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New Advances (and Setbacks) Make 2008 a Pivotal Year for WiMAX
by Will McNamara
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For some time now, WiMAX has been characterized as “WiFi on steroids” without the hotspot limitations or security risks. Whereas WiFi is a shared signal with an open network and typically has the range of 100 yards, WiMAX is a dedicated, secure signal and has the potential to cover a range of six miles or more. It has been roundly positioned as the end-all solution among fourth-generation (4G) options that will enable a wireless alternative for cable, DSL, and T1 level services for last mile broadband access with the end goal of bringing consumers an expanded array of mobile video, data, and voice services.
However, despite all the industry hoopla, WiMAX for the most part remains commercially unproved and—many would argue—unstandardized. Many supporters remain adamant that WiMAX will eventually become a worldwide standard. But in the race to become the 4G standard for wireless communications systems, WiMAX is competing against other new technologies such as 802.11n, ultrawideband (UWB), dual-mode handsets, and voice over Wi-Fi, and in-building cellular, among others. There are two main goals of 4G wireless systems: greater bandwidth and a network that is based purely on the Internet Protocol (IP). WiMAX proponents continue to claim that the technology is the leading 4G solution on both counts.
Nevertheless, 2007 was not a good year for WiMAX, in large part due to the financial troubles of Sprint, which has been one of the primary companies supporting WiMAX and funding the creation of a large-scale advanced mobile broadband network. In fact, as Sprint has seen many of its subscribers migrate to other competitors such as Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, some industry trackers had begun to make claims that the WiMAX technology would fail as a result of not having the necessary financial backing to move forward. A handful of new developments, including a renewed commitment from Sprint Nextel, have recently provided a new jumpstart to WiMAX. In fact, 2008 is expected to be the fist year in which WiMAX is available in significant volumes, and at this point it does appear that WiMAX may in fact hit the market before many of its 4G competitors, if it can continue to gather the financial support that will be necessary to create the new, required infrastructure (or infrastructures, when including deployment in multiple countries).
The fact that the WiMAX technology finds itself at a crossroads of sorts also has impact on the vast number of enterprise IT executives—many of whom are working on utility AMI projects—who are attempting to predict what technologies will become the standard as they develop a wireless strategy for their companies. Particularly in the energy sector, as they continue to map out system deployments, many enterprise IT executives are discovering that WiMAX (along with its competitors) has the potential to touch every segment within a utility operation—from metering infrastructure to mass automation of fixed assets to Smart Grid initiatives. In turn, the technology will be driven by the markets’ needs, and new trends indicate that technologies such as WiMAX must constantly strive for higher frequencies, wider bands, and an increased ability to handle complex digital data-processing in real time.
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WiMAX 101
WiMAX, which stands for worldwide interoperability for microwave access, is a wireless digital communications system (also known as IEEE.802.16 standard) that is intended for wireless metropolitan area networks. The IEEE 802.16 standard was developed to deliver non-line-of-sight (LoS) connectivity between a subscriber station and base station with typical cell radius of three to 10 kilometers. All base stations and subscriber stations claiming to be WiMAX compliant must go through a rigorous WiMAX Forum Certified™ testing process. WiMAX Forum Certified systems can be expected to deliver capacity of up to 40 Mbps per channel.
WiMAX uses the 700-MHz to 66 GHz frequency band delivering 2M bit/sec to 6M bit/sec to each customer within the network’s cell radius deployment of up to two miles with the line of sight interrupted (higher speed and larger radius if the line of site is uninterrupted). It is also important to note that WiMAX comes in two distinctly different configurations: mobile WiMAX (referred to under standard 802.16e) and fixed (802.16d), and thus WiMAX products can accommodate fixed and mobile usage models. Chief among the differences between the two configurations from a technical standpoint is that higher bandwidth speeds are easier to achieve with fixed WiMAX (due to the stationary antenna) rather than roaming, mobile WiMAX.
Proponents of the technology have claimed that WiMAX can provide broadband wireless access (BWA) up to 30 miles for fixed stations and three to 10 miles for mobile stations. By comparison, the WiFi/802.11 wireless local area network standard is limited in most cases to only 100 to 300 feet. The IEEE 802.16 standard defines the technical features of the communications protocol for WiMAX.
Regardless of the configuration, though, according to the WiMAX Forum—the industry-led, not-for-profit organization of more than 520 companies formed to certify and promote broadband wireless products based upon the harmonized IEEE 802.16 standard—WiMAX has the potential to replace a number of existing telecommunication infrastructures. For instance, in a fixed wireless configuration, WiMAX can potentially replace the telephone company’s copper wire networks and the cable TV’s coaxial cable infrastructure, while being able to offer ISP services. In a mobile configuration, WiMAX has the potential to replace cellular networks. Given its use in these two configurations, WiMAX has the potential to support such services as broadband internet access, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), backhaul for WiFi hotspots, mobile telephone service, mobile data TV, and wireless backhaul as substitute for fiber optic cable, among other services. Clearly, what has made WiMAX the source of tremendous excitement in the industry is the broad range of applications it can make possible.
Another key differentiator for WiMAX, according to the WiMAX Forum, is interoperability. The WiMAX Forum certifies equipment, providing assurance for service providers that when buying equipment from more than one company, the WiMAX technologies will be interoperable.
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Advances
Some of the recent developments that are positive for the WiMAX technology include the following:
- In late 2007, WiMAX got the approval to become part of the technologies comprising the IMT-2000 standard (also known as the 3G standard). The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) agreed to include WiMAX in 3G, allowing for operators with 3G licenses to offer mobile services using WiMAX technologies. Up to that point, WiMAX services had been limited to the 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands, but the approval from the ITU now allows WiMAX to be used in the 1.9 GHz core 3G frequency band. The rule of thumb for radio frequency spectrum is that the lower the spectrum band the further the signal can travel, so this designation by the ITU was a considered a significant coup for WiMAX as it allows for a more generalized adoption of the technology.
- Sprint Nextel, which has been testing WiMAX for some time but has been financially challenged to pursue massive deployment on its own, has once again entered into discussions with Clearwire to team up to launch a major WiMAX network. Clearwire is a wireless telecom company that has already been rolling out WiMAX in select U.S. cities. Other potential partners might include Intel, which has developed the technology behind WiMAX and is preparing to install the user side of the technology in a new generation of laptop components; and Google, which has been focused on developing new devices and services around its search capability. Those who have been following the market activity surrounding WiMAX will recall that discussions between Sprint Nextel and Clearwire broke down late in 2007 when Sprint’s chief Gary Foresee left the company. New Sprint chief Dan Hesse has expressed interested in reviving those discussions, no small part of which is the aspect of mitigating the approximately $5 billion risk that Sprint would face in attempting to build a new WiMAX network on its own.
- The work that both Sprint and Clearwire are doing is also setting the stage for VoIP, which many believe will be a key feature in upcoming WiMAX technology. Most of the publicity surrounding WiMAX development has focused on wireless broadband capability, but VoIP could prove equally as desirable from a customer perspective. Clearwire already offers VoIP over its proprietary broadband access network, and as it rolls out its mobile WiMAX technology the company is likely to extend its VoIP service as well. Sprint has said that it expects to offer a commercial VoIP service to residential customers by the end of 2008.
- On its own, apart from the Clearwire collaboration, Sprint still intends to offer WiMAX in various metropolitan areas in 2008, covering approximately 70 million people by the end of the year. Sprint continues to actively promote WiMAX as a desirable solution that is faster and cheaper than cellular.
- Motorola, which is building the infrastructure for Sprint’s WiMAX program (known as “Xohm”) recently confirmed that Sprint is one of 15 commercial WiMAX networks it has, along with 57 WiMAX “engagements” in 38 countries worldwide including 44 active trials.
- New prototype WiMAX car products were recently displayed at the International CES conference, which underscored a growing trend of companies supporting the technology as a communications connection with vehicles. Companies such as Alpine, Azentek, Odyssey Broadband, and USTelematics have all been developing technologies with the potential to offer a WiMAX car modem with the capability to stream Internet radio or video from a laptop that would be built into a vehicle’s dash A/V unit.
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Setbacks
While all of these developments certainly bode well for the advancement of WiMAX, UMTS Long Term Evolution (LTE), which many see as a competitor to WiMAX among 4G solutions, has also made some significant inroads toward widescale deployment. In the race to become the de facto standard for next-generation wireless networks, LTE, which is being developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), recently achieved what many believe was its trump card over WiMAX. In January, LTE, which is based on Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)/ universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) cellular technology, was approved by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, which essentially provided a significant industry “stamp of approval” that positions LTE for an increased number of spec for trials. Based on available information, it certainly appears that virtually every GSM carrier worldwide, in addition to most current Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA) carriers, including Verizon Wireless, is planning LTE networks. Some even went as far as to say this development represented a “WiMAX killer.”
The crucial difference between WiMAX and LTE is that WiMAX requires a new network to be built (hence the expense faced by promoters such as Sprint Nextel) whereas LTE runs on an evolution of the existing UMTS infrastructure that reportedly is already in use by over 80 percent of mobile subscribers globally. Of course, this is a competitive incumbent advantage that LTE has over WiMAX.
Another key distinction that LTE claims over WiMAX is its speed. Proponents of LTE say that the technology can provide an instantaneous downlink peak data rate of 100 Mb/s within a 20-MHz downlink spectrum allocation (5 bps/Hz). They also say that this data rate can be maintained while moving at speeds as fast as 500 kilometers per hour, depending on the frequency band. However, despite this promised speed in data rate, LTE is likely not going to beat WiMAX to widespread commercial deployment. LTE is presently being tested for proof of concept, interoperability, and other trials, with the goal of initial system deployments in 2010.
It is important to note that although LTE and WiMAX are generally seen as competitors, many industry trackers see the two technologies as being technologically similar and capable of working collaboratively. Those who see the two technologies as being complementary have described configurations in which, for instance, WiMAX would be used to support base stations and LTE would be used to support mobile broadband users, or LTE used for macro cellular coverage and WiMAX used for micro cell coverage. It is likely that the convergence of the two technologies will continue into the future, as the differences between one generation of mainstream cellular system and the next become rather minute. Still, the two technologies still have their separate camps of supporters. For instance, Ericsson, the world’s largest supplier of cellular infrastructure, recently renounced the importance of WiMAX and stated that they would devote all of their beyond third generation (B3G) efforts to develop LTE.
Another potential setback for WiMAX is that criticism against the technology has not abated over the last year. The three primary criticisms that are commonly leveled against the technology are:
- Interference: There are concerns that interference from other broadcasters will degrade the quality of the WiMAX service;
- Quality of service: Some opponents of WiMAX continue to base their opposition on a belief that the technology is inherently unstable and therefore will not be capable of providing voice and video services.
- Security: By the very nature of being a wireless technology, the security of WiMAX has been brought into question.
On the interference issue, new reports surfaced in late 2007 that WiMAX was causing interference on satellite reception in countries such as Australia, Bolivia, Indonesia, and Pakistan. Apparently, problems have occurred when telcos have attempted to implement 3G or 4G Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) systems in or close to C-Band satellite transmissions (in the 3.4 GHz to 4.2 GHz bands). A recent meeting in Washington, D.C., among a consortium of companies directly involved with WiMAX technology resulted in an action item to conduct independent tests to determine the precise scale of the problem.
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Questions for Discussion
While the momentum behind WiMAX has ebbed and flowed, there is still great hope for the technology and it continues to have many supporters. This year should be rather significant for WiMAX in terms of securing its financial backing and increasing the amount of domestic deployments. The progress of WiMAX is an interesting topic on which it would be interesting to receive feedback from Automation Insights readers. Please send me a note in response to this article, and we will post your comments in upcoming issues so that your insights can be shared with other industry followers who are tracking the progress of WiMAX.
- Do you think that WiMAX will become the 4G standard for wireless communication systems?
- In a comparison between WiMAX and LTE, what are the competitive strengths that LTE may have over WiMAX? Vice versa?
- Other there other 4G solutions aside from WiMAX and LTE that you believe have the potential to become an industry standard?
E-mail comments to will.mcnamara@us.kema.com. We will include them in a future issue of Automation Insight.
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Download the February 2008 Issue
Use the link below to download the PDF of the full issue of the February 2008 Automation Insight to view the complete print versions of the articles.
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[download] Automation Insight Feb 2008 (.pdf 348 kb)
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