Global Standardization Activities

Activities for WiMAX Standardization
Takafumi Kawakami†, Takeshi Motohashi,
and Masashi Nakatsugawa
Abstract
WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) is attracting growing attention as one of
the candidates for next-generation wireless technology. This article introduces the latest standardization
activities for WiMAX.

1. What is WiMAX?
WiMAX stands for worldwide interoperability for
microwave access. It is a wide-area wireless technology that has been studied as a means to provide highspeed communication over the last one mile to busin e s s a n d c o n s u m e r p r e m i s e s . W h i l e Wi F i(IEEE802.11), a wireless technology widely used in
the home or public wireless LAN (local area network) service market, covers only 20 to 100 m fromthe base station and achieves a communication speedof several tens of megabits per second, WiMAX typically covers 5 km from the base station and achievesa maximum speed of 75 Mbit/s. (The coverage andspeed depend on the environment in which the system
is used and on the particular system configuration.)
WiMAX is just a nickname. Formally, it is a systemthat conforms to IEEE 802.16, a wireless communication standard being standardized in IEEE [1]. To
exploit the standard to ensure compatibility and interoperability between products of different vendors andbetween different service providers and to promote
its widespread adoption in the market, a non-profit
organization called the WiMAX Forum [2] was inaugurated in 2001. The nickname WiMAX was chosen
by the WiMAX Forum for their standards-based systems.
The WiMAX Forum consists of various industry† NTT Department III
Chiyoda-ku, 100-8116 Japan
E-mail: t.kawakami@hco.ntt.co.jp

70leaders and organizations. Its membership exceeded
300 as of July 2005. Representing the NTT Group
companies, NTT Corporation joined the Forum inJune 2005 and is collecting and studying information
about the technology together with staff from otherGroup companies.
2. Organization of WiMAX Forum
The WiMAX Forum consists of the Board of Directors, which is responsible for the management anddecision-making of the organization, and sevenWorking Groups, each covering a specific topic (Fig.
1). The membership is classified into Board Members, Principal Members, and Regular Members.
Most of the Board Members have been involved inthe Forum from its inception. They include Intel Corporation, Alvarion, Airspan Networks, AT&T, BT,and Fujitsu Microelectronics America. The Board ofDirectors makes decisions for the Forum. Only thoseenterprises that are invited by the existing Board
Members are eligible to become new Board Members. Principal Members can not only read and propose specifications but also have votes in WorkingGroups. Regular Members are only allowed to readand propose specifications. Therefore, most enterprises and organizations that participate in the Forumin order to collect information choose to be RegularMembers. NTT is a Regular Member.
Besides NTT, major Japanese corporations that participate in the Forum include KDDI, Fusion Communications Corporation, eAccess Ltd., Yozan, NEC,NTT Technical Review

Global Standardization Activities

Organization

Types of Members

Board of Directors
Board Members
Working GroupsMarketing WG

Application WG

Service Provider WG

Network WG

Technical WG

Certification WG

Principal Members

Regular Members

Regulatory WG

Fig. 1. Organizational structure of WiMAX Forum.

Fujitsu Microelectronics America, and Kyocera.
3. Activities of Working Groups
The activities of the Working Groups are summarized below.
(1) Marketing WG
Conducts public relations activities to build
awareness of the WiMAX Forum and theWiMAX brand.
(2) Service Provider WG
Defines requirements from the viewpoint ofservice providers and provides feedback to all theother Working Groups.
(3) Technical WG
Develops interoperability specifications for
WiMAX devices and establishes a test and certification infrastructure.
(4) Regulatory WG
Ensures globally harmonized spectrum for
WiMAX and works with regulators to develop
flexible and technology-neutral regulatory frameworks.
(5) Application WG
Clarifies requirements from the viewpoint ofservice provision and end users to help promote
the development of WiMAX.
(6) Network WG
Develops end-to-end WiMAX network specifications for fixed, nomadic, portable, and mobileenvironments.
(7) Certification WG
Recommends the selection of test labs., coordinates on this with the Forum, and manages theWiMAX Forum Certification Program.
Vol. 3 No. 11 Nov. 2005

4. Reasons for growing interest in WiMAX
The WiMAX specification was originally studied
to provide high-speed communication as the last-mileaccess line. The latest specification is IEEE802.162004, which was adopted in June 2004. Since then,many vendors have been developing products, andservice providers have been preparing for the introduction of fixed wireless access (FWA) services.
However, these days the target of WiMAX is not confined to FWA, but has been broadened to embrace
applications to mobile systems. Studies for theseapplications are in progress and are expected to resultin the IEEE802.16e specification in autumn 2005 [3].
When this new specification is implemented, mobile
applications covering two to three kilometers fromthe base station and achieving a communication
speed of around 15 Mbit/s will become possible. (Thecoverage and speed depend on the environment inwhich the technology is used and on the particularsystem configuration.) IEEE802.16e assumes broadband access from cars and trains moving at a highspeed (around 120 km/h). Such capability holds thepotential for the emergence of entirely new service
uses that exploit high mobility.
5. Activities in Japan
In Japan, several carriers and service providers havebegun to study the introduction of wireless broadband
services using WiMAX. The Ministry of Internal
Affairs and Communications (MIC) launched the“Study Group for the Promotion of Wireless Broadband Access” in November 2004. Through collaboration between the Study Group members and other71

Global Standardization Activities

corporations, it is studying examples of services
using a variety of next-generation wireless technologies with a view to building a ubiquitous network.
Many corporations are already proposing new
WiMAX-based services.
6. Frequency allocation issues
Among a number of issues standing in the way of
the widespread use of WiMAX in Japan, the one considered to be the most serious is the choice of the frequency spectrum to use. Currently, the WiMAX
Forum recommends three standard bands: 2.5, 3.5,and 5.8 GHz. In Japan, the 2.5-GHz band is alreadyallotted to mobile phone providers, the 3.5-GHz bandto broadcasters, and the 5.8-GHz band for intelligent
transport systems (ITS). This means that there is currently no spare band that can be allotted for WiMAX.
If Japan should choose to start services using nonstandard bands, the devices used would become specific to Japan, which would make it difficult to reduce
their costs and might prevent Japanese WiMAX
devices being usable in other countries and viceversa.
7. Future directions
By the time this article is published, IEEE802.16e,a specification applicable to mobile applications,should have been established. This is expected to leadto much greater global interest in WiMAX. The NTT
Group will collect and study new technologies, suchas WiMAX, within the context of expanding its
broadband environment and will take appropriate
actions as the technology unfolds.

Takafumi Kawakami
R&D Vision Group, NTT Department III(R&D Strategy).
He received the B.E. degree in precision
machine engineering from Chuo University,
Tokyo in 1996. In 1996, he joined NTT KantoBranch Office, where he was engaged in business solutions. Since 2004, he has been withNTT Department III, where has been engaged in
the planning of R&D strategy. He also serves as
an NTT Group support staff member for its activities in the WiMAX Forum.

Takeshi Motohashi
Manager, R&D Vision Group, NTT Department III (R&D Strategy).
He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees fromthe University of Tokyo in 1992 and 1994,
respectively. He joined NTT in 1994 and has
worked as an entrepreneurial software engineering manager. He received the M.S. degree inmanagement of technology from MIT Sloan
School of Management, USA in 2004. He led thedevelopment of the e-commerce personalization
system, an Internet audience measurement system, and the first-ever Japanese TV guide Website. He is a member of the Information Processing Society of Japan.

Masashi Nakatsugawa
Senior Research Engineer, Supervisor, Group
Leader, NTT Access Network Service SystemsLaboratories.
He received the B.E. degree in electronics andcommunication engineering and the M.E. degree
in electrical engineering from Waseda University, Tokyo in 1987 and 1989, respectively. In1989, he joined NTT Radio Communication Systems Laboratories, where he was involved in
R&D of MMICs and packaging technologies. He
received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from California Institute of Technology,
USA in 1999. From 1999 to 2001, he was conducting research on the architecture for software
defined radio at NTT Network Innovation Laboratories. He was with NTT Department III from2001 to 2004. He is currently engaged in thedevelopment of fundamental technologies for
wireless wide area access systems.

References
[1]
[2]
[3]

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http://www.ieee.org/
http://www.wimaxforum.org/home
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/16/milestones_active.html

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