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JA4. MIMO Wi-Fi and WiMAX

Statement

Imagine you are a network engineer working for a company that is in the process of deciding on the best wireless technology for their new office building. The building is quite large, and the company wants to ensure that the wireless network will provide high-speed internet access to all employees, regardless of where they are located within the building.

Task: You have been tasked with researching the WiMAX and MIMO Wi-Fi technologies and presenting a brief overview description of each, along with some possible use cases. Your research will be used to help the company make an informed decision about the best technology to use.

Answer

WiFi uses radio waves; WiFi is a local wireless network that was defined in IEEE 802.11. WIFI can work on 2.4GH or 5GH frequency bands. Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) is a wireless technology that uses multiple transmitters and receivers to transfer more data at the same time. MIMO WIFI is used to connect multiple close devices together; however, MIMO caused interference between devices, as waves may be received multiple times from different angles, but new versions have solved the issue (Intel, 2021). use cases of MIMO WIFI are in closed areas such as offices or homes where multiple devices need to connect to the same network, but still be able to move around freely and communicate with each other.

WiMax stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, it has a rate of 30-40 Mbps (Rat, 2017) but it may raised to up to 1 Gbps by 2011 (Noworatzky, 2021). WiMAX is a family of wireless broadband communications standards based on IEEE 802.16. Compared with Wi-Fi, WiMAX is more suitable for long-distance point-to-point links. Whereas Wi-Fi can achieve links of up to 10 miles or more (in the case of long-range Wi-Fi), WiMAX is capable of links of 30 miles! (Noworatzky, 2021). WiMax use cases include Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs), Middle-mile backhaul to fiber networks, LTE Interoperability, and Smart IoT applications (Noworatzky, 2021) as these devices are usually stationary and require a long-range connection with few other devices at high speeds.

When it comes to choosing between WiMAX and MIMO Wi-Fi, the size of the building, the number of connected devices, how these devices need to connect, and the connections between this network and the outside world must be studied to make an informed decision. In the case mentioned in the problem, the best solution is WIFI MIMO in my opinion, as one building is not large enough to require long-range connections, and the devices expected to be moving around, plus the possibility that the building may have multiple floors; however, mixing the two is also a good option where devices that are stationary connect to WiMAX and devices that move around connect to MIMO WIFI.

References

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