The Mobile Broadband WiMAX Standard [Standards in a Nutshell]

Mobile worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) is a wireless standard that introduces orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and other key features to enable mobile broadband services at a vehicular speed of up to 120 km/h. WiMAX complements the and competes with wireless local area networks (WLANs) and the third generation (3G) wireless standards on coverage and data rate. More specifically, WiMAX supports a much larger coverage area than WLAN, does not require line of sight for a connection, and is significantly less costly compared to the current 3G cellular standards. Although the WiMAX standard supports both fixed and mobile broadband data services, the latter have a much larger market. Therefore, this article will briefly present the Mobile WiMAX standard, the technologies deployed for the air interface and the network, and the development of the standards to support mobile multihop relays in a WiMAX network.