4.4 WiMAX System Profiles

A WiMAX system certification profile is a set of features of the 802.16 standard, selected by the WiMAX Forum, that is required or mandatory for these specific profiles. This list sets, for each of the certification profiles of a system profiles release, the features to be used in typical implementation cases. System certification profiles are defined by the TWG in the WiMAX Forum. The 802.16 standard indicates that a system (certification) profile consists of five components: MAC profile, PHY profile, RF profile, duplexing selection (TDD or FDD) and power class. The frequency bands and channel bandwidths are chosen such that they cover as much as possible of the worldwide spectra allocations expected for WiMAX.

Equipments can then be certified by the WiMAX Forum according to a specific system certification profile. Two types of system profiles are defined: fixed and mobile. These profiles are introduced in the following sections.

4.4.1 Fixed WiMAX System Profiles

Table 4.4 shows the fixed WiMAX profiles ^[1]. These system profiles are based on the OFDM PHYsical Layer IEEE 802.16-2004 (in fact, this PHY Layer did not change very much with 802.16e). All of the profiles use the PMP mode. This was the first set of choices decided in June 2004 (at the same time as approval of IEEE 802.16-2004). Each certification profile has an identifier for use in documents such as PICS proforma statements. Further system profiles should be defined reflecting regulatory (band opportunities) and market development. Among others, new fixed certification profiles should be approved before the end of 2006. It is planned that WiMAX system profiles with a 5 MHz channel bandwidth and 2.5 GHz frequency band schemes will be added. Fixed certification profiles, based on 802.16e, are also planned.

Table 4.4: Fixed WiMAX certification profiles, all using the OFDM PHY and the PMP modes
Open table as spreadsheet
Frequency band (GHz)	Duplexing mode	Channel bandwidth (MHz)	Profile name
3.5	TDD	7	3.5T1
3.5	TDD	3.5	3.5T2
3.5	FDD	3.5	3.5F1
3.5	FDD	7	3.5F2
3.5	TDD	10	5.8T

4.4.2 Mobile WiMAX System Profiles

Along with the work on the 802.16e amendment, the mobile WiMAX system profiles were defined. These certification profiles, known as Release-1 Mobile WiMAX system profiles and shown in Table 4.5, were approved in February 2006. They are based on the OFDMA PHYsical Layer (IEEE 802.16e) and all include only the PMP topology. These profiles are defined by the Mobile Task Group (MTG), a subgroup of the TWG in the WiMAX Forum. Release 1 certification will probably be separated in different Certification Waves, starting with Wave 1 having only part of all Release 1 features.

Table 4.5: Release 1 Mobile WiMAX certification profiles, all using the OFDMA PHY and the PMP modes
Open table as spreadsheet
Frequency band (GHz)	Duplexing mode	Channel bandwidth and FFT size (number of OFDMA subcarriers)
2.3–2.4	TDD	5 MHz, 512; 8.75 MHz, 1024; 10 MHz, 1024
2.305–2.320	TDD	3.5 MHz, 512; 5 MHz, 512; 10 MHz, 1024
2.496–2.690	TDD	5 MHz, 512; 10 MHz, 1024
3.3–3.4	TDD	5 MHz, 512; 7 MHz, 1024; 10 MHz, 1024
3.4–3.8	TDD	5 MHz, 512; 7 MHz, 1024; 10 MHz, 1024

In the OFDMA PHYsical Layer as amended in 802.16e, the number of OFDMA subcarriers (equivalent to the FFT size, see the next chapter) is scalable. OFDMA of WiMAX is called scalable OFDMA. The TDD mode is the only one that has been chosen for this first set, one of the reasons being that it is more resource-use efficient. FDD profiles may be defined in the future. The frame length is equal to 5 ms. Other technical aspects of the selected profiles will be introduced in the following chapters.

^[1]IEEE 802.16-2004, IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks, Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems, October 2004.