WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access)

WiMAX, an acronym for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a wireless technology that provides high-speed Internet access over long distances. WiMAX was developed in the early twenty-first century by a business association known as the WiMAX Forum. It was given the designation IEEE 802.16 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a professional organization that develops standards for various technologies. WiMAX was originally meant to replace cable television and digital subscriber lines (DSL) in providing Internet access, and was later updated to include cellular phone coverage. In 2006, the telecommunication company Sprint announced it would use WiMAX as the basis for its nationwide mobile phone service, touting it as the first 4G network. Within a few years, however, WiMAX began losing out to a competing wireless technology called long-term evolution (LTE). Although WiMAX is still used by several companies, most major wireless providers, such as Verizon and AT&T, invested in LTE technology, which surpassed WiMAX as the industry standard. In 2011, Sprint began the switch from WiMAX to LTE, and shut down the last of its WiMAX network in 2016.

Background

Advancements in wireless communication technology are defined by the term generation. With each successive generation, mobile devices utilize newer technology with higher speeds and more access to data. Technological standards that label a network as a particular generation are set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at the United Nations. The first generation of networks, or 1G, was analog service developed in the 1980s. Analog technology relies on direct transmission of sound waves over a mobile device. Digital technology transforms sound and data into a series of numbers, which are then converted into their original forms at the receiving end. Second generation (2G) mobile networks developed in the 1990s were the first to use digital technology.

In 2003, the first 3G networks were defined by a minimum speed of 144 kilobits per second (kbps). A bit is short for binary data and is the smallest amount of information that can be used by a computer. A kilobit is the equivalent of one thousand bits. The ITU later upgraded its 3G requirements to 384 kbps. In 2008, the ITU defined 4G technology as having a high quality of service with minimum speed between 100 megabits per second (mbps) and 1 gigabit per second (gbps). Megabits and gigabits are one million and one billion bits, respectively. Many networks that claim 4G status do not have the ability to meet these speeds, prompting the ITU to relax its requirements. Networks are allowed to use the term 4G if their services are a substantial upgrade over 3G technology.

Overview

Prior to the start of the twenty-first century, most telecommunication devices received their signals via wired systems, such as phone or cable lines. Many people who lived in rural areas could not get access to the Internet or cable television because the cost of extending existing wired systems was too expensive. In 2001, a group of telecommunications companies known as the WiMAX Forum developed a system that would bypass traditional wired technologies and provide wireless Internet capability to outlying areas. The WiMAX system was approved in 2002 under the standard designation IEEE 802.16.

WiMAX used a central antenna known as a base transceiver station to send signals to receivers based in the homes of subscribers. The earliest WiMAX standards required the transceivers to provide speeds of about 70 mbps at distances of about 30 miles. The system used a technology known as orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), in which data is split and transmitted across several frequencies at the same time. It was able to operate without direct line of sight between transceiver and receiver; however, the signal could not pass through mountains or tall buildings. In 2004, WiMAX was further standardized under the designation IEEE 802.16-2004, which provided speeds of 75 mbps and frequencies ranging from 2 to 11 gigahertz (ghz). A gigahertz is a measure of the frequency of electromagnetic waves.

A mobile version of WiMAX was approved in 2005 by the IEEE under the standard designation 802.16e. This version allowed WiMAX technology to be used in laptop computers, smartphones, tablets, and digital cameras. Mobile WiMAX claimed data speeds between 30 and 40 mbps over a distance of about 2.2 miles. In 2006, the telecommunications company Sprint announced that it would use WiMAX technology in its new wireless network. The company advertised the service as the first 4G network and planned a launch at the end of 2007. The company saw WiMAX as a promising wireless technology as computer maker Intel and cell phone giant Nokia had promised to use it in their products. Sprint also promised much faster speeds than the 1 mbps rate common in most 3G networks of the time.

The company's plan to roll out its WiMAX network, however, was delayed and slow to develop. It did not officially launch until September 2008, and by 2010, it covered only 30 million people in 27 cities in the United States. Meanwhile, Sprint's competitors Verizon and AT&T made the decision to use a technology called LTE for their wireless networks. LTE was based on existing technology and was called long-term evolution because its developers felt it was the next step in the "evolution" of wireless networks. Verizon launched the first nationwide LTE network in 2010 and provided better connectivity and speeds three times faster than WiMAX. In 2011, Sprint announced it would abandon WiMAX and build a network that utilized LTE technology. The first Sprint customers switched to the new network in 2012, and by March 2016, the company had completely shuttered its WiMAX mobile capabilities. During the late 2010s and early 2020s, WiMAX technology was still used by a small number of Internet providers and wireless companies around the world, although most major telecommunications companies had switched to LTE.

Bibliography

Eklund, Carl, et al. "IEEE Standard 802.16: A Technical Overview of the WirelessMAN Air Interface for Broadband Wireless Access." IEEE Communications Magazine, June 2002, www.ieee802.org/16/docs/02/C80216-02‗05.pdf. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

Etemad, Kamran, and Ming-Yee Lai. WiMAX Technology and Network Evolution. John Wiley & Sons, 2010.

Gibbs, Colin. "Court: Sprint Can Begin to Kill WiMAX Network This Week." Fierce Wireless, 1 Feb. 2016, www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/court-sprint-can-begin-to-kill-wimax-network-week. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

Khan, Mubeen Ahmed, et al. "Network Optimization Using Real Time Polling Service With and Without Relay Station in Wimax Networks." Journal of Automation, Mobile Robotics and Intelligent Systems, 11 Sept. 2024, doi.org/10.14313/jamris/3-2024/26. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

Mitchell, Bradley. "What Is WiMAX Broadband Wireless Networking?" Lifewire, 26 Aug. 2016, www.lifewire.com/wimax-wireless-networking-818321. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

Poole, Ian. "WiMAX history." Radio-Electronics.com, www.radio-electronics.com/info/wireless/wimax/history.php. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

Reardon, Marguerite. "What's the Big Deal about WiMax?" CNET, 26 Oct. 2008, www.cnet.com/news/whats-the-big-deal-about-wimax/. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

Segan, Sascha. "WiMAX vs. LTE: Should You Switch?" PCMag, 16 May 2012, www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403490,00.asp. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

"WiMAX - 802.16 - Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access." CCM Benchmark Group, 16 Oct. 2008, ccm.net/contents/808-wimax-802-16-worldwide-interoperability-for-microwave-access. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.