WiMAX

Technical Overview, STC Business Model and market drivers

Riyadh
March. 2008

NETWORK DESIGN
Wireless Access
Technologies & Solutions
Ayman Kaddour
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PART 1

WiMAX, Technical Overview

PART 2

STCs WiMAX Network

PART 3

Market Drivers

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PART 1

WiMAX, Technical Overview

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WiMAX Forum, Standard, certification and profiles

 WiMAX Forum It is a non-profit industry body.
 WiMAX Forum ensuring that different vendors
products will interoperate.
 WiMAX Forum Certified means a service provider can
buy equipment from more than one company and be
confident that everything works together.
 The IEEE 802.16 standard is similar but not exactly the
same as the European driven HiperMAN or the Korean
WiBro standard. However, the IEEE 802.16 standard
incorporates support for both ETSI HiperMAN and
WiBro.

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WiMAX Standard, Forum, certification and profiles

 To achieve official WiMAX certification, the equipment, which includes the base station and the
subscriber unit, must demonstrate both conformance and interoperability.

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WiMAX & Other Broadband Wireless Technologies

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WiMAX & Other Broadband Wireless Technologies (HSDPA)

 3G Cellular System
 Mobile operators using GSM (global system for mobile communications) are deploying UMTS (universal mobile telephone
system) and HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) technologies as part of their 3G evolution.
 Traditional CDMA operators are deploying 1x EV-DO (1x evolution data optimized) as their 3G solution for broadband
data.
 All these 3G solutions provide data throughput capabilities on the order of a few hundred kilobits per second to a few
megabits per second.

HSDPA
 HSDPA is a downlink-only air interface defined in the Third-generation Partnership Project (3GPP) UMTS Release 5
specifications. HSDPA is capable of providing a peak user data rate (layer 2 throughput) of 14.4Mbps, using a 5MHz
FDD channel. Realizing this data rate, however, requires the use of all 15 codes, which is unlikely to be implemented in
mobile terminals. Using 5 and 10 codes, HSDPA supports peak data rates of 3.6Mbps and 7.2Mbps, respectively.
 Typical average rates that users obtain are in the range of 250kbps to 750kbps. Enhancements, such as spatial
processing, diversity reception in mobiles, and multiuser detection, can provide significantly higher performance over
basic HSDPA systems.
 HSDPA is a downlink-only interface; hence until an uplink complement of this is implemented, the
peak data rates achievable on the uplink will be less than or equal to 384kbps, in most cases averaging 40kbps to
100kbps.
 An uplink version, HSUPA (high-speed uplink packet access), supports peak data rates up to 5.8Mbps and is standardized
as part of the 3GPP Release 6 specifications. HSDPA and HSUPA together are referred to as HSPA (high-speed packet
access).

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WiMAX & Other Broadband Wireless Technologies (1xEV-DO)

1xEV-DO
 1x EV-DO is a high-speed data standard defined as an evolution to second-generation IS-95 CDMA systems by
the 3GPP2 standards organization.
 The standard supports a peak downlink data rate of 2.4Mbps in a 1.25MHz channel. Typical userexperienced data rates are in the order of 100kbps to 300kbps. Revision A of 1x EV-DO supports a peak
rate of 3.1Mbps Revision B will support 4.8Mbps. These versions can also support uplink data rates of up to
1.8Mbps. (CDMA was planned to be used to offer voice and data to WLL subscribers).
LTE
 3GPP is developing the next major revision to the 3G standards.
 The objective of this long-term evolution (LTE) is to be able to support a peak data rate of 100Mbps in the
downlink and 50Mbps in the uplink (20MHz BW), with an average spectral efficiency that is three to four
times that of Release 6 HSPA. In order to achieve these high data rates and spectral efficiency, the air
interface will likely be based on OFDM/OFDMA and MIMO (multiple input/multiple output), with similarities
to WiMAX.

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WiMAX & Other Broadband Wireless Technologies (1xEV-DO)

 WiFi Systems
 Current Wi-Fi systems based on IEEE 802.11a/g support a peak physical-layer data rate of 54Mbps and
typically provide indoor coverage over a distance of 30-40 m.
 STC is intends to launch a project Wi-Fi project to cover airports, streets, malls communities
around the kingdom to provide broadband access. This application of Wi-Fi overlaps with the fixed and
nomadic application space of WiMAX.
 Metro-area Wi-Fi deployments rely on higher power transmitters that are deployed on lampposts or
building tops and radiating at or close to the maximum allowable power limits for operating in the
license-exempt band. Even with high power transmitters, Wi-Fi systems can typically provide a
coverage range of only about 250 m from the access point (AP).
 Wi-Fi systems are not designed to support high-speed mobility.
 One significant advantage of Wi-Fi over WiMAX and 3G is the wide availability of terminal devices. A
vast (majority of laptops shipped today have a built-in Wi-Fi interface)
 As with 3G, the capabilities of Wi-Fi are being enhanced to support even higher data rates and to
provide better QoS support. In particular, using multiple-antenna spatial multiplexing technology, the
emerging IEEE 802.11n standard will support a peak layer 2 throughput of at least 100Mbps. IEEE
802.11n is also expected to provide significant range improvements through the use of transmit
diversity and other advanced techniques.
 2008 Q3/Q4, Intel will lunch a laptops with built-in IEEE 802.11n and IEEE 802.16 (e)

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WiMAX Standard, Forum, certification and profiles

Frequency
Band

Channel
Bandwidth

OFDM
FFT Size

Duplexing

Notes

Deployment in STC
Network

Fixed WiMAX Profiles

3.5MHz

256

FDD

Product already certified

3.5MHz

256

TDD

Product already certified,

7 MHz

256

FDD

7 MHz

256

TDD

VPN services

3.5 GHz

Mobile WiMAX Profiles

5 MHz

512

TDD

10MHz

1,024

TDD

8.75MHz

1,024

TDD

3.5MHz

512

TDD

5 MHz

512

TDD

10 MHz

1024

TDD

5 MHz

512

TDD

10MHz

1024

TDD

5 MHz

512

TDD

7 MHz

1024

TDD

10 MHz

1024

TDD

3.4GHz3.8GHz

5 MHz

512

TDD

3.4GHz3.6GHz

7 MHz

1024

TDD

3.6GHz3.8GHz

10 MHz

1024

TDD

2.3GHz2.4GHz

2.305GHz 2.320GHz

2.345GHz2.360GHz
2.496GHz2.69GHz

3.3GHz3.4GHz

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Both bandwidths must be supported by

mobile station (MS)

Both bandwidths must be supported by

mobile station (MS).

ADSL-Like Services

WiMAX Main Features

 WiMAX is a wireless broadband solution that offers a rich set of features with a lot of flexibility in terms of
deployment options and potential service offerings.

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Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)

 OFDM is a transmission techniques that splits a high bit rate digital stream into a number of low bit rate
digital stream and transmit each one on a separate sub-carriers (tones) in parallel.
 OFDM (Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing)-based physical layer
The WiMAX physical layer (PHY) is based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, a scheme that
offers good resistance to multipath, and allows WiMAX to operate in NLOS conditions.
Single Carrier Mode

Signal Level

OFDM Mode

Subcarrier

256

Frequency

Only a few subcarriers are lost due to fading This can be overcome with proper channel coding.

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Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)

 Mobile WiMAX uses OFDM as a multiple-access technique, whereby different users can be allocated different subsets of OFDM
subcarriers.
 OFDMA is a multiple-access method that allows simultaneous transmissions to and from several users.
 The key difference between both transmission methods is that OFDM allows only one user on the channel at any given time
whereas OFDMA allows multiple access on the same channel.
 OFDMA is also very well suited for use with AAS and MIMO which can significantly improve throughput, increase link range, and
reduce interference.
Pilot sub-carriers
guard sub-carriers
Nulls

Data sub-carriers

guard sub-carriers
Nulls

AK

User 1 Data Sub-carriers

DC sub-carriers

User 2 Data Sub-carriers

User 3 Data Sub-carriers

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Scalable-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (S-OFDMA)

 The scalability is supported in the OFDMA mode, where the FFT (fast fourier transform) size
may be scaled based on the available channel bandwidth. For example, a WiMAX system may
use 128, 512, or 1,048-bit FFTs based on whether the channel bandwidth is 1.25MHz, 5MHz, or
10MHz, respectively.
 Increasing the number of subcarriers leads to better immunity to the inter-symbol interference
(ISI) caused by multipath (due to longer symbols).
 Recommended for mobile WiMAX only.

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Main Features of WiMAX

 Very high peak data rates
 Using a 10MHz spectrum operating using TDD scheme with a 3:1 downlink-to-uplink ratio, the peak PHY
data rate is about 22 Mbps and 5.6 Mbps for the downlink and the uplink, respectively (These peak PHY
data rates are achieved when using 64 QAM modulation with rate 5/6 error-correction coding).
 Adaptive modulation and coding (AMC)
 WiMAX supports a number of modulation and forward error correction (FEC) coding schemes and allows
the scheme to be changed on a per user and per frame basis, based on channel conditions.
 The use of the highest modulation and coding scheme that can be supported by the signal-to-noise and
interference ratio (CINR) at the receiver such that each user is provided with the highest possible data
rate that can be supported in their respective links.

BPSK

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QPSK

64-QAM

Coverage vs Capacity
 WiMAX uses a combination of adaptive modulation schemes and coding ranging from 1/2 rate QPSK to 3/4
rate 64QAM.

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Time Division Duplexing (TDD)

 Support for TDD and FDD
IEEE 802.16-2004 and IEEE 802.16e-2005 supports both time division duplexing and frequency
division duplexing. The initial release of Mobile WiMAX certification profiles will only include TDD.
TDD is favored by a majority of implementations because of its advantages:
-flexibility in choosing uplink-to-downlink data rate ratios,
-ability to implement in non-paired spectrum, and
-less complex transceiver design
 To counter interference issues, TDD does require system-wide synchronization

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Quality Of Service (QoS)

 The IEEE 802.16 standard provides powerful tools in order to achieve 5 different QoS constraints.
 Every user has a quality of scheduling service class (QoS class).
 According to the service class , the BTS scheduler allocates the necessary amount of bandwidth
required for each application.
 Real-time application, such as a video/voice applications, will have the priority in bandwidth allocation
in comparison with FTP or email applications.
 Presently WiFi (WLAN) and 3G systems, all services have exactly the same level of QoS.

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Multiple-Antenna Systems Overview

 WiMAX has been conceived to operate in NLOS and multipath environments.
 Modern multiple-antenna systems can be designed to take advantage of multipath, rather than treat
it as something to be avoided, as is the case for traditional single antenna systems.
 The use of Mutiple Antenna techniques along with adaptive modulation and coding enable the mobile
WiMAX technology to support both peak downlink and uplink high data rates.
 When multiple antennas are used at both the transmitter and the receiver, these three approaches
are often collectively referred to as multiple/input multiple output (MIMO) and can be used to
 Increase the system reliability (decrease the bit or packet error rate)
 Increase the achievable data rate and hence system capacity
 Increase the coverage area
 Decrease the required transmit power

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Multiple-Antenna Systems Overview

 The IEEE 802.16 standard supports a number of options for multiple-antenna techniques, including:
 Diversity Schemes,
 Adaptive Antenna Systems-AAS, and
 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems.

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Spatial Diversity (transmit)

Open Loop Transmit Diversity
 The most popular open-loop transmit-diversity scheme is space/time coding, whereby a code known to
the receiver is applied at the transmitter.
 Similar to MIMO Matrix A

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Spatial Diversity (Receive)

Selection combining (SC)
 Selection combining is the simplest type of combiner, in that it simply estimates the instantaneous strengths
of each of the Nr streams and selects the highest one.
 Each added (uncorrelated) antenna does increase the average SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio)
 About 15 dB of improvement is achieved by adding a single receive antenna, and the improvement increases
to 20 dB with an additional antenna.

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Spatial Diversity (Receive)

Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC)
 Maximal ratio combining combines the information from all the received branches in order to maximize
the ratio of signal-to-noise power
 MRC works by weighting each branch with a (q) factor and then adding all branches.
 Branches with lower SNRs should be given relatively less weight and then the total SNR is achieved by
simply adding up the branch SNRs when the appropriate weighting coefficients are used.

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Spatial Multiplexing-MIMO Systems

 From a data rate standpoint, the most exciting type of MIMO communication is spatial multiplexing, which
refers to breaking the incoming high rate-data stream into independent Nt data streams,
 The WiMAX Forum Mobility Task Group (MTG) defined profile specifies two MIMO versions called Matrix A
MIMO and Matrix B MIMO.

 Matrix A MIMO (Alamouti Code)

 This technique captures diversity gains by sending a single data stream in two parts out of two antennas,
interleaved with transformed/conjugated versions of the same information, so that the receiver has higher
probability of successfully extracting the desired signal.
 Matrix A MIMO is useful in networks with light loading and relatively high subscriber mobility.

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Multiple-Antenna Systems -Spatial Multiplexing-MIMO Systems

Matrix B MIMO
 For channels with a rich multipath environment it is possible to increase the data rate by transmitting
separate information streams on each antenna in the DL direction.
 Using 2 transmit and 2 receive Tx/Rx chains (and the associated antennas), up to twice the capacity of a
single antenna system can be achieved.
 Capacity achieved by Matrix B MIMO is roughly proportional to the number of Tx/Rx chains used. A 4x4
system will have up to 4 times the capacity of a single antenna system.

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Adaptive Antenna Systems (AAS) or beamforming

 When receiving a signal, beamforming can increase the gain
in the direction of wanted signals and decrease the gain in
the direction of interference and noise.
 When transmitting a signal, beamforming can increase the
gain in the direction the signal is to be sent and direct nulls
at users that would otherwise be interfered with.
 AAS typically delivers a +10 to 15 dB link budget
improvement relative to a single antenna architecture.
 AAS can provide significant capacity benefits, especially
when used in combination with spatial multiplexing
techniques

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Synchronization in TDD WiMAX System

 To counter interference issues, TDD does require system-wide synchronization.
 Each WiMAX BTS should have a synchronization to receive a one pulse-per-second (PPS) timing signal from
an external GPS.
 Unsynchronized SCs/BTS should have Same frame duration for all BTS and Same UL/DL in order to avoid
inter-sector interference. Furthermore, DBA should be disabled and SBA activated.

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PART 2

STCs WiMAX Network

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STCs Business Model

Standard

IEEE 802.16-2004 (d)

IEEE 802.16-2005 (e)

Service

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

ADSL-like service

Application

Data

Internet Access

Customers

Business Customers (Bank, mall,

enterprise, government)

Residential Customers (ADSL HO)

Deployment scenario

6-Sector deployment

3-Sector deployment

Capacity/User

64 kbps to 4 Mbps

512 kbps to 2 Mbps

BW & Frequency Band

8x3.5 MHz @ 3.5 GHz (3.4 GHz - 3.6GHz)

3x5 MHz 2.5 GHz (2.496 GHz - 2.69GHz)

Oversubscription

Dedicated Service (1:1)

20:1

Network Dimension

135 BTS to covet the whole kingdom

populated areas

80 BTS (Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam)

CPE

Outdoor

Indoor (desktop)

Average Capacity/sector

9 Mbps (7000 customer @ 1 Mbps)

7 Mbps (MAX 30,000 @ 1 Mbps)

Owner

Saudi Data

Al Hatef

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WiMAX Projects-SoWs

2005 Project

2007 Project *

September 2005

June 2007

73 sites

132 Sites + 3 BS in Training Center

Customer

Business

Business + Residential

Vendor

Lucent

Huawei (81 BS) + BTC (24)+ ADMC (40)

Closeout

On going : ( backhaul for 3 sites + as-built)

May 2008

~51,000,000

43,300,000 +9,000,000

District/City

(Riy, Jed, Dam) + Mak, Mad, Taif,Jub,

Yanb, Jizan, Abha, Tabuk

34 Cities Kingdom Wide for Business and

3 major city for ADSL-Like service

WiMAX Standard

IEEE 802.16-2004 (d)

IEEE 802.16-2005 (e)

Launched
SoW

Budget

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WiMAX Network SoW Details

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WiMAX Network Coverage Map

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STCs WiMAX Network-Business customers (IEEE 802.16-2004)

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STCs WiMAX Network-ADSL-Like Service (IEEE 802.16-2005)

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Frequency Planning
Enterprise WiMAX Network

Residential WiMAX Network

F3

F3

F1

F1
F2

F2
F3

F3

F3
F1

F2

F2

F2
F3

F3
F1

F2

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F1

F1

F1
F2

PART 3

Market Drivers

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WiMAX Manufacturers
 Currently more than 350 members already
 Widely support, more than 350 members in Q2 2006

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Chipset
Chipset progress
 Sequence, Runcom, GCT, Fujitsu, Beceem, have already released 16e chipset
 Intel released the first version of 16e compatible OEM PCMCIA in Dec 2006
 2008 Q3/Q4, Intel will lunch a laptops with built-in IEEE 802.11n and IEEE 802.16 (e)

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Local and international WiMAX service providers

WiMAX Service providers
 STC is one of operators that have decided to adopt an early deployment of WiMAX System (d and e).
 Nextel Sprit has already soft-launched WiMAX (e)-Phase 1.
 ITC has deployed more than 60 BTS (3.5 GHz, Redlines, Business and residential)
 Bayanat will fully cover the main cities soon (2.5 GHz, Samsung). Commercial-Launch starts for
residential.
 Atheeb has signed a contract with Motorola to deploy 1200 WiMAX BS kingdom-wide (3.5 GHz)

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Example of Current & Future WiMAX CPEs

Samsung (Used by Bayanat)

Informark (Used by STC-Phase 1)

WiMAX CPE used by Sprint

Nextel

NEC (WiMAX +WiFi)(

ALU WiMAX Handset

NEC (PCMCIA Card)

NSN WiMAX Handset

Intel Module (WiMAX +WiFi (n)

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Conclusion
 3G and WiMAX will compete, but to succeed they have to peacefully coexist.
 3G and WiMAX differ in their approach to wireless data
3G is a voice technology moving towards data
WiMAX is a data technology moving towards mobility
 Both 3G and WiMAX meet the requirements for wireless broadband
 Performance differences will not decide which technology is adopted and Where politic and strategic
decision
 The challenge is to understand which technology is better suited for our needs ?!!

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