GREETINGS

Greetings from the Governor of Massachusetts:

Dear Friends:

I am pleased to extend warm greetings as you gather for the Ninth IEEE International
Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC ’98), to be held in
Boston, Massachusetts, on September 8–11, 1998.

This year’s conference is expected to draw more than six hundred researchers from
academia, industry, and government, senior executives of telecommunications companies,
managers, and engineers from more than forty different countries, including North America,
Europe, and the Far East. I applaud the outstanding efforts of the participants, who share an
uncompromising commitment to excellence, and commend the dedication of the members of
IEEE who make this event possible.

Best wishes for an exciting and enjoyable event.

Sincerely,

Greetings from the Mayor of Boston:

Dear Friends:

I send you my sincerest welcome as you gather from around the world for the Ninth IEEE International
Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PMIRC'98).

You picked the perfect city - Boston's many universities and growing technology sector make us a world leader
in the field. This symposium represents an important opportunity for professional development and the exchange
of information in an important field of communications technology.

Boston is also renown for our historic and charming neighborhoods, our inviting parks and waterfront walkways, and
wide selection of eateries - from four star restaurants to cozy corner pubs. I invite you to explore our city - so friendly
to pedestrians it's known as "America's Walking City" - and uncover some of its many treasures.

You have my wishes for a very successful and productive symposium, and again, I welcome you to Boston. I send you
my best regards.

General Chair's Message:

It is my honor and pleasure to welcome you to Boston and the ninth annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications.

It is appropriate that your symposium is in the United States this year. It follows a year which witnessed an explosion of competition in wireless communications. The United States now has over 56 million wireless communications customers who can choose from up to eight providers of wireless services in their market. Right here in Boston there are six companies from which customers can choose to purchase their wireless service. This unprecedented level of wireless competition is prompting technical and marketing innovation. The wireless providers in Boston for instance are using a variety of technologies to deliver services to customers. Customers can choose from service offerings that use DMA-800, CDMA-1900, TDMA, ETDMA, GSM and analog.

Customers know that competition has arrived and they recognize that new features, lower costs per minute and cheaper phones will soon follow. Customers have told us that they want calling party pays, location technology services, wireless data, wireless local loop and bundled services.

Our greatest challenge is to understand exactly what customers want in order to make the right technology decisions. This symposium is an terrific opportunity for the discussion of which technologies will help the industry meet and anticipate future customer demands that will enable wireless communications growth to continue.

While you are here please take some time to experience Boston. The city is rich in history and is home to more than 70 colleges and universities and some of the best restaurants and shopping areas in America.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I warmly welcome you to PIMRC'98 in historic Boston, Massachusetts.

Denny Strigl
General Chair of PIMRC'98

Technical Program Chairman's Message

The occasion of the Ninth IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications marks its second occurrence in the United States. In keeping with its history of global diversity in participants and sponsorships, this ninth PIMRC offers an outstanding program of technical papers, tutorials, invited lectures, and panel discussions which reflects the truly global view of the emerging third generation wireless networks in the mobile life of the third millennium. As always we have tried to strike a balance between the diverse interests of the academia and the industry, both in composition of the organizing committee and in the technical content of the program. We have also intended to address the issues of interest to designers, manufacturers and service providers.

The first day of the conference presents tutorial courses to provide an occasion to the participants to broaden their understanding of the industry and better prepare them to appreciate the depth of the technical program presented in the following three days.

The second day of the conference starts with an executive panel discussion addressing the future of this industry from the point of view of the senior executives of the service providers, consumer products, electronic devices, and regulatory organizations. Following this opener the technical session will present the result of research in several parallel sessions. A series of invited papers will lead start of several of these session. The conference also includes two more panels on the future of the technology and marketing to be discussed among the leaders of this field. These technical papers and panels describe the latest research, development, and new concepts in various aspects of wireless information networks.

To encourage young researchers, the symposium has allocated several prizes for the selected papers written and presented by the students.

We are sure that our strong technical program and the charm and attraction of historical Boston will create an enjoyable experience for all participants in the conference.

Kaveh Pahlavan
Technical Program Chair of PIMRC'98