San Diego-based AirHop Communications and InterDigital (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IDCC]]) have been collaborating to integrate AirHop’s technology for self-organizing networks with InterDigital’s bandwidth management technology, according to a statement today. The companies plan to demonstrate their new capability at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of this month.
The joint effort to optimize bandwidth by integrating a variety of wireless networks is one of the first collaborations to be disclosed since InterDigital, the King of Prussia, PA, wireless technologies developer, opened a shop in San Diego last spring. In an e-mail this morning, InterDigital’s Jack Indekeu says, “Our collaboration developed mostly on technical grounds, and geography happened to be convenient—both companies are on the bleeding edge of complementary technology development.”
In a statement from the companies, AirHop CEO Yan Hui says, “Even as LTE deployments accelerate, it is becoming clear we are heading towards a major bandwidth shortfall, because mobile data demands are already outstripping the new network capacity. Innovative technology that addresses the need for maximizing network resources is critical to solving this problem.”
Hui says InterDigital and AirHop have been working together to “intelligently manage scarce network resources and proactively optimize coverage and capacity issues as they arise.”
Indekeu, who is InterDigital’s director of corporate marketing, explains that InterDigital envisions an integrated “network of networks” that allows wireless users to roam across cellular networks (which range from wide area networks to femtocell networks) and also to take advantage of available bandwidth on Wi-Fi and other types of wireless networks.
The collaboration integrates AirHop’s expertise in self-organizing network technology and multi-cell interference mitigation capability with InterDigital’s expertise in bandwidth management. InterDigital says its bandwidth management technology optimizes bandwidth for wireless service providers by managing network links based on quality of service requirements, policy, and network conditions.