NEWS
W is for WiMax
WiMax is a long-range wireless broadband standard, often compared to wi-fi on steroids.
Unlike wi-fi, WiMax uses licensed spectrum but, also unlike its wireless cousin, works over distances of many miles, rather than just within rooms in a building. It has a maximum range of around 30 miles and is typically used to provide connectivity to metropolitan areas.
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A-Z of Wireless
- A is for Aeroplanes
- B is for Bluetooth
- C is for Caio report
- D is for Dual-mode phones
- E is for 802.16e
- F is for FON
- G is for GPS
- H is for History
- I is for Indoors
- J is for Juice
- K is for Kip Meek
- L is for Location
- M is for Mesh networks
- N is for 802.11n
- O is for Oyster
- P is for Piggybacking
- Q is for Quality of service
- R is for RFID
- S is for Spectrum
- T is for Telemetry
- U is for Underground
- V is for Vulnerabilities
- W is for WiMax
- X is for X-ray
- Y is for Yikes
- Z is for ZigBee
WiMax offers a last-mile alternative to fixed-line broadband - for instance it can be deployed to bring broadband services to rural 'notspots' unserved by fixed-line infrastructure, typically where laying copper or fibre would be seen as too costly.
WiMax can also be used to provide backhaul for wireless base stations - be they cellular, wi-fi or mobile WiMax.
Various WiMax networks are up and running globally - in the UK, for example, WiMax company Freedom4 has networks in Manchester, Milton Keynes and Warwick running on the 3.6GHz spectrum band.
Mobile WiMax has been mooted as a rival carrier technology to the next-gen evolution of cellular networks (aka 4G or LTE). For mobile WiMax, the standard is 802.16e: a version of WiMax that supports mobility and is theoretically capable of symmetrical speeds up to 70Mbps - see E is for 802.16e.
