WiMAX: 4G or Never ?

BeyondSpot Technology

April. 2005

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WiMAX Topic

Highlight

What is WiMAX? (or Mobile WiMAX more precisely)

WiMAX is a marketing term, a certification body, or an industry ad-hoc forum to complete IEEE 802.16 standard (marketing, regulatory, interoperability, test, certification, and high level protocol) IEEE 802.16 also known as BWA or WirelessMAN WiFi IEEE 802.11 (WirelessLAN) = WiMAX IEEE 802.16

Why chose such topic?

mobility extension started in late 2002 WiMAX is recognized as one of the new competitions to CDMA based 3G Other competitions are proprietary technologies, WiFi, Mesh, or IEEE 802.20

CDMA?

OFDM?

Can WiMAX be 4G or Never?

OFDM/OFDMA based broadband mobile is recognized as 4G (beyond 3G) This presentation shares our story

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Drivers from Two Worlds

Broadband Access is a merging process

Legacy Cellular, led by 3GPP and 3GPP2, extends bandwidth to support broadband data services, especially in IP format. Fixed Wireless, led by IEEE, enhances techniques to support mobility. 3GPP (UMTS/WCDMA) and 3GPP2(CDMA2000) started from ITU IMT-2000.
1 Billion Subscriber 300 Million Subscriber

Market Size

Broadband Mobile Access

1 Billion Users 200 Million Users

Data Cellular

Internet
1998
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2010
WiMAX Topic

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Migration of WiMAX
Data Rate
SOC Available

Standard Maturing

Standard Maturing Fixed WiMAX IEEE 802.16d 2005 Portable WiMAX Nomadic WiMAX IEEE 802.16d/e 2006?

Mobile WiMAX IEEE 802.16e 2007?

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Mobility
WiMAX Topic

802.16e Compatibility with 16d

802.16e is the mobile extension from 802.16

Modification in PHY from OFDM to Scalable OFDMA Modification in MAC for security, handoff, roaming, & resource management Convergence Sub Layer
IP Ethernet ATM Packet Classifier Header Suppression

MAC Layer
Net Entry PDU Generation PHY Burst Scheduling PDU Reassembly Security/Privacy Key, AES, EAP Connection Management Handoff Bandwidth Management Power Mgnt Sleep/Idle

ARQ

PHY Layer
SC 10-66GHz 802.16d page 5 SCa 2-11GHz OFDM 2-11GHz 256FFT 802.16e OFDMA OFDMA 2-11GHz (PAR <6GHz) 128, 256, 512,1024, 2048 2-11GHz 2048FFT

WiMAX
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WiMAX Topic

Players in WiMAX Forum

WiMAX SOC/System Pairs (examples)

Intel Proxim, Alvarion, ZTE, Alcatel, Fujitsu WiLAN, Aperto Wavesat ATMEL LG Nortel and more

WiMAX Forum has >200 members

Marketing, technical, interoperability and spectrum

Alliance
Fixed/Nomadic Portable/Mobile

IEEE802.16 2004 and TGe

Air Interface standard

And a lot more..

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WiMAX Topic

A Million Dollar Question

Can WiMAX (16e) be the broadband candidate after 3G?

WiMAX brings higher throughput and longer range, it is a growing threat to the deployment of 3G and the promised ROI in every 3G business model
WiMAX inherits issues of 3G and has even more challenges in spectrum, the following presentation provides a balanced view

or just an idea that sounds great but never comes true?

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Advantages in Multipath

OFDMA carries advantages in Multipath

CDMA uses the whole spectrum, wasting system resource to combat frequency selective fading. CDMA also creates worse interference problem OFDMA only select subcarriers with less channel degradation, prevent wasting system resource (power or throughput ) => achieving higher system capacity.

Multipath

Signal Sent

Signal Received
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Spectral Efficiency Wins

Spectrum efficiency is an important factor for data service

The scarce of available (or useful) spectrum makes efficiency a key factor to approve spectrum and the success of business model. Regulatory bodies shall recycle spectrum for existing systems with low spectral efficiency. Future systems with high spectrum re-use advantages or higher spectral efficiency shall have favored allocation during application.

2.5G TDMA: Very limited data rate and low spectral efficiency (1.0-1.5 bps/Hz)

3G WCDMA: Reasonable data rate, range, and mobility, improved spectral efficiency (1.5-2.5 bps/Hz)
5MHz

500kHz

WiFi: OFDM 64FFT, Reasonable data rate, limited range and mobility, improved spectral efficiency (2-3 bps/Hz)
15 MHz

WiMAX:OFDMA, Up to 2048FFT much improved range and mobility, potential for best spectral efficiency (3-4 bps/Hz)
20 MHz

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Global Harmonization

WiMAX has global harmonization

WiMAX forum pushes harmonization between IEEE and ETSI; there is only one WiMAX standard (ETSI has not fully adopted Mobile WiMAX yet) WiMAX share one MAC for all, fixed, portable, and mobile

3G breaks into WCDMA (3GPP), CDMA2000 (3GPP2), and more

Among WCDMA, venders has their own proprietary modes. China has TDS-CDMA, US has UWC-136, and Japan has DoCoMo 3G

WCDMA
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CDMA2000
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WiMAX Topic

Local Optimization is Better

Future terminal can handover among multiple standards

Thanks to high integration of silicon, dual-/tri- mode terminals are practical. Each standard is optimized for a specific environment, saving resource. Avoid sacrificing power to support indoor users.
WiFi

WiMAX page 11

802.11 covers indoor users 802.16d covers fixed outdoor 802.16e covers moving vehicles
WiMAX Topic

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VoIP Changes Telecomm

VoIP changes everything !

The growing popularity of VoIP triggers the demand for IP based access and changes the landscape of telecomm 3G products are compatible with traditional circuit based PSTN and PSMN, while 4G may only need to support VoIP with gateway and gatekeeper separately purchased
POTS Phones Cellular Phones

Circuit Based Voice Network (PSTN)

Circ u Con it based nect ions

Circuit Based Cellular Network (PSMN)

VoIP To PSTN Gateway VoIP Fixed Phones

IP Based Voice Network

VoIP to PSMN Gateway

POTS Phones VoIP Terminal VoIP Mobile Phones

PC to Phones

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WiMAX Topic

Regulatory Difficulty

VoIP over WiMAX has no obligation to secure QoS

From architecture point of View VoIP challenges Traditional Telecom Regulatory Model. Is it an application or a telecomm service? When voice is no longer consider as telecommunication service, it is not bounded for availability, emergency service (911), or voice quality of service It is a pure low cost application, not a telecom service

VoIP Can Not Address:

Application
TCP/IP

Voice Application

99.999% availability The high quality of voice support as 3G The same level of robustness as circuit The same level of QoS as circuit

TCP/IP

Voice Transport

Voice Transport

Transport
WiMAX Topic

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Power and RF Constraint

Battery Life Challenge

WiMAX standard was targeted to long range (high power), fixed (nonbattery based), or portability (recharged daily), not mobility. Higher data rate demands higher power transmission; battery technology show difficulty to catch up with the such demand. Power consumption of WiMAX device could be a major problem.

802.16s Effort in Power/RF

OFDM Symbol Power

Peak Power

Power-Saving mode and Scalable OFDMA are added to 802.16e But higher FFT has more severe PAPR (peak to average power ratio) Challenge the RF design for WiMAX
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Average Power

Guard Interval

IFFT Symbol Duration

Time
WiMAX Topic

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Hi Layer Protocol Integration

High Layer mobility is a challenge

IEEE 802.16 by its mandate (PAR) only defines protocol stacks in the PHY and MAC layer, 802.16e defines mobility support for MAC and PHY only Lack of network layer mobility completion

WiMAX Forum is supposed to cover network mobility, but

WiMAX forum has weak experience in end-to-end protocol stack development WiMAX is a pure industry ad-hoc group, like WiFi, which may not be the appropriate place to deal with Network Mobility standards Integration with legacy network requires support from the carriers

APPLICATION WiMAX Based Network WiMAX MAC/PHY

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3G Based Network 3G MAC/PHY

WiMAX Topic

WiMAX/3G Dual MAC/PHY

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Market & Time Competition

Market takes time!

WiMAX has risks too!

Markets takes time to mature; most new services will follow the letter N curve as below Fixed WiMAX technology is far from mass adoption, mobile WiMAX would take even longer
Steady Growth

Mobile WiMAX market is squeezed by both 3G, Flash OFDM, and WiFi. 802.11e, 11r, and 11n are enhancing QoS, handover, and throughput. HSDPA (of 3G) shorten the gap with WiMAX in throughput. Flash OFDM (by Flarion) has demonstrated end-to-end solution.

Disappointment

WiMAX Marketing Guy

Rebuild Business Model Marketing Hype

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WiMAX Topic

Global Spectrum Availability

Lack of Spectrum

most licensed spectrum for broadband are either for fix services or for 3G; hard to use license-exempt band to provide QoS guarantee mobile services WiMAX Forum is working on regulatory drawbacks, but progress is slow

2.4 - 2.485 GHz (WLAN, Indoor Only)

3.5GHz (WLL) License bands

5.725 - 5.825 GHz (U-NII) or 5.725-5.850 GHz (ISM)

5.4 - 5.725 GHz (RLAN, Europe) page 17

2.5-2.6GHz MDS, MMDS License bands )

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5.25 - 5.35 GHz (U-NII, Outdoor/Indoor) WiMAX Topic

Back to Square One

Recent Trend in IEEE Standard Body

More members notice the challenge of WiMAX for 4G, and recognize the value to demonstrate success of WiMAX first in Fix services, shown below. Progress in maintenance group is slow Worst case, WiMAX is back to square one (day one) as a pure fix standard!

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WiMAX Topic

BeyondSpot White Papers

BeyondSpot Offers White Papers for Selected Customers

Fixed wireless based WiMAX and QoS Please find me to exchange business cards

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WiMAX Topic

Conclusions

Most information on WiMAX comes from press releases or the campaign of WiMAX forum, not balanced.

Opportunity of WiMAX for 4G

It is equally important to see through the marketing smoke and understand the real challenges.
We provide view points from both ends; Almost equal weight in YES and NO to become 4G by (Mobile) WiMAX. Service providers should not make investment decision without knowing the risks; But can not afford not to know about WiMAX.

Yes

No
WiMAX Topic

WiMAX is a worth watching topic !

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