An Introduction to WiMAX with the Samsung P9000

Samsung P9000

Samsung P9000

Mobile WiMAX may be the way of the future for delivery of broadband services to the palm of your hand, but while traveling around ITU Telecom World Sam Chan had the chance to sample this new technology today in the form of the Samsung P9000. He brings us the live photos that accompany this article.

While the Samsung P9000 isn't a mobile phone, it does demonstrate the sort of services that could be possible when technology like WiMAX hits the mainstream in handsets. The P9000 is a mini PC with an interesting triple-fold design; it runs Windows XP Home Edition, has a 5" 65k color 800x480 pixel resolution display, and a 30GB hard drive. A 1.3 megapixel camera is also featured, as is Bluetooth and a mini-USB port. The Samsung P9000 also includes CDMA2000 1xEV-DO wireless connectivity over the 1900MHz frequency band to complement the high-speed data WiMAX provides with voice communication capabilities for users. An I/O Pack is also available that adds ports like the VGA monitor connector shown in the photos on the following page.

WiMAX is the name of the certification label that covers the IEEE 802.16 standard. The Mobile WiMAX standard, known as 802.16e, improves upon the original standard that was designed for fixed applications by implementing Scalable OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access). This allows Mobile WiMAX far greater efficiency in mobile and non-line of sight applications. Mobile WiMAX is currently being investigated as the evolution of current 3G data standards for the handsets of tomorrow - Sprint Nextel has shown the most interest in the US market, announcing that it will be spending approximately US$3 billion over the next few years in an effort to establish a WiMAX network.

Mobile WiMAX is attractive to providers as a 4G data network standard because of its increased bandwidth over current 3G networks. Mobile WiMAX offers a theoretical peak downlink speed of 70Mbps, with 10Mbps being a more attainable figure in real world conditions. Compared with the peak downlink speed of UMTS (one of the current 3G data standards) of 3.6Mbps, you can see the obvious difference. Unfortunately, unlike the 3G technology of today, and evolutions of it for the future, there is no easy upgrade path for operators. Mobile WiMAX is a completely different technology than current mobile broadband networks, so there is an increased expenditure needed to establish networks.

There is always competition in the mobile space though, and it is as yet undetermined what the prevailing technology will be. In any event, the Samsung P9000 is an interesting and unique device - for more photos of the device in its various folded positions, have a look at the following page.

Samsung P9000

Samsung P9000

 

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