CTIA: NEC America announces WiMAX system

LAS VEGAS--NEC America's WiMAX system didn't make it to the show floor on time because of a shipping snafu, but the company showed up at CTIA's Wireless 2006 here ready to unveil its strategy for the WiMAX market.

The U.S. division of the Japanese vendor giant plans to deliver an end-to-end 802.16e-2005-based Mobile WiMAX solution aimed at the U.S. market. It will include scalable orthogonal frequency division multiplexing technology and downlink partially utilized sub-channels which will provide greater system performance, according to Yutaka Morikawa, manager, technical center at NEC's Global Network Division.

"It will be able to support mobility from day one, but it will cover both mobile and fixed applications for WiMAX and will cover the fixed applications better than current systems," he said. The comprehensive approach of having its own IP core, base stations, gateways and terminals may be a rarity among large vendors right now, but Morikawa admitted that edge might not last for long.

He said NEC plans to submit its system for Mobile WiMAX certification from the WiMAX Forum when that process begins around the end of this year.