Sprint and Intel have announced a joint effort to advance the development of IEEE standards-based 802.16e mobile WiMAX, which can provide high-capacity wireless broadband coverage and services throughout metro areas.
The companies will collaborate on technical specifications, perform equipment trials and conduct interoperability testing to examine possible next-generation wide-area wireless broadband devices and services. Ubiquitous wireless broadband access will help meet blossoming demand among businesses and consumers for rapid wireless Internet connectivity and integrated multimedia services.
“Our relationship with Intel will help validate requirements, drive key ecosystem development needs, formulate network strategies and define the potential for advanced wireless services adoption,” explained Oliver Valente, chief technology officer and vice president — Technology Development, Sprint. Sprint is investigating multiple technologies for deployment in the 2.5 GHz band of spectrum. WiMAX is one.
We seek to do trials late this year and into next year, using pre-commercial versions of the technology. I think realistically we would be looking at having commercialized equipment available probably late ’07 early ’08, which is the earliest we will realistically be in a position to deploy it. In that kind of timeframe, we would expect to have .16e available, which we expect to support fixed, portable, and mobile capabilities.
In January, Sprint joined the WiMAX Forum and was recently elected to the Board of Directors.
Moving to 802.16e may be wrenching. The adoption of Korea’s WiBro techniques for 802.16e meant that (headend) compatiblity with “fixed” 802.16-2004 may be sacrificed. Why would the WiMax Forum permit such a move? Improved penetration, range and mobility was (apparently) the payoff. Fixed clients could still work but “Scaleable OFDM” in the headend now seems to be the new, new thing. Two additional techniques may be used; sub-channelization and scaleable OFDM.
Subchannelization is an optional feature in OFDM 256 that is generating a lot of interest from operators. It allows a subscriber station to concentrate its transmit power on a subset (subchannel) of the total OFDM subcarriers, leading to link budget improvements in the uplink. Subchannelization delivers both fixed and portable/mobile usage, while keeping costs low.
The WiMax Forum has published a white paper discussing subchannelization and its impact on non-line-of-sight coverage (pdf), suggesting the coverage range of a 3.5 GHz system might increase from 2 to 9 km – an astounding twentyfold increase.
Scalable COFDM will likely be used for Mobile WiMax. It can dynamically vary the number of COFDM carriers. It’s not stuck on 256 COFDM carriers, commonly used in 802.16-2004.
Intel says a scalable COFDM carrier system (like that in WiBro), enables a provider to deliver optimum performance. The number of carriers can scale. It can be used on celllular to MMDS to 700 MHz and can use different bandwidths (from 1.25 MHz to 20 MHz channels) with different numbers of OFDM carriers.
But ratcheting the number of carriers up and down takes more processing power on the headend. That’s why Intel’s new WiMax Rosedale chip (now called the PRO/Wireless 5116), is generally used in clients. Joe English, director of marketing for Intel’s broadband wireless division (Hillsboro, Ore.) says, “there are different classes of basestations” and he expects the chip to be paired with an Intel IXP-based network processor for smaller pico-basestation-class applications.
Headend gear is a different story for Mobile WiMax.
WiMax Trends says Intel s base station platform, codenamed Carrington, includes chips from Analog Devices, and Intel is developing a board for both the fixed and mobile versions of WiMAX. The board incorporates an Intel IXP 2350 network processor, the PicoChip baseband processor and Intel software. The Advanced Mezzanine Card format board has flash memory, FPGA, an optical interface and an interface for Gigabit Ethernet. Carrington will work with the recently launched CPE chipset, Rosedale although clients built on that architecture will work with other base stations too.
The UK’s PicoChip promises a software upgrade to 802.16e — SOFDMA or not. “We’re 100 per cent sure we can software upgrade to 802.16e, although with SOFDMA it won’t be interoperable with 802.16- 2004,” said head of marketing Rupert Baines. PicoChip, like another start-up, TeleCIS, a silicon valley-based, fabless semiconductor company, is expected also to take a prominent role in Korean WiBro, which could lead to early revenue opportunities since the Korean carriers are set to deploy the technology around the turn of the year.
PicoChip announced an agreement combining their picoArray processor with Hifn s 7955 WiMAX security processor, to provide a complete WiMAX basestation reference design for 802.16e applications. PicoChip says their powerful array processor chip can dynamically alter channel characteristics, an inportant attribute in 802.16e.
Vendors announce products using Intel WiMax chips |
Products like Wi-LAN’s Mobilis, a “pre-802.16e” product line, will presumably use Fujitsu WiMax chips to support high-speed broadband wireless access for fully mobile environments (such as public transit systems).
Mobilized WiMax Solutions from Adaptix, SR Telecom, nex-G, Wi-LAN’s Mobilis and Proxim Pre-WiMax are also being promoted – “pre-802.16e” or not.
Approval of the 802.16a spec happened during the January 2003 WCA trade show in San Jose and the latest, (IEEE Scores 802.16d) was ratified last year by the IEEE. The mobilized 802.16e specification, with handoff between 802.16e “cells”, may be ratified in the next few months in 2005.
Meanwhile, a Nokia HSDPA whitepaper predicts 10 Mbps cellular networks is a more likely future for mobile data.
Related DailyWireless articles include; WiMax Procession, WiMax 16d+ Dilemma, WiMax: Will It Stay or Will It Go?, Toyko Gets WiMaxed, China WiMax, Intel Mobile Platforms, Intel Mobile Platforms, 802.16 Chips Partner Up, Alvarion Promotes Mobile WiMax, Will 802.20 Challenge WiMax?, WiFi Vrs WiMax, Unlicensed Spectrum: The Sum of All Fears, FCC Opens 3.5 GHz Band, Decision in Nextel’s Court, National Wireless ISPs, Intel Inside Clearwire, ClearWire Launches Pre-WiMax, Wireless Cable Modem, Telephony’s Guide to WiMax, Realistic WiMax Range/Speed Projections?, FCC: Nextel Gets PCS Spectrum, 4G Goes Ballistic, FCC Alters MMDS Band, Equal Access: Not, National 802.16 from McCaw, Spectrum Cowboys, TV Broadband, Mobile TV Spectrum and NextNet Deploys. WiMax Switcharoo, and IEEE Scores 802.16d.
