Beijing 2008: The First 4G Wireless Olympic Games
About half a million years ago, Peking man lived in
Zhoukoudian, in the southwestern suburbs of what is now Beijing. If you have
been to Beijing more recently, or are at all familiar with modern China, then
you know this ancient city is going to host the most modern, high-tech Olympic
Games ever in 2008. With technology available today, and a vision for what
Beijing could be in 2008, there is an opportunity for the hosts to make the
city’s telecommunications infrastructure--in the words of the Olympic motto —
"swifter, higher, stronger". The Path to 4G Beijing has the good
fortune of looking at previous generations of wireless networks and avoiding the
same mistakes as it prepares for 2008. First Generation (1G) wireless
telecommunications — the brick-like analog phones that are now collector’s
items—introduced the cellular architecture that is still being offered by most
wireless companies today. Second Generation (2G) wireless supported more users
within a cell by using digital technology, which allowed many callers to use the
same multiplexed channel. But 2G was still primarily meant for voice
communications, not data, except some very low data-rate features, like Short
Messaging Service (SMS). So-called 2.5G allowed carriers to increase data rates
with a software upgrade at the base transceivers Stations (BTS), as long as
consumers purchased new phones too. Third Generation (3G) wireless offers the
promise of greater bandwidth, basically bigger data pipes to users, which will
allow them to send and receive more information. All of these
architectures, however, are still cellular. Cellular architecture is sometimes
referred to as a "star architecture’, because users within that cell access a
common, centralized base station. The advantage is that given enough time and
money, carriers can build nationwide networks, which most of the big carriers
have done. Some of the disadvantages include a singular point of failure, no
lead balancing, and spectral inefficiencies. The single biggest disadvantage to
cellular networks going forward is that as data rates increase, output power
will have to increase—or the size of the cells win have to decrease—to support
those higher data rates. Since significant increases in output power scare both
consumers and regulators, it is far more likely that we will see significantly
smaller cells. This will further reduce the return on investment in already
fragile 3G business plans. Fourth Generation (4G) wireless was
originally conceived by the Defense Advanced Research projects Agency (DARPA),
the same organization that developed the wired Internet. It is not surprising,
then, that DARPA chose the same distributed architecture for the wireless
Internet that had proven so successful in the wired Internet. Although experts
and policymakers have yet to agree on all the aspects of 4G wireless, two
characteristics have emerged as all but certain components of 4G:end-to-end
Internet Protocol (IP) ,and peer-to-peer(点对点)networking. An all IP network makes
sense because consumers will want to use the same data applications they are
used to in wired networks. Peer-to-peer networks, where every device is both a
transceiver (收发机) and a router (路由器) for other devices in the network,
eliminates the weakness of cellular architectures, because the elimination of a
single node does not disable the network. The final definition of "4G" will have
to include something as simple as this: if a consumer can do it at home or in
the office while wired to the Internet, that consumer must be able to do it
wirelessly in a fully mobile environment. Let’s define "4G" as
"wireless collaborated peer-to-peer networking". 4G technology is significant
because users joining the network add mobile routers to the network
infrastructure. Because users carry much of the network with them, network
capacity and coverage is dynamically shifted to accommodate changing user
patterns. As people congregate and create pockets of high demand, they also
create additional routes for each other, thus enabling additional access to
network capacity. Users will automatically hop away from congested routes to
less congested routes. This permits the network to dynamically and automatically
self-balance capacity, and increase network utilization. What could 4G mean
for Beijing and its Olympics There is a Statistic (without any
known attribution) that estimates that the first phone call made by a majority
of Chinese alive today was with a cell phone. This would mean that most Chinese
skipped a whole generation of telephony (copper twisted pair) and jumped into
the world of wireless telephony. So too might the Chinese skip a generation of
wireless and deploy a 4G network before 2008. Following are a few applications
that could further enhance the Olympic experience, both for the visitors during
the Games, and for the residents of Beijing long
afterwards. Security Beijing has already deployed
cameras throughout the city and sends those images back to a central command
center. This is generally done using fiber, which limits where the cameras can
be hung, i.e., no fiber, no camera. 4G networks allow Beijing to deploy cameras
and backhaul(回传) them wirelessly. And instead of having to backhaul every
camera, cities can backhaul every third or fifth or tenth camera, using the
other cameras as router/repeater. Traffic Control Beijing is
a challenging city for drivers, with or without an Olympics going on. The
growing middle class, and their new-found ability to purchase automobiles, is
increasing the number of passenger vehicles on the road at a staggering annual
rate of 30%. 4G networks can connect traffic control boxes to intelligent
transportation management systems wirelessly, This would create a traffic grid
that could change light cycle times on demand, e.g. , keeping some lights green
longer temporarily to improve traffic flow. It also could make vehicle-based
on-demand "all green" routes for emergency vehicles responding to traffic
accidents, reducing the likelihood that those vehicles will themselves be
involved in an accident route. Hot Spots Beijing
could deploy information kiosks(亭)around the city to allow visitors to the
Olympics to get real- time information on results, venue updates, and traffic
conditions. They could, be backhauled to the Internet via existing cable or DSL.
But they could also be home to 802.11 access points, providing free information
to any- one with an 802.11 card. And with 4G’s peer-to-peer capabilities, the
city could deploy access points even where there is no fiber, by having those
"remote" access points hop through backhauled access points. Mobile Hot
Spots To exploit the real power of 4G, Beijing could create
mobile hot spots. This would allow users in the sub- ways, trains, and buses to
connect to the Internet via standard 802.11 cards talking to standard 802.11
access points. But since those access points obviously cannot be wired to the
network, they are connected via 4G wireless networks. Conclusion
Heating an Olympic Games is, well, an Olympian task. Modern China is more
than up to the challenge and it is safe to predict that Beijing 2008 will be one
of the most impressive Games of all times. But one other way to measure the
success of the Games is the impact it has on the host city after the torch is
extinguished. By deploying a 4G mobile broadband network for the Games, Beijing
will ensure that its residents will enjoy profound and lasting benefits. Whether Beijing 2008 is successful or not can be ascertained by ______ on Beijing after it is over.