The portfolio will be compliant to Wave 2 certification, including multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) A and B and beamforming. It will initially consist of a basic modem, a VoIP modem and two gateways.
According to Siemens, the Gigaset SX685 WiMAX gateway caters to the small office and small enterprise segment and includes four Ethernet ports for professional network connectivity and a printer or external hard drive can be connected via a USB host. It also includes features such as the PBX functionality for up to 6 extensions supports CLIP and VoIP phone connectivity. The SX685 model will also offer WiFi.
The SX682 is a VoIP modem that targets residential and home office users and combines broadband access with traditional analog phone via IP. The SE681 has a throughput of 20 Mbps and is designed for residential users.
The Gigaset combines two integrated high gain antennas, which support MIMO and adaptive beamforming to increase signal strength between the base station and WiMAX devices. The company claims that they also employ space-time-coding and spatial multiplexing for better coverage and to double the data throughput.
The Gigaset devices support both the Technical Report 069 (TR-069) and the Open Mobile Alliance for Device Management (OMA-DM) protocols specified by the WiMAX Forum.
We have designed a broad WiMAX portfolio based on IEEE 802.16-2005 for all customer segments from residential to business, and from basic wireless broadband access to complex network set-ups at home or in small enterprises, said Dr Marc Achhammer, senior vice president and head of WiMAX at Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices.
The company said that all the WiMAX devices will support the 2.3-2.7 and 3.4-3.8 GHz frequency bands and will be commercially available from June 2008.
According to market research firm IMS Research, the shipments of WiMAX customer premise equipments CPE are expected to increase from an 250,400 in 2006 to 41.9 million in 2012.
Source: ComputerWire daily updates
