IEEE 802.16
Encyclopedia
IEEE 802.16 is a series of Wireless Broadband standards authored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE). The IEEE Standards Board in established a working group in 1999 to develop standards for broadband Wireless
Metropolitan Area Network
s. The Workgroup is a unit of the IEEE 802
local area network
and metropolitan area network
standards committee.
Although the 802.16 family of standards is officially called WirelessMAN in IEEE, it has been commercialized under the name “WiMAX
” (from "Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access") by the WiMAX Forum industry alliance. The Forum promotes and certifies compatibility and interoperability of products based on the IEEE 802.16 standards.
The 802.16e-2005 amendment version was announced as being deployed around the world in 2009.
The version IEEE 802.16-2009 was amended by IEEE 802.16j-2009.
and related functions associated with wireless local loop
. The charter originally envisioned that three working groups would each produce a stand alone standard referred to as 802.16.1, 802.16.2 and 802.16.3. During development a decision was made that the first and third tasks were significantly related; the result was that two standards and an amendment were released.
802.16c, a further amendment to 802.16, delivered a system profile for the 10–66 GHz 802.16 standard.
In September 2003, a revision project called 802.16d commenced aiming to align the standard with aspects of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute
(ETSI) HIPERMAN
standard as well as lay down conformance and test specifications. This project concluded in 2004 with the release of 802.16-2004 which superseded the earlier 802.16 documents, including the a and c amendments.
An amendment to 802.16-2004, IEEE 802.16e-2005, addressing mobility, was concluded in 2005. This implemented a number of enhancements to 802.16-2004, including better support for Quality of Service
and the use of Scalable OFDMA, and is sometimes called “Mobile WiMAX”, after the WiMAX
forum for interoperability.
The fixed and mobile variants of the protocol do not interoperate.
In 2007, the Radiocommunication Assembly
of the International Telecommunication Union
(ITU) approved IEEE 802.16e-2005 as meeting the "International Mobile Telecommunications 2000" requirements, which were generally meant for products marketed as 3G
.
layer (MAC). This section provides an overview of the technology employed in these two layers in the mobile 802.16e specification.
(NLOS) characteristics (or higher bandwidth) and Hybrid automatic repeat request
(HARQ) for good error correction performance.
Although the standards allow operation in any band from 2 to 66 GHz, mobile operation is best in the lower bands which are also the most crowded, and therefore most expensive.
, Asynchronous Transfer Mode
(ATM) and Internet Protocol
(IP) are encapsulated on the air interface, and how data is classified, etc. It also describes how secure communications are delivered, by using secure key exchange during authentication, and encryption using Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES) or Data Encryption Standard
(DES) during data transfer. Further features of the MAC layer include power saving mechanisms (using Sleep Mode and Idle Mode) and handover mechanisms.
A key feature of 802.16 is that it is a connection oriented technology. The subscriber station (SS) cannot transmit data until it has been allocated a channel by the Base Station
(BS). This allows 802.16e to provide strong support for Quality of Service (QoS).
(QoS) in 802.16e is supported by allocating each connection between the SS and the BS (called a service flow in 802.16 terminology) to a specific QoS class. In 802.16e, there are 5 QoS classes:
The BS and the SS use a service flow with an appropriate QoS class (plus other parameters, such as bandwidth and delay) to ensure that application data receives QoS treatment appropriate to the application.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a non-profit professional association headquartered in New York City that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence...
(IEEE). The IEEE Standards Board in established a working group in 1999 to develop standards for broadband Wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
Metropolitan Area Network
Metropolitan area network
A metropolitan area network is a computer network that usually spans a city or a large campus. A MAN usually interconnects a number of local area networks using a high-capacity backbone technology, such as fiber-optical links, and provides up-link services to wide area networks and the...
s. The Workgroup is a unit of the IEEE 802
IEEE 802
IEEE 802 refers to a family of IEEE standards dealing with local area networks and metropolitan area networks.More specifically, the IEEE 802 standards are restricted to networks carrying variable-size packets. IEEE 802 refers to a family of IEEE standards dealing with local area networks and...
local area network
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
and metropolitan area network
Metropolitan area network
A metropolitan area network is a computer network that usually spans a city or a large campus. A MAN usually interconnects a number of local area networks using a high-capacity backbone technology, such as fiber-optical links, and provides up-link services to wide area networks and the...
standards committee.
Although the 802.16 family of standards is officially called WirelessMAN in IEEE, it has been commercialized under the name “WiMAX
WiMAX
WiMAX is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations...
” (from "Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access") by the WiMAX Forum industry alliance. The Forum promotes and certifies compatibility and interoperability of products based on the IEEE 802.16 standards.
The 802.16e-2005 amendment version was announced as being deployed around the world in 2009.
The version IEEE 802.16-2009 was amended by IEEE 802.16j-2009.
Standards
Projects publish draft and proposed standards with the letter "P" prepended, which gets dropped and replaced by a dash and year when the standards are ratified and published.Projects
| Standard | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 802.16-2001 | Fixed Broadband Wireless Access (10–63 GHz) | Superseded |
| 802.16.2-2001 | Recommended practice for coexistence | Superseded |
| 802.16c-2002 | System profiles for 10–63 GHz | Superseded |
| 802.16a-2003 | Physical layer and MAC definitions for 2–11 GHz | Superseded |
| P802.16b | License-exempt frequencies (Project withdrawn) |
Withdrawn |
| P802.16d | Maintenance and System profiles for 2–11 GHz (Project merged into 802.16-2004) |
Merged |
| 802.16-2004 | Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access System (rollup of 802.16-2001, 802.16a, 802.16c and P802.16d) |
Superseded |
| P802.16.2a | Coexistence with 2–11 GHz and 23.5–43.5 GHz (Project merged into 802.16.2-2004) |
Merged |
| 802.16.2-2004 | Recommended practice for coexistence (Maintenance and rollup of 802.16.2-2001 and P802.16.2a) |
Current |
| 802.16f-2005 | Management Information Base (MIB) Management information base A management information base is a virtual database used for managing the entities in a communications network. Most often associated with the Simple Network Management Protocol , the term is also used more generically in contexts such as in OSI/ISO Network management model... for 802.16-2004 |
Superseded |
| 802.16-2004/Cor 1-2005 | Corrections for fixed operations (co-published with 802.16e-2005) |
Superseded |
| 802.16e-2005 | Mobile Broadband Wireless Access System | Superseded |
| 802.16k-2007 | Bridging of 802.16 (an amendment to IEEE 802.1D IEEE 802.1D 802.1D is the IEEE MAC Bridges standard which includes Bridging, Spanning Tree and others. It is standardized by the IEEE 802.1 working group. It includes details specific to linking many of the other 802 projects including the widely deployed 802.3 , 802.11 and 802.16 standards.VLANs are not... ) |
Current |
| 802.16g-2007 | Management Plane Procedures and Services | Superseded |
| P802.16i | Mobile Management Information Base (Project merged into 802.16-2009) |
Merged |
| 802.16-2009 | Air Interface for Fixed and Mobile Broadband Wireless Access System (rollup of 802.16-2004, 802.16-2004/Cor 1, 802.16e, 802.16f, 802.16g and P802.16i) |
Current |
| 802.16j-2009 | Multihop relay | Current |
| 802.16h-2010 | Improved Coexistence Mechanisms for License-Exempt Operation | Current |
| 802.16m-2011 | Advanced Air Interface with data rates of 100 Mbit/s mobile and 1 Gbit/s fixed. Also known as Mobile WiMAX Release 2 or WirelessMAN-Advanced. Aiming at fulfilling the ITU-R IMT-Advanced requirements on 4G 4G In telecommunications, 4G is the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. It is a successor to the 3G and 2G families of standards. In 2009, the ITU-R organization specified the IMT-Advanced requirements for 4G standards, setting peak speed requirements for 4G service at 100 Mbit/s... systems. |
Current |
| P802.16n | Higher Reliability Networks | In Progress |
| P802.16p | Enhancements to Support Machine-to-Machine Applications | In Progress |
Working group history
IEEE 802.16 standardizes the air interfaceAir interface
In mobile or wireless communication, the air interface is the radio-based communication link between the mobile station and the active base station...
and related functions associated with wireless local loop
Local loop
In telephony, the local loop is the physical link or circuit that connects from the demarcation point of the customer premises to the edge of the carrier or telecommunications service provider's network...
. The charter originally envisioned that three working groups would each produce a stand alone standard referred to as 802.16.1, 802.16.2 and 802.16.3. During development a decision was made that the first and third tasks were significantly related; the result was that two standards and an amendment were released.
- IEEE 802.16 (formerly 802.16.1) - Air interface for 10 to 66 GHz, also known as Local Multipoint Distribution ServiceLocal Multipoint Distribution ServiceLMDS is a broadband wireless access technology originally designed for digital television transmission . It was conceived as a fixed wireless, point-to-multipoint technology for utilization in the last mile....
. It was approved in December 2001. It delivered a standard for point to multipoint Broadband Wireless transmission in the 10–66 GHz band, with only a line-of-sightLine-of-sight propagationLine-of-sight propagation refers to electro-magnetic radiation or acoustic wave propagation. Electromagnetic transmission includes light emissions traveling in a straight line...
(LOS) capability. It uses a single carrier (SC) physical (PHY) standard. - IEEE 802.16.2 - Coexistence of broadband wireless access systems.
- IEEE 802.16a (the former 802.16.3) was an amendment to 802.16 and delivered a point to multipoint capability in the 2–11 GHz band. For this to be of use, it also required a non-line-of-sightNon-line-of-sight propagationNon-line-of-sight or near-line-of-sight is a term used to describe radio transmission across a path that is partially obstructed, usually by a physical object in the innermost Fresnel zone....
(NLOS) capability, and the PHY standard was therefore extended to include Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMAOFDMAOrthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access is a multi-user version of the popular Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing digital modulation scheme. Multiple access is achieved in OFDMA by assigning subsets of subcarriers to individual users as shown in the illustration below...
). 802.16a was ratified in January 2003 and was intended to provide "last mile" fixed broadband access.
802.16c, a further amendment to 802.16, delivered a system profile for the 10–66 GHz 802.16 standard.
In September 2003, a revision project called 802.16d commenced aiming to align the standard with aspects of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute
European Telecommunications Standards Institute
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute is an independent, non-profit, standardization organization in the telecommunications industry in Europe, with worldwide projection...
(ETSI) HIPERMAN
HIPERMAN
HiperMAN stands for High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network and is a standard created by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute Broadband Radio Access Networks group to provide a wireless network communication in the 2 - 11 GHz bands across Europe and other countries which...
standard as well as lay down conformance and test specifications. This project concluded in 2004 with the release of 802.16-2004 which superseded the earlier 802.16 documents, including the a and c amendments.
An amendment to 802.16-2004, IEEE 802.16e-2005, addressing mobility, was concluded in 2005. This implemented a number of enhancements to 802.16-2004, including better support for Quality of Service
Quality of service
The quality of service refers to several related aspects of telephony and computer networks that allow the transport of traffic with special requirements...
and the use of Scalable OFDMA, and is sometimes called “Mobile WiMAX”, after the WiMAX
WiMAX
WiMAX is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations...
forum for interoperability.
The fixed and mobile variants of the protocol do not interoperate.
In 2007, the Radiocommunication Assembly
ITU-R
The ITU Radiocommunication Sector is one of the three sectors of the International Telecommunication Union and is responsible for radio communication....
of the International Telecommunication Union
International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...
(ITU) approved IEEE 802.16e-2005 as meeting the "International Mobile Telecommunications 2000" requirements, which were generally meant for products marketed as 3G
3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
.
802.16e-2005 Technology
The 802.16 standard essentially standardizes two aspects of the air interface - the physical layer (PHY) and the Media Access ControlMedia Access Control
The media access control data communication protocol sub-layer, also known as the medium access control, is a sublayer of the data link layer specified in the seven-layer OSI model , and in the four-layer TCP/IP model...
layer (MAC). This section provides an overview of the technology employed in these two layers in the mobile 802.16e specification.
PHY
802.16e uses Scalable OFDMA to carry data, supporting channel bandwidths of between 1.25 MHz and 20 MHz, with up to 2048 sub-carriers. It supports adaptive modulation and coding, so that in conditions of good signal, a highly efficient 64 QAM coding scheme is used, whereas when the signal is poorer, a more robust BPSK coding mechanism is used. In intermediate conditions, 16 QAM and QPSK can also be employed. Other PHY features include support for Multiple-in Multiple-out (MIMO) antennas in order to provide good non-line-of-sight propagationNon-line-of-sight propagation
Non-line-of-sight or near-line-of-sight is a term used to describe radio transmission across a path that is partially obstructed, usually by a physical object in the innermost Fresnel zone....
(NLOS) characteristics (or higher bandwidth) and Hybrid automatic repeat request
Hybrid ARQ
Hybrid automatic repeat request is a combination of high-rate forward error-correcting coding, and ARQ error-control for detectable-but-uncorrectable errors. In standard ARQ, redundant bits are added to data to be transmitted using an error-detecting code such as cyclic redundancy check...
(HARQ) for good error correction performance.
Although the standards allow operation in any band from 2 to 66 GHz, mobile operation is best in the lower bands which are also the most crowded, and therefore most expensive.
MAC
The 802.16 MAC describes a number of Convergence Sublayers which describe how wireline technologies such as EthernetEthernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
, Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
(ATM) and Internet Protocol
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
(IP) are encapsulated on the air interface, and how data is classified, etc. It also describes how secure communications are delivered, by using secure key exchange during authentication, and encryption using Advanced Encryption Standard
Advanced Encryption Standard
Advanced Encryption Standard is a specification for the encryption of electronic data. It has been adopted by the U.S. government and is now used worldwide. It supersedes DES...
(AES) or Data Encryption Standard
Data Encryption Standard
The Data Encryption Standard is a block cipher that uses shared secret encryption. It was selected by the National Bureau of Standards as an official Federal Information Processing Standard for the United States in 1976 and which has subsequently enjoyed widespread use internationally. It is...
(DES) during data transfer. Further features of the MAC layer include power saving mechanisms (using Sleep Mode and Idle Mode) and handover mechanisms.
A key feature of 802.16 is that it is a connection oriented technology. The subscriber station (SS) cannot transmit data until it has been allocated a channel by the Base Station
Base station
The term base station can be used in the context of land surveying and wireless communications.- Land surveying :In the context of external land surveying, a base station is a GPS receiver at an accurately-known fixed location which is used to derive correction information for nearby portable GPS...
(BS). This allows 802.16e to provide strong support for Quality of Service (QoS).
QoS
Quality of serviceQuality of service
The quality of service refers to several related aspects of telephony and computer networks that allow the transport of traffic with special requirements...
(QoS) in 802.16e is supported by allocating each connection between the SS and the BS (called a service flow in 802.16 terminology) to a specific QoS class. In 802.16e, there are 5 QoS classes:
| Service | Abbrev | Definition | Typical Applications |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsolicited Grant Service | UGS | Real-time data streams comprising fixed-size data packets issued at periodic intervals | T1/E1 transport |
| Extended Real-time Polling Service | ertPS | Real-time service flows that generate variable-sized data packets on a periodic basis | VoIP |
| Real-time Polling Service | rtPS | Real-time data streams comprising variable-sized data packets that are issued at periodic intervals | MPEG Video |
| Non-real-time Polling Service | nrtPS | Delay-tolerant data streams comprising variable-sized data packets for which a minimum data rate is required | FTP with guaranteed minimum throughput |
| Best Effort | BE | Data streams for which no minimum service level is required and therefore may be handled on a space-available basis | HTTP |
The BS and the SS use a service flow with an appropriate QoS class (plus other parameters, such as bandwidth and delay) to ensure that application data receives QoS treatment appropriate to the application.
Certification
Because the IEEE only sets specifications but does not test equipment for compliance with them, the WiMAX Forum runs a certification program wherein members pay for certification. WiMAX certification by this group is intended to guarantee compliance with the standard and interoperability with equipment from other manufacturers. The mission of the Forum is to promote and certify compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products.See also
- WiBroWiBroWiBro is a wireless broadband Internet technology developed by the South Korean telecoms industry. WiBro is the South Korean service name for IEEE 802.16e international standard...
- WiMAXWiMAXWiMAX is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations...
- WiBAS
- WiMAX MIMOWiMAX MIMOWiMAX MIMO refers to the use of Multiple-input multiple-output communications technology on WiMAX, which is the technology brand name for the implementation of the standard IEEE 802.16.-WiMAX:...
- History of wireless mesh networkingHistory of wireless mesh networkingThe core advantage of wireless mesh networks is their inherent ability to form a network on power up. Watch what happens in Fig 1, when the mesh nodes power up . The nodes hear each other's broadcast and form a network. Also watch what happens when a node fails and how the nodes discover an...
External links
- The WiMAX Forum
- The implications of WiMAX for competition and regulation A paper of the OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- IEEE 802.16m Technology Introduction