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News Release from: WiMAX Forum
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 20 April 2005
Forum outlines WiMAX certification
process
The WiMAX Forum has launched its certification programme by detailing its certification process and timeline.
The world's first WiMAX Forum Certified products will be available by year's end, according to the WiMAX Forum, which has launched its certification programme by detailing its certification process and timeline The programme was launched during a quarterly members' meeting last week in Malaga, Spain, the site of the Forum's official certification test lab, Cetecom
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 8 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Also during this meeting, the WiMAX Forum announced support from the Korean wireless community to promote WiMAX Forum Certified products, and formalised an agreement with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) that ensures a single global standard for wireless metropolitan area network (MAN) technology.
"Based on a recent survey of our members regarding their plans to submit products for Certification when the lab opens in July, we expect to see multiple vendors offering WiMAX Forum Certified product in the marketplace before the end of the year", said Ron Resnick, President of the WiMAX Forum.
The WiMAX Forum provided details of its certification process and a timeline for testing WiMAX equipment based on the IEEE802.16:2004 standard.
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By June, the forum expects to have completed the necessary test cases and test scripts and preparation of test equipment.
The lab will open and begin accepting vendor equipment for certification testing in July.
The first WiMAX Forum Certified products - those that are certified as conformant to the standard and interoperable with other vendors' products - are expected in the November/December 2005 timeframe.
The WiMAX Forum will initially certify equipment based on two profiles: TDD and FDD in the 3.5GHz frequency band with 3.5MHz channelisation.
Based on market demand and vendor product submissions, more profiles will be added in 2006.
The WiMAX Forum also has committed that all future enhancements to the baseline profiles will support backward compatibility.
To demonstrate their commitment to these timelines, several equipment OEMs demonstrated working equipment at the member meeting.
Also during the meeting in Malaga, the WiMAX Forum and ETSI formally executed an important standard co-operation agreement that ensures a single global standard for wireless MAN technology.
"From its inception, the vision of the WiMAX Forum was to create a truly global, interoperable standard - this agreement is a major milestone in realising that vision", said Resnick.
Karl Heinz Rosenbrock, ETSI Director General, commented: "ETSI is pleased to contribute the radio and testing expertise from ETSI Technical Committee BRAN and ETSI Protocol and Testing Competence Centre towards a worldwide harmonised standard for broadband wireless access (BWA) systems".
"We consider the commitment toward unified technology as an important signal to the market for the success of BWA networks in addition to 2G/3G and WLAN systems".
Through a long-standing, co-operative relationship, the WiMAX Forum and ETSI have identified a long-range plan, funding and resources for the complete harmonisation of conformance specifications for wireless MAN technology based on the IEEE802.16:2004 and ETSI BRAN HiperMAN standards.
The agreement also includes a commitment by both parties to continue working co-operatively to ensure the same harmonisation for future versions of the IEEE802.16 and HiperMAN standards.
Although initial WiMAX Forum Certified products will be for fixed products, the momentum for mobility enhancements continues to grow with the increasing involvement of mobile operators and equipment manufacturers in the WiMAX Forum.
Sprint and Samsung have joined the board of directors, and, in another significant show of support for mobility, all Korean operators, which will market WiBRO broadband wireless services in Korea, have joined the WiMAX Forum.
With Korea's entire operator community and equipment manufacturers Samsung and LG Electronics showing unanimous support for WiMAX, it is expected that products sold as part of the Korea WiBRO service model will be WiMAX Forum Certified.
"The WiMAX Forum is working aggressively to usher in an era of personal mobile broadband connectivity", said Joonho Park, Samsung Vice President and WiMAX Forum board member.
"Samsung, as a major Korean vendor and an active participant in the forum, is committed to helping these efforts by promoting the deployment of WiMAX Forum Certified products in Korea and worldwide".
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