Samsung Gear To Boost WiMax Speeds

Telecom equipment manufacturer Samsung Electronics showed off its new high-speed Mobile WiMAX technology at its 3GSM booth in Barcelona this week. Samsung says its Mobile WiMAX Wave 2 was able to reach a maximum download speed of 34 Mbps and an upload transfer rate of 8 Mbps during the trade show demonstration. At this rate, the company says users can download MP3 music files in less than one second and a movie in less than three minutes.

Mobile WiMAX Wave 2, which works with MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) and smart antenna technology, promises even higher speeds. Samsung says the technology can ultimately reach a maximum download speed of 40 Mbps and an upload transfer rate of 12 Mbps.

Samsung also is using the 3GSM show to unveil the spatial multiplexing function of MIMO technology through four FPGA (field-programmable gate array) terminals, which the company says will help slash both operating expenses and capital equipment costs. Using the combination of the MIMO and smart antenna technologies, Samsung says wireless providers can dramatically increase cell coverage over what the company can offer with SISO (single-input, single output), and notes that operators can make the adjustment to MIMO technology with a software upgrade.

Samsung already supplies existing WiMAX solutions to 35 operators in 23 countries. Nine operators are currently piloting or signing agreements to test WiMAX Wave 2 in in the United States, Europe and South America.At this point, the Mobile WiMAX Forum is still working out second-phase specifications for the Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) standard in order to alleviate any compatibility problems among software and equipment from different vendors.