India at Doorstep of Wireless Broadband

India, one of the most populous countries in the world, has one of the best-protected natural environments in the world. Known as the "heaven for animals", the country has vast wild lands and rural areas in its huge territory. Such landforms have made it highly difficult and expensive to lay cables to cover the country. However, India has huge potential in the wireless broadband market. Himanshu, a teacher in the mountainous area of Kerala, has recently encountered a problem. In a quickly-developing country with good Internet, optimized textbooks and up-to-date ideas, telecom networks are still backward. Himanshu wants to get the latest information, to keep up with the world. However, he is much disappointed as the wireless network coverage in Kerala is less than 15%. It always takes him a long time to find a place with wireless signals, not to mention the network rate.
Fortunately, Himanshu's problem will be resolved very soon. Many operators in India are actively studying the WiMAX technology and looking for usable resources to build WiMAX networks. In the near future, Himanshu will be able to easily access a WiMAX network and enjoy the high-speed wireless broadband service at home, in the office or any outdoor place. He will also be able to use a multi-mode WiMAX handy phone to enjoy high-quality voice services provided by a GSM/CDMA network, as well as the Video-On-Demand (VOD) services that will bring him much happiness.

WiMAX Caters to India's Requirements
Why has WiMAX been selected by India's operators?
Firstly, being an advanced 4G wireless broadband technology, WiMAX features all-IP, high bandwidth and multi-technology integration. It makes use of multiple transmission resources and is cost-effectively applicable to various landforms including the mountainous and rural areas. Designed with highly integrated network elements and unified network management, the WiMAX technology enables convenient and efficient network management. It offers multi-scenario coverage, for example, widespread coverage in sparsely-populated areas and hot-spot coverage in business areas. Himanshu's dream of good network services will come true through the ultra far area coverage solution in which a single WiMAX Base Station (BS) can achieve a 50km coverage radius.
Secondly, WiMAX boasts high transmission rate. Theoretically, a single WiMAX BS can offer up to 140Mbps, so the broadband requirement of a huge quantity of subscribers can be met by using the smallest number of WiMAX BSs.
Besides, WiMAX can be flexibly applied to multiple scenarios: fixed, nomadic, portable, simple mobile and full mobile access modes, which gives rise to abundant custom-made solutions such as extra far area coverage solution, video monitoring solution, and digital city solution. It provides strong network integration capability, enabling good integration with 2G/3G networks at low network construction costs.

WiMAX Improves Operators' Competitiveness
Distributed BS architecture to improve coverage
In view of the typical geographical features in India, ZTE launched a series of custom-made solutions. Its WiMAX BS solution adopts the distributed Baseband Unit and Remote Radio Unit (BBU+RRU) architecture to curtail feeder loss and improve coverage. Typically, a traditional integrated macro BS using 3.5G 7/8" feeder cables may cause 9dB loss per 100m, while the distributed BS, with optical fibers connecting the BBU and the RRU, has almost no loss and thus extends coverage by 20% to 30% (see Figure 1).

Extra far area coverage solution to lower TCO
Considering the vast but sparsely-populated rural areas in India, ZTE rolled out the featured extra far area coverage solution that combines various measures to improve coverage. Its 4×8 Beamforming (BF) enhanced BS series has the improved coverage advantage over the Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) BS series. In Africa, China and East Asia, ZTE applied the same network planning model and parameter settings in similar landforms, and the test results turned out amazing . Using the 4×8 BF technology instead of the MIMO technology, the number of BS sites can be decreased by 12% to 14%.

SDR-based green BS to enable 2G/3G convergence
To protect operators' investments and keep the lead in diversified communications technologies, ZTE adopted unified core network and unified BS platform solution. Its green SDR-based BS supports multiple systems like GSM, WCDMA, CDMA, WiMAX and LTE (see Figure 2). The unified μTCA platform uses unified hardware, software and network management system; the existing network resources including Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) can be shared to save considerable investments.

ZTE seeks win-win cooperation with customers
Since it started research into the WiMAX standard in 1998, ZTE has set up dozens of WiMAX R&D centers throughout the world, with more than 1,200 R&D engineers working in this field. ZTE owns multiple patents in WiMAX technology. More than 300 proposals have been accepted by the IEEE802.16 Working Group and the WiMAX Forum, and dozens of its basic patents have been included in the IEEE802.16 Working Group. Of the over 600 WiMAX-related patents, more than 10 patents are used for Intranet architecture and indoor coverage.
ZTE has accumulated rich experience in wireless network construction and established an expert team with expertise in network planning and optimization. To date, ZTE has deployed 30 WiMAX commercial and trial networks worldwide covering countries in America, Africa, Asia and Europe. Following the aim of providing customers with standard commercial products, ZTE is willing to be a cooperative partner with all WiMAX believers.