WiMAX Rural Mobile

Perform network planning for WiMAX in a rural mobile scenario.

WiMAX Standard and Definition

This is an example of the WiMAX air interface in a rural/suburban scenario for mobile communications such as communication between base stations and vehicles. WiMAX refers to the IEEE 802.16 standard - a family of wireless networks standards formulated by the WiMAX forum. The IEEE 802.16e (mobile broadband wireless access) Wimax standard is used in this model. WiMAX is similar to long-range Wi-Fi, but it can enable usage at much greater distances.

Model Type

The geometry is described by topography (elevation) and clutter (land usage). The database tree enables you to switch between the two displays.


Figure 1. Topographical database.


Figure 2. Clutter database.

Sites and Antennas

There are six antenna sites in this scenario. Each site has three sector antennas at a height of 25 m.
Tip: Click Project > Edit Project Parameter and click the Sites tab to view the sites, antenna patterns, and carrier frequencies.
The carrier frequencies are set to frequencies around 3.5 GHz.

Air Interface

The air interface is defined by a WiMAX wireless standard WiMAX_Sample_Rural_Mobile.wst file. In this model, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDM/SOFDMA) is selected under multiple access schemes, and time division duplex (TDD) is used for duplex separation (switching between uplink and downlink).
Tip: Click Project > Edit Project Parameter and click the Air Interface tab.

Computational Method

The computational method is selected on the Computation tab. The dominant path model (DPM) was selected for the computation. The method focuses on the most relevant path, which leads to shorter computation times.

Results

Propagation results show at every location the power received by a hypothetical isotropic receiver from each transmitting antenna. Propagation results also include field strength and path loss. Results are calculated for a single prediction plane at 1.5 m height.

The type of network simulation used is a static simulation (homogeneous traffic per cell). The network simulation calculates cell area, site area, best server, and maximum data rate for both downlink and uplink. The network simulation also calculates the minimum required transmitter power, reception probability and SNIR (max) for all modulation and coding schemes used in this model for both downlink and uplink. Various network results for the defined modulation schemes can be viewed from Results: Network in the tree.


Figure 3. Maximum throughput in the downlink for receivers at 1.5 m height.