Special Feature

January 25, 2006
WiMAX: Wireless at its maximum

Ujjwal K Dey

NEW DELHI -- Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) has a higher potential in countries like India for fixed wireless service deployment in rural areas, in contrast to many other countries where the infrastructure exists for Internet access in less populated areas.

With an IT-focused economy, India has a huge appetite for broadband services. India requires WiMAX as fast as it can be rolled out; but the successful deployment of these services will depend on the practicality of the technology and its cost-effectiveness. WiMAX is likely to play a key role in India by providing Internet access. The broadband access play has just begun, and the government policy in this regard says that it is likely to grow to 20 million subscribers by 2010.

Analog to digital: The WiMAX wave is rising

The WiMAX wave is rising from analog to digital. One technology standard that is becoming an enormous market opportunity for the entire microwave and RF industry is WiMAX, a standards-based wireless technology that provides high-speed broadband connections over longer distances than WLAN.

“The development and adaptation of the WiMAX standard is a tremendous growth category that will emerge over the next decade as the quickest way for the US to accelerate broad banding the country. Countrywide, thousands of base stations have been built over the years and the owners of those sites invested a tremendous amount of capital to put them in place. By adding a WiMAX adjunct to such a base station, providers can instantly grant customers an entirely new menu of Data, multi-media and VoIP services,” said Kuldeep Tikoo, country manager, M/A-COM, Tyco Electronics, India.

WiMAX to play key role by providing Internet access

“WiMAX is likely to play a key role in India by providing Internet access to many people and businesses. The communication infrastructure in many places in India is poor. WiMAX, being a cost effective technology, connects villages and buildings to local and broad content. This can translate into economic growth and improvement in the quality of life and education opportunities,” said Mohammad Shakouri, board member and vice president, marketing, WiMAX Forum, on the need for WiMAX technology evolving in India.

According to Ashis Khan, vice president, sales and marketing, TelASIC, the need for WiMAX will evolve in three stages. During the first stage, operators will explore the use of 802.16d for providing Internet access to areas where DSL, cable and other means are not viable. In the second phase, operators will explore using 802.16d as a cheap alternative for backhauling for base stations. In the third phase, some WISPs will explore offering nomadic data services in competition to HSDPA/HSUPA, EVDO etc. WiMAX has a higher potential in countries like India for fixed wireless service deployment in rural areas, in contrast to many other countries where the infrastructure exists for Internet access in less populated areas.

India is ‘WiMAX-ready’!

Henrik Smith-Petersen, president-Asia Pacific, Airspan Networks, views India as an IT-focused economy that has a hunger for broadband services. Hence, India is WiMAX ready, and requires WiMAX as fast as it can be rolled out but the successful deployment of these services will depend on the practicality of the technology and the cost effectiveness of the same.

However, Petersen feels, universally, two key challenges must be addressed in technology adoption. These are country specific and technology specific. The country-specific issue with respect to India, in ensuring broad-based adoption of technology, will be the allocation of frequency spectrum for operators. The technology-specific issue with respect to WiMAX that will be a key driver in India will be the global adaptation of a standard, and the adaptation curve where the volume economics will provide cost benefits. Subject to conditions, the raw requirement for WiMAX in India is tremendous.

WiMAX will provide broadband connectivity over a MW link. This has a lot of potential in India. The penetration of broadband is still negligible in our country and is likely to grow rapidly with the growth in PC penetration. Within a couple of years, the technology will stabilise and WiMAX could become a realistic option for us. This will allow broadband connectivity, where optical fiber cable cannot be laid cost effectively, feels

Shankar Roy Chowdhury, general manager, marketing, T&M, Agilent.

Challenge: To build profitable business with low ARPUs

Petersen from Airspan comes up with challenges for WiMAX. The first challenge is to allocate adequate and relevant RF bandwidth to operators. Second challenge will be to define the network architecture model, with respect to type of services to be offered, how portability and mobility is included in the service profile, the level of indoor vs. outdoor coverage required etc.

Further, WiMAX service will enable operators to increase their ARPU, via provision of multiple services (such as data, voice and video) using the same connection. The service providers, WiMAX access solution providers, and the ASP’s will need to work on long term collaborative efforts to make these services a reality.

Commenting on the challenges being faced by WiMAX, Khan said that the challenges for WiMAX services would come from rapid deployment of 3G, 3.5G and 3.9G data services in Europe, Japan, Korea, the USA, and many other high-ARPU countries. One of the biggest challenges is to have the 802.16e standard in place so that OEMs can develop products rapidly enough to compete with 3.X services.

“The challenges are two fold. As a new technology - design and verification of WiMAX products pose a challenge to design engineers. The other challenge is in the economic implementation. This will be driven by cost reduction through higher level of integration at the device level, and through mass production of these RFICs. The WiMAX SOC will drive down the cost of next-generation equipment/systems and enable wider deployment,” said Chowdhury.

WiMAX Forum board member Shakouri says, the challenge to the service providers would be to build a profitable business with very low ARPUs. The introduction of low-cost CPE devices will make that possible. Spectrum allocation should also be made available for the service providers. The new WiMAX SoCs will create a new generation of very low cost CPEs that would make the business case of WiMAX very attractive for operators and consumers.

Feel good factor for rural sector

Some believe that WiMAX could slash the cost of bringing broadband to remote areas, and potentially open the doors to new broadband competition, leading to lower prices and faster consumer adoption.

Petersen feels that the main requirement for the rural areas today is to break the digital divide. Technologically, WiMAX systems have the capability of providing connectivity from existing Points of Presence on a village-by-village basis today. This is achieved via the superior line-of-sight propagation capabilities of these systems. However, the applications and content, which are relevant for the communities, must also be available on such networks to be effective in helping rural population. Further, the local distribution within the village will be addressed by a cost effective technology today and may migrate to WiMAX with the reduction in the cost of technology ownership.

“WiMAX is an excellent fit, as one does not need to install cables, and thus installation becomes hassle free,” said Chowdhury.

Shakouri added that WiMAX can be an excellent technology to connect remote villages and sites, and also for wireless access within the village.

Khan expresses a positive and bright future for the rural sector stating that it has very good potential. WiMAX can be deployed in relatively less expensive ways, using un-licensed spectrum.

WiMAX: Real competitor to DSL, cable

Smith-Petersen is very confident that WiMAX can prove to be a real competitor to DSL and cable, but this is based on applications, costs and availability. Today, the main advantage of DSL and cable will be the cost of ownership. The CPE and overall cost of DSL is extremely affordable, and therefore ripe for mass consumption. However, availability and applications are not sufficient today for mass deployment. Today, we see that DSL is available in pockets, and hence the true growth potential has been, at best, stunted.

Khan believes that WiMAX is a real competitor to DSL and cable. DSL and cable do not have reach in to rural India.” Shakouri feels that WiMAX is not supposed to compete with DSL or cable. WiMAX will be mainly used in places where DSL or cable are not available (e.g. developing countries with poor infrastructure), and for people/communities that require mobile DSL-like services.

Contrary to these views that WiMAX can prove to be a real competitor to DSL and cable, Charles Giancarlo, chief technology officer, Cisco System, heavily criticised WiMAX technology saying that by the time it hits the marketplace, service providers won’t invest in it, and that ultra wideband (UWB) is a better alternative. DSL and cable are there, and they are much more deterministic.

WiBro: An international technology for mobile WiMAX

WiBro was first conceived as a Korean technology standard called Hpi (for high-speed portable Internet). The Koreans have an old saying: “test even a stone bridge before crossing it”. So, it is fitting that their planned mobile broadband access system, called WiBro (Wireless Broadband), may become the leading international technology for mobile broadband: mobile WiMAX.

The promise of WiBro and mobile WiMAX is that they will deliver mobility with the high speed and cost-effectiveness of an all-IP, all-packetised data system.. Though WiBro won’t support high ground speeds - it’s designed to provide seamless connectivity over the 2.3GHz spectrum at ground speeds up to about 60Kph with an average bandwidth of 1Mbps.

Petersen feels on the same lines, that the early adoption of WiBro by the Korean market will provide great impetus to mobile WiMAX. It must also be noted that the standard behind WiBro is 802.16e standard. Hence, it may be described as a subset of WiMAX.

Khan said: “I believe that Korea’s push will help WiBro to become a leading international technology for mobile WiMAX.”

“Technologies too become standardised when there is significant spending in infrastructure build-out. Korea is all set to introduce WiBro services and real operators will be spending real money to deploy WiBro for real subscribers. As we gaze through the crystal, WiBro certainly looks promising. However, the overall success will be driven by various other factors like the wireless service provider strategy, infrastructure readiness etc.,” explained Chowdhury.

WiMAX is capable of handling VoIP

Commenting on WiMAX bundling with VoIP, Khan states since WiMAX offers high data-rate, VoIP can be used very easily with WiMAX. It is not different from the concept of using VoIP over Wi-Fi or even Voice over HSDPA. Countries like India are even exploring awarding spectrum licenses free, which is the most expensive item for operators.

“Being an IP-based service delivery mechanism, WiMAX is fundamentally capable of handling VoIP. However, unlike other technologies, WiMAX has in-built quality of service parameters, which will allow the delivery of carrier-class VoIP services over radio”, said Petersen.

Shakouri states that VoIP is likely to be an important application to be used by consumers over the WiMAX network. It has built-in support for QoS and time-sensitive applications such as voice and video. Also, WiMAX networks are not deployed to replace cellular voice networks but to provide a converged broadband network that can support combination of data, voice and video applications.

Placing WiMAX on global broadband map

Chowdhury is of the view that key chip vendors, fabless design houses and NEMs are working to create next-generation WiMAX products. Carriers class WiMAX communications band is being licensed in different countries. As the cost is driven down, deployment will ramp up. Cost-effectiveness will be the single biggest factor.

According to Petersen, key elements that will determine the success of WiMAX include, availability of certified products; rationalisation of frequencies to allow roaming among networks; availability of WiMAX-enabled devices; CPE costs and mobility. Considering the way Wi-Fi has taken off as a desirable alternative, WiMAX will have a very positive and huge impact on the personal and business technology of broadband networking.