What is WiMAX Mobile

No longer simply an emerging standard for WiMAX, the Mobile WiMAX or 802.16e standard was ratified by the IEEE in late 2005. The primary work, particularly on the mandatory elements of the first product profile for the technology is already complete. The remaining work of defining the optional elements will go into the first version of the standard. The Forum intends to commence interoperability testing sometime around the middle of 2006.



With a bit of fortune, Mobile WiMAX products should be seen near the end of 2006, particularly in the International broadband spectrum of 3.5 GHz. Mobile WiMAX appears to be the real darling of the Forum nowadays because of its potential to emerge as a real viable competitor to existing 3G technologies. This potential gained traction when South Korea elected to take a mobile Wi-MAX compatible standard called wireless broadband (WiBro – since renamed to Mobile WiMAX) to market. This standard however, was based on a different formulation of OFDM than that chosen for the first product profile of 802.16-2004. The 802.16-2004 standard supports both formulations---however, the OFDM 256FFT system was chosen for 802.16-2004. WiBro/Mobile WiMAX/Mobile WiMAX uses an OFDMA™ technology called 1K-FFT. Service for the WiBro/Mobile WiMAX/Mobile WiMAX standard is in the 2.3 GHz spectrum range at least in Korea. The technology can be easily adapted to other licensed spectrum. At this point it is anticipated that the WiBro/Mobile WiMAXWiBro/Mobile WiMAX/Mobile WiMAX will not be used for unlicensed bands. The Forum has already announced support for the WiBro/Mobile WiMAXWiBro/Mobile WiMAX/Mobile WiMAX standard. For a variety of other reasons the Forum seems to favor using the scalable OFDMA approach, which allows a flexible FFT that incorporates WiBro/Mobile. Many members believe this approach is more spectrally efficient in general than 802.16-2004. However, this did create a bit of a quandary in regards to Fixed WiMAX. Since 802.16-2004 uses a different product profile the two standards products will not interoperate. This has forced Forum members to decide whether to support both product lines, update their existing products through the 802.16-2004 path or maintain existing proprietary tech and move toward adopting Mobile WiMAX as a separate product line. It appears that Mobile WiMAX is the favored recipient of the greatest number of confidence votes. Expect Mobile WiMAX to become the predominant WiMAX product offering in future. There is some suggestion that Mobile WiMAX may be primarily focused towards licensed spectrum product lines however. In either case in the short run, the 802.16-2004 Fixed WiMAX products should gain significant traction and experience solid growth for the first two to five years.



With the announcement this year by Sprint that it would deploy a Mobile WiMAX network product development on the 802.16e standard seems to have accelerated. Samsung already has Mobile WiMAX product in the field and other firms do as well. Interoperability testing should occur perhaps earlier than mid-year 2007. Sprint plans to have actual deployments toward the end of 2007.