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Wimax :Its Features and Applications

Conference Paper · March 2009

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 Wimax :Its Features and Applications
Er. Paramveer Kaur Sran
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Rayat Institute of Engineering and Information Technology,Railmajra
paramsran@gmail.com
Abstract
WiMAX aims to provide a metropolitan access network
which will provide higher bandwidth and larger
coverage than are currently available with existing
wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi and 3G. This paper
provides a basic overview of WiMAX in terms of what
it is and how it works, its throughput, coverage and
security features as well as the services it could support.
Keywords: OFDM, Broadband, Throughput, Coverage,
Security
1. Introduction to WiMAX
IEEE 802.16 is the set of standards governing the design
of the wireless interface for a standard-based
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), and to provide
conformance and interoperability for the implementation
of this standard the Worldwide Interoperability for
Microwave Access (WiMAX) group was formed.
Today, the standards are fondly referred to as WiMAX.
The standard group was chartered to provide business
and consumer wireless broadband services on the scale
of the MAN. WiMAX is standard-based technology to a
sector that otherwise depended on proprietary solutions.
The technology has a target range of up to 70km and a
target transmission rate exceeding 100 Mbps and is
expected to challenge DSL and T1 lines (both expensive
technologies to deploy and maintain) especially in
emerging markets.
WiMAX technology is set to allow high-speed internet
access from laptops and other mobile devices over larger
distances than previous technologies such as Wi-Fi. The
standard extension IEEE 802.16e-2005 commonly but
inaccurately called Mobile WiMAX standard is a
broadband wireless solution that enables convergence of
mobile and fixed broadband networks through a
common wide area broadband radio access technology
and flexible network architecture.
Mobile WiMAX supports optimized handover schemes
with latencies less than 50 ms to ensure real-time
applications such as VoIP perform without service
degradation. Flexible key management schemes assure
that security is maintained during handover.
2. WiMAX Wireless Network
In practical terms, WiMAX would operate similar to
WiFi but at higher speeds, over greater distances and for
a greater number of users. WiMAX could potentially
erase the suburban and rural blackout areas that
currently have no broadband Internet access because
phone and cable companies have not yet run the
necessary wires to those remote locations.
A WiMAX system consists of two parts:
A WiMAX tower, similar in concept to a cell-phone
tower - A single WiMAX tower can provide coverage
to a very large area -- as big as 3,000 square miles
(~8,000 square km).
•
• A WiMAX receiver - The receiver and
antenna could be a small box or Personal Computer
Memory Card, or they could be built into a laptop the
way WiFi access is today.
•
• A WiMAX tower station can connect directly
to the Internet using a high-bandwidth, wired
connection. It can also connect to another WiMAX
tower using a line-of-sight, microwave link. This
connection to a second tower (often referred to as a
backhaul), along with the ability of a single tower to
cover up to 3,000 square miles, is what allows
WiMAX to provide coverage to remote rural areas.
(Fig 1)
• received completely independently of each other (this is
Fig1: How Wimax works
2.1 MODES OF OPERATION:
• There is the non-line-of-sight, WiFi sort of service,
where a small antenna on your computer connects to the
tower. In this mode, WiMAX uses a lower frequency
range -- 2 GHz to 11 GHz (similar to WiFi). Lower-
wavelength transmissions are not as easily disrupted by
physical obstructions -- they are better able to diffract, or
bend, around obstacles.
There is line-of-sight service, where a fixed dish
antenna points straight at the WiMAX tower from a
rooftop or pole. The line-of-sight connection is stronger
and more stable, so it's able to send a lot of data with
fewer errors. Line-of-sight transmissions use higher
frequencies, with ranges reaching a possible 66 GHz. At
higher frequencies, there is less interference and lots
more bandwidth
3. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
WiMAX uses OFDM as the physical layer. OFDM
allows large amounts of digital data to be transmitted
over a chunk of spectrum with greater efficiency than
existing wireless technologies. OFDM works by splitting
the radio signal into multiple smaller signals that are
then transmitted simultaneously at different frequencies
to the receiver. An OFDM-based system is able to
squeeze a 72 Mbit/s data rate out of 20 MHz of channel
spectrum under ideal circumstances. The key to OFDM
is that the different frequencies can be transmitted and
the orthogonal property).
Typically in a wireless system the radio waves travel
from the transmitter to the receiver in a similar manner
to light rays — some rays might go straight from the
transmitter to the receiver and other will bounce off
trees, buildings and cars . These various multipaths, as
they are known, can interfere constructively or
destructively which causes varying signal power at the
receiver. If the data rate of the channel is low, compared
to the time difference between the various multipath
components, then a fade can result — deep fades of up
to 1000 times (30 dB) are possible in such systems. If,
however, a channel is transmitting high rates of data
then multipath propagation results in a frequency-
selective fading, i.e. the channel is distorted in phase and
amplitude. Complex equalisers are often employed to
measure the channel distortion and correct it in real time.
The key advance in OFDM is to divide up the spectrum
into a large number of overlapping channels that have a
slow enough data rate to not require any form of
equalisation — they are what is termed ‘flat’ fading
channels (Fig 2).
Fig:2 OFDM divide up the spectrum into channels
Fixed WiMAX serves different users by sharing all the
channels in time — time division multiple access
(TDMA) — whereby one gets access to the channel,
then another and another and so on. Fixed WiMAX also
uses a different frequency for uplink, and downlink
transmissions, so that they can take place independently
— this is known as frequency division duplex (FDD).
4. Smart antennas
The other ‘big thing’ that WiMAX introduces is smart
antennas — OFDM is very well suited to smart antenna
techniques, much more so than existing 3G technology.
Smart antennas could increase the coverage,range or
throughput of a base-station. In ideal conditions
throughput can be increased by a factor of 2 or more.
4.1 Beam forming
Typical cellular base-stations are split into different
sectors with each sector having its own antenna and
operating on a different frequency in GSM, for example
(Fig 3 ).
Fig: 3 Typical GSM 3 Sector Base Station
With normal antennas you can adjust the power and the
tilt of the antenna but you cannot adjust the beam itself.
Smart antennas work differently — they consist of
multiple transmit elements and the key to their operation
is to adjust the amplitude and phase of each element so
as to create constructive interference where there is a
user, or group of users, and destructive interference
where there are no users, as shown in Fig 4. This results
in more of the overall transmit power being received,
reduces multipath and can avoid other sources of
interference If interference becomes a problem a null
beam is sent out to reduce the interference. The
technique of beam forming should increase the coverage
of a WiMAX radio access station
Fig: 4 Beam forming
5. WiMAX spectrum
There are three frequency bands defined in the standard,
the 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz licensed spectrum, and the
unlicensed 5 GHz spectrum. The mobile standard
(IEEE802.16e) only supports the licensed frequency
bands. It also supports channel sizes between 1.5 MHz
and 20 MHz which is an important feature of WiMAX
— allowing it to operate in small segments of spectrum
that might become available, although this greatly
reduces the efficiency of the system. Ideally, for a
mobile WiMAX system, 10—20 MHz of spectrum
would be needed, since mobile WiMAX uses only a
single segment of spectrum for both uplinks and
downlinks. The frequency band used also affects the
spacing of basestations.
As a general rule, the cell radius is proportional to the
carrier frequency used. Thus a WiMAX network at 3.5
GHz could require roughly 60—80% more base-stations
than a 2.1 GHz 3G network. The licensed frequencies
available for broadband wireless access vary from
country to country. However, it is thought that operators
are also looking especially at lower frequency spectrum
for potential WiMAX early deployment due to the larger
cells and attendant lower start-up costs.
There is very little harmonisation across the continents
and even when common spectrum exists, individual
countries often apply different regulations on how that
spectrum can be used. For example, the 3.5 GHz
licences offered in the UK in 2003 prohibited mobile
services to be offered. This therefore prevents technical
features, such as handover, which would be needed in
order to support mobility. The WiMAX Forum is
appealing to regulators across the world to release
frequency allocations in the 3.5 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands
as soon as possible.
. meet the requests that are accepted. In this respect it is
In Europe most interest centres on the so-called ‘UMTS
extension band’ (2500 MHz to 2690 MHz) — which has
been declared ‘technology neutral’ and will be auctioned
in the next year or so in the UK. After this, the next
major opportunity for spectrum will be when analogue
TV transmissions cease in 2010—12 in the UK.
Regulations on the use of the unlicensed 5 GHz band
should be harmonized across the EU shortly, following a
decision by the European Commission. All member
states will have to comply with the EU regulations on
the licence-free use of the 5150— 5350 MHz and 5470
—5725 MHz frequency bands.
6. WiMAX throughput and coverage
WiMAX coverage and throughput has been the subject
of considerable debate — with a throughput of 70 Mbit/s
with a coverage area of 50 km being claimed at one
point. In fact, more realistic simulations and trials, such
as those run by AT&T in the USA and trials of WiBro1
in Korea, indicate a more prosaic performance. WiBro
offers an aggregate data throughput of 20 to 30 Mbit/s
from a base-station. This gives a sector throughput of 18
Mbit/s on the downlink and 6 Mbit/s on the uplink
giving each user a downlink throughput of 3 Mbit/s and
an uplink throughput of 1 Mbit/s. The base-station
coverage radius was 1—5 km and yet the throughput
deteriorated quite rapidly at the cell edge with the rate
down to around 500—300 kbit/s. The trials in Korea
were run using the 2.3 GHz frequency bandwidth. The
coverage and throughput is likely to improve with the
introduction of smart antennas.
Fixed WiMAX has been deployed extensively for
broadband infill as an alternative for DSL — a good
example being WiMAX Telecom which has fixed
WiMAX operations in Austria, Slovakia and Croatia
with over 6000 subscribers.
7. WiMAX quality of service
WiMAX, in contrast to Wi-Fi, has an architecture with a
base-station that is responsible for processing requests to
send or receive data from terminals, performing access
control and allocating the required radio resources to
very similar to 2G or 3G cellular systems. As a result it
is possible to offer guaranteed quality of service as well
as best effort and other service types.
8. WiMAX security
The issues regarding the shortcomings of Wi-Fi’s
security have been well documented. The Wi-Fi
Alliance has reacted to the security problems with wired
equivalent privacy (WEP) by developing Wi-Fi
protected access (WPA). WPA is not yet widely
deployed and it requires an upgrade to the access point
as well as the network adapter. The perceived lack of
security in Wi-Fi is one of the key drivers behind using
WiMAX.
WiMAX provides industrial-strength measures for
privacy and encryption. Authentication is achieved with
X.509 certificates and extensible authentication protocol
(EAP). EAP can be used to provide standard SIM
authentication as well as support for soft SIMs. For
encryption on the link layer (from handset to base-
station), WiMAX supports the Advanced Encryption
Standard (AES) and triple DES, where DES is the Data
Encryption Standard (3DES), which is the recognised
‘strong’ encryption standard. WiMAX also has built-in
virtual private network (VPN) support, which provides
protection for data that is being transmitted by different
users on the same basestation.
9. WiMAX applications
There are four main fixed WiMAX applications, as
described below.
• Digital subscriber line (DSL) alternative or fill-in
One of the main uses of WiMAX will be as a fill-in or
an alternative to cable and DSL. Fixed WiMAX offers a
good solution for broadband access in greenfield sites.
At least 15% of the US market, and huge portions of the
rest of the world, do not have a broadband infrastructure.
WiMAX is therefore a good solution as it can be rolled
out quickly with less expense than a wired network.
• Mobile backhaul
The cost of backhaul for celluar and Wi-Fi networks
represents a significant portion of their recurring costs.
WiMAX can provide point-to-point links of up to 30
miles and can provide data rates capable of supporting
multiple E1s (standard 2 Mbit/s links). Operators can
therefore use WiMAX equipment to backhaul base-
station traffic to their network.
• Temporary broadband
Due to the ease of deploying WiMAX, the technology
could be used for temporary situations such as sporting
events, construction sites and trade shows.
• Public safety
Police departments are considering equipping patrol cars
with computers with wireless access. WiMAX offers a
good solution for this due to its more robust security.
WiMAX could also provide video surveillance cameras
with broadband connectivity to control centres and
support vehicles enabling officers to view situations and
make decisions in real time.
The mobile WiMAX applications can be split into two
categories.
• 4G network
Sprint Nextel has announced that they have chosen
WiMAX for their next generation — 4G — mobile
network build. Korean Telecom has also been
undertaking trials of WiBro as a 4G technology .
• Urban mobile broadband access
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Given the high cost of a nationwide network build, it is
likely that mobile WiMAX would be deployed firstly in
urban areas as a means of offering broadband-like data
rates on the move (500 kbit/s+).
10.Conclusion
It is clear that, to compete with existing delivery
mechanisms, either WiMAX has to offer a lower cost
per MB than existing technologies, or new services (not
possible on current systems) must be introduced. What is
needed is a service that both requires high data rates,
which only WiMAX can provide in the medium term,
and generates a high revenue per MB to make the
service profitable. Mobile TV or mobile HDTV are
potential candidates for this class of service.
References
1 http://www.wimaxforum.org/home/
2 http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wimax1.htm
3 http://www.citeulike.org/article/1588536
4 http://www.wimax-telecom.net/en/index.php
5 http://www.springerlink.com/content/
a1l47376u4l32626/
6 Yoon S Y: ‘Introduction to WiBro Technology’,
Telecom R&D Center Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
September 2004) — www.itu.int/ITU-D/ imt-
2000/documents/Busan/Session3_Yoon.pdf
7 http://www.wimax-telecom.net/en/index.php