Solectek Prepares WiMAX Solution for US 3.65 GHz Band

Base station and subscriber terminals submitted to FCC for approval of new WISP solution.

Solectek Corporation announced the addition of 3.65 GHz WiMAX base stations and subscriber terminals tailored for Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) and municipalities. The recently allocated frequency band in the United States enables non-exclusive licenses for enterprises and network operators to rapidly deploy fixed wireless services.

Solectek's WiMAX Base Station and Indoor Controller feature support for 3.5 and 7 MHz channel bandwidths, a 4U rack-height chassis designed to support one to eight Base Station sectors, and mix-and-match cards or pre-built, pre-tested common chassis configurations. Other features include:
 

• Uplink card used to aggregate data and power from the base station ASN gateway site for delivery to Solectek's outdoor base station units.
• GPS kits to time synchronize multiple base stations.

Optional failover switching for optimum reliability and subscriber uptime.

The 3650-3700 MHz allocation offers an alternative highway for fixed wireless access. Compared to the 5.4 and 5.8 GHz bands, signals are more likely to propagate through outer building walls and through foliage. In contrast to the 2.5 GHz band sought after for Mobile WiMAX services based on the 802.16e-2005 standard, the 3.65 GHz band was not auctioned to the highest bidders. Instead, any entity may license its use on a non-exclusive basis across most of the continental US and Alaska. Several exclusion zones - areas where 3.65 GHz operation is not permitted - exist around Fixed Service Satellite (FSS) stations primarily on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

The Solectek solution is expected to compete in an increasingly crowded vendor market. Airspan, Alvarion and Redline Communications have already received FCC approval to offer products for sale using the 3.65 GHz band.


By Jeff Orr

ORR Technology, LLC

Tuesday, May 06, 2008 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

Alvarion joins the 3.65 GHz WiMAX race

Equipment vendor gains FCC certification to sell and ship radios in U.S. light-licensed band.

Alvarion announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had granted certification to the company's BreezeMAX 3650 base station and customer premise equipment (CPE) for use in the 3.65 GHz frequency band. U.S. rules mandate that all intentional radio emitting devices pass FCC tests before they can be offered for sale. Alvarion joins Redline Communications and Airspan Networks as the three vendors offering 3.65 GHz broadband wireless equipment.

Towerstream, a wireless service provider offering business-to-business broadband, is using the BreezeMAX 3650 products in a commercial trial. "Towerstream's business model is built around WiMAX to serve high value commercial customers in major urban markets around the country," said Jeff Thompson, CEO of Towerstream. Access to the 3.65 GHz band enables additional spectrum to deploy services that may not have been readily available in the past.

Licenses are required to operate radios in the recently allocated band. Unlike the auction process used for the sale of U.S. 700 MHz spectrum in January, 3.65 GHz uses a light-licensed allocation. Entities that plan to operate equipment apply to the FCC for a license and pay a nominal fee. Several wireless service providers have regional and nationwide licenses.

The BreezeMAX 3650 is based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 specification, commonly referred to as mobile WiMAX. The product family supports self-install CPE and advanced antenna technologies including MIMO. Alvarion derived the models from its popular 3.5 GHz BreezeMAX design. Certification by WiMAX Forum for the 3.65 GHz frequency band is not expected before 2009. Currently, the industry trade association is certifying conformance and interoperability in the 2.3 and 2.5 GHz frequency bands. A 3.5 GHz certification profile exists, though considered a lower priority to the 2.x GHz opportunities. No timeline for establishing a 3.65 GHz certification effort has been announced, which means U.S. providers and enterprises considering use of the band should consider each vendor's solution proprietary.


By Jeff Orr

ORR Technology, LLC

Thursday, April 24, 2008 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

Airspan Bounces Back

Airspan received some negative publicity back in March from Buzz Broadband but continues to be a respected provider of WiMAX solutions.

Vodacom Lesotho, a subsidiary of the Pan-African cellular communications company, has officially selected Airspan to be its WiMAX provider.

Vodacom offers world class GSM service, a standard collection of applications and features available to mobile phone subscribers, to more than 23 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique. Partnering with Airspan will allow Vodacom to provide subscribers with IP data services as a substitute to fixed line broadband access. “Airspan will supply its MicroMAX base stations in the 3.3 - 3.5 GHz frequency band in addition to CPEs (customer premise equipment).” Vodacom believes that Airspan’s solution is perfect, particularly in rural areas, for rapid deployment.

    "Airspan’s MicroMAX system provides a low-cost, high-performance point-to-multipoint IEEE 802.16 compliant solution. This OFDM based architecture is suited to deliver high-speed data, Voice Over IP (VoIP), and multimedia services to residential, SOHO (small office/home office), and SME (small medium enterprise). MicroMAX offers service providers an integrated access solution, providing quick-to-market deployment and low-market entry cost for broadband services in an expandable “pay as you grow” model."

Given the failure of Airspan’s partnership with Buzz Broadband (mentioned in past posts), Airspan hopes winning this contract with Vodacom will highlight the flexibility and scalability of Airspan’s base stations and CPEs.

Ari Zoldan
Quantum Networks, LLC
70 West 40th Street
7th Floor
New York, New York 10018

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 in Business | Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

Airspan Defends WiMAX

The negative comments shared by Garth Freeman, CEO at Buzz Broadband, in regards to WiMAX technology have spurred Airspan, the WiMAX equipment supplier to retaliate and defend its technology.

According to Airspan, Buzz Broadband lacked the technical and financial resources required to operate a performing network. In regards to Freeman’s specific qualm concerning the short distance that the WiMAX network was able to operate successfully in, Airspan blamed Buzz Broadband’s decision to purchase less-expensive micro-cell base stations. Cheaper base stations resulted in a trade off of range performance.

The future of WiMAX is still to be discovered and will continue to stir debate but I find the most insightful observations concerning the Buzz Broadband/Airspan situation was made by Nordic Nowire CEO Michael Blomqvist. Blomqvist acknowledges the mistakes made by Buzz Broadband. However, he also notes that such mistakes are typical and therefore Airspan and other WiMAX vendors need to take greater responsibility when it comes to educating carriers.

As far as Blomqvist’s opinion of WiMAX, he feels that “vendors have over-hyped WiMAX, promising features and then not delivering. At the same time, WiMAX does offer a better price/performance ratio compared to competing mobile broadband technologies—when done right.”

Ari Zoldan
Quantum Networks, LLC
70 West 40th Street
7th Floor
New York, New York 10018

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 in Business | Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

Nokia N810 Internet Tablet WiMAX Edition to get TV Place-Shifting Support

Monsoon Multimedia's HAVA Player enables remote TV and video content viewing over WiMAX.

Monsoon Multimedia announced support for the upcoming Nokia N810 Internet Tablet WiMAX Edition with its HAVA player, allowing customers to view and control their home TV from anywhere in the world over WiMAX or Wi-Fi.

Users can watch their TV programs live on the tablet over a Wi-Fi or WiMAX connection. The TV source (whether cable or satellite, receiver or DVR, standard or high definition) is connected to the HAVA device installed in your home. Familiar set-top box controls -- Pause, Play, Rewind, Skip, Record, Guide, Menu, Navigation - are available from the on-screen remote. Touch-screen (stylus) inputs and key press inputs are supported depending on user preference.

The Nokia Internet Tablet version of the HAVA Player is a tablet-optimized version of the player software that Monsoon also provides for PCs and other mobile devices. Users can even view their home TV simultaneously on multiple PCs within the home network and on a Nokia Internet Tablet at home or anywhere in the world.

An upcoming version of the HAVA PC Player application will also enable the Nokia Internet Tablet to function as a "PVR-on-the-go", allowing users to record their favorite TV shows and later watch them (called time-shifting like a TiVo box) on their tablets from local memory.

Nokia announced the WiMAX-enabled version of the N810 tablet at CTIA Wireless 2008 last week. The tablet is expected to debut on the Sprint XOHM network later this year. The HAVA Player for the Nokia Internet Tablet will be available by June as a free direct download.


By Jeff Orr

ORR Technology, LLC

Thursday, April 10, 2008 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

Everything Old is New Again

Motorola dusts off the all wireless office concept and repackages it for the Enterprise.

With ambitions to become the wireless gold standard for Enterprise networking Light Reading reports that the company plans to leverage the 802.11n standard to stake a high-profile place amongst wireless LAN purveyors. Motorola isn't promoting a wholesale switcheroo to wireless with customers ripping out cabling willy-nilly. Rather it feels that using 802.11n extensions to existing networks make sense as do for the construction of new networks.

Motorola sees lots of benefit to this technology for the wiring closet. But it also believes cost savings is a major key. To this end, Motorola cited a Greenfield deployment where maintenance spending for wireless was projected at $12.51 per user per year versus $88 for wired. And too, wireless networks might require fewer pieces of expensive gear to implement in general. 

Other areas for savings will likely be in using wireless phone systems and in distribution router layers. Motorola feels it finally has the technology in 802.11n to implement a wireless network with sufficient speed and capacity to realize a vision of true Enterprise wireless LANs.

So where does WiMAX fit in this equation? Well, certainly these networks could be fed by WiMAX connections on the outside. One of the real beauties of wireless in general is that technologies can be changed shifted to with one Ethernet connection appliance between them. After all, we are talking all IP systems here. The same applies eventually for LTE. I can't help myself wondering if the real revolution here isn't so much wireless technology as it is the committed shift to all-IP architectures for data and voice and video that we are all experiencing. Major carriers themselves are shifting to IP systems as fast as they can. The cost savings alone justify it. But the ability to field new revenue generating services is huge as well.

Tim Sanders,

TheFinalMile

Developments with WiMAX Chips

The development of WiMAX-enabled chips provides a foundation on which WiMAX can take hold in the wireless world

The development of WiMAX-enabled chips provides a foundation on which WiMAX can take hold in the wireless world. Being that many have cited this year as the “year for WiMAX,” an increase in the development and release of WiMAX-enabled chips has been an intuitive projection for the near future. Intel and Motorola intuitively come up on top in such discussions. Intel in particular has received some buzz for its Centrino 2 Montevina chip. Intel is quoted with this description:

    It will feature unprecedented processor performance for faster multitasking, high-bandwidth Wi-Fi (802.11agn), and for the first time, an optional integrated WiMax-Wi-Fi module. Centrino 2 also has a power-saving design to provide the longest possible battery life

Apparently this development is only the beginning. As more compact and efficient WiMAX-enabled chips are developed and popularized, the more cost may ease for end-users–ultimately good news for general growth and developments in the field. Along the same vein, Investor’s Business Daily provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state of WiMAX chip development, citing roughly 40 companies that are involved in developing WiMAX chips.

Ari Zoldan
Launch 3 Communications

Sunday, March 09, 2008 in Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (1)

ABI Research Posts Mobile WiMAX Equipment Top 10 List

Samsung tops new Mobile WiMAX equipment vendor matrix ranking.

Samsung has been ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix for WiMAX equipment vendors released by ABI Research. Motorola and Cisco Systems claimed the second and third spots. Samsung's early presence in major WiMAX networks such as South Korea's WiBro service gave the company an early lead on infrastructure and client development. Similarly, Motorola has secured early customer acceptance through supplying an end-to-end network for Wateen in Pakistan. Cisco Systems is relatively new to the WiMAX equipment market having recently acquired Navini Networks.

Vendor rankings are determined by parameters such as "innovation" and "implementation" across several criteria. Under "innovation," the research firm examined early product development for mobile WiMAX; intellectual property for OFDMA, MIMO, and beamforming technologies; early MIMO R&D; early beamforming R&D, and end-to-end telecom product offerings. Under "implementation," the company scrutinized the following criteria: major customer wins announced; number of trials acquired; major mobile operator customers; focus on high-growth developing countries, and partnerships with other companies in the WiMAX ecosystem.

While there are no real surprise companies in the list, the accompanying target charts plotting the vendors comparatively makes for an interesting read. The complete Top 10 list is available by registering for free at ABI's website. The data is constantly changing and the company intends to update the matrix periodically.

By Jeff Orr
ORR Technology LLC

Friday, March 07, 2008 in Business | Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

WiMAX Forum Forecasts Over 900 Certified Products by 2011

A survey of equipment manufacturers suggests significant demand for Mobile WiMAX products.

The WiMAX Forum estimates that 100 products (base stations or subscriber devices) will achieve the WiMAX Forum Certified mark during 2008. Thirty-two products have achieved the certification in the last two years and no products have been certified in the first two months of 2008. The group further estimates that more than 900 products will have been certified by 2011.

Core to the trade association's existence is its certification program. Equipment vendors must demonstrate that their base stations or subscriber devices conform to the technical requirements of the air protocol and radio. Interoperability of multiple devices on a single base station is also required to achieve the WiMAX Forum Certified mark. The testing is accomplished through a series of test procedures performed by an approved testing lab.

Currently certified products are based on the 802.16-2004 standard for fixed wireless access and operate in the 3.5 GHz frequency band. Only five products passed certification requirements during 2007, which makes 100 approvals seem like a monumental feat. The first WiMAX Forum Certified products for Mobile WiMAX (based on 802.16e-2005) are expected by June in both the 2.3 and 2.5 GHz frequency bands.

My research found that 49 companies have announced more than 120 Mobile WiMAX devices. This figure does not include the base stations necessary to connect with Mobile WiMAX devices. The 2.3 and 2.5 GHz bands are twice as popular as the 3.5 GHz band for device announcements that specify frequency support.

Frequent surveys of equipment vendor plans are taken by WiMAX Forum. The surveys ask companies to estimate the number of products to be submitted in the coming years. The results, which are kept confidential, allow for certification profile planning based on market demand.


By Jeff Orr
ORR Technology LLC

Thursday, March 06, 2008 in Business | Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

Infrastructure vendors selected by Japan WiMAX consortium

The joint venture led by KDDI changes its name, increases its capital and names initial supply agreements.

Wireless Broadband Planning Inc, the Japanese company that won a national license for a Mobile WiMAX network announced a name change to "UQ Communications Inc." UQ Communications also announced that Samsung and Fujitsu have been awarded infrastructure supply agreements for Mobile WiMAX network deployment in Japan.

UQ Communications is a joint venture consisting of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, Daiwa Securities Group Inc, East Japan Railway Company, Intel Capital, KDDI Corp and Kyocera Corp. UQ Communications won a nationwide license for high-speed Internet services by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) in December 2007. The letters "UQ" stand for Universal Quality.

Samsung and Fujitsu have been selected to supply UQ Communications with Mobile WiMAX base stations. The Fujitsu base station, BroadOne WX300 Macro Base Station, is the result of a partnership with Airspan Networks. Airspan markets the base station under the MacroMAXe brand. Samsung did not release details on the specific base station that it will supply in the agreement. More than 1,000 base stations are expected to be installed during UQ Communications 2008 fiscal year. Hitachi Ltd will supply base station controller gateways and Itochu Techno-Solutions Corp has been selected for core network devices.

The company's capital increased at the end of February 2008 to ¥17 billion (US$164.55 million). The capital ratios have not changed from the original ¥850 million investments, with KDDI as the lead owner providing 32.26%, Intel Capital, East Japan Railway Company and Kyocera holding 17.65% each, Daiwa Securities Group providing 9.8% and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ holding 5.0%.

UQ Communication plans to launch a pilot WiMAX service in Tokyo and Yokohama during February 2009. Commercial services are anticipated in August 2009. Japan's existing 3G services are considered the primary competition for the new WiMAX service.


By Jeff Orr
ORR Technology

Tuesday, March 04, 2008 in Business | Equipment  | Permalink |  Comments (0)