DSP: The On-Ramp to the Internet

Electronic News, Nov 1, 1999 by Will Strauss

Virtually all chip companies claim that they are providing products for the Internet, whether their products be memory chips, microprocessors or line drivers. And well they should, since the Internet and its permutations, like Internet telephony and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), are becoming the universal message medium and DSP is the on-ramp to the Internet. Even giant Intel Corp. recently purchased wireless DSP chipset provider DSP Communications Inc. to expand its Internet presence. So what's wireless got to do with the Internet? And DSP? Everything!

Present-day digital cellular is basically a wireless extension of the circuit-switched public telephone network and new handsets will soon allow easy access to the Internet -- initially for e-mail messaging and eventually for Web browsing. However, present 9.6Kbit/sec. and 14.4Kbit/sec. cellular data rates are not conducive to Web surfing in the traditional sense. But help is on the way.

Digital wireless is undergoing a major transition to packet-based switching, as is the wireline world, discussed below. In Europe, the GSM digital wireless system is beginning the conversion to packet-based switching through a program called General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). GPRS enables traditional voice communications but also broadband data communications at a Web-surfing 115Kbit/sec. rate. GPRS (often called 2.5G) is the transition to third-generation (3G) cellular, which will allow voice, video and data at rates up to 384Kbit/sec. for mobile use and 2Mbit/sec. for stationary operation. That's a lot of Internet bandwidth.

And DSP is the enabling technology for all of this. Not just for digital wireless, but for all human connections to the Internet. Think about it. V.90 (56 4Kbit/sec.) analog modems, presently the ubiquitous on-ramp to the Internet, employ DSP chips, whether they are based on programmable ones from Analog Devices, Lucent or Texas Instruments or on non-programmable ones from Conexant. And what's to replace V.90 modems? DSP-based broadband modems like xDSL or cable modems will ultimately become the next ubiquitous on-ramps to the Internet. And they, too, will carry packet-based voice, video and data.

The world is going to packetized communication, first because it has the potential of offering as many as 10 voice phone (VoIP) connections over the same bandwidth as one switched-circuit call requires today, but more importantly because of new features it can provide. New features like Internet-based customer service people or salesmen you want more information from—first through voice and later, video. Now employed for speech and fax, IP telephony will eventually accommodate universal messaging for streaming video and videoconferencing capabilities as well. Such capability requires DSP technology to be applied to every gateway dial-in access port for not only V.90 modem capability, but also speech compression, DTMF signaling, silence detection, echo cancellation and related tasks. At the 100 Million MACs/sec. rate, a single DSP chip can handle approximately four "universal" dial-in ports at the gateway or concentrator situated at the (Internet) service provider's location and millions of ports will ultimately be deployed. And even those millions of ports will eventually be updated to handle higher bandwidth video traffic, ensuring a long-term market for DSP chips.

Following AT&T's acquisition of cable giants Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) and MediaOne, it is clear that cable will be the fast route for the long distance carrier's entry into the local phone market, bypassing the less-than-cooperative local phone companies. Although AT&T has stated that it will initially employ circuit-switched cable telephony, its plans are to later change to packet-based VoIP over cable. VoIP over cable will require DSP-based client gateways in every subscriber's home, so a number of communications equipment companies are eyeing that as a very promising DSP market as well.

But even local phone companies are getting into the packet business, too. Voice-over-DSL (VoDSL) applications enable a Centrex-type service to a number of client phones over a single local loop connection, where three or more lines are currently required for central-office-based PBX-type features. Paradyne has paired with AG Communications to be one of the first equipment suppliers to offer a complete VoDSL solution to the local phone company.

Other telecom equipment vendors, like 3Com Corp., are now offering VoIP-over-LAN PBX systems to replace traditional PBXs (and their separate phone wiring) with the LAN connections that are already at virtually every desk, anyway. And DSP-based terminations will be required at every LAN node. That means millions of DSPs for packetized voice and data will be employed above and beyond the gateway and remote concentrator markets.

Forward Concepts' 25 percent growth prediction for DSP chip revenues to the $4.4-billion level in 1999 is looking to be close, as the fourth-quarter shipment levels appear to be accelerating. For next year, we predict that annual growth will be back up to a more traditional 32 percent level, as Asia has begun its economic recovery. This will lead to a predicted overall compound annual growth rate of 31 percent over the next few years to the $13.6 billion level in 2003.