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NTT DoCoMo's 4G Tests Hit 300Mbps

haunebu writes "'Your brand-spankin'-new 3G phone is nearing obsolesence: NTT DoCoMo reveals the results from a new 4G test system.' says TheFeature. While in a car moving at 30kph, DoCoMo engineers managed a peak throughput of 300Mbps and a sustained transfer rate of 135Mbps with their new variable spreading factor orthogonal frequency code division multiplexing (WSF-OFCDM) downstream technology. Who comes up with these names, and how does Japan manage to stay lightyears ahead of everyone else in wireless?"

54 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Your brand-spankin'-new 3G phone by Matey-O · · Score: 5, Funny

    'Your brand-spankin'-new 3G phone is nearing obsolesence:'

    Not in America it ain't.

    --
    "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
    1. Re:Your brand-spankin'-new 3G phone by Paulrothrock · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Once I get a few things out of the way (a wedding, for one), I'm going to work with my township to provide fiber-to-the-home service. The electrical and sewer systems need replaced, so this is a perfect time to future-proof our infrastructure while providing incentives for businesses to move here and services for people. Then I can tell Comcast to suck it, like I've been wanting to do for a long, long time.

      --
      I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
    2. Re:Your brand-spankin'-new 3G phone by fshalor · · Score: 2, Funny

      Considering some new cars have a bluetooth integration with the car audio system and cell phones. You sit in yo car, drive arround, say "call billy bob" and the thing rings, through the cell phone in your pocket.

      Now I can bring my laptop, set it in the back seat, and say, "email billy bob file Process-Flow-Diagram-02.pdf " and it will work.

      Cool.

      But aren't we suppsoed to be driving the car. At least for a few more years? :)

      --
      -=fshalor ::this post not spellchecked. move along::
  2. Just what I need... by the_rajah · · Score: 5, Funny

    A cell phone that's equivalent to 87.66234 T-1 lines..

    "Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain

    --


    "Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
  3. their secret is... by Digitus1337 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...that it's a very small island, just put big transmitters on mountantops and you're good to go

    1. Re:their secret is... by mrm677 · · Score: 5, Informative

      ...that it's a very small island, just put big transmitters on mountantops and you're good to go

      Actually this is not funny. The United States is, for the most part, sparsely populated compared to most of Europe and Asia. This is why the U.S. carriers hesitated to adopt GSM in the early 90s, which has a fixed number of supported users/frequency and has a maximum cell size due to being time multiplexed. On the other hand, CDMA is able to create much larger cells at the expense of a higher noise floor (hence less users). It was promised to be better suited to sparsely populated areas, yet still tuneable to suit New York City and etc. Whether or not CDMA IS-95 met those goals is debateable.

      Japan is indeed under less contraints. Their cell sizes are very small meaning the required transmission power is reduced. If anybody ever saw a Japanese PDC phone from 10 years ago, and was blown away at how small it was, this is the explanation.

    2. Re:their secret is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but when a giant lizard (who shall remain nameless) tears down those transmitters every couple of years and they have to be put back up, thats when you see how resourceful the Japanese truely are.

    3. Re:their secret is... by brianjcain · · Score: 4, Informative

      Motorola's GSM base stations offer extended range cells (120km radius) which do implement the coverage density/cell size tradeoff you describe. I'd imagine it might be easier for CDMA to offer a larger set of grades than these do, though.

    4. Re:their secret is... by minairia · · Score: 2, Interesting
      This still doesn't answer why the US is so backwards in mobile. There's no reason why we couldn't have Japanese style mobile networks in the US in dense areas like Florida, New York or Chicago and just expand them out to the less populated areas as time goes on. (Even in Japan, in the far outlying areas, there are places without coverage).

      Basically, US mobile companies and slow, lazy, inefficient and technologically backwards. They don't want to invest in new technology because they don't have to because they jointly control the market as a monopoly and the cost of entering fresh with new technology is way way too high.

      In Japan now, you can have cell phones with four way video conferencing, TV, GPS and a function where you use the phone as an electronic wallet at the store or with vending machines.

      Other than finding new ways to explode things in ever more violent ways, the US is slipping behind the curve. I'm no liberal and have nothing against blasting terrorists, etc. but we're going to have to concentrate on other things as well to keep ahead.

    5. Re:their secret is... by kryonD · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, we are waging a cultural battle that we are never going to win. Most of my friends in Tokyo who are in their 20's and still not married still live with their parents. And they average about 60K in income. Stop and think for a second how many toys you could buy for that kind of cash at the expense of still living with your parents. No place to make out with your girlfriend (I know this is slashdot, but work with me on this...), no problem, just go to a love hotel with the waterfall themed room and only pay $30 for 3 hours of sweet loving. Yes, eventually you'll get married and get a place of your own and be back in the poor house, but by then your tired of having the bleeding edge in fashion and tech and are just happy with something that works. No hurt to the economy as there is a generation of youngsters rolling almost their entire bank into having cell phones that double as credit cards/train tickets/PDAs/TVs/Digital Cameras/Radio telescopes. Just imagine if every young american was buying a new cell phone on an average of every 6 to 12 months....the companies would be forced to innovate to give us something better than we bought 6 months ago or lose us to a competitor who say, already is developing wotking 4G technology.

      --
      I've dirtied my hands writing poetry, for the sake of seduction; that is, for the sake of a useful cause. --Dostoevsky
    6. Re:their secret is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful
      And which the (minor by comparison) exception of pearl harbor they do not carry a history of sensless genecide.
      You have got to be kidding. Americans are so fucking ignorant about world history it makes me weep.
    7. Re:their secret is... by AmericanInKiev · · Score: 3, Informative

      yeah - AC has a point (perhaps 2) here.

      The Japanese were fairly brutal during the war.

      They killed maybe more than hilter and Stalin - mostly east asians, chinese and Koreans

      Nasty.

      My Bad

    8. Re:their secret is... by jonbrewer · · Score: 2, Funny

      Most of my friends in Tokyo who are in their 20's and still not married still live with their parents

      For God's Sake! Would somebody please think of the parents!

  4. The obvious explanation... by kpansky · · Score: 2, Funny

    Who comes up with these names, and how does Japan manage to stay lightyears ahead of everyone else in wireless?

    The obvious explanation for both of these seemingly puzzling questions is of course Pocky.

    --

    --Kevin
  5. WSF-OFCDM? by FreeHeel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't speak Japanese, but shouldn't the acronym for ariable spreading factor orthogonal frequency code division multiplexing be VSF-OFCDM?

    1. Re:WSF-OFCDM? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      valiable spleading factol olthogonal flequency...

  6. Total area to cover by Fiz+Ocelot · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "how does Japan manage to stay lightyears ahead of everyone else in wireless?"

    Simple, smaller area to provide coverage = lower cost. That's why in places like South Korea you can get a LOT of bandwith a whole lot cheaper than here (U.S.).

  7. Concentration by jm92956n · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Might it be partially due to the higher concentration of people? Because the Japanese people live in closer proximity to one another, fewer cell-towers are needed to provide coverage for a comparable amount of people. Therefore, each cell tower can he of higher quality.

    --
    An effective signature identifies a particular user amongst a base of thousands.
  8. WiFi Anyone?? by dukeluke · · Score: 5, Interesting

    After reading this article - it has led me to analyze the benefits of this versus traditional 802.11x and the application of 4G in the broadband arena.

    At a proposed sustained rate of 1G, this technology could revolutionize the Internet as we know it today. And, with more and more bandwidth readily available, there will be better multiplayer games online, as well as streaming on-demand cable-like tv off the Net.

    I understand that the technology is proposed for gadgets such as a phone or wristwatch that can also watch HDTV - but imagine a world where everyone has a video-phone conference & everyone also has a 1G up/down broadband connection :)

    In a word - WOW.

  9. Names by bsd4me · · Score: 4, Informative

    Who comes up with these names...

    Assuming the poster is referring to ``variable spreading factor orthogonal frequency code division multiplexing (WSF-OFCDM) downstream technology'', the name describes exactly how the technology works. Without reading a technical paper on the technology, I don't know the exact details, but I know what it is doing and what it isn't doing.

    --

    (S(SKK)(SKK))(S(SKK)(SKK))

    1. Re:Names by Tenebrious1 · · Score: 2, Funny

      ...variable spreading factor ... (WSF-...

      Is it a typo, or maybe it's supposed to be "Wearable spreading factor"? The Japanese phones are pretty small, it's possible they've sewn it into a shirt collar or something?

      --
      -- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
    2. Re:Names by borroff · · Score: 5, Insightful

      At least physicists have the decency to choose names like "gluons" instead of "strong nuclear force gauge bosons". Unless I'm in the field, neither "gluons" nor "variable spreading factor orthogonal frequency code division multiplexing" is going to mean that much to me, but "gluons" is a lot easier to say.

    3. Re:Names by frenetic3 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Because it was created by a wery talented group of Russian mad scientists.

      -fren

      --
      "Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?"
  10. Population density helps by giliath · · Score: 5, Informative
    Who comes up with these names, and how does Japan manage to stay lightyears ahead of everyone else in wireless
    Part of the reason they are able to stay ahead of everyone else is the density of the country. It is a lot easier to deploy new technologies like this when they don't have to worry about huge land masses like found in China/USA/Russia, and even somewhat in Europe.
  11. Ahem! by orthogonal · · Score: 4, Funny

    their new variable spreading factor orthogonal frequency code division multiplexing (WSF-OFCDM) downstream technology

    This is a lie!

    I had nothing to do with this!

    (And I don't do variable spreading of my factor. And certainly not in a car going 35 mph.)

    (Ok, now that you've laughed at me, "Vote" in my unofficial presidential poll.)

  12. How Japan is "lightyears" ahead of us... by Nerviswreck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Japan is small, The US is huge. Converting the entire japanese network is a meager task compared to converting the entire US network, or even in all the major cities in the US.

    --Nerviswreck

    1. Re:How Japan is "lightyears" ahead of us... by INeededALogin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Japan is not small. 135 million people, many of which with cell phones that would have to be upgraded.

      The country has large cities, but it has 4 large islands that are completely separate. Not to mention the tons of smaller islands and the extreme separation that the different cities have due to mountains.

      I think the reason that Japan is light years ahead of us is probably due to the public's desire for this type of technology. Most Japanese use their cell phones for email and web surfing. They want and will pay for faster technology. People in the United States are... they won't.

    2. Re:How Japan is "lightyears" ahead of us... by mcpkaaos · · Score: 2, Funny

      There's that...

      And then there's the fact that we are still so busy over here trying to monetize email and instant messaging that the wireless train left the station without us. ;\

      --
      It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
  13. Because Cell phones weren't distracting enough by VanWEric · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now we can drive with one knee, eat with one hand and watch /.-The Movie at 90mph.

    There is a race in technology : Things That Distract Drivers vs Things That Replace Drivers (TTDDvTTRD). If automatic nav doesn't catch up, we will all be victims of our own entertainment.

    Cheers!

    --
    www.olin.edu
  14. Bandwidth by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's all very nice, but the real question is: what's the bandiwdth of a station wagon full of telephones barrelling down the highway?

    --

    How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
  15. So let's see... by moehoward · · Score: 5, Funny


    That means that they got....let's see....carry the one...

    135Mb of data through before the battery ran out.

    Pretty good.

    --
    "If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
  16. WSF-OFCDM? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You sure it's not WTF-OFCDM?

  17. Yes Yes.. by Rytr23 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    High speed data is fantastic..but will it prevent me from having dropped calls?

    --
    So many injustices..so little time..
  18. why Japan is lightyears ahead is... by nomad63 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    because the alternative they have, which is to rewire the humongous buildings that they have in the very limited amount of space available.

    Same story with Chine from a different perspective. Wiring the old buildings for phone communications is not feasible fianncially.

    At the end, when alternative is very expensive, people tend to be more creative than what is expected of them. Can be applied to anything, not only wireless or technology...

    --

    __________
    The more I know people, the more I love animals
  19. How do they do it? by pegr · · Score: 2, Funny

    how does Japan manage to stay lightyears ahead of everyone else in wireless?

    Can't tell you how, but why is obvious... You can't run cable through paper walls...

  20. Rehtorical question? by epiphani · · Score: 4, Informative

    how does Japan manage to stay lightyears ahead of everyone else in wireless?

    Might have something to do with the fact that they have 130 Million people in an area slightly smaller than california.

    Lot less area to provide coverage for. Not to mention 26 million people in Tokyo alone, making it the highest density city on the planet.

    --
    .
  21. Japan is not that large... by onion_breath · · Score: 2, Insightful

    how does Japan manage to stay lightyears ahead of everyone else in wireless?

    Because Japan is densely populated on a mall landmass, it's not such a logistical nightmare to have almost all the area covered by high end wireless service. It also can offer a quick market turnaround and a stepping stone into the greater world market.

    --
    this is my sig, be amazed.
  22. Simple, they want the best, we want the values. by blanks · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From what I understand (never been to Japan), everyone wants the best coolest *insert random item here*. People will upgrade their phones and other gadgets every month, and get rid of their old ones.

    In the US (live in US so cant say the same about other countries), yes people will buy the latest greatest, but will keep it for years, how many people do you know that have cellphones that are 2-3 years old.
    People will only upgrade when their gadgets break, or a new technology comes out they really need. so new phones come out slower, and cheaper (cheap = break easy).

    No point in rushing out the newest greatest items when people will allways wait.

    1. Re:Simple, they want the best, we want the values. by Shanep · · Score: 2, Insightful

      People will only upgrade when their gadgets break, or a new technology comes out they really need.

      My GSM phone is going on 7 years old. I keep it because it is a mobile telephone, which works well and has a standby time of about 3 weeks or talk time of about 8 hours. Until I find a phone I can rely on to keep me contactable all day almost guaranteed or until it breaks, I will keep it.

      I don't ever want to go back to the days of having a mobile that cuts out before the business day is over and I'm nowhere near a power outlet.

      I see friends who have these super expensive mobiles that do-it-all, but don't last a day if they listen to some mp3's. Keep your old phone and buy an iPod!

      --
      War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
  23. Re:Eat that DSL and Cable by tux_deamon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, 135 Mbps would prove great for full motion streaming video, but how good will all that porn look on a 1" LCD?

  24. Great. by Snarph · · Score: 2, Funny

    One more feature that will be over-sold and over-priced when it reaches the States.

    I'll be happy if I can just get a working basic connection in the Bay Area (thanks so much, AT&T).

  25. Doppler by bsd4me · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is speeding up like moving farther from your phone company's CO and using DSL? (slower speed)

    The faster you are going means the Doppler effect is more pronounced. Wide Doppler ranges can be a pain to deal with in the receiver.

    --

    (S(SKK)(SKK))(S(SKK)(SKK))

  26. Lightyears ahead of everyone... by raistphrk · · Score: 3, Funny

    how does Japan manage to stay lightyears ahead of everyone else in wireless?

    By protecting their secrets with giant anime robots.

    Either that, or they found some ancient, advanced, lost wireless technology and got a patent on it.

  27. Note: Requires L-O-S to the base station... by Assmasher · · Score: 3, Informative

    It would be nice to mention that before the furor erupts...

    --
    Loading...
  28. Density of wealth amongst populace by Peter+Cooper · · Score: 4, Interesting

    More specifically, financial density. Japan is the world's second biggest economy, with an economy roughly half that of the US, or three times bigger than the UK, but with only double the population of the UK. Money is also more equally spread between the rich and poor in Japan. This leads to a relatively high monetary density country-wide, meaning lots of people who can afford high-end services.

    This would explain why other densely populated counties, like Bangladesh, aren't riding high on the wagon.. it's because Japan is rich, has wealth more fairly disitributed, and has a dense population. Scandinavia also has its wealth more fairly spread between its citizens, and also boasts some of the world's most impressive mass technologies.

  29. As someone who worked with NTT.. by FatPaulie · · Score: 3, Informative

    NTT is a surprisingly large company (now a group of companies), and the bureaucracy of such a company is staggeringly prohibitive to actually getting anything accomplished.

    We tried launching Wireless access there in 2000 and 2001, and the endless meetings and forms were more than discouraging.

    But the real answer to how NTT DoCoMo (a division of the monster) manages to turn around so fast is that their researchers work with cell researchers from KDDI, J-Phone (now Vodafone), and that other one who nobody uses (TUCA).

    Where does all the funding for research come from? Well, in a country of now 135 million people, there are over 80 million cellular subscribers. A good portion of these are also cellular internet users, paying an extra 100 yen here, 100 yen there for different services.

    There is a LOT more income on a monthly basis to Japanese cellular providers than there is in America, or anywhere else in the world.

    The easy bottom line is that all this cash can be thrown at research, and that this research is further supported by companies like National/Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony, etc who make the phones for Japan.

    The average turn-around time in phone ownership in Japan is 9 months. Your $150 top-of-the-line video-camera/mp3/digital still camera/phone is made obsolete in that short span of time. The furthering of technology by DoCoMo/Vodaphone/etc allows the phone manufacturers to move more units.

    The consumer gets new features at the same monthly price (more or less), a new phone to show off to friends, and better service.

    The providers and hardware manufacturers rake in the cash.

    The cycle supports itself, and it makes everyone happy.

    --
    Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible.
  30. Well by cubicledrone · · Score: 2, Insightful

    how does Japan manage to stay lightyears ahead of everyone else in wireless?

    Maybe they don't have risk-averse, office-politics-obsessed middle managers more interested in shitting all over other people's careers than actually building something useful?

    Maybe they have found a way to put capital to work employing people and building new products instead of sitting around a table whining that they might fail.

    First it was cars, then electronics, now animation. So Japan is kicking our ass again? Well boo-fuckin-hoo.

    --
    Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
  31. What VS-OFCDM is by TheSync · · Score: 2, Informative

    VS-OFCDM (variable spreading factor orthogonal frequency AND code division multiplexing) is a special case of MC-CDMA (multi-carrier CDMA).

    CDMA has lots of advantages for ease of frequency-reuse, as you can have a lot of people on the same frequency, but each one spread with different codes.

    OFDM has a lot of resistance against fading (i.e. signal going in and out as you move through diffracted and relected signal peaks and valleys), because you are putting out your signal on a wide range of frequencies. You also get additional frequency diversity from OFDM.

    Put them together by doing CDMA spreading first and OFDMing the result, and as much like in the combination of peanut butter and chocolate that results in peanut butter cups, you get an excellent result!

    This paper and this paper gives some background.

    VS-OFCDM changes the spreading factor adaptively based on cell structure, channel load, radio link conditions, etc.

  32. DoS by milamber3 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't keep up much on mobile phone tech. so this is probably nothing new but with this kind of speed are we likely to see trojaned phones contributing to Spam remailing and DDoS when they start spreading to the masses and incorporating more user friendly software (read exploit friendly)?

  33. magic numbers? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "The company said that the test achieved a maximum downstream data rate of 300Mbps ...
    The frequency bandwidth[s] for the test [are] 100MHz..."


    How do they get 3bits per cycle? Nyquist frequency limits mean 100MHz could optimally carry 50Mbps, not 6 times that in an actual test.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:magic numbers? by muonzoo · · Score: 3, Informative
      How do they get 3bits per cycle? Nyquist frequency limits mean 100MHz could optimally carry 50Mbps, not 6 times that in an actual test.


      Hmm. Perhaps you should consider the technology name. Much like the old quadrature based encodings, the orthogonal nature of the encoding will permit multiple bits per cycle. Othogonal carriers would be independent of one another, and therefore, be something that could be sampled independently.

      Do not confuse what Nyquist has to say about sampling a single signal with the numbers presented. Each orthogonal component is a new axis upon which they can mux a data carrier (in the simplest sense).
    2. Re:magic numbers? by jquirke · · Score: 2, Informative

      I believe you are confusing the Nyquist Theorem with Shannon's Law.

      Shannon's Law states the maximum error free digital bandwidth b bits/s of an a slice of spectrum c Hz wide is:

      b = c.log2(1+s)

      Where s is the signal-to-noise ratio. Thus, in this case, where b=300000000 and c=100000000 s = 7, or 8.5dB, not an unrealistic expectation.

      Of course, no current form of error correction coding approaches the ideal Shannon's Law, however reasonably recently developed Turbo Codes have come reasonably close.

      The sort of modulation/multiplexing technique they would be using is a Wideband CDMA technique, similar to that used by UMTS and CDMA2000 wideband technologies.

      Putting it simply, the bits are mapped onto a constellation in the complex plane which rotates and changes the amplitude of the carrier. The signal is spread using 2 codes - an Orthogonal code which has poor autocorrelation properties (but ideal cross-correlation properties across codes - hence the orthogonal term), and finally a PN sequence which has excellent autocorrelation properties.

      I'm not too familiar with this technology, but I can make some guesses how they might have gained speed improvements over UMTS would be:

      - Very wideband - 100MHz vs 5MHz
      - More precise QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) - UMTS allows upto QPSK (2 bits per symbol) or QAM-16 (4 bits per symbol). Perhaps this technology has extended this QAM-64 (6 bits per symbol).

  34. Channel size is the key by sbraab · · Score: 2, Interesting
    What you never see mentioned is channel size. If you read the article it says that they use a 100MHz wide downlink channel and a 30MHz wide uplink channel. When you consider that in the US current cellular channels run between 1.25 and 5MHz wide and the carriers usually don't have more than 25MHz per market it doesn't seem to make economic sense.

    What you really need to look for in radio technology is spectral efficiency or bits per hertz per second. When you do the math this isn't that great of a technology, it just uses big channels.

  35. Re:What it means by IncohereD · · Score: 2, Informative

    Orthoganal seems superfluous to me - Essentially it says that the code patterns will be chosen so that no two transmitters overlap (for lack of a better laymans explanation).

    Are you sure you know what OFDM is? It basically involves overlapping signals on a series of overlapping frequencies, but with different intensities at different frequencies. And each channels set of intensities is orthagonal to each other. Which makes the 'O' decidely non-redundant, as this is hardly traditional FDMA. Think of it as CDMA peformed on an FFT.

    Your description of CDMA left a little to be desired as well, but its hard to express laymanwise, I agree.