OVERVIEW of WiMAX, ARCHITECTURE and

SPECTRUM ALLOCATION

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 What is WiMAX ?
• WIMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access.
• WiMAX was formed in April 2001, in anticipation of the publication of the
original IEEE 802.16 specifications.
• WiMAX refers to broadband wireless networks that are based on the IEEE
802.16 standard, which ensures compatibility and interoperability between
broadband wireless access equipment.
• A wireless technology optimized for the delivery of IP centric services over a
wide area.
• A scalable wireless platform for constructing alternative and complementary
broadband networks.
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 WiMAX - Building Blocks
A WiMAX system consists of two major parts −
1) WiMAX base station.
2) WiMAX receiver
WiMAX base station
• A WiMAX base station consists of indoor electronics and a WiMAX tower
similar in concept to a cell-phone tower.
• A WiMAX base station can provide coverage to a very large area up to a radius
of 6 miles.
• Any wireless device within the coverage area would be able to access the
Internet
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 WIMAX Base station
• WiMAX base stations would use the MAC layer defined in the standard, a
common interface that makes the networks interoperable and would allocate
uplink and downlink bandwidth to subscribers according to their needs, on an
essentially real-time basis.
• Each base station provides wireless coverage over an area called a cell.
• Theoretically, the maximum radius of a cell is 50 km or 30 miles however,
practical considerations limit it to about 10 km or 6 miles.

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 WiMAX Receiver
• WiMAX receiver may have a separate antenna or could be a stand-alone box or a
PCMCIA card sitting in your laptop or computer or any other device. This is also
referred as customer premise equipment (CPE).
• WiMAX base station is similar to accessing a wireless access point in a WiFi
network, but the coverage is greater.

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 MAC layer
• MAC was designed for point-to-multipoint broadband wireless access
applications.
• MAC layer is responsible for moving data packets to and from one Network
Interface Card (NIC) to another across a shared channel.
• Primary task of the Wi MAX MAC layer is to provide an interface between the
higher transport layers and the physical layer.
• MAC layer takes packets from the upper layer, these packets are called MAC
service data units (MSDUs) and organizes them into MAC protocol data units
(MPDUs) for transmission over the air.

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 Type of Services by WiMax
• Wi MAX can provide two forms of wireless services

Non-line-of-sight Service
• This is a WiFi sort of service. Here a small antenna on your computer connects
to the WiMAX tower.
• In this mode, WiMAX uses a lower frequency range -- 2 GHz to 11 GHz (similar
to WiFi).

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 Line-of-sight Service
• In this, a fixed dish antenna points straight at the WiMAX tower from a roof
top 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.

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 WiMAX - Security Functions
• Security is handled by a privacy sublayer within the WiMAX MAC. The
key aspects of WiMAX security are as follows
1. Support for Privacy
2. Device/user Authentication
3. Flexible Key-management Protocol

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 WiMAX network architecture major entities

• WiMAX architecture developed by the WiMAX form supports is a unified network

architecture to support fixed, nomadic and mobile operation.
• WiMAX network architecture is based upon an all-IP model.

• WiMAX network architecture comprises three major elements or areas.

• Remote or Mobile stations: These are the user equipments that may be mobile or fixed and
may be located in the premises of the user.

• Access Service Network, ASN : This is the area of the WiMAX network that forms the radio
access network at the edge and it comprises one or more base stations and one or more ASN
gateways.

• Connectivity Service Network, CSN: This part of the WiMAX network provides the IP
connectivity and all the IP core network functions. It is what may be termed the core network
in cellular parlance. 10
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 WiMAX network architecture
• Subscriber Station, SS / Mobile Station, MS :
• These take a variety of forms and these may be termed "indoor CPE" or "outdoor CPE".
• Outdoor CPE has the advantage that it provides better performance as a result of the
better position of the antenna, whereas the indoor CPE can be installed by the user.

• Base Station, BS:

• Responsible for providing the air interface to the subscriber and mobile stations.
• Provides additional functionality in terms of micro-mobility management functions, such
as handoff triggering and tunnel establishment, radio resource management, QoS policy
enforcement, traffic classification, DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) proxy, key
management, session management, and multicast group management.

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• ASN Gateway, ASN-GW:
• ASN gateway within the WiMAX network architecture typically acts as a layer 2 traffic
aggregation point within the overall ASN.
• ASN-GW may also provide additional functions that include: intra-ASN location
management and paging, radio resource management and admission control, caching of
subscriber profiles and encryption keys.
• Home Agent, HA:
• Home Agent within the WiMAX network is located within the CSN.
• With Mobile-IP forming a key element within WiMAX technology, the Home Agent
works in conjunction with a "Foreign Agent", such as the ASN Gateway, to provide an
efficient end-to-end Mobile IP solution.
• Home Agent serves as an anchor point for subscribers, providing secure roaming with
QOS capabilities.
• Authentication, Authorization and Accounting Server, AAA:
• As with any communications or wireless system requiring subscription services, an
Authentication, Authorisation and Accounting server is used. This is included within the
CSN. 13
 WiMAX Frequencies and Spectrum Allocations

• IEEE 802.16 WiMAX standard allows data transmission using multiple wireless
broadband frequency ranges.
• Original 802.16a standard specified transmissions in the range 10 - 66 GHz, but
802.16d allowed lower frequencies in the range 2 to 11 GHz.
• Lower frequencies used in the later specifications means that the signals suffer
less from attenuation and therefore they provide improved range and better
coverage within buildings. This brings many benefits to those using these data
links within buildings and means that external antennas are not required.
• Different bands are available for WiMAX applications in different parts of the
world. The frequencies commonly used are 3.5 and 5.8 GHz for 802.16d and 2.3,
2.5 and 3.5 GHz for 802.16e but the use depends upon the countries

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