WiMax Operator's Manual

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CHAPTER 3 ■ STRATEGIC PLANNING OF SPECTRUM AND SERVICES 49 could automatically accommodate itself to changes in bandwidth allocations on the part of governing bodies. Termed frequency-agile radios or software-defined radios, such products will in most cases be able to select a modulation system as well. Software-defined radios exist today, and at least a score of companies are active in this area, but no one is making a WiMAX-certified product conforming to the 802.16a standard, and in fact most sales to date have been to military organizations. The majority of software-defined radios made thus far have utilized costly field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and have not met the price requirements of network operators. Incidentally, several have combined frequency agility with an adaptive array antenna using the extreme processing power provided by the FPGAs to perform multiple functions. Frequency agility is unquestionably desirable in governmental applications. It provides a radio operator with a means of concealing a transmission and evading jamming, and it allows safety personnel to contact all relevant agencies over whatever frequencies have been allotted to them. But in a commercial setting where relatively few bands can be legally occupied by any individual network operator, the need for such flexibility is unclear at present. Many advocates of software-defined radios look forward to a day when radio spectrum is brokered and made available to consortia of network operators as needed, with payments automatically being made to license holders or with bandwidth being swapped among participating networks within a peering relationship. Such a grand schema would certainly result in much more efficient use of spectrum than is presently the case, but it is difficult to envision how multiple networks with countless users could all coordinate their transmissions so as to avoid interference. Everyone would have to be equipped with an intelligent radio, and each radio would have to connect to an overarching computing grid devoted to the management of all available spectrum. I will not speculate further as to how or even if such a virtual organism could come into being, and I do not see even the beginnings of such a regime occurring within this decade. Nonetheless, some degree of frequency agility will manifest itself in the lower microwave regions within five years, and most likely it will involve subscriber terminals utilizing 802.11, 802.16, and 3G mobile networks as the situation warrants and in accordance with roaming agreements among a relatively few incumbent carriers. Software-defined and frequency-agile radios will undoubtedly influence both spectrum use and the posture of regulatory bodies over time, and they will greatly alter the situation of network operators by making significantly more spectrum available to them, perhaps in amounts approaching 1 gigahertz. Eventually the increase in available bandwidth will expand the uses to which the network may be put and will open the possibility of the network operator offering a wide range of high-fidelity multimedia content as well as simple high-speed access and LAN extensions. At the same time, I caution broadband wireless operators today not to predicate their business plans upon the imminent arrival of such technology in the marketplace. That may be years away, and in the meantime operators will have to adapt their business to relatively scanty bandwidth. I will now add a final word on current throughput constraints in the lower microwave regions and how they may be overcome in the future by technologies other than softwaredefined radios and the related adaptive array antennas. Over the course of the next several years, radios will steadily increase their ability to resolve signals in the face of greater and greater amounts of noise and interference and in their ability to reconstruct information that has dropped below the noise floor. These abilities will allow operators to pack more and more information into a signal by increasing the number of discrete phase and amplitude states
50 CHAPTER 3 ■ STRATEGIC PLANNING OF SPECTRUM AND SERVICES used to convey information and, in the case where subcarriers are employed, decreasing the spacing between them. All of this will lead to higher throughput and, combined with the aforementioned technologies of adaptive antennas and software-defined radio, may eventually allow the achievement of fiberlike speeds within the lower microwave region. Fiber itself will not stand still, however, though it remains to be seen what applications will emerge that will require throughputs in the tens of gigabits per individual users. In any case, the midterm future of wireless broadband promises to be an era of very abundant throughputs and greatly expanded service opportunities for the operators. Five-year market projections should consider the likelihood of fundamental improvements in the core technology and should not rest upon the assumption that the business will remain much as it is today. The operator should take it almost as a given that generations of equipment will be short and that capital improvement will have to be undertaken on an ongoing basis in order to remain competitive. For the foreseeable future, the low microwave wireless broadband network is not going to be a set-it-up-and-forget-it cash cow. In the current regime characterized by throughput rates that are generally competitive with those of cable and DSL, and by network capacities that are generally much lower, network operators must proceed cautiously, however, recognizing that they lack the resources to be all things to all customers. Their aim must be to utilize the capacity of the network as efficiently as possible and target those customers who will bring them the best return on the infrastructure investment. This aim cannot be achieved in most markets simply by presenting subscribers with a “pipe,” or raw capacity. Raw capacity to support broadband access is becoming increasingly available and increasingly commoditized, and the mere fact that a wireless carrier is offering capacity is scant inducement for the customer to subscribe. Wireless broadband represents an opportunity for competitive access provider, perhaps the only opportunity to enter many markets, but is not inherently highly attractive to end users simply by virtue of being wireless. If the wireless operator is competing with well-entrenched wireline incumbents who are prepared to wage price wars, and if that same wireless operator is offering nothing more than basic services, his prospects of succeeding are poor because the service offering is just another broadband choice and one that is in certain respects technically disadvantaged vis-à-vis the others. Chapter 2 mentioned the major value-added services that can be supported over wireless networks. The following sections attempt to be more specific with respect to the lower microwave region. Looking at the Range of Services No value-added broadband service exists that cannot be supported by a lower microwave broadband wireless network, but because some services are heavily bandwidth intensive and some are not, the operator must decide on the mix of services to be made available to subscribers and the marketing emphasis that should be brought to each. Basic Access Currently, basic Internet access will constitute the core service offering just as is the case with DSL and cable. The operator may want to serve as the Internet service provider (ISP) or may want to establish a relationship with one or more third-party providers. For an independent, competing with a giant such as America Online or EarthLink in terms of content and
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WiMax Operator’s Manual Building
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This book is dedicated to my wife.
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Contents About the Author . . . . .
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■CONTENTS ix Performing Site Surv
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■CONTENTS xi Cyberwarfare . . . .
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About the Technical Reviewer ■ROB
Page 20 and 21: Introduction Broadband wireless has
Page 22 and 23: CHAPTER 1 ■ ■ ■ Wireless Broa
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Page 35 and 36: 14 CHAPTER 2 ■ ARCHITECTING THE N
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Page 85 and 86: 64 CHAPTER 4 ■ SETTING UP PHYSICA
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100 CHAPTER 4 ■ SETTING UP PHYSIC
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102 CHAPTER 5 ■ STRATEGIES FOR SU
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CHAPTER 6 ■ ■ ■ Beyond Access
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CHAPTER 6 ■ BEYOND ACCESS 133 Rou
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CHAPTER 6 ■ BEYOND ACCESS 135 (Qo
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CHAPTER 6 ■ BEYOND ACCESS 137 The
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CHAPTER 6 ■ BEYOND ACCESS 139 ins
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Figure 6-4. Wireless public network
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CHAPTER 6 ■ BEYOND ACCESS 143 sto
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Specialized Content Distribution Pl
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Beyond the Central Office CHAPTER 6
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CHAPTER 6 ■ BEYOND ACCESS 149 out
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CHAPTER 6 ■ BEYOND ACCESS 151 som
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CHAPTER 7 ■ ■ ■ Service Deplo
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CHAPTER 7 ■ SERVICE DEPLOYMENTS O
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178 CHAPTER 8 ■ NETWORK MANAGEMEN
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CHAPTER 9 ■ ■ ■ Network Secur
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CHAPTER 9 ■ NETWORK SECURITY 189
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Index ■Numbers 2.4GHz to 928MHz b
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asic access and best-effort deliver
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■D dark fiber, features of, 75-76
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harmonics, impact on AC power, 188
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challenges to, 85-86 and NLOS, 121
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PONs (passive optical networks), fe
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signal diversity, providing with ad
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■V VDSL and entertainment service
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