Cameroon meeting puts WiMAX on the fast track for IMT-2000
Friday, February 2nd, 2007 | Email to a friend | Print
YAOUNDÉ (WiMAX Day). The ITU Working Party 8F convened last week in sultry Cameroon for its meeting titled “IMT-2000 and systems beyond IMT-2000.” The general consensus from delegates to the meeting is that WiMAX will soon become recognised as an IMT-2000 technology, and that decision process is now on the fast-track.
IMT-2000 is a term used by the ITU to define globally recognised 3G technologies for use in IMT-identified radio frequency bands. The technologies presently recognised as IMT include WCDMA, CDMA2000, TD-CDMA, and EDGE.
The exact technology that is being considered for inclusion in IMT is “IP-OFDMA.” This is an acronym for Internet Protocol - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access used by the IEEE 802.16e mobility standard, which is otherwise commonly referred to as WiMAX.
While WiMAX has gained acceptance globally as a mobile broadband technology, its use in certain bands of radio spectrum is not fully recognised in some countries that strictly follow ITU specifications. For example, the frequency 2.5 GHz is identified as IMT-2000 and used for WiMAX in some countries such as America, Russia and soon the United Kingdom.
However the use of WiMAX with this particular frequency is hotly contested by 3G mobile operators, who argue that it is reserved for use only with 3G technologies. Thus in some countries such as Japan, this spectrum has not yet been issued officially for use with WiMAX as the regulators are awaiting clarification on the ITU specifications.
The road to IMT
The final decision to include WiMAX in the IMT-2000 family is scheduled for the meeting of the World Radio Conference (WRC-07) in October when spectrum allocation for IMT is a major topic of discussion.
To achieve this, WiMAX will need to have full support at the next meeting of the ITU 8F group in Kyoto in May. According to a report in Policy Tracker, the turning point of the meeting last week came when US delegates pushed for the rapid inclusion of the standard into IMT-2000 before October so that it will allow “a co-ordinated industry approach at the WRC-07.” This report noted that the groups involved would make their final evaluations before the Kyoto meeting, and barring any objections, the final approval should be given at the following meeting on June 25.
Herculean efforts
The inclusion of WiMAX in IMT-2000 is based solely on its merit as a mobile broadband technology. However the speed with which the relatively new technology has gained acceptance is due to the efforts of the IEEE that wrote the 802.16 standard and made the original submission to the ITU last year for its inclusion in IMT.
The WiMAX Forum, an organisation that guards the standard and defines the rules for conformance and interoperability of products, also has been instrumental in lobbying regulators and educating about the benefit of opening IMT spectrum to WiMAX, particularly in developing economies.
wimaxday.net
Once IEEE 802.16e (currrent mobile wimax) is adopted for use in 3g spectrum this year, they will work quickly to standardize IEEE 802.16m for IMT-2000 Advanced (i.e. 4G).
Here's some additional background:
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Cheers! TM |
