The 2007 Taipei Summit WiMAX Asia-Pacific Conference & Exhibition was held at the Taipei International Conference Center on May 14th -15th, 2007. The main theme of the conference was illustrating the current development progress of WiMAX, and the changes it may bring forth to the telecommunications industry.
Covering the upstream, midstream and downstream industries, the conference exhibited system and testing equipment, components, actual demonstrations and so forth. A WiMAX theme pavilion was set up to display current industry applications, such as traffic monitoring, health care services, long-distance learning and multimedia services. A seminar was also organized, where key players from the likes of Intel and the WiMAX Forum sat together to discuss the current WiMAX trend.
WiMAX—complementing existing wireless networks
WiMAX, which stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, follows the 802.16e standard under the IEEE 802.16x format. The standard was made official during a meeting by the IEEE association on December, 2005. At the moment, over 40 worldwide telecom operators are engaged in the WiMAX network deployment. By 2008, the number is expected to increase to nearly 300.
As manufacturers compete against each other, it has created compatibility problems between different company products. In order to set up a standardized WiMAX format, the WiMAX Forum was established in June, 2001.
WiMAX can be viewed as a further extension of the wireless network, which differs from the GSM/CDMA cellular communication systems. For fixed locations, such as the office or home, it can serve as a replacement to the cable modem or DSL. WiMAX marks the final phase in the delivery of a wide-area network service from Internet service providers. The installation process is easier as well, as technology platform producers do not need any cables. Through an IP hub, users can enjoy a WiFi-like network.
In terms of mobile connections, users can still stay connected when outdoors or in a moving vehicle, as the WiMAX system relies on a seamless Internet connection. Successful trials have already been made for vehicles moving at 120km/hour.
WiMAX Equipment – CPE
In order to effectively promote WiMAX, it is very important that consumers be offered a variety of end equipment to choose from. During the WiMAX show, many manufacturers introduced both the CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) and BS (Base Station) equipment. To an average consumer, technology platform producers are mainly associated with the BS. However, once the majority of consumers switch to WiMAX, the CPE will be needed. Most of the CPEs showcased were only product samples. Although the bandwidth of the WiMAX has not yet been standardized, most CPE products have utilized the 2.5GHZ frequency as the temporary bandwidth.
Taiwan manufacturers have already established a strong foothold in the communication equipment sector, where more emphasis has been placed on the CPE instead of the BS. Although most of the showcased products were just samples, mass production is set to begin in 2Q07.
CPE & memory
Due to the inherent features of WiMAX, the functions of the CPE are more complicated than the WiFi. Take an office or home-based CPE for example, in the past, the WiFi CPE only required 4MB-32MB of DRAM for temporary storage. Once WiFi enters the 802.11n era, the increased transfer speed and added Multi-input Multi-output (MIMO) function will require the temporary memory to increase to more than 16MB.
The CPE used by WiMAX already employs the DDR2 533/667 16Mx16, and the Flash memory has increased from 4MB to 16MB. When the VoIP function is included, 64MB of Flash memory is needed. Due to the various multimedia functions, multi-applications, voice and video streaming applications, the CPE memory demand increases substantially. According to industry insiders, WiMAX CPE shipments should reach 1 million for 2007. When the WiMAX infrastructure becomes more complete, it should gradually start to take away the market share originally owned by WiFi and the xDSL CPE in 2008.
Industry Prospects
Beginning from 2007, some newly introduced NBs and cell phones are being equipped with the WiMAX function. The MIT-sponsored OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) NB program is also WiMAX-supportable. With governments releasing the bandwidth for WiMAX, the more flexible connection and seamless network provides cheaper deployment costs than the 3G platform. This will give WiMAX a much bigger room for development.
Compared to the already widely deployed WiFi, WiMAX will not become a total replacement, but more of an extension of the system. Similarly, it is not expected to be in direct competition with the 3G and 3.5G networks either, as different end market demands entails different wireless communication solutions.
Due to the high frequency and watt usage of WiMAX, it will still take some time for its bases station to integrate with the current WiFi or 3G systems. At the moment, consumers must get used to the simultaneous offering of WiFi and WiMAX CPE during this transitional period. To equipment manufacturers, by converging the WiFi and WiMAX together on the came CPE, it should help consumers more rapidly accept WiMAX in the future.
