consulting, business planning and market analysis on wireless data technologies
 

Subscribe to Senza Fili Consulting Newsletter

Senza Fili Newsletter

April 2006 issue

A new white paper prepared for Alvarion on building end-to-end WiMAX networks is available for download (see more information below).

Our client Wind Telecom has announced that it will work with Nortel to deploy a country-wide WiMAX network in the Dominican Republic. It will be one of the first mobile WiMAX commercial deployments worldwide to use MIMO-based equipment with Wave 2 functionality. Wind will offer fixed and mobile broadband access, VoIP, and video services to residential and enterprise subscribers in a market where high prices, limited competition and availability have created a pent-up demand for affordable data and voice services. For more information, send email to monica.paolini@senzafiliconsulting.com.

Senza Fili continues its collaboration with the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA), a California train operator planning to deploy a wireless broadband network that will bring Internet access to its passengers and will support a wide range of cutting-edge safety and operational applications. As part of its evaluation of different solutions, CCJPA has recently hosted a POC from Nomad Digital, demonstrating real-time CCTV communications from a passenger train, using a trackside wireless network using 802.16-based equipment from Redline Communications. Read the press release here.

WiMAX in Tuscany 2007 Workshop. Building the WiMAX ecosystem, Pisa, Italy, September 28-29, 2007. Senza Fili Consulting and Wireless will hold a two-day workshop in September (right after VON Europe) in the heart of Tuscany.

VoIP, VOD, Mobile TV, location-based search and services, online gaming, safety applications, traffic monitoring, corporate applications, advertising… How can operators develop and support the new all-IP services and applications that WiMAX will enable? A two-day seminar led by Monica Paolini, President of Senza Fili Consulting, will answer your questions on what the requirements are for key WiMAX services and applications, what pieces are still missing, and how the WiMAX ecosystem is coming together through the work of a broad set of players.

If you would like to receive the detailed program and registration information or have any queries write to us at info@senzafiliconsulting.com.

Catching up? Monica Paolini will be at WiMAX World Europe in Vienna in May. To schedule a briefing, send an email to monica.paolini@senzafiliconsulting.com.

DOWNLOAD THE PAPER

After years of intense interest and high expectations, Mobile WiMAX is now ready to be deployed. As of April 2007, products are becoming commercially available and certification is under way. Network operators worldwide are busy evaluating or planning for these deployments, selecting vendors, identifying the appropriate network architecture and often deciding how to integrate Mobile WiMAX within their legacy infrastructure.

As we move towards the implementation stage, attention is gradually widening beyond its initial focus on the radio interface. It was the natural place to start, as it is the main building block of a WiMAX network and is responsible for most of the spectrum efficiency and cost savings that WiMAX promises. As they start to plan end-to-end networks, however, network operators have increasingly been looking beyond the air interface, to the entire Access Service Network (ASN) and the Connectivity Service Network (CSN).

The ASN coordinates traffic across multiple Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) and supports security, handoffs and Quality of Service (QoS). The CSN manages core network operations through Internet Protocol (IP) servers, Authorization, Authentication and Accounting (AAA), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) gateways, and it provides an interface to legacy core networks and other operators' networks.

The open IP architecture which is at the core of WiMAX marks a pivotal innovation among non-proprietary mobile technologies. It is set to decrease the complexity and cost to network operators, while increasing the flexibility in developing new services and applications and the freedom in selecting the best suited vendors. Furthermore, according to Rick Galatioto, Product Line Manager at Cisco, an ASN and IP solutions vendor, "the adoption of an open IP architecture by network providers represents a crucial step towards empowering end users and giving them more control in choosing applications."

If network operators want to reap the full benefits that WiMAX and its all-IP architecture can deliver, they need to carefully select the ASN and CSN solutions that best suit their requirements and provide all the functionality required while avoiding unnecessary complexity in their network.

Each operator has to carefully identify its own requirements, dictated by the type of services offered, the market segments targeted, the spectrum available, and the topography of the coverage area. There is no single solution that works for all, and operators need to make key choices about the management and core networks as they plan for their WiMAX networks.

This paper was prepared for Alvarion and it aims to assist network operators in understanding what lies beyond base stations in a WiMAX network, and what options are available to them as they move forward along one of the most exciting technological frontiers in a still largely uncharted territory.

DOWNLOAD THE PAPER