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Ball State University Defends WiMax
Testing shows it to be consistently better than Wi-Fi
The case has been made that WiMax has gotten a slow start and continues to stumble in its development. Ball State University begs to differ. The school got an experimental license from the FCC earlier this year to test out WiMax on campus. The school has completed its testing and has determined that WiMax is better at transmitting consistent, useable wireless signals than are existing wireless providers.
quote:
“Overall the testing and research proved positive. The wireless link did not work everywhere but proved to have significantly greater reach than that of traditional WiFi.”
The school’s researchers believe that their findings will help drive broadband development in this area impacting both the wireless world and the profits of businesses. The full seventy-three page report by the school can be found here.
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FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Some interesting selected findings

From the PDF report:

The furthest useable signal attained reached out to approximately 4.35 miles away from the WiMAX base station, using the outdoor CPE and 1.05 miles using the indoor CPE.

The test concluded that we were able to get a maximum of 7.5 Mbps download and over 8.9 Mbps in upload speed.

The test data shows the WiMAX network to provide adequate performance to be able to deliver streaming media encoded up to 4Mb/s.... The lab testing did not reveal any issues at the 700Kb or 2Mb rates. The 4Mb stream revealed only minimal issues. Data discards on the downlink measured 0.000341% and no discards on the uplink.

Average round trip latency was approx 44 msec.

AnonymousPerson
@verizon.net

AnonymousPerson

Anon

Re: Some interesting selected findings

For a signal to go 4.35 miles and then come back, it should take 46.7 microseconds. 44 milliseconds is an increase in latency by a factor of 1000. Can processing a ping really create that much overhead?

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: Some interesting selected findings

said by AnonymousPerson :

For a signal to go 4.35 miles and then come back, it should take 46.7 microseconds. 44 milliseconds is an increase in latency by a factor of 1000. Can processing a ping really create that much overhead?
That number was for a video streaming application and not a ping. It includes all the delay in both the hardware and the application.
PDXPLT
join:2003-12-04
Banks, OR

PDXPLT

Member

Well Duh ...

An "experimental license". Let's see, licensed spectrum equals:

-- no interference from other systems, unlike the Part 15 Wi-Fi spectrum "free for all",

-- higher TX power,

Add them to together and you get: greater coverage and higher speed. It would be real news if the opposite had been the case.
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY

patcat88

Member

BS

4mbit per sec? Where is my 50 to 100? 5 miles? Where is my 20 miles? And of course the range will be better than wifi. Wimax is licensed spectrum with much higher transmit power.
FatalSw1tch
join:2004-03-12
Ashland, MA

1 edit

FatalSw1tch

Member

Re: BS

It seems as if maybe you are having trouble from this real world test and trying to put it in the category of the theoretical limits?

Still around 7-10mbps down and up to 8mbps upload is a good trial no matter how you slice it, especially to not be tied to one location

reader
@twtelecom.net

reader

Anon

Wireless Showdowns That Compare Apples And Oranges

www.techdirt.com/blog.php