[Term of the Day]: WiMAX
Term of the Day
“WiMAX”
Definition — What is a WiMAX?
WiMAX stands for "Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access" WiMAX is developed by an industry consortium overseen by a group called the WiMAX Forum, which certifies WiMAX equipment to ensure that it meets technical specifications. Its technology is based on the IEEE 802.16 set of wide-area communications standards.
Internet access basically came in three flavors: broadband, Wi-Fi, and dial-up. Broadband - most of the home users had internet access through DSL or cable modem, it was expensive and unavailable in many remote regions of the country. While Wi-Fi is a good wireless Internet solution for home networks and coffee shops, however, it is impractical for larger areas. In order to cover a large area, multiple Wi-Fi repeaters must be set up at consistent intervals. For areas that span several miles, this is a rather inefficient method to provide wireless access and typically requires lots of maintenance. WiMAX, on the other hand, can cover several miles using a single station. In practical terms, WiMAX would operate similar to WiFi but at higher speeds and for a greater number of users. WiMAX could potentially erase the suburban and rural blackout areas that currently have no broadband Internet access because phone and cable companies have not yet run the necessary wires to those remote locations.
A WiMAX system consists of two parts:
- A WiMAX tower, similar in concept to a cell-phone tower - A single WiMAX tower can provide coverage to a very large area -- as big as 3,000 square miles.
- A WiMAX receiver - The receiver and antenna could be a small box or PCMCIA card, or they could be built into a laptop the way WiFi access is today.
WiMax Internet service is also known as 4G, WiMax Broadband. Neither WiMAX nor Wi-Fi is technology but their names have been adopted in popular usage to denote the technologies behind them. WiMax Forum has set a guideline to deliver a capacity of up to 40 Mbps per channel for a WiMax certified system. This amount of bandwidth is large enough to cater to the needs of both commercial and residential users for high-speed Internet access.