WiMAX summit: 'Standards-plus' could harm 802.16 roadmap

WaveSat has a similar message. CEO Michel Guay says: "Don't wait for mobility, it will be 2-3 years. We want to offer a solution now with evolution to mobility" - though that evolution will require a hardware upgrade. WaveSat's primary focus is on getting fixed WiMAX into the mass market quickly. Although the major OEMs are the main customers this year, in 2006 he sees the original design manufacturers (ODMs), particularly in Taiwan, entering the sector and bringing down costs quickly.

Then the WiFi box makers will start to incorporate WiMAX. The critical development for this broad market will be support for the Mini PCI interface in WiMAX, something WaveSat promises by midyear and which will be important in the enterprise, supporting WiMAX networks with WiFi CPE. The first equipment maker to ship this combination is likely to be Alpha Networks of Taiwan, which will combine an Atheros 802.11 chip with a mini PCI WiMAX card, targeting hotzones.

To move towards mobility, the Canadian company will support sub-channelling this year, and clearly hopes that will enough, though it is committed to create chips for SOFDMA if the WiMAX Forum mandates it. It is following a more cautious route than Sequans and other towards a full SoC, claiming it is better to wait until the standard is more stable before incorporating the whole MAC on one chip.

Migration to mobility

Taking the opposite view is the UK's PicoChip, which is promising a software upgrade to 802.16e even if it takes the SOFDMA route. "We're 100 per cent sure we can software upgrade to 802.16e, although with SOFDMA it won't be interoperable with 802.16- 2004," said head of marketing Rupert Baines. The 'e' support will be a new software option for PicoChip's base station reference platform, which is heavily software defined, and both 'd' and 'e' will be accommodated within the same base station. The company believes its software approach is key to attracting some large OEMs, soon to be announced (its public customer is Airspan, which uses PicoChip for large base stations and Sequans for micro ones.)

PicoChip, like another start-up, TeleCIS, is expected also to take a prominent role in Korean WiBro, which could lead to early revenue opportunities since the Korean carriers are set to deploy the technology around the turn of the year.

Enhancements

Back in fixed wireless, there are several technologies that are being eyed by the chipmakers to improve basic WiMAX performance. As in WiFi, these include various antenna techniques to enhance data rates and range. Key are adaptive antenna systems, also known as beam forming, space-time coding and MIMO (Multiple In Multiple Out) arrays of smart antennas. Chipmakers are sure to implement some of these in order to improve performance and differentiate themselves, but unless they are included within the WiMAX specifications, they will cause interoperability problems between different vendors' equipment. And interoperability is critical. Indeed, as Redline's head of business development, Kevin Suitor, points out, it is the chief attraction of WiMAX before it achieves other promised benefits such as low cost CPE.