Jon Canan
Program Manager
Microsoft Corporation
Overview
Provides Location Based Services to GPS navigation
devices over an FM radio subcarrier broadcast
Initially includes traffic, gas prices, weather, and movie times
All data is geo-encoded
Enables content filtering based on current GPS location
Routing engine can route around traffic and take the customer to
the cheapest gas, movie theater of their choice, etc.
Delivered via the Microsoft DirectBand® network
Garmin® was first OEM, products available now
Two models: nüvi® 680 & StreetPilot® c580
MSN Direct receiver built into car charger
A broadcast data delivery platform, network & service
Microsoft is the wireless operator
Long term and exclusive access to bandwidth
Microsoft provides
Receiver HW & SW technology, all decoding of OTA stream
Backend content collection, packaging, scheduling, delivery
Billing, device activation, customer support
Network operations & monitoring
Multi-network strategy
Different networks for different devices/markets
First network using subcarrier on FM radio towers (but not RDS)
Second network based on HD Radio under development
Investigating DVB-H, DMB, or MediaFLO
Terminology:
Low cost bandwidth
One-to-many requires much less bandwidth than point-to-point
Few players competing for it, little demand for the bandwidth
Cell operators spend billions for spectrum, billions more to deploy
A single big FM tower can cover an entire metro area
Consumers benefit via significantly lower fees
MSN Direct Navigation Service = $49/yr or $129 one-time payment
Verizon VZ Navigator Service = $119/yr + airtime or data plan
And that is just for basic navigation – doesn’t even include traffic
Most data can be delivered via broadcast
Traffic, gas prices, movie times, weather, sports, stocks, etc.
Client-side filtering allows UX to be personalized to each user
Receivers can be very power efficient – never transmit
Coverage, coverage, coverage
MSN Direct covers 77% of US Population
Power consumption
DirectBand receiver about 10x more power efficient
Range
One FM tower covers entire region – allows receiver to stay
locked on while driving
WiFi would require constant tower switching while driving
Deployment/operations cost
Much cheaper to deploy, maintain, and operate equipment in a
few FM radio stations than a large number of WiFi access points
Analog DirectBand uses the 67 kHz FM sub-carrier
Bandwidth is 11.5 kbps per city (analog FM, HD will be more)
Aggregate bandwidth across all cities is 1.43 Mbps
Delivers 100 MB per day, per city
Bandwidth dedicated entirely to data – focus on local content
Good in-building penetration (compare to sat radio)
Content Delivery Scheduling
Dynamic priorities and service level by data type
Prevents starvation, meets varying application needs for QoS
Network fault tolerance and monitoring
Multiple towers, multiple WAN providers, redundant equipment
Field monitors trigger automatic failover when needed
Error correction
Viterbi, Reed Solomon, Low Density Parity Codes, Packet
Interleaving (for time diversity)
Encryption
ExTEA (Extended Tiny Encryption Algorithm)
Personal content signed with a private key
Broadcast content signed with a service key which changes
periodically and is delivered to active users in personal messages
Microsoft Streets & Trips 2008 with Connected Services
Additional partners and services coming soon
MSN Direct HD
HD Radio is a digital upgrade for terrestrial AM & FM radio
Benefits: Use existing HD receiver in vehicle, more bandwidth
Announced collaboration with Clear Channel at CES 2007
Clear Channel provides network, MSN Direct builds the technology
and operates the service
Won’t replace MSN Direct – both networks will operate in parallel
Content and Bandwidth
Hybrid Mode: 12 kbps dedicated bandwidth
Content would be similar to existing MSN Direct Service
Extended Hybrid: 36 kbps dedicated bandwidth
3x more bandwidth than current analog MSN Direct, will enable
more, deeper content
© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market
conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.
Microsoft Research
Faculty Summit 2007