WIMAX and IEEE 802.

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IEEE 802.16
The growing interest in LMDS, gave rise to the need to develop standards for this service. IEEE 802 committee set up the 802.16 working group in 1999 to develop broadband wireless standards. In addition, an industry group, the WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) Forum, has been formed to promote the 802.16 standards and to develop interoperability specifications.

IEEE 802.16
IEEE 802.16 standardizes the air interface and related functions associated with LMDS. WiMAX technology enables ubiquitous delivery of wireless broadband service for fixed and/or mobile users. WiMAX Forum has forecast of more than 133 million WiMAX users globally by 2012.

Objectives of IEEE802.16
Wireless links with microwave or millimeter wave radios. use licensed spectrum (typically). Have a reach which is metropolitan in scale. Provide public network service to fee-paying customers (typically) Use point to multi-point architecture with stationary rooftop or tower-mounted antennas. Provide efficient transport of heterogeneous traffic supporting QoS. Are capable of broadband transmissions (>2Mbps)

 802.16 wireless service provides a communication path between a subscriber site (single subscriber device or a network at subscriber premises) and a core network. 802.16 standards are concerned with the air interface between the subscribers transreceiver and the base transreceiver station.

 The other two interfaces i.e between the subscriber and the Subscriber transreceiver Station (SNI) and base transreceiver station and core network (BNI) are beyond the scope of 802.16 standards. The reason of showing SNI and BNI is that the subscriber and core technologies have an impact on the technologies used in the air interface and the service provided by the transreceivers stations over the air interface.

 The network specifications are being developed by Network Working Group (NWG) within the WiMAX Forum, which include:
End-to-end networking specifications Network interoperability specifications.

Protocol Architecture
The 802.16 protocol is concerned with the lowest two layers of the OSI model. The 802.16 has a four layer architecture:

Physical Physical Layer of the OSI Model Transmission Medium Access Control Data Link Layer of OSI Model Convergence

IEEE 802.16 Protocol Architecture

Functions of Physical Layer

The Physical Layer of 802.16 addresses the medium-dependent issues, since these are critical in wireless link design It specifies the transmission medium and the frequency band.

Functions of Transmission Layer

Encoding / decoding of signals Preamble generation and removal (for synchronization). Bit transmission / reception.

Functions of MAC Layer

On transmission, assemble data into a frame with address and error detection fields. On reception, disassemble frame, and perform address recognition and error detection. Govern the access to the wireless transmission medium.

Functions of MAC Layer

Responsible for sharing access to radio channel between the base station and the subscriber station. It defines when and how a base station or subscriber station may initiate transmission on the channel. The protocol must be able to allocate the radio channel capacity so as to satisfy QoS demands. In downstream only one transmitter and therefore MAC protocol is relatively simpler. The upstream there are multiple transmitter and therefore MAC protocol is more complex.

Functions of Convergence Layer

Encapsulate PDU of upper layers in the 802.16 MAC/PHY frames. Map an upper layer address into 802.16 addresses. Translate upper layer QoS parameters into native 802.16 MAC format. Adapt the time dependencies of the upper layer traffic into the equivalent MAC service.

Services
802.16 is designed to support following bearer services
Digital Audio / Video multicast. Digital Telephony. ATM. IP . Bridged LAN. Back Haul Frame Relay

IEEE 802.16 MAC Layer

Data transmission over air interface from or to a given subscriber are structured as sequence of MAC frames. MAC protocol is a connection oriented protocol and each MAC frame includes a connection ID which is used to deliver incoming data to correct MAC user. There is also a one-to-one correspondence between connection ID and service flow.

IEEE 802.16 MAC Layer

The service flow defines the QoS parameters for the PDU that are exchanged on the connection. Service flow provide mechanism for QoS management. They are integral to the bandwidth allocation process for each active connection. Service flow parameters are latency( max acceptable delay), jitter (Max acceptable delay variation) and throughput (Min acceptable bit rate).

IEEE 802.16.1 Frame Format

Header - protocol control information
Downlink header used by the base station Uplink header used by the subscriber to convey bandwidth management needs to base station Bandwidth request header used by subscriber to request additional bandwidth

Payload either higher-level data or a MAC control message CRC error-detecting code

IEEE 802.16.1 Frame Format

Generic Downlink Header

EC EKS 4bits Length 11 bits Connection Identifier 16 Bits

HT AR =0 Q

FC 2 bits

FSN 4 bits

HCS 8 bits

ARQ : Automatic Repeat Request EC : Encryption Control EKS : Encryption Key Sequence FC : Fragmentation control FSN : Fragment Sequence Number

HCS : Header check Sequence. HT ; Header Type PM : Poll me Bit SI : Slip Indicator

Generic Uplink Header

EC EKS 4bits Length 11 bits Connection Identifier 16 Bits

HT AR =0 Q

FC 2 bits

FSN 4 bits

Grant Mangement

HCS 8 bits

ARQ : Automatic Repeat Request EC : Encryption Control EKS : Encryption Key Sequence FC : Fragmentation control FSN : Fragment Sequence Number

HCS : Header check Sequence. HT ; Header Type PM : Poll me Bit SI : Slip Indicator

Bandwidth Request Header

1 0 0 0 0 O 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 Connection Identifier 16 Bits

HT =1 HCS 8 bits

Bandwidth Requested

ARQ : Automatic Repeat Request EC : Encryption Control EKS : Encryption Key Sequence FC : Fragmentation control FSN : Fragment Sequence Number

HCS : Header check Sequence. HT ; Header Type PM : Poll me Bit SI : Slip Indicator

MAC Management Messages

IEEE 802.16 defines a number of control messages that are used by the base station and the subscriber to manage the air interface and manage the exchange of data over the various connections. Messages are used to exchange operating parameters and status and encryptionrelated information and for capacity management.

MAC Management Messages

Uplink and downlink channel descriptor Uplink and downlink access definition Ranging request and response Registration request, response and acknowledge Privacy key management request and response Dynamic service addition request, response and acknowledge

MAC Management Messages

Dynamic service change request, response, and acknowledge Dynamic service deletion request and response Multicast polling assignment request and response Downlink data grant type request ARQ acknowledgment

Physical Layer Upstream Transmission

Uses a DAMA-TDMA technique Error correction uses Reed-Solomon code Modulation scheme based on QPSK

Physical Layer Downstream Transmission

Continuous downstream mode
For continuous transmission stream (audio, video) Simple TDM scheme is used for channel access Duplexing technique is frequency division duplex (FDD)

Burst downstream mode

Targets burst transmission stream (IP-based traffic) DAMA-TDMA scheme is used for channel access Duplexing techniques are FDD with adaptive modulation, frequency shift division duplexing (FSDD), time division duplexing (TDD)

IEEE 802.16a
The first version of the 802.16 standard released addressed Line-of-Sight (LOS) environments at high frequency bands operating in the 10-66 GHz range. The 802.16a standard, is designed for systems operating in bands between 2 GHz and 11 GHz.

IEEE 802.16a
The significant difference between these two frequency bands lies in the ability to support Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) operation in the lower frequencies, which is not possible in higher bands. The 802.16a amendment to the standard opened up the opportunity for major changes to the PHY layer specifications specifically to address the needs of the 2-11 GHz bands.

IEEE 802.16a
The introduction of three new PHY-layer specifications have been introduced
New Single Carrier PHY, 256 point FFT OFDM PHY, 2048 point FFT OFDMA PHY.

the first interoperable test plans support the 256 point FFT OFDM PHY. The others PHY-layer specifications are being developed as per the requirement.

Release 1.0
The current mobile WiMAX technology is commonly referred to as Release 1.0 profile. Its air interface specifications consist of four related IEEE 802.16 Standards,
IEEE Standard 802.16-2004, IEEE Standard 802.16-2004/Cor.1-2005, IEEE Standard 802.16e- 2005 IEEE Draft Standard P802.16-2004/Cor.2.

Release 1.0
The system profile is composed of five sub-profiles, namely, PHY, MAC, radio, duplexing mode and power classes. All Release 1 mobile WiMAX products share the same PHY and MAC features (profiles) and the same duplexing mode which is Time Division Duplex (TDD).

Key PHY Features

Scalable OFDMA Mobile WiMAX is scalable in the sense that by flexibly adjusting FFT sizes and channel bandwidths
OFDMA also enables feasible implementation of advanced antenna techniques such as MIMO. It can address various spectrum needs in different regional regulations in a cost-competitive manner.

TDD Mobile WiMAX Release 1 Profile has only TDD as the duplexing mode.
TDD allows adjusting downlink and uplink ratios based on their service needs in the networks. TDD is inherently better suited to more advanced antenna techniques such as Adaptive Antenna System (AAS) or Beamforming (BF)

Key PHY Features

Advanced Antenna Techniques (MIMO and BF)
Operators and end-users enjoy up to twice the data rates of Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) rate, resulting in up to 37 Mbps for downlink and 10 Mbps for uplink sector throughput using just 10 MHz TDD channel bandwidth. Mobile WiMAX also enhances the cell coverage with its inherent BF techniques.

Key PHY Features

Full Mobility Support
mobile WiMAX was designed to support vehicles at highway speed with appropriate pilot design and Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ), which helps to mitigate the effect of fast channel and interference fluctuation. HARQ helps to overcome the error of link adaptation in fast fading channels and to improve overall performance with its combined gain and time diversity.

Frequency Reuse

Key MAC Features

Connection-based Data Transmission with Classification and QoS per Connection Scheduled Transmissions and the Flexible Bandwidth Allocation Mechanism. MAC Overhead Reduction.
WiMAX technology includes support of the general Purpose Header Suppression (PHS) and IP Header Compression (ROHC). The PHS mechanism replaces the repeated part of the header with a short context identifier, thus reducing the overhead associated with headers. ROHC is a highly efficient IETF standard for which WiMAX MAC has all necessary support.

Key MAC Features

Mobility Support: Handover. Power Saving: Sleep Mode
In sleep mode the mobile is away from the base station for certain time intervals. During these intervals the mobile remains registered at the base station but can power down certain circuits to reduce power consumption.

Power Saving: Idle Mode

If the mobile has no traffic for a long time it can switch to idle mode in which it is no longer registered at any particular base station. To resume traffic between the network and the mobile, a paging procedure may be used by the network.

Key MAC Features

Security
The security sub-layer provides Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)-based mutual authentication between the mobile and the network. It protects against unauthorized access to the transferred data by applying strong encryption of data blocks transferred over the air.

MAC Layer Support for the Multicast and Broadcast Service

Multicast and Broadcast Services (MBSs) allow WiMAX mobile terminals to receive multicast data even when they are in idle mode. The most popular application of this feature is TV broadcasting to mobile terminals.