WiMAX to Get Performance Boost From New Initiative—in 2012 or 2013
An initiative to accelerate interoperability of the next release of WiMAX technology, WiMAX 2, is expected to deliver peak rates of more than 300 Mbps, comparable to LTE Advanced’s speeds, said Mohammad Shakouri, vice president of the WiMAX Forum. The effort, launched Sunday, is backed by WiMAX companies like Sprint Nextel, Clearwire, Motorola, Samsung, Intel and ZTE.
A new specification is based on the 802.16m standard, which was a follow-on to 802.16e. Standardization is 90 percent done and is expected to be completed by year-end, Shakouri said. “We are targeting the end of 2011 for certification and 2012-2013 for commercialization,” he said. The main value of WiMAX 2 is to enable video-centric, personalized broadband, he said, adding that the goal is to provide end users with the same experience as fixed broadband.
WiMAX 2 would have lower latency and increased VoIP capacity, offering the potential for videoconferencing and other multimedia communications services, Shakouri said. It would allow more users on a channel, improving VoIP service and encouraging more-competitive pricing, he said. “The future of broadband is all about content.” The specification would also ensure service quality when multiple services and applications are run at the same time, Shakouri said. WiMAX 2 also is meant for public-safety communications and the smart grid, he said. But carriers would need to increase their capacity, Shakouri said. “Operators need to deal with backhaul issues” and make sure their networks can handle the bandwidth demand, he said. “The whole ecosystem has to be upgraded.”
The group will work closely with the WiMAX Forum to accelerate the implementation of interoperable system profiles for WiMAX 2 equipment and devices, the companies said.
The group promised to issue detailed milestones and delivery schedules within six months. The goals include technology collaboration and joint performance benchmarking, joint testing of applications over WiMAX 2 solutions, early network level interoperability testing and preparation for WiMAX Forum certification. Sprint Nextel works closely with several of the companies supporting the effort, a spokeswoman said. Consumers are seeing “a massive shift in performance which allows them to do more that they want to do on the go,” she said. Clearwire mobile customers are using more than 7 GB of data a month on average, said Mike Severt, chief commercial officer, adding the industry is convinced that the “growing volume of data” that “consumers are eating up is a bad thing.”