Opportunities Outweigh Risks--An interview with Zhao Songpu, General Manager of ZTE's WiMAX products

As the WiMAX standard and its industry chain get more and more mature, the WiMAX technology has been gradually changing our life. The WiMAX applications, for example in the United States, Saudi Arabia and Libya, offer users exciting experience. What new WiMAX technologies will be used this year to decrease the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)? What measures will be taken in the field to enable future technical evolution? What impacts will the global financial crisis have on the WiMAX industry? With these questions in mind, ZTE TECHNOLOGIES interviewed Zhao Songpu, General Manager of ZTE's WiMAX product line.

Journalist: Can you introduce the global development of WiMAX in 2008? What market achievements did ZTE make?
Zhao: In the year 2008, WiMAX reached the eve of the explosive development: more than 100 mobile WiMAX networks were deployed and commercialized; 80 WiMAX vendors dedicated themselves to the R&D and production of WiMAX equipment; over 480 terminals and system equipment were launched; the WiMAX industry chain became stronger and more mature. It is expected that there will be explosive growth of WiMAX this year. ZTE made big achievements in the WiMAX field last year. By November 2008, ZTE had deployed 30 WiMAX networks in more than 20 countries including developing countries in Asia Pacific and Africa, and high-end markets in Europe, Japan and North America.
As we know, long-term partnership can not be established by one-time communication. In 2008, ZTE also cultivated many potential markets, and had deep communication with many operators. For example, we have passed the Global MSF Interoperability (GMI) test at BT's site and won acknowledgement of BT. In 2009, we hope that more operators will recognize and trust ZTE's products.
J: What's ZTE's viewpoint concerning the impact of the financial crisis on the WiMAX this year?
Zhao: In late 2008, we read some news about WiMAX given up by some Western vendors. We regard this as the result of severe market competitions. While many mainstream vendors have been losing profits in the telecom market, ZTE has witnessed continuous growth. Many traditional vendors had to give up new, competitive markets and retain existing, profitable fields. The global financial crisis that broke out last year further accelerated the decline of these vendors. The effects of financial crisis on the market and the weakening of our competitors coexist. For ZTE, we expect both opportunities and challenges this year, and we believe opportunities outweigh challenges.
A question is: how will the financial crisis influence the demands of end users, as it has caused a decrease of requirements in the marketplace? We can refer to the "potato theory", which has recently become popular in the economy field. According to this theory, consumers will cut back on luxury consumption during this financial crisis; however, they cannot cut back on basic consumption, as they must eat potatoes every day. In the telecom field, mobile voice service is a basic need, and broadband Internet, in both wireless and wireline options, is also a necessity. As the demand for broadband Internet, the "potato", keeps increasing, we believe there will be growing market demands and opportunities, despite the economic recession resulted from the financial storm.

J: The WiMAX technology was at first oriented to mobile broadband networks. Is there any change in this orientation, since the WiMAX standard and industry have become more mature?
Zhao: Nowadays, the WiMAX industry is developing very fast, the industry chain is gradually getting mature. The initial orientation of the WiMAX was based on the characteristics of the technology, and little consideration was given to terminals and user experience. As time goes by, many people realized that WiMAX can do more. It can be used as a fixed service to replace the traditional DSL mode, saving network construction costs.
An operator can construct a WiMAX network in three phases. In the first phase, the operator deploys WiMAX for fixed access and hotspot coverage, to compete for the wireless broadband market and major customers. The second phase is the nomadic phase when the network covers target enterprises and residential areas apart from hotspot areas. In the third phase, the operator offers full mobile service and seamless converge, helping users experience uninterrupted WiMAX network services.　
J: What significant features of WiMAX can effectively decrease the TCO?
Zhao: WiMAX adopts many advanced technologies to increase network capacity and enhance coverage. For example, it makes use of technologies like Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Beamforming (BF), and Fractional Frequency Reuse (FFR) to tackle network interference. ZTE has recently launched the industry's first WiMAX 16e Remote Radio Unit (RRU) based on BF4*8 Multi-Antenna technology. The RRU device supports dual carrier discontinuous spectrum, enabling a maximum bandwidth of 100MHz expansion between uplink and downlink. It is a cost-effective solution for operators using FDD spectrum.
In fact, decreasing the TCO is only one aspect. It is of greater importance to offer operators reasonable networking plan and proper combinations of equipment. For example, we supply integrated outdoor Base Transceiver Station (BTS), which is applicable to hotspots and CBD areas in cities. For suburban and mountainous areas, where equipment room facilities are not available, we offer outdoor cabinets, which integrate transmission, power and air-conditioning resources, and it is only necessary to place the BTS equipment in the cabinet. ZTE has always been promoting customized solutions. For different networking conditions and demands of different operators, we recommend customized, low-cost solutions.

J: Nowadays, many operators are making efforts to improve the spectrum utilization. What features of WiMAX can improve the spectrum utilization? 
Zhao: Firstly, WiMAX has a range of channel bandwidths, like 5MHz, 7MHz and 10MHz.  Our WiMAX equipment, which has just received WiMAX Forum 3.5GHz Wave2 certification, supports flexible configurations of these bandwidths.  We are also the first vendor that has completed 5MHz, 7MHz and 10MHz bandwidths testing procedures and we will support 3.5MHz and 20MHz this year.
Secondly, WiMAX supports flexible networking, including Full Usage of Subchannels (FUSC), Partial Usage of Subchannels (PUSC) and Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC). Through different sub-carrier allocation modes, the WiMAX equipment can improve link quality and throughput. We also adopt other advanced technologies, such as the Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD) and FFR, to effectively enhance coverage and decrease interference.

J: We have seen constant evolution and development of mobile communications systems. What about the WiMAX's support for smooth network evolution?
Zhao: WiMAX has adopted many key technologies, which are actually future mobile technologies, for example, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDMA), MIMO and BF. Therefore, WiMAX stands in an advantageous position in terms of future technical evolution.
We have recommended many solutions for operators to choose. As our equipment is based on the Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform, 2G/3G network operators can upgrade the existing networks to 4G simply through replacing a channel board and software upgrade.
At present, we are developing the 16m technology, which takes into account network convergence and aims to be a candidate of IMT-advanced standards. We believe that WiMAX will have a brighter future.