WiMAX Vs Wi-Fi

WiMAX

Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

Brand licensed by the WiMax Forum.
a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of
last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to
cable and DSL
WiMAX was seen as more of a Metropolitan Area
Network (MAN) technology providing a much larger
coverage.
Based on IEEE 802.16

WiMAX
WiMAX, in fact, comes in two forms, a so called fixed
WiMAX and a mobile WiMAX.
WiMAX in its fixed form is seen as a possible alternative
to expensive cable and fibre deployment.
It is faster to deploy and less expensive and it also offers
operators more flexibility in terms of deployment time
frame and possible installation areas.
3G or other cellular network operators could see this as a
potential substitute or as a complement to their cellular
product.
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WiMAX Architecture

MIB Management Information Base

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Wi-Fi

Stands for Wireless Fidelity.

Brand licensed by the Wi-Fi Alliance.
Wi-Fi is a local area network technology that was
originally thought to replace the thousands of miles of
LAN cables.
Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN)
Based on IEEE 802.11

Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi has grown from being just a LAN cable
replacement technology to a public wireless access
technology.
Cheap and readily available equipment.
WiFi has been viewed as complementary to 3G and other
mobile standards as it has worked to enhance mobile
services offered by operators.
Its coverage is not as great as that of 3G, but it gives a
much higher transmission rate than mobile technology.
Handoff between WiFi access points is still not possible
and, therefore, it is known more as a wireless access
technology than a mobile technology.
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Wi-Fi
New developments are taking place within the 802.11
standardization group
With the increasing popularity of VoIP, many see WiFi
as one of the possible means of using VoIP with some
form of mobility
802.11r for wireless VoIP and other real time
applications
802.11s for meshed WiFi networking
Making WiFi more mobile could make it more of a
substitute to mobile technologies
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Wireless Systems

802.11 Protocol Stack

802.16 protocol stack

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Scalability
802.11
Wide,

fixed (20MHz) frequency

channels

802.16
Channel

bandwidths can be chosen by

operator (e.g. for sectorization)
1.5 MHz to 20 MHz width channels. MAC
designed for scalability independent of
channel bandwidth
MAC

MAC

designed to support 10s of

users

designed to support thousands of

users.

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Bit Rate: Relative Performance

Channel
Bandwidth

Maximum
Data Rate

Maximum
bps/Hz

802.11a

20 MHz

54 Mbps

~2.7 bps/Hz

802.16a

10, 20 MHz;
1.75, 3.5, 7, 14 MHz;
3, 6 MHz

63 Mbps*

~5.0 bps/Hz

* Assuming a 14 MHz channel

802.16a is designed for metropolitan performance

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Coverage
802.11

Optimized for indoor performance

No mesh topology support within

ratified standards

802.16
Optimized for outdoor NLOS
performance
Standard supports mesh network
topology
Standard supports advanced antenna
techniques

802.16 is designed for market coverage

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Range
802.11

802.16

Optimized for ~100 meters

No near-far compensation.

Optimized for up to 50 Km

Designed to handle many users

spread out over kilometers

Designed to handle indoor multipath(delay spread of 0.8

seconds).

Optimization centers around

PHY and MAC layer for 100m
range.

Designed to tolerate greater

multi-path delay spread (signal
reflections) up to 10.0 seconds

Range can be extended by

cranking up the power but MAC
may be non-standard.

PHY and MAC designed with multimile range in mind

StandardMAC;Sectoring/MIMO/AMC
for Rate/Range dynamic tradeoff

802.16 is designed for distance

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Quality of Service (QoS)

802.11
Contention-based MAC (CSMA/CA)
=> no guaranteed QoS

802.16a

Grant-request MAC

Designed to support Voice and

Video from ground up

Standard cannot currently

guarantee latency for Voice, Video

Supports differentiated service

levels: e.g. T1 for business
customers; best effort for residential.

Standard does not allow for

differentiated levels of service on a
per-user basis

TDD only asymmetric

802.11e (proposed) QoS is

prioritization only

TDD/FDD/HFDD symmetric or
asymmetric

Centrally-enforced QoS

802.16a is designed for carrier class operation

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Security
802.11
Existing

standard is WPA + WEP

802.16a
Triple-DES

(1024-bit)

(128-bit) and RSA

802.11i

in process of addressing
security

802.16a maintains fixed wireless security

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WiMAX vs Wi-Fi

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WiMAX vs Wi-Fi

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Comparison of WiMAX, WiFi and 3G technology

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802.11 vs 802.16: Summary

802.11 and 802.16 both gain broader industry
acceptance through conformance and
interoperability by multiple vendors
802.16 complements 802.11 by creating a
complete MAN-LAN solution
802.11 is optimized for license-exempt LAN
operation
802.16 is optimized for license-exempt and
licensed MAN operation.
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Will WiMAX displace WiFi?

WiMAX will not replace

WiFi completely, but work
TOGETHER
Intel is currently integrating
WiMAX and WiFi into a
single Centrino chip.
WiFis primary role will
always be autonomous
hotspot service
areas (indoor and outdoor 0
ft. < cell radii <500 ft.).
WiMax will ultimately
replace WiFi in large-scale
(greater than 1mi.Sq.)
commercial and public

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Wi-fi and WiMax Together

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