Mobile WiMAX systems: performance and evolution

Mobile WiMAX was successfully adopted by ITU as one of the IMT-2000 technologies in November 2007. Since then mobile WiMAX (a.k.a. IP-OFDMA) has officially become a major global cellular wireless standard along with 3GPP UMTS/HSPA and 3GPP2 CDMA/ EVDO. Mobile WiMAX is an OFDM-based technology available for deployment today, and new WIMAX devices come to market at much reduced cost than that of current 3G solutions. Currently over 260 service providers are deploying fixed, portable and mobile WiMAX networks in 110 countries. This article provides an overview of the mobile WiMAX system and its performance under various configurations, channel conditions, and types of data traffic. Furthermore, the article provides an overview of mobile WiMAX evolution.