Wi Max Analysis

7/29/2019 Wi Max Analysis

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Preliminary Analysis of WiMAX Opportunities

for the Town of ManchesterContributors: Dave Mechler, Jack McCoy, Rob Hustis, Ron Masse, Rich Gallagher

Executive Summary

The analysis covers a community benefit and a two-case scenario for its implementation.Community benefit:New low-cost, high-bandwidth Internet access for the public and for municipal andeducation services.Two-case scenario:

1. Partnership between Town and commercial Internet service provider for provision tothe public of wireless Internet access and provision to Town operations of wirelessFiberNet access.2. Municipal enterprise for provision to the public of wireless Internet access andprovision to Town operations of wireless FiberNet access.

Introduction

The Town of Manchester is a technologically advanced community that is continuallycommitted to considering--and incorporating where determined to have potential--manynew technologies to promote the smooth and efficient operation of current and futuregovernmental, educational, and public safety systems. This analysis responds to thepotential for the introduction of wireless communication technology that has thecapability for going beyond operational municipal efficiencies and into the realm ofincreasing access to municipal information resources and the Internet as a whole.

The enabling technology for this possibility is the Town of Manchesters implementationof its city-wide FiberNet, a 50-mile-long, Town-owned fiber-optic network thatinterconnects its public buildings to permit Town and BOE employee access to shared,distributed, and centralized computer resources, including the Internet at large and otherexternal systems. The direct wireless technology being explored in this document isbased on the recently passed IEEE National Standard 802.16, commonly calledWiMAX.

On a limited scale the Town already has implemented WiFi wireless Internet access(per the earlier IEEE standard 802.11b) over the Town FiberNet from both portable andfixed-base computing devices on its Main Street. The limitation on the Main Street WiFi

Internet access requires that a person using this system be situated within a modestdistance (e.g., 150 feet) of Town-owned wireless access points installed in the downtownMain Street area. Thus free wireless access to the Internet is currently provided to Townand BOE employees as well as to Town residents and any other members of the publicdesiring Internet connectivity while they are in the downtown Manchester area.

With the recent acceptance of the long-awaited IEEE standard 802.16 for even wider-areawireless access to computer networks (e.g., across multi-mile distances within a


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metropolitan area like Manchester), the Town of Manchester now wishes to consider theimplementation of this WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access)access to its FiberNet. This Town-wide accessibility--to the Internet and beyond--wouldbe offered to the citizenry of Manchester and would also be used by Town and BOEpersonnel in and outside of their work locations around the Town.

The following sections consider the workings of WiMAX and how WiMAX fits into theexisting and planned communications infrastructure of the Town of Manchester; the usesto which WiMAX accessibility can be put by both the public and Town and BOEemployees; various alternatives to financing and implementing WiMAX across the wholeTown of Manchester (i.e., with and without public-utility involvement); and issues,opportunities, and risks associated with the implementation of WiMAX in Manchester.

What is WiMAX?

WiMAX is a standards-based technology which serves as a wireless extension or

alternative to DSL or cable for broadband (i.e., faster than 1.5Mbps) access to IP-basednetworks and the Internet. It utilizes microwave communication in the 2 66GHz rangeto connect WiMAX-enabled fixed, portable, and mobile computers to a base station PCwhich in turn connects to an IP network (e.g., the Manchester FiberNet) and then to theInternet. WiMAX is similar to, but more powerful than, the currently implemented WiFiaccess to the FiberNet. Communication can take place over much longer distances thanwith WiFi (miles vs. hundreds of feet), and by utilizing an array of antennas, eachsupporting one or more base stations, user PCs distributed across a very largegeographical area (e.g., the entire Town) can all have FiberNet and Internet accesswithout requiring a wired DSL or cabled connection. The communication occurs eitheron licensed frequencies (lower likelihood of interference with other WiMAX serviceproviders in the area) or in an unlicensed part of the 2-66 GHz radio spectrum (perhapsfree of cost, but possibly subject to lower radiated power restrictions and/or higher levelof interference).

The release by the IEEE of the 802.16 standard for the WiMAX protocol has occurredover the past few years, with the specific updated standard 802.16e, covering WiMAXcommunication with mobile devices, having been accepted and released in December2005. Vendors are already in the process of developing chipsets to provide WiMAXcapability to PCs, targeting market release in 2006.

Indeed, WiMAX and WiFi are different protocols and will probably require specific PCand base station (or access point) hardware for implementation and use. Vendorscurrently speak of delivering laptops to market which will have both WiFi and WiMAXcapability resident in a single PC. WiMAX and WiFi can co-exist in the samegeographical area and in service of the same networked community of users.

What then does WiMAX offer that WiFi does not? The advantage of communicationover miles of distance rather than feet is clear. Beyond that, WiMAX supports higherinformation bandwidth than WiFi. Further, the WiMAX protocol affords higher Quality


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of Service because as user contention for microwave tower facilities approaches its limit,a users connection can be handed off to another less crowded tower, assuring levelservice quality. On the other hand, WiMAX, as a much newer technology, does not yetenjoy the lower cost of base station and user equipment that resulted from theproliferation of WiFi home/business installations and hotspot sites. However, WiMAX

hardware prices should drop as economies of scale in the manufacture of equipment arisefrom user demand.

Fit For Towns Current Computer-network

Just how would WiMAX fit into the Towns current computer-network architecture?Effective metropolitan area implementation of network access opportunity involves theinstallation of an array of WiMAX-supportive microwave antennas providingoverlapping coverage cells to users. This is readily afforded in Manchester by locatingthe antennas at several, or all, of the municipal building locations served (i.e., linked toeach other) by the FiberNet. These building locations are not concentrated

geographically and indeed span a large part of the Town of Manchester. Using thesebuildings as pseudo-tower sites immediately provides the required connectivity into theFiberNet, and the latter then provides the connection to the Internet. Thus users ofWiMAX-capable devices located anywhere, or nearly anywhere, in Manchester couldcommunicate with the nearest antenna and thereby obtain Internet access wirelessly.

The Town and BOE Infrastructure

The enabling technology currently in place in Manchester would allow the deployment ofWiMAX wireless internet connectivity for all residents, effectively bringing a new,powerful and potentially inexpensive way of connecting to the Internet and to the TownsFiberNet-connected computing and communications facilities. The infrastructure inplace at present includes:

A 50-mile routing of FiberNet connections forming a highly meshed, multiply-redundant, wideband communications network;

Forty-plus Town-owned building locations that could support WiMAX antennafacilities expected to provide more-than-acceptable signal strength across theentirety of Manchester (whether over line of sight between antenna and user, ornot); and

High-speed routing equipment in each building site to pass communicationstraffic bi-directionally under full network management.

Refer to the map of building locations and groupings, with the FiberNet ring topologyindicated. Other tower locations may be required in order to provide access toabsolutely every corner of the Town. This aspect requires a determination beyond thescope of this preliminary analysis (example: Garth Road TelCo. Proposal, see Issues andOpportunities below).


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Applications of WiMAX Accessibility

Government, Education and Public Safety would have enhanced intra-net datacommunications access with WiMAX. Of equal or greater importance, the Public would

have a greater choice of Internet access facilities from which to choose. WiMAX wouldjoin the currently available wired Cable Modem and DSL facilities, thus providing apotentially higher bandwidth than the 768kbps to 15 Mbps range of the current DSL andcable modem offerings, and quite possibly at a fraction of the cost although in a lesssecure manner.

VOIP (IP telephone), private data, and Internet access from mobile or fixed-but-not-wired locations all become possible with the higher user-available bandwidths andprotocol-inherent antenna-transfer capability made possible over a WiMAX-connectedlink into the FiberNet. The higher bandwidth aspect could support home access to video-conferencing and to other video offerings than would be available with DSL, cable, or

WiFi access methods at their currently provided speeds.

WiMAX Implementation Scenarios

At least two scenarios are envisioned for the implementation of Town-wide, WiMAX-based access to the FiberNet, Internet and beyond.

The Town could partner with a public communications utility (e.g., Telco,CableCo, ElectricCo). WiMAX communications equipment, including antennae,owned by the public utility partner would be installed in the aforementionedTown/BOE buildings and would be operated and maintained by the public utility.

Members of the public (e.g., Town residents with appropriate Internet-accessaccounts) would be charged for WiMAX access to the Internet that proceeds viathe FiberNet. The Town and the public utility share the revenues received.

With or without partnering with a commercial vendor, the Town could procure,implement, operate, and maintain its own WiMAX antennas and WiMAXcommunications equipment. The Town could offer Internet access services forfree or if allowed by the DPUC at a nominal charge, that would enhanceavailability to residents who cant afford the roughly $50 per month for Cable andDSL wired Internet service. (Additionally Internet and town FiberNetconnectivity could be enhanced through provision of the mobile data aspects ofWiMAX that dont currently exist in current mobile Internet communications

products a benefit to public safety as well as to public internet users.)

Internet access is becoming a quality-of-life influencing resource that a communitycan insure is being made available to their citizens. The above two scenarios assurethis new communications capability would be brought to the community whilepossibly producing a revenue stream accruing to the Town to cover the cost ofoperation.


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Issues and Opportunities

There are several issues which impact consideration of a Town-wide WiMAXimplementation in Manchester.

Garth Road Cell Tower: Sprint Communications has raised the possibility ofinstalling a tower on Garth Road to improve its commercial cellular telephoneservice in that area of Manchester. This tower could serve as a location forWiMAX communication equipment (the equipment then being used tocommunicate both with WiMAX users and the nearest FiberNet-connectedWiMAX antenna location). The Cell Tower is expected to provide the benefit ofimproved and increased cell phone service in the area, and if WiMAX antennaspace were made part of the agreement this would develop the potential to offerhigh-bandwidth neighborhood wireless Internet access at low, or no, cost toresidents.

Legal Risk: Incumbent communications utilities and/or competitive serviceproviders may oppose the Towns offering its resident free or low-cost Internetaccess. Lengthy legal maneuvering and adjudication before the ConnecticutDepartment of Public Utilities or the State judicial system could result. Anyutility, service provider, or vendor standing in opposition to the Town must bemade to realize the potential that their partnering with the Town, instead ofopposing it, would result in (a) improvements to their current product offering(e.g., by delivering WiMAX service in addition to their cable, wireline, or cellularproducts), and (b) participation in revenue-sharing with the Town. A mutuallybeneficial arrangement could be realized through partnership, but the emergence

of community rights and oligopoly power issues, which would need to beresolved through statutory, regulatory, or judicial actions are possible as well.


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Possible Financial Model

Model File Name: WiMaxFinancialModelGuestimate Wireless Enterprise AnalysisPrelimiary Estimate: Wireless (WiMax - IEEE 802.16 Standard) Manchester Financial Model

I Revenue

$3.00-9.00 / month X x000 households 5000 per Year

Minimum model rate $3.00 15,000 $180,000


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The table above presents a very preliminary estimate of the capital investment costs andpossible supporting revenue streams for a WiMAX Enterprise.


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Coverage by WiMAX from FiberNet Nodes In Town Building

Documents

Wi Max Analysis