Future Outlook And Recommendations

Fourth-generation wireless technologies Long Term Evolution (LTE) and the more widely known WiMAX are unlikely to play a part in delivering the National Broadband Network. Both the NBN Implementation Study and NBN Co chief executive officer Mike Quigley have established that the technologies do not have the capacity, range and bandwidth sufficient to However, if the recently released NBN Implementation Study is taken into account, 300,000 extra homes or a further three per cent of the population would be serviced by fibre rather than wireless. According to the study, which was delivered to Conroy on 5 March by authors KPMG and McKinsey & Company, the cost of deploying fibre beyond 93 per cent of homes would be too cost prohibitive. Under recommendations made in the study, the NBN would serve fibre to 93 per cent of homes, a fixed wireless service to the next four per cent, and satellite-based services to the most remote homes. However, whether LTE or WiMAX are used to deliver fixed-wireless services is under question, as the report outlines towers would have to be built within seven kilometers of users to deliver the minimum data rates of 12Mbps. "In the least densely populated parts of Australia, the only economically-feasible way to deliver broadband is via satellite," the report says. Quigley recently told members of Infrastructure Partnership Australia that he believed wireless and mobile technologies such as these are "absolutely going to be a part of the fabric of telecoms in the future." However, he was no less negative on the role it had to play in the NBN. While 4G technologies would be able to provide typical speeds of 70Mbps and peaks of 150Mbps at the centre of a cell, Quigley estimated the network would require 80,000 cell sites connected by fiber to completely replace the fibre-based network with wireless. "If you think it can all be done with wireless, I think you'll be mistaken," he said. Instead, the NBN plans to fill the wireless gap to the extra 700,000 or one million homes depending on implementation of the study's recommendations - by launching two new Ka-band satellites. Quigley said the satellites would have "capacities in order of magnitude over what's available today" with Ku-band satellites. Recommendations in the implementation study agreed with this outcome, which would provide wireless redundancy for users. With Ka-band satellites likely to be four years away from implementation, one recommendation in the study suggested providers upgrade modems for Kuband satellites as an intermediate solution.

According to a visual shown by Quigley during his speech to the industry professionals conference, the Ka-band satellites would eventually cover the vast majority of Australia, with potential black spots in some metropolitan areas on the east coast and possibly the far north of Queensland. Fourth-generation wireless technologies are slowly gaining traction globally, though only two retail WiMAX product are currently offered in Australia, by the Seven Group Limited-owned service provider vivid wireless in Perth and ISP Adam Internet in Adelaide.

Limitations of WiMax Technology:

WiMax as a major wireless technology is still not capable of replacing cable DSL; this is because of the various limitations it holds. This is an expensive and new technology that is why people are reluctant to adopt it. Only very large business organizations have adopted it as an alternative to the wired connection

Security Concerns:
The major limitation with any wireless technology is that it is really hard to fulfill its security needs. Same is the case with WiMax the hackers can also attack this connection and can steal some useful information. The intruders are capable enough of copying the MAC frames hence they can break the security codes. The hackers can even hijack the whole network by making use of denial of service attack. This security threat can devastate the entire connections. Another limitation which comes with the WiMax is that hackers have devised a way to masquerade as the base station in this way, the confidential information is accessed. The concerned departments like WiMax forum are trying hard to overcome this major limitation as this can cause the people to refrain from using this technology. Various softwares present in the market enable the hackers and crackers to decipher the codes and exploit information. Hence only if the range is low the WiMax technology operates significantly.

Misconception with its Range and Reach:

It is a common view nowadays that WiMax is capable of performing seamless operations over longer distances. In reality this is not the case. WiMax can only serve one of the two purposes either it can deliver signals to far off places or it can provide very high speed internet connectivity. If we try to send the signals over the range of 50Kilo Meters it is not possible to get error free bit rate. The signal strength starts to decline gradually. Additional investment on smart antennas provides an increased throughput with the current WiMax speed. Hence this technology is comparatively expensive and hard to use. The available bandwidth decreases as the number of users in one location increases. Usually users receive a bandwidth of 2 to 3Mbit/sec and it is required to install an additional WiMax card to increase the efficiency and strength of the signals.

Other Limitations:
The infrastructure requirement for 802.16 technologies requires distributed network which is complex and costly to build. The technology is so expensive that only big names like Intel are

able to produce silicone chips which are integrated with the PCs to increase the efficiency of the system. The market for WiMax is still not very attractive as there are not enough hardware devices which support this technology. Huge investment is required to produce equipments that can correspond with this technology. However in this time of recession who would invest such a big amount in new technology like WiMax. Moreover people are more accustomed to use WiFi and they find it more users friendly. Therefore it is impossible for them to switch to this new technology. The IT expertise needed to maintain its security is also rare. In other words we can say that people are not aware of handling the pros and cons associated with this technology. This technology has failed to prove it as an independent technology. People consider it as a 3G technology and the one replacing broadband wired DSL. The WiMax claims to work well with the mobile technologies, but still they are not adopted. This is due to the limited devices which work in accordance with WiMax. The antennas that enhance the efficiency of network are really small and their electricity power demand is more.

1. Environmental Factors: Wireless design criteria vary across four types of environments: Dense Urban A city center with many businesses and high-density residential units represents a challenge due to multipath effects among the multi-story buildings. Urban Surrounding a city center, average building heights may be lower than the mast of a base station, but the propagation environment remains equally challenging. Suburban With lower-density housing (primarily single-family dwellings) and fewer businesses, average building heights are much lower than base station towers and structures are more spread out, thus creating a more favorable propagation environment. Rural Where homes are far apart and businesses widely scattered, this environment offers no obstruction to wireless propagation so long as the terrain is at.

2.

How does the future look

There are many possibilities for WiMAX in the future in our changing age of technology. There is such a large potential for the capabilities and applications of WiMAX in the arena of wireless communications. Recently, there have been discussions in the news of WiMAXs potential. Internet news reports that The future of WiMAX is really as a mobile service that would allow users to access the Internet with their laptops or PDAs anywhere in a city that WiMAX is available (jiwire). Other sources confirmed that companies will soon be implementing WiMAX into technological devices such as Notebook computers and PDAs and into applications such as email.

More specifically, in the coming years, WiMAX is hoping to increase the bandwidth to 100 Mbps for mobile access and to 1Gbps for fixed nomadic access. In general, they are striving to attain a higher bandwidth and improved network efficiency. WiMAX is promising to becoming more widespread in the very near future. The microprocessor company, Intel, is beginning to produce chips that contain embedded WiMAX technology. Most European governments are setting aside bandwidth for WiMAX usage.

3. PROJECTED FUTURE IMPACTS:

4. Cost benefit analysis:

5. Recommendation: