WiMAX 101: Is this the future of broadband?

by Alex Kidman on Feb 20, 2008

Fixed antennas
If you want to jump aboard the WiMAX bandwagon, you’re going to need to upgrade your existing network equipment in one of two ways, depending on whether the service offered is based on 802.16d or 802.16e. 802.16d installations currently on offer in Australia through Internode involve the professional installation of a 3m or 4.5m mast on your home or office roof. This enables a line of sight to the nearest detectable tower. An AirSpan WiMAX radio – about the size of an A4 book – is situated on the top of the antennae to enable signal reception. On the indoor end, this terminates in a standard CAT5 Ethernet point, which could then be connected up to a home router or accessed directly from a PC using a PPPOE connection.

Intel WiMax
On the mobile side of the WiMAX fence, there’s a couple of big players such as Airspan and Intel, but precious little in terms of equipment you can buy right this minute. Intel is a big proponent of WiMAX technologies, and while the exact nomenclature hasn’t been announced at the time of writing, it’s expected that the upcoming Montevina mobile platform (which may also be marketed as “Centrino 2”) will incorporate mobile WiMAX through either an add-on card to the WiFi module (the currently named “Dana Point” chip), or as an entire combo chip (“Echo Peak”). Montevina should lead to a quick slew of WiMAX-capable notebooks by the end of the year – probably well before Australian users can take advantage of them, in fact.

USB modems
AirSpan proudly touts the MiMax USB as the world’s smallest WiMAX adaptor; it’s a tiny USB plug that’s both Windows and Mac compatible, and offers quad-band WiMAX compatibility, meaning you should be able to use it to roam WiMAX networks worldwide, subject to your carrier’s roaming arrangements.
MiMax supports sleep and idle so there's hope it won't chew your notebook battery, and there's a separate WiMax Finder Accessory which you can use without turning on your computer. Interestingly there's also a SIM card slot. Dual WiMax/EV-DO cards have also been publicised overseas, such as those developed by Samsung for SprintNextel. By the time you’re actually able to buy WiMAX adaptors there should be a few competitive products on the market.

AirSpan MiMax USB notebook adaptor

Dual WiFi/WiMax base stations
Again, there are some existing products out there, such as Airspan’s EasyST-2, which can be optionally upgraded with both WiFi and VoIP capabilities. The EasyST-2 is supposedly the world's first self-installable fixed WiMAX CPE, unlike the AirSpan equipment used in Internode's South Australian rollout, which gets installed by technicians. In Airspan's imagined scenario, the WiMax provides backhaul links, and you logon via the WiFi antenna in the base.

With Intel pushing dual WiFI/WiMAX via its Echo Peak chips, it’s not an unwise bet to suggest that the major players in the wireless network world (Netgear, Belkin, Linksys and their ilk) will come to market with dual WiFi/WiMAX router implementations.