| WiMAX by |
 |
http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/edevices/microelectronics/broadbandwireless/faqbroadbandwireless/
Frequently Asked Questions
WiMAX in General
Q1. How many different standards are in existence for WiMAX today?
Q2. Please describe the importance of WiMAX.
Q3. How far can WiMAX cover?
Q4. How many different bands (licensed and license-exempt) are there
within the 2 – 6GHz RF spectrum?
Q5. When will WiMAX deployment occur?
Q6. Will WiMAX replace fiber? If so, when will this replacement
occur?
Q7. Will WiMAX displace the existing landline and wireless
technologies (e.g. WiFi)?
Q8. What are the major differences between WiMAX and WiFi?
Q9. Is Plugfest the only gating factor for WiMAX deployment in 2005?
Q10. What does NLOS (Non Line of Sight) do?
Q11. What are the major applications for WiMAX technology?
Q12. What is Fujitsu's position in the WiMAX Forum?
Q13. Why does Fujitsu focus on WiMAX? How big will your WiMAX
business be in five years?
Q14. How big does Fujitsu think the WIMAX market will be?
Q15. Where (which geographic locations) do you expect
WiMAX-certified equipment to do well in its early stages?
Q16. Which region or country will be the biggest market? How about
Japan, Korea, EU, and BRICS?
Q17. When will the first 802.16-e product come to market? And when
do you think carriers will start their 802.16-e services?
Q18. How about the competition with 3G services? In Japan, NTT
DoCoMo announced a plan to begin HSDPA service in FY2005, while
802.16-e standardization is delayed. The theoretical speed of HSDPA
and 802.16-e is nearly same, so doesn’t this mean that 802.16-e has
a disadvantage?
Q1. How many different standards are in existence for
WiMAX today?
Currently, there are two WiMAX standards - a fully rectified IEEE
802.16-2004 fixed WiMAX standard and a yet-to-be rectified IEEE
802.16e standard.
Q2. Please describe the importance of WiMAX.
WiMAX, a data-on-the-go alternative to cable and DSL, is a
standards-based broadband wireless access technology for enabling
the last-mile delivery of information. WiMAX will provide fixed,
nomadic, portable and, eventually, mobile wireless broadband
connectivity without the need for direct line-of-sight connection
between a base station and a subscriber station. In a typical cell
radius deployment of 3 to 10 Km, WiMAX-certified systems can be
expected to support capacity of up to 40Mbps per channel, for fixed
and portable access applications. This is enough bandwidth to
simultaneously support hundreds of businesses with T-1 speed
connectivity and thousands of residences with DSL speed connectivity.
Mobile network deployments are expected to provide up to 15Mbps of
capacity within a typical cell-radius deployment of up to 3 Km. It
is expected that WIMAX technology will be incorporated in notebook
computers and PDAs starting as early as the end of 2006, enabling
urban areas and cities to become "MetroZones" for portable outdoor
broadband wireless access. WiMAX technology has the potential to
enable service carriers to converge the all-IP-based network for
triple-play services such as data, voice, and video.
Q3. How far can WiMAX cover?
In a typical cell radius deployment of three to 10 kilometers, WiMAX
Forum Certified™ systems can be expected to deliver capacity of up
to 40 Mbps per channel, for fixed and portable access applications.
Q4. How many different bands (licensed and license-exempt)
are there within the 2 – 6GHz RF spectrum?The WiMAX Forum
will start the process of certifying initial equipment in the 3.3 to
3.8 GHz and 5.7 to 5.8 GHz bands. These profiles cover both TDD and
FDD systems. The WiMAX Forum has developed system profiles
addressing the 5.8 GHz license-exempt band, and the 2.5 and 3.5 GHz
licensed bands to get the market started. The WiMAX Forum is working
with service providers and equipment manufacturers to expand the
frequency allocation to cover all the key spectrum bands that its
member companies identify as interesting to potential WiMAX service
providers.
Q5. When will WiMAX deployment occur?
WiMAX is not a new technology per se, but a more innovative and
commercially viable adaptation of a proven technology that is
delivering broadband services around the globe today. In fact,
wireless broadband access systems from WiMAX Forum members are
already deployed in more than 125 countries around the world. That
said, WiMAX Forum member companies will be the first to bring
standardized solutions to the marketplace, making broadband services
more cost-effective to deploy on a wide scale. The first WiMAX Forum
Certified systems should begin shipping in 2005 and demand is
expected to grow exponentially.
Q6. Will WiMAX replace fiber? If so, when will this
replacement occur?
Fiber and wireless will co-exist in the last mile. Wireless
deployment will grow significantly over fiber due to ease of
deployment and lower cost. However, in the near term, fiber will
still be adopted for mission-critical applications that require
near-zero interference and latency performance.
Q7. Will WiMAX displace the existing landline and
wireless technologies (e.g. WiFi)?
WiMAX and WiFi will coexist and become increasingly complementary
technologies for their respective applications. WiMAX is typically
not thought of as a replacement for WiFi. Rather, WiMAX complements
WiFi by extending its reach and providing a "WiFi–like" user
experience on a larger geographical scale. WiFi technology was
designed and optimized for Local Area Networks (LANs), whereas WiMAX
was designed and optimized for Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs). In
the 2006 -2008 timeframe, it is expected that both 802.16 and 802.11
capabilities will be available in end-user devices from laptops to
PDAs, as both will deliver wireless connectivity directly to the end
user – at home, in the office and on the move.
Q8. What are the major differences between WiMAX and WiFi?
WiMAX technology theoretically supports a coverage radius of 30
miles and a data rate of up to 75 Mbps, while WiFi currently
supports a much shorter radius and lower data rates.
Q9. Is Plugfest the only gating factor for WiMAX
deployment in 2005?
This really depends on each company's business model. Some equipment
vendors may not require WiMAX certification for their systems since
their end markets don't require it. In any event, WiMAX paves the
way for interoperability between systems and helps realize economies
of scale as a result of mass network deployment. With the first
plugfest scheduled in July 2005, system vendors who are eager to
launch their WiMAX-certified products before the end of 2005 will be
gearing up to submit their products to CETECOM in Spain to maximize
their time-to-market advantage. CETECOM is the first test lab chosen
by the WiMAX Forum to support interoperability and compliance
testing of WiMAX-compliant systems.
Q10. What does NLOS (Non Line of Sight) do?
This "last-mile" market is, by nature, a Point-to-Multipoint (PMP)
architecture utilizing Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) RF propagation.
Millimeter bands are generally most suitable for very high-data-rate,
line-of-sight backhauling applications (major pipelines), while
centimeter bands are well suited for multipoint, NLOS, tributary and
last-mile distribution.
Q11. What are the major applications for WiMAX
technology?
A major application is backhauling the existing broadband access
solutions such as xDSL, cable modems, and so on. In addition, WiMAX
itself can be an alternative last-mile solution.
Q12. What is Fujitsu's position in the WiMAX Forum?
Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Inc. (FMA) is a founding member of
the WiMAX Forum and has been a board member since 2003.
Q13. Why does Fujitsu focus on WiMAX? How big will your
WiMAX business be in five years?
We focus on WiMAX because it can potentially be a disruptive
technology with tremendous business potential for Fujitsu. Our
longstanding design and manufacturing experiences in complex SoCs
makes us the ideal candidate to participate in, and contribute to,
WiMAX. This is evident in our early adoption of WiMAX from a SoC
contender's standpoint. It is critical that WiMAX trials occur
within 2005. Fujitsu is helping this to happen by launching our
WiMAX SoC this April.
Since this market is still in its nascent stage, it is somewhat
difficult to predict how big the market will be in five years.
However, judging by the fervor and excitement seen from operators,
system makers and other semiconductor companies around the world, it
is not difficult to predict that the WiMAX market will grow
dramatically in the years to come. Being an early adopter and
participant in this market, Fujitsu is well positioned to reap the
benefits as adoption grows over the next five years.
Q14. How big does Fujitsu think the WIMAX market will be?
It is premature to estimate the overall market size for fixed WiMAX
(IEEE 802.16-2004), including base stations (BS) and subscriber
stations (SS). There are many unknowns, such as the end-user
adoption rate, collaboration between operators/service providers and
equipment builders, the available spectrum, and governmental BWA
(broadband wireless access) policies in each country.
The 802.16e (mobile WiMAX) standard will include various mobile
devices (e.g., cellular handsets, notebooks and other
multimedia-based wireless gadgets). Hence the market will be
substantially larger than the fixed WiMAX market.
Q15. Where (which geographic locations) do you expect
WiMAX-certified equipment to do well in its early stages?
We believe China will adopt WiMAX-certified equipment in an early
stage, as will other areas, such as India and South Asia, where the
communications infrastructure is not as developed as in the U.S. or
Europe. There has been interest from organizations in Spain, Russia,
Scandinavia and Latin America for the same reasons. And one of the
early system developers is located in Canada.
Q16. Which region or country will be the biggest market?
How about Japan, Korea, EU, and BRICS?
We have seen interest emanating from Asia, the Americas and Europe;
hence, it is difficult to pinpoint a particular area or country that
will drive the initial WiMAX adoption and growth. Nevertheless,
countries with many rural areas and where their networking
infrastructures are still in the developing stages will tend to
benefit more from WiMAX. Bearing this in mind, it should not be
surprising to learn that countries like China, India, Russia, Canada
or even Brazil are prime candidates for embracing the WiMAX
technology.
Q17. When will the first 802.16-e product come to market?
And when do you think carriers will start their 802.16-e services?
This is a billion-dollar question. Judging by what we have learned
from the market and industry so far, most semiconductor companies
will launch their first 802.16e chips in 2006. Systems that will be
based on these chips will follow after that. Needless to say,
carriers and operators can only start their network deployments
after 802.16e-based systems become available.
Q18. How about the competition with 3G services? In Japan,
NTT DoCoMo announced a plan to begin HSDPA service in FY2005, while
802.16-e standardization is delayed. The theoretical speed of HSDPA
and 802.16-e is nearly same, so doesn’t this mean that 802.16-e has
a disadvantage?
HSDPA (also dubbed 3.5G) follows the evolutionary path of 3G while
WiMAX is designed from the ground up to become the disruptive force
in broadband wireless access. It is true that 3G and HSDPA
deployments will continue around the globe, but the sheer technical
benefits (e.g., further reach, higher data rate, robust QoS, and
flexible channel bandwidth) of both fixed and mobile WiMAX will
enable WiMAX-powered networks to complement the cellular networks by
extending their data reach further.
Another point is that the network build-out costs based on WiMAX are
lower than 3G-based networks. This cost advantage will provide the
operators an opportunity to offer more cost-competitive voice + data
service packages to their WiMAX-subscribed customers. Naturally, the
jury is still out on the future impact of WiMAX on HSDPA but judging
by the buzz generated by WiBRO (the Korean version of mobile WiMAX),
we should always be on the lookout for any dark horse technology
such as WiMAX to appear and usurp 3G’s and HSDPA’s market position. | 
