14
MOBILE WIMAX
14.1 INTRODUCTION
Today, most consumers in urban centers are quite familiar with high-speed Internet access. Wired high-speed Internet access is provided to homes and small businesses generally by two means. It can be over a regular twisted-pair phone line, using DSL (Digital Subscriber Lines) and ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) technology, or over coaxial cables for cable TV, using Cable Modems. Increasingly, as a third means, FTTH (Fiber to the Home) is becoming available as all-optical Active or Passive Optical Network (AON or PON) architectures.
Fixed and Mobile WiMAX are technologies that provide high-speed wireless Internet access to homes and businesses, as well as cellular data and voice services for phones, laptops, and personal digital assistants.
14.1.1 IEEE 802.16 and the WiMAX Forum
IEEE 802.16 is a technology standard for Wireless Metropolitan Access Networks (WMANs). The WiMAX Forum is tasked with issuing interoperability profiles and tests for the standard. Profiles are a testable subset of all features, modes, and options in the 802.16 standard, and the forum also issues Radio Conformance Tests for 802.16 equipment. The name WiMAX means Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, and it has become synonymous with the subset of 802.16 technology that is defined by the Forum’s profiles and conformance tests.
In terms of data rates, WiMAX specifies a broadband rate of at least 1.5 Mbit/s and a channel bandwidth of at ...
