS 1.1 is destined to play an important role in the delivery of high-quality multimedia across fixed wireless communications networks. With this approach, we can take advantage of all the DOCSIS technology modules that exist in the market today, allowing the wireless platform to migrate toward emerging services such as Internet protocol multicasting and voice over IP (VoIP). We describe the state of current technologies that have made fixed-wireless access a viable and compelling choice. We also discuss some emerging technologies that will bring exciting new fixed-wireless services and capabilities into homes and small businesses in the near future.