WiMAX Demo Shows a 50km Broadband Internet Connection at 450MHz

Updated:2008/4/16 15:14

WiMAX developer, Telsima says that it has successfully demonstrated a 50km (30mile) broadband connection using its WiMAX system in a 3 MHz channel under near line of sight conditions in the 450 MHz frequency band.

The tests, conducted over a period of several days in the months of February and March of 2008 in Slovenia, stimulated significant commercial interest for using 450MHz and other sub-GHz frequencies carrier grade frequency bands. The base station was located at Vir Domzale silos with a vertically polarized antenna with 10.15 dBi gain. The subscriber station, using a Yagi antenna with a 10.65 dBi gain, was installed in a car that drove across terrain that included dense foliage and wooded hills. At a distance of 50 km, at Javornik, the WiMAX system communication link yielded excellent results; modulating at 64QAM in the downlink and 16QAM in the uplink; providing over 6Mbps throughput over the wireless link.

Wolfgang Mack, chief marketing officer of Telsima, commented, "Compared to higher frequency systems, the Sub-GHz solutions are technically and economically suited for covering large areas where the foliage is dense and the terrain does not allow for line of sight communications between the subscriber station and base station. We are very optimistic in our Sub-GHz solution''s capability to address the needs of high coverage, low density markets with high modulation rate capacity."

Burcak Beser, chief technology officer of Telsima, explained, "These lower frequencies perform better in wooded and hilly environments because of their superior wave propagation characteristics enabling large sectors and wave diffraction around interfering objects such as hills and buildings. Rural areas in global markets, where the subscriber density is lower, are therefore more efficiently served using these sub-GHz frequencies. Of particular significance in our system demonstration is the excellent connection quality; sustaining modulation rates of 64QAM in the downlink and 16QAM in the uplink in a WiMAX system configuration suitable for wireline replacement voice quality services.

Telsima''s mobile WiMAX product portfolio allows operators to offer mobile services, MIMO antenna diversity and ASN network control today while smoothly migrating to 802.16e-2005 and NWG ASN solutions once commercially available.

Source:cellular-news