WiMax chip-set available in 2004 !?

[willem huitema]

SISSO EL-HAMAMSY, WI-LAN: "......Wi-LAN intends to be the first to market with a commercially viable WiMAX compliant system, and we believe that the combination of interoperability enabled by WiMAX and the cost reduction of the CPE enabled by the System-on-Chip will be the trigger for the growth of the global
market for wireless metropolitan area network equipment....."

CHRIS UMIASTOWSKI, ORION: OK, fantastic. And then if you can maybe just give me a – as a final question – an update on WiMAX and where the Forum is in terms of are they getting to the point where they're ready to certify products as WiMAX compliant, or is anybody looking like they're going to be coming to market? Fujitsu's chip, for example, is that going to be something that's still on track for 2004?

SISSO EL-HAMAMSY, WI-LAN: Yes, Fujitsu's there, but it's been Fujitsu and us since we're essentially codeveloping
it, and we are going to be there with a chip-set in 2004. Now WiMAX will only certify full systems, there is an access point and a CPE, so therefore when we put it into a complete system that's when we will submit it for certification to WiMAX. Nobody has yet produced any product or submitted it to WiMAX so far, in spite of
some of the announcements that were made, and I think they were a bit premature."

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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wilan/message/6899

[willem huitema]

WiMax Forum targets first systems by end of year
Rick Merritt
Jan 21, 2004 (9:00 AM)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The WiMax Forum laid out during an open meeting
here Tuesday (Jan. 20) an ambitious schedule that calls for releasing
their first 802.16a-complaint systems by the end of the year.

The plan follows the completion of a new draft of the standard that
backers said will be the version they take to silicon.

The 68 members of the WiMax Forum are rallying around IEEE 802.16a as
a means for bringing a common standard to what has been to date a
field of highly proprietary and relatively expensive systems for
carrier-class broadband wireless access (BWA). The spec defines
systems that can deliver up to 74 Mbits/s of bandwidth over distances
up to 50 km using spectrum bands that can range from 6 to 11 GHz.

At the Vancouver 802 plenary meeting last week, engineers finished
work on revision D of .16a. The new revision is expected to be
formally adopted in a vote in the third quarter, but chip and systems
makers say at this point the spec is now solid enough to finish the
designs for first-generation chips. Those chips are expected to ship
at about the same time the spec is officially ratified. The WiMax
Forum plans to finish a test suite for compliance to the standard by
October and hold its first "plugfests" in November or December to
check that first systems conform to the standard. System makers will
then have to undergo final conformance testing, a process that
initially could take about a month, at a lab yet to be set up. That
opens the door to the possibility of the first WiMax-compliant
systems shipping at year's end.

"It's a tight schedule, but we think we can hit it" said Paul Senior,
vice president of product management and marketing at Airspan
Networks (Uxbridge, England), a fixed wireless systems maker that
plans to be among the first to ship systems using Intel Corp.'s
upcoming Rosedale chip set.

"This is an execution year for us and the BWA industry with both
products and interoperability plans. We have to have products," said
Aditya Agarwal, a product planning manager for Fujitsu
Microelectronics which is codeveloping a baseband chip for 802.16a,
rev D with system maker Wi-LAN Inc. (Calgary, Alberta).

Senior said the new revision D of the standard brings two key
additions to .16a. The revision defines a sub-channelization scheme
that allows chipmakers to use smaller, cheaper power amplifiers. It
also provides key hooks for using antenna diversity techniques such
as multiple input, multiple output antennas.

"Rev D is what WiMax compatibility will be all about," he added.

About five chip makers are currently planning first-generation WiMax
chips including Fujitsu and Intel which is working with a handful of
OEMs including Airspan and Alvarion (San Jose). Wavesat Wireless Inc.
(Dorval, Quebec) and at least one Taiwanese company also are said to
be planning first-generation 802.16a chip sets as well. "Choosing
Intel was for us a case of time-to-market," said Senior.

Realistically, WiMax members say it will be the first half of 2005
before systems start shipping in volume for outdoor deployments with
the first indoor deployments and major carrier rollouts expected in
the second half. An 802.16e standard for mobility and roaming, also
to be ratified in the fall, is not expected to be supported in
systems until 2006.

Futher....

-Intel Outlines Broadband Wireless Vision
-WiMAX could bring Internet to millions
-NYT: Intel Pursuing Much Faster Home Internet Access
-Intel braves new world of WiMax
-Intel: On Track to Deliver WiMAX This Year
-Peering Into the WiMAX Spec: Part 1 & 2
-Improving OFDM Performance with Dual Rx Antennas
-Unwired Australia Selects Airspan AS4030 802.16a OFDM Products for
its Phase 1 Sydney Network Rollout

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