A great deal has taken place with the IEEE 802.16 based standard and with the WiMAX Forum over the last year.  A year ago, 802.16REVd was just being completed and approved at the IEEE (to be published as IEEE 802.16-2004 on October 1, 2004) and 802.16 Task Group e (TGe) was just getting traction.  To some, IEEE 802.16-2004 seems like ancient history and work on the TGe amendment for support of mobile devices has come a long way. This article will attempt to provide a brief description of the progress made in 802.16e over the past year, how this relates to ETSI HiperMAN, and how the WiMAX Forum fits in.

At the writing of this article, IEEE 802.16e was in Sponsor Ballot, the final phase before going for final approval by the IEEE Standards Association, and the IEEE schedule shows a publishing date of October 2005. The WiMAX Forum is working towards a set of System Profiles for support of Mobile WiMAX services.  As with the current set of System Profiles for fixed services, the profiles for nomadic and mobile services will require a complete set of conformance and certification specifications, which includes PICS, TSS&TP, and ATS.

The WiMAX Forum supports and promotes broadband wireless technologies that enable fixed, nomadic, portable and, eventually, mobile users, allowing them to maintain high-speed connectivity wherever they go.  WiMAX is predicted to do for metropolitan area networks (MANs) what WiFi" did for LANs.  Although initial WiMAX network deployments will start by connecting fixed or stationary Subscriber Stations (SS), they will quickly evolve to support nomadic/portable applications and eventually completely mobile services and their respective devices.

WiMAX is expected to enable the "access anywhere" triple play revolution of high-speed wireless delivery of data, voice and video applications at home, in the office and on the go. A global standard and certification infrastructure is required to achieve this goal.These new markets provide great opportunities for semiconductor developers and manufacturers.  When the IEEE 802.16e amendment is finally ratified, WiMAX supported technology will begin appearing in handsets, laptops, PDAs and other mobile devices.

One of the WiMAX Forum's goals is to complete and ratify a global standard for fixed, nomadic, and mobile services. This goal is to enable the realization of "access anywhere" or "network living"" by focusing on conformance and interoperability of WiMAX equipment being readied for deployment in 2005, for fixed, and 2007, for nomadic/mobile.  Because many of WiMAX Forum members have been directly involved in both the ETSI HiperMAN and IEEE 802.16-2004 standards development it was only natural to harmonize these standards and the supporting conformance specifications.  To this end the WiMAX Forum entered into a Cooperative agreement with ETSI.

The figure below shows the relationship between the IEEE and ETSI standards and how the WiMAX Forum fits in.

 

As part of this process, the WiMAX Forum has set up a timetable and roadmap for product testing and certification. The First formal certification wave is targeted for the second half of 2005.  Subsequent certification waves will follow. This means the market should see WiMAX Forum Certified equipment for fixed service during the later part of the second half of 2005 with lab trials in late 2005 and field trials in first quarter of 2006. Each successive certification wave will include more and more tests as part of the certification process.

Each certification "wave" will include conformance testing of a variety of System Profiles. According to the most recent surveys, among the first may be profiles for 3.5 GHz licensed and 5.8 GHz license-exempt bands. Although more surveys are planned, indications are that these will be in the first certification waves. It is important to note that, based on channel raster and duplexing scheme, the 3.5 GHz band may include up to four unique System Profiles.

© 2005 Gordon Antonello