http://www.vtsociety.org
Vehicular Technology Society News
Vol. 50, No. 4 issn 1068 5731
December 2003

High Altitude Platforms forCommunications Services
Comparing Hybrid and Fuel Cell
Systems to IC Engines
future.wireless@mobilevce.com

Equipped with an experimental fuel cellsystem to allow night time flight, thesolar-electric Helios Prototype flying
wing soars over Pacific. Tim Tozer
discusses such High Altitude Platforms
on page 4. (Photo NASA)

Contents
2 VTS Directory
3 Foreword
20 Joint Rail Conference
21 Automotive Electronics
23 Mobile Radio
31 VTC2004-Spring: Towards a Global
Wireless World
34 Standards
37 Transportation Systems
40 Chapter News and Meetings
41 News
41 VTS Board of Governors Meeting &Teleconferences
42 Calendar of Events
43 Call for Papers
44 VTC2004-FallVehicular Technology Society Directory
Executive Committee

Board of Governors

President, Charles Backof

Charles Backof (’04)
President
Motorola
8000 W. Sunrise Blvd.
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33322
Tel: 1 954 723 6152
Fax: 1 954 723 6957
EPOR16@email.mot.com

Executive Vice President,
Dennis Bodson
Vice President Mobile Radio,
Eric J. Schimmel
Vice President Motor Vehicles,
Robert A. Mazzola
Vice President Land Transportation, Harvey M. Glickenstein
Treasurer, George F. McClure
Secretary, Tracy Fulghum
Ericsson, Inc.
7001 Development Drive
Post Office Box 13969
Research Triangle ParkNC 27709
Tel: 1 919 472 6747
Fax: 1 919 472 6988
tracy.fulghum@ericsson.com

Transactions
Greg Bottomley
Ericsson Inc
7001 Development Dr
RTP, NC 27709
Tel: 1 919 472 7253
Fax: 1 919 472 6555
bottoml@rtp.ericsson.se
Propagation Committee
David Michelson
University of British Columbia
EL Department
30500 Mound Rd
Warren, MI 48090-9055
Tel: 1 604 985 0214
Fax: 1 604 985 0268
dmichelson@ieee.org
Conference Coordinator
Glenda McClure
1730 Shiloh Lane
Winter Park, FL 32789
Tel: 1 407 657 6419
gmcclure@cfl.rr.com

VTS News Staff
Editor-in-Chief
James M. Irvine
Mobile Comms Group, EEEStrathclyde University
George Street
Glasgow G1 1XW SCOTLAND
Tel: +44 141 548 4072
Fax: +44 141 552 4968
j.m.irvine@ieee.org
Senior Editors
Standards
Dennis Bodson
Executive Vice President
2

Dennis Bodson (’04) Executive
VP, Standards Committee
233 N. Columbus St.
Arlington, VA 22203
Tel: 1 703 243 3743
Fax: 1 703 522 4342
bodsond@worldnet.att.com
J. R. Cruz (A), Past President
The University of Oklahoma
School of Elec & Comp Eng
202 West Boyd, Room 219
Norman, OK 73019-0631
Tel: 1 405 325 4280
Fax: 1 405 325 3836
jcruz@ou.edu
Mark Ehsani (’05)
Electric Vehicles, Convergence
Fellowship
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843
Tel: 1 979 845 7582
Fax: 1 979 862 1976
ehsani@ee.tamu.edu
Robert L. French (’03) IEEEITS Council Representative
R&D. French Associates
6137 Tuliptree Lane
Nashville, TN 37221
Tel: 1 615 673 6211
Fax: 1 615 673 0311
r.french@ieee.org
Harvey M. Glickenstein (A)VP Land Transportation
PB Transit & Rail Sys., Inc.
3334 Adams Court
Bensalem, PA 19020
Tel: 1 973 565 4820
Fax: 1 973 824 3140
h.glickenstein@ieee.org
James M. Irvine (’05)
VTS News Editor
Contact details below

A. Kent Johnson (A)Past President
Brigham Young University
1225 East Cambridge Court
Provo, UT 84602
Tel: 1 801 378 3726
Fax: 1 801 378 7575
a.k.johnson@ieee.org
Mel Lewis (A)Fairleigh Dickinson University
1000 River Rd
Teaneck NJ 07666
Tel: 1 201 692 2348
m.lewis@ieee.org
Roger Madden (’05)
PB Farradyne
605 Suwannee Street MS 90
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0450
Tel: 1 850 410 5610
Fax: 1 850 410 5501
r.madden@ieee.org
Tadashi Matsumoto (’04)
Center for WirelessCommunications
University of Oulu
Tutkijantie 2E, FIN-90014,
FinlandTel: 358 400 697 1682
Fax: 358 8 553 2845
tadashi.matsumoto@ee.oulu.fi
Robert A. Mazzola (’03) VP
Motor Vehicles, Convergence
Conference, SAE Liaison,Long Range Planning
6101 Pelican Bay Blvd.
#1602
Naples,Florida 34108.
Tel: 1 231 378 4722
robertmazzola@comcast.net
George F. McClure (’03) Treasurer, Public Relations/ Publicity Committee Chair
1730 Shiloh Lane
Winter Park, FL 32789
Tel: 1 407 647 5092
Fax: 1 407 644 4076
g.mcclure@ieee.org

13017 Chestnut Oak Drive
Gaithersburg
MD 20878-3556
Tel: 1 301 926 2837
Fax: 1 301 926 2506
mccon@compuserve.com
Tom Rubinstein (’05)
Webmaster, Conference site
selection, New member liaison
Motorola
9980 Carroll Canyon Road
P. O. Box 85036
San Diego, CA 92186-9130
Tel: 1 858 530 8432
Fax: 1 858 530 8313
cegr01@email.mot.com
Eric J. Schimmel (’04)
Vice President Mobile Radio
6216 Hollins Drive
Bethesda, MD 20817
Tel: 1 301 530 7987
e.schimmel@ieee.org
Gordon L. Stüber (’03)
Fellows Committee
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Electrical andComputer Engineering
Atlanta, GA 30332
Tel: 1 404 894 2923
Fax: 1 404 894 7883
stuber@ece.gatech.edu
Raymond C. Trott (’03)
Awards Committees
Trott Communications Group,Inc.
1425 Greenway Drive, # 350
Irving, TX 75038
Tel: 1 972 580 1911
Fax: 1 972 580 0641
ray.trott@trottgroup.com
James A.Worsham, Jr. (’05)
Past Conferences
BellSouth, Room 42U85,
675 W Peachtree Street NE,
Atlanta, GA, 30375
Tel: 1 404 330 0381
Fax: 1 404 330 0386

Samuel R. McConoughey (’04)
Past President
Mobile Communications
Consulting

Automotive Electronics
William J. Fleming
TRW Vehicle Safety Sys., Inc.
4505 West 26 Mile Road
Washington, MI 48094
Tel: 1 586 781 7394
Fax: 1 586 781 7274
william.fleming@trw.com

Transportation Systems
Harvey M. Glickenstein
VP Land Transportation
Tel: 1 973 565 4820
Fax: 1 973 824 3140
h.glickenstein@ieee.org

Chapter News & Meetings
Gaspar Messina
9800 Marquetta Drive
Bethesda, MD 20817
Tel: 1 202 418 1348
Fax: 1 202 418 1412
GMESSINA@fcc.gov

Mobile Radio
Javier Gozalvez
C/ San Juan Bosco, nº 14-B 3F
03005 Alicante
SPAIN
j.gozalvez@ieee.org

Professional Activities
Frank E. Lord
35 Hartford Ave.
San Carlos, CA 94070
Tel: 1 650 594 0512
Fax: 1 650 594 0512

Book Reviews
Dirk Pesch
Cork Institute of Technology
Cork
IRELAND
dpesch@cit.ie

IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

Foreword
James Irvine, Editor
The leafy English shires are not the location one would normally think of when considering the start of a rebellion. In
fact, the uncomplaining ‘grin and bare it’ attitude is somethingof a national trait. All the more surprising, therefore, that thesmall but increasingly vociferous protest has recently turned
violent. The victim – a mobile phone mast in Sutton Coldfield
which was felled during the night by vandals.
The Sutton Coldfield incident is by no means the firstsuch incident. Two masts were recently felled in Northern
Ireland, and damage to equipment during mast erection has
caused some operators to take a ‘hit and run’ approach toconstruction. However, it was the first to fit the headlines in
the general media.
Mobile penetration in the UK is high, at about 70%.
Roughly 8 in 10 households have at least one mobile phone,
and a recent report concluded that practically every young
adult has one. This increased demand has lead to the deployment of more cells, and more carriers in existing cells.
In addition, the deployment of 3G, GSM-R along rail routes,
and a nationwide TETRA network has caused a backlashamongst the natives, with groups co-ordinated by sites suchas www.ProtectSurrexFromTETRA.org.uk
Operators are fighting back by disguising their masts. 3G
operator ‘3’ h as employed The Undetectables(www.undetectables.co.uk) to hide masts using film set
techniques. However, campaigners are generally more concerned with possible health effects than aesthetics, andhave seized upon a Dutch study1 which exposed two groupsof people, one consisting of people who reported sensitivity
to radio-frequency waves, and a control group, to a 1 V/mfield replicating GSM fields at 900 MHz and 1800 MHz, andalso a 2100 MHz UMTS field. They found a statistically significant relation between the UMTS (3G) fields and feelingsof well being for both groups. Interestingly, no such effectwas seen for the GSM signals at 900 and 1800 MHz. Obviously, more work needs to be done to replicate these results
and study any effects in more detail. In the UK, the Advisory
Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR) is presently carrying out a review of all research published since the Stewart Report in 2000, which itself recommended a precautionary approach while more research was carried out. The
AGNIR is due to report early next year, but in the meantime
campaigners are arguing that the precautionary principle
should constrain the deployment of masts.
Politicians are starting to take note, with restrictions being
placed on siting masts near schools. However, that doesn’t
seem to be soon enough for some people. With such direct action being taken, operators will need to man their barricades.

1

A P M Zwamborn, S H J A Vossen, B J A M van Leersum, M A Ouwens and W N Makel. Effects of Global Communication system radio-frequency fields on Well Being and Cognitive Functions of human subjects with and without subjective complaints. Netherlands Organisation forApplied Scientific Research (TNO). FEL-03-C148 (2003), available at http://www.ez.nl/beleid/home_ond/gsm/docs/TNO-FEL_REPORT_03148_Definitief.pdf

Copy for upcoming issues of VTSNews should reach Dr. James Irvine
by:
Issue
March 2004
May 2004
August 2004
November 2004

Due Date
January 5, 2004
March 6, 2004
June 5, 2004
September 4, 2004

at Mobile Communications Group,
EEE, Strathclyde University, George
Street, Glasgow G1 1XW Scotland,
E mail: j.m.irvine@ieee.org.
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3

High Altitude Platforms for Communications Services
Tim Tozer, University of YorkHigh Altitude Platforms – HAPs – represent an emerging
technology for delivery of communication services, including
3G and broadband. They offer a number of potential benefits, chief among which are the potential for rapid deployment, and very high spectral efficiencies and data capacity.
There are several development projects worldwide, althoughprogress to date has been limited. However, activity and interest is increasing, and current programmes involving airships, unmanned and manned airplanes look promising.
Challenges remain particularly in the areas of energy storage, antenna technology, and regulatory constraints.

Introduction
High Altitude Platforms – HAPs – are airships or airplanes
operating in the stratosphere and capable of delivering services such as communications and remote sensing. By flying
against the wind, or maintaining a tight turning circle, they
can appear in a roughly fixed position. With the addition ofsuitable transponding payloads they may thus fulfil the roleof either a very tall radio mast or a very low geostationary
satellite [1]. The potential of this technology is fairly self evident, and HAPs have been a topic of interest and activity
over about the past 5 years; however, viable commercial systems are still somewhat elusive. The limited rate of progress to date would appear due more to investor caution andmarket uncertainty than to fundamental technical impediments. But things are progressing rapidly, and a major upsurge of interest may be anticipated once some of the current programs succeed in firmly demonstrating the concept
and, hopefully, economic viability.
HAPs operate at altitudes between 17 and 22 km (55,000– 72,000 ft). This is comfortably above normal aircraft activity, but more importantly it is above the jet stream. Figure 1
gives a typical profile of wind speed against height, showing
the relatively benign winds in this altitude region. Here
craft can succeed in maintaining station keeping, flying
against the wind without excessive power demands. At thisaltitude the platform and payload technology need conform
only to aeronautical standards, and not to the more demanding space qualification requirements applicable to satellites. An important aspect of HAPs is that they should becapable of providing ‘long endurance’ services – either withcraft which can stay aloft for extended periods, months oreven years, or through regular platform substitution.

and propellers) as well as for payload operations. Recent
years have seen advances in envelope materials, using laminated layers of advanced polymers for low helium leakage
and high UV resistance. Aerodynamic considerations dictate that these airships need to be very large to maintainstation keeping effectively, perhaps up to 200 m in length,
and this introduces a number of new engineering challenges. These can not be resolved simply by extrapolationfrom smaller airships, and full-scale engineering prototypes
are required to be developed, each estimated to cost several$10’s of millions. So major investment is needed for convincing demonstrations, and to date we have more artists’ impressions than actual airships (Figure 2).
Airships can provide ample prime power, with plenty tospare for the payload; however, energy storage, to maintainpropulsion and hence station-keeping during the night, isanother demanding issue. Fuel cells are being evaluated forthis purpose, but represent a major challenge, especially inthe harsh environmental operating conditions (e.g. temperature) at that altitude.
Unmanned solar-powered aircraft are the other main form of
HAP. These can be also quite large, with wingspans to over
70 m, but they do suffer from very tight mass and power constraints and the problem of energy storage at night is even moreacute than for airships. Once this can be overcome, craft may bedesigned for long operational endurance, with missions lasting
months or even years without returning to earth.
Of course, manned conventionally fuelled aircraft canalso be used, and these have no problems of energy storage.

Types of platform
Airships are one of the principal forms of HAP. These areunmanned semi-rigid or non-rigid structures, most likely
helium filled, and deriving power from solar cells on their
upper surface, which is used for propulsion (electric motors
4

Figure 1 Typical windspeed profile with height
IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

Figure 2 Linstrand airship HAP
They represent an essentially established technology, eventhough the planes may need to be specially designed for thishigh altitude. However, shift operation is required, withother craft on standby and several crew altogether: superficially, the economics of this may appear less attractive.
Finally, there is the large category of traditional UAVs –Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Ranging from small ‘model
plane’ types through to much larger craft such as the Predator UAV, these are not usually designed for long endurance
missions, and are unlikely to suit commercial communications requirements. UAV development is driven largely by
military surveillance interests, rather than communications applications. However, a considerable number of companies and projects are involved in UAVs, commanding increasing investment and government funding. The UAV
fraternity is becoming well organised, and already has various associations and interest groups [e.g. 2, 3]; recently aconsensus seems to have emerged that HAPs now fallwithin their remit, and this should prove of benefit to HAPdevelopment overall.

The link power budgets will depend on many factors, but
are basically much more favourable than from a satellite.
Small cell sizes can be achieved on the ground with manageable antenna apertures on the HAP; this permits dense frequency re-use and very high overall spectral utilisation. For
example, analysis in the HeliNet project has shown the feasibility of a system with cells of 6 km diameter and aggregate data rates per cell well in excess of 100 Mbit/s. User
data rates of up to of 120 Mbit/s may be accommodated using
steerable ground terminals of only 20 cm or so diameter,while for lower data rates smaller fixed user antennas cansuffice. Practical limiting factors include propagation
losses, especially in the mm-wave bands where rain ishighly significant, and interference from adjacent cells due
to antenna sidelobe performance on the HAP.
Backhaul links may be provided to suitably locatedground stations, possibly several which may also have theirown backhaul cellular re-use pattern, to other HAPs, thus
creating a network in the sky via mm-wave or optical links,
or via satellite, which is useful for remote regions.
IMT-2000 (3G) type services can be readily provided froma HAP with a 3G base-station on board, and mm-wave
backhaul links to the core network. Thus a HAP might serve
to fill in gaps in network coverage, to cover large areas prior
to establishment of full terrestrial coverage, or to supplement capacity for emergency requirements or for event servicing such as major sporting events. Facilities could also be
provided to serve temporary migration such as August in
the south of France or the HAJ in Mecca.
There seem to be no fundamental difficulties with direct
3G services from a HAP – unlike GSM there is no timing
limit to constrain operational range. However, the range willat all times be in excess of 17 km, extending much further forlarge cells, and this may mean that signals are not always
strong enough to provide good service within buildings.
An important feature of HAPs is their rapid deployability.
Once the basic engineering design is established, it should
be possible to procure new HAPs and payloads relatively
quickly – certainly much more quickly than procuring new

System architectures and features
From a HAP operational altitude, a communications coverage area of up to about 400 km diameter may be served, depending on the acceptable minimum elevation angle fromthe ground terminals. Figure 3 illustrates some service
area examples for 3 HAPs with 5° elevation look angle. A
more practical coverage zone may be around 60 km diameter for ground terminals with elevation look angle ≥15°.
Single cell coverage over such an area may be readily provided, for example for 3G in regions with sparse user density,or for low data rate emergency communications. However, it
is relatively straightforward to deploy a number of antenna
beams on the HAP to deliver a cellular pattern of services
with frequency re-use. Such a cellular scenario also offers potential for greater flexibility than in a terrestrial system, andperformance here is ultimately limited by interference fromadjacent beams [4], rather than terrestrial propagation excursions. Figure 4 illustrates broadband services from a
HAP, which might operate in the 47/48 GHz band (as allocated by the ITU), and employ typically 121 cells.
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

Figure 3 Illustrative service areas (3 HAPs, 5° elevation)5

satellites or installing large terrestrial infrastructure.
HAPs already designed or in service can have their payloads
reconfigured or updated relatively easily. And prepared
HAPs could be put on station in a matter of hours to service
disasters and provide emergency communications and/or
surveillance.

Current and future activities
The past few years have seen a number of developments inairships, although emphasis has been traditionally on low
altitude craft such as Zeppelin airships aimed at carrying
passengers for tourism [5]. However the technology is increasingly being applied to HAPs.
Perhaps the most comprehensive program on HAPs andtheir applications is the Japanese government-funded
SKYNET program [6] which is aiming towards an integrated network of up to 10 large stratospheric airships covering Japan and delivering a range of communication services including broadcasting, interactive broadband, andemergency communications. Figure 5 illustrates the concept. This has been progressing since 1998, and involves development of prototype airships in the 45 – 65 m class, withflight tests scheduled for 2003 - 2004. In addition to providing environmental observation facilities, telecom andbroadcasting payloads and architectures are being developed in Japan by the Communications Research Laboratory(CRL) and the Telecommunications Advancement Organisation (TAO). Key features include on-board digital
beam-forming (DBF) antennas in the 31/28 GHz band,
multibeam horn (MBH) antennas in the 48/47 GHz band,
and IMT-2000 services in the 2 GHz band, as well as digital
TV UHF broadcast. Some of these payload elements have already been trialed successfully under Japan-US collaboration in 2002 using SkyTower’s Helios craft (see below) operating at 20 km altitude.
Korea has a similar government funded program [7].
Working initially with a low altitude platform, a full size airship is planned for 2008. Communications technology is being developed in Korea by ETRI for services at 48/47 GHz as
well as for 3G services.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is funding development of a HAP airship by Lindstrand Balloons of the UK incollaboration with Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace [8]. Using
the term HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance) craft, thisis aiming for five years continuous operation on station.

Figure 4 Illustrative broadband architecture
6

Also in the UK, Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) [9] hasbeen working with airships for several years and has a number of airship partnership projects with other companies
worldwide.
A potentially significant step forward in promoting thedevelopment for HAPs is the recently announced US government funded High Altitude Airships Advanced Concept
Technology Demonstration (HAA-ACTD) [10]. This aims todemonstrate the engineering feasibility and operational
concept of a large, unmanned, solar powered, stratosphericairship capable of flying for a year or more at 70,000 ft. It
should serve as a multi-purpose platform for communications, reconnaissance, surveillance, and other military applications; however it is not clear that there are plans to explore the applications themselves at this stage. Key
HAA-ACTD players currently include Worldwide Aeros,
Lockheed-Martin and Boeing.
Unmanned airplanes are also making advances, and by
far the leading programme here is Aerovironment’s solar-powered Helios craft [11], see Figure 6. This 247 ft (70 m)wingspan plane is the result of considerable NASA support,
and has demonstrated reliable operation in a number of trials from a test site in Kauai in the Hawaian islands, including to nearly 30 km (96,000 ft). Basic daytime flight duration has been proven up to 17 hours, and this is being
extended through use of hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells, withthe ultimate goal of providing true long endurance missionsof maybe months. At the moment open-cycle systems areused, consuming hydrogen fuel, but these may be replacedby regenerative fuel cells which recharge by solar power,
and it seems that the energy system holds the key here to fut u r e p r o g r e s s a n d lo n g e n d u r a n c e v i a b i l i t y.
Aerovironment’s subsidiary, SkyTower [12], has used
Helios, and a similar craft Pathfinder, in trials in conjunction with the Japanese. These employed off-the-shelf equipment on board the plane to successfully demonstrate the operational feasibility of various telecoms applications
including High Definition TV and 3G mobile services.
A positive attitude towards the application of HAPs is being taken by the European Commission, which has supported the recently completed HeliNet project [13, 14, 15],
involving some 10 European partners and funded by the IST(Information Society and Technology) 5th Framework initiative. A prototype solar powered airframe has been partiallydeveloped in conjunction with key elements of the power
and propulsion systems, and detailed study undertaken of three
applications: broadband communications; remote sensing; andnavigation / localisation. The work
explored key technology features
and the viability of such services.
It is anticipated that EC funding
will continue with further HAP-related projects under the 6 t h
Framework initiative, in particular the development of broadband
communications including practical trials, and communication systems to support emergency / disaster scenarios.
Manned aircraft should not suffer so greatly from the HAP conceptual ‘barrier to entry’ problem,since they represent generally established technology. Angel TechIEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

Figure 5 Japanese SkyNet concept

nologies’ HALO Proteus aircraft [16] was specially developed a few years ago to deliver wireless services from HAP altitude, but little
seems to have been heard of this venture recently. Meanwhile, there are plans to develop
the use of an established Russian aircraft, theM-55, for delivery of wireless services and remote sensing [17]. This plane is designed to operate at 20 km (65,000 ft), and is well suited to
fly such payloads – see Figure 7. With an
on-station dwell time of around 5 hours, some 4
or 5 planes would be required to maintain continuous service. Proposals are being developedby Geoscan International in the UK for communication demonstrator trials (in collaboration
with Motorola and the Universities of York andBath), with potential support from the UK
Dept. of Trade & Industry (DTI) and the EC Eureka programme. Among scenarios planned fordemonstration programmes with the M-55 are:
✦ 3G direct-to-user. This might serve tocover gaps in service provision, or provide a
rapid roll-out for new market entrants.
✦ Backhaul provision for transportable
3G base stations. These might be deployed
for event servicing, with users affiliating to a
local temporary base station on the ground,which would backhaul in a mm-waveband
via the HAP.
✦ Electronic newsgathering (ENG).
Highly portable lightweight video cameras
could link directly with the HAP, probably ina mm-waveband, using antennas mountable directly on the camera and taking advantage of the favourable link power budget
where a line of sight exists between a camera and a HAP at a range of maybe only
some 20 km or so. This latter application is
attracting the interest of media organisations, since it offers considerable benefits fornews-gathering and event coverage.

Figure 6 Aerovironment Helios HAP

Key issues

Figure 7 M-55 stratospheric airplane

December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

There are a number of key issues which will determine the ultimate economic viability of HAPs
for communications service delivery, and which
represent ongoing research effort:
Station keeping A HAP needs to maintainits nominal position within some agreed tolerance limits, e.g. a cylinder of a few km dimensions, and this will be a function of its ability tocope with statistical variations in the wind.
This will depend on its power resources, andinevitably there may be occasions when station keeping cannot be maintained. (ATG’s
StratSat proposes using an auxiliary diesel engine for extreme conditions, although fuel depletion will of course limit the mission endurance.) Detailed information on wind statistics
at HAP altitudes is somewhat limited, and thismay represent unproven territory for solar-powered craft. The resulting performance
will determine the system availability and ultimate Grade-of-Service of any application.
Energy storage HAPs require sufficient
propulsion to maintain station keeping during
7Figure 8 Radio spectrum: typical clear-air losses
the night as well as the day. For a solar powered craft thismeans batteries of some kind, presenting considerable challenge in terms of weight, energy efficiency and reliability.
Hydrogen-Oxygen fuel cells appear the favoured solution,
but their long-term viability and reliability remain to be
proven, and they have a long way to go.
Regulatory matters HAPs present a headache to regulatory authorities who cannot easily fit them into existing
categories. Are they planes? Are they satellites? Are they
really tall masts? The answer seems to be not quite any ofthese. Although operating above commercial airspace,aeronautical regulations need to be observed in terms of
tracking and collision avoidance, particularly on ascent anddescent. It looks likely that the UAV fraternity may succeed
in pushing the barriers here to establish a clear regulatory
framework for operation of unmanned craft.
In terms of spectrum allocation, HAPs still present uncertainty. Broadband services especially require large bandwidth, and this is at a premium. Aeronautical allocations
are inadequate to support any significant bandwidth, andany spectrum may well have to be shared with satellite users. HAPs also have evident potential to cause interference
over a wide area. The ITU has specifically allocated limited
spectrum for HAPs in the IMT-2000 band at around 2 GHz(shared with terrestrial), and much broader spectrum in the
mm-wavebands (V-band) from 47.2 – 47.5 GHz and 47.9 –48.2 GHz; this would be shared with potential satellite users. Such high frequencies represents about the upper limit
of normal practical spectrum, just below the oxygen absorption region (see Figure 8). Not only is the technology expensive, but the band also suffers severely from rain losses. For
this reason, at WRC2000 additional less demanding allocations were made available for some countries in Region 3(Asia) of 27.5 – 28.35 and 31.0 – 31.3 GHz, on a non-interference basis. More recently at WRC2003 in June, it wasagreed to extend those frequencies similarly to Region 2 (theAmericas). This represents something of a breakthroughfor the HAPs lobby, although it remains for other countries
in Region 1 to sign up individually to what is a more practical band, and no doubt this will be the subject of much forthcoming pressure and debate in Europe.
Propagation Given the very high frequencies envisaged
for use by HAPs, link performance is very much a function of
weather and rain statistics. Figure 9 illustrates a typical required link margin vs. availability. For many uses it may beunrealistic to provide large margins, so means must be found8

to accommodate outages: this implies someform of diversity technique. Space diversity
may be achievable for backhaul links to
widely separated ground stations, but will not
solve the problem of rain fades on the user
path. Time diversity solutions would appear
to be are the most promising, involving caching of traffic for the duration of outages; thismay facilitate acceptable video-on-demandand some Internet services, but real-time
voice communications may present problems.
Detailed knowledge of rain fade durations isthus critical, and the types of service which
may be offered most effectively will depend
upon the local propagation environment.
This may be bad news for tropical regions
which ironically otherwise provide a favorable environment for platform operation interms of stability of winds and high-elevation
sunshine throughout the year.
Antennas Antennas on the HAP are key
to system performance. They need to be steerable to accommodate platform motion and displacement. And for broadband mm-waveband services they need to be able to projecta large number of spot beams to provide dense frequency
re-use cellular patterns, and to be flexibly configurable torespond to changing resource requirements. Planar phasedarrays might appear an elegant solution, but tend to sufferfrom significant insertion loss and poor sidelobes – neitherof which is suitable here, especially since capacity is likely tobe limited by interference from adjacent cells, which is afunction of antenna sidelobe performance. The high cost ofdeveloping good planar arrays for a non mass market is also
an impediment. The most pragmatic solution looks to be anarray of simple horn antennas on the HAP, despite weight
implications and some lack of flexibility.
Resource management and spectral efficiency A HAP
architecture is ideally suited to provide high capacity
through flexible and adaptive resource allocation, managed
from a common point, i.e. the HAP itself. This means putting
bandwidth where it is needed, and includes techniques suchas adaptive modulation and coding, to maximise capacity according to link conditions of fading and interference, adaptive beam forming, and traffic management. Such management can be applied readily and effectively to the entire HAP
coverage area, without excessive communication overheads
as might be the case for any terrestrial network. There is evidently considerable scope for advanced techniques here to
maximise overall system throughput effectively, in the context of the wider communications network, and provide extremely high overall spectral efficiency.

Further aspects of HAP services
Network development HAPs offer unique opportunities
to develop networks in an incremental fashion. A single
HAP can provide useful service, unlike LEO satellites
which require a very large number for full availability.
From the initial deployment of a HAP with perhaps one
broad coverage cell, capacity may be built up in a straightforward manner through the division of the coverage area
into cells with frequency re-use, which may be accomplished flexibly through the HAP antenna configuration.
As capacity demands increase, additional HAPs may be
deployed over the same broad coverage region, with discrimination through the use of directional antennas at
the user terminals. Such a scenario will be highly subject
IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

readily integrated, resulting in excellent ‘C3I’ (Communications, Command, Control, Intelligence) performance,
whether for military / emergency use or for vehicular traffic
management etc. This may mean that a HAP is likely tohave more than one funding agency supporting its deployment. A further particularly interesting opportunity is thatof TV and radio broadcasting, which is where the money often seems to be. Such multi-functionality can significantly
enhance the overall economic arguments in favor of HAP development, even where doubts might exist about the viability of a particular stand-alone service.

Final thoughts
Figure 9 Link margin and availability illustration
to interference, as a function of antenna beamwidths andsidelobe levels, but studies have shown how overall capacity may be extended in rough proportion to the number of
HAPs deployed over a given region [18].
Military applications These are attracting increasing
attention, and HAPs may be deployed rapidly over or close
to a region of interest to provide communications and otherservices. Line of sight links may be established with tacticalterminals on the ground, providing high data rate services
direct to users; alternatively the HAP can support trunk
backhaul links. In addition to terrestrial tactical services,
standard commercial-type services (e.g. 3G) may be supported using COTS (Commercial-off-the-shelf) terminals, orthe HAP might act as a ‘surrogate satellite’ to support
milsatcom equipment. In the latter scenario especially, therelatively close range and consequent lack of need for highpower transmissions means that users can enjoy much enhanced LPI (Low Probability of Intercept) than would be thecase for operation via satellite.
Surveillance and earth observation In both militaryand commercial scenarios, HAPs also provide unparalleledopportunities for deployment of surveillance equipment,
whether optical, infra-red or radar. The target range ofmaybe between 20 and 100 km is significantly closer thanLEO satellite systems, permitting high resolution at modest
cost. With the large power and mass budgets on many platforms, particularly airships, equipment may range from thevery simple to the highly sophisticated. And of course
equipment can be brought down for maintenance or updating readily easily. Images can be readily distributed withavailability of wideband communication links, allowing services to extend into real-time monitoring of events, including road traffic management.
Navigation and localisation HAPs can support navigation and localisation services in a number of ways. While
one might conceive of elaborate bespoke navigation systems
based on a number of platforms, it is unrealistic to see HAPs
as rivalling major established systems. More likely theywould act simply as relays for differential GPS or Galileo
signals by disseminating correction data over a wide area.
It is of course also straightforward to employ direction-of-arrival techniques on a HAP, and these could serve to provide
a stand-alone navigation service or to enhance a communications service. The latter may be especially valuable in an
emergency scenario, providing both users and network controllers with accurate location information.
Integrated services It has been shown that a range offacilities and services can be provided from HAPs. Localisation, surveillance and communications systems can be
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society NewsIn some respects, the evolution of HAPs and associated services resembles the early development of satellite communications in the 1960’s – it is certainly exciting times. There is considerable potential ‘applications pull’ coupled with steady
technology developments and opportunity for creative systemdesign. The next few years will hopefully see some significant
demonstration projects coming to fruition, and increased investment leading to full commercial exploitation.

Acknowledgements
Interest in HAPs is truly worldwide. Thanks are due tomany colleagues for input and information, in particular
those at York and in the HeliNet consortium.

References[1] T C Tozer & D Grace, “High-Altitude Platforms for
Wireless Communications”, IEE Electronics & Communications Engineering Journal (ECEJ), 13, (3), pp.
127-137, June 2001
[2] www.uavs.org[3] www.euro-uvs.org[4] J Thornton, D Grace, M H Capstick, & T C Tozer, “Optimizing an Array of Antennas for Cellular Coverage
From a High Altitude Platform”, IEEE Trans WirelessCom. 2, (3), pp. 484-492, May 2003
[5] www.zeppelinflug.de[6] www2.crl.go.jp/mt/b181/[7] Do-Seob Ahn, et al., “Status of Technology Developmentfor HAPS in Korea” SPSW2003, Tokyo, Japan[8] www.lindstrand.co.uk/hale.htm[9] www.atg-airship.com/[10] www.smdc.army.mil/FactSheets/HAA-BL.pdf[11] www.aerovironment.com[12] www.skytowerglobal.com[13] www.helinet.polito.it[14] J Thornton, D Grace, C Spillard, T Konefal & T C Tozer,“Broadband Communications from a High-Altitude
Platform: The European HeliNet Programme”, IEEElectronics & Communications Engineering Journal(ECEJ), 13, (3), pp. 138-144, June 2001[15] D Grace, J Thornton, T Konefal, C Spillard & T C Tozer,“Broadband Communications from High Altitude Platforms – The HeliNet Solution”, Proc. 4th International
Symposium on Multimedia Wireless Communications,Aalborg, Denmark, Sept 9 - 12, 2001[16] www.raytheon.com/products/halo/[17] http://www.geoscanuk.co.uk[18] G Chen, D Grace & T C. Tozer, “Exploiting HAP Antenna Directivity in Multiple HAP Constellations”.
WPMC’03, Yokosuka, Japan, Oct 2003.

9

System Comparison of Hybrid and Fuel Cell Systems toInternal Combustion Engines
Stefan Pischinger, RWTH Aachen and Oliver Lang & Hans Kemper, FEV Motorentechnik, Aachen
Editor’s Note: Thanks are extended to the Convergence
Transportation Electronics Association for permission to reprint this article from its Convergence 2002 Proceedings.
Copyright 2002 Convergence Transportation Electronics
Association. The Convergence Transportation Electronics
Association is an organization dedicated to the advancement of transport electronics technology and the support ofmathematics and science education.
Increasing shortages of energy resources as well as emission legislation development is increasing the pressure to develop more efficient, environmentally friendly propulsion
systems for vehicles. Alternatives such as fuel cell systems or
hybrid propulsion are in discussion or have already been introduced.
This paper gives a survey on the present technical status ofinternal combustion engines, hybrid concepts and current
fuel cell vehicles. Different solutions will be presented, sothat an evaluation of advantages and drawbacks can begiven. The further potentials of each concept, as well as combinations of different systems are discussed, and an outlook
into the future is given.

Introduction
The “Otto” engine celebrated its 125th birthday in 2001. In
the face of increasing requirements for propulsion systems,
discussions about replacing the well established internal
combustion engine (ICE) by “unconventional propulsion
systems” are on the way. Today, the best chances are attributed to fuel cell (FC) and hybrid electric (HEV) systems.
Internal combustion engines, hybrids and fuel cells arecomplex systems when used for vehicle propulsion. In order

Conventional:

Primary energy

Mineral oil (well)

Conversion

Refinery

Energy carrier

Gasoline-/Diesel fuel

Energy storage
Conversion
Transmission
Wheel

Figure 2 Energy process chain (vehicle)
to compare the systems it is necessary to identify for eachsystem:✦ Motivation for introduction: i.e. the expected benefits✦ Technical challenges✦ Development potential for the future
Motivation for changing the propulsion source can only
arise from the requirements for such systems. These requirements, as shown in Figure 1, are driven by legislationand customer needs and often lead to competing targets. Up
to now, the internal combustion engine has served as thebest compromise among the different targets.

CO2-Emission
Fuel Consumption
Fuel availability

Classification
Primary Energy Source:! fossil! Non fossil (e.g. solar)

Emission Legislation
Local zero emission(market specific)
NOx, CO, HC

Development time
& costs
Near Zero Emission Customer / Market
NZEV
Power, Torque, Driveability
Image
Comfort (Noise and Vibration)
Operating Cost, Durability
Maintenance, Service

Figure 1 Future requirements for powertrains
10

Tank

V
e
h SI- / CI- Engineicl Transmissione(Mobile) energy carrier:! Chemical! electrical! mechanicalEnergy Conversion Machine / Process! Chemical - heat - mechanical (e.g.ICE)! Chemical - electrical (e.g. Fuel cell)! Electrical - mechanical (electric motor)

Combinations! Hybrids

Energy Transmission! Mechanical - mechanical! Mechanical transmission! Hydraulic! Pneumatic! Chemical - chemical! reformer

Figure 3 Classification of unconventional vehicle propulsion systems
IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

8

Prognosis

7

Europe (ACEA)

150

6
5

100

4
ACEA commitments:
confirmed (-25% vs. 1995)
to be reviewed in 2003

50

3
2

* reported in l/100 km; CO2 calc. fromDiesel and Gasoline fleet averages

0
1980

1
0

1990

Source: ACEA, EU, VDA, FEV calc.
Test cycle: NEDC
(before 1996 calc. From 1/3-mix)

2000

Year

2010

Further developments! materials! charging systems! injection system! variable compression

30
20
10
0
0

10

20
30
40
Degree of “Downsizing” (%)

The internal combustion engine has come a long way since
its industrialization in the beginning of the last century. Today, the SI-engine is able to fulfill the NZEV emission standards of California, where, depending on the air quality, theexhaust gas can be cleaner than the intake air.
In addition, much has been achieved in Europe to improve fuel economy and thereby reduce CO2- emissions, Figure 4. Extrapolating the current trend of fleet average, future CO2-targets of 140 g/km and 120 g/km in 2008 and 2012
respectively seem reachable. However, much of this has
been achieved by increasing the market share of modern
DI-Diesel engines in passenger cars. Further increases are
expected to lead to Diesel car shares of more than 40 % by
the year 2005.

Diesel at full load
raw emission
with particulate filter
intake air

CO2 Reduction (%)µ > 95%

Research andDevelopment

Downsizing
VCR
Superboosting

State-of- the- art

Homogeneouslean combustion,
the fully variable
engine20
Fully variable
valve train
Directinjection

10

1000

Figure 5 Exhaust gas aftertreatment using particulate
trap (Diesel engine)
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News60

The major challenge for the Diesel engine is to reach theemission level of modern SI engines, without sacrificing its excellent fuel economy. This seems possible with measures like:✦ Improved injection systems, high EGR (cooled /uncooled).
✦ Partly homogeneous combustion.
✦ Advanced after treatment systems (such as particulate
trap and NOx-catalyst).
The first cars with particulate traps have been introduced in Europe and they have the potential to reduce theexhaust particulate level below that of ambient air in cities,
Figure 5.
In addition, Diesel engines have the potential for further
improvement of fuel economy. This will mainly be achievedby downsizing, which is possible by increasing the specificpower output. Figure 6 shows, that by this a further improvement of up to 20 % in fuel economy can be achieved.
For this, development of materials, injection systems,
charging systems and possibly the introduction of variable
compression will be necessary.
While SI-engines have reached an excellent level of pollutant emissions, their fuel economy has to be improved considerably. Compared to Diesel engines the SI-engine has
about 35 % higher CO2 emissions. With the introduction of✦ Direct injection✦ Fully variable valve train systems✦ Downsizing, with variable compression✦ Homogeneous lean combustion, controlled auto ignition

30

100
Particle diameter [nm]50

Figure 6 Potential of downsizing: DI Diesel engine(passenger cars)

The Internal Combustion Engine

Particle number (1/cm³)

Status 2001

60

Gasoline
equivalent

Major arguments justifying the development of alternative propulsion systems are:✦ Local zero emission legislation (e. g. California)✦ CO2-reduction targets✦ Fuel availability: usage of alternative fuels
When changing to different fuels the whole chain (“well towheel”) has to be included in the “system” in order to obtaina valid comparison, Figure 2.
Following the energy chain different criteria can be identified to categorize unconventional propulsion systems, Figure 3. In the following benefits, challenges and potentials of
the ICE, HEV and FCV shall be discussed.

10

80

40

2020

Figure 4 Fuel economy and CO2 emissions of newpassenger cars (fleet average)

10 10
10 9
10 8
10 7
10 6
10 5
10 4
10 3
10 2
10 1

Specific
power (kW/l)

CO2 Emission (g/km)

200

100

Fuel consumption reduction (%)

9Germany (VDA)*

Fuel Consumption (L/100 km)

10

0

MPI

Figure 7 CO2 reduction - Trends in gasoline engines
technolies
11Figure 8 Development of the electrical power demand- the mechatronic powertrain
a reduction of CO2-emission by up to 25 to 30 % will bepossible, reaching fuel economy levels of today’s Diesel engines, Figure 7.
Eventually this will lead to the fully variable engine
where more and more mechanical-only systems of the past
are replaced by mechatronic, variable components. This, together with other electric consumers on the vehicle side,
will result in a rapid increase of the electric power demandin the vehicle, for Diesel as well as gasoline engines, as
shown in Figure 8. This will make the development of more
efficient devices for electric power generation necessary –the fuel cell as an auxiliary power unit (APU) is one possible
solution for this.

Hybrid Systems
Today hybrid electric vehicles (HEV’s) are commonly understood as vehicles combining combustion engines and electricmotors for vehicle propulsion. The motivations for hybrid
propulsion systems are:✦ Local zero emission (all electric driving)✦ Reduced fuel consumption/CO2-Emission by:✦ Brake energy recovery✦ Start/stop operation✦ Operation point shifting✦ Engine downsizing by: Launch assist/power assist
How much today’s and future hybrids can contribute tothese targets will be discussed in the following section.

Figure 10 Fuel consumption improvement by braking
energy recovery in the NEDC

Local Zero Emissions
Local Zero Emissions are evaluated by the all electric range(AER) the vehicle can achieve, which is appreciated by the
Californian zero emission legislation. Although a certain minimum of electric drive power is necessary, the all electric range
is primarily a function of battery capacity. Battery capacityand electric motor power are shown for various production andconcept electric vehicles in Figure 9. Depending on electric
power and battery capacity one can distinguish between✦ Mild hybrids,✦ Full hybrids,✦ Electric vehicles.
Assuming competitive values for specific weight of battery (20 kg/kWh) and electric motor/power electronics (1.5kg/kW) lines for constant additional vehicle weight are included in the diagram. Battery capacity, which is the dominant factor for the all electric driving range, is the major
contributor to vehicle weight increase.
Additional vehicle weight, in return, has an adverse effect on fuel economy. A drawback of about 0.4l / 100kg canbe expected. Cost increase runs in the same direction.
Therefore, a large all electric driving range will not be suitable for mass production unless battery technology is improved considerably.

Brake Energy Recovery
Brake energy recovery is one major potential of fuel economy improvement to be achieved by hybrid operation. Here,Figure 9 Hybrid electric vehicles - battery energy vs.
electric drive power
12

Figure 11 Hybrid vehicles: electric vs. engine power
IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

moderate electric motor power with low battery storage capacity is sufficient to achieve considerable benefits. Even
though mild hybrids with a ratio of battery capacity to electric power of 1/20 kWh/kW are sufficient, the weight increase with increasing electric power is considerable.
Therefore the total achievable benefit can only be increased
up to a certain extent, as shown in Fig. 10. Depending on thesystem layout, the maximum electric power is in the order of
10 to 30 kW for typical compact cars.

Operation Point Shift, Start Stop
Shifting the operating point by discontinuous engine operation near the optimum efficiency and storing the excess energy in the battery will theoretically lead to large
improvements in efficiency. However, the drawbacks are
as follows:✦ Any operation point shift to a point with equal power
can be achieved through a transmission as well: CVT,
automated manual gearbox (ASG) and high gear ratio
concepts do realize this in a more conventional way.
Eventually the hybrid becomes an electric transmission✦ Operation of the engine close to best efficiency will require an energy storage with a large storage capacity or
frequent start/stop of the engine✦ Most SI-engine concepts to improve engine fuel economy do already address the part load efficiency, thereby
reducing the benefit of operation point shifting.

Power Assist, Launch Assist
Part of the motivation for parallel and power split hybrids
was often to reduce the engine size and power by installingelectric power. Figure 11 shows the electric power versus engine power for various hybrid vehicles. Even though a clear
correlation can not be detected, it becomes obvious, thatmany concepts use the electric motor to reduce installed engine power. However, when seriously considering customer
requirements this is not generally acceptable, in particular
for conditions such as✦ high speed driving (especially Europe) and✦ gradeability,
where full power is needed for a long period of time. In thecase of reduced maximum engine power the maximum
speed would be reduced after continuous operation due tolimitations in battery storage capacity. Only in special re-

250

Charged engine: 1.4 liter; 100 kW
NA engine: 2.0 liter; 100 kW
Vehicle w eight: 1500 kg
Engine speed at start of acceleration: 800 rpm

Torque / Nm

200
150
100
50

Natural Aspirated
Turbocharged Engine
Electrically supported TC (1.8 kW)
TC + E-Booster (1.8 kW )TC-Engine + ISG (10 kW)

0
0

1

2

3

4

5

Fuel Cell
Just like the hybrid vehicle the fuel cell’s target is toachieve:✦ Local zero emission (depending on fuel)✦ Better fuel economy/CO2 emission (particularly at partload/stop & go)
The acceptance of the fuel cell zero emission propulsion
depends on the fuel used. Looking at the recent history offuel cell vehicles one can see that almost all vehicles are
driven by hydrogen as a fuel, Figure 13. This will ensure
zero emission acceptance but illustrates the biggest current
hurdle of the fuel cell: there is no fuel for a simple low temperature fuel cell available. With available fuels, including
methanol, complicated reformers are necessary and theycause well-known start-up and transient problems.
The fuel economy benefits of fuel cell vehicles are dominant under part load conditions. This relates to the kinetic
and diffusion type process in the fuel cell where losses increase with increasing current. Besides the fuel cell itself
the periphery, in particular the air supply andhumidification systems, have a significant impact on efficiency. The influence of different charging systems on efficiency of a hydrogen system is shown in Figure 14.
Optimized charging systems are ideally combined with ahumidification system, where the temperature rise in thecompressor is used to evaporate the water, Figures 15 and16. Internal cooling leads to compressor efficiency improvement of several percentage points.
Even though the fuel cell has made improvements withrespect to weight and cost, it is still a long way from being
competitive with today’s internal combustion engine. Status and future targets are shown in Figures 17 and 18.
With hydrogen availability and reformer systems fortransient operation being far in the future, the introductionof mobile fuel cells is most likely to occur as auxiliary power
units (APU), Figure 19.
These APU’s can be used to supply electrical energy for:✦ Engine accessory drives,✦ Air condition etc., also during engine shut off,
✦ Power & launch assist,✦ Electric power supply for HEV’s.

6

Time / sec

Figure 12 Comparison of torque response during vehicle acceleration
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

stricted applications like city-only driving will a reductionof engine power be acceptable.
However, power assist/launch assist-concepts can beused to improve fuel economy by compensating performancelosses of engine downsizing concepts. Such downsized,
highly turbocharged engines are able to achieve the sameengine power as the original full size engine, but normallysuffer from insufficient low-end torque. This disadvantage,
primarily apparent under transient operating conditions,can be compensated for the best by electric drives (e.g. ISG,
E-Booster) as shown in Figure 12.
In summary, local zero emission and CO2-reduction potential make hybridization very attractive. However, theweight and price of electric components (battery, electricmotor) limit the extent of hybridization to small electric
powers. Development effort is necessary regarding:✦ Weight✦ Cost✦ Battery durability.

Conclusion
Considering the status and potential of the different
propulsion technologies, the following fuel economy bene13

DC
Ford
GM
Honda
Hyndai
Mazda
ToyotaDaihatsu
Mitsubishi
Nissan
VW
Zevco
PSA
Eureka9080Power [kW]

70
60
50
40

hybrid30
20

hybridhybrid10

2.2

pressure ratio

300
250
200
150

2.0

1.8

dry
humidified

1.6@ 2 m3/min rel. Air flow
dew point near 50°C
for humidified map

1.4
hybridhybrid
0

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

H 2 fuelYear

30

Figure 13 Published fuel cell vehicles since 1990 [8]System Pressure (bar)5060eff. efficiency (%)

70

80

Figure 16 Efficiency comparison – dry and internallyhumidified compressor

Screw type
2.2

I

2

Roots type
II
33mm

1.8

37mm
1.6

Turbo with awheel diameter of ...

1.4

System Efficiency (%)

40

not H 2 fuel

1.2
50
45
40
35

I

33mm

II
37mm

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

% Rated Power Output

Figure 14 Comparison of pressure strategy and system efficiency with various charging concepts (H2system) [9]fits with respect to today’s MPI Gasoline engines can be
expected:✦ ICE (Gasoline): a potential for fuel economy improvement of 25 – 30 %, including transmission concepts appears feasible in the next 10 to 15 years.
✦ Hybrid: with start/stop and brake energy recovery an
improvement of 20 to 25 % should be possible. Further
market introduction of hybridization will expand fromlower to higher electric power installation. Market penetration can be expected up to a level where additionaloverall costs are balanced by the benefits of the technology in comparison and competition to more conventional approaches.
✦ Fuel Cell: No statement can be made including all thefuel processing. At this point a major reduction in overall energy consumption and CO2-emission needs highdevelopment efforts, but can be expected based on fossil
fuel comparison. Vehicle equipment in terms of components will have at least the same level compared tostandard vehicles.
The question arises whether the combination of systems
makes sense and what the combined benefits are. As statedabove previously, benefits can not be added generally, since
they address similar losses (e. g. part load FE), but in many
aspect synergies do exist between technologies. By adding

22

NECAR 1

Compressor
housing

Injector

Injection spray
Air-flow

weight/power ratio (kg/ kW)

20

Methanol
H2

18
16

NECAR 314
12
10
VW Bora HY.POWER

864DoE Weight Targets:
2005
2010

NECAR 2NEBUS

2NECAR 4

Stack only01993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002year

Figure 15 Water injection into the compressor [9]14

Figure 17 Specific weight of fuel cell systems [10]IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

Basis: 50kW net power output fuel cell system
Tier 2 gasoline fueled Fuel Cell(without gasoline tank and traction electronics)
Hydrogen rich fuel fueled Fuel Cell(with heat, water and air management systems;
without fuel processing)Direct Hydrogen fueled Fuel Cell
(including hydrogen storage)

300

Costs in $/kW

250

✦ a mild hybridization for brake energy recovery, dy-

300
250

200

200

150

150

100

100

50

50

0

0

2001

2005

2010

(status)(target)(target)Year

Figure 18 Costs of fuel cell system components [12]single consumer(e.g. A/Ccompressor)

regular fuel, methanolhydrogen etc.

regular fuelelectr.
consumerstandard ICE
and power trainelectric
motor
FC (>70 kW)

FC-APU (5 kW)

battery

battery

Fuel Cell Vehicle

Stand - alone - APU

time

2002

> 2015

Vehicle - integrated - APU
up to Microhybrid
regular fuel

(APU >10 kW)
battery

12V/42V=>

FC-APUelectr. driven
auxiliaries

down-sized ICE
with ISG, EMV etc.

Figure 19 Fuel cell systems series introduction – from
APU to fuel cell vehicle
hybridization plus fuel cell systems to future IC engines one
could envision a propulsion system as follows:✦ a variable, mechatronic, downsized SI-engine with advanced combustion systems,

December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

namic assistance, and moderate all-electric range(AER),✦ a fuel cell for efficient electric energy generation to supply auxiliaries and low speed driving.
A total fuel saving of up to 40 % could be expected fromsuch a combined system, based on today’s MPI gasoline
engine. Their market acceptance is very much dependant
on a cost-effective production. Until then just smaller areas, where local zero emission plays a dominant role, will
be served.

References[1] Die nächste Generation von Otto-DI Brennverfahren,
10th Aachener Colloquium Vehicle and Engine Development 2001, Peter Wolters, José Geiger, Philipp Adomeit,
Betina Vogt, Jörg Ballauf[2] Synergies of Variable Valve Actuation and Direct Injection, SAE paper 2002-01-0706, Wolfgang Salber, Peter
Wolters, Thomas Esch, José Geiger, Jochen Dilthey[3] Variable Compression Ratio - A Design Solution for Fuel
Economy Concepts, SAE paper 2002-01-1103, Markus
Schwaderlapp, Knut Habermann, Kurt I. Yapici[4] Radical Activated Combustion - A new Approach for
Gasoline Engines, IFP International Congress, France,
2001, Peter Wolters, Wolfgang Salber, Jochen Dilthey[ 5 ] w w w. j e v a . o r . j p / e n g l i s h / e v m / e v n a d o / h e v /doukouindex.html[6] www.uscar.org/matr.pdf[7] www.ott.doe.gov/otu/field_ops/pdfs/ld_hev.xls[8] www.hydrogen.org/h2cars/overview/index.html[9] Development of Fuel Cell System Air Management Utilizing HIL Tools, SAE Paper 2002-01-0409, S.
Pischinger, C. Schönfelder, O. Lang, H. Kindl[10]DaimlerChrysler NECAR 4: Die Alternative, Information Brochure 03/99[11]GM, Brennstoffzellen-Technologie für eine nachhaltige
Zukunft, PSI Information Brochure[12]Fuel Cells for Transportation, 2001 Annual Progress
Report, U.S. Department of Energy

15

future.wireless@mobilevce.com
Walter Tuttlebee, Executive Director, Mobile VCE
The shape of future mobile and personal communications
may not be the simple generational shift that characterised
past transitions. In October 2003 the ITU-R Working Party
8F, responsible for ‘IMT2000 and Systems Beyond’ hosted a
Workshop on Services & Market Aspects, jointly organisedwith Mobile VCE, to consider such issues [1]. In this article
Walter Tuttlebee describes the role of Mobile VCE and its research programmes. An important aspect of this is the waythat the differing regional perspectives on the future held by
its member companies shape Mobile VCE’s own industry-led
research programme, which aims to enable new services andrevenue streams for the industry.

What is Mobile VCE?
Mobile VCE – the Virtual Centre of Excellence in Mobile &Personal Communications – is a not-for-profit company, established as a joint initiative of the mobile communicationsindustry and leading research universities in 1996. Initiallya national initiative, Mobile VCE today has a global industry membership base and its research is having international impact.
The sustained involvement of member companies from
Asia, America and Europe means that Mobile VCE is uniquein undertaking an integrated industry-driven research
programme, which accommodates diverse perspectives of‘B3G/4G’. This permits the identification of new synergies between these approaches which would otherwise be overlooked.
The innovative nature of the organisation provides companies with a unique environment for the development ofshared visions and with a highly cost-leveraged approach toindustry-led academic research, supporting the future development of the wireless telecoms industry. This brief introduction to the company – its origins, its objectives, its
membership and its modus operandi – is complemented byan overview of the evolution of its research priorities at a
BAE Systems

BBC

Crown Castle

Degree2 Innovations

Fujitsu

Hutchison 3G

Inmarsat

Independent Television
Commission

Lucent

NEC

Nokia

NortelOrangePanasonic

Philips

Radiocommunications
AgencySamsung

Siemens

SK Telecom

Sony

ThalesToshibaVodafone

Table 1: Industrial Members of Mobile VCE, FY2003
16

time of significant change, as the industry begins to implement 3G services and systems.
Mobile VCE offers to its industry members a range of benefits including inter alia high financial gearing of researchfunding, a favourable IPR arrangement, ready access tohighly talented academic research teams and opportunities
to exploit research spin-off for shorter–term objectives.

Origins & Objectives
Historically the mobile telecoms industry, like others,
viewed research as something to be undertaken by company
research departments or subcontracted to universities. In
Europe collaborative research with universities utilisedmechanisms such as the Framework programmes (RACE,
ACTS, IST, etc) [2]. The apparent dichotomy between thelong-term academic research culture and the short-term development-focused mentality of industry is well recognised.
It was from this background that representatives of the mobile phone industry began to explore alternative models as
part of the UK Government’s Foresight exercise in late1995. At that time companies were placing direct researchcontracts with Universities, but such work was often uncoordinated and disconnected from mainstream industry
thinking. From this came the concept that something more
effective and substantial could be done together – but what ?
By late 1996 ideas had clarified and a nucleus of industry
players had coalesced around the idea which subsequently
became the Virtual Centre of Excellence in Mobile & Personal Communications – Mobile VCE. The emerging concept was for a ‘virtual company’, funded by industry, pioneering an industry-steered programme of research,undertaken by integrated, but geographically-dispersed,
research teams drawn from the country’s top universities
specialising in mobile telecoms research. Mobile VCE wasthus proposed as part of the Foresight Challenge competition. Clear industry support and the evident benefits of the
proposed approach were key factors in the subsequent Government decision to award Foresight funding, which led to
the formal establishment of the company in November 1996.
Mobile VCE’s strategic objective is to facilitate industry
growth, through pioneering long term research directed byshared industry vision, and, within this framework, to create commercially valuable IPR relevant to mobile / wirelesscommunications for its industrial members and, most importantly, with their active involvement. The motivation,
creativity and collaborative approach of the research teams,
matched by the commitment of the major industry players,
has created a momentum and environment that encourages
open participation from the mobile telecommunications
companies – perhaps one of the key factors in its success inanchoring the research into industry evolution.
IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

✦ Industrially Relevant, Long Term, Research – defined and steered by the industrial member companies✦ Highly Cost Effective – due to the significant Financial Gearing of Members’ Subscriptions (See Figure 1)✦ Intellectual Property – royalty-free access to the IPR portfolio is available to full industrial members✦ Short Term Technology Spin Offs – structures in place for commercial exploitation✦ Elective Research Opportunities – funded by a single company, or by a small group of companies on a shared-cost,shared-benefit, basis, to address specific R&D needs outside of the Core programme✦ Development of Company Staff – through working alongside highly competent academic researchers✦ Recruitment – access to identify and recruit leading academic research talent✦ Networking – to identify and shape, with industry colleagues, the trends which will influence the short and long term

Table 2: Benefits of Industrial Membership

Table 3 Academic Members of Mobile VCE
Member Subscriptions

Members’ Core Fund

Government
FundingCore Programme Fund

Figure 1 High Financial Gearing: The Core Research
Programme is funded by the aggregation of members’
subscriptions, further augmented by Government support

Membership

dustry staff, whilst relatively low in terms of manpower, iscrucial in shaping the direction and value of the research.
Different companies choose to participate with different levels of manpower, with those who play a more active role deriving proportionally greater benefits.
To date Mobile VCE has generated approaching 40 patentapplications, of which 4 have reached the grant stage (3 European and 1 USA); 18 others have progressed to the national/regional stage. Industrial members have royalty-free
exploitation rights to this IPR. A comprehensive library oftechnical reports is delivered each year on CD-ROM, covering all aspects of the Core Programme. This is complemented by a series of Members’ Technical Seminars, providing opportunities for a much broader base of staff from
Member companies to be familiarised with the results, tools
and resources available to them through Mobile VCE. Raw
data and processed results from propagation research campaigns (SISO, SIMO and MIMO) are also available to members, as are software tools relating to multimedia trafficplanning, channel models and other topics.
These membership benefits are seen as of varying importance by different members, reflecting their size, position androle in the industry. For some companies membership provides a highly cost-effective means to monitor new research directions, threats and opportunities across a wide field, without
the need to fund large in-house research activities. For others,quite the converse is true – the programme of Mobile VCE is
used to inform a larger internal programme, to help shape its
strategic direction. Another group sees royalty-free access to
the growing pool of IPR as important, whilst for others, the interaction with the academic researchers is seen as a way ofkeeping their staff sharp and aware of new research trends or
as a means of recruiting key research staff.

Industrial Members join Mobile VCE on payment of an annual
membership fee and acceptance of the MemoranCore 1
Core 2
Core 3
Core 4dum and Articles of Association of the company,
and upon signing a Deed of Adherence to the com- Networks
pany’s IPR Agreement. In 2003 Mobile VCE had
Networks & Services
23 industrial members, including many top inter- Services
national players in the mobile telecommunicaInterworking of Networks
tions industry – see Table 1 – each paying an annual subscription of £36k / £72k, for Class 1 / Terminals
Wireless AccessClass 2 membership respectively. Members’ annual subscriptions sustain ‘Core’ research Radio Environment
programmes, with membership viewed as a
Wireless Enablers
long-term commitment, rather than simply as a
one-year decision; the costs, taken over a typical
Software Based Systems
Core Programme period of 3-4 years, are however
remarkably low compared to the benefits.
Personal Distributed Environment
Mobile VCE delivers value to its Industrial
Members in many ways, the main ones beingsummarised in Table 2. As noted earlier, the
1999
2002
2005
philosophy of Mobile VCE ties its research into 1997
industrial reality – the contribution of the in- Figure 2 Evolution of Mobile VCE’s Core Research Agenda
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

17

Academic Members, who staff the research teams,
must meet a tough set of objective criteria, a key one
being a proven and clearly demonstrable track record– not just potential – of excellence in relevant research. Ongoing performance, assessed through formal review by the Industrial Members, determines
the level and areas of participation in future research programmes, thereby ensuring Mobile VCE
maintains the highest quality, as befits a true Centreof Excellence. Whilst such procedures mean thatmembership of Mobile VCE is not a ‘cosy club’ for academics – far from it – the universities clearly benefit
from their participation, not least through the explicit recognition of quality that accompanies membership and which thus helps them to attract international, high quality, staff. Perhaps one of the moststrategically important benefits for the universities,
however, is the input regarding research directions
that they receive from a wide breadth of Industry
representatives through Mobile VCE’s SteeringGroups.

Modus Operandi

New Services and Revenue Streams

Satellite
Broadcast
SDR Control
Reconfigure

High rate

RRM

VAA

Tight/loose
coupling
AgentsService
Management

LocationMIMO
All IP

OFDM

Distributed
DevicesAccessManagement

Mobility
Management
Security

WLAN
PANInterworking
Multi-device

DigitalMarket-place

PDE

VisionWireless
Air
Interface

Networks

User
Interaction

Industrial Members have full access to the Mobile VCE Figure 3 Key Elements and Pillars of Mobile VCE’s Core 3
Core Research Programme, technical reports and re- Research Programme
search teams, as well as the opportunity to participate
in Industrial Steering Groups, established for each of theCore ResearchCore Programme work areas. Steering Groups typically comprise some 8-15 Industrial Members who meet quarterly to
Two types of research activities are undertaken by Mobile
monitor, review and direct the research activities, identifying
VCE, integrated research programmes available to all Mempatent proposals and approving publications. Each Steering
bers – ‘Core Research’ – and research for just one or a few InGroup is chaired by a senior Industrial Member.
dustrial Members – ‘Elective Research’. Both types ofprogramme (described more fully below) are defined jointly
The appointment of senior industry technologists, fromby industrial members (usually specifying objectives) and by
the operational as well as the research parts of their compalead academics (usually proposing technical approaches).
nies, to chair and participate in these groups allows for a
They are monitored and steered by Steering Groups and arevery strong input to the academics. It secures a higher deundertaken usually by combined teams from more than one
gree of industrial relevance than is achieved in most otheruniversity, selected to match expertise to requirement. Formodels of collaborative research. And yet, the structure andmal research contracts are placed by Mobile VCE with its Acownership of Mobile VCE ensures that such industrial releademic Members. The research is monitored by the Indusvance is achieved without compromising either thetrial Steering Groups and overseen by the Mobile VCE office,long-term nature of the research or its academic integrity.
which provides a central hub for management, communicaWhilst such involvement demands a high degree of committion and information dissemination
ment, experience has shown that those Industrial Members
who participate actively in this way reap substantial benefits.
Core Research Programmes represent substantial inteSteering Group membership provides an avenue to direct thegrated programmes of research, funded by pooling memresearch, to secure early access to its results, to network withbers’ subscriptions, augmented by competitively-won Govother members of the mobile industry on a regular basis and,ernment grants (see Figure 1). The evolution of the scope offrom time to time, the opportunity to recruit top quality rethe Core Research Programmes is shown in Figure 2, which
search staff.
illustrates the way in which the research agenda has developed, to reflect the evolution of mobile services and conseThe research within each work area is undertaken by colquent industry requirements.
laborative teams, comprising personnel usually from two or
more universities. Co-ordination of these pan-university
The Core 1 Programme (1997-2000) was a 50 manyear
teams is managed by an Academic Co-ordinator, a senior staff
programme, with four distinct work areas – Networks, Sermember – Lecturer or Professor – from one of the member Univices, Terminals and Radio Environment [3]. Whilst the foversities who acts in support of the Industrial Steering Groupcus of this was primarily 3G systems, some of its outputs
Chairman. Innovative ‘carrot and stick’ mechanisms havewere used, for example, for 2.5G deployment, and otherproven to be very effective in encouraging the universities tofirmly beyond 3G. The vision for the Core 2 Programme
deploy high quality creative staff within the Mobile VCE(1999-2003) was described in [4], and was more substantial
teams, to collaborate closely across traditional boundaries andin scope, with an effort of over 100 man-years, structured
to identify valuable IPR. Joint pan-university research has
into three work areas – Networks & Services, Wireless Acachieved more than simply the sum of the parts, as unanticicess, Software Based Systems. The enlargement of the staffpated opportunities to leverage research activities have been
ing for Core 2 enabled Mobile VCE to widen its academic
identified. Complex software simulation tools have also beenbase, embracing an increased emphasis on mobile computcreated in a composite manner across multiple research instiing, middleware, agent technology and security, completutions. When Mobile VCE was first established such collabomenting, and building upon, foundational strengths inrative achievements were just hopes, but have become reality.
wireless access, software radio, networks and services.
18

IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

As we look forward at future evolution of
the cellular industry, beyond the relatively
short term evolutions being developed by
3GPP, three distinct geographical emphases
have emerged over the past two years – thesehave been presented at various international
conferences; indeed these perspectives havealso been hotly debated within the ITU-R
Working Party 8F over this same period [1].
From Asia a requirement has been identified
for high bit rate wireless access (100Mb/s
wide area, 1Gb/s short range), reflecting the
rapid rollout of wired broadband and a sensethat in the relatively near future users will
require such access to be provided wirelessly.
In Japan, NTT DoCoMo have implemented a
testbed using their VSF-OFCDM wirelessFigure 4 Mobile VCE session at recent ITU-R WG8F meeting in Edinburgh
access technology [5], which continues to betrialled at the present time. In North Amerimembers with an easy route for cost-effective pre-develcan the dramatic growth of wireless LAN, combined with theopment of emerging technology, bridging the gap between
wireless industry downturn, has resulted in a focus on shorter
research and product development and ensuring that theterm issues such as WLAN-based technology concepts [6] andcompanies have direct access to the relevant researchers,
IEEE 802.20 wireless WAN [7]. Meanwhile, in Europe the foeasing the transition from research to product. Recent recus, largely led by the early 6th Framework agenda, has tended
search in this category has included an adaptive antenna
to be upon reconfigurable networks [8] and interworking behandset demonstrator, which has been shown to elimitween mobile and other networks, such as digital broadcastingnate fades. New elective programmes just commencing
networks [9].
include research on ultrawideband and a software deReflecting the geographical composition of its industrial
fined radio experimental programme.
membership, Mobile VCE’s Core 3 Programme (2002-2005),
contains key elements of all the above themes, see Figure 3,
which illustrates interrelationships between the main three
The International Dimension
work areas:
Mobile VCE began life as a national initiative but today has✦ ‘Wireless Enablers’ encompasses work on novel air inglobal impact, reflecting the international composition of its
terface technologies and implementations, for bothindustrial membership and the focus of its research agenda,
high-speed PAN and wide area coverage. Part of thiswith member companies making full use of today’s IT tools
approach includes a novel MIMO-based propagation
to circulate its outputs to their research groups across nameasurement campaign and exploration of flexible
tional boundaries.
multi-standard hardware implementation.
Formal collaboration exists with Yokosuka Research✦ ‘Interworking of Networks’ includes research on secure
Park, YRP, in Japan, who hosted a Mobile VCE event ininternetworking of mobile networks with digital broad2002 [11]; a second regional event in Asia is under considercast, WLAN and personal networks. This is based upon
ation, as are researcher secondments to Japan.
an ‘arms-length’, rather than convergent, philosophy,
A similar MoU exists with the SDR Forum, which has inreflecting the industrial reality of the distrust that excluded Mobile VCE research in its responses to the FCC’s
ists between the broadcast and telecommunications inNotices of Inquiry into SDR. The Forum supported a recent
dustry – both believe in convergence, but each industry‘by-invitation’ Round Table event on the impact of SDR [12],would prefer it to be under their own control [10].
attended by spectrum regulators from Europe, Asia and✦ The ‘Personal Distributed Environment’ distinctive isNorth America.
its focus upon the challenges of the user’s individual inStrategic research overviews from Mobile VCE’s acaformation environment, to provision new services in a
demic members are regularly contributed into the Wirelessworld of multiple short-range interlinked wireless deWorld Research Forum, whilst infeed to ITU-R WP8F is also
vices and ubiquitous service access. Such personalised
increasing. Whilst overview publications are fed into suchservices will become increasingly essential to ARPU
fora, as well as into international research conferences andgrowth in the saturated voice markets of the developed
refereed journals, access to the detailed technical researchworld, but to succeed will require easy, flexible and effireports, software tools etc, remains limited to industrial
cient management of user services and devices.
member companies.

Elective Programmes

Moving Forward...

In addition to its Core research, Mobile VCE also undertakes ‘Electives’ – research programmes of interest to a
subset of the industrial membership and in which members may choose (‘elect’) or decline to participate. Suchprogrammes are funded by either a single company or
jointly by a group of companies with common interest. For
such programmes, access to results and any consequent
IPR is restricted to those who elect to fund the work. Suchprogrammes may build on prior Core Research, providing

Mobile VCE – the Virtual Centre of Excellence in Mobile &Personal Communications – is now 8 years old. Initiallytrading on promise and the goodwill of the industry, thecompany has delivered tangible benefits to its Members andhas evolved from merely a national initiative to become an
important player on the world stage. Effective structuresand mechanisms have resulted in a high and sustained degree of research achievement, whilst the value and effectiveness of its Industrial Steering Groups has encouraged

December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

19

companies to resource these with high quality staff. Together these result in a very effective industry input to thework and enable member companies to derive direct benefits themselves. International recognition of the Core
Programme research outputs has been accompanied by afresh thrust into important new areas reflecting key priorities of today’s industry.
For further information on industrial membership please
see the Mobile VCE website www.mobilevce.com or e-mailfuture.wireless@mobilevce.com

References[1] ITU-R Working Party 8F ‘IMT2000 and Systems Bethyond’, Edinburgh, Scotland, 8 October 2003, including
the Services & Market Aspects Workshop, jointly organised by Mobile VCE with ITU-R WP8F
[2] ‘European research in mobile and personal communications perspectives for the future’, J. M. Pereira, International Seminar on Broadband Communications, 2002
[3] Several articles summarising the research achievements of the Core 1 Programme appeared in IEE Electronics & Communications Engineering Journal, December 2000
[4] ‘Visions of 4G’, K Baughan, BG Evans & WHW
Tuttlebee, IEE Electronics & Communications Engineering Journal, December 2000
[5] ‘Variable Spreading Factor Orthogonal Frequency and
Code Division Multiplexing (VSF-OFCDM)’, H.
Atarashi, M. Sawahashi, Third International Workshop
on Multi-Carrier Spread Spectrum (MC-SS 2001) & Related Topics, pp. 113-122, Oberpfafenhofen, Sept.2001[6] ‘4G: An Idea whose Time has Come?’, P Henry, 4G ‘Forum,
London, UK, April 2003 http://www.research.att.com/areas/wireless/Mobile_Interdomain_Roaming/Cellular_WLANs/4GForum.pdf[7] IEEE 802.20 Mobile Broadband Wireless Access(MBWA), http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/20/[8] IST Mobile, Satellite & Personal Communications,
Programmes and Action Lines http://www.cordis.lu/
ist/ka4/mobile/calls/areas.htm[9] Broadcast – Mobile Convergence/Synergy Conference,rd
Oc tober
2003,
M e tz,Fr anc e,
22-23
http://tdfint.iside.net/article/archive/1591/[10]‘Interworking – not Convergence’, WHW Tuttlebee et al,European Broadcasting Union Technical Review, January 2003
[11]Future Mobile Evolution Symposium, Yokosuka Rethsearch Park, Japan, 15 April 2002[12]International Regulatory Round Table on Software Dethfined Radio, London, England, 15 September 2003,
http://www.radio.gov.uk/topics/research/topics/converge-new-emerging/sdr/sdr-index.htm
Walter Tuttlebee joined Mobile VCE as Executive Director in
December 1999, with a background in R&D management
and business development in personal communications.
With his previous company Dr Tuttlebee was a key player in
the initiation of major research programmes, including theEuropean FRAMES programme that significantly shaped
3G standards. His activities in short range wireless communications and software radio – editing several books and creating a global web community (www.dectweb.com) – involve
him in chairing and speaking at industry conferences on
DECT, Bluetooth, SDR and related technologies.
Dr Tuttlebee has BSc and PhD degrees from Southampton
University and an MBA from Cranfield. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.
Virtual Centre of Excellence in Mobile & PersonalCommunications – Mobile VCE,
Grove House, Basingstoke, RG24 8AG, UK
Email: walter.tuttlebee@mobilevce.com
Web: www.mobilevce.com

Joint Rail Conference
6-8 April 2004, Baltimore, Maryland
The annual ASME/IEEE Joint Rail Conference, sponsored by the ASME Rail Transportation Division and the Land Transportation Division of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, offers a unique and comprehensive technical forum. Join your peers to share information, learn about technological progress, and share operating experience at the 2004 Joint
Rail Conference, in Baltimore, Maryland. This year’s theme is Applying technology for system improvements.
Seventeen electronic and electrical papers will be presented at the conference. Abstracts ofthese papers will be published in the next issue, but in the meantime for details and registration
information, see http://www.asmeconferences.org/JRC04/

20

IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

Automotive Electronics
Bill Fleming, Senior Editor

DaimlerChrysler’s 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee offers a Navigation Radio option that combines radio, CD-player, andDVD-navigation using a front-face 4.2-inch color display
screen on the radio. Most of DaimlerChrysler’s vehicles alsooffer SIRIUS commercial-free 100-channel satellite radio,along with Uconnect Bluetooth wireless hands-free communications which allow customers to use their personal cellular phones placed anywhere in the vehicle [1].
General Motors debuts an industry-first OEM remotestart system on the ’04 Chevy Malibu. The remote transmits up to 200 feet, starts up the climate control as well as
the engine, and (unlike aftermarket add-ons) is fully integrated with the vehicle’s safety and security systems [1].
Radar adaptive cruise control debuts on the ’04 Cadillac
XLR, and includes a heads-up display showing following
distance and driver-set distance interval. The U.S. debut ofspeed-sensitive electric power steering was on the ’03 Saturn ION, and has now been added to the ’04 Saturn VUE,
Pontiac Grand Am and Chevrolet Malibu [1].
Honda has introduced a variable-displacement 3.0-L V-6 engine on their Inspire model sold in Japan. It’s said to offer thefuel economy of a 4-cylinder engine (27 mpg) when cruising, ordeliver as much as 250 hp when accelerating [2]. This Honda
engine control, which cuts back to half its cylinders while cruising, is similar to GM’s displacement-on-demand 8-cylinder control system [3]. However, the Honda system features active/electronic engine mounts that reduce vibration and noiseusing 180-degree out-of-phase feedback.

general population. (For reference, the general population
belt use rate last year in the U.S. reached an all-time high of
79 percent). Volkswagen of America conducted an informal
poll of hundreds of high school students, and it was foundthat the most common reasons for teens not wearing seatbelts were [5]:✦ 32% said: “peer pressure,” it was uncool, or embarrassing✦ 30% said: “uncomfortable,” it was too constricting, andwrinkled clothes✦ 20% said: “unnecessary,” because they were only traveling short distances✦ 18% said: “nothing would happen,” because they felt
invincible
Tragically, like a death wish come true, of the more than
5000 teenagers who were killed in crashes in 2001, only 33%
were wearing seat belts. (Belts are known to be the single
most effective safety devices, and their use statisticallywould have saved nearly half of these teens’ lives).
Another survey, conducted at San Diego State University
identified the following dangerous attitudes regarding traffic safety among a group of 2,310 California teens [5]:✦ poor examples of safe driving from friends and parents✦ video games that emphasize speeding and evading police✦ popularity of movies that glorify reckless driving✦ teens felt they were speeding only if they were driving
around or above 90 mph✦ 62% of the teens admitted to having been in a car during activities such as drunk driving, drag racing, reckless driving, etc.

More Driver Distraction Studies

In-Vehicle Wireless Parking Meters

A study conducted by the University of South Florida on patterns of driver response to in-vehicle cell phone distraction
showed that [4]:✦ older drivers had longer brake response times than
younger drivers✦ cell-phone distraction had a greater influence on females’ brake response time compared to males.
A second study conducted by Miami University using subjects in a vehicle simulator showed that [4]:✦ whether a conversation was conducted in person or via
cell phone, in either case the conversation caused brakereactions times to slow
✦ it was concluded that hands-free phones could not totally alleviate the problem of performance impairment
when using a cell phone

The French company, EPARK, has developed a wireless aid
for street parking. Their new system, called MobilPark, allows motorists to pay parking fees directly from their car.
Parking meter fees are paid electronically via mobile/cellular telephone, or via Internet/wireless (WiFi, Bluetooth,etc.) [6]. Extension of parking time can similarly be done remotely, using bank account or credit card e-transactions.
On the other hand, parking enforcement is also done remotely and more efficiently, by replacing the usual paper
ticket violation with automated electronic billing of thedriver’s account.

2004 Model Year Technologies

Teens’ Attitudes/Resistance to Traffic Safety
Teenagers in the U.S. have the lowest safety belt use rate,
which is as much as 20 percentage points below that of the
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

Audio Spotlight Update
Two years ago, this news column described the audio spotlight, under development by c ollaboration ofDaimlerChrysler and M.I.T.’s Media Lab [7]. Only vehicle
occupants sitting directly in projected ultrasonic beams ofsound will hear the audio in that beam. This allows occupants to listen to their stations/sound-play of choice, with21

out earphones, without disturbing each other. Two companies have pursued further development of this technology.
One company is a spin-off from M.I.T. — this company is
Holosonic Research Labs, Watertown, MA, and their product is called The Audio Spotlight [8]. The other company,
American Technology Corp., San Diego, CA, developed aproduct called HyperSonic Sound Technology [9], [10].
While working independently of each other, these two companies developed similar audio-beam products.
To obtain highly directional sound beams using reasonable-size loudspeakers, audio is transmitted via an ultrasound carrier wave, which is amplitude-modulated. No
sound is heard outside the beam, but occupants seatedwithin the beams hear the sound. The sound is heard because amplitude-modulated ultrasonic carrier wave is demodulated (by the nonlinear interaction of the AM-modulated ultrasound beam in the medium of ordinary air). The
demodulation of sound only occurs in the volume of air uponwhich the beam is focused, so persons outside the beam
don’t hear the sound.
In essence, the audio spotlight serves simply as a replacement for earphones. Since today’s earphones are evolving
into wireless types, it’s uncertain whether the audio spotlight’s earphone-free convenience advantages will offset theless expensive, higher-fidelity, and noise-eliminating features of earphones [11].

Heads-Up Input Device
HoloTouch Inc. (Darien, CT) has developed a virtual control
panel that seems to float in air. Holography and wave-sensor technologies are combined. A holographic image of, forexample, a numeric input keyboard is projected in front of,and aside, the driver’s forward view above the instrument
panel [12]. When the driver puts a finger into the image
space corresponding to a projected entry key, a wave sensor(either infrared or acoustic) detects finger presence in thatspace, thereby determining which “virtual button” was“pushed.” The HoloTouch input device can be used to enter aphone number, or to input a set speed for speed control, etc.
[Editor’s Note. Given current progress with voice recognition, future applications of the HoloTouch virtual control
panel may be limited].

Safety-Critical Data Bus Choice
A year ago, this news column described the inability of
automakers to agree on a common data bus configuration
for use in safety-critical by-wire control systems [13]. In August of this year, Volkswagen AG bolted from the TTA(Time-Triggered Architecture) group and joined the majority of automakers who already belong to the FlexRay Consortium [14]. The only major automakers not yet committed
to any standards-based safety-critical architecture are Toyota, Honda, and Nissan.

California Treaty Opens Way toHybrid/Fuel Cell Vehicles
This summer, automakers and the State of California settled their legal differences, setting the stage for the emergence of hybrid and/or fuel cell vehicles while likely writing
off the broad acceptance of battery-powered purely electricvehicles [15], [16]. To achieve California’s low emissions
goals, the new regulation calls for a 10-percent sales target
by allowing a combination of hybrid (gasoline-electric),
cleaner gasoline-powered engines, fuel cell vehicles, andbattery-powered electric vehicles. Phase-in begins in 2005,
and completion of the 10-percent goal is targeted for 2008.
22

Pure electric vehicles still get full zero-emission credits. Indeed, DaimlerChrysler is currently selling golf-cart-likeneighborhood runabout pure electrics that receive full credits. There are also some ultraclean gasoline-only vehicles
that currently qualify for partial zero-emission credit (e.g.,
Ford Focus, Nissan Sentra, Toyota Camry, Honda Accord/Civic and BMW 325).
Over the past ten years, approximately 800 pure electricvehicles were leased (automakers didn’t sell them due tobattery warranty concerns and to maintain control of thecars). Drivers who didn’t drive very far liked electric vehicles; whereas other drivers disliked their limited range,
long recharge time, and higher cost [16]. A particularly serious problem was battery cost. While devices such as laptop
computers and cell phones could afford batteries costing$1000/kW-hr, electric vehicle batteries needed to be 90-percent less expensive, something battery suppliers neverachieved. Another limitation with electric-vehicle batteries
was their unacceptably low energy density (which ranged
between 70 and 100 W-hr/kg).
On the other hand, hybrid/gasoline-electric Toyotas andHondas are presently selling well. Moreover, each Big 3
automaker plans to introduce hybrids by the end of thisyear. It’s estimated that up to 600,000 hybrids will be in California within 8 years (that’s 1 in every 50 vehicles on theroad there in 2011). In addition, General Motors has announced a hub electric motor technology where electric
drive motors are packaged in the center of each vehicle’s
wheel [17]. Hub motors will enable GM to more easily convert front- or rear-wheel-drive vehicles into all-wheel-drive
hybrid vehicles without radically re-engineering the vehicle
platform. A hub-motor hybrid powertrain is currently being
evaluated on a Chevrolet S10 pickup. Liquid-cooled hub
motors add a combined 68 hp and boost torque by 36 percent. Since the motors directly drive the wheels — transmissions, driveshafts, and axles are not required; thereby
minimizing friction losses, and simplifying conversion-to-hybrid effort. GM’s R&D vice president, Burns, says
that, “hub motors have the potential to enable ordinary vehicles to have sports car performance as well as improved
fuel economy [17].”
A wild card in the mix is the fuel cell-powered, “skateboard-like-platform,” vehicle that General Motors plans tostart selling by 2010. But as described in the following VTSNews item, fuel cell vehicles may be facing more technicalchallenges than one might think.

Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Vehicle Technology
Challenges“As far as I know, no one who is technically literate is an enthusiastic supporter of fuel-cell powered vehicles,” said
Donald Sadoway, professor of materials engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and nationally recognized battery expert [18]. “At technical and scientific meetings, we’re hearing nothing to lead us to the conclusion that
there’s been a big scientific breakthrough in fuel cells,” said
Elton Cairns, professor of chemical engineering, U-Calif.-Berkley, and developer of electric-vehicle batteries for
General Motors during the 1970s [18]. The key obstacle facing fuel cell researchers continues to be the need for large
amounts of costly precious metals — usually platinum.
Safety hazards must also be addressed [19]. Fuel cells
use pressurized hydrogen, which is more flammable and explosive than gasoline. Hydrogen burns with a clear flame, isodorless, prone to leak, and can embrittle some metals. Typical added safety provisions — used, for example, on aIEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

Honda FCX limited-lease fuel cell vehicle — include: hydrogen sensors to detect leaks (and shut off valves and activate
ventilation), dual refilling cap doors (to remind the operator
to first ground the vehicle before refilling to avoid
static-charge ignition of the hydrogen), and tanks pressurized to 5000 psi (reinforced to withstand pressures that areabout 160 times higher than those in vehicle tires). To summarize, Cairns believes that, “the auto industry is building
up public expectations for something that may not materialize — it simply isn’t going to happen unless we see some major breakthroughs [18].”

References
1. G. Witzenburg, “U.S. ‘Big 3’ 2004 Technology Highlights,” Automotive Industries, pp.28-30; Aug. 2003
2. Y. Yamaguchi, “Honda V-6 Cruises On 3 Cylinders,” Automotive News, p.25; July 7, 2003
3. W. Fleming, “Cylinders-On-Demand Debut,” IEEE VTSNews, p. 27; Feb. 2002.
4. “Studies Examine Relation of Phones to Driver Distraction, Braking,” Highway & Vehicle / Safety Report, p. 7;
Aug. 4, 2003
5. “Two Studies Examine Teens’ Resistance to Traffic
Safety,” Highway & Vehicle / Safety Report, pp. 6-7;
June 23, 2003
6. “Parking Meter Uses Electronic and Mobile-Phone
Technologies,” Microwaves & RF, p.24; June 2003

7. W. Fleming, “Future Automotive Electronics Functions— Audio Spotlight,” IEEE VTS News, p. 25; Feb. 2001.
8. Holosonic Research Labs, Watertown, MA, web link:www.holosonics.com, accessed Aug. 29, 2003.
9. American Technology Corp., San Diego, CA, web link:
www.atcsd.com, accessed Aug. 29, 2003.
10. “Focus Sound Just Like a Laser Beam,” Electronic Design, p. 12; Aug. 4, 2003.
11. J. Lee, “An Audio Spotlight Creates a Personal Wall ofSound,” The New York Times on the web, 3 pages; May
15, 2001 (accessed Aug. 29, 2003).
12. “Controls That Float in Midair,” Machine Design, p. 54;
June 5, 2003
13. W. Fleming, “Automotive Safety Data Bus,” IEEE VTSNews, p.19; Aug. 2002.
14. C. Murray, “Volkswagen Exit Puts Fate of TTA Body in
Doubt,” Electronic Engr. Times, p. 6; Aug. 11, 2003.
15. H. Stoffer, “Treaty Gives Green Light for Hybrids,” Automotive News, pp.4 and 46; Aug. 18, 2003
16. C. Murray, “Deal Clears the Way for Fuel Cell Cars in
California,” Electronic Engr. Times, p. 10; Aug. 18, 2003.
17. R. Truett, “GM: Hub Motors May Come by ‘10,” Automotive News, pp.4 and 49; Aug. 18, 2003.
18. C. Murray, “Fuel Cell R&D is Far from Easy Street,”Electronic Engr. Times, pp.12-13; May 26, 2003.
19. H. Stoffer, “Safety Hazards Cloud Hydrogen’s Bright
Promises,” Automotive News, pp.30-31; July 21, 2003

Mobile Radio
Javier Gozalvez, Senior Editor

WRC-03 and Spectrum Licenses
The World Radiocommunication Conference 2003 (WRC-03),
the international forum where Members States gather to revise an international treaty known as the Radio Regulations,concluded with a number of landmark decisions. WRC-03 successfully established new frequency allocations to the mobile
service in the bands 5150-5350 MHz and 5470-5725 MHz forthe implementation of wireless access systems including
RLANs. The lower part of the 5 GHz spectrum will be predominantly used for indoor applications with the first 100MHz(5150-5250 MHz) restricted to indoor use. The use of these frequency bands is conditional to provisions that provide for interference mitigation mechanisms and power emission limits
to avoid interference into other radiocommunication services
operating in the same spectrum range. Regarding systems beyond IMT-2000, the ITU will study technical and operational
issues relating to the future development of IMT–2000 andsystems beyond IMT-2000, and develop Recommendations as
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

required. These studies will also take into consideration theparticular needs of developing countries, including use of thesatellite component of IMT-2000 for suitable coverage of thesecountries. ITU delegates at WRC-03 approved a resolutionthat will pave the way for the deployment of new technologies
for wideband and broadband public protection and disaster relief applications. At present, public protection and disaster relief applications are mostly narrow-band supporting voice andlow data-rate applications. It is anticipated that many futureapplications will be wideband-based (with data rates in therange of 384-500 kbit/s) and/or broadband-based (with data
rates in the range of 1-100 Mbit/s). The assembly urged countries to use regionally harmonized bands for public protection
and disaster relief to the maximum extent possible. The issueof high altitude platform stations (HAPS) was the topic ofmuch negotiation during the conference. While the decision to
deploy HAPS can be taken on a national basis, such deployment may affect neighbouring administrations, particularly23

in small countries. This decision includes a new resolution on
the potential use of the bands 27.5-28.35 GHz and 31-31.3
GHz by HAPS in the fixed service. Results of some ITU studies
indicate that in these bands, sharing between the fixed service
systems using HAPS and other conventional fixed service systems in the same area will require that appropriate interference mitigation techniques are developed and implemented.
ITU will continue studies on technical and regulatory fronts.
It will also study sharing between systems using HAPS andthe radio astronomy service. More information on other resolutions adopted can be found in http://www.itu.int/newsroom/wrc03/PressReport.html
Hi3G Access has been awarded a license to offer 3G services
in Norway. The company is expected to provide at least 30%
population coverage within 6 years. Luxcommunications has
been awarded Luxembourg´s fourth 3G license in exchange ofa payment corresponding to 0.2% of their revenues for 15
years. Tele2 has received a 3G license in Estonia. The Swedish
operator has also acquired a GSM900 license in the Republicof Udmurtia, Russia. Tele2 has already GSM1800 networks in
Russia. Switzerland’s telecommunications regulator has
opened a tender for additional frequencies, three licenses of
3.8MHz each, that excludes the three existing GSM operators.
Guinea-Bissau has launched an international call for tenders for a license to build and operate a GSM network.
Namibia has also launched a tender for a second GSM license
in the country. Cayman Islands has issued nine telecoms licenses, including mobile ones, with the aim to break the local
monopoly of Cable & Wireless. Winners of these licenses include AT&T Wireless, Cellular One and Digicel.

3G News
Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Siemens mobile have announced the completion of a jointly developed Push to talkover Cellular (PoC) specification based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as defined by 3GPP. The PoC specification leverages existing 3GPP, OMA, and IETF specifications
making the service easy to integrate in operators’ existing
access and packet core network infrastructures. The PoC
specification is a bundle of six specifications including: Requirements, Architecture, Signalling Flows, Group/List
Management, and two User-plane specifications (Transportand GPRS).
Nokia has started shipments of its Nokia 6650 mobile
phone, the first mobile phone in the market capable of seamless handovers between GSM and WCDMA systems in adual-mode network. Consumers will be able to enjoy global
roaming on all GSM900/1800 networks globally as well as
on WCDMA networks in Japan and Europe. Also,
Qualcomm has announced successful WCDMA (UMTS)
field trials in operators’ networks in Asia, Europe and North
America. Using the company’s TM6200 test mobile,
Qualcomm has successfully tested WCDMA (UMTS) circuit
switched data, packet switched data, GPRS data, and
WCDMA (UMTS) and GSM voice - both in the multiple
WCDMA (UMTS) and GSM/GPRS frequency bands and on
the multiple networks supported by a majority of the worldwide infrastructure providers.
NEC has announced that it has realized an advanced new
telecom platform. The first product based on the new platform for mobile operators are new SGSN and GGSN, apacket core node which can handle large-volume IP packet
transmission applications such as video streaming and GPS
services in 3G systems. According to the manufacturer, thenew platform is the world’s first working model of an Advanced-TCA(TM) (ATCA) based commercial product. ATCA
24

is the world standard for the basic architecture of thenext-generation highly advanced telecom platform set by
PICMG (PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group)
Forum. On the ATCA architecture, the new platform also
employs carrier-grade Linux and NEC’s middleware.
NEC will soon deliver the new SGSN and GGSN productto its first user, NTT DoCoMo, for an evaluation test. The
new products will eventually operate in the 3G FOMA service network.
NTT DoCoMo has announced the development of microbase stations for the 3G FOMA network that are up to
1/30th the size of conventional base stations. The service
area of the FOMA service has expanded steadily, and willreach 96% of the population nationwide by the end of September. The micro base stations will allow DoCoMo to expand FOMA service more economically and with greater
flexibility for adaptation to operational environments. The
micro base stations have both outdoor and indoor applications. In outdoor areas with low population densities, thestations’ low cost enables DoCoMo to install enough units toensure necessary coverage on an economical basis. For indoor applications in buildings and underground malls,
where installation spaces are limited, an external antenna
allows the stations to be placed out of the way without sacrificing signal strength. For the indoor applications, DoCoMoplans to have a total of 1,600 conventional and micro basestations in operation nationwide by the end of March 2004,
and will increase this number to 3,000 by the end of March
2005. The Japanese operator has also announced that a newservice starting October 1, 2003 will enable 3G FOMA
videophones to make international videophone calls and 64
Kbps transmissions to the UK in cooperation with
Hutchison 3G UK. With the new service, they will also beable to make face-to-face contact via videophone and dial directly into private LANs via data transmissions. Hutchison
has announced that its 3 operation in the UK has now
155000 subscribers with 70% of the population already covered, including all major cities. In Italy, the operator has
300000 subscribers.
Huawei Technologies has announced the first R4-based
IP video call on WCDMA ever made in China. The company
has made the call in its own WCDMA pilot networks, using
commercial WCDMA handsets and its R4 network equipment. 3GPP R4 is the first step of WCDMA towards an all-IP
multimedia era. Leveraging soft-switch architecture,
Huawei’s WCDMA core network can substantially increase
the efficiency of the whole network and reduce OPEX by alarge margin. The manufacturer has also announced thatthe company has made a successful demonstration of 3G
MMS (Multimedia Messaging Services) on its trial network
of WCDMA. The trial showcased an interconnectivity callcompleted between WCDMA commercial handset and GSM
handset supporting MMS.
Nokia has announced what it claims is the world’s first
cdma2000 1xEV-DV high-speed packet data phone call. The
call, achieving a peak data rate of 3.09 Mbps, was made between a test set based on a commercially available Nokia
2285 handset upgraded with a Nokia 1xEV-DV chipset anda Racal Instruments, Wireless Solutions Group, 1xEV-DV
basestation emulator. According to the Finish manufacturer, this chipset is the world’s first to support complete
1xEV-DV Release C functionality. cdma2000 1xEV-DV, also
known as IS-2000 Release C, delivers a maximum forward
link data rate that is 20 times greater than the peak rate deployed in today’s IS-2000 Release 0 CDMA networks. Furthermore, IS-2000 Release C provides typical user throughIEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

put of 1 Mbps in a 1.25 MHz frequency channel andsystem-wide throughput that ranges from 420 Kbps to 1.7
Mbps depending upon traffic and channel conditions.
Saigon Post and Telecommunications Co has commercially launched its cdma2000 1X network, covering 12 provinces and cities in Vietnam. The CDMA Development Group(CDG) has announced that the 3G CDMA2000 subscriberbase reached 54 million in June, an increase of nearly four
million from the previous month. According to the EMC
World Cellular Database, CDMA2000 is by far the mostwidely used technology to access wireless data across theglobe. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing CDMA2000 region
in the world, fuelled by subscriber expansion in the key markets of Japan, China and India. Latin America, including
the Caribbean, is another rapidly expanding market forCDMA2000 with 22 commercial CDMA2000 networks in
the region, and four more expected to be operational by theend of 2003.
The Organizational Partners of the Third Generation
Partnership Project (3GPP) have approved an applicationby the TD-SCDMA Forum to become a Market Representation Partner within the project. Established in December
2000, the TD-SCDMA Forum brings to 3GPP its commitment to promote the Time Division – Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access technology (TD-SCDMA) as part of
the global family of 3rd Generation technologies.
TD-SCDMA has been developed by the Chinese WirelessTelecommunications Standards group, CWTS, and has been
included in the specifications of 3GPP since 2001. Siemensand Huawei Technologies have signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding to form a joint venture to develop, manufacture and market TD-SCDMA technology. Manufacturingand Marketing efforts of the joint venture will initially be focused on China while emphasizing on the market introduction of TD-SCDMA Radio Access Network (RAN) infrastructure products in a starting phase. TD-SCDMA
infrastructure products are undergoing field tests currently
in China, first commercial products of the joint venture will
be available in China at the beginning of 2004. Nortel Networks and Datang Mobile have also opened a joint laboratory in Beijing in a move to explore the commercialization of
the TD-SCDMA technology in China. Nortel Networks isproviding the core network and Datang Mobile the accessnetwork. The laboratory plans to conduct tests in the areasof interoperability, network performance and system functions based on TD-SCDMA.
IPMobile has received a trial license to deploy a “Mobile
Broadband” trial system using TD-CDMA technology in Japan. The company has built three cell-sites inside Tokyo
with subscribers using PCMCIA cards and modems. Testingof the system in high-speed environments (highways) has
already been conducted.
Cingular Wireless has become the first operator in the US
and worldwide to commercially deploy EDGE. The operator
has launched the service in Indianapolis offering averagedata speeds between 70kbps and 135kbps with peak data
rates of 170kbps. Hong Kong’s CSL has also launched Asia’s
first commercial EDGE network. The initial deployment
targets key locations with a progressive expansion as demand grows.

Location Technology
Motorola has announced the availability of the M12+ Timing Oncore. According to the manufacturer, the new GPS
timing module surpasses industry Six Sigma averages inaccuracy by utilizing the latest timing algorithms developed
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Newsby Motorola. An independent report from the United States
Naval Observatory documents the results of extensive tests
performed on the M12+ Timing Oncore and is available atwww.motorola.com/gps. Motorola’s M12+ Timing Oncore
can be easily integrated into a variety of applications to improve performance. For example, within GSM, the M12+
Timing Oncore enables higher accuracy position measurements from the LMU (Location Measurement Unit) overlay.
Within any cellular system, real time synchronization establishes faster handovers for speech and data services.
Motorola has also launched FS Oncore, a breakthroughminiature Global Positioning System (GPS) product. The
FS Oncore module, smaller than a dime at 200 Sq. mm, isused for adding accurate location sensing to virtually any
portable electronics product. The GPS receiver, designed
specifically for cost-sensitive, high performance applications is capable of supporting autonomous and assisted-GPS functionality, with applications ranging from
cellular handsets and accessories to asset tracking and
PDAs. Features include cameras that will time- and location-stamp photos, PDAs with maps which will offer realtime navigation and E-911 compliant cellular phones.
Nextel Communications and Motorola have announced
the availability of several location-based services, ranging
from voice-enabled driving directions to asset tracking solutions, that can now turn Motorola’s GPS-enabled iDEN mobile phones into sophisticated workforce management andnavigational devices for Nextel customers.

Technology and Research News
Researchers at the University of Missouri-Rolla andMotorola’s Advanced Technology Center in Schaumburg,
are developing three-dimensional switches and tiny fuelcells to improve the reception quality and extend the operating time for wireless communications and other wirelesssensing devices. The use of Meso-MEMS (MEMS stands for
micro-electro-mechanical systems) as switches will not only
improve reception quality, but will save energy. The switch
would enable a cell phone, for example, to be used in any
geographic location by simply changing its frequency operation band. Over the course of four years the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) have contributed $2.6 million
towards the research. In the next phase of the program theresearchers will also be developing tiny fuel cells to power
these wireless devices. The fuel cells would provide power
for these products longer than traditional batteries in such
wireless devices as cell phone. STMicroelectronics has also
reported progress by one of its research teams in developing
tiny fuel cells. In particular, the manufacturer is developing
new technologies in which the fuel cell could be implemented as a 3D structure containing thousands of buried
microchannels that maximise the contact area between thegases, the catalysts and the electrodes. Other areas in which
the company is working includes a special nanoporous layer
and novel membranes that exhibit high proton conductivity
and lower cost than membrane materials that are commercially available today.
UC Irvine researchers have been awarded a grant fromDARPA to develop high-frequency electronic devices basedon nanotubes. The aim of the researchers is to develop
nano-RF signal processing components for wireless communications using the carbon nanotubes.
Researchers at BTExact have developed new technology
that, according to the company, allows conveying actual
emotions in a physical and tactile way through mobile
25

messaging. The technology allows interactive toys to belinked to mobile phones so that SMS communication can bedisplayed through the toys’ actions. The interactive toys are
tuned into their owner’s mobile phone so that, whenever anemotional graphic symbol is sent, the toy displays the emotion that has been communicated.
NTT DoCoMo has announced it will establish a research
center in Beijing, to research and promote the advancementof mobile communications technologies for 4G and beyond.
picoChip Designs has announced the availability of its “3Gbasestation on a CD”, a software reference design for 3G
basestations. The product includes tested algorithms andsource code for WCDMAFDD. The company believes the product can reduce development times for a basestation by up to
50%. The system, which complies with Release 4.2.0 of thestandard, is capable of supporting the full set of 3G voice, data
and video services. The company has also announced what it
claims is the industry’s first High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) solution, an extension to its “3G basestation on aCD” reference design. In addition to WDCMA FDD and
HSDPA, reference designs for TD-SCDMA, 802.16 and otherstandards are under development.
Nokia has introduced what it claims is the first GSM
module for machine-to-machine applications. The Nokia
12 GSM module offers Java-based application development with support for EDGE and location service. The
Nokia 12 is a compact and intelligent GSM module for machine-to-machine, mobile-to-machine and machine-to-mobile (M2M) applications and other wireless solutions thatcan be integrated into devices during assembly. Operatingin the GSM 900/GSM1800 and later also in the GSM
850/1900 bands (Americas region), the Nokia 12 GSM module is planned to be available in Europe, Africa and Asia in
the fourth quarter, 2003.
Metrowerks and Motorola have joined forces to target
wireless device markets based on the Linux operating system. In particular, Motorola’s i.MX1 microprocessor will
support the Metrowerks OpenPDA platform, a development solution based on the Linux operating system for thecreation of next generation wireless devices. The development studio includes a pre-integrated Board Support
Package (BSP), complete with an enhanced Linux operating system kernel with related drivers, as well as
middleware and applications that have been optimized forsystems performance and reliability. The OpenPDA Development Studio also features an intuitive GUI-based development environment.
Verizon Communications has unveiled its ‘One’ phone, aprototype cordless-at-home and cellular phone. The phone,that is developed and manufactured by Axesstel, includes
tri-mode, E-911 compatibility and other features.
Nextel Communications, Motorola and Symbol Technologies, have announced the availability of the first bar code
scanner attachment for mobile phones. The Symbol PSM20i
allows mobile workers to use their phones to collect information wirelessly and in real time. This solution combines theaccuracy and reliability in laser-based bar code scanningwith the extensive voice, data and application capabilities of
Nextel’s Java technology-enabled phones from Motorola.
AT&T Wireless and Microsoft, together with Motorola,
have announced they will offer the first GSM/GPRS-compatible Windows Mobile-based Smartphone for the North
American market — the Motorola MPx200. The newMotorola MPx200 is expected to be available from AT&T
Wireless in the fourth quarter of this year.
26

Radiolinja and PTV have jointly developed what theyclaim is the first mobility services based on traffic information from a mobile communications network.
Radiolinja offers a system which draws traffic information from the movement of mobile phones, while PTV hasdeveloped the front-end that enables access to almost
real-time traffic information.
Cellular Design Services have launched IBiSA, which
they claim is a unique software tool for ensuring thatin-building systems meet coverage requirements. The tool,
which is applicable to 2G, 3G, TETRA and WLAN, is basedon the company’s technology Measurement-based Prediction, MbP.

Mobile Phones and Health Issues
The Portuguese Institute of Telecommunications andVodafone Telcel have developed a project, known as ITEM,
for the continuous measurement of electromagnetic radiation. The aim of the project is to provide the public with accurate and relevant information about electromagnetic radiation. The Institute of Telecommunications is developing,among others, the following activities: carrying out measurements in around four hundred locations, establish a remote measuring network, publish the results on a web site,and prepare studies on the use and methods of monitoring
the emission of electromagnetic radiation. More information can be found in: http://www.lx.it.pt/item/
A new study has reported that the new generation of digital mobile phones can interfere with many types of heart
pacemaker. The authors of the research (researchers fromthe Italian Institute of Health and the Center for Devices
and Radiological Health of the Food and Drug Administration) claim that newer pacemakers fitted with a ceramic filter are immune and recommend all manufacturers to use
these filters.
Qualcomm, together with CardioNet, a provider of mobile outpatient cardiac telemetry technology and services,
have announced that CardioNet’s cardiac monitoring service has been enabled with Qualcomm’s CDMA technology
and wireless networking services. The US manufacturer isproviding the QConnect wireless network management
service to provide connectivity between the CardioNet mobile monitoring devices and the CardioNet Monitoring
Center. Qualcomm’s QConnect service provides the
back-end infrastructure and network management service
that allows the device to wirelessly transmit patient ECG
data to the CardioNet Monitoring Center, and ultimately
deliver succinct, timely information to physicians for diagnosis and therapy management.

US Mobile Market
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has
adopted its Eighth Annual Report on the state of competition in the Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS) industry. The Eighth Report concludes that the CMRS industry is competitive and, during 2002, experienced increased
service availability, lower prices for consumers, and agreater diversity of service offerings. During 2002, the mobile telephone sector generated more than $76 billion in revenues, and the number of mobile telephone subscribers rosefrom 128.5 million to 141.8 million, resulting in a nationwide penetration rate of roughly 49 percent. Broadband
PCS and digital SMR licensees continued to deploy their
networks. To date, 270 million people, or 95 percent of thetotal U.S. population, live in counties with three or more different mobile telephone operators, and more than 236 milIEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

lion people, or 83 percent of the U.S. population, live incounties with five or more operators competing to offer service. During 2002, subscribers’ average monthly cell phone
usage continued to rise and the price per minute of mobile
telephone service continued to fall. Minutes-of-use permonth averaged 427 between June and December 2002, anincrease of 12 percent from 380 during the same period in
2001. Mobile data services have begun to play a more significant role in the CMRS industry. While such services generated only one percent of total industry revenue during 2002,
an estimated 11.9 million, or 8 percent, of the 141.8 million
mobile telephone subscribers at the end of 2002 subscribedto some type of mobile Internet service. An additional 2.3
million consumers subscribed to mobile Internet services on
data-only mobile devices at the end of 2002. It is estimatedthat 20 percent of all mobile telephone subscribers used text
messaging services during the fourth quarter of 2002.
The FCC has asked for public comment on changes to several technical rules in Parts 2 and 15. The rule changes, proposed in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, would permit operators, including wireless internet service providers(WISPs), and device manufacturers to more readily modify
or substitute technically equivalent parts, facilitating increased deployment of broadband services. WISPs use
unlicensed devices to provide a broadband alternative forrural and underserved areas and, while they are a relatively
nascent industry, their deployment rates have been increasing rapidly. In the Notice, the Commission proposes several
rule changes that will remove unnecessary regulatory impediments to deployment of advanced technologies for wireless networking.
The FCC has also adopted a Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing ways to amend its spectrum
regulations and policies in order to promote the continued
rapid and efficient deployment of quality spectrum-based
services in rural America. In the adopted NPRM, the Commission considers a number of issues that could be addressed to help improve wireless services in rural America,
including: modifying construction requirements by allowing all providers of wireless services licensed on a geographic areas basis to demonstrate “substantial service”; toremove or modify regulations that may impede rural service, the Commission also discusses measures to increase
power level flexibility for licensed services in rural areas;
seeks comment on a tentative conclusion to retain the cellular cross-interest rule in RSAs with three or fewer CMRS
competitors; etc.
The FCC has adopted a Report and Order requiring wireless manufacturers and service providers to make digital
wireless phones accessible to the more than 6 million individuals with hearing disabilities that use hearing aids. Specifically, the Commission modified the exemption for wireless phones to require that digital wireless phones becapable of being effectively used with hearing aids. In orderto make digital wireless phones accessible to individuals
who use hearing aids, the Commission found that digital
wireless phone manufacturers and service providers should
be required to take steps to reduce the amount of interference emitted from digital wireless phones and to provide theinternal capability for telecoil coupling. The Commission
also released a Report and Order modifying the statutory
exemption for wireless phones from hearing aid compatibility requirements and establishing compatibility rules for
wireless service providers and handset manufacturers. In
particular, the Order adopts the ANSI C63.19 standard as
the measurement procedure to be used for determining
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

compatibility ratings and sets certain ratings as minimum
performance benchmarks.
The FCC and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) have announced a plan for implementation in
the United States of the Final Acts of the 2003 WorldRadiocommunication Conference. The changes adopted by
the WRC 2003 will directly impact global spectrum use forgovernment and commercial use of the spectrum. The U.S.
achieved its goals at WRC-03 and the FCC, in concert with
NTIA, has developed a plan to implement the results of theConference. Information on the plan and time schedules canbe found at: http://www.fcc.gov/wrc-03/
The FCC has taken further steps to modernize its satellite licensing procedures. These measures will expedite thesatellite licensing process and facilitate public access to the
FCC, particularly regarding satellite license filings. The
new initiative introduces two interactive forms that will facilitate the application process for satellite and earth station licenses.
Cingular Wireless has announced plans for purchasing
NextWave Telecom’s licenses to provide wireless service in
34 markets for $1.4billion. The licenses, 10MHz of broadband PCS (1900MHz) spectrum, covers a potential marketof 83million customers. The US operator also reached anagreement with Unwired Inc to purchase spectrum licenses
and operations in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. Sunshine
PCS has also said it has entered into an agreement with
Cingular to sell three licenses in Florida worth$13.75million. Verizon Wireless has also announced it will
acquire a PCS license from Devon Mobile Communications
to serve the Pittsburgh PA BTA area. Verizon has also
agreed to buy a PCS license and certain network assets
serving the Lebanon, NH BTA. Leap Wireless has announced it has been authorize to sell 15MHz of spectrum ineach of the Idaho Falls and Twin Falls, Idaho markets.
Verizon Wireless has announced the nationwide availability of its Push to Talk service that allows customers toconnect directly with other users.

Industry Forecasts and Surveys
A report released by ARC Group predicts that by the end of
2003 more than 55million consumers worldwide will own
camera-phone handsets, doubling the units sold in 2002.
The study also expects that by 2005, 130million handsetswith camera capability will be shipped globally, whereas thefigure will reach 210million by 2008. Although the company
expects the Asia Pacific region to lead the market, it also expects Europe to improve its market share. In a different report, Datacomm Research predicts that the main reason
why mobile phone subscribers will upgrade to 3G is to download, stream and swap short videos. IDC also forecasts a
178% compound annual growth rate through 2007 in thenumber of wireless Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS)
subscribers, reaching 67million MMS subscribers withcamera-phone handsets and 29million MMS subscribers
without camera-phone handsets.
Research from Nokia shows that mobile email usage is set
to grow 35% in the next 18 months amongst businesses already using mobile phones as enterprises seek to boost competitive advantage from increasingly mobile workforces.
The research polled thousands of small, medium and large
European companies which provide mobile telephones to
employees and have mobile workers. The Nokia research results showed 39 percent of these companies intended to provide mobile workers with mobile email access within 18
27

months. Beyond mobile email, 19 per cent of businesses surveyed said they would provide access to company information systems such as company databases and intranets frommobile terminals - a growth rate of 202%. Distribution, utilities, real estate, manufacturing, financial and professional
service industries will experience the most growth in usage,
with utilities/agribusiness and the hotel, restaurant and catering industries predicted to have the highest mobile email
penetration amongst mobile providing companies within 18
months. According to research conducted by Analysis Research, 40% of people with a business mobile phone(21million Europeans) will use mobile email in 2008, compared to less than 1% today. The firm also predicts that theannual mobile service revenue generated by email will increase from $30million in 2003 to $3.5billion in 2008. In its
report, it is expected Western European businesses to be
spending $10billion across all mobile data services by 2008,
with 78% of that spend corresponding to small and medium-sized businesses.
According to research conducted by IDC, the worldwide
mobile phone market is expected to expand in 2004, surpassing 500million units sold for the first time in history.
The firm expects a 42% year-over-year growth in the 2.5G
market with more than 241million units being shipped. As
for 3G mobile phone shipments, the firm expects this figure
to reach 48million units in 2004, which represents a 140%
growth over 2003. In a different report, Gartner stated mobile phone shipments in the second quarter of 2003 were up
12% over last year. The firm also said shipments were up 2%
sequentially, which seems to be a sign that the stagnation in
the sector has ended. According to the firm, particularly
strong markets were Japan, Latin America, Central andEastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In terms of total wireless infrastructure contract values, ABI claims
these are down 40% year-over-year from the first half of2002. According to the firm, for the first half of 2003, 3G contracts represented about 13% of all deals signed, representing over $1billion in contracts for WCDMA. ABI said thecurrent leader Ericsson holds the top slot with 44% of all
WCDMA contract awards this year alone.
According to a study from In-Stat/MDR, there will be
more than 931million new subscribers over the next five
years, with an expected total worldwide wireless population
by 2007 exceeding 2billion subscribers. The research conducted showed that while China continues to lead the worldin overall subscriber growth, the new percentage growthleaders are found in Southern Asia and Southeast Asia. The
firm also found that Western Europe’s growth virtuallystops during their 2002-2007 forecast period and the region’s penetration rate will reach 83.6% in 2007. IDC Japanis predicting the 3G service market in Japan to reach
69million subscribers in 2007 accounting for 77.6% of the
88.9million subscriptions in the entire cellular phone/PHS
market. The firm also expects the 3G market to be worth$54billion in terms of revenue.
According to new figures published by EMC World Cellular Database, the total number of new mobile subscribers in
the first quarter 2003 approached 51 million, with GSM accounting for almost 42 million, or 82% of new additions inthis period. GSM operators are also the largest in the world
with China Mobile at over 144 million, and China Unicom at
almost 75 million subscribers with GSM accounting for 65
million, by the end of the first quarter 2003. China still accounts for the largest proportion of mobile growth globally,followed by Asia Pacific, Western Europe and Eastern Europe. GSM has the highest annual growth of any wireless28

technology in Latin America and the Caribbean with a 121%
increase in customers from June 2002 to June 2003 according to EMC World Cellular Database. Five years ago, GSM
was operating in only four countries in the region and has
rapidly extended to 36 countries today, making it the fastest
growing technology. Wireless carriers in the region currently operate 66 GSM wireless networks.
The Yankee Group is predicting the global wireless userbase will increase by 49% over the next 4 years and reach
1.72billion subscribers by 2007. The company is also forecasting that the subscriber revenue will grow from$387billion in 2002 to $584billion in 2007, which according
to the firm will make wireless services similar in value toworldwide crude oil production.
According to a study from Telephia, business users view
push-to-talk voice calling (PTT) as one of today’s mobile applications most likely to improve productivity. However, thelaunch or preparation to launch the PTT service has been slow.

Wireless LAN and Bluetooth
NEC America and Motorola have announced their intent tocollaborate on the development of a converged WLAN, Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP) and cellular communication
solution to create potential cost savings opportunities, improved user efficiencies and new capabilities for enterprisecustomers. The solution will be enabled by integrating
Motorola’s core seamless mobility components with NEC’s
WLAN infrastructure and NEAX family of enterprise communication platforms. Motorola’s components include adual system WiFi/cellular phone and mobility manager that
controls the hand-off between local (WLAN) and cellular
networks and dispatch functions. The companies will work
together towards definitive agreements that will allow
them to leverage industry standards such as WiFi and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to deliver a flexible, cost-effective communication solution that will provide wireless voice
and data communications over IP inside an enterprise orvisited WLAN and over public wireless services outside theenterprise.
Texas Instruments has announced a complete hardware
and software solution that may solve any interference issues inherent in using Bluetooth and 802.11 simultaneously. The manufacturer said its solution allows aBluetooth voice call simultaneously with a WLAN datatransmission.
WLAN Smart Card Consortium has released a smart
card specification to allow hot spot operators to extend SIM
technology for WLAN authentication. This specificationp r e se n t s a sm ar t c ar d i n t e r f ac e th at pr o v i d e sinteroperability between smart card and device manufacturers and includes industry standard EAP-based security
technologies to allow mobile operators to reuse existing deployments. Moreover, the four members of the WirelessBroadband Alliance have started a pilot trial for wirelessbroadband roaming in Asia.
Research conducted by Infonetics Research predicts
WLAN hardware revenue will double from $1.6billion
last year to $3.2billion in 2006. According to the firm,
WLAN sales topped $608million in the second quarter ofthis year and it is predicted sales will reach $661million in
the second quarter of 2004. Another study from
Datamonitor predicts the wireless hot spot market togrow, reaching 23million users by 2006. The firm expects
that by the end of this year there will be 31,580 hot spots
around the world, and about 1.53million within the next
three years. As a result, Datamonitor expects the publicIEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

WLAN hot spots market to be worth $7billion by 2006. A
survey of IDC found that 34% of respondents use an
802.11 LAN at home, compared with 27% at work. According to the survey conducted, the most daily use of Wi-Fi
connections is happening at universities, with travel locations and coffee shops rounding out the three hot spot locations. In terms of services, consumers are mainly attracted by entertainment and messaging, while business
users mainly focus on email, PIM, Internet and Intranet
access. A study conducted by BroadGroup suggests that
European pricing for public access WLANs is still thehighest worldwide whereas the USA appears to have amore cohesive price range and is highly competitive. The
analysis also expects that the European growth in hotspot
deployment will increase by 45% to the end of this year.
Qualcomm and Broadcom Corporation have announced a
non-binding agreement for a strategic collaboration to jointly
develop, promote and market Bluetooth solutions for CDMA
mobile phones. As part of the collaboration, Qualcomm’s leading-edge Mobile Station Modem (MSM) baseband solutions,which include fully integrated Bluetooth baseband technology,
will be combined with Broadcom’s short-range wireless RF
products to provide a complete, fully tested Bluetooth solution
for 3G CDMA devices.
Ericsson Technology Licensing has announced that they
have signed a licensing agreement with Philips’ semiconductor division. The agreement states that Philips will license
Ericsson’s new Bluetooth baseband core, which implements
the complete range of mandatory Bluetooth 1.2 features.
With the Ericsson Core Bluetooth Baseband Platform Q-E1,
Philips will be one of the first companies to offer their customers Bluetooth chips based on the Bluetooth 1.2 specification
with, for example, better voice and audio quality and improved coexistence with other wireless technologies.
A study from In-Stat/MDR has reported that final 2002
shipments of Bluetooth chipsets were 35.8million units,
which corresponds to a 245% increase over 2001. The company said that the growth was mainly due to GSM handsets,
especially those embedded models. According to the study,
Asian and European operators, in particular, are looking to
Personal Mobile Gateways that use Bluetooth to increase
average revenue per unit.

Wireless Data
Ericsson is rewarding developers of mobile services by launching the Ericsson Mobile Application Awards 2003. Developersfrom around the world are invited to submit their best applications. The top three applications in one of four categories willcompete in the finals on November 25 in Zurich Switzerland.
The Ericsson Mobile Application Awards 2003 is an international competition run by Ericsson to find the best, market-ready mobile applications. Services that add value, create
convenience and make daily life and work easier and more effective are those that will be widely adopted. There will be four
categories with three finalists in each: Best Mobile Entertainment, Gaming, Enterprise and Information Application. Developers of mobile applications may submit their service online at
http://www.ericsson.com/mobileinternetforum
Telefónica Móviles España, S.A. has announced the introduction of i-mode, the service developed by DoCoMo, to the
Spanish market from the beginning of June 2003. Spain
marks the seventh market for i-mode service, which is already available in Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Belgium and France.
NTT DoCoMo and Wind Telecomunicazioni have announced that they have started a strategic i-mode partnerDecember 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Newsship in the Italian market. As a result of this partnershipwith Wind, DoCoMo will have the opportunity to deliver thei-mode service it developed to Europe’s most competitive
mobile market. The agreement also introduces Wind into
the i-mode alliance, the group led by DoCoMo that comprises all the operators that have launched i-mode, and thatoffers its members the opportunity to market handsets specially adapted for their own services. The agreement, which
will remain in place for five years from June 2003, is renewable by mutual accord and is an exclusive contract withWind in Italy for Wind’s 2G and 3G.

Forums and Industry Alliances
Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nortel Networks and Siemens
have announced the creation of a new industry cooperation, CPRI - Common Public Radio Interface, aiming todefine a publicly available specification for the key internal interface of radio base stations. The CPRI industry
cooperation enables base station manufacturers to focus
their research and development efforts on their corecompetencies and to buy selected radio base station subsystems. Key benefits are faster development when introducing new technologies and allowing base station
manufacturers to offer a wider portfolio of products tothe operators with shorter time to market. The foundersof CPRI are committed to open up a competitive mobile
network element component industry and will make the
CPRI-interface openly available for the benefit of thewireless industry. The CPRI-initiative complements current activities in existing standardization organizations(for example, 3GPP/3GPP2). The CPRI-specification isplanned to be available during 2003, with the objective to
introduce compatible products on the market by the endof 2004.
Motorola, Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericsson and Sun Microsystems, have announced plans to unify their application
testing and certification programs into a single initiativethat will help accelerate the availability of applications andservices for Java technology-enabled wireless devices. The
initiative will set common certification criteria for content
testing that the participants aim to make a symbol of consistent quality in the wireless industry. In support of the initiative, Sun will provide a Java logo under license for applications that have passed certification testings.
The Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance, a new industry initiative that will define and promote open standards for interfaces to mobile application
processors, has been announced by founding members
ARM, Nokia, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments.
The MIPI Alliance is a response to the broad interest in
the OMAPI standard launched by ST and TI in December
2002. OMAPI was formed by TI and ST to standardize interfaces for mobile application processors. The new MIPI
Alliance has been established with the goal of defining
and promoting open, standard specifications for application processor interfaces. By establishing consistency inapplication processor interfaces, the alliance expects toease implementation and design of hardware and software, promoting reuse and compatibility in mobile devices to accelerate time-to-market. As part of the MIPI Alliance, 10 working groups will be established to develop
specifications in key areas such as camera and display interface, software abstraction, communications interface
and system control.
The Open Base Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI),
a forum creating open specifications for base station archi29

tecture, has announced the availability of the first OBSAI
interface specifications. The recently finalized specifications apply to interfaces between a base station’s control,transport, and base band functions. Currently, a number of
OBSAI members are working on implementing products
based on these interface specifications. As a result, mobile
operators will benefit from increased functionality and theability to get advanced services to market more quickly.
Nokia and SEGA Corporation have announced a definitive agreement in which Nokia will acquire assets ofSega.com Inc., a subsidiary of SEGA. This agreement willfurther enhance online games and service offerings for the
Nokia N-Gage game deck, as Sega.com’s leading
multi-player technology will now become an integral part of
the Nokia N-Gage experience.

Wireless, PMR and Public Safety
Motorola has unveiled, what it claims is, the industry’s firstsolution that provides both Project 25 voice and advanced
wireless data communications using a single platform –Mission Critical IP. Mission Critical communications systems require high system reliability, open standards anddedicated spectrum to guarantee communication paths areavailable when public safety users need them. The Mission
Critical IP platform is designed to achieve this objective. In
addition to supporting advanced Project 25 voice capabilities, the Mission Critical IP platform enables multiple dataapplications to operate at varying data rates across bothwide and local areas. It helps optimal network performanceand allows users to move seamlessly across the coveragearea without interruption to their applications. Motorola’s
Mission Critical IP platform accommodates ASTRO Integrated Voice and Data, as well as High Performance Datasolutions. New capabilities will continue to be built on theMission Critical IP platform including offerings in the 700
MHz wideband spectrum, as well as the 4.9 GHz frequencies. Moreover, the manufacturer unveiled the communications industry’s first full suite of Project 25 compliant integrated mobile, portable, voice and data communications
solutions at the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) Conference.
Motorola has also announced the introduction of a newrange of security products for TETRA digital radio systems
that will further protect emergency services’ communications. The new suite of software products, named Dimetra
SecureNet, provides an important new level of protection
against criminal eavesdropping on communications, impersonating officers on the air and deliberate clogging of radio
systems at crucial times. According to the manufacturer,
the company has been the first to have Class 3 encryption on
trial with the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Although
ETSI Class 3 encryption has been available for test anddemonstration purposes for some time, Motorola is the firstcompany to roll out ETSI Class 3 encryption in its Dimetra

30

SecureNet system. The Dimetra SecureNet system uses embedded encryption measures to protect not just the transmission content, but also user identities and signallingdata. On the other hand, Nokia has announced its TETRA
system and three TETRA radios have been granted theworld’s first TETRA Class 3 encryption interoperability certification. Class 3 combines efficient authentication of radio
terminals with content encryption secured by automaticallygenerated dynamic ciphering keys.
Siemens Business Services has implemented Europe’s
largest mobile emergency call system for the Italian police
force. The system has gone live in 113 Italian cities. A total of
102 provincial command centers have been equipped withstate-of-the-art call center technology and linked up via
GSM to some 8000 Carabinieri vehicles, which are in turnequipped with the GPS satellite navigation system.

Other NewsThe Norwegian National Rail Administration has placed anorder with Siemens’ mobile to construct a national
GSM-Railway (GSM-R) mobile radio network. A total of 700
trains, 3,800 km of track, and 650 tunnels will be fitted out
with the new system. Construction will begin in August
2003 and is scheduled to be completed by April 2006.
The industrial prime consortium Galileo Industries haveannounced the signature of a M.O.U with a new partner,
Thales Group. Thales is acquiring an equity share of 12% in
the joint venture for an undisclosed sum. Galileo Sistemas yServicios (GSS), the Spanish industrial consortium representing the major Spanish actors in satellite navigation,(Aena, Alcatel Espacio, Eads-Casa, GMV, Hispasat, Indraand Sener) has also completed its equity stake in Galileo
Industries SA after the signature of the shareholders agreement. GSS major contributions to the Galileo programme
will be at system, subsystem and equipment levels. In the
Galileo satellites themselves as well as in the Ground Control Segment and Mission Control Segment, GSS will bring
its recognised expertise and equally co-operate with themain European Aerospace actors.
Alcatel Space has signed a $150 million contract with
RascomStar-QAF, the pan-African satellite service operator, to build and deliver in orbit the first RASCOM telecommunication satellite dedicated to the African continent. Alcatel Space will supply both the in-orbit delivered
satellite and its associated ground infrastructure including the mission, business, and ground control segments.
RASCOM, a pan-African intergovernmental, commercial
satellite organisation, has a membership of 44 Africanc o u n t r i e s a s o f n o w. T h i s s a t e l l i t e w i l l o f f e r
RascomStar-QAF the capability to provide fixed voice,data telecommunications and Internet access as well as
broadcasting satellite services to the whole African continent, although its footprint extends beyond Africa to include part of Europe and of the Middle East.

IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

VTC2004-Spring: Towards a Global Wireless World
17-19 May 2004 Milan
New Date and Location
The rising value of the Euro has made our intended venue atGenoa very expensive, so the 59th Vehicular Technology
Conference has been moved to the neighboring city and thefollowing week. VTC2004-Spring will now take place in the
Milan Marriott from 17 to 19 May 2004.

Milan
Milan has many attractions – the impressive Duomo, aGothic cathedral which took 500 years to complete, the 19th
century ‘shopping mall’ Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle, oreven the National Museum of Science and Technology, with
its permanent Leonardo da Vinci exhibits. The city also
hosts Leonardo’s Last Supper, in the church of Santa Mariadella Grazie, along with many art galleries.

Milan is easy to get to. The main international airport is
Malpensa, with a direct train link into the city center, andthe city is also served by Linate and Bergamo airports. A
comprehensive bus and tram network, supplemented by 3
metro lines, provide an integrated public transport service.

Technical Sessions
With 680 papers over more than 90 sessions, Milan will be
the biggest VTC held outside the US. The main conference
includes tracks on Antennas and Propagation (9 sessions),
Transmission Technology (28), Wireless Access (21), Mobile
Networks (19), Mobile Applications (4), Satellite Networks(4) and Transportation (2). VPP papers will be covered at the
VPP Symposium in Paris in October. There will also be aSpecial Workshop on WLAN/3G Interworking.

The 59th Vehicular Technology Conference, VTC2004-Spring will be held in Milan, Italy, from the 17th
to the 19th of May 2004.
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

31

The full program is available at the VTC web site,www.vtc2004spring.org

PanelsFollowing the success of the panels at VTC2003-Fall in Orlando, panels will be held bringing together experts from industry and academia to discuss future trends in mobile communications.

Sponsoring and Exhibiting
VTC2004-Spring will feature a number of exhibits. If yourcompany is interested in exhibiting, contact ICT Strategies
Group, TEStrong@verizon.net (phone +1 508 359 9106).

Web SiteFor full details of the conference, as well as on line registration, visit the web site at www.vtc2004spring.org

Tutorials
A wide range of tutorials will be held during the conference,
given by experts from industry and academia.

T-01 WLAN/3G Interworking
Apostolis Salkintzis, Motorola
The recent evolution and successful deployment of WLAN systems worldwide has fueled the need for interworking mechanisms between WLANs and cellular telecommunication networks, such as GSM/GPRS, UMTS, cdma2000, etc. Several
forums and standardization bodies worldwide have alreadyinitiated activities for exploiting WLAN technology and integrating this technology into cellular telecommunication networks. In addition, several R&D projects are currently underway, which address vertical handovers between WLANs and
UMTS, as well as common authentication, authorization andaccounting procedures. It is evident that the integration of
WLANs and cellular telecommunication networks is of paramount importance nowadays, from both business and technology points of view. This tutorial will concentrate on this integration and will thoroughly examine all the alternativearchitectures proposed to date for interworking between
WLANs and 3G cellular systems. In addition, it will address
the key technical issues, such as security, quality of service,billing, roaming, etc.

T-02 High speed packet data support in
IS-2000 (1xEV-DV)
Srinivasan Balasubramanian, Wanshi Chen, David
Comstock, Thawatt Gopal, Patrick Hosein, Anthony C. K.
Soong, Shawn Shiau-He Tsai, Tao Wu, Rath Vannithamby,
Young C. Yoon, Ericsson
The wireless communication industry is currently in a stateof transition from second generation (2G) to third generation (3G) systems — a move from circuit-switched, mainly
voice services to multi-media services that include voice,packet data and video. The IS-2000 family of standards isbased upon code division multiple access (CDMA) technology and is one of the defined modes in the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) 3G wireless standard. The
early revisions of the CDMA2000 standard support
high-speed data transmission (up to 307.2 kbps) using dedicated data channels. The latest revision, Revision D, significantly increases the efficiency of the air interface by introducing high-speed packet data channel support in both theforward (with peak rate of 3.091 Mbps) and reverse (withpeak rate of beyond 1Mbps ) link while maintaining back32

ward compatibility with previous revisions. This revision,commonly referred to as 1xEV-DV (for 1xRTT Evolution for
high-speed integrated Data and Voice), will be completed by
the first quarter of 2004 and will be submitted to ITU in May
2004 for inclusion in the next revision of its 3G standard.
This tutorial covers a number of key features of 1xEV-DV as
standardized in IS-2000 Revision D. It will discuss extensively the support for high speed packet data in both the forward (base station to mobile) and reverse (mobile station tobase station) link. The former includes the design of thehigh-speed shared data channel, its components (Hybrid-ARQ, link adaptation, modulation and coding, scheduling, sector-switching, channel supervision, control/holdetc.), MAC, and the effect of mixing data and voice services.
The details of how 1xEV-DV exploits channel variation,
channel quality feedback and link adaptation to significantly increase the spectral efficiency will be given. The latter includes the design of enhanced reverse link high-speed
packet data service, MAC operation, rate control and power
control. Detail discussions into the enabling technologies
and how Rev D exploits these technologies to improve thereverse link average per sector throughput by more than afactor of 2 over that of Rev C will be presented. System performance simulation results and implementation issues
will also be discussed.

T-03 Integrated Public Wireless Networks
Milind Buddhikot, Lucent Technologies
Local and wide-area wireless data networks are becoming
increasingly important in providing ubiquitous seamlessconnectivity to end-users. Third generation wide-area networks such as CDMA-2000 and UMTS have been standardized and are gradually being deployed. In local-area wireless networks common in enterprises, home and public hot
spots, the IEEE 802.11b standard is seeing explosive
growth. This tutorial will provide detailed discussion of thestate-of-the-art architectures, protocols, network elements,
systems and open research questions in key broadband
wireless technologies such as 802.11, CDMA2000 and
UMTS. Particular emphasis will be on the aspects of security and service integration between different technologies,
as seamless inter-technology roaming and ubiquitous connectivity are perceived as the key to the success of broadband wireless.

T-04 Turbo Tranceivers for WirelessCommunications
Lajos Hanzo, University of Southampton, Tadashi
Matsumoto, University of Oulo
Discovery of the Turbo codes has driven research on the creation of new signal detection concepts that can, in general,be referred to as the Turbo approach. Recently, this approach has made a drastic change in creating signal detection techniques and algorithms such as equalization ofinter-symbol interference (ISI) experienced by broadband
single carrier signaling over mobile radio channels. A goal ofthis tutorial is to provide the course takers with broad views
and knowledge of Turbo codes by explaining how the Turbo
concept-based signal transmission techniques are developed in various applications, and how they improves performances. To achieve this goal, the two instructors (Prof.
Lajos Hanzo and Prof. Tad Matsumoto) introduce the Turbo
concept-based techniques from their own viewpoints andbackgrounds.
IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

Special Reader Offer
VTS members may register for tutorial T-04 on turbo
codes at a special member rate of $50. Simply register
online, using the voucher code VTS5002 on the front pageof the registration site (see www.vtc2004spring.org) Notethat you do not have to register for the conference to attend the tutorial.

T-05 Distributed-MIMO Multi-Stage
Communication Networks
Hamid Aghvami, Mischa Dohler, Kings College, London
The aim of this tutorial is to expose an industrial and academic audience to the challenges related to the analysis, design and deployment of recently emerged Distributed-MIMO Multi-Stage Communication Networks at PHY,
MAC and network layers. The logical thread of the tutorial,
ranging from the underlying Shannon theory to resource allocation and scheduling within distributed networks,
proves vital in conveying the most essential issues relating
to the design of these networks. The tutorial will commencewith a brief overview of distributed-MIMO multi-stage communication networks, including their potential applications
as well as engineers’ objectives when designing such networks. This will be followed by a review of MIMO Shannon
theory and relaying technologies, both of which constituteinherent ingredients to the understanding of the gains offered by distributed relaying networks. A thorough Shannon theory of these networks will then be presented withnovel twists on closed form capacity formulas over ergodic
and non-ergodic, traditional and orthogonalised MIMO
channels obeying various channel fading statistics. The output from this will be shown to be useful in deriving explicit
optimum fractional resource allocation rules such as toachieve optimum end-to-end throughput. The analysis, design and performance of distributed space-time block andtrellis codes, concatenated with outer channel codes, will be
dealt with in sufficient depth. The derived deployment
guidelines will then be utilised to design properly functioning MAC protocols, which reflect the characteristics of theunderlying distributed PHY layer as well as the served IP
traffic. Performance examples will be given, and importantcross-layer design guidelines elaborated upon. Finally, open
research topics for academia and industry will be suggested.

T-06 Time Division Duplex (TDD) - The Key
Enabler for Future Services
Harald Haas, Stephen McLaughlin, University of Edinburgh
This tutorial aims to provide a perspective on the key drivers for present and future cellular communication systems
and some of the key technologies. Future cellular systems
need to support a plurality of different high data rate services with different load requirements for uplink anddownlink efficiently. Therefore, the presenters see a major
challenge of the future in research on and the deployment of
the appropriate duplexing technique instead of multiple access technique as was the focus in the past. In this context,
also using TDD in cellular systems seems to be the most appropriate choice. Therefore, in this tutorial the properties of
TDD are discussed in detail especially when used in a cellular environment. This involves a discussion of combining
strategies of existing FDD based air interfaces (e.g.
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society NewsUTRA-FDD (UMTS terrestrial radio access)) and TDD
based air interfaces (e.g. UTRA-TDD, IEEE 802.11, etc.).

T-07 Software Defined Radio Design for 3G
Paul Burns, Mark Reed, Simplexity Communications
If you are a student, engineer or manager interested inlearning more about software defined radio and its role inwireless telecommunications and 3G, then this seminar is
one you must attend. The session covers the basic principlesof the technology and its potential as well as delving into
many areas of detailed design. The 3G air-interfaces for
UMTS/WCDMA and cdma2000 are thoroughly discussedwith coverage of TDMA-GSM. Topics include, hardware &software architecture, RF system design, ADC’s, DAC’s,
DDC’s, DUC’s, DSP’s, capacity improving algorithms,
multi-user detection, smart antennas, EDA tools and the future of SDR for 3G. The seminar is presented by Paul Burns(“Software Defined Radio for 3G” author) and Mark Reed
(Senior Researcher National ICT Australia) who have extensive industry and academic experience in software defined radio and 3G. Seminar contents Introduction andBaseline SDR Architecture 3G RF System Design Analogue
To Digital And Digital To Analogue Conversion Signal Processing Hardware Components for 3G Software Architecture And Components for 3G Applications For Wireless Systems Capacity Improving Algorithms Using Software Radio- Introduction Capacity Improving Algorithms Using Software Radio - Multiuser Detection (MUD) Overview Capacity Improving Algorithms Using Software Radio - MUD Architectures with SDR 3G Physical Layer Basestation SDR
Example Engineering Design Assistance (EDA) Tools The
Future Of SDR Seminar

T-08 Beyond 3G Networks: The Air RadioInterface Technologies
Milica Pejanovic, University of Montenegro
This tutorial addresses emerging air radio interface solutions for the future Beyond 3G (B3G) or 4G networks. The
generations of mobile communication systems have been
identified by the technology implemented at the air radio interface. The capacity, performance and the implementation
complexity of the systems are determined with the mainbuilding blocks of this interface. It can be considered one of
the most challenging segments in the process of B3G networks standardization. That is the reason for this tutorial tobe focused on description of the main requirements and thestate-of-the art achievements in the air interface technologies for the B3G networks. First, requirements for B3G airradio interface are identified as well as targeted spectral efficiency. Then, the main air interface building blocks arepresented. The following topics are covered: multiple accesstechniques (based on spread spectrum and multi-carriers),
advanced signal processing techniques (multi-user detection, turbo codes), multiple antennas solutions (transmit/receive diversity, smart antennas). In that way, the tutorial
provides the full understanding of the all challenging andopen issues related with the current and future researchand development in the field of the air radio interface for
B3G networks.

T-09 MAC and Routing Protocols for Ad Hoc
Wireless Networks Using Smart Antennas
Somprakash Bandyopadhyay, Indian Institute of Management
Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET) is a new paradigm ofwireless local area network enabling instantaneous group
communications immediately and easily without the aid of33

any established infrastructure or centralized administration. Usually, the user-terminals in ad hoc networks areequipped with omni-directional antennas. However, ad hoc
networks with omni-directional antenna normally use amedium access mechanism that wastes a large portion of
the network capacity by reserving the wireless media over alarge area. To overcome this problem, researchers have proposed to use directional or adaptive antenna that would
largely reduce radio interference, thereby improving theutilization of wireless medium and consequently the network throughput. This tutorial will first present an overview of basic MAC and routing protocols in ad hoc networks
with omnidirectional antenna to discuss the issues andchallenges. Subsequently, the tutorial will focus on the useof smart antennas in ad hoc networks and discuss the strategies and techniques to be used in designing MAC and routing protocols for improved medium utilization and improved routing performance with effective load balancing.
Finally, it will discuss some of the design issues related to
QOS-Aware MAC and routing protocols with smart antennas to illustrate the potential of these antennas vis-à-vis
omni-directional antennas in the context of ad hoc networks. Open problems and challenges for ad hoc networks
with smart antennas and their applicability in inter-vehicular communications conclude the presentation.

T-10 The role of High Altitude Platforms (HAPs)
within the Galileo locally assisted services
Mirko Antonini, Daniele Teotino, Marina Ruggieri, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
Galileo will provide the first satellite positioning and navigation system specifically for civil purposes. The mission requirements were developed with a service-oriented approach. Business plan and market researches studies haveshown that commercial services should play an importantrole on producing Galileo revenues. Nevertheless, communication capabilities are a must for advanced navigation related services. In this frame, the Galileo local components,that aim at enhancing Galileo navigation performance andcapabilities, will play a key role in the future navigation system. The paper aims at explaining this role, considering, inparticular, the High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) as local
components. Some integration scenarios with 3G and 4G
terrestrial communication networks are shown and detailed. Therefore, commercial applications of the local component concept are foreseen. The scenarios propose a frameof guaranteeing service agreements for advanced telematics
and info-mobility applications. Finally, this frame could
drive the price of selling policies regarding to public utilities
services, best effort commercial services and guaranteedcommercial services.

Standards
Dennis Bodson, Senior Editor

IEEE-SASB Approves New VT Standards
The IEEE Standards Association Standards Board(IEEE-SASB) at their June 2003 meeting approved 2 new
VT standards as follows:✦ P1474.2/D9.2 (VT/RT) Standard for User Interface
Requirements in Communications Based Train
Control (CBTC) Systems. This standard establishes
user interface requirements in communications-based
train control (CBTC) systems. Project purpose: This
standard will provide for consistent user interfaces thattake advantage of the characteristics of communications-based train control (CBTC) systems to enhanceservice effectiveness of a rail transit system.
✦ P1568/D4.2 (VT/RT) Recommended Practice forElectrical Sizing of Nickel-Cadmium Batteries
for Rail Passenger Vehicles. This recommended
practice describes methods for electrical sizing of
nickel-cadmium batteries for application of rail passenger vehicles used for battery backup of low voltage dc
34

auxiliary power systems. It encompasses various factors that govern the electrical size of the battery
including but not limited to number of cells, rated capacity, maximum system voltage, minimum system
voltage, correction factors, and margins. It does not describe methods for defining the dc load profile nor address the physical sizing, installation or maintenanceof the batteries. Nor doe it apply to batteries used for
motive power or starting internal combustion engines.
Design of the low voltage dc system and sizing of the low
voltage power supply and battery charger(s), and consideration of battery types other than nickel-cadmium
batteries are also beyond the scope of this recommended practice.

IEEE-SA News Spotlights IEEE IncidentManagement Working Group (P1512™)
P1512 standard will be a base standard for Incident Management message sets, which will be used by all responseIEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

and/or dispatch centers such that the exchange of information will be standard and produce the needed responses(s). This standard will be limited to the common
incident management message sets for use by emergency
management centers. This project shall include the necessary research and compiling, analyzing, and the consolidation of the results into message sets for Incident Management communications.
Incident management represents a major element of the
ITS infrastructure. Working in cooperation with the
USDOT, the IEEE is developing a family of message set
standards — known as 1512 — that enables the sharing ofincident management messages among different ITS systems and public safety entities.
P1512 will result in consistent standardized communications among the many management centers including incident, emergency, fleet, freight, transit, and traffic, plus information service providers, and planning subsystems thatwill reduce duplication of messages among the various subsystems and increase effective response time.
Overseeing the work of P1512 is the IEEE Standards Coordinating committee (SCC) 32 Intelligent Transportation
Systems (ITS). Organized in 1992, SCC32 is responsible forcoordinating, developing, and maintaining standards, recommended practices, and guidelines related to ITS. The
SCC32 work includes efforts under a cooperative agreement
between USDOT and IEEE to expedite development of standards, including standards for ITS data dictionaries, theMessage Set Template, and the message sets for IncidentManagement.

New IEEE 802.11g™ Standard Extends
Data Rate of IEEE 802.11b™ WLANs to 54
Mbps from 11 Mbps
IEEE 802.11b™, the most widely used wireless local area
network (WLAN) technology, has gotten a long-awaited increase in speed through a new amendment to the IEEE
802.11 ™ standard ratified by the Standards Board of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The amendment, IEEE 802.11g™, raises the data rate of IEEE 802.11b
networks to 54 Mbps (megabits per second) from 11 Mbps.
The added transmission speed gives wireless networks
based on IEEE 802.11b (often called Wi-Fi) the ability toserve up to four to five times more users than they now do. It
also opens the possibility for using IEEE 802.11 networks inmore demanding applications, such as wireless multimedia
video transmission and broadcast MPEG.
The new amendment allows IEEE 802.11g units to fallback to speeds of 11 Mbps, so IEEE 802.11b and IEEE
802.11g devices can coexist in the same network. The twostandards apply to the 2.4 GHz frequency band. IEEE
802.11g creates data-rate parity at 2.4 GHz with the IEEE
802.11a standard, which has a 54 Mbps rate at 5 GHz.
(IEEE 802.11a has other differences compared to IEEE
802.11b or g, such as offering more channels.)“IEEE 802.11g gives WLAN suppliers and users added
flexibility in choosing systems that best fits their needs,”
said Stuart J. Kerry, IEEE 802.11 Working Group Chair.
“Given the millions of 802.11b-based WLANs in place worldwide, the market demand for the extension to 54 Mbps has
been quite strong. “One reason for this is that the higher
speed extends the use of this widely deployed WLAN technology into a growing variety of home, consumer, businessand public networking applications. In addition to making
IEEE 802.11b networks more efficient, the new amendment
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

ensures users that the equipment in these networks will beinteroperable.”
In terms of the effort needed to create the new amendment, Kerry noted that the IEEE 802.11 Working Group for
Wireless LANs contains nearly 400 individuals with voting
status who are affiliated with computer, networking andsoftware companies, as well as with consultant organizations and academic institutions. “The members of the Working Group put forth a great deal of effort to make this standard a reality,” he said. “They are to be congratulated fortheir achievement.”

Wireless Rides on IEEE 802’s Success
The world is going wireless and the IEEE 802 suite of networking standards is helping to make it happen.
From wireless local-area networks in homes and fast-foodjoints, to broadband and fiber-optic wireless connections in
office buildings, IEEE 802-based standards are the reason
people are communicating more and more throughhigh-speed Internet connections anytime and from nearlyanyplace.
IEEE 802.11b, better known as Wi-Fi, has become one of
the most widely adopted standards, and the extension toIEEE 802.11g will continue this process.
Another standard extension, IEEE 802.16a, was introduced last January. For so-called fixed wireless, it is meant
for high-speed wireless access to businesses and residences
over large metropolitan areas. Fixed wireless refers to a system in which client stations must stay within range of theirdesignated base stations; there’s no handing over of callsfrom one base station to another, as in an ordinary cellular
system. Fixed wireless users can communicate over distances of up to 50 km at bit rates as high as 74 Mb/s. Sriram
Viswanathan, a director of Intel Capital’s Broadband andWireless Networking Investments group, calls IEEE 802.16“the next big thing after IEEE 802.11-based wireless LANs.”
Although it appears that the IEEE’s wireless standards
have burst on the scene out of nowhere, they have been in
the works since 1990. At that time the first IEEE 802 standard, called the IEEE 802 10BASE-T Ethernet wired standard, was introduced to meet the emerging demand forhigh-performance, low-cost networking technology.
Similarly, low-cost chips and wireless products based on
the IEEE 802 extensions coupled to consumer demand andvolunteers’ hard work all came together in the last few years
to make the IEEE 802 suite of wireless standards one of themost widely accepted in the marketplace, says Senior Member Paul Nikolich, the IEEE 802 Working Group chair. He is
a partner in YAS Broadband Ventures, a consulting company in Andover, Mass., USA, that provides advice on standards, technology, and investing.
“One of the biggest factors in the standards’ success was
being in the right place at the right time coupled with excellent execution,” Nikolich says. “There was a tremendous increase in demand for communications technology throughout the 1990s, and IEEE 802 happened to be focused onproviding the standards necessary to meet the needs of thatmarket.”Breaking the price barrier
Another factor contributing to the standards’ success is thatwhile the transmission speed and performance of IEEE
802-based products increased, their costs stayed low. Or, as
Nikolich says, the “technology breached the magicalprice-performance barrier.”35

According to Nikolich, while the speed of IEEE 802 wired
and wireless standards continues to increase significantly,
the price of products using these standards goes up modestly. “Prices continue to stay low because we’ve standardized the technology,” he says, “plus there is more competition among chip and equipment manufacturers.”
Nikolich adds that low-cost broadband access through digital subscriber lines and cable modems also has created newmarkets for wireless applications. Consumers with multiple
home computers can now wirelessly network their equipment.
AT&T Corp. recently announced that it will offer more than2000 Wi-Fi access points, otherwise known as hotspots, inAsia, Europe, and the United States. Other companies alreadyoffer hotspots in public locations like airport lounges,
Starbucks coffee shops, and McDonald’s restaurants.

Dedication and reputation
Many people toiled behind the scenes to make the wirelessstandards a success. As with other standards working
groups, the volunteers for IEEE 802 consist of many individuals, some representing their companies and some just interested in advancing the technology.
“Hundreds, on into thousands, of people contributed to
the work of IEEE 802 over the past 23 years,” Nikolich says.
“The work wasn’t done by the IEEE itself or by the IEEE 802
Working Group alone, but by many engineers who dedicateda huge amount of time.”
The IEEE’s reputation in the standards development
arena also can’t be underestimated, according to Edward
Rashba, manager for new technology programs at the IEEE.
“One of the unique things about the IEEE is that we areneutral and provide a level playing field,” Rashba says. “Wetry to include as many folks in the standards development
process as possible, because then you have a bigger, broader
acceptance at the outset. When you have the interest of theuser community, the manufacturers, and the general public
all reaching an agreement, then you are more likely to get astandard that will be adopted.”IEEE Approves Standard for Assessing
Radio Frequency Fields in the Human
Head during Cell Phone Use
The IEEE has approved a new recommended practice, IEEE
1528(TM), for assessing radio-frequency energy delivered tothe heads of users of cellular phones and other personalcommunication devices based on a model of the human headfilled with a fluid having the microwave electrical properties similar to a composite head tissue. IEEE 1528, “Recommended Practice for Determining the Peak Spatial-Average
Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) in the Human Head from
Wireless Communications Devices: Measurement Techniques,” specifies experimental protocols and measurement
and validation methods for hand-held wireless transceivers

36

operating between 300 MHz and 3 GHz. This new standard
will help wireless device manufacturers and regulators assess compliance with the requirements of the U.S. Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) and similar government agencies in other countries — that limit RF exposure
from personal communication devices.
Measurements under the standard are made using anelectric field probe that scans the tissue-equivalent liquid
inside the model head and measures maximum SAR in volumes of one or ten grams. The model is intended to give a
conservative estimate of the maximum peak spatial-average SAR that can be expected to occur anywhere in theheads of most people when they use hand-held communication devices held against their ear.
“This standard breaks new ground,” says Howard
Bassen, Chair of the IEEE 1528 Working Group and Chief ofthe Electrophysics Branch at the FDA Center for Devices
and Radiological Health. “It is the first one to address thecomplex issues, instrumentation requirements, and uncertainty of performing accurate SAR measurements. “Many of
the world’s top experts in SAR measurement helped author
this recommended practice. The importance of IEEE 1528
can be seen in the fact that the U.S. FCC utilized much of
the standard’s technical requirements in FCC Bulletin OET
65, Supplement C, while IEEE 1528 was still in draft form.”
IEEE 1528 was sponsored by the IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 34 for Electromagnetic Energy Product
Performance Safety. It was developed with a number ofmembers who also have common membership in the International Electrotechnical Commission’s Technical Committee 106 to ensure harmony with the IEC’s efforts. This IEEE
standard does not set specific limits for exposures of users ofcellular phones and other personal communication devices,
but it may be used for assessing compliance with limits
found in a number of contemporary standards and guidelines. These limits are set by the FCC in the U.S and are
based in part on IEEE C95.1(TM)-1991, “Safety Levels with
Respect to Human Exposure to Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields, 3 kHz to 300 GHz.” Government agencies
in other countries have adopted similar limits.
To learn more about radio-frequency emissions from cellular phone handsets, see the technical information statement issued by the IEEE Committee on Man and Radiation,“Human Exposure to Radio Frequency and Microwave Radiation from Portable and Mobile Telephones and Other
Wireless Communication Devices,” which is available at
http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/embs/comar/phone.htm.

References
1. IEEE-SA News, June 26, 2003
2. IEEE Press Release, Piscataway, NJ, June 12, 2003
3. IEEE Institute, Kathy Kowalenko, September 5, 2003
4. IEEE Press Release, August 21, 2003

IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

Transportation Systems
Harvey Glickenstein, Senior Editor
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey restored service to the Exchange Place station of PATH
on June 27. Service to Exchange Place was stopped when
the World Trade Center buildings in New York came down.
The PATH station in lower Manhattan was damaged and nolonger available. Exchange Place, the last stop in New Jersey had no provision to turn trains, so PATH service to Exchange Place was stopped as well as service to lower
Manhattan.
The Port Authority took advantage of the elimination ofservice in the oldest tunnels under the Hudson River, tunnels that were almost 100 years old, to completely rehabilitate them. The tunnels were cleaned out and new track andnew duct line installed.
The Exchange Place station was modernized as well. Although PATH operated eight-car trains from Newark to theWorld Trade Center station, the platform at Exchange Place
was too short to accommodate the eight-car trains. The firstcar of all trains to the World Trade Center from Newark
would not open its doors at Exchange Place. The rehabilitation of the Exchange Place station included boring new tunnels to allow crossovers to be installed at the west end of thestation so that trains could turn back at Exchange Place before entering the tunnels under the Hudson River andlengthening the platforms to accommodate ten-car trains
for the future.
PATH service to lower Manhattan is expected to resume
by the end of November. A temporary station, using portionsof the old World Trade Center station that were not destroyed, will go into service at that time. The temporary station will be open to the air with canopies. The design andconstruction of the new permanent World Trade Center station will be coordinated with the lower Manhattan redevelopment. It is intended to incorporate as much as possible ofthe temporary station into the permanent station in order tominimize cost and inconvenience to the passengers.
PATH is the process of modernizing its signal system andprocuring new cars. As this issue of VTS News was going topress the project was in the process of being advertised. It
consists of acquiring 246 new cars and rehabilitating 95
PA-4 cars that were acquired in 1986-1987. The signal system upgrade will start with a feasibility study of installing acommunications based train control system vs. simply upgrading the existing fixed block signal system that uses
physical train stops for speed and signal enforcement.
New Jersey Transit is opening its new Secaucus
Transfer Station on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor(NEC) in three stages. The station is located on the NEC
between Penn Station, Newark and Penn Station, New
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society NewsYork. It is a multi-level station that will provide for transfers between New Jersey Transit’s Bergen County and MainLine service from Hoboken, New Jersey to Spring Valley,
New York, Metuchen, New Jersey, and Port Jervis, NewYork and New Jersey Transit’s service between Newark and
New York City.
The station is also expected to spark development andhas been built to accommodate office, commercial, and hotel
space adjacent to or above it. A new interchange on the New
Jersey Turnpike is being planned to serve the complex.
The first stage of the station opened in early August. It ison the lowest level of the station—the Bergen County andMain Line level. In order to accommodate new road access tothe site the Bergen County Line has been relocated to join
the Main Line north of the station. This eliminated service
to the Harmon Cove Station on the Bergen County Line.
New Jersey Transit (NJT) has instituted a free shuttle bus
from the former Harmon Cove rail station to the Secaucus
Transfer station. Commuters transfer between the busses
and the trains on the lowest level of the new station.
This Fall the rest of the station will open on weekends only.
The trains on the NEC will serve the second level of the station. The NEC has been widened from two tracks to three
tracks east and west of the station. Four tracks are provided
with the station itself. Provision has been made for the future
construction of a connection from the lower level to the NEClevel allowing a one-seat ride from the Main Line and BergenCounty locations into Penn Station, New York. Due to thestation’s proximity to New York, NJT was concerned that
conductors would not be able to collect tickets of passengers
transferring at the station. Instead, NJT will require alltransferring passengers to go to the third level, where station
fare collection will be in effect. NJT will also institute a transfer charge that will be collected on the third level.
The original plan for the transfer station assumed that
commuter trains destined for New York would have available seats due to the commuters who get off in Newark andtransfer to PATH service to lower Manhattan. With the closure of the PATH service to lower Manhattan, these commuters stay on the NJT commuter trains. NJT will open thestation during the week after the PATH service to lower
Manhattan resumes later this year.
New Jersey Transit is holding a public hearing on
the Elizabeth segment of its Newark Elizabeth Rail
Link (NERL). The first of three minimum operable segments, MOS-1, is a one-mile extension of the Newark City
Subway from Newark Penn Station, the Amtrak station in
Newark, to Broad Street Railroad Station. New Jersey
Transit’s former Penn Central and Central Railroad of New
37

ERR

To Bloomfield

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Figure 1 Newark Elizabeth Rail Link (NERL)
Jersey commuter trains serve Penn Station, while New Jersey’s former Erie Lackawanna commuter trains serve
Broad Street Station.
MOS-1 is currently under construction.
MOS-2 is a one-mile extension from Newark Penn Station to Camp Street in south Newark. MOS-3 is a seven-mile
extension further south to Elizabeth, with a stop at Newark
International Airport.
At the request of Union County, New Jersey Transit is revising the alignment of MOS-3 between downtown Elizabeth and the Airport. The change in alignment will require a
modification to the previously approved environmental impact statement for the NERL, necessitating the new public
hearing.
The 5.8-mile portion of MOS-3 will start in downtown
Elizabeth. It will be predominantly double track using
right-of-way of Conrail, CSX, and Norfolk Southern to the
New Jersey Gardens Mall. From the mall to the Parking Lot
D stop on the Newark Liberty International Airport Monorail the line will use a new right-of-way. There will be ninestations on this portion of NERL.
No dates have been set for start of design on either the
MOS-2 or MOS-3 sections of NERL.
Alstom has won a contract to provide 35 Citadis
trams for Strasbourg, France. These trams are 100%
low floor.
These vehicle new trams will increase the capacity of theexisting Strasbourg system by 60%.
The Strasbourg system is a standard gauge system with
750 Vdc overhead current collection.
Unlike the Citadis tram in Figure 4, the Citadis vehicles
to be provided to Strasbourg will have 16 double doors andbe 147.6 feet long.
The vehicles to be delivered will be 7 feet 10-1/2 inches
wide and have a low floor height of 13-3/4 inches. They will
have a capacity of 64 seated passengers and 224 standing
passengers and be designed for a top speed of 37 mph.
Delivery of the vehicles is planned to begin in the middleof 2005 and be completed by 2008. The value of the contract
is 98.3.
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) opened its extension to the San Francisco Airport on Sunday, June 22,
2003. The extension is 8.7 miles long. From Colma Station
the new line operates through South San Francisco and San
38

Figure 2 Alstom Citadis Tram
Bruno Stations before ending at Milbrae adjacent to theCaltrain commuter line station. The San Francisco Airport
station is on an aerial stub off the main line of the extension.
The extension carried more than 100,000 passengers in
its first week of service — slightly more than the number ofpeople who rode BART the first full week the transit system
was open in September 1972.
Construction of the $1.5 billion project began in May 1998
and was completed in April 2003.
The Peninsula line brings BART to 104 miles of double
track and 43 stations. BART opened as a 71.5-mile, 33-station system in 1972. Extensions in the Alameda and Contra
Costa counties opened in 1995-1997.
The Maryland Public Interest Research Group has
issued a report on rail-based public transit systems
in nine United States cities. The study is entitled “RailTransit Works: Light Rail Success Stories from Across theCountry.”
The study includes cities in six states plus the District ofColumbia. Case studies are provided for Los Angeles; Dallas; Denver; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City; St. Louis;
San Francisco; San Diego; and Washington, D.C.
The report documents the fact that property values increase along rail transit lines. In the cities studied, the property values along the rail lines increased in value substantially more than property values at a distance from the raillines after the rail lines opened. In Dallas, property values
along the rail line rose 25% more than properties at a distance from the rail line.

Figure 3 BART Extension to San Francisco Airport
IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

The Los Angeles Gold Line to Pasadena opened on
Saturday, July 26. The 13.7-mile line runs from Pasadena
to Union Station in Los Angeles, where it connects with the
MTA Red Line, Metrolink commuter service, and Amtrak. A
future extension will carry the line further east.
Including the light rail Blue and Green Lines and theheavy rail transit Red Line, the Metro Rail system is now
73.1 miles long with 62 stations.
Headways on the Gold Line are 10 minutes during peak
hours, 12 minutes off peak, and 20 minutes during latenight hours. The line will operate from 4:00 AM to 2:00 AM
seven days a week. The line will use 26 light rail cars configured in two-car trains. Running time from Pasadena to Union Station is expected to be 36 minutes.

Memorial
Park
Allen

Fillmore

MissionDel MarSierraMadre Villa

Lake

Highland Park

Southwest Museum

PASADENA

Heritage Square/
ArroyoLincoln Heights/
Cypress Park
Chinatown
Union Station

Metrolink
Riverside Line

DOWNTOWN LA

Metro Rapid Transfer
Parking
Parking (Paid)
Metrolink Transfer
Amtrak Transfer

The Orange County Transportation Authority(OCTA) approved an 8-mile Initial Operating Segment for the CenterLine light rail line. After Irvine
turned down the light rail line, OCTA reviewed their options
including bus rapid transit, light rail lines to western andnorthern Orange County, and shifting the money to highway projects. Instead, they decided to go ahead with a lightrail line connecting the John Wayne Airport, the South
Coast Plaza shopping center, the Santa Ana Civic Center,
the County Government Center and Courthouse, the Santa
Ana Artists Village, and the Depot at Santa Ana. At the Depot, the light rail line will connect with both Amtrak andMetrolink commuter trains as well as with several OCTA
bus routes.

Metrolink
San Bernardino Line

Figure 4 New Los Angeles Gold Line to Pasadena
1,350,000 as against a projected ridership of 1,200,000. It
expects to report ridership in excess of 1,500,000 for the second year of operation.
The first proposed extension is a 0.6-mile long extension
to RiverPlace. Construction of this extension is now expected to start before the end of the year with opening inearly 2005.
The second proposed extension is on the East Side. A
steering committee has been holding public workshops
and meetings to finalize a proposal for the alignment of
the extension.

Portland Streetcar is proposing a second extension. Last year it reported annual ridership figures of

NW 23RD*Good
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Figure 5 Proposed extension to Portland Steetcar
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

39

Chapter News & Meetings
Gaspar Messina, Senior Editor

Smart Card Technology in Transit and Advanced
Public Transportation Systems (APTS)
Christopher Pacher, LTK Engineering Services
The October 16, 2003 Technology Sharing Forum presented
by the Vehicular Technology Society of the IEEE New York
Section covered Smart Card Technology and Advanced Public Transportation Technology. The Forum was hosted by
Cisco Systems, at their One Penn Plaza offices in
Manhattan.
John Swanson of LTK Engineering Services discussed
smart card technology and the current movement in transit
to development regional and standalone smart card systems
and their integration into other systems. David Tran of
Siemens Transportation Systems discussed how GPS technology and data and voice communication networks allow
for precise and automatic vehicle location, dispatching,routing and schedule management.
Mr. Swanson began by delivering a valuable smart card
technology overview. The differences between smart cards
and legacy ticketing and fare collection medium were discussed. As well as the differences between microprocessor
and memory-logic smart cards systems. The growth of theapplication of smart cards in transit were discussed and examples of upcoming programs such as those in Houston andother new programs were pointed to as signs of greater acceptance and willingness to invest in the technology. Mr.
Swanson also pointed out the benefits of accepted publishedtechnical standards such as ISO-14443. Standards significantly reduce the risk and costs for agencies implementing
smart card systems. The standards allow agencies to specify
interoperable standards based systems and equipment.
Giving the agencies the flexibility in the management of expansion, upgrades and replacement of Smart Card systems
they need to move forward. Mr. Swanson pointed out the ab-solute need for a broad information campaign to educate
customers as a requirement for successful smart card system implementation. As technology drives the costs ofsmart cards, standards reduce risks, and as public and private connectivity increase the future looks bright for smart
cards. For additional information on John and LTK Engineering please go to www.ltk.com.
David Tran kicked off his presentation with a detailed
overview of Siemens Integrated Local Government systems. The basic architecture of the Siemens APTS was reviewed for the dozen systems installed and the dozen inplanning across the country. The architecture includes
fixed base stations for Data and Voice Communications toand from vehicles, on-board GPS and communications
controllers, connected agency operations and dispatching
centers, back office report, storage and analysis work centers. The system provides dispatching and real time monitoring of fleet vehicle locations and route progress. The
majority of the discussions centered on how the real time
data and the collection of this data can be used to improvesystem performance. The system allows transit agencies
to implement fully computer aided dispatching, active
route updating for waiting passengers, passenger routetransfer assistance. The two-way communications andreal time mapping provided by the APTS allows operation
agencies drive system improvements and improve customer satisfaction. For additional details on this system
please go to www.ilgsystems.com.
For their efforts in fostering Technology Sharing the NY
Section of the VTS presented John Swanson of LTK Engineering and David Tran of Siemens with Technology Sharing awards.
Christopher Pacher is Secretary of the New York-Section of
the Vehicular Technology Society.

Left to right: Bob Pellegrino, John Swanson, Brad Craig, David Tran and Dave Horn
40

IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

Elections

VPPC Workshop

Elections to the VTS Board of Governors for the term 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2006 were held over the summer.
All four incumbents who stood in the election – Robert
Mazzola, Raymond Trott, George McClure and Gordon
Stüber – were re-elected, along with Tracy Fulghum, who
has been Secretary for the past year. Making way for Tracy
is Bob French. Bob has been the Society’s ITS Council representative from the founding of the Council, and before that
was actively involved in promoting ITS activities.
At the Board meeting in Orlando, elections to the Executive were undertaken. After the changes last year, this year
sees no change, with the President, Executive Vice President, and three Vice Presidents all being re-elected to serve
another year unopposed.

Rather than hold separate sessions within the main VTC
conference as happened in Orlando, the Vehicle Power and
Propulsion Committee has decided to experiment with aseparate workshop to stimulate interest in the area. The International Symposium on “Vehicular Power and Propulsion” will take place on October 6-8, 2004, in Paris. Details
on http://www.univ-valenciennes.fr/LAMIH/VPP04/

VTC2003-Fall
A very successful fall conference was held in the Hilton at
the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando at the beginning of
October. The location was unplanned, with the originalvenue, the Hyatt Orlando, closing up shop with 24 hours notice only 3 weeks before the conference was due to begin.
Fortunately much midnight oil was burnt by those involvedin the organisation, and the conference took place with theminimum of last minute hitches. A full report will appear in
the next issue.

Education Committee
Also at the Fall BoG meeting, Yu-Dong Yao (yyao@stevensedu) was appointed to the position of Chair of the Education
Committee. Yu-Dong has a number of plans for revitalizing
this area of the Society’s work, of which you will hear morein future issues of the VTS News.

VTC2004-Fall
VTC2004-Fall, to be held in Los Angeles, CA from 26-29
September 2004, looks set to be the largest ever, with over
1,000 technical papers and posters. As well as the usual
VTC technical areas, a particular them of the conference
will be the contribution wireless technologies can make toglobal security. For more details, see the Call for Papers on
the back cover.

VTS Board of Governors Meeting & Teleconference
24 April 2003 and 10 May 2003
A VTS Board meeting had been planned for the 24th of April
in Jeju, Korea, during VTC2003-Spring. A straw poll at theprevious meeting had shown that enough Board members
would be able to attend, but in the event the affect of SARS
reduced the number attending to only six, plus the Society
Secretary. As a result, that meeting was run as a special executive committee meeting, and a telephone conference heldon the 10 May to ratify decisions from the executive meeting, and to discuss the budget and the BoG election slate.
The Special Executive Meeting discussed the financial
performance of the Society during 2002, when the Society’s
net worth reduced by some $242k, due to increased charges
from the IEEE to cover its central deficit. TAB expects tobreak even in 2004, but with the IEEE asking for higher
charges for its services the effects will remain in place beyond this. George McClure, Treasurer, reported that thecost of servicing each member was between $2 and $3 morethan the membership fee. This had not been helped by a 10%
fall in membership, mainly due to full members not being
replaced by students as some other societies have managed.
On publications, the Editor of the Transactions, Greg
Bottomley, is stepping down at the next board meeting in
October. There was some discussion of recommended candidates, as were additional candidates. The President will
December 2003 ❖ IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News

speak to the present editor and recommended candidates.
James Irvine reported that he had attended the IEEE Panelof Editors meeting, and that the IEEE were not willing to archive newsletter content on Xplore, something whichcaused increasing difficulty in finding high quality feature
writers. This reopened the longstanding issue of whether
the society should have a magazine rather than a newsletter, and it was agreed to ask the newsletter editor to investigate this matter further and return with a proposal.
Additional discussion was held on the subject of a digitalarchive for the society. Sam McConoughey urged the needthat the material needed to be held until it could be scanned.
His personal holdings go back to pre-IEEE days, ca. 1949. It
was agreed to draft a “wish list” for source materials that wewould like in such a digital archive.
On conferences, George McClure discussed a proposal by
Horizon House to organise exhibits at Orlando. There is no
obligation for VTS, and the society will get 25% of the proceeds. VTC Spring 2002 has closed-out, with the audit presently in progress. The VTS has assumed full financial responsibility for VTC Fall 2003.
Gordon Stüber remarked on the need to get some consistency in the tutorials at the VTC’s, particularly in terms of
the honoraria, which seem to vary widely from VTC to VTC.
41

He noted COMSOC gives $750 for a half day and $1500 for a
full daytutorial. It was agreed that there should be standardized
honoraria for tutorials, along with a contract with the tutorial presenter, although tutorials are the prerogative of theconference and not the society. These was some discussion
about the conference committee for the Los Angeles VTC
wanting to name the conference “VTC 60”, to reflect the factthat it was the 60th VTC. It was the general feeling of theboard members in attendance that the conferences should
continue to adhere to the traditional naming scheme.
Jae Hong Lee presented a summary of VTC 2003 Spring.
A healthy total of 657 registrations had been received, but asof the meeting, half way through the conference, only 412
badges had been collected. 73 registered authors had notified that they could not attend to present due to SARS. Professor Lee also noted that there were a few harsh comments
regarding the requirement that at least one full registrationaccompany each paper.
The telephone conference held on 10 May reviewed theabove points. Present during the telephone conference
were BoG members Charlie Backof, Dennis Bodson, Bob
French James Irvine Roger Madden Tad Matsumoto

George McClure Sam McConoughey and Gordon Stüber,along with Tracy Fulghum (Secretary) and Kent Johnson(Past President). It formally approved the 2004 VTS preliminary budget, which calls for around a $88 000 (USD)
surplus, as well as the actions on conferences. Dennis
Bodson, how had not been present in Jeju further reported
that the Rail Conference has closed out, and that VTC at
Rhodes has closed out under “non-routine circumstances,with a surplus of $19 000 to $20 000 (USD). This meantthat all old conferences, with the exception of
VTC2002-Fall, have been closed out. That conference ispresently being reviewed at IEEE headquarters.
The discussion of investigating options for the VTSNews was also discussed and affirmed during the call, as
well as membership development. Roger Madden had attended the IEEE meeting and had put together a plan totarget ITS members, and the ITS arena, as well as promotion at conferences.
The telephone conference also agreed the slate for theelection to the Board of Governors.
The next non-virtual BoG meeting was planned for 8 October 2003, at VTC2003-Fall.

Conferences of Interest
The following table shows VT-06 sponsored and co-sponsored conferences as well as related conferences not sponsored by
the Society. While every attempt was made to ensure accuracy, you should contact the respective conference committee toconfirm date and location.

Conferences marked ‘✓’ have open calls for papers as of 31 December 2003. This list is based upon the conference calendar
at our web site, which is updated more frequently than this list can be. To access it go to the following URL:
http://www.vtsociety.org/, then click on “Conference List” in the left frame.
Corrections and additions to this list are most welcome. We are particularly interested in adding listings for Automotive
and Transportation conferences. Please send corrections and additions to Tom Rubinstein at t.rubinstein@ieee.org.

42

IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News ❖ December 2003

Calls for Papers

The Vehicular Power and Propulsion Symposium will focus on all aspects of vehicle power and propulsion area. The symposium is an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to meet each other and share new developments and opportunities.
It is co-sponsored by the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, LAMIH (Laboratory of Industrial and Human Automation, Mechanics and Computer Science) University of Valenciennes and Hainaut Cambrésis,Relevant Topics
Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following.
✦ Vehicle power system architectures✦ Vehicle power system dynamics andcontrols✦ 42V vehicle power systems✦ Higher voltage vehicle power✦ Military vehicle power systems andsystemsloads✦ Vehicle power electronics✦ Electric vehicles✦ Vehicle motor drives✦ Hybrid electric vehicles✦ Advanced vehicle electrical loads✦ Mild hybrid vehicles✦ Drive by wire
✦ Fuel cell hybrid vehicles✦ Brake by wire
✦ Fuel cell vehicles✦ X –by wire
✦ Engine electrical controls✦ Electrical power steering✦ Hybrid electric power trains✦ Advanced electrical drive trains forRail vehicles✦ Track vehicles✦ Multi-wheeled vehicles✦ Heavy vehicles✦ Starter/generators✦ Power management and distribution✦ Off-road vehicles✦ Automatic Cruise Controls✦ Active suspension✦ Transportation system

Important Dates✦ Invited sessions due April 1, 2004
✦ Extended abstract (3 pages) or full

✦ Camera ready manuscripts and de-papers May 1, 2004
✦ Acceptance notification June 1,
2004✦ Early Registration before July 15,

posit payment due July 15, 2004
2004

Paper Submission Guidelines
Authors MUST submit an extended abstract (min 3 pages) or a full paper before May 1, 2004. Forms for submission are soft
copy in PDF. The submission must include the name, complete mailing address, telephone and fax numbers and the email address of the author(s). Summaries should be submitted electronically (Plain text).
The best papers of the conference will be proposed for publication (after revision and additional refereeing) in a special issue of the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology.

Venue
The Vehicle Power and Propulsion 2004 Symposium will be held in Paris, October 6-8 2004 at the Union Internationale desChemins de Fer near the Eiffel Tower.

Invited Session Proposal
Invited session should be proposed before April 1, 2004. Proposal should include a session name, an overview of session topic,
one page abstract of each paper (4 papers by invited session) and a perspective chair.

Contact
For more detailed information, please visit the symposium website at http://www.univ-valenciennes.fr/ LAMIH/VPP04/ orcontact the symposium secretariat
VPP2004 Secretariat
Melanie Lecq - Systèmes Flous
LAMIH UMR CNRS 8530
Université de Valenciennes
Le Mont Houy
59 313 Valenciennes CEDEX 09
FranceEmail : vpp04@univ-valenciennes.fr