WiMAX Has Significant Advantages

As alluring as it may be, LTE faces important commercial challenges. It's still not clear whether the technology can meet its targets for network performance on time and at the right price, experts say. And by the time LTE becomes available in 2009-10 it is likely to be surpassed by the latest terrestrial technologies.

What's more, early versions of mobile WiMAX are already a commercial reality. Some industry players, such as Korea's Samsung, argue that WiMAX is so good LTE may never be necessary. Mobile WiMAX potentially can move data at a speed of 70 megabits per second across 40 miles, though the average speed is probably closer to 30 megabits. WiMAX also promises to be cheaper to implement than conventional 3G mobile technology because it uses newer, more efficient technology. More important, because it's based on Internet protocols, WiMAX lets carriers offer a single data service, similar to wireless DSL, that can carry any kind of traffic, from voice calls to Web surfing to video. That's a significant advantage over the separate voice and data services now provided by mobile operators.

And it fits right into the strategies of IP gearmakers such as Cisco, which sealed its entry into the WiMAX arena earlier this month when it announced a proposed $330 million acquisition of Navini Networks, a WiMAX equipment maker and holder of key WiMAX patents. Cisco had said in 2004 it wouldn't be a WiMAX player. The about-face is seen as a testament to the technology's growing importance.

Gaining Traction Around the Globe

WiMAX earned another significant victory earlier this month when the International Telecommunication Union's radio assembly, an arm of the U.N., agreed to include it as part of what is called the third-generation family of mobile standards. The endorsement opens the way for many of the ITU's member countries to devote a part of the public radio spectrum to WiMAX, helping to connect the receivers that are starting to be embedded in laptop computers, phones, music players, and other portable devices.

Intel, the world's largest computer chipmaker, is planning to integrate the technology into laptops by 2008. Samsung already has unveiled several new WiMAX devices, and Nokia and Motorola (MOT) have said they expect to start selling mobile devices using WiMAX technology in 2008.

WiMAX is also taking hold in parts of the developing world. The technology is being adopted rapidly by operators in high-growth markets such as Brazil, China, India, and Russia. Indeed, some 410 operators around the world have deployed WiMAX services, according to TeleGeography, a Washington (D.C.) consultancy. About 75 of those offer mobile WiMAX; the balance offer fixed WiMAX.

Clearwire (CLWR), a high-profile venture started in 2003 by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw, has teamed with Sprint to share the risk of providing WiMAX in the U.S. It also has launched services in Europe and hinted at plans to expand into Asia and Latin America.

A Race That's Far From Over

As popular as it's becoming, WiMAX isn't a slam dunk. Sweden's Ericsson, the world's No. 1 telecom-equipment maker, has said that unlike most other manufacturers, it will not make WiMAX gear. Ericsson argues that WiMAX is not optimized for voice calls on the move. That's not the technology's only challenge. WiMAX will have to compete with ever-improving fixed broadband technologies. And those who back it will have to figure out how to achieve profitability in developing markets.

What's more, the flavor of mobile WiMAX being introduced now is not a true 4G service, but rather something halfway between 3G and 4G, says Tanner of Analysys. The 4G version of WiMAX won't hit the market for another few years, about the same time as LTE. And within the industry a debate is raging over which of the three competing 4G standards is the fastest, most efficient, and most cost-effective.

Still, with Intel seeding WiMAX startups around the world and embedding WiMAX chips in its laptops, phone operators that have sunk billions of dollars into 3G licenses clearly are concerned that WiMAX could have a major impact. At a trade fair earlier this year Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin called on the industry as a whole to step up the pace of development for LTE, to combat a faster-than-anticipated take-up of WiMAX. "LTE is still at the standards stage, while WiMAX is commercial reality," Sarin said in February.

If Verizon Wireless throws its considerable weight behind LTE, Sarin might get his wish.

A 4G Standards War Is Brewing

n global wireless communications, decisions over which technology runs a cellular network can change history and make or break multibillion-dollar companies. That's what happened in the 1990s, when mobile operators upgraded their networks from analog to digital. The precursors of today's Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel (S) chose a cutting-edge technology called CDMA (short for code division multiple access) from then-startup Qualcomm (QCOM), assuring the San Diego company a central role in the mobile sphere for years to come.

Now, the industry faces a similar fork in the road as operators prepare to migrate their networks to so-called fourth-generation mobile technology that boasts faster download speeds and lower costs. Again, Qualcomm is at the center of the action, with an approach it calls Ultra Mobile Broadband, or UMB, that will make it easy to access multimedia applications from a variety of portable devices.

But Qualcomm's longtime European rivals—which developed the competing Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications standard now used by about 80% of the world's subscribers—have a 4G technology of their own: Long Term Evolution, or LTE, proffers similar specs to Qualcomm's UMB but, not surprisingly, is more compatible with GSM-type networks. Also in the mix: A cabal of tech companies that includes Intel (INTC), Cisco Systems (CSCO), and Samsung (SSNGY) is throwing its weight behind yet another technology, known as mobile WiMAX, akin to Wi-Fi on steroids.

Verizon Wireless Weighs a Change

The stakes are high for the industry's transition to 4G technology. And as with all such shifts, there's hardly a more opportune moment for companies to defect from previous suppliers and make big bets on alternatives that could deliver an advantage. That's what Sprint Nextel did when it stepped off the CDMA train and committed to spending $5 billion on a WiMAX network (BusinessWeek.com, 9/3/07) it hopes will reach 100 million Americans by the end of 2008.

Now longtime Qualcomm loyalist Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 U.S. mobile operator, is mulling a switch. It's considering LTE, backed by the likes of Ericsson (ERIC) and Nokia (NOK), and has joined a group looking at the evolution of the GSM standards path. To be sure, Verizon Wireless is also looking at mobile WiMAX, UMB, and other alternatives. "We are testing a lot of technologies," says Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Nancy Stark. "We have not yet made a decision." Still, reports of the company's consideration of LTE sent shock waves across the industry.

Analysts say a move by Verizon Wireless to LTE or WiMAX could prove a major setback for the CDMA family of products, a $43 billion market for handsets and infrastructure dominated by players including Qualcomm, Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), LG Electronics (LGEJY), Samsung, and Nortel Networks (NT). Qualcomm and LG are among the most exposed to the CDMA market in terms of revenue and profit, but Alcatel-Lucent could suffer the most. Some $2.4 billion in Alcatel-Lucent revenue from CDMA gear would be wiped away, says Richard Windsor, a wireless analyst in London at Nomura Securities, a division of Nomura Holdings.

UMB: Already a Distant Third?

Verizon Wireless' potential switch illustrates just how much the telecom industry could change as a result of choices being made now about 4G wireless technology. With so many questions swirling around CDMA's future, analysts are focusing less on UMB and more on LTE vs. WiMAX. Sprint Nextel's decision to use WiMAX and Verizon Wireless' interest in LTE "greatly weaken support for the CDMA road map and shift the focus of technological competition onto LTE and WiMAX," says Dave Tanner, a senior analyst at tech consultancy Analysys.

ABI Research notes that AT&T (T) has said it will go with LTE and Deutsche Telekom's (DT) T-Mobile is expected to adopt LTE as well, while newer service providers are rolling out WiMAX. So where does UMB fit? "It doesn't," ABI Research analyst Phil Solis wrote in a recent blog. Even if the CDMA family comes to an end, analysts predict Qualcomm will be able to keep raking in royalties because it purchased a company called Flarion Technologies, which gives it patents in every 4G camp. Still, its grip on mobile-phone chips is likely to be loosened.

Which path Verizon Wireless will take is anyone's guess, but it's undoubtedly influenced by Vodafone Group (VOD), its co-parent with Verizon Communications (VZ) and one of the world's biggest GSM providers. Solis of ABI Research says Verizon Wireless has another big incentive for making the switch: CDMA only has about 20% of the global market, and UMB isn't expected to fare much better. A move to LTE would make Verizon Wireless compatible with the majority of mobile operators around the world, including Vodafone, in a market where scale is crucial. Solis says LTE is the likely choice for Verizon Wireless.

The 4G Race: LTE, UMB & Mobile WiMax

At the moment, there's three front-runners for the fourth-generation wireless broadband crown: 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution), mobile WiMax and 3GPP2 UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband). All three standards will offer low latency and theoretical max speeds that will eventually make current U.S. EVDO and HSDPA speeds (and even some home landline connections) seem anemic.

Sprint, of course, is hitching their wagon to Mobile WiMax under the Xohm name. AT&T has said they're planning on migrating toward LTE. Verizon Wireless wants to use the same standard as GSM/HSPA partner Vodafone, and they collectively may choose LTE. Business Week notes that Verizon's decision will have a huge impact on vendors.

Analysts say a move by Verizon Wireless to LTE or WiMAX could prove a major setback for the CDMA family of products, a $43 billion market for handsets and infrastructure dominated by players including Qualcomm, Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), LG Electronics (LGEJY), Samsung, and Nortel Networks (NT). Qualcomm and LG are among the most exposed to the CDMA market in terms of revenue and profit, but Alcatel-Lucent could suffer the most. Some $2.4 billion in Alcatel-Lucent revenue from CDMA gear would be wiped away.

At the moment, the magazine suggests that UMB is playing a distant third fiddle to LTE and Mobile WiMax. Groups like Parks Associates, meanwhile, don't technically think WiMax belongs in the "4G" category:

Although WiMAX supporters claim that 4G is WiMAX, we believe this is a wrongful assertion. Future versions of WiMAX may become potential 4G candidates, and OFDM modulation will be a key component of 4G, but 4G is definitely not WiMAX. WiMAX has served as a catalyst for 3GPP and 3GPP2 to accelerate their next round of innovation, adopting OFDM modulation and implementing MIMO and other smart antenna technologies. Both camps have clearly defined their paths toward 4G.

Parks notes that while Mobile WiMax does have an advantage because it will be first to market, the initial speeds offered by the technology are really only going to be marginally better than existing services. LTE and UMB, meanwhile, will theoretically be able to offer 100Mbps/50Mbps and 280Mbps/60Mbps, respectively, but won't be seen in the wild for some time.

05:52PM Monday Oct 29 2007 by Karl

How ITU Approval Gives 4G — Oops, 3G — WiMAX a Boost

The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) recently anointed WiMAX as one of its official IMT-2000 3G wireless technologies. Sprint Nextel has been calling WiMAX a 4G technology for more than a year, but the company is talking about the same technology. So which is it, 3G or 4G? Maybe it depends on the meaning of "G." Or maybe it just depends on to whom you're trying to sell it.

Mobile WiMAX Wave2 chipset eyes low power

Samples of a chipset consisting of a baseband MAC/PHY SoC and RF transceiver IC is now available from XRONet, and the company claims the chipset raises the bar on the performance to power power ratio of existing Mobile WiMAX chipsets.

WiMax gets ‘3G technology’ tag

New Delhi, Oct. 19 In yet another setback to existing GSM operators, the International Telecommunications Union Radiocommunication Assembly in Geneva has decided to include WiMax as a third generation (3G) wireless technology.

ITU is a global telecom standards body under the aegis of the United Nations. The ITU decision had the support of the Indian Government represented by senior officials from the Department of Telecom despite opposition from local GSM players.

International Telecommunication Union Approves WiMAX™ Technology as New IMT-2000 Standard

WiMAX Technology Inclusion to Expand Operators' Global Access to Spectrum Bands For Network Deployments

Portland - October 19, 2007 - The WiMAX Forum is pleased to recognize the decision of the Radiocommunication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R) to include WiMAX technology in the IMT-2000 set of standards. This decision is of global importance to operators who look to ITU to endorse technologies before they invest in new infrastructure. The decision to approve the WiMAX Forum's version of IEEE Standard 802.16 as an IMT-2000 technology significantly escalates opportunities for global deployment, especially within the 2.5-2.69 GHz band, to deliver Mobile Internet to satisfy both rural and urban market demand.

"This is a very special and unique milestone for WiMAX technology," said Ron Resnick, president of the WiMAX Forum. "This is the first time that a new air interface has been added to the IMT-2000 set of standards since the original technologies were selected nearly a decade ago. WiMAX technology currently has the potential to reach 2.7 billion people. And today's announcement expands the reach to a significantly larger global population."

From the initial application made at the ITU-R WP8F meeting in January of this year to this week's meeting of the Radiocommunications Assembly in Geneva, Administrations, industry and ITU have worked together to achieve this groundbreaking decision.

"It gives me great satisfaction to observe that the ITU Radiocommunication Sector continues to be responsive to the most pressing needs of the wireless industry," said Valery Timofeev, Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau.

With WiMAX technology approved as a new IMT-2000 specification, the WIMAX ecosystem will benefit from greater economies of scale, thus reducing the already low cost to deliver broadband wireless services to include VOIP as well as the multiple services expected from wireless broadband Internet access.

Originally created to harmonize 3G mobile systems and to increase opportunities for worldwide interoperability, the IMT-2000 family of standards will now support four different access technologies, including OFDMA (includes WiMAX), FDMA, TDMA and CDMA.

"3G solutions based upon technologies such as W-CDMA, CDMA-2000, and TD-SCDMA technologies were already included in the IMT-2000 set of standards," said Resnick. "With WiMAX technology now included, it places us on equal footing with the legacy-based technologies ITU-R already endorses." The bottom line is that operators across the globe now have the freedom to select the right technology to best meet their business and regional needs."

About WiMAX Forum®

The WiMAX Forum® is an industry-led, not-for-profit organization formed to certify and promote the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based upon the harmonized IEEE 802.16/ETSI HiperMAN standard. A WiMAX Forum goal is to accelerate the introduction of these systems into the marketplace. WiMAX Forum Certified™ products are interoperable and support broadband fixed, nomadic, portable and mobile services. Along these lines, the WiMAX Forum works closely with service providers and regulators to ensure that WiMAX Forum Certified systems meet customer and government requirements. Through the WiMAX Forum Congress Events Series of global trade shows and events, the WiMAX Forum is committed to furthering education, training and collaboration to expand the reach of the WiMAX ecosystem. For more information, visit the trade show link at www.wimaxforum.org.

"WiMAX Forum" is a registered trademark of the WiMAX Forum. "WiMAX," the WiMAX Forum logo, "WiMAX Forum Certified," and the WiMAX Forum Certified logo are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners

CISCO TO BUY WiMAX VENDOR?

Rumours that have been circulating in the past few weeks, concerning Cisco Systems Inc's plans to buy a major manufacturer/vendor of WiMAX base stations, are gathering pace as speculation mounts that a strategic acquisition could be announced later this month.

Cisco, a well-known serial-acquisitor of companies performing well in emerging technologies sectors, will have to buy one of the biggest WiMAX names if it wants to compete with the likes of Motorola Inc, Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia Siemens Networks in the nascent wireless broadband market. Consequently, it's being rumoured that Cisco has narrowed down its shopping list to four potential targets. These are Alvarion Ltd, Aperto Networks, Navini Networks, and Redline Communications. Purchasing any one of these companies would instantly propel Cisco near to the top of the list of key WiMAX equipment suppliers worldwide.

Cisco has, so far, preferred not to get involved in the cut-throat public wireless infrastructure segment, but with rival Nortel Networks Corp having finally unveiled its WiMAX product range in recent weeks, Cisco may be fearful about getting left behind in a sector that promises high-revenuen growth over the coming decade. Until now, Cisco's position with regards to WiMAX had been that, although the technology will certainly be one of several high-speed wireless WAN technologies experiencing broad deployment in the short and medium terms, the company had no plans to manufacture WiMAX base stations or base stations using any other WAN radio access technology. According to the company's online position paper on WiMAX, Cisco will leave it to partner companies to provide radio components for next-generation base stations, but it will provide IP infrastructure to network such base stations.

So, buying a WiMAX equipment manufacturer would be a complete about-turn for Cisco and, given the solid performances of the leading independent vendors, such an acquisition would not come cheaply.

Top of the pile must surely be Israel-based Alvarion, which has recently ditched much of its legacy cellular equipment business in order to focus on fixed wireless broadband, and on WiMAX in particular. The company has been an aggressive player in obtaining supply contracts from incumbent operators as well as market-leading alternative network operators and service providers in emerging markets around the world, while its products have been and continue to be well-received by the industry at large. With a huge existing customer base and strategic partnerships poised to gain it access to the lucrative developed markets such as Japan and India, Alvarion seems to be the ideal acquisition target for Cisco. Some analysts are valuing Alvarion at between US$15 and US$17 per share, giving the company a top-range value of around US$1,050 million, which would be quite affordable for an industry giant like Cisco. There is also a degree of history between the two companies, as Cisco provides its IP access gateway solutions to Alvarion for use in fixed wireless access platforms.

Alvarion itself is likely to fight to stay independent, if it can. Becoming part of a larger US-based company could see it lose focus on its core emerging markets customer base, and integration with Cisco's own marketing and distribution systems could also be problematic.

Purchases of Aperto and Navini Networks also have much to commend themselves to Cisco, with the former being active in major markets such as Brazil and Turkey, and the latter already well-established in the US market as well as India. Canada-based Redline, meanwhile, has a cstomer base reaching into the Middle East and North Africa, Asia, and Latin America. However, none of these companies has the reach and brand visibility enjoyed by Alvarion, making the Israeli company most hotly tipped to be approached by Cisco with regards to a strategic partnership or outright acquisition.

ITI has published reports on several of the companies listed in this article, including Cisco Systems, Alvarion, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Nortel Networks

WiMax Laptop Card Approved by FCC

Regulators have approved the first WiMax wireless broadband laptop PC card to be offered by Clearwire.

Regulators have approved the first WiMax wireless broadband laptop PC card to be offered by Clearwire Corp., and it should be available to users later this year, the company said Tuesday.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved a WiMax laptop PC card that fits into a standard Type II laptop card slot and can be used with the Windows Vista and XP operating systems, Clearwire said in a statement. The card works on Clearwire's WiMax network, which has been built with Motorola Inc. wi4 Expedience wireless networking equipment.

WiMAX spectrum tender in Macedonia

The Agency for Electronic Communications in Macedonia has announced a public tender for:

1.1. The award of two authorisations for radio frequency utilisation in the radio frequency band 3.4–3.6 GHz for fixed-wireless access in the entire territory of the Republic of Macedonia. The radio frequency bands are as follows: 2 x 14 MHz: A (3410-3424 MHz) and A' (3510-3524 MHz) and 2 x 14 MHz: B (3527,5-3441,5 MHz) and B’ (3527,5-3541,5 MHz).

1.2. Granting of three authorisations for radio frequencies utilisation in the radio frequency band 3.4–3.6 GHz for fixed-wireless access for each of the six regions in the Republic of Macedonia determined in item 1 sub-item 1.3 of this tender, i.e. in the following radio frequencies bands: 2 x 14 MHz: C (3445-3459 MHz) and C’ (3545-3559 MHz); 2 x 14 MHz: D (3462,5-3476,5 MHz) and D’ (3562,5-3576,5 MHz); and, 2 x 14 MHz: E (3480-3494 MHz) and E’ (3580-3594 MHz).

1.3. The authorisations for radio frequency utilisation of item 1, sub-item 1.2 of this tender shall be granted for six regions in the Republic of Macedonia covering the settlements and the territories of the communities as follows: Region 1: city of Skopje, Ilinden, Petrovec, Zelenikovo, Studenicani, Sopiste, Cucer, Sandevo and Aracinovo; Region 2: Kumanovo, Lipkovo, S. Nagoricane, Rankovce, Kriva Palanka, Kratovo, Stip, Vinica, Sveti Nikole, Lozovo, Probistip, Cesinovo-Oblesevo, Karbinci, Zrnovci, Berovo, Pehcevo, Delcevo and M.Kamenica; Region 3: Veles, Caska, Gradsko, Rosoman, Kavadarci, Negotino, Demir Kapija, Strumica, Radovis, Konce, Vasilevo, Bosilevo, Novo Selo, Gevgelija, Valandovo, Bogdanci and Dojran; Region 4: Bitola, Prilep, Demir Hisar, Krusevo, Dolneni, Krivogastani, Mogila, Novaci and Resen; Region 5: Ohrid, Struga, Debarca, Vevcani, Kicevo, M. Brod, Drugovo, Zajas, Oslomej, Vranestica, Plasnica, Debar i Centar Zupa; and, Region 6: Tetovo, Gostivar, Tearce, Jegunovce, Zelino, Brvenica, Bogovinje, Vrapciste, Mavrovo i Rostuse.

The authorisations for radio frequency utilisation subject to this public tender shall be granted for a period of 10 years, with the right of extention the validity of the authorisation in a manner and procedure determined in the Electronic Communications Law.

Bidders must submit a written statement that they will commence their operation within six months from the day of granting the authorisation and within a period of one year shall provide 20% coverage, within two years 40% coverage, and within four years 60% coverage of the population in the Republic of Macedonia, i.e. of the population in the region referred to in the bid, and the minimum available bit rate shall be 512kbit/s for DL and 256kbit/s for UL per user.

The minimum initial amount of the radio frequencies market value as a one-time fee for granting the authorisation for radio frequencies utilisation of item 1 sub-item 1.1 of this tender shall be €200,000.

The minimum initial amount of the radio frequencies market value as one-time fee for granting the authorisation for radio frequencies utilisation of item 1 sub-item 1.2 of this tender per divided regions shall be: Region 1: €100,000; Region 2: €30,000; Region 3: €30,000; Region 4: €20,000; Region 5: €20,000; and, Region 6: €30,000.

The bidder shall be obliged to submit a bank guarantee for 10% of the offered amount of the one-time fee for granting an authorisation for radio frequencies utilisation.

The deadline for submission of the bids is 40 days from the date of publishing the public tender in the “Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia”.

Interested parties may obtain the tender documentation in the archives of the Agency for Electronic Communications from April 25, 2007 after payment of €500 in MK Denars denomination according to the average rate of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia to one of the accounts of the Agency for Electronic Communications as follows: Agency for Electronic Communications. Giro account: 300000002366739. Recipient bank: Komercijalna Banka AD Skopje. Tax number: MK4030005556148; or, Agency for Electronic Communications. Giro account: 210060052840142. Recipient bank: Tutunska Banka AD Skopje. Tax number: MK4030005556148.

Tender No: 02-1771/1.

Additional information is available upon written application via e-mail to: Mrs Liljana Denkovska (legal issues) and Mr Mile Veljanov (technical issues). E-mail: fwatender@aec.mk.

Full details of the tender are available on the Agency's website: www.aec.mk.

Sprint Reveals More 4G Details

Sprint Nextel announces more build-out plans, equipment details for its mobile WiMax “4G” network: The firm said it has chosen Samsung to build PC Cards that exchange data over the new network, which will launch in late 2007, and pass 100m people by the end of next year. The PC Cards will be either WiMax-only or support both the 3G EVDO network and the WiMax network. Two other firms will also supply gear: ZTE will make PC Cards and “modems,” which I take to mean external adapters, something like Clearwire’s fixed/nomadic receiver; and Zyxel, which will make just modems.

Nokia Slates 2008 for Mobile WiMax Devices

The Finnish firm says it will have devices with mobile WiMax embedded by early 2008: With several companies competing for contracts from Sprint and Clearwire, there are now bragging rights to be obtained by having the first this or that.

WiMAX360 - An Open Community for WiMAX Professionals

WiMAX360 - An Open Community for WiMAX Professionals

The place for WiMAX Professionals and Enthusiasts to ask questions, trade tips and learn more about WiMAX.

Benefits of joining WiMAX360

Build Your WiMAX360 Professional Profile - WiMAX 360 allows users to easily and quickly build personal profiles.

Network With Other WiMAX Professionals - WiMAX 360 allows WiMAX professionals to openly and easily communicate with each other in real time through chat and forum discussion

Load and View WiMAX Videos and Photos - Members can share pictures and videos of their WiMAX experience or display various wireless products.

WiMAX.com Invites you to attend Europe's Largest Wireless & Mobile Broadband Event Focused on WiMAX

If you want to learn about the next generation of wireless and mobile broadband, you need to attend:

WiMAX World Europe
Austria Center Vienna
May 29-31, 2007
website: europe.wimaxworld.com

After intensive build-up, 2007 will be certainly be the most critical year for any company involved in the WiMAX ecosystem. Major operators are now making important commitments and have already begun their build-outs, and with Mobile WiMAX products on the horizon, there is intense interest in personal broadband and convergence services.

IBM's promotion of metrozone WiMAX leads to Texas deal
IBM has shown an increasingly keen interest, over the past few years, in the potential for its integration business in the metrozone market, and now it is set to take advantage of this sector's evolution from focusing on best effort, socially oriented networks, to providing carrier class services.ption

IEEE makes its bid to underpin harmonized 4G with 802.16m development
Standards bodies have their politics and their rivalries just like the commercial companies that fund them, and in wireless, there is an increasingly intense battle to take the driving seat for next generation standards. Bodies that once had clearly distinct remits now have overlapping spheres, thanks to convergence, yet unifying them may prove harder than making the platforms they support interoperable.

Alcatel backing boosts Sequans' place in complex WiMAX chip market
Although the amount of Alcatel's investment is undisclosed, the endorsement, and the contracts it brings, are significant to Sequans in the race by WiMAX start-ups to establish a strong enough position to survive eventual consolidation, or at least exit profitably.

4G

Ericsson deals blow to unified 4G dream by pulling out of WiMAX
The pre-4G networks are evolving on such similar paths that they will be distinguished by brand and politics, rather than core technologies. But those differences may still be just as divisive and deeply ingrained as though the various factions - WiMAX, LTE and Qualcomm's Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) - had chosen entirely different physical designs. Against this backdrop, the WiMAX community is necessarily on the defensive because its technology lacks the advantage of a heritage in an installed base like UMTS or GSM. So Motorola and Nortel, the companies that failed to get rich on UMTS, are keen to stress the convergence potential between WiMAX and LTE - they say the R&D overlap could be over 85%; while those with most to lose by having a viable alternative to the HSPA/LTE route - Nokia and Ericsson - have been more inclined to stress the differences, and the lack of backwards integration.

China Unicom starts work on WiMAX
China Unicom, which has been testing WiMAX for about a year, has now formally begun the construction of its network

Microsoft leads internet industry bid to dominate vacated TV spectrum

Microsoft leads internet industry bid to dominate vacated TV spectrum
It is clear that the mobile internet, once it becomes truly workable, will become a cornerstone of business and communications. What is less clear is which companies will control its evolution and so derive the maximum benefit, and this question has already resulted in an ongoing war for the driving seat, waged between the cellular community on one hand and the internet players, with their open IP, PC-oriented heritage, on the other - with the broadcast and media industries trying to carve out their own position. One of the most dramatic battles in this war could arise in the US from current lobbying over future use of the 'white space' spectrum (idle channels in the TV bands between 54MHz and 862MHz, set up to avoid interference, but now possibly to be used for internet access). A coalition led by Microsoft, and backed by most of the heavyweights of the internet industry, has submitted a device for use in this white space to the FCC for approval, signalling the determination of these players to make use of new spectrum availability to promote their own business model.

A bit more on WiMAX Samsung has also demonstrated two WiMAX-enabled products – the SPH-P9000 and the SPH-M8100, meant for the US market in the first place.

Mobile Television Meets WiMAX

What happens when you take two of the most popular technologies in the last 50 years - television and the cell phone - and bring them together? Furthermore, what if you could simplify the delivery and management of that experience through a single, global wireless broadband standard?

This week at CTIA in Orlando, Florida, a California-based company will be demonstrating television over a mobile WiMAX network. Last August, the company announced its support for mobile WiMAX and that is was working to integrate it into a broad range of emerging video and television technologies. It also offered a demonstration earlier this year at CES in Las Vegas.

"One of the things we are showing is how well suited WiMAX is for television and video," says MobiTV's CTO Kay Johansson. "WIMAX gives you true mobile internet with streaming as high as 1Mbps which delivers very good quality video to a number of devices including mobile phones, PCs and PDAs."

Antenna Design and Analysis for MIMO Communication Systems

Introduction to MIMO Antenna Design

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless technology uses multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver to produce significant capacity gains over single-input single-output (SISO) systems using the same bandwidth and transmit power. It has been shown that the capacity of a MIMO system increases linearly with the number of antennas in the presence of a scattering-rich environment. This will ensure that the signals at the antennas in the array are sufficiently uncorrelated with each other. This is where antenna design comes in for MIMO systems.

The primary aim of MIMO antenna design is to reduce correlation between received signals by exploiting various forms of diversity that arise due to the presence of multiple antennas, like space diversity (spacing antennas far apart), pattern diversity (using antennas with different or orthogonal radiation patterns), polarization diversity (using antennas with different polarizations) etc. These 3 forms of diversity are pictorially represented as shown.

Previous Research

Previous research at WSIL showed the benefits of pattern diversity over space diversity. While the latter is viable only when sufficient real estate is available, pattern diversity can be utilized even in the case where space is limited – like in cellular phones or handsets. Research carried out in WSIL established that circular patch array (CPA) yields significant capacity gains over the conventional uniform linear array with the advantage of reducing the physical size of the array significantly. It was shown that collocated CPAs produce orthogonal radiation patterns, which gives excellent pattern diversity. The work also involved optimizing overall systems performance, using CEM and EM software tools, to maximize antenna theory and communication theoretic metrics for given size constraints. The output of the optimization problem was used to tune antenna array parameters (i.e., size, antenna material, feed points).

Current Research in WSIL

We are currently working towards MIMO antenna design for base stations using the IEEE 802.16e-2005 and 3GPP-LTE channel models. We aim to develop channel simulators for these standards with transmission modes like Tx-AA and D-TxAA, to analyze the performance of different antenna designs with capacity as the metric. The challenge here is to employ MIMO antenna design techniques to a cellular system, thereby extending ‘theoretical’ analysis to workable solutions.

We are also analyzing the performance of reconfigurable antenna arrays for MIMO systems, and demonstrating the impact of antenna geometry and configurations on the capacity of different transmission schemes for MIMO systems. We hope that this would lead to the development of algorithms for reconfigurable antenna arrays in MIMO systems that would switch their configuration in accordance with the channel statistics to maximize capacity.

MIMO Relay Channels

MIMO Relay Channels

Why study MIMO Relay Channels?

Relay channels will play a central role in next-generation wireless systems. If a source wants to send a message to a distant sink in a relatively dense network, it can forward the message via several intermediate nodes. This would improve overall throughput and coverage.

We can consider SISO relay channels, where each terminal employs a single antenna. Under this setup, though, there are channel conditions where the relay may not be able to assist the source in its transmission. For example, the minimum of the source-relay and relay-sink channel gains may be less than the source-sink channel gain. We can avoid this issue by considering MIMO relay channels, where each terminal employs multiple antennas. Under this setup, we can exploit the multiple antennas at the source and the relay to perform more sophisticated encoding and decoding schemes, which will lead to improved performance.

Problem Statement

Since sophisticated encoding and decoding schemes will lead to improved system performance, we first aim to use information-theoretic techniques to realize these improved gains. Once we have obtained these gains, we then want to come up with reduced-complexity approaches that will perform well. In particular, much research has focused on the case where the relay performs decode-and-forward operations. Requiring decoding at the relay, though, could be prohibitively complex, especially in a battery-limited sensor network. Instead, we aim to implement linear processing methods at the relay that will still yield good performance.

Main results and future areas of research

We have studied the MIMO relay channel where multiple antennas are employed by each terminal. Compared to SISO relay channels, MIMO relay channels introduce additional degrees of freedom that allow for partial cooperation between the transmitter and the relay. This partial cooperation is effected via precoding at the transmitter. We have derived new lower capacity bounds for both discrete memoryless relay channels and Gaussian relay channels for cases where the transmitter employs superposition coding and precoding. Our proposed lower bounds improve on a previously proposed non-cooperative lower bound.

We have also investigated MIMO relaying in a multiuser environment. Our aim is to use a fixed MIMO relay to support multiuser transmission in a cellular system. The fixed relay should employ linear processing for ease of implementation. After performing this linear processing, the relay would forward the processed output to multiple users.

We have made several contributions that reveal the value of this setup. First, we have derived upper and lower bounds on the achievable sum rate, where it is assumed that the base station performs nonlinear encoding. We want to use more practical methods to achieve the derived rates, though. To this end, we have devised a multiuser precoding scheme; in this approach, the base station employs Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (THP) along with adaptive user selection. A low-complexity user selection algorithm is presented and adaptive modulation is used to load the individual user data streams.

Our multiuser precoding strategy, which relies on QAM modulation, performs very close to our derived sum-rate upper bound. In addition, even though we do not require the relay to perform any decoding operations in our strategy, our scheme performs very close to the sum-rate achieved by decode-and-forward relaying. This illustrates the power of our practical approach.

Worldmax and Intel launch WiMAX trial

AMSTERDAM (WiMAX Day). The Dutch WiMAX operator Worldmax, a joint venture between Intel and Enertel, will begin a trial of WiMAX services this week in Amsterdam, the Dutch newspaper Het Parool reported.

The trial, which employs equipment from Motorola, will cover an area of ten square kilometres. Jeanine van der Vlist, CEO of Worldmax commented “Our system is 10 to 20 times faster than UMTS.”

If the tests in Amsterdam are successful, Worldmax intends to cover all of the Netherlands with WiMAX. However, the company only intends to work as a network provider. According to van der Vlist, “The network will be used by other partners, such as broadcasters, phone companies, video services and security.”

WiMAX sales jump to $549 million

Monday, March 19th, 2007

LONDON (WiMAX Day). The market for WiMAX equipment, such as base stations, modems and other networks fixtures, grew by 286% in 2006 with total revenue reaching $549.2 million. In a report by Infonetics Research, the strongest grow was in the fourth quarter of 2006 with total equipment sales at $226.5 million.

“2006 was a landmark year for the WiMAX industry, with service provider trials moving to service launch phase in many areas, fixed WiMAX deployments accelerating rapidly in developing countries, and mobile WiMAX products coming to market for the first time,” said Richard Webb, an analyst at Infonetics Research, in a press release.

The report also forecast that the worldwide WiMAX equipment market would increase to $5.6 billion in sales by 2010, with mobile WiMAX sales garnering $3.7 billion.

Standards

The 802.16 standard IEEE Std 802.16e-2005, approved in December 2005 follows on from IEEE Std 802.16-2004, which replaced IEEE Standards 802.16-2001, 802.16c-2002, and 802.16a-2003.

IEEE Std 802.16-2004 (802.16d) addresses only fixed systems. 802.16e adds mobility components to the standard.

IEEE 802.16e

IEEE 802.16e-2005 (formerly named, but still best known as, 802.16e or Mobile WiMAX) provides an improvement on the modulation schemes stipulated in the original (fixed) WiMAX standard. It allows for fixed wireless and mobile Non Line of Sight (NLOS) applications primarily by enhancing the OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access).

SOFDMA (Scalable OFDMA) improves upon OFDM256 for NLOS applications by

• Improving NLOS coverage by utilizing advanced antenna diversity schemes, and hybrid-Automatic Retransmission Request (hARQ)
• Increasing system gain by use of denser sub-channelization, thereby improving indoor penetration
• Introducing high-performance coding techniques such as Turbo Coding and Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC), enhancing security and NLOS performance
• Introducing downlink sub-channelization, allowing administrators to trade coverage for capacity or vice versa
• Improving coverage by introducing Adaptive Antenna Systems (AAS) and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology
• Eliminating channel bandwidth dependencies on sub-carrier spacing, allowing for equal performance under any RF channel spacing (1.25-14 MHz)
• Enhanced Fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm can tolerate larger delay spreads, increasing resistance to multipath interference

On the other hand, 802.16-2004 (fixed WiMAX) offers the benefit of available commercial products and implementations optimized for fixed access. Fixed WiMAX is a popular standard among alternative service providers and operators in developing areas due to its low cost of deployment and advanced performance in a fixed environment. Fixed WiMax is also seen as a potential standard for backhaul of wireless base stations such as cellular, WiFi or even mobile WiMAX.

SOFDMA and OFDMA256 are not compatible so most equipment will have to be replaced. However, some manufacturers are planning to provide a migration path for older equipment to SOFDMA compatibility which would ease the transition for those networks which have already made the OFDMA256 investment. This effects a relatively small number users and operators.

HIPERMAN

The equivalent of 802.16 in Europe is HIPERMAN. The WiMAX Forum is working to ensure that 802.16 and HIPERMAN inter-operate seamlessly.

WiBro

Korea's electronics and telecommunication industry spearheaded by Samsung Electronics and ETRI has developed its own standard, WiBro. In late 2004, Intel and LG Electronics have agreed on interoperability between WiBro and WiMAX.

WiBro has South Korean government support with the requirement for each carrier to spend over US$1 billion for deployments. The Koreans sought to develop WiBro as a regional and potentially international alternative to 3.5G or 4G cellular systems. But given the lack of momentum as a standard, WiBro has joined WiMAX and agreed to harmonize with the similar OFDMA 802.16e version of the standard. What makes WiBro roll-outs a good 'test case' for the overall WiMAX effort is that it is mobile, well thought out for delivery of wireless broadband services, and the fact that the deployment is taking place in a highly sophisticated, broadband-saturated market. WiBro will go up against 3G and very high bandwidth wire-line services rather than as gap-filler or rural under-served market deployments as is often exampled as the 'best fit' markets for WiMAX.

Mobile applications

Mobile applications

Some cellular companies are evaluating WiMAX as a means of increasing bandwidth for a variety of data-intensive applications; indeed, Sprint Nextel has announced in mid-2006 that it will be investing about US$ 3 billion in a WiMAX technology buildout over the next few years.

In line with these possible applications is the technology's ability to serve as a high bandwidth "backhaul" for Internet or cellular phone traffic from remote areas back to an internet backbone. Although the cost-effectiveness of WiMAX in a remote application will be higher, it is not limited to such applications, and may be an answer to reducing the cost of T1/E1 backhaul as well. Given the limited wired infrastructure in some developing countries, the costs to install a WiMAX station in conjunction with an existing cellular tower or even as a solitary hub are likely to be small in comparison to developing a wired solution. Areas of low population density and flat terrain are particularly suited to WiMAX and its range. For countries that have skipped wired infrastructure as a result of inhibitive costs and unsympathetic geography, WiMAX can enhance wireless infrastructure in an inexpensive, decentralized, deployment-friendly and effective manner.

Technical info

WiMAX is a term coined to describe standard, interoperable implementations of IEEE 802.16 wireless networks, in a rather similar way to Wi-Fi being interoperable implementations of the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN standard. However, WiMAX is very different from Wi-Fi in the way it works.

MAC layer

In Wi-Fi the media access controller (MAC) uses contention access — all subscriber stations that wish to pass data through a wireless access point (AP) are competing for the AP's attention on a random interrupt basis. This can cause subscriber stations distant from the AP to be repeatedly interrupted by closer stations, greatly reducing their throughput. This makes services such as Voice over IP (VoIP) or IPTV, which depend on an essentially constant Quality of Service (QoS) depending on data rate and interruptibility, difficult to maintain for more than a few simultaneous users.

In contrast, the 802.16 MAC uses a scheduling algorithm for which the subscriber station need compete once (for initial entry into the network). After that it is allocated an access slot by the base station. The time slot can enlarge and contract, but remains assigned to the subscriber station which means that other subscribers cannot use it. The 802.16 scheduling algorithm is stable under overload and over-subscription (unlike 802.11). It can also be more bandwidth efficient. The scheduling algorithm also allows the base station to control QoS parameters by balancing the time-slot assignments among the application needs of the subscriber stations.

Physical layer

The original WiMAX standard (IEEE 802.16) specified WiMAX for the 10 to 66 GHz range. 802.16a, updated in 2004 to 802.16-2004 (also known as 802.16d), added specification for the 2 to 11 GHz range. 802.16d (also known as "fixed WiMAX") was updated to 802.16e in 2005 (known as "mobile WiMAX"). and uses scalable orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) as opposed to the OFDM version with 256 sub-carriers used in 802.16d. This brings potential benefits in terms of coverage, self installation, power consumption, frequency re-use and bandwidth efficiency. 802.16e also adds a capability for full mobility support. The WiMAX certification allows vendors with 802.16d products to sell their equipment as WiMAX certified, thus ensuring a level of interoperability with other certified products, as long as they fit the same profile.

Most interest will probably be in the 802.16d and .16e standards, since the lower frequencies suffer less from inherent signal attenuation and therefore give improved range and in-building penetration. Already today, a number of networks throughout the World are in commercial operation using certified WiMAX equipment compliant with the 802.16d standard.

Advantages over Wi-Fi

• The WiMAX specification provides symmetrical bandwidth over many kilometers and range with stronger encryption (TDES or AES) and typically less interference. Wi-Fi is short range (approximately 10's of metres) has WEP or WPP encryption and suffers from interference as in metropolitan areas where there are many users.
• Wi-Fi Hotspots are typically backhauled over ADSL in most coffee shops therefore Wi-Fi access is typically highly contended and has poor upload speeds between the router and the internet.
• It provides connectivity between network endpoints without the need for direct line of sight in favourable circumstances. The non-line-of-sight propagation (NLOS) performance requires the .16d or .16e revisions, since the lower frequencies are needed. It relies upon multi-path signals, somewhat in the manner of 802.11n.

Broadband Access

Broadband Access

Many companies are closely examining WiMAX for "last mile" connectivity at high data rates. This could result in lower pricing for both home and business customers as competition lowers prices.

In areas without pre-existing physical cable or telephone networks, WiMAX will, it appears, be a viable alternative for broadband access that has been economically unavailable. Prior to WiMax, many operators have been using proprietary fixed wireless technologies for broadband services.

WiMAX subscriber units are available in both indoor and outdoor versions from several manufacturers. Self install indoor units are convenient, but the subscriber must be significantly closer to the WiMAX base station than with professionally installed units. As such, indoor installed units require a much higher infrastructure investment as well as operational cost (site lease, backhaul, maintenance) due to the high number of base stations required to cover a given area. Indoor units are comparable in size to a cable modem or DSL modem. Outdoor units allow for the subscriber to be much further away from the WiMAX base station, but usually require professional installation. Outdoor units are roughly the size of a textbook, and their installation is comparable to a residential satellite dish.

Limitations

A commonly held misconception is that WiMAX will deliver 70 Mbit/s, over 70 miles (112.6 kilometers). Each of these is true individually, given ideal circumstances, but they are not simultaneously true. In practice this means that in Line of sight environments you could deliver symmetrical speeds of 10Mbps at 10Km but in Urban Environments it is more likely that 30% of installtions may be Non Line of sight and therefore Users may only receive 10Mbps over 2Km. WiMAX has some similarities to DSL in this respect, where one can either have high bandwidth or long reach, but not both simultaneously. The other feature to consider with WiMAX is that available bandwidth is shared between users in a given radio sector, so if there are many active users in a single sector, each will get reduced bandwidth. However, unlike SDSL where contention is very noticeable at a 5:1 ratio if you are sharing your connection with a large media firm for example WiMax does not have this problem. Typically each cell has a 100Mbps backhaul so there is is no contention here. On the radio side in practice many users will have a range of 2,4,6,8 or 10Mbps services and the bandwidth can be shared. If the network becomes busy the business model is more like GSM or UMTS than DSL in that it is easy to predict the capacity requirements as you sign more customers and additional radio cards can be added on the same sector to increase the capacity.

What is WiMAX?

What is WiMAX?

WiMAX is defined as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access by the WiMAX Forum, formed in June 2001 to promote conformance and interoperability of the IEEE 802.16 standard, officially known as WirelessMAN. The Forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL".

"WiMAX is not a technology, but rather a certification mark, or 'stamp of approval' given to equipment that meets certain conformity and interoperability tests for the IEEE 802.16 family of standards. A similar confusion surrounds the term Wi-Fi, which like WiMAX, is a certification mark for equipment based on a different set of IEEE standards from the 802.11 working group for wireless local area networks (WLAN). Neither WiMAX, nor Wi-Fi is a technology but their names have been adopted in popular usage to denote the technologies behind them. This is likely due to the difficulty of using terms like 'IEEE 802.16' in common speech and writing."

The bandwidth and reach of WiMAX make it suitable for the following potential applications:

• Connecting Wi-Fi hotspots with each other and to other parts of the Internet.
• Providing a wireless alternative to cable and DSL for last mile (last km) broadband access.
• Providing high-speed mobile data and telecommunications services (4G).
• Providing a diverse source of Internet connectivity as part of a business continuity plan. That is, if a business has a fixed and a wireless internet connection they are unlikely to be affected by the same service outage.
• Providing Nomadic connectivity.

Spectrum Allocations issues

The 802.16 specification applies across a wide swath of the RF spectrum. However, specification is not the same as permission to use. There is no uniform global licensed spectrum for WiMAX. In the US, the biggest segment available is around 2.5 GHz, and is already assigned, primarily to Sprint Nextel and Clearwire. Elsewhere in the world, the most likely bands used will be around 3.5 GHz, 2.3/2.5 GHz, or 5 GHz, with 2.3/2.5 GHz probably being most important in Asia. In addition, several companies have announced plans to utilize the WiMAX standard in the 1.7/2.1 GHz spectrum band recently auctioned by the FCC, for deployment of "Advanced Wireless Services" (AWS).

There is some prospect in the U. S. that some of a 700 MHz band might be made available for WiMAX use, but it is currently assigned to analog TV and awaits the complete rollout of digital TV before it can become available, likely by 2009. In any case, there will be other uses suggested for that spectrum if and when it actually becomes open.

It seems likely that there will be several variants of 802.16, depending on local regulatory conditions and thus on which spectrum is used, even if everything but the underlying radio frequencies is the same. WiMAX equipment will not, therefore, be as portable as it might have been - perhaps even less so than WiFi, whose assigned channels in unlicensed spectrum vary little from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

The actual radio bandwidth of spectrum allocations is also likely to vary. Typical allocations are likely to provide channels of 5 MHz or 7 MHz. In principle the larger the bandwidth allocation of the spectrum, the higher the bandwidth that WiMAX can support for user traffic.