For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph – a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments.
The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.
Intel is cranking up their publicity machine on the eve of the WiMax Forum meeting in Beijing, China. Intel chips are used in customer premises equipment from Airspan, Alcatel, Alvarion and Redline Communications.
Intel claims thirteen carriers are now deploying fixed WiMAX networks based on their WiMAX technologies. Eleven more carriers are preparing to deploy additional Intel-based WiMAX networks by year’s end.
In collaboration with Intel, and using equipment based on the Intel PRO/Wireless 5116 broadband interface, commercial networks have now been deployed by the following carriers: Altitude Telecom (France), AXTEL (Mexico), BEC Telecom, S.A. (Dominican Republic), Dedicado (Uruguay), Globe/Innove (Philippines), Iberbanda (Spain), Irish Broadband (Ireland), SferaNET (Poland), Mikkelin Puhelin Oyj and Savonlinnan Puhelin Oy (Finland), Telgua (Guatemala), Ukrainian High Technologies (Ukraine), and WiMAX Telecom (Austria and Slovakia).
These deployments support a range of uses, from basic high-speed access for homes to Internet telephony, business connectivity and support for schools and government offices. For example:
- Voice over IP (VoIP) services are being offered by BEC Telecom beginning in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and spreading to the rest of the country, while WiMAX Telecom is offering VoIP services to home users in Burganland, Austria.
- Residential and small business users now have access to high-speed Internet, from AXTEL in Monterey, Mexico and Dedicado in Montevideo, Uruguay to Globe/Innove in Cavite, Philippines and Iberbanda in Andalusia and Catalonia, Spain.
- Schools and government offices can now benefit from cost-effective, high-speed access in areas including Dublin, Ireland, through a contract with Irish Broadband, and in southern Poland, where SferaNet is offering WiMAX services to public safety, local government offices and schools.
In addition, several carriers are in the process of deploying WiMAX networks that are expected to be up and running by the end of the year, including: Americatel Peru S.A. (Peru), Call Plus (New Zealand), Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd. (Taiwan), DBD Deutsched Breitband Dienste GmbH (Germany), Digicel (Caribbean), Entel (Chile), Ertach (Argentina), Integrated Telecom Company (Saudi Arabia), Next Mobile (Philippines), and Taiwan Fixed Networks (Taiwan) and VeloCom (Argentina).
Cellular’s HSDPA can only fit about ten customers per segment, or 30 per base station, say industry observers. EV-DO Rev. A, may support four times as many users per cell. But Mobile WiMax – in many ways just a glorified access point – threatens to double the data rate and subscriber count – at half the cost.
The Mobile WiMax standard (802.16e), expected shortly, is the focus of many chip companies including; Adaptix, TeleCIS, and PicoChip. Dailywireless has more on Mobile WiMax Chips.
Mobile WiMax (802.16e) may not (quite yet) have the official blessing of the IEEE, but it’s on the move:
- Navini is Doing Pre-WiMax In Athens GA. They’ll use Navini’s Ripwave-MX dual-mode CPE, which starts shipping in Q4 2005, and the Ripwave-MX dual-mode PCMCIA card targeted for 1Q 2006, will both be software upgradeable to Navini’s 802.16e system. Navini’s Ripwave products run in the unlicensed 2.4GHz ISM band, or the licensed 2.3 GHz WCS, 2.5/2.6 GHz ITFS/MMDS, and 3.4/3.5 GHz WLL bands.
- MegaBroadband of Massachusetts launched the first commercial use of the 2.3GHz WCS spectrum in the U.S. using technology from Navini. They are partnering with BalRivgam, a WCS developer who is providing the spectrum. The initial network, located in Bristol County, Mass., will support up to 3,000 users. They plan to serve more than 10,000 users within 2 years.
- SK Telecom and Korea Telecom (KT) have 2.3 GHz WiBro licenses thoughout South Korea and plan to launch it next year. They’ll be implementing Videocell Services next year and their mobilied version of WiMax (Wi-Bro). South Korea’s wireless broadband project is expected to cost $784 million to $900 million and provide ubiquitous broadband wireless throughout the country.
- The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore announced earlier this year that six companies won bids for wireless broadband access in Singapore and are expected to roll out their services next year. The six are MobileOne, inter-touch Holdings, Pacific Internet, Qala Singapore, SingTel, and StarHub. Tokyo
- Airspan Networks and Yozan have expanded their contract to build a WiMAX network in Tokyo by $5 million, bringing the total contract size to $16.7 million (pdf). The project uses Airspan’s software-upgradeable radio technology using Airspan’s called MicroMAX-SDR, based on the PicoChip array. Airspan and Yozan announced plans to build a Tokyo-wide WiMAX network this March. It will enable mobilized voice, video, and broadband data services using Airspan’s software-upgradeable radio technology and will be upgraded to support 802.16e.
- Intel said it expects to be involved with WiMax trials in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines by year-end. “The trials of the technology are starting now, and we see (commercial) roll-out worldwide over the next two to three years,” said Sean Maloney, the head of Intel’s mobility unit. “But it’s patchy — some places will be faster than others.”
- The Battle for Taipei will include Vivato, WiMax and Mesh. The City of Taipei which is building a huge, city-wide mesh network that covers some 90% of their 2.6 million population, is now looking into a WiMax overlay, reports the Taipei Times.
- Marport Wireless will develop communication solutions for ships at sea. The Company plans to design and build a marine communications system that exploits the unique features of the wireless technologies based on DVB-RCS (2-way satellite terminals) and IEEE 802.16e (WiMAX) standards. The intention is to provide a cost effective and robust solution to varied marine sectors.
| System bandwidth (MHz) | 1.25 | 2.5 | 5 | 10 | 20 |
* variable set only
** FFT size of 256 is not supported
Song Junde, a professor at the Beijing University of Posts and telecommunications, summed up the importance of WiMAX for China. He stated: “In China this is especially important as WiMAX is capable of connecting the next billion broadband users globally, especially in regions where there is no wired broadband infrastructure available.”
Meanwhile, Taiwan plans to invest NT$37 billion (US$1.12 billion) on mobile initiatives, including WiMAX while Intel is working with governments, telecommunications regulators, education, health and agriculture public sector agencies and carriers to spur WiMAX development in Southeast Asia. Intel is in a race for the Chinese market which is expected to be huge.
The Korean WiBro network, a nationwide broadband wireless system, is expected to go live in 6 months. That experience seems likely to leverage Samsung, LG Electronics, KT Telecom, SK Telecom and other Korean companies into global leadership in the broadband wireless space.
Samsung won a contract to supply a WiBro network in Brazil for TVA Sistema de Televisao. It will start trial service in the second quarter of 2006. Commercial networks based on WiBro are due to enter service in South Korea in the middle of 2006. Samsung has already demonstrated a working system. It will do so again later this month to regional leaders when they gather for the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) meeting in Busan, South Korea.
Mobile WiMax incorporates COFDMA with Sub-channelization (concentrates power on fewer carriers), Scaleable-OFDMA (adjusts number of carriers), Adaptive Modulation (dynamically adjusts modulation), space coding (adjusts for fading), MIMO Antennas (increases speed and range), beamforming (focuses beam), adaptive antennas (tracks users), and other techniques.
Broadband wireless deployments in Australia by Navini and ArrayComm, Portland’s Pre-WiMax, Clearwire deployments across the United States and South Korea’s nationwide WiBro rollout next year are reality. Now.
WiMax and the developing Mobile WiMax standard didn’t come out of thin air.
Dr. Guanghan Xu (right), co-founder of Navini, wrote the initial draft of TD-SCDMA, the standard China would like to adopt for “3G” cellular. China’s TD-SCDMA standard will have chips made by Datang and Samsung.
Qualcomm bought up the intellectual property rights of Flarion, Navini’s main competitor. According to The Shosteck Group, “Designers of mobile WiMAX 802.16e chips may have a hard time avoiding infringing Qualcomm patents.” But Flarion developed a proprietary Flash OFDM version.
Tim Sanders talked to Israel Koffman (left), vice president of Marketing for Runcom about the development of COFDMA, the basis of mobile WiMax. Runcom developed OFDMA, which has been adopted by Mobile WiMax and WiBro. Runcom’s Tornado 802.16e chip (pdf) will be used for the WiBro project for commercial deployment in the 2.3GHz band.
Adaptix, a pioneer in COFDMA, traces its lineage to Broadstorm, a company founded by Dr. Hui Liu (right), who pioneered WiBro technology at the University of Washington. Dr. Liu now serves as chief technology advistor for Adaptix and Director of UW’s Wireless Info Lab.
Formed in June of 2000, Broadcom set out to develop a purely IP wireless platform capable of fixed, portable and mobile applications with funding from Vulcan and VantagePoint Venture Partners. CTO Liu, was formerly the director of Engineering at Cwill Telecommunications, a TD-SCDMA pioneer and precursor to Navini Networks.
Adaptix CEO Fotheringham says, “Li and Liu understood the state of the art in wireless networking — OFDM’s multicarrier operations, TD-SCDMA’s smart antennas — and wanted to build something better. Something more efficient. Something actually capable of multiple broadband connections — not just wideband links at up to 1.5 Mbps.”
Of course, there are hundreds of people that are responsible for developing WiMax. Hundreds more are working hard to make Mobile WiMax a practical and cost/effective communications tool for everyone. Worldwide. It’s one the nobelest endeavors imaginable. Let’s give them a round of applause!
Related DailyWireless stories include; WiMax: On The Road with Adaptix, Runcom Mobilizes WiMax, 
TeleCIS Road Show, Mobile WiMax: It’s Alive!, PicoChip and ETRI Go For It, Adaptix + LG= WiBro, Dr. Xu’s HPi Love Fest, TD-SCDMA Joint Venture, 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, National Wireless ISPs, Intel Inside Clearwire, ClearWire Launches Pre-WiMax, and IEEE Scores 802.16d.
