WiMAX World briefs: Proxim sells fixed WiMAX network in Taiwan

Proxim sells fixed WiMAX network in Taiwan

Proxim Wireless has landed a deal with Asia Pacific Telecom Group in Taiwan to deploy a fixed WiMAX network in four phases in the city of Taichung. Taichung is Taiwan’s third largest city with a population of about 1 million, and Proxim officials said that the network would cover the majority of the city’s population after the two-year rollout. The network will be used augment Asia Pacific’s CDMA network in that city, allowing it provide stationary high-bandwidth video and voice services to compliment the mobile data network.

Aperto uses Sequans mobile chipset

Aperto Networks is incorporating the Sequans IEEE 802.16e chipset into its Mobile WiMAX base stations. Sequans released its SQN1110 CPE chip this week for commercial shipments, and announced both Aperto and Soma Networks as customers for its SQN2110 macro base station chip. The company plans to launch a mico-and pico-base station chipset in the second quarter of 2007.

Siemens to resell BelAir mesh gear

Siemens and BelAir Networks are cementing their ad hoc partnership into an official OEM agreement, where Siemens will use BelAir’s product line of wireless mesh routers and access points as part of its overall WiMAX portfolio. The two have already deployed their combined broadband wireless and mesh gear in deployments with cable and cellular operators. Siemens is one of the few Tier I infrastructure vendors to develop both a fixed and Mobile WiMAX base station, giving it a WiMAX backhaul portfolio as well as an access one.

ZTE uses Beceem chipsets

Beceem Communications said that Chinese vendor ZTE will be using Beceem’s MS120 chipset in its CPE devices. Beceem mobile device technology is one of the few currently deployed Mobile WiMAX CPE technology being used in the WiBro networks launched by SK Telecom in Korea. Beceem officials have said they have been actively working with the major Tier I infrastructure providers on advanced configurations devices, particularly smart antenna technologies expected to be certified by the WiMAX Forum next summer.

Stella Doradus introduces new WiMAX antenna design

Antenna maker Stella Doradus has designed a solid-state WiMAX tilt antenna with no moving parts, that company officials claimed will not only greatly reduce cell interference but save carriers millions in network opex costs. The Netmorphic antenna uses phase shifters to electronically tilt the antenna, saving technicians from manually moving the antenna at the cell site or mechanical equipment from breaking or malfunctions after being exposed to the elements. Instead the antennas angle are controlled from the network operations center and can be adjusted in real-time. Stella Doradus estimated a carrier could save $5 million in opex costs in a 500-base station networks by eliminating the need to climb towers. The antenna also incorporates its beam forming technology, which produces equal radio frequency power across the entire cell, decreasing cell-to-cell interference as much as 800%, Stella officials said.

Comsys develops Intel-challenger chip

Comsys Communications & Signal Processing has built a CPE chipset designed to handle both IEEE 802.16d and 802.16e transmissions, positioning it as challenger to Intel’s Rosedale 2 and 3 converged silicon. The next iterations of the Rosedale line are designed to support both fixed and mobile iterations of WiMAX and eventually to incorporate the smart antenna technologies and advanced mobility and data features of the WiMAX Forum’s Wave 2 round of certification. But Comsys said its new CoMAX system-on-a-chip, which will be available next year, supports all the requirements of Wave 2 performance and interoperability today through a software-programmable modem core.

Airspan unveils fixed-mobile WiMAX base station

Airspan Networks is commencing shipments this quarter of its new HiperMAX base station supporting both fixed and mobile iterations of WiMAX. Using PicoChip’s software defined radio silicon and an Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) blade platform, Airspan said the base station will allow customers to migrate between IEEE 802.16d and 802.16e technologies, meaning they won’t have to wait for the full advent of Mobile WiMAX solutions to begin deploying a broadband wireless network. Airspan’s approach falls in line with Intel’s two-tiered WiMAX migration plans and is designed to work with the new Rosedale 2 CPE chip architecture Intel plans to launch with the first certified mobile WiMAX devices. Airspan said it plans both a macro and micro base stations for the 3.4 GHz to 3.6 GHz split-spectrum bands and the 3.6 GHz to 3.7 GHz and 4.9 GHz time division duplexing configurations for its upcoming launch. In 2007, it plans to introduce the product in other 3 GHz TDD configurations and later in the 2.5 GHz bands. Airspan also announced at WiMAX World that it had received certification for its MicroMAX fixed wireless base station at 3.5 GHz.

Starent launches WiMAX ASN

Starent Network has created an Access Service Network (ASN) gateway for WiMAX to compliment its growing wireless packet core product line for cellular and 3G technologies. Starent also announced its first WiMAX customer trial at WiMAX World; Sumitomo Electric Networks has agreed to use Starent’s gateway and home agent in a field trial of its new WiMAX field trial in Japan. Built on the same architecture as its Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN), which gave it significant gains in the CDMA market, and more recent Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN). Many of the smaller WiMAX infrastructure providers do not have infrastructure beyond the radio base station, making Starent and competitors like Cisco’s ASN gateways and home agents an attractive fit in a multi-vendor partnership. But operators may choose to divide network elements among several contracts just like many CDMA operators—most notably Verizon Wireless—have come directly to Starent, said Andy Capener, director of marketing for Starent.