What is WiMAX?

Building upon the success of IEEE 802.11/WiFi, IEEE 802.16/WiMAX is a standards-based technology that can deliver wireless broadband access across a city (rather than just a building).   The process for certifying WiMAX equipment is just getting underway.  Today, Bell and Rogers are jointly deploying  a pre-WiMAX wireless network across Canada as an alternative to cable and DSL. During the next few years, it is expected that WiMAX technology will be incorporated in notebook computers and PDAs.  This will allow urban areas and cities to become “metro zones” for portable outdoor broadband wireless access.

What did the seminar cover?



This presentation was an overview of IEEE 802.16/WiMAX including a brief history, a summary of the key technical features, and a review of alternative deployment scenarios.



This presentation described one of the largest pre-WiMAX rollouts to date - Inukshuk Internet, a joint venture by Bell Canada and Rogers Communications. The initial phase of the network has just been completed. Now available in 20 metropolitan areas across Canada from Vancouver to St. John's, the Inukshuk service covers over 5 million households and 40% of the population.


This presentation briefly reviewed current rules and regulations regarding both licensed and licence-exempt spectrum allocations for point-to-multipoint communications systems such as WiMAX.



This presentation reviewed some of the details of the WiMAX physical layer and explain how Agilent's Vector Signal Analyzer technology can be used to measure and troubleshoot WiMAX signals.

Angela Ikemoto and Michael Fite, Applications Engineers (Agilent Technologies) were on hand to demonstrate the measurement of actual WiMAX signals.

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More Information:

IEEE 802.16 Working Group	WiMAX Forum
WiMAX Pro	WiMAX Industry
WiMAX.com	Bell University Labs
Industry Canada - Spectrum Engineering	Agilent Technologies - WiMAX