WiMAX and Its benefits

WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a wireless broadband technology, which supports point to multi-point (PMP) broadband wireless access over a coverage area of 3 – 5 miles. WiMax is another name for the 802.16 IEEE wireless broadband standards. The wireless broadband technology, referred to as WiMax, can support access rates up to 2+ Mbps. WiMax can solve a problem called the “last-mile” problem, by connecting individual homes and business office’s communications.

The WiMax standard has a range of up to 30 miles, and can deliver broadband at around 75 megabits per second. This is theoretically, 20 times faster than a commercially available wireless broadband. WiMax can be termed partially a successor to the Wi-Fi protocol, which is measured in feet, and works, over shorter distances. WiMAX provides High-speed Internet access where it is currently unavailable. It also increase substantially data speeds for applications to include online gaming, streaming video, video conferencing, VoIP and location based services.
A key differentiator for WiMAX is the interoperability of WiMAX Forum Certified equipment, resulting in mass volume economy of scale and assurance for service providers that when buying equipment from more than one company, the technologies are interoperable. The WiMAX Forum has assembled an alliance of leaders in the communications and computing industries to drive a common platform for the global deployment of IP-based broadband wireless services. Other key elements include cost, coverage, capacity and standards for both fixed and mobile wireless usage models.

WiMAX Benefits:

1. Lower cost
A standards based platform for WiMAX technology drives down costs delivering volume economics to WiMAX equipment.

2. Wider coverage

The technology behind WiMAX has been optimized to provide excellent non-line-of-sight (NLoS) coverage. NLoS advantages are coverage of wider areas, better predictability of coverage and lower cost as it means fewer base stations and backhaul, simple RF planning, shorter towers and faster CPE install times. Thanks to techniques for improving NLoS coverage, such as diversity, space-time coding, and Automatic Retransmission Request (ARQ), coverage are increased.

3. Higher capacity
A key advantage of WiMAX technology is to use Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) over Edge, GPRS, HSPA to deliver higher bandwidth efficiency and therefore higher data throughput, with more than one Mbps downstream and higher data rates. Adaptive modulation also increases link reliability for carrier-class operation and the possibility to keep higher order modulation at wider distance extend full capacity over longer distances.