I’ve been asked a few times recently what Wimax is (since the press uses the word without explaining anything), and have never been more accurate than “well, it’s the next generation of wireless connections for both cellphones and wireless Internet”.

I decided to browse the Internet fishing for deeper stuff, delve a little further into the details to write a short post about what Wimax really is from a more technical viewpoint.

So what is Wimax?

• Wimax is a new large bandwidth hertzian data transmission technology
• Wimax = worldwide interoperability for microwave access
• The Wimax standard has been devised by theWimax forum (over 200 organizations amongst which telco manufacturers, telco operators, regulators, research institutions, etc.)
• As all telecommunication norms, Wimax is made by a set of standards (this first of these numbered 802.16a was validated by the IEEE in 2002)
• Frequency bandwidth: between 2 and 11 Ghz (2 to 6 Ghz in mobile transmission mode)
• Current debit: 12Mbits/sec. over 20 kilometers (about 13 miles) for landline communications (norm 802.16d); mobile communications (norm 802.16e): 30Mbits over 3 kilometers (about 2 miles)

Why Wimax?

• To at last enable VoIP – Internet – streaming video on a mobile device
• To reach geographically isolated places at a rather low infrastructure cost and hence helping reduce ‘the digital gap’; what you basically need to transmit radio wavelength is a foot long (30 centimeters) antenna and a base station located in the transmission range area
• Guaranteed quality making professional videoconferencing more likely to happen in remote conditions

The technologies behind Wimax

• OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing); consequence vs. a regular wireless connection: twice as many data per Hertz are transferred
• Canal width: 1,75 to 20 Mhz
• The above-mentioned antenna raises the issue of line of sigh. Thanks to the OFDM modulation: Line Of Sight (LOS) between 10 and 66Ghz., Not Line Of Sight (NLOS) between 2 and 11Ghz.)

Who is to push Wimax?

• Intel is the number one promoter of Wimax, often presenting it as the “wireless DSL”
• One may also think of Samsung, Nokia, France Telecom, Microsoft and CISCO as companies really pushing Wimax to the forefront of the stage

Wimax vs. regular Wireless Internet

Regular wireless Internet suffers 2 major shortcomings when compared to Wimax:

1. In regular wireless connections (wifi), data may be lost (ie VoIP when your bandwidth is small) when packets collide and traffic increases. This is not due to happen in Wimax as bandwidth is due to be granted on demand, according the your actual needs
2. Wimax is faster, more secure (data integrity), and most of all no pain of having to sit next to a hotspot

However, Wimax and wireless Internet do not necessarily compete and may operate together. Indeed, a Wimax transportation and collection network may well be used as an ISP or telco operator backbone to connect WiFi hotspots, although Wimax hotspots (delivery networks) are also likely to emerge and develop.

Deployment/democratization constrains

• Wimax licenses are granted by your country telecom regulation institution (eg. ARCEP in France), hence a rather slow development
• Wimax terminals are relatively expensive, not anyone can afford it as of today (between 100$ for a PC Card up to 300$ for a client terminal)
• Telco operators, when arbitraging between installing fiber optics or pushing Wimax, usually go for the former which benefits from greater market traction as of today

In a nutshell

• Fast mobile communications, at last!
• Wimax isn’t quite a technological revolution but rather an evolutionary innovation that makes uses best of proven technologies such as radio wavelength and OFDM.
• Top-notch multinational companies support the standard (eg Intel)
• Interoperability with existing standards (eg Wireless Internet or WiFi)

My call: Wimax integrates many proven technologies in the field of telecommunications, hence an unexisting technical risk, which should enhance market adoption both by corporate accounts and people like you and me. However, in order to become a standard rather than remaining a mere norm, Wimax has to pick up quickly as 3G and 4G are getting buzzier and buzzier.

Hope this briefing helps!

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