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InterDigital Demonstrates Media Independent Handover (MIH) Technology at Mobile World Congress, BarcelonaBARCELONA, Spain --(Business Wire)-- InterDigital, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDCC) today announced the successful demonstration of their Media Independent Handover (MIH) solution during the 2009 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (MWC), Spain. The demonstration - InterDigital's third live trial - confirmed the maturity of the recently published IEEE 802.21 standard, also known as MIH. The MIH specification, approved in November 2008 and published in January 2009, is a new interoperability standard, a simple and reliable solution for seamless networking between 2G/3G cellular systems and WiFi or WiMAX networks and other communications standards. The demonstration featured uninterrupted data streaming when switching between live 3G and WiFi networks, enabled by InterDigital's thin-client middleware loaded onto an off-the-shelf touch-screen Smartphone with 3G (UMTS) and WiFi (802.11b/g) and Windows Mobile operating system. BT supported the demo by supplying remote access to its MIH Information Server in Ipswich, UK, assisting the handovers, as well as BT Mobile 3G roaming on a commercial network in Barcelona, and WiFi service on a public network at the Congress. InterDigital's MIH solution reduces handover interruption to less than half a second from more than 10 seconds when using connection manager- or OS-based solutions. In the MWC demonstration, handovers of a data session (streamed from a remote host located in Long Island, NY, USA) from 3G to WiFi were performed using the Network Information Service, while handovers from WiFi to 3G were performed using the WiFi signal strength as the principal criterion. "This demonstration illustrates the maturity of our MIH middleware, which is poised to be a market-defining solution for the convergence of multiple air interface technologies, including LTE, going forward," said William J. Merritt, President and CEO of InterDigital. "Living up to InterDigital's reputation as a visionary for the wireless industry, we have been pioneering MIH solutions for many years and were key contributors to the development of the 802.21 standard." "BT is a strong supporter of seamless mobility - where users are able to move between different access technologies without breaks in services. MIH is a candidate technology to support this and we are very pleased to present this demo in conjunction with InterDigital that illustrates the kind of services and technology-free access that users can expect in the future," said Dave Wisely, Head of the Mobility Research Lab, BT Innovate. In October 2008, InterDigital and BT participated in another demonstration sponsored by the Fixed Mobile Convergence Alliance (FMCA). Under an agreement announced in December 2006, InterDigital and SK Telecom have collaborated on an MIH-based network interoperability solution for SK Telecom's UMTS, WiBro and cdma2000 networks, which was successfully trialed in Q1 2008. About InterDigital InterDigital® designs, develops and provides advanced wireless technologies and products that drive voice and data communications. InterDigital is a leading contributor to the global wireless standards and holds a strong portfolio of patented technologies which it licenses to manufacturers of 2G, 2.5G, 3G, and 802 products worldwide. Additionally, the company offers a family of SlimChip™ high performance mobile broadband modem solutions, consisting of Baseband ICs, Embedded Modules, Modem IP and Reference Platforms. InterDigital's differentiated technology and product solutions deliver time-to-market, performance and cost benefits. InterDigital is a registered trademark and SlimChip is a trademark of InterDigital, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. For more information, visit: www.interdigital.com |
