Abstract—The telecommunication industry has been through disruptive times, but data networking service revenue has continued to rise. The telecom industry is expected to continue to grow as demand increases for cable and high-speed Internet in previously unserviced locations and as local telephone companies upgrade their lines in response to increasing competition. This paper presents an extended overview of the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and its applications in higher generation wireless networks as a cost effective solution to answering the challenges posed by the digital divide. It looks at the technology behind WiMAX and networks design and deployment factors that impact WiMAX coverage. A cell site coverage simulation at different frequency bands using Wireless simulation tool is presented. Also the paper makes a comparison of WiMAX with two enhanced third generation (3G) technologies that are potential competitors to WiMAX. It then goes on describe the business models in WiMAX and states some of the benefits and drawbacks of a mobile WiMAX network.

Index Terms — Broadband Access, Digital Divide, WiMAX, , OFDM, MIMO, Cell Coverage, 3G and 4G.

Cite: Abdulrahman Yarali, Saifur Rahman, and Bwanga Mbula , "WiMAX: The Innovative Broadband Wireless Access Technology," Journal of Communications, vol. 3, no.2, pp.53-63, 2008.