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Goals of the Wireless Multimedia Forum
 
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It's no secret that the industry is working hard to equip mobile users with wireless Internet and intranet capabilities. Global standards bodies and multivendor forums are moving to build so-called 3G (third-generation) networks (and even fourth-generation, or 4G, networks) that enable higher data rates on existing CDMA, GSM, TDMA and other wireless infrastructures.
But what happens when mobile workers start looking to their laptops or PDAs to deliver the broadband applications currently being developed? These include streaming media, interactive collaboration, videoconferencing and downloadable content such as multimedia messaging. Without a common set of compression, control and other protocols, content developers might run into that familiar problem of having to choose among networks. The other option is to go to the time and expense of developing and redeveloping content for each network.
Well, it should come as no surprise that there is a forum looking into these issues to make sure that the wireless multimedia market is not fragmented by dissimilar underlying protocols and user choices are not limited. The Wireless Multimedia Forum (WMF) consists of about 35 hardware vendors, software makers, carriers and content developers. Stardust.com, the same outfit that runs the QoS Forum and the IP Multicast Initiative, also manages the WMF.
WFM met last month in Yokohama, Japan, and identified a set of technologies that it will likely recommend to developers and network providers for use as a common foundation for the global deployment of mobile, IP-based multimedia content. The WMF expects its first document - called the Recommended Technology Framework Document and focused on streaming media applications - to be released in December. Compliant multimedia services should follow early next year, says Stardust Chief Technology Officer Martin Hall.
With the Internet and telecommunications industries converging on a global scale, it is important that worldwide organizations come together to agree on common technology implementations. This is no easy feat, however. Acceptance by a huge cross-section of global industry players is required for the WMF effort to pay off. Hall says that the WMF has targeted about 20 worldwide standards bodies, forums and alliances engaged in mobile network activity as potential partners. Among the groups the WMF hopes to work with are the Wireless Application Protocol Forum, Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and 3GPP2, and the Internet Engineering Task Force.
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Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in Campbell, Calif., who has spent most of her career analyzing trends and news in the computer networking industry. She welcomes your comments on the articles published in this newsletter, as well as your ideas for future article topics. Reach her at joanie@jwexler.com.
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