CT2/CAI technology and the common air interface

The UK Department of Trade and Industry and five companies involved in the development of proprietary CT2 equipment agreed that, to achieve a wider market opportunity, it was necessary to have an open standard that would allow handsets and base station to work to a common standard which would ultimately allow each manufacturers equipment to interwork with that of the others. The principle behind the CAI is to allow a minimal air interface specification for system operation. It provides the basic signalling formats and protocols, but also permits enhancements, thus allowing novel system and product implementations. Following publication of the CAI, equipment manufacturers and silicon designers have concentrated their efforts on the realisation of components and products to meet this specification