Airspan and YOZAN, a leading telecommunications operator in the Tokyo Metropolitan area, have reached an agreement to deploy a Tokyo-wide WiMAX network. The Yozan MetroZone will deliver high speed IP connectivity, and support Voice, Video and broadband data services.
They will commence trials using Airspan’s AS.MAX products in the second quarter of 2005 with commercial rollout expected in the fourth quarter of the year. The contract is valued in excess of $12 million. Airspan expects to complete deliveries of the base stations in March, 2006.
The initial network will be based on a rollout of 600 cells in central Tokyo. It will gradually expand to provide coverage throughout the greater Tokyo Metropolitan area and surrounding eight prefectures.
AS.MAX uses picoChip’s picoArray technology, which will enable a software upgrade to 802.16e technology. Airspan’s software-upgradeable radio will initially support 802.16-2004 and will later be upgraded to support 802.16e. Customers will use Airspan’s unique Self-Installable Indoor WiMAX customer premises equipment (”CPE”), called EasyST. This CPE provides WiMAX connectivity to the Base Station and Wi-Fi coverage inside the customer premises via its integrated Wi-Fi Access Point.
The AS.MAX family comprises two customer premises equipment (CPE) devices: the EasyST and ProST. The EasyST, which uses Intel’s “Rosedale” system-on-chip, connects IP-enabled devices directly to WiMAX networks and can be installed indoors by end users. It is said to be the world’s first integrated voice and data WiMAX product, supporting two voice lines and an Ethernet connection and can also act as an 802.11 Wi-Fi Access Point.
The ProST CPE will serve larger enterprises and is designed for outdoor professional deployment. Both CPEs are designed to work on any WiMAX-Certified base station.
The mobilized 802.16e standard has recently shifted from a constant FFT size (256 for OFDM, 2048 for OFDMA) to a scalable physical layer (PHY), with the FFT size shifting for different channel bandwidths with a maximum of either 1024 or 2048. That’s where the picoChip’s picoArray comes in, probably at the base station. An FPGA for the basestation provides programmability and flexibility for upgrades.
Henrik Smith-Petersen, President of Asia Pacific for Airspan Networks, said: “This network, in one of the world’s top five cities, will be the first major deployment of a WiMAX Metropolitan Area Network. We are extremely pleased to be able to partner with Yozan, whose vision of pervasive broadband we share.”
In related news, T-Mobile plans to use WiMax for a backbone connection on UK trains. It represents the first use of a 32Mbps WiMax backbone for the service, currently being trialed on Southern Trains’ London to Brighton run.
Alcatel and Intel have expanded their alliance on WiMAX, entering into a new joint development agreement. In the collaboration, both companies will work closely together to expedite the delivery of end-to-end residential, nomadic and ultimately mobile WiMAX solutions based on the IEEE 802.16e standard.
The companies expect to begin field trials in the first half of 2006, with commercial network deployments starting mid-2006 using user devices based on Intel’s next-generation chipsets. These WiMAX networks will seamlessly support the first Intel Centrino mobile technology based notebooks.
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