If necessity is the mother of innovation, the impact of data on wireless networks is going to be the driver for our near future. Steve Perlman and Antonio Forenza of Reardon have rocked the boat of wireless technology with a Distribute In Distribute Out (DiDo) solution.

DiDo is a way to maximize the data rate of wireless spectrum. Many members of the community are looking for proof of their claims. Their white paper can be found here. 

My RF engineering talent is not the best in the world, so I am not going to do the paper justice, but let us talk in general about what the paper says and what the possible implications are from my perspective. 

The paper is about a way to stop channelizing the spectrum at a macro level to eliminate the impact of Shannon’s Law. Per Wikipedia, the law is more correctly known as the Shannon-Hartley theorem, which tells the maximum rate at which information can be transmitted over a communications channel of a specified bandwidth in the presence of noise. In other words, it explains why, when sharing spectrum with other signals, the bandwidth is reduced by the interference of others. Simply stated, two users divide the bandwidth and three users get a third, etc.

With voice, the transmission and shaping of the traffic was optimized for the way people talk -- one voice path at a time. Problems occurred in traveling across cell sites, but the nature of the traffic was more predictable. Data is bursty and at the same time has a number of signaling methods that are chatty and inefficient (e.g, Keep Alives). In San Jose recently, we talked to InterDigital (News - Alert), which optimized themselves to reduce this chatty traffic.

As I understand it, DiDo takes the approach that rather than managing the channel problem from the perspective of the radio signal, the system stacks the traffic into a consistent channel and uses micro channels to communicate with the specific clients. 

Conceptually this is similar to to the way Ethernet works, where the system enables the collective participants to all be on the same bandwidth, but to only pay attention to their own traffic needs. 

While WiFi (News - Alert) has the privilege of being listed as an Ethernet derivative, the radio side has not been designed that way.

In the white paper, the suggestion is made that the DiDo devices include a concentrator that distributes the signals to the various websites. In theory, this logically ends up at the MSC with cellular but could be at any aggregation point on the network.

The discussion of the system compares it to WiFi delivering video, but I believe it would be a welcome solution for White Space (SuperWiFi). Video content is certainly dominating the use case these days, and I have always contended that the independent TV stations should embrace their opportunities to use White Space for local ISP services. Often they are the only outlet for local advertising and promotion. Additionally, past statements from Google (News - Alert) about finding more direct communication paths between their cloud service and their users might benefit from such a system.

Friends of mine that have the skill to look at this and some of the patent work are holding this paper somewhat suspect. While some aspects are plausible, the sketchy descriptions give rise to concern. However, I am certain that there is more necessity out there than I can see, and who knows what innovation it shall mother.

Want to learn more about M2M technologies? Then be sure to check out the M2M Evolution conference, collocated with TMC’s (News - Alert) ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. The M2M Evolution Conference is for those industry professionals interested in capitalizing on a rapidly growing segment of the telecom industry. The M2M Evolution Conference embraces the any-to-any strategy of the Internet today. Co-sponsored by TMC Partner Crossfire Media, it showcases the solutions, and examines the data strategies and technological requirements that enterprises and carriers need to capitalize on a market segment that is estimated to grow to $300 Billion in the year ahead. To register, click here.