SMART Alliance Launched by Navini, Beceem, Fujitsu, Runcom
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Advances Beamforming, Beamformed MIMO technology and multi-vendor CPE devices
TAIPEI, Taiwan, Oct. 24 -- In an effort to drive harmonized system performance and interoperability of Smart Antenna systems, Navini, Beceem, Fujitsu and Runcom announce the formation of the "SMart Antenna RF Test" Alliance (SMART). This alliance has been formed to promote the adoption and implementation of Beamforming (BF) and Beamformed MIMO (BF + MIMO) which are included in the 802.16e-2005 specification published by the IEEE and adopted by the WiMAX Forum for Mobile WiMAX certification under Wave 2. Smart Antenna systems are already deployed in commercial Mobile WiMAX networks today.
"The capacity and coverage benefits of combining Beamforming with MIMO are very compelling offering up to double the capacity with twice the coverage of non-beamformed systems," said Sai Subramanian, Navini's vice president of Product Management. "This Alliance ensures broad availability of CPE devices that have full capability of Beamforming and Beamformed MIMO."
The SMART Alliance will publish a system performance baseline for the mandatory Smart Antenna features adopted by the WiMAX Forum(1) for Mobile WiMAX.
The founding Charter members of the SMART alliance are:
o Navini Networks. Navini leads the Beamforming task group, part of the
Certification Working Group in the WiMAX Forum.
o Beceem Communications. Beceem has been an outspoken Smart Antenna
proponent in the IEEE and WiMAX Forum working groups and was the first
to offer a commercial Mobile WiMAX terminal chipset that supports the
WiMAX Forum Wave 2 Smart Antenna feature set.
o Fujitsu Microelectronics America. Fujitsu recently participated in the
first multivendor interoperability demonstration of Beamformed MIMO
over Smart WiMAX, in partnership with Navini. Fujitsu is a member of
the Beamforming task group in the WiMAX Forum's Certification Working
group.
o Runcom Technologies. Runcom has long been a supporter of Beamforming
and MIMO, which the company recognizes as a smart way to obtain
improved overall performance of WiMAX.
SMART Alliance members will collaborate on implementation details to optimize performance and open their field testing labs to other members for performance interoperability testing. Performance test results will be shared to ensure Smart Antenna technology deployments of the highest possible system performance while maintaining compatibility with the WiMAX Forum profiles and certified products.
This will not replace or alter the tests and certification processes already defined or planned by the WiMAX Forum, but will supplement them to ensure that multi-vendor products with Beamforming + MIMO can be implemented with predictable performance and full interoperability. The WiMAX Forum's certification testing is limited to proving multi-vendor interoperability through conformance to a defined profile specification. The SMART alliance is open to all WiMAX Forum members interested in the benefits of Smart Antenna systems.
(1) "WiMAX Forum" is a registered trademark of the WiMAX Forum. "WiMAX,"
the WiMAX Forum logo, "WiMAX Forum Certified," and the WiMAX Forum
Certified logo are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. All other trademarks
are the properties of their respective owners.
Source: Navini Networks
CONTACT: Maryvonne Tubb of Navini Networks, +1-972-852-4247, mtubb@navini.com
Web site: http://www.navini.com/
