802.

16e Mobile WiMAX

Mikko Kivist - mikko.kivisto(at)tut.fi Petri Jrvel petri.jarvela(at)tut.fi

Introduction
802.16e provides enhancements to 802.16-2004 to support subscriber stations moving at vehicular speeds standard specifies a system for a combined fixed and mobile broadband wireless access.

Key advantages of 802.16e

Mobile WiMAX physical layer is based on Scalable OFDMA technology. The new technologies employed for Mobile WiMAX result in lower equipment complexity and simpler mobility management due to the all-IP core network and provide Mobile WiMAX systems with many other advantages over CDMA-based 3G systems

Key advantages of 802.16e

Tolerance to Multipath and Self-Interference Scalable Channel Bandwidth Orthogonal Uplink Multiple Access Support for Spectrally-Efficient TDD Frequency-Selective Scheduling Fractional Frequency Reuse Fine Quality of Service (QoS) Advanced Antenna Technology

Overview

Certification Process Frequency Bands Reference Model

Certification Process
In December, 2005 the IEEE ratified the 802.16e amendment to the 802.16 standard. First certification laboratory was established in Cetecom Labs in Malaga, Spain in the same year IEEE has moved its responsibility of WiMAX certifications to WiMAX Forum First commercial availability for 802.16e in 7/2006 More advanced mobile functionality will gradually be added through support for high-speed handoffs, roaming and multiple antenna technologies such as MIMO and beamforming and be available in equipment in the second half of 2007.

Frequency Bands
IEEE 802.16e-2005 will initially operate in the 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.3 GHz, 3.4-3.8 GHz spectrum bands. Support for additional bands will be added on the basis of market demand and new spectrum allocations. Release-1 of 802.16e profiles will cover 5, 7, 8.75, and 10 MHz channel bandwidths for frequency bands above.

Reference Model
ASN = Access Service Network CSN = Connctivity Service Network NSP = Network Service Provider ASP = Application Service Provider NAP = Network Access Provider

Physical Layer description

The Mobile WiMAX Air Interface adopts Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) for improved multi-path performance in non-line-of-sight environments. Scalable OFDMA (SOFDMA) is introduced in the IEEE 802.16e Amendment to support scalable channel bandwidths from 1.25 to 20 MHz. The scalability is supported by adjusting the FFT size while fixing the sub-carrier frequency spacing at 10.94 kHz.

Physical Layer Description

Since the resource unit sub-carrier bandwidth and symbol duration is fixed, the impact to higher layers is minimal when scaling the bandwidth. 802.16e systems offer scalability in both radio access technology and network architecture, thus providing a great deal of flexibility in network deployment options and service offerings. 802.16e supports TDD and Full and Half-Duplex FDD operation.

Data Rates
High Data Rates: The inclusion of MIMO antenna techniques along with flexible sub-channelization schemes, Advanced Coding and Modulation all enable the 802.16e technology to support

peak DL data rates up to 63 Mbps per sector and peak UL data rates up to 28 Mbps per sector

in a 10 MHz channel.

Other Advanced Features for 802.16e

Adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) Fast Channel Feedback (CQICH)

SOFDMA and 802.16e specs.

SOFDMA

Data Rates

Mobility Management
Power management and handoff are two important issues for mobile applications. Mobile WiMAX supports Sleep Mode and Idle Mode. Mobile WiMAX also supports seamless handoff to enable the Mobile Station (MS) to switch from one base station to another at vehicular speeds without interrupting the connection.

Power Management
Two modes to manage efficient power operation Sleep Mode Idle Mode Idle Mode provides a mechanism for the MS to become periodically available remove the requirement for handoff and other normal operations eliminate air interface and network handoff traffic from essentially inactive MSs

Power Management
Sleep Mode MS conducts pre-negotiated periods of absence from the Serving Base Station (SBS) air interface. These periods are interpreted as unavailability of the MS to SBS concerning DL or UL traffic. Sleep Mode minimize MS power usage and the usage of SBSs air interface resources Handoffs between Base Stations are available during Sleep Mode

Handoff
Mobile WiMAX supports three handoff methods Hard Handoff , HHO (mandatory) Fast Base Station Switching , FBSS (optional) Macro Diversity Handover , MDHO (optional) When FBSS is supported MS and BS keep up a list of BSs that are involved in FBSS with the MS Active set MS defines an Anchor BS and communicates only with it.

Handoff
When FBSS is supported transition between Anchor BSs is carried out without any HO signalling begins with a decision by an MS to receive or transmit data from the Anchor BS that may change within the active set. important requirement of FBSS is that the data is simultaneously transmitted to all members of an active set of BSs that are able to serve the MS.

Handoff
When MDHO is supported MS and BS maintain an active set of BSs that are involved in MDHO with the MS. An Anchor BS is defined MS communicates with all BSs in the active set of uplink and downlink unicast messages and traffic begins when a MS decides to transmit or receive unicast messages and traffic from multiple BSs in the same time interval

Advanced Features of Mobile

WiMAX
Smart antenna technologies typically involve complex vector or matrix operations on signals due to multiple antennas. OFDMA allows smart antenna operations to be performed on vector-flat sub-carriers. Mobile WiMAX supports a full range of smart antenna technologies to enhance system performance.

Advanced Features of Mobile

WiMAX
Beamforming
better coverage and capacity and reduce

outage probability

Space-Time Code (STC) transmit diversity codes are used to provide spatial diversity reduce fade margin

Advanced Features of Mobile

WiMAX
Spatial Multiplexing (SM)

advantage of higher peak rates increases throughput

multiple streams are transmitted over multiple antennas both receiver and transmitter must have multiple antennas to achieve higher throughput

Advanced Features of Mobile

WiMAX
Fractional Frequency Reuse all cells/sectors operate on the same frequency channel to maximize spectral efficiency. users operate on subchannels, which only occupy a small fraction of the whole channel bandwidth the flexible sub-channel reuse is facilitated by sub-channel segmentation and permutation zone

Advanced Features of Mobile

WiMAX
Multicast and Broadcast Service (MBS) combines the best features of DVB-H, MediaFLO and 3GPP E-UTRA and satisfies the following requirements: High data rate and coverage using a Single Frequency Network (SFN) Flexible allocation of radio resources Low MS power consumption Support of data-casting in addition to audio and video streams Low channel switching time

802.16e System Parameters

Comparing Mobile WiMAX to 1xEVDO and HSPA

Summary
802.16e can offer full-mobility for WiMAX and thus it can be considered as a real competitor for 3G for example in IPtraffic (VoIP / IPTV). 802.16e supports seamless handoff which provides switching between base stations in vehicular speeds. Mobile WiMAX uses Scalable OFDMA multiplexing which maximizes the spectral efficiency.

References
Mobile WiMAX Part I: A Technical Overview and Performance Evaluation, Aug. 2006, Copyright 2006 WiMAX Forum Mobile WiMAX Part II: A Comparative Analysis, May 2006, Copyright 2006 WiMAX Forum 802.16e-2005 Standard, LAN/MAN Standards Committee of IEEE Computer Society Fixed, nomadic, portable and mobile applications for 802.16-2004 and 802.16e WiMAX networks, Nov. 2005, Prepared by Senza Fili Consulting on behalf of the WIMAX Forum Mobile WiMAX Performance and Comparative Summary, Sep 2006, Copyright 2006 WiMAX Forum