Putting WiMax to the Test
While Sprint officially launches commercial WiMAX services for the first time in Baltimore this month, one college campus 30 miles to the south will be building its own mobile WiMAX network that will be used to test next-generation applications for mobile broadband services.
The James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland is deploying WiMAX nodes, routers, base stations and other equipment on its campus to create a large testing ground for next-generation mobile broadband capabilities. The lab, which is being built in collaboration with the industry group the WiMAX Forum, will give students the opportunity to test applications on a mobile broadband service that is not expected to be available in most of the United States until 2009. As one of only two WiMAX Forum labs in the world -- the other is in Taiwan -- expectations are high that it will spark a wave of innovation that will showcase WiMAX's strength as a mobile data standard.
