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FDD Version of Mobile WiMAX Coming Soon

It's always been in the works but we just didn't know when. A WiMAX vendor says that a profile for mobile WiMAX that uses paired Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) signaling with separate channels for the uplink and downlink will be available within about six months.

The technology's inability to operate in the FDD mode limited its global prospects as much of the spectrum for 3G and 4G networks calls for FDD signaling. WiMAX only uses TDD, or time division duplex, signaling, which assigns time slots for both the uplink and downlink signals.

"The WiMAX forum will have an FDD profile for mobile WiMAX inside six months. We've been working on it for the last 12 months," Paul Senior, chief technology officer of WiMAX vendor Airspan told telecoms.com.

Last year, the International Telecommunication Union declared mobile WiMAX a 3G standard, amid a number of objections. The technology's deployment, however, was expected to be limited to a smaller portion of spectrum designated for TDD technologies.

TDD technologies have traditionally been the poor relation in telecoms, with small amounts of spectrum allocated to it, but even these have not been well used, since TDD versions of 3G networking have never taken off. By approving WiMax, the ITU thought it was only allowing it into these TDD ghettos, but now the FDD profile may allow it into wider swathes of spectrum.

Although the WiMax industry has kept a lid on FDD WiMax, "that cat is now truly out of the bag and is now frolicking amongst the pigeons," said Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis. "I'd had some hints about this before, but I'd thought the main aim was to get WiMax working in paired-spectrum 700MHz bands in the upcoming US auction."

FDD WiMax could well be pitched head-on against HSPA, EVDO, LTE and other 3G technologies in the 2.5Ghz band, according to Bubley. I wonder if that means that Ofcom and other regulators need to go back to the drawing boards and re-work their interference assumptions for a possible cellular/WiMax mix across the whole band." [FierceBroadbandWireles/TechWorld]

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