Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Internaut: What’s WiMax? Wireless with a 30-mile range

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 14:52:20 -0500

02/23/04; Vol. 23 No. 4
Internaut: What’s WiMax? Wireless with a 30-mile range

By Shawn P. McCarthy
Special to GCN

The forthcoming IEEE WiMax wireless
networking standard, with a range up to 30
miles, could eliminate the need for
short-range 802.11b or 802.11g WiFi hubs
that have sprung up in many government
offices.

But there are compatibility issues plus
enough last-mile cost and bandwidth
questions that potential WiMax adopters
should do their homework first.

WiMax, also referred to as IEEE 802.16
WirelessMAN (wireless metropolitan area
network), might be right for your agency if:

Some workers carry notebook PCs or
wireless personal digital assistants
beyond building hotspots—in vehicles
or for data collection in the field
Most of them travel within a specific
area, not cross-country
Several government buildings within a
few miles of each other could share a
central wireless service

The area lacks broadband access and is not congested with
radio-frequency crosstalk that could affect WiMax performance.
On the other hand, stick with standard WiFi if:

Your wireless requirements are mostly within a single building or a few
hundred feet You already have enough WiFi hotspots You can meet most of
your wireless needs by adding more 802.11 hubs to an existing LAN or WAN
You need to extend wireless access in the next six months, before a full
range of WiMax products is available.

In the long term, WiMax has great potential and extensibility. It can
control access to both licensed and unlicensed frequencies from 2 GHz to
66 GHz, delivering broadband performance without a hard-wired
connection.

WiMax will nearly eliminate the thorny issue of carriers’ last-mile
connections. Rather than threading or leasing local lines, commercial
carriers can use 802.16 for a wireless Internet connection to an area
point of presence. This could deal a big blow to fiber-optic cabling
vendors.

Make sure you know the user requirements before ordering any equipment.
If WiMax is right for you, target the 802.16e standard for now. It will
be better than, but compatible with, the original 802.16a standard. A
competing 802.20 standard in the works is not yet viable.

Do your homework at the WiMax Forum, at www.wimaxforum.org, and at
wirelessman.org, the site of an IEEE working group.

Shawn P. McCarthy is president of an information services development
company. E-mail him at [email-masked].

http://www.gcn.com/23_4/tech-report/24970-1.html
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