Last Mile Hardware Review for WiMAX 802.

16 TDD and Competing

TDD Technologies

Author and Copyright: Benjamin Luck

Website: http://wirelesslambda.blogspot.com
Email: luck.benjamin@gmail.com

Contents
1.0 Servicing and Hardware Requirements
1.1 Rate Requirements
1.2 Location Coverage and Capacity Requirements
1.3 Radio Spectrum Requirements
1.4 Future Proofing and Pricing Requirements
2.0 Wireless Products Reviewed
2.1 Products Reviewed Overview
2.2 Motorola PMP 400 and PMP 430 Products
2.3 Redline RedAccess Products
2.4 802.16d Developed Products (Airspan Redline)
2.5 802.16e Developed Products (Airspan Motorola Alvarion)
3.0 Wireless Systems Data Rates
3.1 Motorola Canopy Data Rates
3.2 RedLine RedCONNEX DataRates
3.3802.16d and 802.16e WiMAX Data Rates
3.4 802.16m WiMAX Data Rates (Future Technology)
4.0 Wireless System Coverage and Capacity
4.1 Canopy Technologies
4.2 Redline RedAccess Technologies
4.3 802.16d Technologies
4.4 802.16e Technologies
5.0 Wireless System Radio Spectrum
5.1 Band Ranges
5.2 Channel Sizes
6.0 Wireless System Pricing
6.1 Motorola Canopy Products
6.2 Redline RedAccess Products
6.3 802.16d WiMAX Products
6.4 802.16e WiMAX Products

7.0 Technology Lifespan and Future Proofing

7.1 Motorola Canopy Propitiatory Systems
7.2 Product Availability Manufacturing
7.3 Product Availability Stock
7.4 Product Development
7.5 Redline RedAccess Propitiatory Systems
7.6 Product Availability Manufacturing
7.7 Product Availability Stock
7.8 Product Development
7.9 WiMAX 802.16 Standard Systems
7.10 Product Availability
7.11 Product Availability Stock
7.12 Product Development
8.0 Product Training
8.1 Motorola
8.2 Redline
8.3 Alvarion
8.4 NewClear
9.0 Conclusion
9.1 Data Rate
9.2 Coverage
9.3 Scalability and Upgradeable
9.4 Usability and Training
9.5 Overall Conclusion

1.0 Servicing and Hardware Requirements

1.1 Data Rate Requirements

ADSL.
ADSL2.
Business Symetric Data.
Carrier Data.

1.2 Location Coverage and Capacity Requirements

Density

Description

Low

Low Density Remote rural or very scatted local population

Medium

Medium Density Lighly Scatted local population Small towns

High

High Density Urban Location Town City

2.3 Radio Spectrum Requirements

Bands:
3.5Ghz (Licensed).
3.6Ghz (Licensed).
5.4Ghz (Unlicensed).
5.8Ghz (Unlicensed).
Channel Size:
3.5 Mhz.
5 Mhz.
7 Mhz.
10 Mhz.
20 Mhz.

1.4 Future Proofing and Pricing Requirements

Scalability & Upgradable.

Cost.
Training.

2.0 Wireless Products Reviewed

2.1 Products Reviewed Overview

Motorola PMP 400 and PMP 430 Products

Redline RedAccess Products
802.16d Developed Products (Airspan Redline)
802.16e Developed Products (Airspan Motorola Alvarion)

2.2 Motorola PMP 400 and PMP 430 Products

The PMP 430 operates in the 5.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz frequency bands. The PMP 430 is equipped
with OFDM technology to deliver outstanding throughput, long range and line of sight (LOS) and
near-line of sight (nLOS) performance for reliable and secure data, voice and video connectivity.
The PMP 430 provides more than 40 Mbps of total aggregate throughput per Access Point (AP)
sector to difficult-to-reach locations, including multipath urban or rural areas. The PMP 430
provides extended ranges of up to 40 miles (64 km) when the Subscriber Module (SM) is
configured with a passive LENS or reflector. The PMP 430 also offers low one-way latency of less
than 3.5 msec for sensitive voice and video services. SMs can be upgraded from 4 Mbps throughput
to 40 Mbps via a software key system to meet customers' growing need for bandwidth.
2.3 Redline RedAccess Products
The AN-80i is the latest addition to Redline's RedCONNEX family of high performance wireless
broadband transport solutions. Delivering carrier-grade performance and reliability that carriers and
other service providers have come to expect from Redline's wireless access and backhaul products,
the AN-80i is the ideal solution for quickly establishing point-to-point and point-to-multipoint links
that cost-effectively extend networks to reach more customers.
2.4 802.16d Developed Products (Airspan Redline)
WiMAX, meaning Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications
technology that provides wireless transmission of data using a variety of transmission modes, from
point-to-multipoint links to portable and fully mobile internet access. The technology provides up to
10 Mbit/s broadband speed without the need for cables. The technology is based on the IEEE
802.16 standard (also called Broadband Wireless Access). The name "WiMAX" was created by the
WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformity and interoperability of the
standard. The forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of
last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL".
Standards Development List
802.16-2001
Fixed Broadband Wireless Access (1063 Ghz)
802.16.2-2001

Recommended practice for coexistence

802.16c-2002

System profiles for 1063 Ghz

802.16a-2003

Physical layer and MAC definitions for 211 Ghz

P802.16b

License-exempt frequencies

P802.16d

Maintenance and System profiles for 211 Ghz

(Project merged into 802.16-2004) Merged

802.16-2004

Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access System

(rollup of 802.16-2001, 802.16a, 802.16c and P802.16d)

P802.16.2a

Coexistence with 211 Ghz and 23.543.5 GHz

(Project merged into 802.16.2-2004)

802.16.2-2004

Recommended practice for coexistence

(Maintenance and rollup of 802.16.2-2001 and P802.16.2a) Current

2.5 802.16e Developed Products (Airspan Motorola - Alvarion)

The 802.16e standard essentially standardizes 2 aspects of the air interface - the physical layer
(PHY) and the Media Access Control layer (MAC).
Standards Development List
802.16f-2005

Management Information Base (MIB) for

802.16-2004

802.16-2004/Cor 1-2005

Corrections for fixed operations

(co-published with 802.16e-2005)

802.16e-2005

Mobile Broadband Wireless Access System

802.16k-2007

Bridging of 802.16
(an amendment to IEEE 802.1D)

IEEE 802.16e-2005 improves upon IEEE 802.16-2004 by:

Adding support for mobility (soft and hard handover between base stations). This is seen as
one of the most important aspects of 802.16e-2005, and is the very basis of 'Mobile
WiMAX'.
Scaling of the Fast Fourier transform (FFT) to the channel bandwidth in order to keep the
carrier spacing constant across different channel bandwidths (typically 1.25 MHz, 5 MHz,
10 MHz or 20 MHz). Constant carrier spacing results in a higher spectrum efficiency in
wide channels, and a cost reduction in narrow channels. Also known as Scalable OFDMA
(SOFDMA). Other bands not multiples of 1.25 MHz are defined in the standard, but because
the allowed FFT subcarrier numbers are only 128, 512, 1024 and 2048, other frequency
bands will not have exactly the same carrier spacing, which might not be optimal for
implementations.
Advanced antenna diversity schemes, and hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ)
Adaptive Antenna Systems (AAS) and MIMO technology
Denser sub-channelization, thereby improving indoor penetration
Introducing Turbo Coding and Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC)
Introducing downlink sub-channelization, allowing administrators to trade coverage for
capacity or vice versa
Fast Fourier transform algorithm
Adding an extra QoS class for VoIP applications.

3.0 Wireless Systems Data Rates

3.1 Motorola Canopy Data Rates
The Motorola Canopy data rates are very closed to their stated over the air rates. Probably about
10% less than indicated with a reasonable signal strength.

Thruput Data Rate

Base Station

SM Value

SM WISP

SM Business

SM Premium

40Mbps

4Mbps

10Mbps

20Mbps

40Mbps

36M Key

54M Key

108M Key

36Mbps

54Mbps

108Mbps

3.2 RedLine RedCONNEX DataRates

Base Station 28M Key
Thruput Data Rate 108Mbps

28Mbps

3.3 802.16d and 802.16e WiMAX Data Rates

A commonly-held misconception is that WiMAX will deliver 70 Mbit/s over 50 kilometers (~31
miles). In reality, WiMAX can either operate at higher bitrates or over longer distances but not both:
operating at the maximum range of 50 km increases bit error rate and thus results in a much lower
bitrate. Conversely, reducing the range (to <1 km) allows a device to operate at higher bitrates.
There are no known examples of WiMAX services being delivered at bit rates over around 40 Mbit/
s.[citation needed]
Typically, fixed WiMAX networks have a higher-gain directional antenna installed near the client
(customer) which results in greatly increased range and throughput. Mobile WiMAX networks are
usually made of indoor "Customer-premises equipment" (CPE) such as desktop modems, laptops
with integrated Mobile WiMAX or other Mobile WiMAX devices. Mobile WiMAX devices
typically have omnidirectional antennae which are of lower-gain compared to directional antennas
but are more portable. In current deployments, the throughput may reach 2 Mbit/s symmetric at 10
km with fixed WiMAX and a high gain antenna. It is also important to consider that a throughput of
2 Mbit/s can mean 2 Mbit/s, symmetric simultaneously, 1 Mbit/s symmetric or some asymmetric
mix (e.g. 0.5 Mbit/s downlink and 1.5 Mbit/s uplink or 1.5 Mbit/s downlink and 0.5 Mbit/s uplink),
each of which required slightly different network equipment and configurations. Higher-gain
directional antennas can be used with a WiMAX network with range and throughput benefits but
the obvious loss of practical mobility.
Like most wireless systems, available bandwidth is shared between users in a given radio sector, so
performance could deteriorate in the case of many active users in a single sector. In practice, most
users will have a range of 2-3 Mbit/s services and additional radio cards will be added to the base
station to increase the number of users that may be served as required.
Because of these limitations, the general consensus is that WiMAX requires various granular and
distributed network architectures to be incorporated within the IEEE 802.16 task groups. This
includes wireless mesh, grids, network remote station repeaters which can extend networks and
connect to backhaul.

3.4 802.16m WiMAX Data Rates (Future Technology)

802.16m system will be able to support both 120 Mbit/s downlink and 60 Mbit/s uplink per site
simultaneously. It is expected that the WiMAX Release 2 will be available commercially in the
2011-2012 timeframe

4.0 Wireless System Coverage and Capacity

(4.1) Canopy Technologies

Range and Capacity

Motorola

Range 30 km
300-350 Clients per Sector @ ADSL speeds @ 10Mhz
channels.
100-140 Clients per Sector @ ADSL2 speeds @ 10mhz
channels.

(4.2) Redline RedAccess Technologies

Range and Capacity

Redline RedAccess

Range 30 km
254 Clients per Sector @ ADSL2 speeds @ 20mhz
channels.

(4.3) 802.16d Technologies

Range and Capacity

Redline

LOS: PTP - Over 28 mi (45 km); PMP - 12 mi (20 km)

(Due to timing)
NLOS: 1-2 mi (1.7 - 3.3 km) (QPSK 3/4 @ 70%
coverage)
0.5 - 1 mi (0.8 - 1.7 km) (16QAM 3/4 @ 90% coverage)
220-250 Clients per Sector @ ADSL speeds @ 10Mhz
channels.
60-100 Clients per Sector @ ADSL2 speeds @ 10mhz
channels.

Airspan

220-250 Clients per Sector @ ADSL speeds @ 10Mhz

channels.
60-100 Clients per Sector @ ADSL2 speeds @ 10mhz
channels.

Newclear

220-250 Clients per Sector @ ADSL speeds @ 10Mhz

channels.
60-100 Clients per Sector @ ADSL2 speeds @ 10mhz
channels.

(4.4) 802.16e Technologies

Range and Capacity

Motorola

16km Range (Due to timing)

220-250 Clients per Sector @ ADSL speeds @ 10Mhz
channels.
60-100 Clients per Sector @ ADSL2 speeds @ 10mhz
channels.

Airspan

220-250 Clients per Sector @ ADSL speeds @ 10Mhz

channels.
60-100 Clients per Sector @ ADSL2 speeds @ 10mhz
channels.

Alvarion

220-250 Clients per Sector @ ADSL speeds @ 10Mhz

channels.
60-100 Clients per Sector @ ADSL2 speeds @ 10mhz
channels.

5.0 Wireless System Radio Spectrum Requirements

5.1 Band Ranges
3.5Ghz

3.6Ghz

Airspan

Alvarion

Redline WiMAX

Motorola WiMAX X

NewClear

5.4Ghz

Motorola Canopy
Redline RedAccess X

5.8Ghz

5.2 Channel Sizes

Airspan

3.5Mhz

5Mhz

7Mhz

10Mhz

20Mhz

Alvarion

Redline WiMAX

Motorola WiMAX
NewClear

X
X

X
X

Motorola Canopy

Redline RedAccess

6.0 Wireless System Pricing

6.1 Motorola Canopy Products
PMP 400 & 430 Base Station

SM Value

SM WISP

SM Business

SM Premium

$AUD

$730

$877

$1,023

$1,757

$4,686

Bulk purchases attract at least a 15% discount.

6.1 Redline RedAccess Products

RedAccess BS

BaseStation

28

36

54

USD

$3,490

$1,940

$2,690

$3,490

6.2 802.16d WiMAX Products

Base Station (802.16d)

Outdoor CPE

$5,885.00 USD

$242 USD per 78 Units

(does not include import duties

or freight charges)

(does not include cable, lighting

protector, import duties or freight
charges)

Airspan

$6218.00 USD

$523.59 USD per 100 units

NewClear

N/A

$231.42 USD per 1000+ units

Redline

(does not include import duties or

freight charges)

6.3 802.16e WiMAX Products

Motorola

Base Station (802.16e)

Outdoor CPE

$5,119.39 AUD

$970.18 AUD
(Bulk purchases attract at least a 15%
discount)

Airspan

$17,000 USD

$523.59 USD per 100 units

Alvarion

7.0 Technology Lifespan and Future Proofing

7.1 Motorola Canopy Propitiatory Systems
7.2 Product Availability - Manufacturing
Their main disadvantage is being proprietary - therefore only available from Motorola, at prices that
can be expensive. No End of Life for the product has been publicly set. End of life for the product is
determined by the Motorola company.

7.3 Product Availability Stock

Base Station:
Base Station equipment is often available within 1-2 weeks of purchase from most suppliers.
CPE Equipment:
CPE equipment ordered in bulk (500-1000 units), will need to be shipped here and would be
available within 1-3 months from most suppliers. Air fright maybe available for small orders as
extra cost (few pallets) with a lead times of 1-2 weeks.
7.4 Product Development
There is no upgrade path past 40Mbps SM and AP solutions
7.5 Redline Red Access Propitiatory Systems
7.6 Product Availability - Manufacturing
Their main disadvantage is being proprietary - therefore only available from Redline
Communications, at prices that can be expensive. No End of Life for the product has been publicly
set. End of life for the product is determined by the the Redline company.
7.7 Product Availability Stock
Base Station:
Base Station equipment is often available within 1-2 weeks of purchase from most suppliers.
CPE Equipment:
CPE equipment ordered in bulk (500-1000 units), will need to be shipped here and would be
available within 1-3 months from most suppliers. Air fright maybe available for small orders as
extra cost (few pallets) with a lead times of 1-2 weeks.
7.8 Product Development
There seems to be no upgrade path past 108Mbps SM and AP solutions
7.9 WiMAX 802.16 Standard Systems
7.10 Product Availability - Manufacturing
This report presents Taiwanese WiMAX CPE shipment volume and value forecast and recent
quarter review of shipment volume, value, ASP, shipment ranking, and product mix. The content of
this report is based on primary data obtained through interviews with WiMAX CPE makers. This
report finds that Taiwanese WiMAX CPE shipment volume saw significant growth in the second
quarter of 2009, recording a sequential growth rate of 96.0%. Although ASP has been on the
decline, shipment value saw rapid growth on climbing shipment volume. In terms of product
technology, 802.16e products have become the mainstream shipment, while shipment share of
802.16d products continued to shrink. It is forecasted that Taiwanese WiMAX CPE shipment
volume will see continuous growth in the following quarters, with the full-year 2009 shipment

volume projected at two million units.

7.11 Product Availability Stock
Base Station:
Base Station equipment is often available within 1-2 weeks of purchase from most suppliers.
CPE Equipment:
CPE equipment ordered in bulk (500-1000 units), will need to be shipped here and would be
available within 1/2-3 months from most suppliers. Air fright maybe available as extra cost for
small orders (few pallets) with a lead times of 1-2 weeks.
7.12 Product Development
Standards Development List
802.16g-2007

Management Plane Procedures and Services

Superseded P802.16i Mobile Management
Information Base

802.16-2009

Air Interface for Fixed and Mobile Broadband

Wireless Access System

802.16j-2009

Multihop relay

P802.16h Current work

Improved Coexistence Mechanisms for LicenseExempt Operation

P802.16m Current work

Advanced Air Interface with data rates of 100

Mbit/s mobile & 1 Gbit/s fixed in progress

The IEEE 802.16m standard is the core technology for the proposed Mobile WiMAX Release 2,
which enables more efficient, faster, and more converged data communications. The IEEE 802.16m
standard has been submitted to the ITU for IMT-Advanced standardization. IEEE 802.16m is one of
the major candidates for IMT-Advanced technologies by ITU. Among many enhancements, IEEE
802.16m systems can provide four times faster data speed than the current Mobile WiMAX Release
1 based on IEEE 802.16e technology.
Mobile WiMAX Release 2 will provide strong backward compatibility with Release 1 solutions. It
will allow current Mobile WiMAX operators to migrate their Release 1 solutions to Release 2 by
upgrading channel cards or software of their systems. Also, the subscribers who use currently
available Mobile WiMAX devices can communicate with new Mobile WiMAX Release 2 systems
without difficulty.
It is anticipated that in a practical deployment, using 4X2 MIMO in the urban microcell scenario
with only a single 20 MHz TDD channel available system wide, the 802.16m system can support
both 120 Mbit/s downlink and 60 Mbit/s uplink per site simultaneously. It is expected that the
WiMAX Release 2 will be available commercially in the 2011-2012 timeframe.
The goal for the long-term evolution of WiMAX is to achieve 100 Mbit/s mobile and 1 Gbit/s fixednomadic bandwidth as set by ITU for 4G NGMN (Next Generation Mobile Network).

8.0 Product Training

8.1 Motorola
Canopy Multipoint - 2 days
$1200/day per student
Course Overview
The course provides the foundation for working
with Canopy products. Contents include product
features and specifications, how to install and
configure equipment, user interface screens,
alignment, communications and frame structure,
authentication, security and basic
troubleshooting. Labs provide hands-on
experience working with Canopy equipment
(Access Points and Subscriber Modules).
Audience
System Managers & Field Service Technicians
Course Objectives
After completing the course the participant will be able to:

Design a wireless network to meet customer requirements and performance objectives

Identify when to establish Point-to-Point or Point-to-Multipoint Canopy networks
Explain the criteria for optimal Canopy site selection
Select the correct Canopy equipment and peripherals to support a particular network design
Choose the correct type of cable for installing Canopy products
Plan installation of point-to-point and point-to-multipoint networks
Review web-based interface screens and configuration options for Canopy modules
Install and configure a Canopy Access Point and a Subscriber Module
Identify the most suitable alignment strategy (audio alignment, alignment mode,
RSSI/Jitter)
Align Canopy products using the positioning tone feature
Use an override plug to reset Canopy modules
Describe the frame structure for Canopy communications flow: inbound, outbound, high
priority traffic
Describe the operational and performance differences between "hardware" and
"software"scheduling
Present the communication registration process
Describe the function of each IP address on a Canopy unit
Explain how IP addressing is handled in Canopy, with and without NAT enabled
Discuss the available encryption alternatives for Canopy equipment
Explain how Canopy authenticates devices
Introduce the PrizmEMS system
Explain how bandwidth management can be performed on Canopy systems, with or
without BAM
Describe how Canopy follows the token-bucket theory to manage data transmissions
Identify baseline data gathering techniques to assist with any future troubleshooting

Determine the correct approach to troubleshoot Canopy issues

Explore troubleshooting of common Canopy issues
Identify the troubleshooting resources available to Canopy customers

8.2 Redline
5 Days - $5,000
Course Overview
The product support certification stream focuses
on enabling Redline customers and partners to
make the optimum use of their Redline
equipment in the context of deployment,
application, triple play support with appropriate
QoS, capacity planning, RF planning and the
ability to offer training on Redlines behalf at the
certification level.

8.3 Alvarion
CAIT BreezeMAX Certified Alvarion Installation Technician
Price:
$1,500 (for 1 seat in a public course)
Audience
Installation technicians
Course Objectives
This course presents the theoretical knowledge and appropriate hands-on training required to install
the system at the level where the radio link is active.
System architecture - overview
Commissioning
Installation
Installation Hands-on
8.4 NewClear
No Training Available

9.0 Conclusion
9.1 Data Rate:
For ADSL2 and small symmetrical accounts 802.16d and 802.16e will deliver a good service.

Equipment for PMP Symmetric services, Motorola Canopy and RedAccess products offer larger
symmetrical possibilities.
Data Rate Technology

Technology

ADSL

802.16d, 802.16e, Motorola, RedAccess

ADSL2

802.16d, 802.16e, Motorola, RedAccess

Symmetric 2M

802.16d, 802.16e, Motorola, RedAccess

Symmetric 5M

802.16d, 802.16e, Motorola, RedAccess

Symmetric 10M

Motorola, RedAccess

Symmetric 20M

Motorola, RedAccess

9.2 Coverage:
The systems reviewed, only the Motorola 802.16e units have a wireless range less than 20km. Most
of the other systems seem to be able to transmit over a 20km area, before running into RF issues.
9.3 Scalability and Upgradable:
The 802.16e technology seems to be the most scalability and upgradable. Due to the varied products
available, current development and a upgrade path in the future.
The 802.16d, Motorola Canopy and RedAccess products will probably not be developed to much
further and are mature products.
Technology

Product Development

Upgrade Path

802.16d

Some

No

802.16e

Moderate

Yes

Motorola

Some

No

RedAccess

Some

Maybe

9.4 Usability and Training:

Training for all the reviewed equipment is available.
9.5 Overall Conclusion
ADSL type services:
I recommend deploying 802.16d equipment at the moment. The equipment is cheap, plentiful.
Engineers with experience on the 802.16d platforms are more available due to the technology being
on the market for over 3 years.
ADSL2 type services:

I recommend deploying 802.16e equipment at the moment. To review up coming 802.16m

equipment for near future deployments, especially in the high density urban areas.
Symmetric type services:
I recommend deploying Redline RedConnex products for larger symmetrical services. (larger than
5/5meg) . 802.16m could have a roll to play in servicing these customers in the future.