”Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s WiMAX!”
- Telephony
The WiMAX Forum this week announced the first ten base stations and clients to have passed their compatibility tests on the 2.5 GHz band, the premier frequency for world-wide wireless compatibility of WiMAX phones and devices. The Forum estimates 100 products will be certified for Mobile WiMAX interoperability by the end of 2008. By 2011, they expect that number to increase to 1000.
Aperto Networks today announced a new line of carrier-grade and cost-effective WiMAX Forum Certified base stations and subscriber units. Their PacketMAX line of base stations and subscriber units support the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard and include the new Wave-2 compliant PacketMAX 4000 (pdf), the company’s 1-4 sector modular Mobile WiMAX base station.
The PacketMAX 4000 enables service providers to offer fixed, portable, and mobile broadband services and achieve profitability in a short period of time. It operates in wide array of 2.x GHz and 3.x GHz bands and supports multiple channel widths in compliance with the WiMAX Forum Wave-2 defined profiles. It supports redundancy of all major subsystems including power, backhaul, wireless controllers, and radios and can utilize 2X2 or 4X4 MIMO to ensure superior service.
Wave-2 subscriber units complement the PacketMAX 4000 basestations. These include:
- PacketMAX 400: Fixed outdoor gateways that couple support for the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard with the highest system gain to provide an optimal solution for throughput-hungry businesses and enterprises.
- PacketMAX 500: Self-installable desktop subscriber units that provide an alternative to DSL for all-indoor consumer environments. Integrated voice and WiFi options make the PacketMAX 500 series an elegant, single-box solution normally serviced by telephone adapters, WiFi access points, and DSL modems.
- PacketMAX 600: Compact USB 2.0 subscriber devices that combine the reliability and performance of PacketMAX with the convenience of the USB form factor. The PacketMAX 600 has driver support for all popular operating systems. The unit turns any laptop or desktop with a standard USB port into a mobile broadband receiver station.
- PacketMAX 700: PCMCIA and ExpressCard® devices that fit into any standard laptop or PDA with a PCMCIA or Express card slot. The integrated high-gain antenna and power management features make the PacketMAX 700 a powerful ally in experiencing the joy of ubiquitous WiMAX.
The line also includes the PacketMAX 5000 (pdf), Aperto’s 12-sector base station, the only carrier-grade base station, Aperto stresses, that can simultaneously support the IEEE802.16-2004 and IEEE802.16-2005 standards in a single chassis.
Aperto Networks also announced that NextPhase Wireless will use its PacketMAX base stations for a nationwide WiMAX network in the 3.65 GHz band. “This is the first of many significant wins we expect to announce this year in the 3.65 GHz band in the U.S.,” said Manish Gupta, Vice President of Marketing & Alliances for Aperto Networks and WiMAX Forum Board Member. Aperto’s unlicensed products now include a 5.8 GHz PacketMAX base station and CPE which has received FCC certification.
Alvarion, the world’s leading provider of WiMAX and wireless broadband solutions, also announced their Mobile WiMAX, 802.16e BreezeMAX 2.5 GHz base station has been certified by the WiMAX Forum. Alvarion is one of the first four base station vendors to receive the WiMAX Forum flagship profile certification.
The WiMAX Forum Certified seal is granted to products that successfully passed rigorous testing to fully comply with the strict interoperability and conformance standards. Devices must be interoperable with the base station for advanced features such as MIMO (multiple input/multiple output), and various modes of operation. The certified equipment guarantees a wide range of interoperable devices, with competitive prices.
“Alvarion has played an important role in WiMAX Forum’s success of driving market momentum by enabling us to move closer to delivering on our plan to certify more than 100 Mobile WiMAX products in 2008″, said Ron Resnick, president of the WiMAX Forum. Our six independent WiMAX Forum certification labs are on now online to manage the anticipated increase of products to be submitted for certification.”
Alvarion’s BreezeMAX base station (pdf) incorporates SentieM technologies in the end-to-end Mobile WiMAX 4Motion® solution. Alvarion says SentieM enhances Mobile WiMAX basic technology and provides better coverage, capacity and throughput per user. It includes Advanced Antenna and Radio Resource technologies in addition to Distributed Open Network capabilities to improve cost/effectiveness.
Alvarion and Bharti Airtel, India’s leading integrated telecom services provider announced this week that Airtel has signed a contract with Alvarion to expand its WiMAX network for business users across key cities in India. In 2006, Alvarion deployed Airtel’s first WiMAX network across major cities of India for service enterprise customers.
Nortel announced last week that it was handing over much of its WiMAX business to Alvarion, in a joint strategic agreement to create an end-to-end WiMAX solutions. The joint Nortel/Alvarion deal is expected to combine industry-leading technologies from both companies.
U.S.-based Towerstream, a metro WISP, has completed a trial using Alvarion 3.65 GHz WiMAX gear, and is planning a major market rollout using their gear, reports Telephony Magazine.
The WiMAX Forum is an industry-led, not-for-profit organization formed to certify and promote the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based upon the harmonized IEEE 802.16/ETSI HiperMAN standard. Currently, the organization has more than 500 member companies.
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