View Full Version : Airmax vs. Wimax
rabbit_user
02-01-2010, 08:36 AM
Hi All,
What's the difference between the Airmax protocol and the Wimax protocol?
I understand Airmax is a proprietary signaling base on TDMA/MIMO/802.11a/b/g/n and Wimax is either 802.11d or e. Is the difference only in signal protocol? Does one compress data or have a higher spectral efficiency? Which protocol is better 802.11 a/b/g/n or 802.11 d/e? Finally, if 802.11 d/e is a better protocol could an 802.11 a/b/g/n device be software upgraded to the Wimax protocol?
These were a couple of questions I had floating around in my head today. I appreciate any answers. I have read the WIKI on both but still have a hard time understanding the differences. Thanks.
900mhzdude
02-01-2010, 08:56 AM
Q:can the protocol be done by a software upgrade?
A: NO
Q: is WIMAX better?
A: hard to say..AIRMAX is cheap and really good at handling interference
but WIMAX is on 3.5Ghz Locked Freq so you will have no interference
but you have to spend 10x more $$$ so it depends on how you look at it
cwnetwork
02-01-2010, 12:19 PM
Wimax is much more complicated to deploy, it is more carrier class (somewhat/slightly similar to GSM deployment) Wimax also has a large(er) scale deployment capability... Wifi (incl. Airmax) is much more simple.
but WIMAX is on 3.5Ghz Locked Freq
WiMAX spectrum in the 2.3–2.5 GHz and the 3.4–3.5 GHz ranges.
- WiMAX is a long range system, covering many kilometers, that uses licensed or unlicensed spectrum to deliver a point-to-point connection to the Internet.
- One of the significant advantages of advanced wireless systems such as WiMAX is spectral efficiency.
- The 802.16 specification applies across a wide swath of the RF spectrum, and WiMAX could function on any frequency below 66 GHz,[14] (higher frequencies would decrease the range of a Base Station to a few hundred meters in an urban environment).
- WiMAX runs a connection-oriented MAC.
easy to find out http://lmgtfy.com/?q=wimax
900mhzdude
02-01-2010, 02:42 PM
WiMAX spectrum in the 2.3–2.5 GHz and the 3.4–3.5 GHz ranges.
- WiMAX is a long range system, covering many kilometers, that uses licensed or unlicensed spectrum to deliver a point-to-point connection to the Internet.
- One of the significant advantages of advanced wireless systems such as WiMAX is spectral efficiency.
- The 802.16 specification applies across a wide swath of the RF spectrum, and WiMAX could function on any frequency below 66 GHz,[14] (higher frequencies would decrease the range of a Base Station to a few hundred meters in an urban environment).
- WiMAX runs a connection-oriented MAC.
easy to find out http://lmgtfy.com/?q=wimax
in the USA i think you can only use 3.65Ghz sprint owns the rest
tagno25
02-01-2010, 04:38 PM
2.3Ghz-2.5Ghz includes the 2.4Ghz-2.5Ghz ISM Band
3.3Ghz-3.5Ghz is available for amateur radio in the USA.
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.PDF
What's the difference between the Airmax protocol and the Wimax protocol?
AirMax = No licensing fees.
WiMax = Hundreds of thousands of dollars of fees.
avolve
02-02-2010, 08:25 PM
You can get Wimax in 5.8 as well and a lot less than hundreds of thousands of dollars, Tranzeo has a nice offering in both 3.5 and 5.8
AirMax = No licensing fees.
WiMax = Hundreds of thousands of dollars of fees.
Wimax is being deployed here on the ISM band.
Wimax is much more complicated to deploy, it is more carrier class (somewhat/slightly similar to GSM deployment) Wimax also has a large(er) scale deployment capability... Wifi (incl. Airmax) is much more simple.
No,
Carrier class, is not protocol, rather equipment type.
similar to GSM? You mean WCDMA (HSDPA)
Wimax - OFDMA
(FDMA)- only thing similar!
I'm sure power levels are the strategy in complication for deployment??
[QUOTE=rabbit_user;73528]Hi All,
Is the difference only in signal protocol?
QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM. Dual carriers and combinations of up to 4 carriers. MIMO- Spatial multiplexing and Beam forming. Both in paired and unpaired spectrum (FDD and TDD) with Open-loop transmit diversity, HARQ, CTC, compressed DL / UL Maps.
Q:can the protocol be done by a software upgrade?
A: NO
Q: is WIMAX better?
A: hard to say..AIRMAX is cheap and really good at handling interference
More bandwidth in OFDMA and better range.
cwnetwork
02-07-2010, 10:49 AM
No,
Carrier class, is not protocol, rather equipment type.
similar to GSM? You mean WCDMA (HSDPA)
Wimax - OFDMA
(FDMA)- only thing similar!
I'm sure power levels are the strategy in complication for deployment??
I didn't say anything about protocol.....
C'mon man ... SOMEWHAT similar to GSM in DEPLOYMENT.
Since you mention power levels out of the blue, I'll jump on the bandwagon;
I'm sure cost consideration and a profitable business strategy is not a complication for deployment?
I didn't say anything about protocol.....
C'mon man ... SOMEWHAT similar to GSM in DEPLOYMENT.
Since you mention power levels out of the blue, I'll jump on the bandwagon;
I'm sure cost consideration and a profitable business strategy is not a complication for deployment?
Airmax would be similar to GSM.
Power levels got mentioned from my experience in wcdma networks.
sakita
02-07-2010, 06:55 PM
First, forget the frequency. WiMax can be used in many frequency bands (e.g. personally been-there, done-that with a Sequaans 802,16d-1984 based product which runs in the 915MHz band). In the US the large commercial deployments do 'own' quite a bit of spectrum (but since when has an exclusive license to a fat piece of spectrum been affordable to mortals). There are options, however. The 'lite licensed' 3.65 band is WiMax country because that's what has mostly been approved so far... but that is changing as other technologies are meeting the 3.65 cooperative behavior and other requirements (e.g. search this forum).
The modulations are familiar between the technologies. BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM.
In WiMax there *may* be more buttons and knobs as some of the gear does allow adjustment of ARQ, frame-times, and so forth. The ease of use depends on the manufacturer's implementation. Even a complicated system can have good 'out of the box' settings to start with.
Wi-Fi is like a rock band and WiMax is like an orchestra. In Wi-Fi or a rock band everyone does their best to play together (e.g. collision sensing) whereas in an orchestra there is a conductor that keeps everyone together. In WiMax the AP is the conductor setting the tempo. The controlled time-slices in WiMax allow for more predictable (deterministic) delivery times.
Where things get blurry is when tools like AirMax come into play... overlaying TDMA on top of Wi-Fi to help overcome some of the limitations of the vanilla collision and channel-hogging behavior which gets worse the more clients there are... leveraging the economies of scale of Wi-Fi chipsets while providing more scalability than 'pure' Wi-Fi.
The modulations are familiar between the technologies. BPSQ, QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM.
I could not find any specs regarding airmax modulation.
rconaway
02-07-2010, 08:36 PM
802.11N spec has a higher spectral efficiency than WiMax. MIMO just adds to that. I'm not sure of Wimax but MIMO is actually specced to go out to 4x4 which really increases the spectral efficiency.
sakita
02-07-2010, 08:54 PM
AirMax is TDMA added on top of 802.11n. The modulation techniques are what they are in 'n' (Atheros chipset).
It's about bits per Hz...
BPSK = 1 bit per Hz
QPSK = 2 bits per Hz
16QAM = 4 bits per Hz
64QAM = 6 bits per Hz
...throw in MIMO and the multiple streams increase the spectral efficiency (cram more data over the air). BTW, MIMO exists in the WiMax standard as well.
The difference in how the MAC layer works is notable: in Wi-Fi it is contention-based and in Wi-Max it is schedule-based (frames with timeslots)... again, AirMax is an effort to make Wi-Fi more WiMax like in its behavior.
AirMax is TDMA added on top of 802.11n. The modulation techniques are what they are in 'n' (Atheros chipset).
It's about bits per Hz...
BPSK = 1 bit per Hz
QPSK = 2 bits per Hz
16QAM = 4 bits per Hz
64QAM = 6 bits per Hz
...throw in MIMO and the multiple streams increase the spectral efficiency (cram more data over the air). BTW, MIMO exists in the WiMax standard as well.
The difference in how the MAC layer works is notable: in Wi-Fi it is contention-based and in Wi-Max it is schedule-based (frames with timeslots)... again, AirMax is an effort to make Wi-Fi more WiMax like in its behavior.
inserts smiley :)
I'm sure cost consideration and a profitable business strategy is not a complication for deployment?
Well, somewhat is.
Time and money has been wasted in trial an error to provide a top faultless service to our customers.
Carrier grade equipment should have been rolled out from the start!
I really hope Airmax will be the solution otherwise we will be going down the wimax path.
I really hope Airmax will be the solution otherwise we will be going down the wimax path.As I said, http://www.ubnt.com/forum/showthread.php?p=74080#post74080 we may be looking at that also because we haven't tested the Rocket, much less even bought one yet, and buy the time we might by one a month down the road, we'll be too far along to switch product testing midstream.
As I said, http://www.ubnt.com/forum/showthread.php?p=74080#post74080 we may be looking at that also because we haven't tested the Rocket, much less even bought one yet, and buy the time we might by one a month down the road, we'll be too far along to switch product testing midstream.
Our rockets have been sitting in a box for a month along with the cpes. Should have time this week to set up.
All wont be lost, and can utilise parts of the network. Swap/change . Wait and see, and look forward for a favourable out come .
Ubiquiti support is very good and parts of our network will still role with there products.
tagno25
02-08-2010, 01:37 AM
Our rockets have been sitting in a box for a month along with the cpes. Should have time this week to set up.
All wont be lost, and can utilise parts of the network. Swap/change . Wait and see, and look forward for a favourable out come .
Ubiquiti support is very good and parts of our network will still role with there products.
We started deploying our NS5M and Rockets on a new tower early this month. We have been able to easily get ~36MB to our internal test (maxing out our test setup [web based not IPerf]). Where as with normal NS5s to Bullet5s we where maxing out at ~15MB.
miahac
02-10-2010, 01:56 PM
coming soon about wimax 2? Uses mimo to get >100mbit subscriber rates
http://www.pcworld.com/article/188205/watch_for_wimax_2_in_2011.html
rconaway
02-10-2010, 02:09 PM
I've rolled out 5 Rocket bases and started doing Rocket installs at traffic lights. My one link which is used strictly for data ran 69 days straight before I did the 5.1 firmware upgrade. I haven't tested bandwidth but that's scheduled for tomorrow weather willing.
