Qualcomm outlines plans to provide 1000x more capacity

Silicon vendor Qualcomm has outlined plans to drastically increase capacity in mobile networks. The vendor believes that, by using its technology, operators will be able to provide a thousand times more bandwidth capacity than today, while also reducing costs.

Speaking at the vendor’s IQ event in Moscow today, Paul Jacob, chairman and CEO explained that small cells are key to enabling this.

“The fundamental concept behind the 1000x vision is that today, the cellular network is “Outside-In”. The tower is outside and the network comes inside to where you are with your device,” he said.

“But an “Inside Out” network, where the network is inside with me, and it leaves to go outside when necessary, can radically increase data rates. Using small cells, we can offload 15 per cent of the capacity used with just two per cent of the small cells that are currently out there today.”

He added that another way to improve data capacity in devices is by using supplemental downlink technologies, particularly to handle video streaming.

“We’re just adding from the network to the device, because that’s the direction most video is being transmitted. There is roughly 35-times more data downloaded than uploaded today. Adding extra downlinks means increased capacity – all it takes is a new receiver in the phone.”

Jacobs added that integrating broadcast technologies into cellular will become important. Real time data can be broadcast, he argued, in a manner similar to TV networks. This could allow operators to serve thousands of people simultaneously. He added that this does not just apply to video but also system updates.

And the final strand of Qualcomm’s vision includes the use of “proximal communication”. Jacob argued that the model of sending data up to the cloud and back down when communicating with friends in the same building is inefficient, long and congests the network.

“P2P technology will be a fundamental way to transmit data in the future,” he said. “Today, people use Bluetooth but that is unreliable. We have built an open source software framework called the AllJoyn layer which allows users to share information using dynamic proximal networks.”