Abstract
In December 2005, IEEE officially ratified the 802.16e-2005 standard, pushing mobile WiMAX technologies one step further towards seamless mobility. Nine months after this standard was set, baseband chip manufacturers started to develop chips that meet IEEE's 802.16e-2005 standards. Equipment manufacturers have also tried to gain a foothold in this market. Telecom equipment makers such as Alcatel, Nortel, and Motorola have proposed their development plans and rolled out base stations based on such standards. BWA equipment manufacturer Alvarion came up with a 4Motion platform, and Japanese NEC announced that it would skip the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard and carry out R&D activity for products that meet IEEE 802.16e-2005 standards. This report shall analyze these five companies' current status of and future strategies for WiMAX development.
At this moment, only Nortel and Alvarion have base stations that meet IEEE 802.16-2004 standards. Alcatel, Motorola, and NEC on the other hand have chosen to directly start development of products that meet IEEE 802.16e-2005 standards. In terms of products that meet IEEE 802.16e-2005 standards, only Alcatel and Nortel have officially launched base stations, whilst Alvarion and NEC have released product plans.
SDR, AAS, and MIMO technologies are the focal points of future IEEE 802.16e-2005 base stations. Most service providers have expressed intention to integrate AAS and MIMO technologies in their IEEE 802.16e-2005 base stations. However, under the consideration of antenna size, establishment costs, and spectral efficiency, service providers are likely to opt for MIMO over AAS. Alcatel, Alvarion, and NEC have decided to adopt SDR technology in their offerings. Although Nortel and Motorola have not made any official announcements yet, SDR technology enables telecoms to provide dual mode and even multi mode applications at the base station end, which lowers investment costs for service providers. As many telecoms such as Airspan, Korea Telecom, and M/A-Com are using SDR solutions provided by pico chips at the base station end, the future developments of SDR technology will be an important trend.
Due to equipment manufacturers' efforts, there has been more and more mature WiMAX base stations hitting the market. However, developments of WiMAX handheld devices have been lagging behind. Although Beceem, Runcom, Sequans, and Intel have launched baseband chips that meet IEEE 802.16e-2005 standards, they have not been able to solve the power consumption problem. Therefore, their offerings are not yet ready to be used with CO equipment. An example of this can be seen from Korea's Samsung, which is still finding a solution for the power consumption problem with its WiMAX handheld devices. As a result, only hundreds of people have applied for WiMAX services in Korea. Due to the fact that mobile WiMAX handheld devices are not yet comprehensive, it is likely that WiMAX equipment manufacturers will choose SDR technology to help telecoms establish their WiMAX services.
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Table 5 |
Comparison of Alcatel, Nortel, Alvarion, Motorola, and NEC's 802.16e Base Stations |
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Platform |
Physical Layer |
SDR |
AAS/Smart Antenna |
MIMO |
Launch time |
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Alcatel |
EvoliumWiMAX |
SOFDMA |
Y |
Y(Beamforming) |
Y |
2006Q2 |
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Nortel |
BTS 5000 |
OFDMA |
Yet to be announced |
N |
Y |
2006-
2007 |
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Alvarion |
4Motion |
SOFDMA |
Y |
Y(Beamforming) |
Y |
2007H1 |
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Motorola |
MotoWi4 |
unknown |
Yet to be announced |
Y(Beam-steering) |
Y |
Now |
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NEC |
Yet to be decided |
SOFDMA |
Y |
Yet to be announced |
Y |
Yet to be decided |
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Note: NEC released its WiMAX White Paper in February 2006
Respective companies, compiled by MIC, December 2006 |
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Appendix
List of Companies
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Airspan |
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Alcatel |
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Alvarion |
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IEEE |
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Korean Telecom |
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Motorola |
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NEC |
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Nortel |
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Samsung |
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SoftBank |
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Wateen Telecom |