Wire Blast

To answer that question, we can start off by parsing the name. WiMAX stands forWorldwideinteroperability forMicrowaveA(X)cessAs with the similar Wi-Fi, WiMax has a governing organization which coined the name. Known as the WiMAX Forum, it acts in a similar capacity to the Wi-Fi Alliance by testing interoperability between WiMax products, educating the public about the technology, and offering conferences and meetings in which industry professionals gather to discuss WiMAX’s future uses.WiMax operates on a separate standard from Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is based on IEEE 802.11 standards, while WiMAX is based off of the IEEE 802.16m standard. This standard was created for the purpose of installing Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WirelessMAN), which is the IEEE’s official term for the standards. These networks are usually deployed over a city or large university setting. Instead of connecting individual devices together, MANs connect a number of local area networks (LANs) to larger Wide Area Networks (WANs) as well as the Internet.WiMAX’s useful features have been especially useful in what the telecommunications industry refers to as the “last mile.” This is not actually a standard system of measurement, but rather a term for the last segment connecting the company’s network to a customer. When the customer is in a distant rural area not amenable to traditional Wi-Fi access, the “last mile” can actually be any number of miles. In these situations, WiMAX can be used to connect the company’s network to the customer.Wi-Fi is still more popular in end-user devices, but the impact of WiMAX should not be underestimated. Whereas Wi-Fi always uses unlicensed spectrum, WiMAX uses both licensed and unlicensed spectrum and can cover a much wider range. The two standards also deviate in how quality of service (QoS)is determined. For WiMAX, QoS is based on the connectivity between a base station and a user device, while Wi-Fi uses contention access, in which subscriber stations compete for the opportunity to pass data through a wireless access point (AP). Subscriber stations that are further from the AP often find themselves interrupted by closer stations.For more information about WiMAX, visit the WiMAX forum at www.wimaxforum.org.