Technova

Corporate Social Responsibility – Myth or Reality?

Authors:
ASHISH VERMA
IMB2007033
MBA-IT

Enter WiMAX
Wi-MAX is potentially the new Goliath of wireless networking. I say potentially because it’s not available commercially yet (more on this below). Intel is a major force behind the creation and promotion of Wi-MAX, along with Nokia and Fujitsu and various other companies.

Wi-MAX is defined in the IEEE’s 802.16x standard and uses the 10-66 Ghz band. Various taskforces are working on getting it extended into the 2-11 Ghz range, but if this happens it could affect wireless communications already in those bandwidths.

The best feature of Wi-MAX is its overall performance. Wi-MAX will be able to pump data at a rate up to approximately 70mbps at a range of up to 30 miles! Also, line of site is not an absolute necessity. In effect, this means that if Wi-MAX comes to commercial fruition at some point soon, then the perennial issue of “the last mile” will have been solved and businesses in rural and remote locations will finally be able to buy a broadband Wi-MAX connection.

70 mbps of bandwidth using one sector of a Wi-MAX base station is roughly equivalent to sixty T1 connections. 802.16 base stations are initially expected to come with six sectors! Think how much data you can send to branch offices in a metropolitan area without having to invest in land lines.

In regards to security, well, there isn’t too much information on that side of things yet, seeing as the technology is more or less still in its infancy. Wi-MAX hurdles
Even though Wi-MAX will solve a lot of problems for businesses, it's not here yet. Anand Chandresekher, General Manager of Intel’s Mobile Platforms Group predicts that although the standard was only really finalized in January 2003, the first slew of Wi-MAX products aimed specifically and service providers, may be available in the second half of 2004.

Initially he thinks that these products will be used chiefly to overcome the “last mile” problem, and consumer devices will come along a little later. He cites an interesting example of 2 markets, South Korea and Taiwan which both have very high broadband-penetration rates in the general population. The adoption of Wi-MAX in these markets would foster greater competition and ultimately perhaps greater price-fairness for consumers because non-cable-based providers will at last be on an even keel with their "cabled" competitors.

Various analysts predict that Wi-MAX will also be a direct competitor for the 3G wireless standard, as applied to cell phones. It is too early to tell but it is certainly true that with such high bandwidth capabilities, Wi-MAX offers some very attractive possibilities for the widespread adoption of VoIP technologies. If this happens then telecoms and cable companies are going to get a serious run for their money as consumers bale out of costly airtime contracts, in favour of cheaper services offered under the Wi-MAX umbrella.

There are three main hurdles which need to be overcome on the road towards "Wi-MAXification." First, the 802.16x standard is large and complex and offers a host of development opportunities. An example is the choice of building IP-centric or ATM-centric systems; this depends on the needs of customers which are difficult to evaluate when a technology is emerging. Companies wishing to develop 802.16x products have to decide whether they want to offer a system which offers the whole spectrum of Wi-MAX capabilities (expensive, but guarantees compliance with the IEEE directive) or just a subset of them aimed at specific needs of target customer groups.

The “subset approach” runs the risk of non-compliance, but perhaps more serious, a lack of interoperability between systems from different vendors could arise. Interoperability has become somewhat of a Holy Grail of late, so this is a major decision for a manufacturer to make and it has certainly affected the speed of Wi-MAX development.

Secondly, there is a lack of testing standards and no one has really agreed what such standards should include. Proper testing and adherence to testing standards for reasons of compliance is a very good idea because it applies a benchmark for products. It also means that systems from different manufacturers get tested in the same way so the playing field remains level.

Finally, if 802.16x equipment manufacturers decide to take the subset-of-features approach for reasons of economy, then there must exist, a method to identify exactly which 802.16 subset(s) these products actually comply with. This will enable system integrators to pick and choose additional options, safe in the knowledge that they will still comply and be interoperable with the systems they have already implemented.