WiMAX - Technology Integrating the Internet and Broadband - Article Example

Introduction to WiMAX: WiMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. It is a digital telecommunication system and is actually designed for providing the transmission of data using wireless technology. At present world, there are two types of technologies that are being broadly used for data transmission and these technologies include broadband and internet. The WiMAX is a technology that is integrating both of the internet as well as broadband. The WiMAX serves over the Wide Area Network (WAN) and has provided the effective services over homes, colleges, campuses and many other places by creating the wireless spots. The broadband wireless access (BWA) that is provided by the WiMAX can provide services till 30miles when it is being used for fixed stations. In mobile stations this technology can provide the services from 3miles to 10miles. WiMAX is developed over the IEEE 802.16 which is Air Interface Standard. The architecture of WiMAX can be termed as a point to multi point architecture. WiMAX is a perfect choice for providing the broadband services to the areas where it is difficult to manage the wired connections for any reason. So, it is also possible to provide the WiMAX technology by routers or bridges to the Local Area Networks (LANs). The WiMAX can provide shared data rate of 70Mbps which is quite sufficient for facilitating up to thousands of homes in an area with sound speed and service. WiMAX is able to provide the services to the entire city. Currently, WiMAX is also now being provided built in to the laptops which have also allowed the users to make use of the mobility feature of WiMAX. The configuration of WiMAX needs a tower which will enable to make connection by making use of standard wired high speed connection. Along with tower it also needs a microwave link for making the connection completed. The configuration and setup of WiMAX does not require making connection point to point so it can be said that it is easy to deploy and not much efforts and time are wasted in setting up the system. (Blacharski, 1) Summary: As this is the age of development, innovation, information and technology; different technologies are emerging daily. The innovation of internet has just changed the scenario of entire world and now things are quite different. Internet has become the essential need of every organization and home. By observing the necessity of this technology innovations and developments are continuously being made in this field. Dialup networks, broad band, WiFi and now WiMAX are the rapid changes that have been made in this field and these changes are striving for improving the internet access. The topic of this paper that is under consideration is WiMAX. The paper provides the detailed study of WiMAX and discusses its many advantages and disadvantages so that people can be able to choose the right technology for them. WiMAX is the recent emerging technology and is considered to replace the other technologies soon. WiMAX has solved the problems of easy access, bandwidth and coverage to the large extent. This technology is having all the characteristics of the previous technologies and also this technology is eliminating the issues that were related to the previous internet providing technologies. Although there are also some shortfalls of this technology like high cost of implementation and installation, shared bandwidth and few more. It is very easy to setup the WiMAX network and it can also cover the areas where there are no telephone lines and hence no internet. The technologies are always appreciated and WiMAX is one of those technologies. The paper provides the in depth analysis of WiMAX, its network, its components, advantages and disadvantages. The Body Need of WiMAX: Man is always looking for something better and it’s his curiosity that forces him to device always something new. Internet is one of the rapidly growing communication and information sources, and it matters a lot that how much this media is fast enough to convey our information to others and others information to us. In today’s world of growing technology there are different ways by which users can access the internet. The options that are used for accessing the internet are broadband, dialup and WiFi. All of these three options are widely used but having some limitations. The dialup internet does not provide the required speed and the transfer rate as well as sharing rate is very slow. The bottleneck of broad band internet is that it is very much costly and every single person is not able to afford it. Another issue with broad band internet is that it is not accessible in every area. In WiFi services, the hotspots are created at different locations like colleges, restaurants and so on. The issue with this type of internet connection is that these hot spots are not available everywhere and are seen rarely which makes the coverage very limited. So there was a need of a technology that can be a solution to every stated problem. These problems gave rise to the development of WiMAX. The WiMAX solved all of the problems that were given by the entire internet providing services by giving options that were available with previous technologies, such as: High speed: The high speed is considered to be the characteristic of the broadband services. Wireless: This property of WiMAX eliminated the hectic efforts of deploying the wired network and it also reduced the expenses of wires, cables and DSL. Coverage: The coverage of WiMAX is much better than the WiFi and can be found in many of the areas. In short WiMAX provides users a wireless alternative to cable and DSL, assure them telecommunication and data services and becomes a source of internet connectivity in businesses and government departments. WiMAX is the recent technology and it has not been so much in to use commonly. But it is expected that with time this technology will overcome all the other technologies that are intended to provide internet facilities. This technology has got the potentials to replace all the other technologies. The setups are being made and there will be a time when after turning on the computers you will have to do nothing and automatically will be connected to the internet with the nearest WiMAX tower available. (Brain, 1) Advantages of WiMAX: WiMAX is the latest technology and this technology is getting popular with a rapid pace. A lot of advantages and benefits have been provided by this technology but the most important advantage of this technology is that it can provide fixed as well as portable access to internet with high speed. The WiMAX has facilitated the Wide Area Networks with good coverage. WiMAX is termed as the first truly open mobile standard that is accessible from everywhere. It is very revolutionary technology and slowly and gradually is being adapted everywhere. WiMAX is able to provide the wide coverage and can cover almost the entire city easily. The WiMAX is also advantageous as it is not very difficult to deploy and can be deployed within couple of days. It has also eliminated the costs of DSL, cables and wires for the deployment. This system has also provided with the greatly improved performances and it is also very innovative. The property licensing fees of WiMAX is also comparatively lower. WiMAX can also provide many different services over a single platform. Due to its many advantages it is believed that WiMax will take over all the other technologies that are being used for providing internet access. (Fuertes, 1) Above all the competition is build by the WiMAX in the telecommunication systems, therefore the prices of broadband and other telecommunication systems come to a place which is economically achievable for everyone. WiMAX can provide communication ways when all communication infrastructures destroyed, incase of any disaster. For example WiMAX was exploiting to assist communication systems in Aceh, Indonesia after the tsunami in December 2004. The entire communication infrastructure in the area is destroyed, just amateur radio is saved. People who survived, have no medium to contact or communicate with the people aside from the catastrophe area and vice versa. Now WiMAX was only the communication medium that assisted in regenerating communication to and from Aceh. By and large WiMAX is the sophisticated communication device of the present which has proven to be very advantageous for the humanity. For example, Intel Corporation contributed WiMAX to FCC (Federal Communications Systems) and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) of U.S in order to help them in their communications efforts in the areas attacked by the strong tropical storms. Spectral efficiency is one of the important advantages of WiMAX. For example the spectral efficiency of 802.16-2004 is 3.7 (bit/s)/Hertz, whereas the spectral efficiency of 3.5 - 4 G wireless system is within tenths of a percent. Another remarkable advantage of WiMAX is that it combines the smart antenna technologies with SOFDMA, which multiplies its effective spectral efficiency. (Sweeney 2008) Disadvantages of WiMAX: Apart from having many advantages this technology are also having some of the disadvantages like the operational expenses and the installation expenses of WiMax are very high. In some cases the bandwidth of WiMAX is shared by many users which make the system slow for the users. Sometimes, WiMAX is supposed to operate efficiently only in desired conditions. Some of these disadvantages have proved that still there is a need of improvement in this technology. (Disadvantages of WiMAX, 1) WiMAX Availability: WiMAX service is attainable in both indoor and outdoor versions depending on manufacturers. WiMAX self install indoor units are comfortable, but in this case user must be near the WiMAX base station, because of radio losses. This condition is not required incase user have professionally installed external units. In addition to this, high number of base stations are demanded in order to cover a given area incase of indoor installed units. It demands first higher investment for infrastructure then high operational cost as well, while these indoor units are not more in size than a cable or DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) modem. Installation of outdoor units is similar to the installation of satellite dish used in homes and its size is approximately equal to laptop PC. However with the time now portable units are caught attention because of mobile WiMAX. Portable units are composed of cellular smart phones, PC Cards or USB (Universal Serial Bus) dongles, these devices are also inlaid in laptops and Mobile Internet devices. (Biggs 2009) Limitations Every product or thing even human being always has some limitations. Similarly WiMAX has some limitations, as it is a frequent misconception that WiMAX will give 70 Mbit/s over 50 kilometers, while in actual WiMAX can operate even at higher bit rates or over long distances, but with restrictions. Means it does not satisfy both the higher bit rate and long distances, if it is operated at the range of 50 kilometers then bit rate decreases while the bit error rate increases. While on contrary if the range is below 1 kilometer then the device must operate on higher bit rates. In a characteristic way, higher gain directional antennas are installed in the areas where customers are located, that result in the enhancement of range and rate of transfer of data. Mobile WiMAX has portable omni directional antennas that have lower gain as compared to directional antennas. In newly installed fixed WiMAX, rate of transfer may reach 2 Mbit/s in area of 10 kilometer with the help of a high gain antenna. Higher gain directional antennas have some drawbacks along with some benefits, as it gives high rate of transfer but along with evident loss of mobility. In wireless systems valid bandwidth is shared betwixt all the users in a given radio sector, therefore obviously if many users are online or active then performance could be declined. There is limitation for users also, most users can have a range of 2 - 3 Mbit/s services therefore radio cards must be added to the base station to escalate the number of users. As it is described that there are number of limitations, therefore the general agreement is that WIMAX needs assorted coarse and allocated network structures to be embodied with the (IEEE 802.16) grids, wireless mesh. (Kahn 2005) WiMAX Security: People are always concerned with the security issues when it comes to WiMAX. Some people get worried with the wireless connections because of the security system. Every wireless system broadcasts, data being used by a person and due to this anyone in the range can access that data or information. I believe security is every much important in each and every communication system especially in the wireless connectivity. In a wireless connection any person who is in the range of the wireless broadcast due to its security issues could be able to access the system. Thus security is a big issue in wireless system connectivity. The most important phenomena for an end user is security and integrity of the data. The end user has to be fully assured in a wireless system connectivity provided by their service providers that no one can access or spy on their sessions. When looking at the point of view of service provider an important security system should be granted and this can only be done by strong authentication and by the methods of control access. This can be provided at different levels of the networks for example personally secured or by the service provider. The basic need of service provider is to prevent fraud that can impose inconvenience to the user. (Free WiMAX info, 1) WiMAX Wireless Network: The working of WiMAX and WiFi are almost similar but the speed of WiMAX is much higher as compared to WiFi. WiMAX is providing its services over large distances and is serving huge number of people all around the world. It is supposed that WiMAX can easily access to those areas as well where at the moment the internet access has not been possible. These areas are still not having the facility of internet because it is difficult for the telephone companies to establish the cables and wired networks in the areas. It is easy to establish the WiMAX networks as compared to the broadband and dialup services. The WiMAX does not need to implement large setups involving a huge number of equipments which also makes it easier to implement the network. There are two major parts of WiMAX and which are given below: WiMAX Tower: The tower of WiMAX is just like the cellular phone towers. These towers are deployed to provide coverage to the people who want to access the internet. The single tower of WiMAX can provide internet coverage to the large area. The area can be large enough and can range up to 3000 square miles. This huge coverage easily shows that the WiMAX towers can provide huge coverage as a reason of which the WiMAX towers can be deployed at large distances and can provide access to large number of people. WiMAX Receiver: The WiMAX receiver is nothing but a small box or it can also be a PCMCIA card. The connection of WiMAX tower and internet is always direct using high bandwidth and a connection that is wired. The tower station can connect to its different towers established at different places by using the microwave links. This tower to tower connection has enabled this technology to provide internet access to the areas where the internet is not easy to access. There are two types of wireless services that are actually being provided by the WiMAX technology. Non Line of Sight: In this type of service the antenna that is placed over your computer directly connects to the tower. Line of Sight: In this type of service the WiMAX tower is indicated by the fixed antennas from a pole. This type of service is considered to be the most powerful and stable one. The detected errors while transmitting the data are also not much. (Brain, 1) Conclusion: By having the detailed study of WiMAX this paper suggests that WiMAX is a new technology and should be welcomed by everyone. This technology has enabled the internet access over the large distances by creating hot spots. At every hot spot one tower is fixed and that tower can give coverage to almost thousands of people. This setup has made it possible to spread the internet access over the entire world. The WiMAX configuration is easy to setup as it does not require a huge amount of equipment. But there is a problem with the configuration of the WiMAX network that this network is expensive to be installed and configured. Although there are many advantages of this technology like coverage, high speed and internet access and so on but still there are some disadvantages as well. The WiMAX has combined all the features of other technologies like broad band, DSL and WiFi and due to this reason the WiMAX has replaced all the technologies. The WiMAX can act as both line of sight and on line of sight. In this progressing age there is always a need of improvement and WiMAX is such a technology that is trying to improve the speed as well as coverage. It is being thought that WiMAX will be the future of the internet and it will replace all the other technologies. Just there is a need to improve some the bandwidth and the operational cost that can be controlled over time. WiMax is same as WiFi and operates similar to the general principles of WiFi, which is to send data from one system to another system through radio signals. WiMax is same as WiFi and operates similar to the general principles of WiFi, which is to send data from one system to another system through radio signals. In this way the data from one system to another can be sent very quickly and efficiently. It will provide same speed to all the computers. In this way the data from one system to another can be sending very quickly and efficiently. Works Cited Andy Fuertes, The real WiMAX advantage (2009) http://www.wimax.com/commentary/spotlight/spotlight12-27-2005mw1 Accessed April 23, 2009 Dan Blacharski, What is WiMAX? (2009) http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-wimax.htm Accessed April 23, 2009 Disadvantages of WiMAX (2009) http://www.home-wlan.com/disadvantages-of-wimax.html Accessed April 23, 2009 Free WiMAX info: WiMAX security (2008) http://www.freewimaxinfo.com/wimax-security.html Accessed April 27, 2009 Marshall Brain, how stuff works, How WiMAX works? (2009) http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wimax.htm Accessed April 23, 2009 Biggs, Gennifer. "Is WiMAX Ready For Prime Time?" May 2009. Business Solutions. 30 Apr 2009 http://www.businesssolutionsmag.com/index.php?option=com_jambozine&layout=article&view=page&aid=3913 Kahn, Dr. Kevin. "Evolution of WiMAX." 27 Jan 2005. Intel Corporation. 30 Apr 2009 http://cfp.mit.edu/events/jan05/presentations/Kahn_WiMax.pdf Sweeney, Gail Heck. "WiMAX: Moving Beyond the Mobile." 2008. Electronic Measurements Group. 30 Apr 2009 http://www.conference.cn/wimax/2006/upload/GailHeck-Sweeney.PDF Read More