An alternative to DSL and cable modems may be at hand with the completion of the IEEE 802.16 WirelessMAN standard which provides broadband through the air. According to EE Times, fixed wireless is riding a wave of support thanks to the unlicenced 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands and the emerging 802.16 standard which can support them. Wireless LANs are covered by 802.11 while Metropolitan LANs are addressed by 802.16. There is a certain degree of overlap between the two but things like multipath delay require different solutions in the Metropolitan Area.
The OFDM Forum, promoting a single, compatible global OFDM standard for wireless networks, held its Annual Meeting in Beijing, China, April 8th to 9th, 2002. Their members voted to join the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access Forum (Wi-MAX), established to promote the IEEE 802.16 standard for wireless networking as a global standard and to promote equipment interoperability and compatibility under the IEEE 802.16. The 5 Ghz band is being hashed out by the 802.16(a) working group.
“The new WirelessMAN standard is a groundbreaking development that changes the landscape for providers and customers of high-speed networks,” said Roger Marks, Chair of the 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access. “The standard makes highly efficient use of bandwidth and supports voice, video and data.” It was created in a two-year, open-consensus process that involved hundreds of engineers from the world’s leading operators and vendors. Marks believes that 802.16 will supply wireless access TO coffee shops in lieu of DSL backbones.
The 802.16 standard provides a communications path between a subscriber’s site and the Internet or ISP. The 802.16 standard (summary), supports a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), not a Local Area Network (LAN) and assumes a point-to-multipoint topology with a controlling base station that connects subscriber stations not to each other but to various public networks linked to the base station. The upcoming 802.16a standard for services below 10 Ghz may also support peer-to-peer, mesh networks. The 802.16 standard is a connection-oriented service with full Quality of Service. A privacy sublayer, using authenticated key management, provides encrytion and protection from theft of service. Subscribers can use DCHP and it supports Ethernet protocols as well as IPV4 and IPV6.
Many vendors support the standard with the unlicensed 5 GHZ standard expected to be completed in mid 2002. They include the Tsunami Multipoint which uses the 5.8 GHz frequency band and complies with the emerging IEEE 802.16 standard for broadband wireless access and Iospan’s MIMO-OFDM-enabled AirBurst uses multiple antennas to transmit and receive radio signals and meets all six of the IEEE 802.16.3’s channel models for fixed wireless applications. Leap Frog Networks delivers low-cost broadband to US consumers using the Apertos 5.8 Ghz system. It features Non-Line of Sight , Quality of Service (QOS) for Voice Over IP (even video), and a choice of spectrum – MMDS (licensed, 2.5 – 2.7 GHz, North America), 3.5 GHz (licensed, international), and 5 GHz (license-exempt, North America).
MCI and Sprint deliver unlimited local and long distance telephony for $49/month. Throw in $19.95 broadband for Video On Demand. If 500 subscribers averaged $20/month for games, music and video services, then a blade server that delivers 500, 1Mbps streams for $10,000, might be paid off in a month.
Fixed Broadband has been through a nuclear winter but now, with 802.16, Sprint and MCI maybe positioned to drop the Big One - $39/month unlimited phone and broadband access. For whom does the bell toll? Pick a BOC. They could counter with a 2.4 Ghz, CSMA delivery vehicle destroying the unlicensed band while delivering “hot spots” in homes and coffee shops. At a price.
XtraTyme says they’ve developed a ten-step process called the Blueprint America Program which is designed to provide a simple step-by-step procedure for getting the community to participate in high-speed Internet technology. My 802.16 proposal to “unwire” 1000 homes in North Portland would practically “give away” broadband, profiting by web services. Could it succeed? You tell me, I’m clueless!
