Wi-Max is a broadband wireless network technology and it is a direct competitor of Digital Subscribers Lines (DSL). Wi-Max stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. It has different standards such as 802.16a, 802.16e and 802.16d. A group known as Wi Max forum formed in 2001 to observe and promote the Wimax standards. Among the board of directors of WiMax forum are Intel, Sprint, Samsung, BT, Motorola, FujiTsu and ZTE.
Wi-Max is the next step of Wi-Fi and it provides the maximum speed up to 70Mb/sec. Wi-Max services are of two types wired and wireless. In the wireless services come Wifi Wi-Max 802.16 and WPAN.
Further under Wi-Fi comes WLAN that covers less distance as compared to Wi-MAX. The main difference between the Wi-Fi and Wi-Max is that Wi-Fi is a base band and Wi-Max is a broadband.
Wi-Max provides quad services such as phone, video, voice, data and cable TV. Wi-Max provides more quality and speed and the data transfer rate can be up to 70 Mbps. The 802.16d standard supports directional antenna base equipment i.e. user has to have a static connection and it does not support the roaming users. The 802.16e standard supports the small chips embedded in the motherboard. It is comparatively a cheap solution because no extra equipment would be required to make a Wi-Max connection.
The manufacturers that want to design the motherboard with the built-in Wi-Max card must have to obtain Wi-Max certification, which is given for the conformance and interoperability. The range of the Wi-Max is about 30 miles from the base stations. Wi-Max communication system depends on the cells that can travel up to 48 KM.
The main standards of the Wi-Max include 802.16a that has limited access, 802.16d that provides high speed and 802.16e is portable and provides the best broadband quality. Wi-Max supports fixed, nomadic, portability, simple mobility and full mobility connections. The devices that operates in the simply mobility are PDAs and smart phone and the devices that operates in the full mobility are the laptop, PCMCIA, PDA and smart phone.
The devices that make the Wi-Max network are CPE, OSM, Access points and microwave backhaul. CPE talks to the Access point by using the Wi-max standard. Base station offloads the traffic on the city POP by using the microwave backhaul.
Wi-Max is the best solution for the banks, business, multinational organizations and the corporate sectors. By creating the VPNs many corporate organization can enjoy the high speed wireless networking.
The deployment of the Wi-Max is similar to the Wi-fi. The Wi-Max access point sends signals to the Wi-Max receivers, which is placed at the top of the room at the subscriber’s end. Quality of service (QOS) is some issue with the Wi-Max because when more users gain access to the access points to towers. Wi-Max is an ideal wireless network communication system where is distance is not favorable for the wired networks. Wi-Max supports a wide range of the frequencies up to 66 GHz.
Wi-Max was initially designed to provide a high speed network access to the MAN (Metropolitan area network). Wi-Max wireless technology is also compatible with the cellular networks and it can access any cellular tower easily. Wi-Max has a great potential to eliminate the use of wired networking system.