Wireless technology breakthrough offers cheap long distance broadband

Posted on 5 Jul 2005 at 10:43

A Florida based company is claiming a breakthrough in fixed wireless broadband that uses low frequencies to extend the operating distance.

As any radio ham or whale will tell you, the lower the frequency of a wave, the greater the distance it can travel and still be understood. According to its inventors, xMax is a new modulation and encoding technology that allows the deployment of broadband services using lower frequency bands

The problem with low frequency transmissions of this kind have been weak signals and slow data rates. xMax scores by being able to read one data bit per cycle and achieve something like current DSL speeds at relatively low frequencies.

The use of lower frequency bandwidth means that, according to developers xG Technology, signals can be sent up to 22Km - vastly more than equivalent WiMax solutions.

Because of its longer range, xMax is claimed to be far more cost effective in providing blanket coverage of areas than the WiMax solution currently being touted by Intel and others. Its inventors claim that the low frequency solution means that a city the size of London could be covered by just four base stations compared to the dozens needed by a comprehensive WiMax solution. Lower frequencies also mean that there is less dependency on line-of-site to get an optimum connection.

However, if commercially viable, xMax can do much more than compete with WiMax. Even WiMax's backers admit that it is only currently practical in densely populated urban areas. The long distance capability of xMax means that broadband can suddenly be economic to bring to remote areas beyond the reach of existing earthbound broadband solutions.

Another advantage of low frequency transmissions is that they tend to need less power and are less greedy of the available spectrum. xMax is claimed to allow data to be sent at unusually low power levels that operate far below the point of interfering with other transmissions, which means that it could, in theory, share spectrum with existing users. xG says that the potential to 'reuse spectrum' has sparked the interest of governments who not only have to allocate spectrum to competing interests but also gain revenue from licencing the available spectrum.

Author: Steve Malone