WiMAX
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is yet another method for distributing broadband wireless data over wide geographic areas. It’s a metropolitan area network service that typically uses one or more base stations that can each provide service to users within a 30-mile radius. The IEEE 802.16 specification contains the technical details of WiMAX networks.
In the United States, the earliest WiMAX services were offered by
Clearwire as a wireless alternative to DSL and cable broadband Internet access in fixed locations (such as homes and businesses), but mobile WiMAX access is not far behind. By early 2008, Clearwire plans to offer access to their wireless networks through an adapter on a PC Card. When those adapters become available, WiMAX, 3G cellular data services, and metropolitan Wi-Fi networks will compete for the same commercial niche: wireless access to the Internet through a service that covers an entire metropolitan area.
Each WiMAX service provider uses one or more licensed operating frequencies somewhere between 2 GHz and 11 GHz. A WiMAX link can transfer data (including handshaking and other overhead) at up to 70Mbps, but most commercial WiMAX services are significantly slower than that. And as more and more users share a single WiMAX tower and base station, some users
report that their signal quality deteriorates.
Unlike the cellular broadband wireless data services that piggyback on existing mobile telephone networks, WiMAX is a separate radio system that is designed to either supplement or replace the existing broadband Internet distribution systems. In practice, WiMAX competes with both 3G wireless services and with Internet service providers that distribute Internet access to fixed locations through telephone lines and cable television utilities. Home and business subscribers to a WiMAX service usually use either a wired LAN or Wi-Fi to distribute the network within their buildings. Below figure shows a typical WiMAX network.
WiMAX provides last mile Internet connections to homes and businesses.
