**Preface XI**


Preface

manufacturers.

In June 2001, operators and equipment vendors in the communications ecosystem founded the nonprofit WiMAX Forum, an industry-led organization aimed at harmonizing broad‐ band wireless access standards, and certifying interoperability among devices from different

Nowadays, about 10 years later, the WiMAX technology is a mature and affordable solution for high-speed IP-based 4G mobile broadband, fully supporting bandwidth-intensive serv‐ ices, such as high-speed Internet access and television, as well as less bandwidth-demanding

The deployment of WiMAX networks, which are based on the IEEE 802.16-2004 Air Inter‐ face Standard, started in many countries in 2005, as soon as manufacturers released the first equipments. The early WiMAX networks were aimed at providing fixed broadband wireless services in a wide geographical scale and proved to be a really effective solution for the es‐

In February 2006, the IEEE802.16e-2005 amendment gave a further extension to the poten‐ tialities of this technology, introducing a number of features aimed at supporting also users mobility; in this way, the so-called Mobile-WIMAX profile was born. The result was a com‐ plete standard family that specified the air interface for both fixed and mobile broadband wireless access, enabling thus the convergence of fixed and mobile networks through a com‐

Since then, the interest in WiMAX has increased dramatically; nowadays, this technology is at work in more than 100 countries, providing both residential and mobile connectivity in urban areas as well as remote locations, due to the relatively low costs associated with its

The parallel development of the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless access technology, currently deployed in many countries, is not expected to displace WiMAX, which had a first-mover advantage. It is likely, in fact, that the two technologies will be complementary. As LTE networks begin to roll out, it is extremely likely, for instance, that WiMAX will be used as the wireless backhaul for those networks, leaving to LTE the access provision. More‐ over, WiMAX seems preferable for DSL replacement, especially in developing countries and rural regions, where wireline broadband technologies are not available. For these reasons, both the industrial and the scientific communities keep on developing and investigating Wi‐

but more latency-sensitive services, such as voice-over-IP calls.

tablishment of wireless metropolitan area networks.

mon wide area radio access technology.

deployment (in comparison with 3G, HSDPA).

MAX, with the final aim to get the best from this technology.
