November 30, 2005

A wireless industry group known as the FLO Forum said the forward link-only (FLO) air-interface specification, which proscribes protocols used over the airwaves between the FLO network and a FLO device, has been ratified.

The FLO Forum said technical requirements captured in the AIS form a basis for compatibility standardization for FLO- based terrestrial mobile multimedia multicast systems. FLO is a trademark of Qualcomm Inc.

"Most industry-driven technologies move toward open access to encourage global adoption," said Albert Lin, director of Research for American Technology Research.

"The publication of the AIS for FLO technology is a significant step towards the standardization effort while highlighting the type of crucial role the forum plays for all interested parties."

The AIS includes a complete description of the physical layer, which uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing and advanced forward error-correction techniques.

It also includes a complete description of the stream/control and media access control layers, which multiplex a multiplicity of simultaneous multimedia services into logical units distinguishable at the radio interface layer.

The specification enables the delivery of multiple, multimedia streams over the standard TV channel allocation bandwidths while ensuring fast service acquisition, robust performance in mobile fading links, and low receiver power consumption.

The AIS, the first technical specification produced by the FLO Forum, will be forwarded to standards development organizations for inclusion in new standards that address the delivery of terrestrial mobile multimedia multicast services to mobile devices.

"The Air Interface Specification forms the foundation for future advances in FLO technology," said Dr. Kamil Grajski, president of the FLO Forum.

"Our member companies collaborated to produce a technical specification that is ready for submission to global standardization bodies."

Source: RCR