Personal Broadband Mobile  Networks
WiMAX / Wi-Fi / 4G PCS

Network Planners, System Architects, Installers
Third Party, Independent Advisors and Consultants

The WCA Show brings together all important foundries, vendors, manufacturers, suppliers, and system integrators in one place.

Participants at the show, were very interested in the WiMAX standard and what vendors will offer operators and service providers opportunities for building or expanding their networks.

Intel is leading the WiMAX charge by developing chip sets that will implement the standard. Other leading vendors provide support for WCA and innovation towards realizing cost effective broadband wireless networks.

Here I will provide information these companies provided show attendees.

Mr. Scott Richardson, the GM of Intel’s Broadband Wireless Division, indicated that the next billion users of the Internet will do it wirelessly, via third world cellphone and fixed wireless access networks, thus adding volume to wireless production. He defines broadband as one megabit service, and personal broadband is Internet access to your phone, home, pocket, and anywhere you move to. Current forecasts show good DSL and cable growth in broadband access-to-the-Internet category, but show wireless networks in the “other” category with slower growth. This is flawed due to its linear extrapolation of what is happening today. If you take into account Moore’s law, and the trend that users want connectivity while away from the home and office, you begin to see the “other” category grow much more significantly. Clearwire is an example, in a mature market, 40% to 60% of subscribers want portability. In emerging markets the first experience of broadband is through wireless. Intel’s biggest markets for laptop PCs with wireless broadband are in Brazil, Russia, India and China. WiMAX is now open for business for fixed service and ready to serve.  With Moore’s law, where computing power doubles every few months, broadband will soon be in your pocket. Looking at trends in computing, the device capabilities are beginning to blur the distinction between phones, PDAs, tablets and laptops. More laptops are sold now than desktops – so the trend is mobility. Intel would like to supply chips to all these devices. The industry can’t tell which device will win, so a service provider should provide a platform for services and applications and let the market decide what device is a success. Looking at the iPOD, we have 20 Gig hard drives today on these small devices, soon the graphics in a smart phone will be what we have in your PC today, and soon, 1 Gig PC processor performance will be there too, so low cost powerful devices will come, thanks to Moore’s law. WiMax is a movement to more or less catalyze the broadband wireless industry. At last, the regulatory, investment, and industry focus is on a common set of products. WiMax 16d (see article for background on the various subsets of 802.16: 16d-fixed and 16e-mobile)  is ready now through the end of the year with trials. 16e is one year behind. Korea is ahead and will have the first commercial service for both. With the amount of time and effort, and number of engineers and others putting effort into WIMAX, we are at a critical mass for deployment – this is an organization formed around the personal broadband category. We must be careful however to not repeat the cost structure of the past, as in cellular. Cellular can support voice and some data, up to say a minute or two video clip. However with personal broadband we may be able to support up to a 90 minute video movie within an acceptable price point for the consumer, but we have to take costs out of every layer of the supply chain. WiMAX is here with new devices, and traditional applications, but we need to get focused to reduce the cost per bit and know what role we all play to do that and succeed.

Mr. Ron Resnick, of Intel, and chairman of the WiMAX forum, had the following remarks. WiMax is a common standard in IEEE, ETSI and increasingly worldwide. It’s an all IP packet network structure – now we need the right services to deliver it. Last year the WiMAX forum had 3 operators, now we have about 120. Over 350 members are in the forum at this point. This is a validation of the ecosystem growing around WiMAX. We are promoting certification worldwide, with network architecture for mobility, and an application working group that includes Microsoft, Disney, and AOL. Operators want to drive down the cost of the client device through a manufacturing working group and optimization of the supply chain. With multiple vendors, subsidy of the device is not necessary and more affordable for broadband solutions. WiMAX has received lots of press – 2000 articles so far. There is defiantly a buzz around what is happening. This is the first time we see a standardizing approach on such a scale with multiple vendors of choice, low cost clients, and multiple spectrum certification, first in the 3.5 GHz, then 5 GHz but also 700 MHz, 2.3 GHz, and the 2.5 GHz bands. To join in the WiMAX certification process, applicants inform WiMAX first, and then provide three base stations and three clients for interoperability testing. WiMAX has received numerous applicants at this point. There are over 100 trials to date, based on surveys, but we think that is an understatement. Most vendors have pre-WiMAX products now that are software upgradeable to WiMAX as soon as appropriate. Cetecom Labs of Spain[2] opens for WiMAX testing in July and vendors are submitting deposits now for entry.  The 3.5 GHz products will be tested first. We expect certifications to come out as soon as November. Mobile WIMAX is the new wave of personal broadband. What cell phones did to the landline, what laptops are now doing to desktops, mobile WiMAX will do to Internet access: taking voice and data to the mobile user. We predict that labs will open in 2006 for certification testing and mobile trials will take place in early ’07. The Koreans are ahead with WiBro[3] of Korea. WiBro base stations will offer an aggregate data throughput of 30 to 50 Mbit/s and cover a radius of 1-5 km. SK Telecom and Hanaro Telecom have announced a partnership to roll out WiBro nationwide in Korea, excluding Seoul and six provincial cities, where independent networks will be rolled out. In November 2004, Intel and LG Electronics executives agreed to ensure compatibility between WiBro and WiMAX technology[4]). Samsung, Korea Telecom, and others will take WiBro to WiMAX for certification, and this will help make it a global platform.  WiMAX is a smart overlay to a cellular network, it’s cheap, IP based, and scalable to different spectrum bands, different market differentiation, and different market opportunity, by going beyond the basic voice and basic "broadband" cellular networks offer, to true personal broadband. WiMAX will put together a market assessment to see how big personal broadband really is. We believe it is huge, and that kind of success cannot be delivered through just one technology. Applications and services use the technology that is successful for them. Intel believes that 4G players will all use OFDMa technology and it will delivery via IP technology. So Intel says WiMAX is the first play not the only play for personal broadband.  

Here is the news that some of the leading vendors provided at the show.

Mr. Zwi Slonimsky, CEO described Alvarion background and strategy as having helped start the WiMAX forum in the 2000/2001 timeframe as a leading vendor in that forum. Alvarion has the largest market share and is presently the market leader. They have 2 million units installed all over the world. Alvarion is helping consolidate the industry by having one major merger and two major acquisitions.  They have had a “WiMAX ready” platform that is software upgradeable to a full WiMAX version since 2004.  The next major phase is 802.16e mobility and Alvarion will continue to lead the industry towards portability and mobility. Broadband is going to be everywhere, there will be consolidation into one network, there will be triple play, and video to the handset in various shapes, delivered everywhere. There is a trend to move from telecom to IP, from voice to content, toward VoIP, and many new revenue streams including online gaming. The market demand is growing, and the technology is enhancing. WiMAX is moving toward the 4G arena. Two months ago, Alvarion introduced a fixed pre-WiMax system with the Intel Rosedale chip working inside and now shipping for commercial applications. At this show, Alvarion introduced a new self-installable CPE, and in the near future, Alvarion will introduce a new portable unit (targeted for later this year). They will introduce a mobile platform in early 2006. Alvarion is credited with the vast majority of the trials of pre-WiMAX worldwide. Self installable equipment is introduced at this show^[5]. WiMAX is better than 3G/PCS, not because we in WiMAX are smarter, but because we are a newer technology.

Airspan – Mr. Eric Stonestrom, CEO of Airspan remarked that Airspan was founded in 1998, and had sales of $94.5M last year, they have 250 employees in 26 countries, with locations in Boca Raton Florida and centers in the UK and Israel. They build mostly international 3.5 GHz products, but also have equipment for the 700, 900, 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, and 5.8 GHz bands, for both licensed and unlicensed operation. They have 200 operators, in 100 countries. They recently acquired a soft switch company to provide carrier quality voice as well as data, but they note that their customers still derive about 70% of customers revenues via voice – don’t discount voice.  AirSpan uses Flextronics[6] and Solectron[7] as their OEM manufacturers. Their strategy is to move from fixed broadband to personal broadband using the catalyst of WiMax as the enabler. They view WiMAX as changing the paradigm of delivering signals from a structure to an individual, with a wide range of user devices. They have a scaleable base station that goes from the low end cost of $5000 to larger systems. This is useful for low density sites or sites offering just a few customers for example a T1 replacement; you want a low cost base station. New products will be shippable directly to the home with simple LEDs to indicate signal quality. This will eliminate the truck roll to potential subscribers. The clients will have versions that support consumers and business, with options of embedded WiFi access point functionality, SIP Phones, VoIP phones, residential gateways, and for business, VLAN tagging and other enterprise applications. The units will incorporate smart antenna technology for improved link margin. AirSpan announced a big deployment in Japan -- 1200 base stations. They were selected due to their wide range of CPE options and scalability of their BTSs. 

Mr. Reza Ahy, CEO of Aperto described how WiMAX fits into the scheme of things showing a chart that indicated WiMAX is faster than 3GPCS, and has the features of portability and mobility, neither of which has the fixed wireline (DSL and Cable)  completion   – WiMAX has lots to differentiate it. He defines broadband as a megabit of service to the platform or device. Aperto was part of the founding group of 802.16, the basis for WiMAX. They chaired the Mac-layer subcommittee, and other committees, and they are on the board of WiMAX. Their employee, Mr. Don Chang, chairs the WiMAX Service Provider Working Group that now has over 100 service providers. Aperto now has over 220 service provider customers in over 60 countries.  They have doubled earnings every year in the last three or so years. Their approach is to provide carriers with equipment that can provide carrier class guaranteed service level agreements (SLA). All patents they own foster interference resilient and mulitpath resistant quality of service (QoS) and reliability. They believe they are the only company with true ATM like constant bit rate (CBR) circuits over wireless today. Aperto is in the first wave of certification for WiMAX interoperability at Cetecom labs for a July start. They plan to have certified products by the end of this year[8]. Aperto has several major deployments with 90 % of their business in the licensed bands. They believe that the 2.5GHz BRS band is a significant asset for broadband. This band will allow operators to deploy wide area networks. Mr. Ahy noted that Intel said "4G" can be defined as a 10 Mbit per user pipe. Aperto has offered 20 megabit burstable upstream pipes per user for the past four years (so they say they are “4G” today by Intel’s definition). WiMax is a core piece of 4G, and is complementary with WiFi and 3G UMTS. So there is plenty of room for all these technologies to complement each other, for such a big market. Aperto sees portability overlay for nomadicity late this year, in the market early next year, and full mobility late next year. Aperto offers clear differentiation by providing an SLA-capable network, consumer to business features, and 256 best effort to 5 Mbit constant bit rate capacity.

Mr. Majed Sifri, CEO, indicated that Redline was established in 1990 in Toronto, Canada, and has offices in 9 countries, with commercial deployments since 2002, They are backed by two of the largest US Venture Capitalists  and one of the largest Canadian media and telecom investment companies. They are leaders in the broadband wireless space and have always been focused on OFDM. They have customers in 75 countries, with 90 local partners, 16,000 systems deployed, and 1000+ end user customers; they have averaged 222% AGR. Last year they were deploying 802.16a compliant systems and have 30 such deployments around the world today. They announced a WiMAX platform at the show and demonstrated an 802.16d compliant system informally and will be getting a formal certification in the first wave at Cetecom Labs this summer. They now have a third generation PHY, a second generation MAC, and multiple generation OFDMa experience. As far as a WiMAX strategy, they are firmly committed to WiMAX and the personal broadband market, equipment development, certification, and a credible cost reduction path, especially on the CPE. This will improve investments for service providers, and allow service providers to not be dependent on a single vendor. Redline will drive the market to good cost points, a need to interoperate; it will prove-in their technology with another Intel based CPE. Redline will be going to market with an outdoor device sub-$500 in cost and will show operators they can push the cost curve down over time to match the WiFi cost curve at some point. Getting the price for CPE down will require sub very cheap chip sets, but it will make investment payback come quick for operators. Redline is interested only in how to make good base stations – that’s how they will control their destiny. They will start with 3.5 GHz 16d compliance systems in the first wave of Cetecom testing, then 5.8 GHz, then 2.5 GHz technology. The first 18 months of WiMax will be deployed by major service providers, in the licensed service provider bands. Redline has a strong focus on migration: migration in the field via programmable upgrade methods. 802.16d will be shipping next quarter, 802.16e in 2H 06, coexistence of current pre-WiMAX and WiMAX in the same sector is important so check for that in a provider. Redline has the advantage of 18 months of 16a in the field, and they learned a lot.  Redline is differentiated, they claim, by having the most spectrally efficient approach and technology in the market. It’s easy to deploy and maintain, and they have realistic pragmatic solutions for grow.  Service providers want to kick the tires early, and they can do that by using Redline equipment for backhaul now, then grow pragmatically as the market grows.

Mr. Guy Kelnfofer III described NextNet technology as “the future of WiMAX today”. NextNet is contributing at the WiMax forum by showing fixed, nomadicity, full mobility, VoIP, video streaming, gaming, all done today.  NextNet’s view of what people want is different that most. Today people want reliable broadband first, personal mobility next, they say. By offering several levels of modulation, four level, 16 level, 16 level lite, and 64 QAM early users get reliable service and later get higher and higher speeds as you optimize the network overtime. Once many users are on the network then you then go to VoIP. NextNet uses a carrier’s carrier model with MVS in Mexico. MVS delivers branded service to AT&T Alestra[9] and MCI Avantel[10]. NextNet showed slides of traffic for 22,000 calls a day in three cities in Mexico of bundled VoIP and data since their May launch. They have QoS, synchronized VoIP sessions bundled with data services.  AT&T and MCI in Mexico deliver residential gateways and VoIP plug and play. NextNet offers mobility today for the public safety mobile user. NextNet will go to personal broadband later. Public Safety now needs instantaneous background checks of suspects, images and video. NextNet believes that people don’t want their TV sets in a cell phone, but in public safety, video is crucial. Gaming is a key application; they are doing that today in Europe and the US. NextNet believes in seamless technology corridors that bring productivity to the home, office, car, and everywhere in between. NextNet is a member of WiMAX and strongly supports standards, and will continue to work with parterres to bring today’s learning to the standards committee. NextNet sees strong growth in the market. All broadband companies however face the same issues of global harmonization of spectrum for VoIP, data, video services. And also important is the need for a stable regulatory environment.

Mr. Sai Subramanian,  VP Market Strategy indicated they have a relationship with a tier one carrier, Bell South, and they will do a few of their markets with Navini gear. Navini has 25,000 users in Australia. For personal broadband we need “rev e” (802.16e)  finished, “rev d” is good for high end enterprises wanting backhaul etc., 16e is better for mobility.  Today Navini is already delivering almost all the capability of 16e, but in a proprietary way for now. Phased array technology will be good today and tomorrow. Don’t forget good network element management software. Today, Navini is deploying retail models in a big deployment in Australia, where the box is purchased at a store, and users can take it anywhere in Sydney to have broadband access.  Navini believes that 16e or any broadband personal indoor technology needs a 3-times increase in higher order modulation and data delivery; it needs some type of advanced antenna system, to get the link margin to do personal broadband indoor properly. Spectrum is precious, and Navini gives double the frequency reuse with their smart antennas as most non-smart antenna system companies. If you want a time to market advantage, and you want to roll a plug and play system today, but you also want to go to a 16e mobile WiMAX solution, then Navini can do that today, and deploy your network in an evolutionary fashion. Just launched is a new software upgradeable platform that a provider can deploy today, since  it’s upgradeable to 16e next year, that way, your legacy devices are not stranded. Navini will be launching fully compatible 16e mobile WiMAX. Customers can start with current equipment and upgrade it to 16e. Be careful in your investigations of vendor’s equipment who say they can do software upgrades to WiMAX. A good way to do upgrade is to keep the deployed CPE and use a dual mode base station. An overlay like this does not require a CPE change-out.

Alcatel – Mr. Michael Seymour, VP Broadband Wireless, sees that users want applications, delivered seamlessly, on a plethora of devices.  Network complexity must be reduced, and users need different “entry points” for access (which may be WiFi, WiMAX, or 3G/PCS for example). Using a QoS based, end-to-end service provider, subscribers can get a subset or all of their services, content or applications, depending on the prices the subscriber pays for mobility. End users want an “always best connected” service, with the same “triple-AAA” (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting – the billing system) in the background, and with the same user profile across access networks.  The 802.16-2004 standards are meant for fixed solutions, and maybe a portable unit can be used nomadically. WiMax Rev e is defining the fully mobile application; 3G has traditionally dominated that sector. But now Alcatel will harmonize and help to combine these network services, and offer a bundled network for all services and applications. And it will reduce overall cost of delivering those services. Alcatel will do this with three types of applications, as users need to move from one base station within or across access controllers, they call that micro-mobility, and when moving between multiple networks they call it macro-mobility.  They can solve the mobility technically; the challenge is to work together to make it work seamlessly between WiFi, 3G, and WiMAX. We can improve the link budget by using WiMAX outside and WiFi inside. Alcatel believes that whatever is best for the subscriber is what is needed. WiMAX global rev e may provide a seamless global network someday, but not “day-one”, so for now, Alcatel offers a design of a system that is interoperable and seamless to the users using multiple network access methods. The view at the show is clearly that carriers want personal broadband, but so do other sectors, including RBOCs, Satellite, and Cable as well as enterprises. They want triple play and quadruple play with SLAs in place. WiMax will offer higher less expensive throughput in hot zones, DSL fill in for RBOCs, and it is complementary to 3G/PCS now, but will open up other markets segments later. IEEE, 3GPP, 3GPP2, WiMAX and others are working on standardized network architectures, and a seamless network architecture will emerge.

An independent source[11] lists Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia, as well as several of the above companies, as equipment vendors that are well positioned to deliver WiMAX.