Technology

ODMA History

While IWICS, Inc. was formed in 2001 to commercialize and market ODMA™ technology, the history of the development of ODMA stretches back over thirty years.

The history of ODMA begins with the work initiated by Salbu Research and Development (SRD) (Pty) Ltd in the Republic of South Africa (RSA). SRD (Pty) Ltd has researched wireless communications since the 1950s. Their prolific and high-quality work is globally recognized by the invention of major innovations in the following technologies: solid state transceivers, single side band processing, man pack radios, frequency hopping, adaptive packet switched, meteor burst, satellite, third generation (3G) wireless data, and wireless internet technology.

The initial concept of Opportunity Driven Multiple Access™ (ODMA) was conceived and patented by David Larsen and James Larsen of SRD in 1978. The overall patent was lodged by SRD (Pty) Ltd in 1994 after peak mode opportunistic research and advanced development that included theoretical studies, extensive experience in measurement methods, and development of computer models and simulations. The technology has been implemented and proven in a working demonstration system with active users for over five years. The SRD (Pty) Ltd technical team has produced several patents (pending or granted) internationally for ODMA technology.

SRD (Pty) Ltd's initial ODMA demonstration product was targeted at the 40 MHz - 170 MHz band. However, the system is frequency-independent and will support practical mass market mobile applications in the range of frequencies between 40MHz and 3.5 GHz. The technology will be adapted to 700 to 800 MHz and 2GHz cellular, PCS and 3G frequency bands, which will provide broadband access to the Internet.

Initial ODMA hardware demonstrators in the 1990’s were limited by then-available voice encoder/decoder and microcomputer hardware. The Programmable Adaptive Relay Revert-Back Opportunity Transmission (PARROT) patent was lodged in 1994 by David Larsen, James Larsen, and Mark Larsen to overcome initial hardware limitations.

In 1995 James Larsen, Mark Larsen and the SRD (Pty) Ltd technical team started building the PARROT demonstrator. Between 1995 and 2000 a demonstration network of fifty PARROT Units was completed and five associated patents were lodged internationally. SRD (Pty) Ltd used ODMA technology to develop fully-functional demonstration systems that are currently operating with users in the Republic of South Africa and Namibia.

As a result of negotiations carried out between 2001 and 2003, IWICS, Inc. purchased the intellectual property rights to the ODMA patent portfolio from SRD (Pty) Ltd. IWICS has maintained and expanded the patent portfolio by lodging many new patents related to the ODMA base technology as well as paying for the renewal and maintenance of the existing portfolio.



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