1. 1 Wireless Broadband Communications in Rural and Remote Areas – A WiMAX Solution? Patrick Boets Banama-Telecom, Belgium Leo Van Biesen Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Sven De Backer Banama-Telecom, Belgium

2. 2 Introduction Which standardized technologies to use for rural communication? Compare technologies Pick best one out –Spectrum –Capacity-reach investigation Business case?

3. 3 Characterisation of Rural Areas Scarcity or total absence of public facilities Difficult topographical conditions –e.g. lakes, rivers, hills, mountains or deserts Severe climatic conditions Low level of economic activity –mainly based on agriculture, fishing, handicrafts, etc.; Low per capita income; Underdeveloped social infrastructures –health, education, etc.; Low population density –(from 0.4- to 100 houses/km2);

4. 4 Limiting Factors of Wireless Technologies UMTS900 (type W-CDMA-FDD) –Self-interference limited  cell breathing, FDD, one BW- choice CDMA450 (type W-CDMA-FDD) –Self-interference limited  cell breathing, FDD TD-SCDMA (combined TDMA and CDMA) –Limited to China? VSAT –Expensive subscription rate (combine with wireless?) WiFi –Fixed and large bandwidth, limited frequencies, unable to deal with large delay spread, unsuited contention WiMAX –Less mature (5 standards under development and 2 are pre-draft)

5. 5 Technology Selection WiMAX –Flexible architecture (P2P, P2MP, Mesh) –Flexible bandwidth –Adaptive Modulation (9 for fixed WiMAX, 8 for mobile) –High spectral efficiency –Can handle large delay spread –High security –QoS: multiple profiles (VoIP support) –Space Time Coding, Adaptive Antenna, MIMO –Prices are still dropping

6. 6 WiMAX Spectrum

7. 7 WiMAX Capacity

8. 8 WiMAX Frequency Impact BW = 3.5 MHz

9. 9 WiMAX RF Bandwidth Capacity is linear with bandwidth

10. 10 Service Level Agreement (SLA) Definition (OSF=15) (OSF=1)

11. 11 SLA Allocation (MIX)

12. 12 SLA Allocation (MAX)

13. 13 WiMAX SLA Impact Mix & Low Max & Low Mix & High BW = 3.5 MHz Freq = 450 MHz

14. 14 Case Study

15. 15 Case Study: Results

16. 16 Conclusion WiMAX has some strong points for rural communication Capacity-reach improves with –Sub-1 GHz frequencies compared with the profiled frequencies (2.5, 3.5 GHz) –Bandwidth –Well chosen Service Level Agreements There is a business case for sub-1 GHz WiMAX in rural areas