Technologies & Standards
3G
The third generation of wireless mobile communication systems is often referred to as 3G. Third generation technology addresses the demand for higher bit-rates and improved spectral efficiency over 2G and 2.5G technologies.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has compiled an envelope of 3G standards referred to as IMT-2000. Upon creation in 1999, this envelope contained, among others; WCDMA, CDMA2000, TD-CDMA, and EDGE. Recently (Oct. 2007) a specific WiMAX profile of IEEE802.16 was added as a sixth radio interface technology.
Related products: Device Development, Specialized Device Platform, R&D Services, Propsim F8, MIMO OTA, WCDMA & LTE Basestation Frequency Variant Design, Virtual Drive Testing, Geometric Modeling, Consultation Services for Mobile Operators, 802.11
3GPP
Established in December of 1998, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project is a collaboration effort between a group of telecommunications standard entities (ARIB, CCSA, ETSI, ATIS, TTA, TTC). The scope of 3GPP is twofold: first the development of a standard for 3rd generation wireless communication (UTRA), and secondly the maintenance and evolution of the GSM technology.
Recent effort within 3GPP has focused on the evolution of UTRA to E-UTRA. This effort, also known as Long-Term Evolution (LTE), is developing a Beyond 3G (B3G) wireless technology enabling much higher data rates and spectral efficiency over 3G systems.
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4G
Also known as "Beyond 3G", 4G refers to the fourth generation of wireless communications. The deployment of 4G networks should be in the 2010-2015 timeframe and will enable another leap in wireless data-rate and spectral efficiency. Using a fully IP-based system the data rates will be in the 100-1000 Mbit/second range.
Formalization of the definition of 4G has started within ITU under the term IMT-Advanced. The ITU is specifying the requirements for 4G wireless access technologies. As the formalization of the 4G term is now in such an early stage, the term “4G” has become somewhat of a controversial term as some companies and entities have taken the liberty to label their technology as “4G” for marketing purposes.
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Android
Android is a new open source software platform for mobile handsets developed by the Open Handset Alliance (OHA).
It is built on top of the open Linux kernel and it includes several layers like system libraries, the Dalvik virtual machine (similar to Sun’s Java virtual machine), an application framework, and applications. Along with the more traditional phone applications, like telephony and contacts management Android provides also a high degree of integration to Google applications and services like Gmail, Calendar, and Maps. Android’s application programming language is Java.
The OHA was co-founded by Google and includes various members from the mobile world like operators, OEMs, and software vendors.
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ASR
Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is the capability of a system to interpret human speech. Languages, key words as well as whole sentences and their meanings can be recognized. Car applications, entertainment systems, mobile communication devices, or other electronic devices can be speech-enabled by voice recognition solutions: e.g. dialling a phone number by speaking the name, voice destination entry in navigation systems, or voice command and control for electronic devices.
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AUTOSAR
AUTOSAR stands for AUTomotive Open System Architecture. This world-wide initiative was brought to life by automobile manufacturers, suppliers and service providers to establish a broad range of standard software architecture for the automobiles of the future. EB has been a Premium Member of the AUTOSAR partnership since 2004 and thereby have reinforced our many years of involvement with the standardization of software in the automobile industry. In 2005, EB introduced the first complete AUTOSAR standard core.
Related products: EB tresos® - ECU-Software
DVB
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a suite of standards and related technology for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an industry consortium with close to 300 members, and they are published by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), European Committee for Electro Technical Standardization (CENELEC) and European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
The standard specifies physical and data link layers for fixed terrestrial (DVB-T), mobile/handheld terrestrial (DVB-H) and hybrid satellite/handheld (DVB-SH) broadcast. The air interfaces are based on some variant of the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) technology. The DVB-IP data cast (DVB-IPDC) suite of standards specifies transport and network Content Download Protocols, as well as Electronic Service Guide (ESG) and Service Purchase and Protection (SPP) procedures.
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FlexRay
FlexRay is a serial, deterministic and fault tolerant field bus system for automotive applications. The FlexRay consortium was initiated by the companies BMW, Daimler AG, Motorola and Philips (today: NXP Semiconductors). Until 2005 the consortium gained new core partners, namely Bosch, General Motors, Volkswagen and Freescale (who replaced Motorola).
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GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) developed by the United States Department of Defense. It is the only fully functional GNSS in the world. It uses a constellation of between 24 and 32 Medium Earth Orbit satellites that transmit precise microwave signals, that enable GPS receivers to determine their current location, the time, and their velocity. Its official name is NAVSTAR-GPS.
GPS provides location accuracy of 5-50m (achieved with Assisted GPS) and has become a widely used aid to navigation worldwide, and a useful tool for map-making, land surveying, commerce, scientific uses, and hobbies such as geo-caching. Also, the precise time reference is used in many applications including scientific study of earthquakes, and synchronization of telecommunications networks.
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GSM
Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) is the first European standard for 2nd generation mobile (2G) telephony, initiated by European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administration (ECPT) and then transferred to European Telecommunication Standardization Institute (ETSI). Generalized Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is regarded as 2.5G evolution of GSM. The GSM technical specifications are maintained by 3GPP project under the umbrella of ETSI.
GSM offers throughputs of up to 14.4 Kbps which enables services like telephony, fax, emergency calls, short message, fax mail and voice mail. GPRS offers throughputs of up to 114 Kbps which enables services like low quality multimedia messaging, e-mail and web browsing in addition to the existing GSM services. The radio access is based on the combination of Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA, 200KHz channels) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA, eight time multiplexed full rate speech channels) as well as Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) modulation.
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HSDPA
High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is an enhanced performance upgrade of the WCDMA UMTS radio access layer. HSDPA currently offers data rates of up to 14.4 Mbps through enhanced physical layer techniques. This high data rate is enabled by use of adaptive modulation can coding (AMC), hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ), and fast packet scheduling at the access point.
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Jaspar
Japan Automotive Platform Architecture (Jaspar) is the driving force behind automotive software standardization in Japan. Started in 2004 by Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Toyotsu Electronics, this non-profit organization has teamed up around 120 companies covering all automotive aspects from manufacturers, suppliers, tool developers, and semiconductor companies. Jaspar strives to reduce technology development costs and promote technology development by developing a unified architecture for vehicle networking and software development tailored to the requirements of Japanese customers. To reach this aim, the non-profit organization is evaluating the
international standards FlexRay and AUTOSAR.
By means of its Japanese branch, EB has been contributing in the domain of software platforms. In this software working group, AUTOSAR specifications and the software components based on AUTOSAR are being evaluated in respect to the requirements of the JasPar specifications.
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Linux
Linux is a generic term used for Unix-like computer operating systems which use the Linux kernel. Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free software and open source development; typically all the underlying source code can be freely modified, used, and redistributed by anyone.
Linux is predominantly known for its use in servers, although it is installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, ranging from embedded devices and mobile phones to supercomputers. Its popularity as a desktop/laptop operating system is growing due to the rise of small notebooks like Asus Eee PC and the Ubuntu distribution of the operating system.
The name "Linux" comes from the Linux kernel, originally written in 1991 by Linus Torvalds. The system's utilities and libraries usually come from the GNU operating system, announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman. The GNU contribution is the basis for the alternative name GNU/Linux. Kernel and most of the system utility sources fall under GPL open source license.
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LTE, LTE-A
Long term evolution (LTE) and long term evolution advanced (LTE-Advanced) are cellular communication standards, regarded as 3.9G and 4G evolutions of UMTS, respectively. According to the global IMT-2000 standard requirements LTE is likely to fall into a category of 3G technologies, while LTE-Advanced aims at satisfying all the requirements to be added to the list of IMT-Advanced, i.e. 4G technologies.
LTE offers throughputs of up to approx. 300 Mbps for download and up to approx 80Mbps for download. This will enable a wide range of rich multimedia services in addition to the traditional Internet services offered by HSPA. The radio access is based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) technologies for downlink and uplink, respectively, as well as Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO).
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Microsoft Auto
Microsoft Auto is an industry proven platform designed to simplify the creation of differentiating and innovative infotainment solutions using best-in-class development tools, and a complete hardware development platform to reduce overall time to market, and reduce risk and engineering costs.
EB is a Microsoft Auto Business Unit Partner as well as an authorized Microsoft Auto Training Partner.
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MIMO
Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MIMO) in a wireless communications context means the utilization of multiple antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver ends of the radio link. MIMO can be used to increase the radio throughput by concurrently modulating multiple parallel “spatial” streams. The technique takes advantage of a scenario where the radio propagation environment between parallel TX-RX antenna (beam) pairs is significantly different. In this case independent data streams can be transmitted on parallel TX-RX antenna (beam) pairs while ensuring that these streams can be separated at the receiver end of the link.
MIMO is one multi-antenna technique that uses multiple antennas to enable multiple access within the same time/code/frequency domains. Other multi-antenna techniques include beam-forming and TX/RX diversity. These technologies are often intermixed with a scheme of adaptation that takes best advantage of the instantaneous radio propagation environment by switching to the proper multi-antenna technique.
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Mobile WiMAX 802.16e
802.16e is a standard for wide area mobile broadband access, developed by Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Its scope is in developing related air interface protocol specifications. Mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a mobile broadband technology/standard developed by WiMAX Forum, a consortium of network and service operators and vendors. Mobile WiMAX standard leverages the IEEE 802.16e technology and builds additional specifications on top of that to ensure conformity and interoperability.
The technology offers up to 70 Mbps download/upload throughput, and it is primarily meant for Internet applications. The radio access is based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technologies.
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MOST
Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST) is the de facto standard for multimedia and infotainment networking in the automotive industry. It provides a quality of service transmission of audio and video data streams together with the transfer of real time control data. The latest speed grade (MOST150) additionally implements an Ethernet channel that can be integrated in existing TCP/IP stacks.
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NLU
Natural Language Understanding (NLU) is a central element of modern speech-control. Here the automatic speech recognition not only reacts to commands, it also recognizes naturally spoken sentences such as 'I want to drive to Detroit and listen to my favourite music.'
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OSEK
Offene Systeme und deren Schnittstellen für die Elektronik im Kraftfahrzeug (OSEK), in English Open Systems and the Corresponding Interfaces for Automotive Electronics) is an industry group which defined several software standards for in-car usage. The OSEK architecture mainly consists of:
• Communication: data exchange within and between electronic control units (ECUs)
• Operating System: a small real-time scheduler
• Network Management: a method to monitor the presence of ECUs connected via a common bus
• Specifications for supporting time triggered systems (OSEKtime RTOS and fault tolerant communications)
• Specifications for configuration (OIL) and debugging (ORTI) of OSEK systems
Parts of the OSEK specifications were standardized in ISO (ISO-17356)
EB began to develop an OSEK-compliant operating system as early as 1997 under the name of ProOSEK. After 2001 it became the heart of BMW’s Standard Core used in the majority of ECUs in all BMW cars, and even some motorcycles.
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Qt
Qt is a cross-platform application and UI framework. It includes a cross-platform class library, integrated development tools and a cross-platform IDE. Using Qt, you can write applications once and deploy them across many desktop and embedded operating systems without rewriting the source code.
EB’s Qt-based offering includes consulting services, software, OS and hardware platform adaptation and complete product solutions. Specifically, EB’s Qt-based UI and application framework, first introduced in its MID Reference Device, can be easily tailored and represents a strong proof-point of Qt’s suitability for creation of graphic-rich, intuitive user experience.
More information about Qt at http://qt.nokia.com/
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SDR
A Software Defined Radio (SDR) is a radio communication system in which part of the radio equipment that is traditionally implemented in special purpose hardware (e.g. ASIC and FPGA) is instead implemented in software on e.g. general purpose processor or an embedded computing device. The original use of the technology was in the military, but there are numerous commercial applications nowadays (e.g. reconfiguration or update of cellular base stations and mobile terminals). The only open and internationally adopted standardized software architecture for SDR is Software Communication Architecture (SCA) developed by Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) US program.
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TD-SCDMA
A 3G wireless telecommunication technology pursued in the People’s Republic of China, TD-SCDMA stands for Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access. TD-SCDMA is a spread-spectrum multiple access technique that uses time division duplex (TDD) as apposed to frequency division duplex used in the more common UMTS WCDMA radio access technology. The use of TDD allows dynamic adjustment of the down- and uplink traffic to better accommodate asymmetric communications.
The uplink signals from multiple mobile stations are synchronized at the base station through closed-loop timing adjustments. This feature provides the “Synchronous” term of the TD-SCDMA.
TD-SCDMA was formally announced as the People’s Republic of China standard for 3G by the Ministry of Information Industry in January of 2006.
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TETRA
Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is European standard for Professional Mobile Radio (PMR), specifically designed to be used by government agencies, emergency services and military. The standard is developed and maintained by European Telecommunications Standardization Institute (ETSI) and promoted by TETRA Association, formerly known as TERA MoU. TETRA is mandated for use in Europe.
The air interface is based on the Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), and it enables services like e.g. point-to-point and point-to-multipoint and dispatch voice, relay of calls in case infrastructure is not available or simply regular calls through the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
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TTS
Text-to-Speech (TTS) is a speech processing technology where text is transformed into speech that has to sound natural and understandable. Speech synthesis enables the driver to listen to navigation functions in spoken form e.g. voice prompts for manoeuvres where the driver gets street names and exit numbers in addition to the direction.
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WCDMA
As a wireless technology WCDMA stands for Wideband Code Division Multiple Access. WCDMA uses a direct-sequence spread spectrum technique to multiplex signals intended for multiple users. In brief, the desire signal of each user is spread and scrambled with a user-specific spreading and scrambling code before transmission in the down- or uplink. By ensuring that the user-specified codes are orthogonal, each user’s signal can be separated and demodulated.
WCDMA, as a technology, is used in the UMTS system and as such the term “WCDMA” is often used to refer to the radio interface of the UMTS mobile communications system.
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Windows Embedded
Windows Embedded operating system platforms provide a comprehensive and scalable set of operating system technologies, such as Windows Embedded Standard, Windows Embedded CE and Windows Embedded NavReady. Windows Embedded operating system technology has been used in a wide range of markets and devices such as consumer electronics, gateways, mobile and handheld devices, IP set-top boxes and industrial automation devices.
Windows Embedded Standard is the successor to Windows XP Embedded and is a componentized version of the Windows XP Professional operating system.
It does not only bring the rich feature set of Windows to embedded devices but moreover offers additional Embedded Enabling Features required by embedded devices, e.g. multiple boot and storage options, deployment and management technologies, power management etc.
Windows Embedded CE allows the creation of small, connected devices on various processor families. Devices built on Windows CE range from Set-top boxes and Industrial Appliances to Portable Navigation Devices.
Windows Embedded NavReady is based on Windows CE and offers a platform for navigation by adding services such as MSN Direct and Live Search for Devices and enhancing functionality such as Bluetooth.
EB is a Windows Embedded Gold Partner.
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Windows Phone
Windows Phone is a compact operating system (OS) combined with a suite of basic applications for mobile devices. Devices that run Windows Phone include Smartphones, Pocket PCs, Portable Media Centers and on-board computers for certain automobiles.
Windows Phone is based on Windows Embedded CE kernel and it can be adapted to support various hardware configurations. It provides frameworks e.g. for cellular 2G/3G connections, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, touch screen, various display resolutions with portrait or landscape rotation, various keypad configurations including QWERTY-keypad, USB 2.0 (host & device) and SD 2.0 cards.
Windows Phone offers a broad range of applications for the user. The main applications included are Phone, Messaging, Internet Explorer Mobile, Office Mobile, Calendar, Contacts, Windows Media Player Mobile, PC synchronization (ActiveSync), Pictures and Videos, VoIP, Windows Live and .NET Compact Framework.
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