On Mon, 2009-03-16 at 11:04 -0700, ChengHsin Hsu wrote: > On 16-Mar-09, at 9:51 AM, Dan Williams wrote: > > > On Mon, 2009-03-16 at 08:23 -0700, ChengHsin Hsu wrote: > >> Dear Experts, > >> > >> I'm new to WiMAX, please pardon my layman question. > >> > >> I'm wondering whether there is any possibility to put the current > >> intel chip into base station mode, like we can do on some WiFi chips? > >> For example, I remember I setup a Wifi testbed a while back using a > >> handful of Athroes chip + madwifi. > > > > While it might be *possible*, it would certainly require different > > firmware that hasn't to my knowledge been supported or released by > > Intel. I don't believe that Intel is interested in the base station > > business at the moment, so I doubt they would ever release base > > station > > firmware to the general public. Given that WiMAX is usually used in > > regulated spectrum, you'd have to have a license from your regulator > > agency to do this anyway, or risk the wrath of the incumbent owners of > > the spectrum you'd be broadcasting on :) > > > > Dan > > > I was thinking to use 5.8-GHz band to setup a testbed in our Lab, and > I was told that it's license-exempt in Canada. The reason I like to > have the testbed is to experiment with some cross-layer optimizations > in WiMAX, which may require me to change the MAC layer. However, it's > extremely hard to find a base station that would allow me to do that. > (and that's probably why most papers evaluate their algorithms using > simulations).
The Intel chips do not support any unlicensed bands at this time, and are limited to 2.5 - 2.7 GHz operation. Agilent makes a base station emulator that (when I checked last year) costs about $210,000 new, or rents for $8,000 - $12,000 a month. Otherwise, you can usually buy micro base stations from companies like Airspan. I don't have any experience with Airspan though, so check around for what others have to say. I only know they exist :) http://airspan.com/products_wimax_micromax.aspx Dan > The only two possible ways I have come across are: (i) the femto base > station reference design from Fujitsu. But per their sales team, the > project had been cancelled and the chips never went into production. > (ii) the intel chip. But, I have to agree with you that Intel is > unlikely to release a new firmware for base station. > So, I guess I'm stuck. > Please kindly let me know if there are other possibilities for me to > exercise the algorithms in the base station. > > Finally, I apologize that this is a bit OT. > > Thanks, > Chenghsin > _______________________________________________ wimax mailing list [email protected] http://www.linuxwimax.org/mailman/listinfo/wimax
