Wireless MAN
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A wireless metropolitan area network (MAN) offers broadband network access via exterior antennas. Antennas communicate with base stations which are connected to core network. This is a good alternative to fixed line networks. It is generally simple to build and relatively inexpensive.
802.16 is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) standard which specifies the wirelessMAN Air Interface for wireless metropolitan area networks. Standard was completed in October 2001 and published on 8 April 2002.
802.16 is a “last mile” technique which uses bandwidth between 10 – 66 GHz. Because of the short wavelength, line of sight is required. Standard supports point-to-multipoint topology, frequency-division duplex (FDD) and time-division duplex (TDD) in a consistent framework and full quality of service (QoS). With QoS it is possible to send sound, video etc. Standard specifies 120 Mbit/s on each 25 MHz channel.
802.16a followed 802.16 standard. It was completed in November 2002 and published on 1 April 2003. It uses bandwidth between 2 - 11 Ghz and support mesh instead of only point-to-multipoint network architecture. Standard doesn't need line of sight. With mesh support subscriber stations communicate with other subscribers rather than directly with the base station.
See also
External links
- wirelessman (http://www.wirelessman.org/)
- 802.16 news (http://www.80216news.com/)
- Information on Wireless MAN networking (http://www.airhive.net/modules.php?name=Web_Links)