From Wi-Fi to WiMAX: The Market Drivers
By By Joe Nardone

The demand for high-bandwidth networking is already driving acceptance of fixed WiMAX products. The imminent arrival of products that meet the recently ratified standard for mobile WiMAX connectivity will provide even more exciting opportunities for broadband wireless communications.

While deployments of fixed wireless broadband networks based on the WiMAX standard have been implemented in many countries over the past year and a half, the ratification in December 2005 of a new IEEE standard (802.16e-2005) that will enable the same technology to be deployed in mobile devices should see accelerated take up of WiMAX products over the next few years.

It is easy to see in simple terms how networks are going to evolve in the near future - people want to be able to transmit and receive any type of data to or from anybody, anywhere at any time with minimal difficulty. This means that high-bandwidth telecommunications infrastructure will have to be readily accessible in any location from which people will want to communicate.

WiMAX is particularly well suited for this as it can be quickly and economically deployed in nearly any type of geography without requiring extensive installations, or pre-existing infrastructures as per wired technologies. Furthermore, WiMAX offers nomadic and mobile operations such that the connection becomes associated with the person not a location hence enabling true Personal Broadband.

Furthermore, the economics of WiMAX, unlike other wireless technologies, enable a low enough cost per bit such that it becomes viable for the mass market of consumers to adopt hence delivering broadband anywhere, anytime. Fixed WiMAX technology (IEEE 802.16-2004) is already in place and being used successfully. The WiMAX Forum certified the first fixed WiMAX products in January 2006. More than 20 operators deployed commercial fixed WiMAX networks while more than 100 carriers initiated fixed WiMAX network trials worldwide. Since then, the numbers have grown to more than 175 trials and deployments, and more than 35 commercial networks.

So far WiMAX has largely been deployed as a broadband wireless backbone providing broadband coverage to areas not currently served by existing wired broadband technologies. In many, though not all developed Western countries, there is already a mature market for wired broadband i.e. communications delivered by copper or fibre cable. According to researcher Jupiter Networks, most Western European countries have wired broadband availability for more than 90 per cent of their populations.

However, for developing countries such as Russia, Eastern Europe or the Middle East the potential to deliver broadband infrastructure via wireless technology is tempting. A wireless backbone offers a much faster and more cost effective way to roll out broadband infrastructure than the traditional method of laying cable either underground or on towers.
Quite apart from the special advantages that wireless networking in general offers over fixed-line communications, WiMAX also offers some technical advantages over some popular broadband technologies such as Asymmetric DSL (ADSL).

The asymmetric nature of this technology means that upload speeds are typically a fraction of the download speeds offered by the service and rarely exceed 1Mbit/s.
WiMAX can offer upload speeds of 4Mbit/s. Although this is typically not an issue for residential users, it can be an important issue for business users who may require a robust uplink as well as downlink. Further, since an operator can adjust the ratio between uplink and downlink traffic, spectrum can be optimized to meet traffic requirements of users and applications as they evolve.

One of the more interesting current WiMAX deployments is in the town of Umeå in Northern Sweden. There, a local operator called Mobile City is working with the local government to provide cars equipped with WiMAX and Wi-Fi capability to provide broadband connectivity to nurses who travel to visit patients in their homes.
With this connectivity, nurses are able to use their notebook PCs to download information for the benefit of patients while on the road or even during a visit and can also complete their 'paperwork' while on the road.

This greatly enhances the care they can deliver to their patients and significantly improves productivity. None of this could be done previously unless the patient lived near a Wi-Fi hotspot. These specially equipped cars combine a WiMAX CPE to connect the car to the hospital and a Wi-Fi access point to connect to the nurse's notebook.

In effect, the car becomes a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot which the nurses can use for the benefit of their patients. Although the example above uses fixed WiMAX technology, the mobile capabilities offered by products meeting the newly ratified mobile WiMAX standard 802.16e-2005 offer potentially the most exciting growth opportunities. Such equipment will enable broadband access while moving at speeds up to 120km/hr. Or in other words, you will soon be able to use your notebook computer to access the Internet while sitting in a coach or train without losing connectivity.

Culled from cyberschuulnews.com