You may not be familiar with the Alamouti Code but if you have a 4G or 5G device you are probably benefiting from this wireless innovation.
Developed in 1996 by Siavash Alamouti, Alamouti Code optimizes mobile signal reception through transmitters that are found in base stations and access points and eliminates the need to add more wireless receivers to a device, which keeps costs lower and devices smaller. This code also serves as one of the foundations of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology that is now part of the 3GPP wireless standards and is used in 4G, 5G and Wi-Fi networks.
The Alamouti Code is one of those wireless innovations that may not be well-known outside the wireless tech circles but it caught the attention of the Marconi Society, which awarded Alamouti its 2022 Marconi Prize.
The Marconi Society was created in 1974 by Guglielmo Marconi’s daughter, Gioia Marconi Braga, to recognize innovators in advanced communications. The group advocates for research, partnerships and digital inclusion.
The Marconi Prize is awarded annually to innovators who have made a significant contribution to increasing digital inclusivity through IT and communications technology. Recipients are selected by an independent committee and approved by the Marconi Society Board.
Past winners include industry royalty like Vint Cerf, Marty Cooper, Irwin Jacobs, Sergei Brin and Larry Page.
Alamouti invented Alamouti Code when he was working at AT&T Wireless on its Project Angel, which was the company’s early foray back in the 1990s for using fixed wireless to transmit high speed voice and data signals. Alamouti said that while working on this project he realized that fixed wireless technology would not reliably deliver data packets because it dropped the signal. “Fixed wireless’ biggest issue is outages because of the high probability of data packets failing,” he said. “I found an optimal way of combining transmit and receive signals to make these signals arrive with better quality.”
Today Alamouti has shifted his focus to solving another big problem in the industry — how to decentralize the cloud and monetize the internet without relying on advertising. Alamouti believes that this is the only way to sustain the internet and deliver digital equity to everyone. “The core challenge for the internet is affordability of access,” he said.
Alamouti first started working on cloud decentralization at mimik, a company he joined in 2014. He now serves as its executive chairman and spends his time working on different business models for the internet. Not surprisingly, these models all involve decentralizing the cloud.
Smart devices as mini-servers
But what exactly does he mean by decentralizing the cloud? Alamouti said that he believes that server functionality doesn’t have to reside solely in data centers and gateways but can be distributed to billions of smart devices that act as small servers and process data at the edge. This type of decentralized cloud would require less power and bandwidth, Alamouti said, and will make networks less reliant upon data centers. And for both consumers and enterprises, it means data will be more secure because it will be stored closer to them.
Alamouti believes that a decentralized cloud will result in a more sustainable and affordable internet — one that is available to more people. “Our big challenge now is to continue to ensure a sustainable internet and bring the internet to everyone.”
But decentralizing the cloud alone won’t solve the disinformation problem. Alamouti said to solve that issue, the business model needs to not be dependent upon ad revenue because he believes that results in disinformation being spread on the Web. “This is being abused by bad actors to send disinformation.”
While Alamouti and the Marconi Society’s intentions are good, I wonder if technology alone can solve this.
Alamouti is a believer, although he admits that reworking the business model for the internet is a huge endeavor. “We have to have a willingness to work backwards. How can we build an end-to-end system with the aim of bringing prosperity to all?”
And while that may sound idealistic, Alamouti reminds me that the first wireless system he worked on was cellular digital packet data (CDPD), which took unused bandwidth on analog phone networks and transmitted data over it at speeds of 19.2 kilobits per second. “We thought that was a big accomplishment. Now we are sending Gigabits over wireless networks. If we can accomplish that, we can do this.”