BridgeWave Communications Announces Signal Code Modulation to Enable Pervasive Broadband Services Over Millimeter-Wave Wireless.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 12, 2001

Signal Code Modulation is the First Wireless Technology to

Provide Transparent Extension of Existing Broadband Access 

Networks At Competitive Price Points

BridgeWave Communications, an innovator in wireless access systems that extend the reach of broadband networks, today announced Signal Code Modulation (SCM), a breakthrough technology that simplifies and reduces the cost of widespread broadband deployment. Using the abundant bandwidth of fixed Millimeter-wave (MMW) wireless, BridgeWave's SCM transparently conveys signals and protocols from existing broadband networks across wireless links. SCM thereby enables service providers to quickly and cost-effectively offer high-margin, multi-megabit services to more customers.

BridgeWave's patent-pending SCM technology is the first solution that bridges the broadband service gap that affects 20 to 40 percent of potential subscribers in metropolitan service areas. Wired broadband solutions such as DSL and cable offer the promise of high speed at affordable prices, but their coverage is limited -- DSL speed is tied to the quality of the copper and degrades significantly over distance, while cable access is generally available only in residential areas. Current fixed wireless solutions are likewise optimized for specific applications -- high infrastructure costs restrict LMDS services to downtown areas, while MMDS and unlicensed wireless alternatives are limited to providing sub-rate services.

"In today's competitive market, service providers who cannot quickly satisfy subscriber demands for broadband access run the risk of losing high-value customers forever. Solving that problem presented a huge opportunity for us," said Amir Makleff, CEO and president of BridgeWave Communications. "Our challenge was to develop a solution that could enable service providers to expand their market penetration without changing their existing networks or business models. SCM satisfies those requirements."

Cable equipment leader Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. (NYSE:SFA) saw the promise of the BridgeWave solution and invested in BridgeWave's recent Series C funding round. The company intends to use BridgeWave's technology with its Hybrid Fiber-Coax (HFC) products, enabling Multiple System Operators (MSOs) to tap into the lucrative small- and mid-sized business market and to extend service to high-density residential areas.

"BridgeWave's SCM technology is fully transparent to DOCSIS cable data traffic that's deployed over our HFC transmission equipment," said Paul Connolly, vice president of marketing and network architectures of Scientific-Atlanta. "This will enable MSOs to extend their networks to reach profitable subscribers located beyond the reach of their existing deployments."

SCM Design Challenges: Speed, Reliability, Cost, and Transparency

BridgeWave designed SCM with four key goals in mind: To provide multi-megabit bandwidth to large numbers of subscribers; to meet residential and small-business equipment price points; to avoid costly infrastructure build-outs; and to support all end-user services and interfaces using off-the-shelf equipment. Although conventional MMW wireless solutions address BridgeWave's first design goal for bandwidth, they come up short in the other goals.

"Millimeter-wave frequency bandwidth is abundantly available but highly underutilized today because cost has prevented pervasive adoption," said Gregg Levin, senior vice president of marketing and business development at BridgeWave. "We wanted to change the paradigm of MMW wireless deployment, to make it easy to expand the service footprint. We also wanted the technology to work with any vendor's broadband access equipment."

BridgeWave's Signal Code Modulation technology marries the large bandwidth capability of MMW wireless with the widely deployed broadband access technologies.

SCM: Analog Transparency with Digital Robustness

"SCM simultaneously provides the transparency of traditional analog modulation with the efficiency and robustness of digital modulation." said Eli Pasternak, CTO and senior vice president of BridgeWave Communications, and inventor of SCM. "SCM creates a transparent tunnel to reliably carry complex signals such as those used in cable and DSL networks over low-cost wireless links."

SCM samples the incoming signal and divides it into separate digital and analog components. The digital component is an approximation of the waveform. The analog component carries the difference of the digital component and the sample. The detailed analog sample is multiplied to use the full range of the original signal. This multiplication factor strengthens the fine detail, making it tolerant to the noise encountered with wireless transmission. The modulated digital and analog signals are interleaved and transmitted over an expanded frequency range to increase the robustness of the signal.

The resultant signal is true to the original. Equipment receiving the signal has no idea that the signal ever left the bounds of wires to stretch out through the air via MMW radio.

"BridgeWave Communications' SCM is a unique technology that combines the best that combines the best aspects of wireless and wired networks," said Ray Keneipp, director and principal analyst at The Burton Group. "SCM's ability to transparently re-modulate complex modulated signals over a wireless link will revolutionize the way service providers build out their networks."

Seamless Wired and Wireless Networking

Because SCM is protocol transparent, it can transmit any broadband signal from any wired network, including the DOCSIS cable standard widely deployed in HFC networks today. Service providers can connect a central SCM-enabled radio to a cable drop at any location on the cable network. The central radio uses the MMW frequency band to transmit DOCSIS signals to multiple SCM radios. At each premise location, the radio is connected to one or more standard cable modems. The service provider's head-end equipment and the subscribers' cable modems are all completely unaware of the SCM transmission that extends the connections between them.

"Wireless LECs, Cable MSOs, and DSL service providers alike face physical challenges to penetrating potential markets with pervasive broadband," said Paul Kellett, senior analyst at Pioneer Consulting. "BridgeWave's solution allows service providers to rapidly capture market share and reap more value from their existing network assets."

About BridgeWave Communications

BridgeWave Communications, Inc. develops and markets wireless access technologies that extend the reach of broadband networks, allowing service providers to reach untapped subscribers with high-bandwidth services. BridgeWave is a Silicon Valley-based corporation, established in December 1998 by veteran technology executives of high-performance wireless internetworking system companies. Principal investors include Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), BreezeCOM LTD, Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., DRW Venture Partners LP, investment funds affiliated with Merrill Lynch & Co., MKS Ventures LLC, Oak Investment Partners, Ampal, and Seapoint Ventures.

Editors' Note: BridgeWave Communications will be demonstrating SCM at the Broadband Wireless World Forum 2001, in San Francisco on February 19-22, booth number 219.