WiMAX: Are We There Yet? (getting close!)

In mid-December, Canada-based semiconductor company, Wavesat announced the delivery of the first ever WiMAX chip, the DM256 and the partnership with EDOM Technology Co., LTD. for the distribution of the chips in Taiwan.

The good news for today? Wavesat announceded the general availability of the DM256, moving to mass production in order to meet customer demands.

(And now, for the technical part....the DM256 integrated circuit implements the IEEE P802.16-REVd WirelessMAN-OFDM™ PHY layer protocol and is designed to be the main component of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modem for broadband wireless access. The PHY has two complementary functions. One is to process data for transmission where the output is a baseband I/Q signal or a 10 MHz IF signal. The process is reversed for the second function of receiving data where the input is a baseband I/Q signal or a 10 MHz IF signal. For data reception, the PHY implements proprietary synchronization and channel equalization methods for OFDM. Synchronization can also include frequency synchronization as well as timing synchronization.)

So what does this mean?

Many of us in the telecom industry have been making predictions for aught-five (a noteable read here from Johanne Torres) and deciphering which technologies are going to catapult communications into the next century. WiMAX is quite possibly my number one choice standard solution for companies looking to serve customers without shelling out billions of dollars on a brand spanking new infrastructure. By having the capabilities to offer broadband directly, WiMAX can support data ranges across metropolitan areas (yes, miles for those of you still new to this WiMAX thing).

What's more, (from our WiMAX channel) "a WiMAX base station would beam high-speed Internet connections to homes and businesses in a radius of up to 50 km (31 miles); these base stations will eventually cover an entire metropolitan area, making that area into a WMAN and allowing true wireless mobility within it, as opposed to hot-spot hopping required by WiFi."

Is Wavesat the pioneer for bringing WiMAX to the masses? Maybe not so much. According to ABI research, this first chip is a baseband-only unit; and while Wavesat has enlisted Atmel to build the radio component, and is itself developing subscriber unit MAC software and complete base station and subscriber unit reference designs, and the competitors are at large.

Philip Solis, senior analyst at ABI Research says ""As a smaller company, Wavesat can be more nimble, and has stolen this first march, but Intel and Fujitsu Microelectronics already have secured relationships with customers who will wait until they release their own products early next year. And when those milestones occur, Wavesat's huge adversaries will have much greater production capacity."

Even still, my prediction stands regardless of how the cookie crumbles, or rather, how the chip shall ship. WiMAX is a speeding train. You better hop on board.