Wi-LAN and Cisco join forces to overturn FCC denial of licence-exempt devices

Two familiar foes are banding together in a common battle to get OFDM technology certified by the Federal Communications Commission for use in licence-exempt devices. Wi-LAN Inc and Cisco Systems Inc of San Jose are in the midst of a legal dispute over whether the Calgary-based company has the right to impose licence fees on companies using OFDM technology in devices. At the same time, the two companies are working together to ensure that OFDM-driven devices operating in the 2.4 GHz band can be sold in the U.S. market. THE BATTLE FOR U.S. CERTIFICATION OF OFDM AT 2.4 GHzFebruary 2000Filed initial application and then soon after came back with initial questions May 2000Denied application because OFDM has never been certified before July 2000Met FCC to explain OFDM technology August 2000Denied application again October 2000Filed petition to FCC commissioners for reversalAn October appeal filed by Calgary-based Wi-LAN – and supported by Cisco and Metricom, among others – urges the U.S. communications regulator to reverse its May decision. The only company to publicly oppose the petition is Proxim Inc, a Sunnyvale CA-based wireless broadband network company. The supporting companies say the FCC was wrong to not certify OFDM for devices operating in the 2.4 GHz band and that certification of the technology will go a long way in developing a healthy and sustainable wireless LAN industry. The FCC ruling prevents Wi-LAN from marketing its W-OFDM products for the 2.4 GHz band in the U.S. Certification for these products has already been granted in Canada and Europe. Hatim Zaghloul, chair and CEO at Wi-LAN says OFDM offers several advantages over existing technologies used in that frequency, including better speed and throughput and spectrum efficiency. He adds that it only makes sense that device manufacturers would want to get 54 Mbs throughput – offered in newer devices – as opposed to the 11 Mbs available with current 2.4 GHz licence-exempt devices. "… that means channels will be less crowded and you’re not going to have as many devices trying to (communicate with each other) at the same time," he says. The battle to get OFDM certified has been ongoing for nearly a year. Wi-LAN initially applied to the FCC for certification in February 2000 and has since been denied twice. The crux of the problem lies in whether OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) is viewed as an extension to direct sequence spread spectrum technology or a completely different technology. If the latter, the FCC says it cannot be certified for devices operating in the 2.4 GHz band. Zaghloul says the difficulty for the FCC is that its engineers didn’t even understand OFDM and have admitted as much to the company. The FCC fears that if it certifies OFDM in this band, then other companies would flood the regulator with application to have their technology certified as well, says Zaghloul. "The reality is the FCC told us verbally (that) if they certify (OFDM), this will be sort of the beginning of an avalanche," he told Report on Wireless. The flamboyant CEO sees the issue in another light. "We definitely believe and that was Cisco’s view as well, (that by) allowing OFDM (to be certified), it will be a stabilizing and cleansing factor in the 2.4 GHz band," he explains. Backup plan may influence FCC The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is studying a proposal to use OFDM as a standard in wireless LANs, and Zaghloul says the international organization wouldn’t review the proposal unless it had broad industry support. The international association of electronics engineers is also supporting Wi-LAN’s position, and Zaghloul maintains that most in industry want the FCC to reverse its decision. He expects the FCC to rule on the petition by the end of this month or in early February. Court battle to heat up this year Last June, Wi-LAN came out and defended what it believes is its right to impose licence fees on any company building a device based on OFDM and any variations of the technology. Zaghloul said at the time that his company would defend its patent and take any company to court. The dispute between Cicso and Wi-LAN boiled over late last year, when Wi-LAN announced that it was suing Radiata Communications (RoW, Nov 27/00), a company that is a take-over target of Cisco. Cisco is developing products based on vector-OFDM, while Wi-LAN uses wideband-OFDM in its products. What’s at issue is whether Wi-LAN’s patent on OFDM covers variations of the technology such as Cisco’s V-OFDM. Zaghloul says the collaboration with Cisco on the FCC battle is a positive step in solidifying a working relationship between the two companies. But he adds the whole confrontation could have been avoided if the media hadn’t put Cisco on the defensive. "In their view, we started the war on them, and in our view they started the war on us," he says. It’s an unfortunate situation, explains Zaghloul. "All we are discussing is the last one per cent of the price of the product."

Wi-LAN and Cisco join forces to overturn FCC denial of licence-exempt devices

News | January 8, 2001

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