How many certification profiles should WiMAX Forum support? Monica Paolini Senza Fili Consulting
[email protected] San Diego, July 13, 2006 Copyright 2006 WiMAX Forum “WiMAX Forum” and "WiMAX Forum CERTIFIED “ are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
Goals of the session • Open discussion on the impact of certification in – Opening new markets to WiMAX – Avoiding confusion and fragmentation
• Compare perspectives of – Vendors – Service providers – Regulators
• Develop suggestions for WiMAX Forum
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What’s the role of certification profiles? •
WiMAX products have to be certified within a certification profile – 5 fixed WiMAX certification profiles – 13 mobile WiMAX certification profiles
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Each certification profile targets a specific spectrum allocation – More profiles extend WiMAX addressable market – Few profiles encourage development of 802.16-compliant, not certifiable products
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The WiMAX Forum can establish new certification profiles – Without the commitment of multiple vendors, the certification program is not activated – Existence of dormant certification programs decreases the WiMAX Forum credibility
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What’s the issue? • Some service providers ask for additional profiles – Their spectrum allocations are outside certification profiles – They want to benefit from interoperability
• Adding new certification profiles is dangerous – Market fragmentation reduces benefits of interoperability and volumes of scale – Vendors have to direct their efforts in too many directions, possibly slowing down progress in key profiles, or may choose to ignore new profiles
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Fixed WiMAX profiles
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Mobile WiMAX profiles
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How to establish a new certification profile • WiMAX certification includes interoperability testing among different vendors – At least three vendors are required for fixed WiMAX – At least four vendors are required for mobile WiMAX
• Commitment from several vendors at the same time is needed to get the certification program started • Selection of certification profiles is driven by vendors’ interest by the CWG – Profiles have to be approved by the Board Copyright 2006 WiMAX Forum “WiMAX Forum” and "WiMAX Forum CERTIFIED “ are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
Endless opportunities for new profiles • Twenty profiles per spectrum band can be defined – System profile: fixed or mobile WiMAX – Duplexing: TDD or FDD – Channel size: 6 channel sizes for fixed WiMAX, 4 for mobile WiMAX
• How we get to 20 profiles? – Fixed WiMAX: 2 x 6 = 12 profiles – Mobile WiMAX: 2 x 4 = 8 profiles – Total: 20 profiles
• Virtually impossible to have 20 profiles in a band, but how many is too many? Copyright 2006 WiMAX Forum “WiMAX Forum” and "WiMAX Forum CERTIFIED “ are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
The arguments for and against new profiles • • •
FOR new profiles
AGAINST new profiles
Increase WiMAX flexibility Encourage wider market adoption Address niche markets
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– Lack of harmonized spectrum allocations
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Avoid proliferation of 802.16, non-WiMAX equipment
• • • • •
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Fragmentation of the market Confusion among subscribers Reduced benefits from interoperability More complex multimode devices Vendors cannot support many profiles (at least initially) Lack of economies of scale
How to find the middle ground? • What is the optimal number of profiles? • How large a market do you need to trigger the creation of a new certification profile? • How important is certification and interoperability in niche markets? • Could only standard compliance be tested, leaving out interoperability for equipment outside certification profiles? Copyright 2006 WiMAX Forum “WiMAX Forum” and "WiMAX Forum CERTIFIED “ are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
Areas of debate • • • • • • •
FDD profiles for mobile WiMAX 700 MHz for mobile WiMAX 3.3 GHz for mobile or fixed WiMAX 5.8 GHz for fixed WiMAX Evolutionary WiMAX system profile Multimode devices Impact on roaming
• Any other? Copyright 2006 WiMAX Forum “WiMAX Forum” and "WiMAX Forum CERTIFIED “ are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
What can the Forum do? • Should the Forum become more proactive in establishing new profiles and promoting vendors submissions for these? • What role can service providers play within certification? • Can the certification process become more flexible to accommodate more profiles without diluting the value of certification? • Could there be certification profiles tied to specific device classes? Copyright 2006 WiMAX Forum “WiMAX Forum” and "WiMAX Forum CERTIFIED “ are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
Backup slides
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The process of certification
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Certification profiles process flow WF Principal Member Contributions
SPWG
Baseline Certification Profiles Proposal (submitted by TWG)
FOR NEW PROFILES (e.g. Mobility Profiles)
AWG
CWG
NWG
Working Group Review & Principal Member Comment Period
MWG
Collated Comments
RWG CWG/TWG resolves comments
SPWG Recommendation to WF Board for Principal Members to vote
Set of Certification Profiles
WF Principal Member Approve
Copyright 2006 WiMAX Forum “WiMAX Forum” and "WiMAX Forum CERTIFIED “ are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
BOD
WF Tiger
Review
Team
Revised Proposal
Interoperability testing
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Fixed WiMAX Releases
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Mobile WiMAX Releases
Copyright 2006 WiMAX Forum “WiMAX Forum” and "WiMAX Forum CERTIFIED “ are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
