What is WiMAX?

In this post I will explain what is WiMAX. WiMAX means Wordwide Interoperability for Microwave Acess, is a technology which follows the IEEE 802.16 standard to wireless communications to provide fixed and mobile broad band internet.

Features

Some WiMAX features:

6 to 9 Km range, vary with obstacles;
Can be used when is not viable to install cable or optics fibers;
Since it follows the IEEE 802.16 standard, operate in 2 to 10 GHz;
Provide internet and telephone access, data and voice transfer;
70 Mbps speed;
User and base station don’t need to stay in visible range.

Architecture

This is the IP based WiMAX architecture:

MS are mobile stations which are consumer’s smartphones, tablets, PC. ASN is Access Service Network composed by base stations which function is provide interface to mobile stations, ASN Gateway (GW) is an aggregation traffic layer and form the radio access network. CSN provides connection with the internet, ASP, private and public networks.

AAA means Authentication, Authorization and Accounting server; used to services which demand subscription, PSTN is public telephone network, OSS/BSS are operation system support and business operation system, 3GPP/3GPP2 are third generation standard, MIP-HA is Mobile IP Home Agent which is a router to keep information about the device’s location.

Infrastructure

This figure shows the architecture with device’s representations.