Overview

Course name: WiMAX Basics

Duration: 1 Day

Requirements: Fundamentals of wireless communication.

Overview: Third and fourth Generation 3GPP technologies (HSPA, HSPA+ and LTE) have gained huge popularity among the subscribers along the years. This status quo is challenged by competing WiMAX or IEEE 802.16 technology providing wireless connectivity already for millions of users. The purpose of this course if to cover the fundamentals of WiMAX systems and compare it against Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems.

Objective: After the course the trainees will have general level understanding of the fundamentals related to WiMAX and key differences related to LTE.

Schedule and content

(excluding coffee and lunch breaks)

INTRODUCTION

Warm up (20 mins)
Trainer, company and trainee introduction, discussion and assignment related to WiMAX and LTE competition. Contents and objectives for the course.

Introduction (25 mins)
What is WiMAX and use cases for WiMAX. Data rates and market situation.

Standardization (10 mins)
Why to standardize, IEEE as organization, differences between IEEE 802.16 and WiMAX forum. IEEE802.16 timeline and relevant elements for WiMAX.

WiMAX today and what’s next (15 mins)
Applications of WiMAX (e.g, fixed access, portability with limited mobility,full mobility). Distribution among countries, competition. WiMAX 2.

LTE: the other big player (10 mins)

Recap (10 mins)

ARCHITECTURE

Generic WiMAX architectural model (10 mins)
Explanation of a generic architecture as well as WiMAX Deployment Scenarios are discussed.

Key architecture and network features (10 mins)
The key entities are shown and explained.

Network Reference Model (NRM) (5 mins)
Reference Model and connections between different entities.

QoS and mobility framework (15 mins)
List of supported QoS classes and possible area of usage.

 LAYERS

Physical layer

What is PHY layer? (10 mins)
Group discussions.

General PHY properties of WiMAX (10 mins)
– Frequency bands.
– LOS / NLOS operation.
– Duplexing (FDD, TDD, H-FDD)

Enabling technologies (25 mins)
– OFDM & OFDMa.
– Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) / Link adaptation Mechanisms.
– Multiantenna techniques (MIMO).
– Feedback signaling and relays.

WiMAX specific PHY details (20 mins)
– Frame structure(Frame structure). Key features.

Comparison to 3G/LTE-A (20 mins)
– Basic comparison to 3G/LTE-A.
– Throughput, Spectral Efficiency.
– Performance of WiMAX (throughput and spectral efficiency).

Recap (10 mins)

MAC layer

Introduction (5 mins)

Common MAC layer (60 mins)
– PDU structure, PDU fragmentation and packing.
– HARQ/ARQ basics.
– MAC signaling and overhead.
– Network entry process.
– Bandwidth requesting / DAMA.
– Contention resolution.
– Scheduling.
– Mobility, power saving mode.
– Multicast & Broadcast Services.
– Convergence Sublayer.
– Security Sublayer.

Recap (5 mins)

WRAP UP

WiMAX performance and LTE benchmarking (20 mins)
General performance comparison for WiMAX and LTE.

WiMAX future (20 mins)
WiMAX2 (based on  IEEE 802.16m standard). Self Organizing Optimizing Networks (SON) with WiMAX

Discussion and recap (20 mins)
Learnings of the day, key findings, what’s to expect in the future, feedback